With 5.4 taking further shape on the PTR, we can probably expect it to come in a month or two, and that means that Battlefield Barrens will come to a close.
Battlefield Barrens has been a somewhat unusual event. Throughout Mists of Pandaria, we've had tons of daily quest hubs - first the huge fusillade of them in 5.0: The Golden Lotus, the Order of the Cloud Serpent, the Klaxxi, the August Celestials, the Shado-Pan, the Tillers, and the Anglers (the Lorewalkers don't quite count, as they're actually not really based around dailies.) Then we got the Krasarang Beachhead in 5.1, followed by the Isle of Thunder in 5.2.
One might have thought of Battlefield Barrens as being the next in a line of daily quest hubs, but in reality, it shares its DNA with the sort of World Events we haven't seen since the pre-launch patch before Cataclysm.
Truthfully, World Events have not had much of a presence in-game since Vanilla, and one can pretty much name all of them easily: The Ahn'Qiraj War Effort, the Scourge Invasion (heralding Naxxramas,) the Battle at the Dark Portal (pre-BC event, also included one of the old World Bosses attacking various cities,) the Second Scourge Invasion and Zombie Plague (pre-Wrath event that fleshed out the Scourge Invasion and added some foreshadowing of what was to come,) and then the Elemental Invasion (pre-Cataclysm event.)
The point, and the fun, of these events is that they took you back to old areas and encouraged you have some non-progression, flavorful fun. The pre-expansion events worked best, I think, because any sort of gear you got out of them would be replaced quickly, and instead it was just an excuse to get excited for what was coming next.
But how deep are they? Really? Most of these events involved simply killing big waves of enemies in remote locations (or sometimes right in the home cities.) The point was not to gear up, but just to experience the story.
And it is here where I feel Battlefield Barrens didn't quite work out, even if it isn't really the fault of Blizzard. The point of the event was to A. Justify Horde players attacking their own Warchief and B. Setting the stage for the Siege of Orgrimmar.
We do get a bit of a lore event for Horde players, when Vol'jin's forces march on and take over Razor Hill. Alliance players get a far less interesting introduction that just siphons them into the Horde story (it frustrates me that there isn't at least an Alliance representative there with Vol'jin,) skipping forward to after the Darkspear have already taken Razor Hill.
And then you basically just go into the Barrens and kill Kor'kron.
I'll admit that hopping around and killing the various bosses, or escorting those caravans in a giant crowd, feels pretty fun. On the other hand, grinding out 150 of every resource is a pain. I understand that the point was to let you come back and do as much as you wanted, but given that you had to turn in 600 resources or that week was "wasted," made it far more attractive to just try to grind the whole thing out in a day.
Unlike other such events, there wasn't a sense of progression. Wrath's Zombie Plague and Cataclysm's Doomsday Cult both built up over a set schedule, but since Battlefield Barrens lasts the entirety of the 5.3 patch cycle, it needed more complexity, and not less.
Mind you, I like big world events, and I love being sent back to low-level zones, as I feel they make the world feel like a more vibrant setting. Still, I don't really think I'll be too heartbroken when Battlefield Barrens ends (and I've got the Darkspear Revolutionary title on my Troll character, so I'm all set.)
The upcoming Timeless Isle seems like it will be a grander experiment into an Unscripted Outdoor zone - hopefully with more substance than the Isle of Giants.
In terms of World Events, though, as with most people, I was sad that Mists had no pre-expansion event. Sure, they had a lot to do with putting Pandaria together, but these things do a lot to set tone and get excited about something.
I think generally these events should stick to what has worked in the past - make them short, like two-to-three weeks, and give them a clear story and sense of progression. One of the problems with 5.3's event is that by the time Siege of Orgrimmar actually comes out, the Barrens will likely be pretty barren again.
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