that Danuser sucks at execution. You could have the greatest idea for a novel, but if your way of presenting, articulating, telling it sucks, it won't fucking matter how great that idea is.
To reference the Simpsons, it's the difference between Billy and the Cloneasaurus and Jurassic Park.
I don't know a whole lot of what's going on with Dragonlands, the fact that even folks in here aren't really talking about the story beyond ridiculing 'dragons in wheelchairs', is telling, but it sounds like Danuser has fallen into the same trap that was Shadowlands.
He wants to go really high concept (which a lot of speculative fiction, particularly older/established properties, do) and wanted to explore metaphysical and philosophical issues. Not on a granular level where people can relate to shit, but in some sort of weird pseudo-intellectual way that purports to speaking at length to appear interesting but ultimately saying nothing of importance.
Shadowlands 'idea': We're going to fight the concept of death itself and explore the afterlife and the beings that are at every fucking graveyard. It's going to explore the themes of existence, identity and meaning.
Shadowlands execution: We're going to talk about Sylvanas in relation to an antagonist we have not really fleshed out and more or less pulled out of our asses. We're also going to go Family Guy on your asses and just bring up prior characters you know and love and hope that spackles over all the cracks in the narrative foundation. Also, here's a tranny.
And folks might say that it's an issue of 'new villain' and that prior expansions have had it easy because they're using Arthas or Illidan or whatever, and there is bias towards things that are new.
To which I say, horseshit. WoW had done a decent job of creating new villains by setting them up and sprinkling them throughout the game.
Vanilla had the shit with Ragnaros sprinkled throughout various zones, quests and dungeons. Or the crap with the Old Gods. Multiple quests speak to some sort of foreign presence in Kalimdor. The bread crumbs are there, even if a lot of people skip over them or didn't do them. (And that's with the fact that Silithus wasn't even fully fleshed out on release.)
Compare and contrast with how Danuser did that with the Jailer Not Thanos. No, making references to a 'mysterious villain' is not the same as what was going on with the other 2 aforementioned examples.
Or crap with Garrosh.
And WoW can do abstract/high-concept stuff decently, too. MoP had all that stuff with the Sha, which were basically manifestations of emotions. Interestingly, MoP (which came out 5 years before Danuser was a part of Blizzard) was also generally praised for its narrative (even if folks hated 'Kung Fu Panda.')
Ultimately, Danuser is someone punching way above his weight class, trying to do things that he just isn't equipped to fucking do. Which would be fine, if he wasn't also a fairly bad writer. Even Metzen, whose ideas aren't revolutionary but whose execution is solid (for the most part) tended to avoid a lot of the bad habits Danuser is guilty of. Even at the worst 'Green Jesus' love-in with Thrall, the story, stakes and ideas still made sense (they were just obnoxious at points.)
