Doaksie wrote: Fri Sep 25, 2026 4:25 pm
The reasons are endless not to trust the hype
1. The paywalled race is a huge red flag from the start. It shows that blizzard is already starting to monetize and enshittify the game right at the outset. Not to mention that the blue sky smurf is pulled out of thin air lore wise. By accepting and buying this package, players are telling blizzard they'd be willing to do it once, so why not again? It sets a precedent and blizzard will notice
2. A lot of the hype is manufactured and nostalgia is doing much of the heavy lifting. Blizzard invites streamers to their hq and collaborates with them. Wait until the hype dies down and more organic voices start giving their options. Upgraded fog and water details are nice but when that excitement fades we'll be left with the game and whatever blizzard decides to do with it. Historically that has meant monetizing and milking it. There is no reason to think this time will be different.
3. Blizzard as a company is objectively awful. It's owned by Microsoft and has a long history of busting unions and creating unsafe work environments for their team (see "bill cosby room")
4. Oh yeah, and Blizzard killed turtle wow. Rewarding them for that by giving them subs is exactly what they want and the kind of incentive that will keep them coming after private servers
Preach.
I'd also add that there is already visual disconnect, when you compare the smelf stuff to other stuff, the purple/violet druid forms, looks just jarring.
Another thing is the gaslighting, I can't take the bs that the 'skaiborne' are Chris Mentzen's original Idea. They're banking on WoW player's ignorance. Anybody that touched DnD knows about Genasi race, and specifically it's the Air Genasi that these new blue elves came from. But the cool thing about Genasi was that they were half-genies. And their origin had may vary. That they were created by gods, that mortals went to elemental plane and child born in there came out like that. That they're literally half-djinnies, or they were created by some botched ritual.
There were 4 options of genasi, to represent each element, so there was also fire, water and earth.
So that makes me wonder if we will meet Waterborne, fireborne and earthborne that will be also locked behind 30 paywall.
And even their druid forms- the bear form is literally owlbear, a creature iconic to DND setting.
It makes me angry that they try to sell this blatant, soulless copy-paste as OG idea of Chris Metzen. I call it bull.
Another red flag is actually Dalaran - because we saw it being destroyed in the cinematic by Archimonde. From the get go they show contempt for consequences, and willingness to disregard source material just to go for cool factor. Sabotaging their own work. Destruction of Dalaran was crucial for WC3 campaign. And while it is true t hat there are Dalaran survivors - in Silverpine and in Hillsbrad, they're very small in numbers. Because majority of them died with the city. And you tell me that after 5 years , they're all back up running as if nothing happened? It should've take many , many years for Dalaran to recover, because rebuilding buildings is one thing, but getting competent mages back is not a process that can be achieved with 5 years of timeskip.
So essentially Blizzard again is telling us to not trust our own eyes, and to not ask questions, just consume the product.
