Housing, talents, less Sylvanas – what do players really want from World of Warcraft? You answered, and here are the results.
The next expansion of World of Warcraft will be presented next week. While all signs point to “Dragonflight,” there is a buzz in the community. What does an expansion need to achieve in order to recover WoW from Shadowlands? Which features are particularly important?
In a survey, we wanted to know this from you a few days ago, and you participated enthusiastically. Almost 1,500 of you voted and could select up to 3 points that are particularly relevant for them. We want to briefly mention the most popular of these features to show what the community really wishes for – and what, apparently, is not that relevant.
More freedom, more account-wide unlocks
The absolute top spot is held with 10% and 423 votes for the point “More account-wide unlocks.”
Account-wide unlocks or rather the lack of such things are often a significant barrier to switching from one character to another. Those who have lost interest in their Mage after months and want to experience the current endgame as a Paladin often have to struggle through countless tasks. Grinding reputation with factions again, playing through the campaign again, and developing all those small features that shape the character again and again.
Account-wide unlocks would ensure that this effort is minimized. Patch 9.2 was already a good step in the right direction. Many contents are unlocked here for all characters after the initial playthrough. Blizzard needs to expand this so that the disadvantages become smaller and smaller.
Player housing: The unexpectedly big wish
In second place with 9% and a total of 407 votes is the wish for “player housing.”
It was somewhat unexpected that “player housing” landed in second place. Apparently, the longing for a small home in Azeroth, which one can say: “This is the place where my character belongs,” is significantly greater than assumed. However, it is not entirely surprising – many other MMORPGs demonstrate how great housing as a complete “side feature” can be.
Final Fantasy XIV, WildStar, and many other MMORPGs have shown how much love, detail, and passion players can put into their own MMO house. Of course, this would also be a blessing for role players. Maybe this dream will come true soon – and not just in the form of a rather disappointing garrison.
New classes for more variety
Close behind, with also 9% and 396 votes, is the wish for new playable classes.
Whenever World of Warcraft has introduced a new class, it has been the flagship of the expansion. The Death Knight in “Wrath of the Lich King”, the Monk in “Mists of Pandaria”, and the Demon Hunter in “Legion” brought completely new playstyles, and even the long-time WoW fans had something new to do. This always came along with an exciting new class story, which, while limited to a starting area, was nonetheless very cool.
PvE content – But please something entirely new
Somewhat trailing behind (7%) with 286 votes is the hope that there will be new, fresh PvE content.
Even if it is hard for some to accept – at its core, World of Warcraft is a PvE game, and it always has been. PvE content is in many cases better thought out than PvP; dungeons and raids generally have a higher participation than battlegrounds. However, after nearly 17 years, the known concepts feel a bit worn out.
While dungeons and raids always feature new, interesting boss fights, the fundamental approach changes little. With Battle for Azeroth, Blizzard tried to introduce a new feature in PvE with the Warfronts – and failed. Many wished that the developers would once again prove their creativity to create something new.
New talents for all classes
In fifth place (6%) with 266 votes is the wish for entirely new talents.
Talents are probably the oldest customization option for characters in World of Warcraft. Although the talent system has changed drastically over the years, talents are still very important today. Almost always, talents bring huge passive effects or entirely new spells and abilities that other players would have to forego. Talents allow players to significantly adjust a class’s playstyle even within a specialization. More of this is always good – hence the wish is also quite popular.
Places 5 – 10 – Many small wishes
Places 6 to 10 go by in a flash – they are all quite close together:
- Place 6: Overhaul of the “old world” (6%, 241 votes)
- Place 7: More established PvE content (dungeons, raids) (5%, 225 votes)
- Place 8: Simpler story in Azeroth, without cosmic threats (5%, 225 votes)
- Place 9: Overhaul of professions (5%, 222 votes)
- Place 10: New endgame activities (5%, 220 votes)
What you couldn’t care less about – newbie help and Sylvanas
Lastly, let’s take a quick look at the options that hardly anyone cared about. Only a very small fraction of the votes went to the last 3 points.
In third to last place, and therefore quite unpopular, is the wish for a new match feature like covenants, Azerite powers, or artifact weapons with 36 votes (1%).
These so-called “borrowed power” systems, i.e., borrowed power that one gives back at the end of an expansion, have a bad reputation. However, it seems for many that this is not as big of a thorn in their side as assumed. As long as a system is well-made and brings exciting gameplay, many players seem to be able to live with parting from this power.
Similarly, the aversion against Sylvanas is reportedly less drastic than expected. Only 1% (35 votes) consider it important that the Banshee Queen no longer appears.
This also illustrates a well-known phenomenon in the WoW community, namely that of the “loud minority.” If you look in different forums or also in the comment section on MeinMMO, you will repeatedly read comments from players who simply don’t want Sylvanas anymore and wish that she would not appear anymore from now on. This appears through the vehemence of the comments to be a demand from a large part of the community – but on MeinMMO it only represents nearly 1% of the players. The Banshee Queen can therefore stay.
Absolutely no relevance, however, seem to be innovations for newcomers, such as improved tutorials or a simpler entry. Only 6 votes were cast for this point – a vanishingly small percentage, far below the 1% threshold. But that is probably understandable. Whoever talks about a new expansion is probably already deeply invested in World of Warcraft and considers aids for newcomers to be relatively unimportant.
Did you expect this result? Which point surprised you the most?
After all: Tomorrow, on 19.04.2022 at 18:00, Blizzard will unveil the new expansion. We will, of course, report on it.
