My Life As A Gamer: Shadowlands Follow Up 1

On the main blog this week I'll be following up on Monday's post with observations on my experience. Let's get on with it.

• As of this post, my main is Level 55 and I should hit the cap of 60 later today. (Do not expect to do so this fast if you're playing with IRL responsibilities.)
• Yet again, the aesthetics hard-carry the game for Blizzard. See the screenshot below.
• This is not a Christian afterlife. It's not even Islamic. Doubt it's Jewish either. Feels very Eastern with some pagan Western tropes patched in.
• As expected, all Borrowed Power from all past expansions are disabled in the new zones.
• The User Interface has a separate and distinct icon for quests that are part of the campaign narrative to separate them from side quests that don't progress it. You still have exclamation and question marks; campaign quests are marks in a shield, sidequests are as they have always been.
• You cannot access a given dungeon until you unlock the zone that it resides in; no dungeon-grinding to the cap.
• You will not complete all of a zone before the campaign narrative moves you on; some areas are meant to be visited only at the cap. (Already ran into L60 mobs while questing.)
• For those coming in late, your first playthrough is on rails; you must progress exactly as instructed. Subsequent playthroughs are not restricted in this manner. I expect that the ability to skip the introduction questine and skip to leveling in the new zones will be enabled after your first playthrough.

If you're serious about playing, bookmark WOWhead and check it daily before logging in; news like the changeover of how the addons for the game work are covered there.

I'll have more to say tomorrow, and by this weekend I'll give my recommendation for if you should play this now.