Blizzard has officially announced the next expansion for World of Warcraft will be Dragonflight, and reception among the MMO's community has been divided. While the announcement event for Dragonflight went well, World of Warcraft players have questions regarding storytelling and design that linger from previous expansions. Twitch streamer Asmongold recently vocalized these criticisms, answering why he believed Dragonflight is struggling to pick up momentum in a way the previous World of Warcraft expansions haven't.
The topic that caught the attention of Asmongold during a recent stream was tied to YouTube views for World of Warcraft's past three expansion announcement trailers. Battle for Azeroth's cinematic trailer is said to have had 6.5 million views after seven days, Shadowlands had 4.7 million, and now Dragonflight is falling short of 2 million. The implication being that Dragonflight's announcement has significantly less hype surrounding its reveal than even World of Warcraft's past two heavily criticized expansions.
Asmongold explains to his viewers that the "truth" is World of Warcraft players are "tired of getting fooled." He says that players feel like they've been fooled twice with Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands promising meaningful changes and improvements but otherwise delivering the same kind of experience that World of Warcraft players are frustrated with. As such, those World of Warcraft players are taking a wait-and-see approach to Dragonflight.
Dragonflight, in Asmongold's eyes, is an expansion that's going to have to "earn back [World of Warcraft's] audience." He believes that this could take a year, in that Dragonflight isn't going to be the initial success that prior expansions have been and that it will take time to persuade World of Warcraft players to return. In that regard, Asmongold compares Dragonflight to the Legion expansion, which he says took time to bring players back after their disappointment in Warlords of Draenor.
That's also what Asmongold calls a "best-case scenario" for Dragonflight. It's just one possibility that could happen and what Blizzard should be trying to do, in Asmongold's opinion. The unsaid worst-case scenario would be that Blizzard doesn't earn back World of Warcraft's audience, and Dragonflight continues a downward trend for the MMO.
Asmongold has said before that he is excited for Dragonflight following the expansion's announcement event, but also that he's going to wait and see before making any firm statements. To be fair, Asmongold previously said that he was "done" with World of Warcraft prior to Dragonflight's unveiling, so his current attitude toward the MMO is a dramatic improvement. Blizzard clearly has its work cut out for itself, though.
World of Warcraft's Dragonflight expansion is currently in development for PC.