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World of Warcraft Dragonflight
Overall, Blizzard has managed to put a good mix of new features, familiar old features, and a lot more freedom into the game with Dragonflight. The new Evoker class, able to fly almost immediately on the new islands, and the renewed flight style also provide much-needed challenges. It’s great that your other characters also benefit from what you’ve unlocked with your main character. This way you can immediately fly with your alts and you don’t have to grind everything over and over again. The whole thing is so well put together that it might just be the best expansion since Wrath of the Lich King.
World of Warcraft has been online for eighteen years now, but still incredibly popular. The latest expansion, Dragonflight, is about dragons and flight. With this, Blizzard hopes to please both existing and veteran players. Along with new areas, the expansion also includes a new heroclass and new skills, including flying dragons that have been dramatically revamped. Does it provide enough challenge and fun to return to the world of Warcraft?
Millions of players
Despite the age of the game, it is still played by millions. It will have around 5-8 million subscribers worldwide by 2022, of which 700,000 to around 1.7 million are active every day. A few weeks ago, the ninth (!) expansion was released: Dragonflight. As the name suggests, this edition is all about dragons and flying.
Numbers of players
A significant portion of current players come from China, around 3 million, and it’s debatable whether the game will still be available there in 2023, as Blizzard hasn’t yet been able to renew the 2008 deal with Chinese Netease. Blizzard is currently negotiating with other parts. Official numbers on the number of players have not been known since Blizzard stopped disclosing them in 2015. They may be higher, as there are also players who mainly play WoW Classic.
So World of Warcraft has been around since 2004. It’s been an eternity in the gaming world and there are few games that are still really popular after so long. Now, popularity is relative, as the heyday of WoW seems to be behind us. Between 2007 and 2011, between 10 and 13 million players were active. Especially after Warlords of Draenor, starting in 2014, the number of players dropped significantly. At the same time, competing game developers will be jealous of the millions of still active gamers.
So the challenge for Blizzard is to retain the existing core of regular subscribers with continuous improvements and new content, and a major new expansion roughly once every two years. A new story is coming, but above all a new country to discover, including a new race and/or class. And of course new unique features or interesting playstyles to try out.
Many old timers take a look when a new expansion appears, but a large part of them disappear again after the so-called honeymoon phase, during which all the new things have been tried. Often something completely new is introduced, which then disappears in a later expansion. For example, consider the garrisons from Warlords of Draenor and, to a lesser extent, upgrading your Heart of Azeroth in Battle for Azeroth. Also the choice of four pacts in Shadowlands and its associated areas was original on the one hand, but also compelling on the other. Although you can access the other areas, the focus was only on one of them.
New and as usual?
Dragonflight is back to normal: a new island for everyone, and you have a lot of freedom where you send your characters. the campaign questline is not extremely long and therefore easy to navigate. Plus, it’s now much more attractive to be with you. alts start, because it takes advantage of the things you already have with you main have unlocked.
With Dragonflight, a new race and class have been added: the dragon-like Drachthyrs of the Dragon Isle have awakened after thousands of years. They are available for both Alliance and Horde with the new Evoker class. This is a so-called hero class, so you start at a higher level: 58. This class offers unique properties and can also fly. On the island, however, you will also find various dragons that you can summon quickly. Unlike previous expansions, you can therefore fly almost immediately in the new area. This promises something, but does Dragonflight offer enough for existing players and veterans who look back wistfully to the days of The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King?
Purpose of this review
World of Warcraft is a huge game with many deep layers and a storyline that has been in development for decades. This is the first time in a long time that we’ve submitted this game for a review on Tweakers. It’s impossible to discuss all the details, so we’re focusing on the major Dragonflight changes and especially how this expansion will appeal to existing and veteran players alike.
