For me was BFA, it was clear they were going for a more feminin centered story telling. Did not even reach max level, and is the first time I quit without any doubt that I will not be going back.
While it's not a new thing for the WoW devs to display their Horde bias and favouritism, BfA took it to new levels and this includes when Cata simply had large chunks of equivalent Alliance content non existent because they spent so much time on the Horde stuff they ran out of time. For an example compared the Alliance and Horde entrances to the Twilight Highlands zone. For another compare the post starter zone Goblin content with post starter zone Worgen content. Gilneas just gets forgotten about while the Goblins at least revamp Azshara.
Legion added in the first of the Allied Races and while they were mostly reskins of existing models they were still mostly things players wanted or at the very least were OK with.
BfA gave the Horde the Zandalari trolls and Kul Tiran humans.
Eventually 🙄
Even just between these two signature groups [Kul Tiras and Zandalar were the faction hubs for the expansion] there were significant differences in quality of content.
Zandalar [upright] troll druids had several primal animal forms and of note a reskinned High Arrakoa skeleton from WoD for their Boomkin model, something that was until then only possible through a limited duration Toy [because "no fun allowed" with WoW Toys].
Meanwhile Kul Tiran druid forms were taken from the Drust wicker creatures which would have been great if they weren't existing reskinned [poorly] druid form skeletons.
Simply put the KT skins were just shit.
Now putting aside the fact it took fucking months for those Allied Races to finally get released the other issue were the Vulpera and the discount, bargain bin rejects. Sorry, that should have said "Mechagnomes" but the previous label is more accurate.
Vulpera were reskinned Goblin skeletons but nobody cared. Players went fucking nuts for the faction when introduced to them in one of the 3 Horde zones.
Meanwhile the Mechagnomes weren't even a thing until a whole patch later and were not only reskinned gnomes, literally the single least played Alliance race in the entire game, but the "mecha" aspect amounted entirely to swapped out arms and legs with some shitty goggles.
It felt like the devs either ran out of time again or just did a shitty copy and paste job with robot hands photoshopped in.
On top of all this, while the individual faction zone stories were good, the Alliance ones had literally zero connection to the first raid. Players were just there suddenly for no reason fighting a potential extinction level event that had some minor exposition between raid bosses if you stood next to Bran while the rest of the raid actually went and killed things.
Which brings up one of the biggest problems both the expansion and game has had for a long time now.
The writing is completely shit.
BfA starts with the Horde committing genocide against the Night Elves. The same Horde that have attempted or committed genocide at least twice in previous incarnations.
First against the Draenai as eventually shown in the WoD expansion then second when they invaded Azeroth in the first RTS game. Then again in the third when Grom drinks demon blood for a second time because the first wasn't stupid enough.
WoD alternative universe Grommash even gets called out on this with how WoD ends. Archimonde is killed, again but this time totes for real guys because unlike the planned Mythic Kargath fight that was scrapped the Mythic only Archi phase set in the Twisting Nether is canon and totes means Archi is dead for reals despite the post combat cutscene taking place in normal space-time. Grommash had up until the "final patch" 🙄 [because there was only really 2/3 of them in the entire expansion because so much was just cut due to time being spent on things like Twitter integration and pointless/worthless shit that Blizzard effectly abandoned finishing it properly] been leading the Iron Horde on yet another genocide [the aforementioned Draenai one that is decades old canon history in the main timeline].
So when Archi dies Grommash cheers "Draenor is free!" as if this is meant to make up for the countless Draenai slaughtered, sacrificed, raped [Garona's origin story], and nearly wiped out all by the command of Grommash.
And because the devs are utterly shit at writing a story the best they could do to evoke yet another faction war right on the heels of practically the entire world of Azeroth working together in Legion is to have the Horde commit genocide yet again.
And then have the fucking gaul to complain the Alliance retaliate by attacking Undercity which Sylvanas ends up nuking with Plague herself anyway. As well as writing the "revenge" of the Night Elves equalling the retaking of a beach that is within visual range of the now burned Night Elf capital where the majority of their civilian race was killed with seige weapons that were dozens of miles away in truth.
