Outland is kinda lame.

[WindupAtheist]

Here's hoping that the Lich King expansion injects some Diablo-style gravitas into the game, because the general atmosphere of Outland past the first zone or two is the pits.  The whole sci-fi angle is really weak, everything made out of pink and purple crystal just looks stupid, and the pop-culture references are unusually disruptive and hamfisted for Blizzard.  Going directly from the "LOLOL STAR WARS AND STARSHIP TROOPERS" town in Blade's Edge to the "LOLOL MEN IN BLACK" town in Netherstorm really just made any suspension of disbelief or feeling of consistency I had roll over and die.

In the old world, the pop-culture references were usually reasonably subtle.  If you had never seen Aliens, for example, the fact that a couple of quartermasters in Elwynn Forest were named Hicks and Hudson wouldn't mean anything to you.  Meanwhile everytime you go back to civilization to turn in a quest in Outland, there's basically a gnome in a space suit screaming "WIGGITY WACK, BEAM ME UP SNOTTY, WELCOME TO ERF!" while breakdancing.

Just bitching.

[Driakos]

I hate Blade's Edge and Netherstorm.  The majority of the crystal offenses are there.  Nagrand and Shadowmoon Valley were much better.  I liked the idea of the bio-domes in Netherstorm, they just look really goofy.  To me, Zangarmarsh (though the quests annoy me) has some of the best looking areas in Outlands. 

[Hutch]

Going directly from the "LOLOL STAR WARS AND STARSHIP TROOPERS" town in Blade's Edge

Wait, what? Are you playing Alliance?

I hope so, because I totally didn't get those references from the Horde towns.

[MrHat]

I agree bud.

Hellfire Penn and Shadowmoon Valley are the better zones in Outland.

Followed by Nagrand, although a few of the quests probably could've been toned down a bit (*shakes fist at Nesingwary*).

[Nebu]

Nagrand is my favorite of the zones in the expansion.  They could nuke the rest of them and I'd be just fine with it. 

None of them compare to the zones in the original game though.  Shame that.

[Fordel]

Going directly from the "LOLOL STAR WARS AND STARSHIP TROOPERS" town in Blade's Edge

Wait, what? Are you playing Alliance?

I hope so, because I totally didn't get those references from the Horde towns.

There is a gnome town in Blades Edge that is basically the gnomish version of the Starship troopers firebase. It's awesome.

Complete with Bug Zerg attacking it 

-edit-

Town in question: http://www.wowwiki.com/Toshley's_Station

[Jayce]

I'm pretty sure that's the town he was referring to in caps.

Goes to show, some people think it's great, some people don't.

I personally like Blade's Edge, but I don't have to deal with gnome towns either.  Or gnomes.  I think Thunderlord Stronghold and Mok'nathal village, along with the surrounding areas, give BEM a good atmosphere of savageness.  I guess gnomes could screw that up.  For that matter, gnomes screw everything up.

I'm a big fanboi of Nagrand too.  HFP and Zangarmarsh are speedbumps on the way to better zones, IMO.

[Damn Dirty Ape]

I very much enjoyed the fact that one of the quest rewards from Toshley Station is a power converter.

And that Nagrand is one big Yes album cover is another big plus in my book.

[K9]

I was very sad the day they nerfed my reploarised magneto sphere that I got from Toshley's Station :(

[Kail]

Personally, I liked Netherstorm and Zangarmarsh; they had a fairly novel feel to them, while the other places were "Like Durotar, BUT WITH DEMONS!  Er, different demons, rather... well, they give better loot, anyway..."  They don't fit in with the rest of the game, which is part of why I like them.  If you had a whole bunch of zones based around Netherstorm's motif or something, I'd probably like it less, but as it is, I think they're a fairly neat diversion.  Perhaps it's because I'm Horde, and have been questing through barren, rocky, demon-infested shitholes for most of my character's existance rather than magic purple spaceships like the Dranei, I don't know.

[Xanthippe]

I love the skies in Outland.  They're beautiful.

Nagrand is my favorite zone, art-wise.

[Lt.Dan]

What killed it for me was the Dwarf hunter handing out quests to kill or collect 30 mobs or mob bits.  That shit stunk in Stranglethorn.

[Xerapis]

Personally I love Zangarmarsh.

Probably in part because of the engineering quest to make the mote-gathering thingy.

