Distinctly Looking Biomes
I already mentioned it in the in the previous part in section about Cataclyms but will iterate on it further. Zones have to look different from one another. That gives the impression that world is much larger than it really is. As you travel you move from jungle into desert into grasslands, into mountains, into snowlands into plaguelands.
Making biomes distinct means using different colour palettes for different zones, different trees, different rocks and so on. When you move from Feralas into Thouthand Needles, you immediately notice a much lighter coloured and open world compere to the thick jungle you just left. You do not need to check map or interface to tell its a different zone.
Since Cataclysm however it is much less apparent. Zones became lot more similar to each other.
People call modern WoW controlled by content creators precisely due to lack of this distinction. There is a tendency to use the same new pretty assets in every single zone possible. Designers spent a lot of time making this fancy new tree or rock and now want it everywhere.
However, this frequent asset re-use is what makes all zones look the same. So, designers should make a new type of tree for every every other zone there is. Some zones should be plans or other type of terrains.
There is another aspect to this and that is consistency with zone's original character. Do not just suddenly start growing pines in desert. Pines are cold weather tree. Use desert vegetations such as palms instead. Some basic knowledge of biology and geography is needed to make biomes realistic and meaningful.
Finally, some zones like, Plaguelands or Felwood are deliberately made to look toxic and inhospitable. That was done for story purpose, to showcase the damage, Scourge and Burning Legion will do to Azeroth if they win. There are other more hospitable biomes out there so these should be kept as it is.
Distinct Denizens and Structures
Terrain and plants are not the only things that need to be distinct, denizens and structures they live in should also be appropriate for the biome they are located. There is a reason why Centaurs for example live in open and spacious regions, such regions in real life are often homes for horse riding nations and cultures like Mongols and Comanche. It is only reasonable that Half-horse half-human creatures are found in such zones in WoW.
Since people live in homes in cities and villages, creatures in WoW need their homes as well. How homes look like depend on culture and location. Different areas and people have their homes look different from one another. Upwardly curving roofs are distinct feature of Asian architecture for example that is not found elsewhere. WoW races too each need to have a distinct style of housing they use and build in areas they control.
There is also a utility aspect in architecture as well. Deserts often have sand-coloured homes with flat roofs. There is no rain in deserts so there is no need to build steeped roofs that will make rainwater flow down on the ground. Cold areas with a lot of snow have to take steep roof much further and build very tall roofs with steep inclination to prevent snow from piling up atop of the roof. Thus, before deciding what homes of new race will look like, practicality of such dwellings for the environment race inhabits should be considered.
Houses are not the only unique things about races. There are minor things such as postboxes as well. There are iconic postbox and telephone booth design around the world, particularly in the UK. WoW does that too and each race has its own unique looking mailbox. Other small things such as furniture, decorative patters, even typical colour of clothes and such are also sometimes part of that race identity. Thus, great attention needs to be paid to such things when making new zones. There are also flags but I will dedicate a separate section to the flags and tabards further below.
Fractions
There are two playable fractions in WoW: Horde and Alliance. However, in the broader world there are many more unplayable fractions. Some but not all have a dedicated reputation you can gring. Fractions differ in size power and influence. They can be just bunch of local lifeforms or organisations that contest your fraction control of the area, like Quillboars in Barrens and Durotar and Defias Brotherhood in Elvyn Forest and Westfall. Alternatively, they could be as huge as Burning Legion that has many subfractions, that have subfractions of their own. If someone were to create a political map of WoW it will be very large and complex, not quite the Voltaire's Nightmare of Holy Roman Empire but at least half-way there.
This plethora of fractions makes world look bigger and more diverse, there is always more to learn and see when you enter a new zone. There is no one big global government that controls everything, every area has their own authority. There are many organisations, big and small.
Motivation to Play
Multitude of fractions gives gameplay its reasons too. You fight for your race and fraction against others. If everything already controlled by your fraction, then what do you even do it. The whole thing is just a staged training exercise made by your bosses. That just does not give people enough motivation to play.
People will have more reason to fight some monsters if these monsters are in organisation that threaten existence of their race and the world. Their heroic efforts will be more appreciated by NPCs as well. They will get to be heroes.
After all, why play a bootcamp simulator when you can instead play hero simulator. No one ever dreams being in a perpetual bootcamp training, but many do dream of being a hero, winning wars and then be hailed and worshiped as champion for the rest of their lives.
Flags, Insignia and other Symbols
That could have been part of distinction section, but it is so important that it needs a separate section. Just like real world, WoW is full of multitude of flags, banners, symbols, insignias and so on. All these things denote allegiance to fraction, being part of a race or an organization. Just like in real life, these symbols can be confusing by their similarity to a slightly different symbol of a different organisation. Take real life flags of Poland, Indonesia and Monaco. In WoW symbols of Lordaeron, Scarlet Crusade and Stromgarde are similarly confusing.