There are actual quest chains in BfA for the Alliance that involve trying to stop Horde marauders attacking farm villages and burning and murdering the farmers there. Farmers who end up skewered on pitchforks embedded in walls while the children of said skewered farmers look on as their parents die in front of them.
All the while Saurfang flops between genocidal backstabber [literally backstabs Malfurion in the pre-patch who is trying to prevent the genocide of his race by stopping the Horde without actually killing them since Malfurion is the single most powerful druid on the planet so could just drop a tornado on the Horde if he really wanted but doesn't] and noble savage [because he realises genocide is bad. For the third time] while being front and centre in pretty much every one of the earlier patch lore cutscenes meaning the expansion story is really a Horde one leading to yet another civil war and Siege of Orgrimmar.
That was how the expansion started! And it managed to get even worse after that.
I ended up losing all interest in the game before the first big patch because of the massive clusterfuck the devs had managed to somehow produce. Up until then I'd had the "itch" to reinstall now and again but the current devs have done a truly spectacular job of killing that itch by turning the game into such a shitshow it has been to be commended as the most effective thing to ever make me not want to play WoW ever again.
And then have the fucking gaul to complain the Alliance retaliate by attacking Undercity which Sylvanas ends up nuking with Plague herself anyway. As well as writing the "revenge" of the Night Elves equalling the retaking of a beach that is within visual range of the now burned Night Elf capital where the majority of their civilian race was killed with seige weapons that were dozens of miles away in truth.
The unexpected ukr crossover we never knew we needed
And then have the fucking gaul to complain the Alliance retaliate by attacking Undercity which Sylvanas ends up nuking with Plague herself anyway. As well as writing the "revenge" of the Night Elves equalling the retaking of a beach that is within visual range of the now burned Night Elf capital where the majority of their civilian race was killed with seige weapons that were dozens of miles away in truth.
Sylv is basically blizz's wonderwoman 1984 now.
Meanwhile the Mechagnomes weren't even a thing until a whole patch later and were not only reskinned gnomes, literally the single least played Alliance race in the entire game, but the "mecha" aspect amounted entirely to swapped out arms and legs with some shitty goggles.
lmao! Half asses pallette swaps is about the most today's blizzard can do.
There are actual quest chains in BfA for the Alliance that involve trying to stop Horde marauders attacking farm villages and burning and murdering the farmers there.
So the horde is old indians now? cool.
I ended up losing all interest in the game before the first big patch because of the massive clusterfuck the devs had managed to somehow produce. Up until then I'd had the "itch" to reinstall now and again but the current devs have done a truly spectacular job of killing that itch by turning the game into such a shitshow it has been to be commended as the most effective thing to ever make me not want to play WoW ever again.
Were they still using the gay'd talent "trees" that were basically pre-picked for you? Fuck blizzard in their gay fucking asses.
Blizzard has been dead to me since Startcraft 2 required online login to play the game purely in single player.
For me was BFA, it was clear they were going for a more feminin centered story telling. Did not even reach max level, and is the first time I quit without any doubt that I will not be going back.
tl;dr reeeeee
While it's not a new thing for the WoW devs to display their Horde bias and favouritism, BfA took it to new levels and this includes when Cata simply had large chunks of equivalent Alliance content non existent because they spent so much time on the Horde stuff they ran out of time. For an example compared the Alliance and Horde entrances to the Twilight Highlands zone. For another compare the post starter zone Goblin content with post starter zone Worgen content. Gilneas just gets forgotten about while the Goblins at least revamp Azshara.
Legion added in the first of the Allied Races and while they were mostly reskins of existing models they were still mostly things players wanted or at the very least were OK with.
BfA gave the Horde the Zandalari trolls and Kul Tiran humans.
Eventually 🙄
Even just between these two signature groups [Kul Tiras and Zandalar were the faction hubs for the expansion] there were significant differences in quality of content.
Zandalar [upright] troll druids had several primal animal forms and of note a reskinned High Arrakoa skeleton from WoD for their Boomkin model, something that was until then only possible through a limited duration Toy [because "no fun allowed" with WoW Toys].
Meanwhile Kul Tiran druid forms were taken from the Drust wicker creatures which would have been great if they weren't existing reskinned [poorly] druid form skeletons.
Simply put the KT skins were just shit.
