Leaked WoW presentation proves Blizzard learned from Shadowlands mistakes

Leaked presentation slides from this year’s GDC detailed much of what has been going on behind the scenes on World of Warcraft. This includes significant revelations from the Shadowlands era, widely seen as one of the weakest expansions to the game ever.

Shadowlands continued to bring Sylvanas Windrunner to the fore and banked on the Jailer as its overarching antagonist. This was a story gamble that didn’t pay off but there were far deeper issues to address.

As first reported by Korean website Inven, a presentation given by Blizzard confirmed what they considered as the main failures of the Shadowlands period.

The revelations are fairly broad in scope, covering everything from the setting to systems introduced during Shadowlands.

It seems the developer also heard significant fan feedback. One of the biggest complaints related to significant periods of time without the introduction of new content to pursue. This left the expansion feeling almost eery at times, particularly for more hardcore players.

In fairness to Blizzard, they have made significant strides in addressing the most egregious grievances. Dragonflight has received regular updates, including patches that have never previously played a major part in expansion cycles.

Additionally, Season of Discovery has paved the way in terms of developer communication. Communication via social media and regular forum responses has led the community to feel heard in a way that hasn’t been replicated since the beginning of WoW.

With Shadowlands now a distant memory, it will be interesting to see whether they can maintain momentum as the game barrels toward The War Within.