But mostly because of Sporeggar.  They're soooooooooo cute. ^^

[squirrel]

I'll throw another vote in for Nagrand. I'm going through it a second time at the moment and it's a decent zone - not too much, but not immersion breaking. I found Zangarmarsh hard to take right after Hellfire - "oh yeah, we know that 2 miles away the demons of the apocolypse are invading reality, but before we sort that out we need to make sure the mushrooms aren't rotting..." erm, what?

Overall though I don't think Outland is exceptional for it's environments or stories. I *do* like the loot...

[SurfD]

What killed it for me was the Dwarf hunter handing out quests to kill or collect 30 mobs or mob bits.  That shit stunk in Stranglethorn.

You mean good ole Hemet?

[Slyfeind]

It doesn't help that almost all of Burning Crusade takes place aboard a tiny asteroid flying through OUTER SPAAAAAAAAACE.

[Koyasha]

Actually, no.  Outland isn't even in normal space anymore, the destruction of Draenor pulled it mostly into the Twisting Nether.  Ever notice that when you fly out beyond the range of the land it says 'Twisting Nether' for your area?  It's in the Twisting Nether, the thing is it's kind of stationary (for the most part) and the destruction of Draenor made the planar barriers weak in that location.  That's why the Legion wants it - for Azeroth, but also because it's got portals to other worlds (Ner'zhul opened a whole buncha portals, and Illidan closed them when he arrived).

Personally, I think Outland could be a lot better, but it's relatively well designed.  And in gameplay terms, the quests and pacing of the zones are much better - there's a lot more quests in each place and less need to go all over the place to gather up your quests.

[Dren]

I guess I am just not as affected by the environment as most of you.  The zones were fine.  I didn't get turned away or hung up on anything in particular.  I enjoy Outland more for the pacing, quests, logical travelling, etc.  Compared to the original design of the old world from that perspective, Outland, hands-down, wins.

[Fabricated]

Most of the old world zones feel really dead and lifeless due to the distinct lack of questgivers and meaningful hubs. Outland I love outside of Zangarmarsh since that zone is really boring. Blade's Edge is almost as boring but I guess it's alright horde-side.

Netherstorm is kinda wacky but the wackiness ends if you go to Kirin'Var or Stormspire.

[Nebu]

I guess I'm thinking about zones like Duskwood.  I loved the feel of that zone and hated to leave.  Sure, the quests weren't laid out great, but it had a real atmosphere to it.   I enjoy Nagrand, but the pseudo-scifi feel of much of outlands really ruins the whole fantasy feel for me.  Maybe I'm broken.

[Chimpy]

The biggest advantage to outlands is the short travel times. Even a flight across 4 zones only takes 5-6 minutes tops in outlands, whereas a flight across Ashenvale takes that long. I don't really think it is because the zones are that much smaller, as it is a case of better flight routing/faster flying transport. But man....flying to anywhere in the old world hurts nowdays.

[Nebu]

I don't know why they haven't implemented teleporters.  DAoC did it and it made travel a breeze.  Yes, having long travel times does help players appreciate the grand scale of the gaming world... but after you've seen it all four times, I think they should give you at least a partial pass. 

[Dren]

I guess I'm thinking about zones like Duskwood.  I loved the feel of that zone and hated to leave.  Sure, the quests weren't laid out great, but it had a real atmosphere to it.   I enjoy Nagrand, but the pseudo-scifi feel of much of outlands really ruins the whole fantasy feel for me.  Maybe I'm broken.

I'll give you Duskwood.  That zone is particularly good to a point that I even noticed it.  It also had a nice string of quests that made sense.  The only issue I had with the quests was the back-and-forth you had to do multiple times from one end of the zone to the other.  That got old and was such a pure case of "This will slow them down."

You aren't broken.  We all like different things.

[Typhon]

I don't know why they haven't implemented teleporters.  

I think plopping teleporters everywhere collides with the WoW lore (demons REALLY want Outland because it gives them access to place they otherwise cannot go) and potentially generates angst within the Mage and Warlock userbase - who have to pay for their abilities, and anything that even partially duplicates those abilities is viewed as a watering down of the importance of the class - all bullshit, but folks love to get their panties bunched.

I'd love it if they'd just add (via quest, etc) the capability to get another/more heartstone(s) (which could be bound in a different location).

[Miasma]

Have they said wether or not the flying mounts will work in Northrend?

