Mr. Crow

It's interesting that Azshara might be one of the more simplistic supervillains that Blizzard's implemented so far: Illidan meant well, but was power-hungry and lusted after Tyrande, which led him down the path to Crazytown; Arthas just wanted to protect his people but ended up going over to the dark side as a result; even Sargeras fell from grace first, having previously been the warrior-champion of the Titans.

Azshara, on the other hand, is really just a crazy CRAZY bitch. No heroic rise and fall, no redemption, no pity -- I think Blizzard is finally going to give us someone who just wants to blow up the world for the hell of it.

It might not be the height of storytelling, but at least it'll make more sense than Sartharion. And no one will be complaining about the whole "... and then she went crazy, so she's a raid-boss now" pattern, because Azshara was flipping nutso from the very start.

 

muwatallis

Regarding to Maelstrom's lore goes past back to 10.000 years, my hopes of having the Warden as the next hero class are higher than ever. I can't stop thinking, that Maiev Shadowsong and her force of "trained elite sentinels" whose presentation was no less than a CIA/FBA organization within the Kaldorei community reappears and strikes to hunt down those who WERE criminals, unfolding their files after 10.000 years. Think about it: The mystery of Jarod Shadowsong, Illidan/Malfurion/Tyrande drama, Azshara and her highborne, Shandris Feathermoon and her Sentinel Army... There is so much to remember.

EDIT: Regarding to the few posts above, i am pretty sure that we'll have more than just a Kaldorei/Goblin/Naga triangle story wise. There was always a side-story happened, which leads the game to be more variable with 5man dungeons: Arakkoa & Skettis, The Ethereals and their Nexus troubles, The Vrykul, The entire Zul'drak story etc.

Expect the same for the next Xpac.

The Dragon's Flight

 

Ashur25

Deathwing will probably be one of those sidestory considering that he has tie-ins with the goblins, his main lair (Mt. Kajaro) is in the South Seas and a South Seas XPac would most likely include Grim Batol

The token Troll Raid/instance/Zone will probably have something to do with the Zandalar considering they come from the South Seas

 

Exemplar

On that note - somewhat disappointing that Varimathras' big coup was trounced within a single mid-70s questline. If they really wanted to develop a villain for a future X-pac solely in the game, he could have made a grand one.

Regarding the Cataclysm being the next expansion, note how in 3.2 they're expanding the Kvaldir plot a bit in raiding the north shore. A Kvaldir->Naga->Azshara tie-in could be a very nice hook to lead into 4.0.

Rock: "We're sub-standard DPS. Nerf Paper, Scissors are fine."
Paper: "OMG, WTF, Scissors!"
Scissors: "Rock is OP and Paper are QQers. We need PvP buffs."

 

AJAlkaline

Keep in mind, though, that Varimathras is about as dead as any dreadlord ever is...which is to say, he's not dead. In Warcraft dreadlords are about the most resilient things in existence. He'll come back some time, you can count on that.

 

Maltaas

Thinking back to what I have read in the war of the ancient trilogy I can’t help thinking that Azshara isn’t simply mad, but rather a sociopath (or rather have a dissosial personality disorder), and as such is completely unable to feel empathy and relating to other peoples (or beings) feelings. People with such problems have been depicted in the pop culture several times, like Sopranos and Bateman in American Psycho, and what fantastic villains have those been. Blizz can still flesh out more of a background for Azshara and her actions. It will hopefully only show how mad she really is.

The sundering can have had several implications that haven’t been up in lore yet also. I can’t remember if the books said anything about whether or not the old gods had anything to do with manipulating the elves to use the well, and particularly getting the attention from the legion, and thus getting a portal they thought they could use to get out. Still, the sundering can and probably has weakened the prison of at least 1 of the 3 old gods mentioned in those books. I wonder if we will be fighting more than 1 old god in the next expansion.

