Why Legion is Blizzard’s (most likely) final chance at restoring World of Warcraft to former glory

So Blizzard dropped a bomb at Gamescom by unveiling the next expansion for their biggest game with World of Warcraft: Legion.

This expansion alone has thousands of people all over the world excited to get back into World of Warcraft. I mean…who wouldn’t? We finally get another hero class and it’s none other than a freakin Demon Hunter! Bizzard forums, youtube videos, facebook pages…they’ve all been flooded with comments from players who’d sworn off World of Warcraft, all declaring the same thing; “I was done with WoW, but then you went and did this.” 

With Legion, Blizzard seems to be doing more of a fan service than anything

It is not just the reveal of the new hero class that has people so excited. This new expansion is pulling at the heartstrings of every single WoW player for a number of reasons. With Legion, Blizzard seems to be doing more of a fan service than anything. New hero class? Check. Charge into battle with an Ashbringer (or any other iconic weapon of the WoW universe)? Check. Storyline focusing back on the Burning Legion? Check.

Fall from grace 

If you ask any WoW veteran what their favorite expansion is, it is extremely rare that they would pick any of the expansions following Wrath of the Lich King. To most, WoW’s glory days ended with the beginning of Cataclysm and would fondly remember the times of the Burning Crusade expansion as the best WoW had ever been in terms of story and overall gameplay.  

It’s not too difficult to see that WoW, while still being one of the most played MMORPGs of our time, its not the giant it once was. It has been losing subscribers with every single month at increasingly alarming rates over the past few years. According to an announcement by Actvision Blizzard a few months back, WoW had lost nearly three million subscribers within a span of just three months.

To most, WoW’s glory days ended with the beginning of Cataclysm

There are reasons for this, one of the main and less subjective ones being that the game’s just too old now. Other than that there is a plethora of other reasons that have seen WoW’s playerbase decline over the years; Daily grinding too monotonous, storyline not engaging, end game content lackluster, balance changes, pve/pvp changes, too casual…we could go on and on.

Legion, I feel, is the closest WoW will ever get to the Burning Crusade. With this expansion it seems like Blizzard is playing on our nostalgia to attract us back…and I daresay it’s working. For now.

The only question now is, if this expansion isn’t enough to hold onto it’s playerbase, what will?