[Mazakiel]

Last word I heard was that they would, but not initially.  You'd have to wait awhile, because they don't want you able to skirt over lots of stuff right from the get go.  So we'll probably have to quest for a wing de-icer or something at 78 to get to fly. 

[Dren]

I was really hoping they'd just put a lot of lvl 70 mobs in the air that would agro on you and pop you from the sky.  Make their agro range drop quickly after 75, so by the time you get to 80 you can fly around without issue unless you fly right on top of them.  Better yet, make it a faction thing.  Once you are Revered they leave you alone?

[Nebu]

Better yet, make it a faction thing.  Once you are Revered they leave you alone?

Yes, because everyone loves faction grinding!

[Xerapis]

Personally I think engineers should be able to build more teleporters.  We pay far far more than the mages or warlocks....

[Paelos]

Personally I think engineers should be able to build more teleporters.  We pay far far more than the mages or warlocks....

A 1 use teleporter would be neat. But of course they would make it engineering only so we could never sell them.

[Xerapis]

Well, as it stands now, the only teleporters are Gnomish/Goblin only, so you HAVE to specialize to get them.  There's only one (per specialty) in all of Azeroth, and only one (per specialty) in all of Outlands.  It certainly wouldn't kill them to throw a bone to the engineers.  Then again, I also think that engineers should be able to build a land mount in addition to the new ROFLCOPTER for Outlands.  They certainly make the ingredients for the schematics enough of a pain in the ass as it is.  I had to grind in Silithus on earth elementals for-fucking-ever to get the four cores of earth necessary for the Gadgetzan teleporter.  And it's on a four hour cooldown, Gnomish engineer only, possibility of malfunction that could kill you.  Just give us more cities we can teleport to.

[Chimpy]

Well, as it stands now, the only teleporters are Gnomish/Goblin only, so you HAVE to specialize to get them.  There's only one (per specialty) in all of Azeroth, and only one (per specialty) in all of Outlands.  It certainly wouldn't kill them to throw a bone to the engineers.  Then again, I also think that engineers should be able to build a land mount in addition to the new ROFLCOPTER for Outlands.  They certainly make the ingredients for the schematics enough of a pain in the ass as it is.  I had to grind in Silithus on earth elementals for-fucking-ever to get the four cores of earth necessary for the Gadgetzan teleporter.  And it's on a four hour cooldown, Gnomish engineer only, possibility of malfunction that could kill you.  Just give us more cities we can teleport to.

Goblin Cartel landing rights fees are expensive, Blizzard probably cannot afford them.

[Fabricated]

I'm not too overly keen on the High-Fantasy feel of Outlands either to be honest, but the next expansion is going back to Gothic Fantasy according to the devs. Gothic Fantasy architecture, monster design, armor design, and another the things the devs have said so far is that you'll be crossing grey moral lines a LOT more in Wrath of the Lich King. You already sort of do this in BC with Black Morass, but I think the general theme of WotLK is that everything you do is drawing you closer to being corrupted and used by Arthas.

[SurfD]

I'm not too overly keen on the High-Fantasy feel of Outlands either to be honest, but the next expansion is going back to Gothic Fantasy according to the devs. Gothic Fantasy architecture, monster design, armor design, and another the things the devs have said so far is that you'll be crossing grey moral lines a LOT more in Wrath of the Lich King. You already sort of do this in BC with Black Morass, but I think the general theme of WotLK is that everything you do is drawing you closer to being corrupted and used by Arthas.

Black morass is a grey moral area how exactly? While i understand the idea that stopping the origional orc invasion of azeroth by letting medhiv die would be cool, general principle of things just flat out says "dont fuck with the past".

[Kail]

Black morass is a grey moral area how exactly? While i understand the idea that stopping the origional orc invasion of azeroth by letting medhiv die would be cool, general principle of things just flat out says "dont fuck with the past".

That's one thing that bugs me about the whole Caverns of Time thing, and it looks like it's going to get a lot worse with the new Stratholme instance.  The whole "don't screw with the past" thing strikes me as awfully convenient morality.  I'm not sure what exactly the consequences of mucking around with the timeline are, but it seems awfully flimsy to justify the slaughter of innocents on the premise of "some dragon I don't know much about said it would be a good idea if I did this".  I find it very difficult to believe that a Blood Elf could be walking down the road in Old Hillsbrad, bump in to Kel'Thuzad, the guy whom the Scourge nuked the Sunwell to resurrect, and just shrug with "well, that ghost chick said something bad might happen, so I'd better be nice to him".