Now putting aside the fact it took fucking months for those Allied Races to finally get released the other issue were the Vulpera and the discount, bargain bin rejects. Sorry, that should have said "Mechagnomes" but the previous label is more accurate.
Vulpera were reskinned Goblin skeletons but nobody cared. Players went fucking nuts for the faction when introduced to them in one of the 3 Horde zones.
Meanwhile the Mechagnomes weren't even a thing until a whole patch later and were not only reskinned gnomes, literally the single least played Alliance race in the entire game, but the "mecha" aspect amounted entirely to swapped out arms and legs with some shitty goggles.
It felt like the devs either ran out of time again or just did a shitty copy and paste job with robot hands photoshopped in.
On top of all this, while the individual faction zone stories were good, the Alliance ones had literally zero connection to the first raid. Players were just there suddenly for no reason fighting a potential extinction level event that had some minor exposition between raid bosses if you stood next to Bran while the rest of the raid actually went and killed things.
Which brings up one of the biggest problems both the expansion and game has had for a long time now.
The writing is completely shit.
BfA starts with the Horde committing genocide against the Night Elves. The same Horde that have attempted or committed genocide at least twice in previous incarnations.
First against the Draenai as eventually shown in the WoD expansion then second when they invaded Azeroth in the first RTS game. Then again in the third when Grom drinks demon blood for a second time because the first wasn't stupid enough.
WoD alternative universe Grommash even gets called out on this with how WoD ends. Archimonde is killed, again but this time totes for real guys because unlike the planned Mythic Kargath fight that was scrapped the Mythic only Archi phase set in the Twisting Nether is canon and totes means Archi is dead for reals despite the post combat cutscene taking place in normal space-time. Grommash had up until the "final patch" 🙄 [because there was only really 2/3 of them in the entire expansion because so much was just cut due to time being spent on things like Twitter integration and pointless/worthless shit that Blizzard effectly abandoned finishing it properly] been leading the Iron Horde on yet another genocide [the aforementioned Draenai one that is decades old canon history in the main timeline].
So when Archi dies Grommash cheers "Draenor is free!" as if this is meant to make up for the countless Draenai slaughtered, sacrificed, raped [Garona's origin story], and nearly wiped out all by the command of Grommash.
And because the devs are utterly shit at writing a story the best they could do to evoke yet another faction war right on the heels of practically the entire world of Azeroth working together in Legion is to have the Horde commit genocide yet again.
And then have the fucking gaul to complain the Alliance retaliate by attacking Undercity which Sylvanas ends up nuking with Plague herself anyway. As well as writing the "revenge" of the Night Elves equalling the retaking of a beach that is within visual range of the now burned Night Elf capital where the majority of their civilian race was killed with seige weapons that were dozens of miles away in truth.
There are actual quest chains in BfA for the Alliance that involve trying to stop Horde marauders attacking farm villages and burning and murdering the farmers there. Farmers who end up skewered on pitchforks embedded in walls while the children of said skewered farmers look on as their parents die in front of them.
All the while Saurfang flops between genocidal backstabber [literally backstabs Malfurion in the pre-patch who is trying to prevent the genocide of his race by stopping the Horde without actually killing them since Malfurion is the single most powerful druid on the planet so could just drop a tornado on the Horde if he really wanted but doesn't] and noble savage [because he realises genocide is bad. For the third time] while being front and centre in pretty much every one of the earlier patch lore cutscenes meaning the expansion story is really a Horde one leading to yet another civil war and Siege of Orgrimmar.
That was how the expansion started! And it managed to get even worse after that.
I ended up losing all interest in the game before the first big patch because of the massive clusterfuck the devs had managed to somehow produce. Up until then I'd had the "itch" to reinstall now and again but the current devs have done a truly spectacular job of killing that itch by turning the game into such a shitshow it has been to be commended as the most effective thing to ever make me not want to play WoW ever again.
Jfc this turned into a rant as always.
The unexpected ukr crossover we never knew we needed
Sylv is basically blizz's wonderwoman 1984 now.
lmao! Half asses pallette swaps is about the most today's blizzard can do.
So the horde is old indians now? cool.
Were they still using the gay'd talent "trees" that were basically pre-picked for you? Fuck blizzard in their gay fucking asses.