^ I like that idea. The goal of the expansion could be to defeat and ultimately redeem arthas, and set the stage for (yet another) expansion where arthas helps us stand against sargeras

Yeah it did and it would a huge curve ball but it's easily a possibility going on blizzards track record. It might make the lich kings demise a little easier to swallow aswell.

Without trying to dig up the whole casual vs hardcore (boring) conversation yet again:
How is it that there are some people that are still hung up on locking up content to the point where the majority of the paying customers can't have access to it? So what if drakes are common, someone did play to get them....and you know it didn't happen over night. In fact, I much like how the drakes have been done. The 310 mounts via arena, and the 280 mounts via a bunch of playing the game. This allows those that play all the time to get this item first, but doesn't make it impossible for the person with less time in the day to eventually get it. It's the best idea Bliz has had yet with balancing the game along the lines of making content available to all.

I will say this, rushing thru to complete the content just leaves you sitting around farming old content for months looking for things to bitch about. Having been on both the cutting edge of content progression and on the slower side of it as well.....I have to admit that the game is much more fun working at a pace that allows you to do something the moment you log in. I know I will still have new discoveries happening in TBC most likely up to the release of Xpac2.

I'm not going to get upset or pass judgement on Blizzards ideas until the official announcment is out. There is no way to weed out the bullshit that is now heavily flowing onto the web about what Xpac2 is. Even then, I will have to wait until I get back on the beta to see it in action. And from there I have two options: Spend another bunch of cash to upgrade my game again if I like it, or just quit and play something else. It's a game and not a way of life. If it isn't fun or lacks to hold my attention I am not going to feel sad about moving away from this game and towards another.

I will say this: I don't care if there is a gear reset every year. I don't care if there is any reset. I don't care if something becomes irrelevant the day after I complete it. I don't care if my favorite iconic character is killed off only to drop shitty loot. I play this game to have fun and to give me a distraction on my free nights so I am not stuck watching TV until I doze off. All of those complaints means that there is new content, and new things to do. I'm not sure why anyone would want the game to remain static just so they can feel e-superior for a period of time. If Bliz is putting in the effort to ensure customer satisfaction, I'm not sure how that can be a point to bitch about......or do people really want scenarios where WoW becomes like SC or Diablo.....playing the same content to death for 10 years?

I still think that Blizzard was somewhat forced into releasing Northrend (aka their 'big gun' content) earlier than they would like, simply because of the crop of very promising competing MMORPG's due out next year.

Perhaps they would have preferred it to be saved for end-of-game-life content, but when it comes to that ideal vs vivendi/shareholders demanding wow continues to be a fat cash cow which wont lose ground to competitors - who's going to get their way?

Do you seriously think Blizzard worries about competing MMORPGs? I wouldn't. Competing with WoW is like a new book competing with the Harry Potter series. It's just laughable. Look at the abject failure of LOTRO, and quite frankly that was one of the more promising. There's simply too much detail in WoW for anything to compete. The best another game can hope for is to take some very small part of WoW like a PvP battleground and make it a slightly more rewarding experience, but the overall experience will still be unmatched for probably some years to come.

The BC expansion was very disruptive. I think they, probably, learned a lot. With the knowledge now in place, expansion releases can be much smoother and hopefully tuned properly from the start without an incredibly disruptive raid size schizophrenia from 40->10->25.

Without a doubt they do. It would be a terrible business move to ignore the competition.

Where do people come up with these guesses? Is it from inspecting gear in Shat and making assumptions that poorly geared people can't make educated choices about their gaming entertainment? Most of my guild are very casual players, and are so for a few reasons. One of them is because they are active gamers that put their time into more than just one game. These casual WoW players are most likely more informed that those that only put their focus on WoW endgame and nothing else. I would say those active gamers would be more likely to explore other options.

Too many people toss out "casual" as an excuse to carry their opinion.

An excellent idea. There's no reason DK's need to be PvP only though - they could either pillage normal dungeons on Arthas's behalf, or fight special DK only dungeons tuned around their particular abilities. A PvP only class would have a lot of problems on PvE servers.

Pretty much from the "what's that?" answers when someone brings up another MMORPG in guild/general chat.

Grats. This thread has now traveled from the 'Valley of Stupid' to the 'Mountain of Ultimate Suck'.