World of Warcraft's next expansion, Dragonflight, aims to ease up on the throttle and offer an experience that's less cataclysmic and more comfortable. After 18 years, the sheer passage of time has changed World of Warcraft, and the game has wandered off into some truly wild territory. Dragonflight is a course correction back into the cozy.

The "Third Place" is a sociological phrase for the spot we go most when we're not at work or home. Whether it's a relaxation station or a social hub, a third place should be chill. For many players over the years, World of Warcraft has been their Third Place. Recent expansions have pulled players into an endless series of epic adventures and endgame content.

We've traveled to the undersea kingdoms of a tyrant Naga queen, gone to fix the realms of death, and even checked out a mind-warpingly alien cosmic cradle of creation. Dragonflight will add on new adventures, but we'll also have time to enjoy simpler pleasures, making it an ideal place.

For all of the faults of past expansions, the launch content of new zones and quests has been well received. It looks like Dragonflight is going to follow in that tradition. These territories in the Dragon Isles are contested by factions both new and old. While leveling up, players will meet centaur tribes and tuskarr settlements. It's a huge step down in stakes after Shadowlands, and a welcome one.

There will still be the usual kinds of quests, like collecting hides and slaying enemies. The endgame sees the biggest deescalation, with max-level activities asking players to hang out and build bonds with new friends in those factions. Instead of holding off the end of the world, we'll be fishing with walrus friends or hunting with new allies.

The player will spend a hefty amount of their time on the back of a drake, which they can customize and upgrade with glyphs hidden around the Isles. The Isles have also been built with tons of open plains, vertical towers and peaks, and immense, ancient architecture. Meanwhile they can also farm WOW 10.0 Dragonflight Gold as a business man, trading with different pople.

Blizzard will need to build on this foundation over the expansion's subsequent patches and ensure that this status quo reset doesn't immediately rocket up to galaxy-ending threats. But ironically, players seem excited for a game that's less on all the time. Dragonflight seems like a calmer, gentler time, while still introducing new conflicts to settle and lands to explore.