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World of Warcraft’s latest expansion, Dragonflight, has taken the world by storm. One of the biggest MMOs in gaming history, Blizzard’s masterpiece has not always had the best of days. Some expansions have been received better than others, but frankly, this one had the best launch of any other entry in WoW’s history. Even with that, the question has to be asked if the game is still worth playing in 2023.
Despite being one lengthy MMO with new expansions, it’s changed in a variety of ways - some being incredible and others leading players to unsubscribe. Now, World of Warcraft has two games for the price of one - it also includes access to the Classic servers. It is likely that some players subscribe just to play on those, instead of Retail. But should they be coming back to WoW in 2023?
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World of Warcraft has never been better in 2023
For context, I’ve played World of Warcraft off and on since Vanilla. When I first hit level cap as an Undead Mage, the game was nowhere near the first expansion. I remember when Molten Core opened, and when the world was overrun with undead during the Naxxramas pre-release event.
World of Warcraft has certainly had its highs and lows, and I’ve been there for all of them. I’ll be upfront - the Shadowlands expansion was probably the least amount of fun as I’ve ever had in the MMO. The underworld was just a frustrating experience, and it never seemed to get better. Not until the very end, anyway.
So when Dragonflight was announced, I was a bit of a skeptic. I then got my hands on its Alpha test. Even though my enjoyment of the game had waned, I’d only ever wanted the game to be enjoyable. So, I was delighted to see so many of the things that frustrated me had disappeared, hopefully never to be seen again.
There was no frustrating reputation grind, or tons of baffling storyline quests in order to unlock flying. Players received a customizable flying dragon mount incredibly early. Then, to make it better, you had to explore - which you were going to do, anyway!
There has been no frustrating “borrowed power” item either. The Onyx Annulet is the closest there is, and I don’t think that counts in this case, although I do admittedly miss my artifact weapons from Legion. Trying to get a good arsenal has always been frustrating in World of Warcraft, and that really alleviated a concern.
The short answer is yes, World of Warcraft is absolutely worth playing in 2023. What is it doing that it wasn’t doing before?
Positive changes that players can be excited about
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was a smooth, nearly perfect launch experience for the MMO. There were no queues that lasted several hours, and all of the game mechanics were in, and they worked as they should.
Problems that had plagued the game seemed to be gone. Crafting saw improvements, and the world, while huge, was easy to travel around. That was all thanks to dragonriding, which was easily the most fun I’ve had exploring the world of Azeroth.
Leveling was also a breeze. In Shadowlands, zones took so long to get through that I might have gained a level, or a level and a half, and still felt like I’d made no progress. I felt like I was steadily getting stronger throughout World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. I hit level cap significantly before getting to Thaldraszus, so there were lots of quests I could use to try to use to get better gear.
World of Warcraft is going in a positive direction right now, for just so many reasons. 2023 is the best time to get into Blizzard’s MMO, without a doubt, especially because it’s a very alt-friendly game now.
World of Warcraft is alt-friendly in 2023
WoW has always been a game where you have tons of alts. Unlike Final Fantasy XIV (and Final Fantasy XI before it), you only get one class per character. That’s perfectly fine, though! It’s a system that works well - but only if the game is alt-friendly. In the past, this wasn’t always the case.
Earlier, you’d have to go through every single grind on every single character, but World of Warcraft: Dragonflight changed all of that. Now, once you’ve unlocked Dragonriding, and things like World Quests, it’s a very simple matter to unlock these on your alts. When you start a new character, they keep all the unlocked Dragonriding exploration, making flying around a breeze.
After completing the main story of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, you can also just sort of play however you want on your alts! Want to just fly around and farm? No worries, do it! Do you prefer certain areas like Azure Span? Just go there and start! It’s such a brilliant move and lets players play the game their way.
What does the future hold for WoW?
One of the most positive changes for WoW fans in 2023, is that there’s a blueprint, and we know what’s coming. The developers have listed what the next several updates will contain - at least in part. At least, the community knows there’s a plan in place, and has things to look forward to.
Patch 10.1 is a very exciting prospect, that’s for sure. Balance changes, a new raid, more heritage armor, and much more. It sounds like the developers are listening to the fans, and are making positive changes that players are very excited for. If you want more information bout the expansion, the review can be found here.
At the end of the day, I’ve been a WoW fan since the start. Even when things felt dire, I always said one important thing: I don’t hate this game. I want it to be fun again.
There has literally never been a better time to play World of Warcraft than in 2023. If you’ve been away for a while, come on back! It’s easy to hit level 60 and jump into the new content on the Dragon Isles.