Just like in real life it is very important to get symbols right, it will offend a Pole if you depict "his" flag red bar above like Indonesian on, it will offend fans if symbols of one or another fraction are substitute with a similarly looking ones from another. BfA reconstructed Stromgarde with unrelated Scarlet Crusade flags is a good example of what not to do.
There are secondary insignia too. Some kingdoms and organisations have different design on a tabard compared to a flag.
There are separate flags for religions and other such things as well. Above mentioned Scarlet Crusade often uses Symbols of Church of Holy Light to showcase their devotion, that are also present in Stormwind Cathedral and some other places too.
People understand the world by using symbols stereotypes and such. Thus, it is of utmost importance to get such things right. Mistakes in such things shows lack of attention and care for the games and players.
Convenience vs Lore
As I mentioned before, there are many fractions in WoW and two playable fractions are not the biggest powers in Azeroth. That means they do not control every zone in game.
In vanilla WoW you could tell you control the zone by looking what major settlements are. For example, in Elvyn Forest Kingdom of Stormwing is in control. Stromwind affiliated settlemts located on major roads and Stormwind knights patrol the roads. Enemies of Stormwind are hiding in dark corners of the map as they plot against Stormwind. On the other hand, in Plaguelands, the Scourge is in control, Scorge minions swarm roads and settlements. The only people there who are friendly to players, Argent Dawn, are hiding in the dark corner of the map in non-descript building called Light's Hope Chapel as they plot against the Scourge.
Such places like Light's Hope Chapel could be hard to find and hard to use as questing hubs. However, making this location as visible and accessible as a McDonalds restaurant for players convenience makes a Lore error instead. If Scourge cannot just destroy a piny settlement in the middle of their lands despite it standing there in plain view, then may be Scourge is not really a threat to Azeroth. That removes the reason to fight the in the first place and by extension motivation to play the game.
Player's convenience is good, but it should not break the Lore. Alternative quest-based option can be arranged to show players where to go and who contact in a territory controlled by enemies of their fraction.
Player's Freedom
Making game more hands on where something always happening may seem like a good thing, but it's not as one sided as it seems. Classic WoW gave people more freedom by allowing to explore the game as their own pace. They also had agency over what quests to fulfill, where to quest and what to do in general.
In a more hands on game, such freedom and agency could be compromised by game being overly obnoxious and constantly asking for attention.
Introverted Players
There is also an issue that more players are introverted rather than extraverted. After all extroverts would prefer life human interaction to games. Its introverts who would rather sit home and play.
While extroverts welcome any human interaction, introverts are bewildered when people talk to them too often or too much.
So, inability to leave players alone for prolong periods of time can be a problem for many players, particularly for introverted one.
Old Wow was clearly a game for introverts. A lot of time you were quietly exploring zones and looking at scenery without talking to anyone. The game has since clearly shifted towards more extroverted players. A lot more is constantly going on at the same time. That is something introverts have problem with.
Showing Damage and Decay
As much as it is good to make games pretty polished and healthy, it is also necessary to be able to show damage and destruction. You cannot make enemy feel real and dangerous if you cannot show how much damage they are capable of doing. Both biomes, structures and even people can be affected by this damage.
For example, Felwood is infected example of a Night Elf Forest that stands just next to its healthy analoge Ashenvale. Travel from one zone to another and you see just how twisted Burning Legion can make things be.
Another example is Elvyn Forest and Plaguelands. In Elvyn Forest you see recently build and well-maintained human houses, taverns and so on. In Plaguelands very same buildings are damaged and dilapidated, because Scourge took control of the area and damaged them. Other areas like Alterac Mountains also have dilapidated human buildings.
There is also a playable race, Undead, who among other things, live in dilapidated human buildings, it's part of what makes them who they are, even though there are also purpose build undead structures.
Races and Differences Between Them
In WoW its races that are like countries. Both Alliance and Horde are associations of countries that cooperate with each other against their enemies. Cold War with its NATO and Warsaw Pact are good example for real world.
Just like amount the Cold War allies on either side, relationships within Horde and Alliance are nuanced and have certain internal politics.
For example, Horde is clearly divided into inner and outer one. Orcs, Taurens and Trolls have utmost respect for each other. They fought side by side for a long time and helped each other a lot. They also share many believes, have similar ways of life.
In contrast Undead and Blood Elves mostly view Horde as ally of convenience. Only mutual district of the Alliance keeps them cooperating with the Horde. They do not think much of other Horde members and will not hesitate to betray them if opportunity presents itself. Blood Elves mostly see the rest of Horde as dirty savages and only work with them because they were driven out of Alliance by Grandmarshal Garithos. Undead have certain hatred for the living in general and only even greater hatred for the Lich King keep them allied to the Horde against the Scourge. Also, Trolls and Elves have mutual animosity towards each other that goes way back to when Silvermoon was founded, though that is mostly towards hostile to Horde Jungle Trolls and not the Horde Island Trolls.
