Touching The Afterlife

If you are a World of Warcraft player, you are probably anticipating the upcoming “Dragonflight” expansion and rightfully so. The ability to customize your dragon to the splitting image of your imagination. Yet, the current expansion “Shadowlands” is universally overlooked and trashed for the following issues:

• Confusing lore

• Boring content

• Stale raids and dungeons

• Same ole feeling

While this is all true, the overall experience of the expansion should not be taken for granted. The atmosphere of Shadowlands is so captivating in my eyes, as a person who is on a spiritual level. You experience the deepest hell of the Maw, the heavenly peaceful surroundings of Bastion, the war torn battlegrounds of Maldaxxus, the majestic and magical visuals of Ardrenweald, and the Gothic realities that comes with the land of Ravendreth. These realms are connected to the center of Orbits, the Eternal City where players can adapt and gather what they need for the realms they are about to face. In my eye, this is some compelling storytelling despite how confusing the lore is.

Sometimes, the art of the game speaks for itself, thus allowing a form of escapism from the fact that you are playing a video game. Hence, why I enjoy this expansion next to “Mists of Pandoria”. I feel the pain of millions of souls wanting to be freed in The Maw and Torghast, sit back and embrace the nature of Ardrenweald, and try to fix the broken lands of Maldaxxus with hopes of one day seeing peace in such a dark place. It’s poetic to the eyes of a gamer that embraces imagination of the art that comes with a video game. I know I am crazy for even ranking such a “terrible” expansion to a high platform, but trust in what I am about to say. Shadowlands have this unique aura about the expansion pack beyond the ones of the past.

Both Horde and Alliance must come together and fix what seems broken in unfamiliar terrain. There is no black or white in this dark mythical world, but just uncertainty and a hopeful illusion of a time that needs to be rebuild. No person has privilege other than what they feel within, which is overlooked to the eyes of The Jailor. We all must make a choice for a land that resembles our deepest spiritual growth. This is something that I failed to experience in previous WOW expansions. Somehow, Shadowlands takes me on a journey that is deeper than mythical lore. The potholes are shown because of odd writing, but why don’t we make the lore that stands out in our own vision.

In my eye, I am a Mage in a distant time trying to clean the gardens of Ardrenweald. I am the hunter stumbling into the green pits of Maldaxxus, in hopes of finding self in the visuals of necrolords and broken souls. Maybe, this is my story through digital optimization. A story of a spirit lost in a world of confusion. I am trying to rebuild what is broken, but reality hits….why I’m fixing what needs to be rebuild? So many questions that comes to the mind of self, but it is all a thing of a past. I know where I need to go, I know what to fight for, and I will go through the darkest pit of hell just to capture what is lost within myself. This is what I gathered from Shadowlands. Even the end game just feels like life in general. The Toughast is a rat race of eternal yards with no end in sight. You are battling nothing and gaining nothing.

Just like life, you are fighting for a dream, but the dream keeps growing until it becomes a balloon of endless regrets and non practice goals. That is the power of MMOs. You keep pushing quests and dungeons until you maxed out your own abilities, and then what? You could get the best attire, the best weaponry, and still be an unhappy sap because there is no point. Each walk through The Maw feels like the hell I am facing for the past two years.

Hotel rooms resemble cells of tortured souls.

Different cities become zones with different methods of survival.

Different NPCs could be family, friends, or eternal foes.

Yet, it is all in the game. Shadowlands reminds me of one of my favorite albums of all time: “Lupe Fiasco- The Cool”. For the time, people were confused with this body of work by rapper Lupe Fiasco, but I loved every moment of that album. The grittiest, the dark approach, and the thought provoking lyrics. It was timeless in my eye.

Shadowlands maybe considered one of the worst expansions to WOW, but once you been there…you will see where I am coming from. It’s a game not made for the typical gamer, WOW fan, or so forth. It is a game that’s made for people that understand such paths that come with life, good or bad. It’s all life being told through pixelation and fantasy lore. Now if you excuse me, I have a few raids to tackle…