Best toy ever, thank you Running of the Gnomes

I want the WoW that supports a seasonal max level content *and* the WoW that supports a meaningful leveling experience. I want a WoW that can tell character stories *and* the WoW that can explore the world and its themes. I don't want to have to split those desires between two versions of WoW.

I'm less in the sphere of thinking Retail will go away any time soon, and more worried that Retail will diminish the aspects that are highlighted in Forever, and shift into a seasonal venue for delves and M+ and raids. I love all of those things, but they're only *part* of the game for me.

All of these little things just culminate in a nagging feeling that all my desires for WoW are being poured into a different WoW than the one I want to play. Forever is cool, but I love the WoW I have. I love the gameplay of Retail, the characters and story and RP I've invested in. That's *my* WoW.

And I know that all of this is largely due to release schedule, and the unfortunate need to save TLT news for next year. Forever is not only new, but imminently releasing and this coverage *is* important. I can *hope* that it'll get better by December when we start getting news about 12.2.

And then in the weeks since then we've seen posts and podcasts and videos explaining the design goals for Forever, showing off new content and explaining every nook and cranny behind their choices. Meanwhile, Retail has a patch in 3 days and the biggest news was "buy these shop bundles!"

And then in the Retail section, half of the answers essentially boiled down to "wait until after the Worldsoul Saga" or "it's on our minds". It feels baffling to be in the middle of this supposed huge transformative saga for the game and have all of the answers to pretty basic questions be nothing.

The post-Blizzcon Q&A had a lot of the same odd feelings. When you look at the Forever section, they have such clear answers for the pre-picked questions, and even go on 5-minute explanations ending with "yeah high elves are coming!" It was such a strong communication of their intent.

There was so much whiplash hearing people cheer for these things and having that odd feeling, and then going to the Retail panel (which had all good content reveals, for as slim as it was) where you could hear audible groans at the M+ dungeon reveal. It all just made Retail feel... routine.

And I'm sure I will enjoy Forever plenty, it's an incredibly novel thing and like Sixsten says, you can feel just how strong of a vision they have for this new version of WoW from every single angle of the player experience. And it makes it feel so odd to look at Retail and not feel *any* of that.

It's a terrifying possibility to have that answer to any of the things you want be "well, Forever has that if you want it. Want to see the setting focus on grounded conflicts instead of cosmic threats? Want to see meaningful class expression in the questing experience? Forever has all that!

All of the talk about re-centering the world, expanding the zones we care about, making sure that progression isn't left behind the second new content comes out, those all appeal to me not just in gameplay, but in story too! And my big fear is that because we're getting it here, we won't in Retail.

This post resonates a *lot* with the exact same feelings I was having at Blizzcon in the wake of the Forever reveal. Sitting in the crowds for those panels for Forever was such an odd feeling because it had *so* many of the things I want to see in WoW... just not for the WoW I play.

Like, the fact that Kel'thuzad is petty enough to build a whole profane cathedral in the *middle of Naxxramas* just to shit on the ideals of the Light is such a campy move and I love it lol

I love how Naxxramas got re-imagine in Forsaken Kingdom as a necropolis that's literally ripped out of the ground. It turns it into such a perfect parallel to Dalaran, and the idea that Kel'thuzad used it as a desecration of humanity and its ideals.

They can redeem themselves if he shows up in TLT to obsess over another group because the elves became lame in his eyes lol

The fact that we're reaching the end of Silvermoon's story next week without a single appearance from Silvermoon Harry is a travesty of the highest regard.

I like that they explained the slower Voidcores in season 2 with Orin not being as good at making them as Decimus lol

Having *such* a hard time deciding if I want to jump into testing Undead Paladin content on the beta right now, or wait until Forever launches next month since I'll be doing it all over again. Forsaken Kingdom lit *such* a fire under me to explore their story.