In Alliance it is somewhat between these two extremes. They neither think too much of the fellow allies, not particularly apprehensive towards them. Sober logic that allies are good for mutual defence and self-preservation mostly dominates as Alliance way of thinking.
That was part of the original lore but have long evaporated in later expansions.
These vastly different attitudes towards allies stem from individual character of each race. Snobbishness is one Blood Elves and High Elves defining features. They would not be the same elves if they would embrace Horde just as Taurens do.
Every other race too has certain character traits and attitudes that define majority of them. There
Blood and High Elves are snobbish and arrogant. Orcs are brutal, they value strength and victory, but also loyalty, Taurens are loyal and have deep care for nature and Azeroth, Trolls are wicked, but ancient and know a lot about past and things in general. Undead are angry for being turned into these monstrosities and hate both living and Lich King who did it to them. Dwarfs are loyal, love to drink and love stone underground places. Gnomes love tinkering with technology. Night Elves are most ancient and wise, their experience during war of the Ancients makes them very concern with survival of Azeroth. Drenai are calm and sophisticated and focused on surviving and fighting back Buring Legion. Goblins love tech as much as Gnomes but unlike Gnomes they also love money and explosions just as much. These are short descriptions of each race traits. There are also Humans who do not have many traits to make them a choice for those who do noy find anything else appealing. There are more to them of course.
Players pick to play as one or the other race because they feel certain racial traits are relatable to them personally. Take that away and players will feel like it's not the same anymore.
Differences in traits is also what makes story work. In a good story each character just doing their usual thing and that sometimes leads towards unusual outcomes. People will think plot makes no sense if characters act out of character. However, to act in character they have to have character to begin with. That is why these racial traits exist.
Post Cataclysm developments homogenized races. They now do not feel as different from each other as they once were. That is something that should be reversed. Distinct character of each race has to be showcased in their dialogise, rituals, religion and so on. That will give players context of who they play as, allow them to immerse themselves into a different culture, even if it's a fictional culture.
For example, Warcraft II mentioned how Orcs practice burning corpses of their fallen enemies as a religious ritual. Of course, Orcish religion should be administered by Shamans rather than Priests. We have yet to see that being done in WoW. Other races too could benefit from more exposure of their distinct cultures.
Fractional and Racial Leadership
Final issue that produced a lot of rage back then. Issue of leadership, particularly that of Garrosh. However there similar but less dramatic problems with other leaders too. Just others had some redeeming qualities or were much less noticeable in game while Garrosh stood out as sore thumb.
As far as I understand Blizz wanted to bring back some of the Horde original feel from first and second Warcraft. Warcraft III and early WoW made Horde far too pacifistic compared to its old self and developers wanted to bring back some of the original feel.
As someone who is also nostalgic for the Doomhammer's and Ner'Zhul's Horde, I am somewhat sympathetic to these efforts. However, Garrosh was a wrong way to go about it. Garrosh resembles Blackhand a lot more than either Doomhammer or Ner'Zhul. He is spiteful, pointlessly cruel and lashes out at people at random. Meanwhile the other two did their share of cruelty but were never unreasonable. Doomhammer ordered extermination of two orcish clans, but arguably they had only themselves to blame for suddenly deserting the Horde before the important battle with Dalaran and putting their brethren in undue danger. Gul'dan too had it coming due to his constant scheming.
Also, Garrosh was groomed and parachuted into leadership by Thrall and did nothing to prove himself. People do not like to see rich scions just getting ahead because of connections. Doomhammer made his way up from the bottom. He took power by force but only after he has proven himself to be a capable leader. Meanwhile Blackhand was misusing his authority because of his daughter.
If you think of a real-life example of leadership in an independent militaristic community such as pirate crew or a Cossack Host, then leader had to be able of cruelty, yet at the same time he also has to be reasonable, smart and cunning. Pirates and Cossacks has to be able to trust them to lead them to victory and not screw them over either due to stupidity or wickedness. They will not be able to trust someone who just fucks up someone of their own for no good reason. At the same time, they should be able and willing to kill others.
There is more detail in CGPGray video about How to be a Pirate part 1, part 2. I think good leader for the Horde should combine brutality with reason, ability to win and concern with survival of the crew. Such a leader will be a leader liked by players.
Of course, those who install Garrosh might simply wanted a pointlessly cruel leader because of their masochistic kinks. However, majority is not masochistic and thus it was poorly received by community.
Conclusion
That are some of the ways in which WoW can be improved and win back love of veterans. I might be able to think of more ideas sometime later, but so far that is all.
Hopefully Blizzard will realise their mistakes and fix WoW back to how we loved it.
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