The latest expansion of WoW, Shadowlands, is finally here. The servers went online at midnight today. Here are the first reactions to the launch.
On the night from Monday (23.11.) to Tuesday (24.11), it was time. The Shadowlands expansion was unlocked for players, and many of them flocked into the Shadowlands to take a closer look at the new content of the addon.
At least the part of the players who managed to bypass the server issues that plagued many at the beginning.
Black screens prevent players from logging in
These were the issues: Once the servers went online, there were connection problems. The influx of players caused some of them to either get stuck in long queues or received a black screen at character selection.
Whereas their game character was supposed to be, there was only a black background, and some players joked that this must be the “so-called Shadowlands” everyone is talking about.
I’m getting “A character with this name already exists”.
Yes, I know. THAT’S ME. Let me IN.
reddit user MorgoMoo
In several threads, players joked about at which points and at what percentage of the loading bar they got kicked from the game.
On Twitter, the mood was somewhat less joyful. Many posts also complained about the connection problems and posted their own screenshots of black character screens, loading screens, and error messages. Especially under the post of the official WoW account, which went out at launch at midnight, there were many such comments:
Not everyone was affected: However, the connection problems did not affect all players. Some reported that they had no issues logging in and could start playing immediately.
Some players on reddit, Twitter, and also on our site MeinMMO called the launch the smoothest and cleanest they have ever experienced in WoW.
[…] I played for 5 hours and had zero problems. Of course, I can only speak for myself, but it has never gone down so “smoothly” for me before.
MeinMMO reader “Matti1987”
“It’s so beautiful here!”
This is what players found great: As soon as the first issues were resolved, players swarmed into the new areas of Shadowlands and seemed to be in awe. The new zones look beautiful, said many fans. Especially Bastion and Oribos apparently left a strong impression.
Cortyn from MeinMMO has praised the new areas of Shadowlands from the beta test even before the launch. Now all WoW fans can enjoy the beautiful zones.
Players praised the work of the design and art teams, who delivered a remarkable performance in the visual area:
The first flight from Oribos to Bastion blew me away.
reddit user shaydra
User Katharina K. wrote, for example, on Facebook under a post from the official WoW account:
What I’ve seen so far is breathtaking in my opinion! An absolute masterpiece and a feast for the eyes.
The excitement about the new zones, especially Bastion, was indeed so great that it made waves on Twitter. In the English-speaking world, the term “Bastion” trended with the explanation that players were sharing their first reactions to the new zone:
Overall positive mood
Overall, the addon seems to be well received so far. Many players report on social media that they played for a long time after the launch. Reports of up to 12 hours are mentioned in some cases. Since the expansion was released for us at midnight, some “played all night long”.
Even some players who were initially affected by the connection problems and were frustrated because of it eventually enjoyed Shadowlands.
Cortyn from MeinMMO also played right at launch and had the impression that the mood in the chat was generally very positive. You can find the impressions in our article.