Regarding the summoning of Sargeras in battle of the undercity. Varithmathas might not be able to summon Sargeras by himself, but he was summoning in a lot of demons. Given enough time and the help from those demons, I’d guess they could get the portal large enough for Sargeras eventually. Given Sargeras interest and failures in Azeroth earlier, I’d expect him to personally supervise such a new summoning from the beginning.

 

Exemplar

Yeah, of course the Undercity was just a setback. It's just disappointing because it could have been built up further and leveraged. Now we know he's bad and if/when he returns will treat him as such. Far better to suspect he's bad (as we have for some time), do more and more questionable things for him. Imagine Battle for the Undercity as an entire phased zone, similar to all the Ebon Blade stuff in Icecrown. Or an Instance. "OMG, Varimathras has taken over the Undercity! Defeat his lieutenants and retake the city!" Insert normal disclaimer to ignore the fact we have to retake it weekly, and that the Horde can hearth and go visit the vendors and AH in the normal Undercity between bosses.

Not saying it's not an epic quest chain, but it was a pretty casual toss away of a character that's been in the throne room since vanilla. Lady Prestor at least got her own "quick raid" after she abandoned Stormwind Keep.

Rock: "We're sub-standard DPS. Nerf Paper, Scissors are fine."
Paper: "OMG, WTF, Scissors!"
Scissors: "Rock is OP and Paper are QQers. We need PvP buffs."

 

Douglas

No doubt. If we visit the seas, we're no doubt going to finally visit the actual original homeland of the Darkspear tribe, no? I know people like to complain when there's a token troll area, but if any expansion ever warranted some serious troll content, this would be the one, IMO.

 

Monocle

I am really looking forward to getting a bit more in-depth stuff regarding Naga culture as a whole. Most of the ones we have encountered are part of scouting parties just now investigating the surface. Vashj's group gave us a little bit of information regarding Neptulon and organization, but even that was not much at all. These naga may also not be a good example, as Neptulon worship appears to be considered heretical and males actually have significant positions of power under Vashj, which is a bit counter to the matriarchy organization the rpg sources on the Naga mention. The males were also shown to be a lot more intelligent then the previous official sources implied.

Vashj's group could have also been Blizzard's first move to make the Naga a lot less Drow-esque, which would not be a bad thing.

I would love to have a faction of renegade Naga around that could be a reputation. There has to be some Naga out there that have realized Azshara is completely bonkers and want no part of her plans now.

 

Shadout

Azhsara was an evil bitch from the moment we hear about her. But it seems pretty clear from how I remember those books, that a great deal of her (and the Elf society in general at the time) 'insanity' comes from living near and off the Well of Eternity. Magic/power as a corruptive force as usual (which I dont think is a bad thing as its so central to Warcraft though).
Of course you could say that she was a crazy bitch from the start and the Well only made it clearer. Obviously she were more of a sociopath than many others who were affected by the Well.

One thing I wondered about Cataclysm is if the name are maybe referring not only to the Maelstrom, but to a new event in the lore; e.g. the plan of the Old Gods Metzen has talked about. It could involve both raising the home of the Nagas to the surface, but also the 2 supposed parts of the plan (involving the dragon aspects) 1) the nightmare in the Emerald Dream and 2) the time dragon story which Blizz like never to finish.
Its probably too much to focus on in just one expansion cycle, but they have certainly been talking a bit about this supposed 'conspiracy', and on top of that we got the Emerald Dream focused book coming out next year.

 

Munorion

Actually, weren't we wondering why we could kill the Old Gods without destroying Azeroth when the Titans couldn't? Well - maybe it'll turn out that we can't either.

http://sig.gamerdna.com/quizzes/INFL...s/MuLepton.png

 

Vaccine

It isn't clear why the Titans didn't kill all the Old Gods. I've read a few theorys, one was that they may be more powerful in their spirit form than when in a physical body, another is that they just saw it as a wasted effort if they were always going to resurface rather than just trapping them in one place, another still is that the destruction of Azeroth if the Old Gods were slain may be a very long process, which the Titan's would care about but mortals it isn't really an issue as it is so far off.

 

Nathanyel

Since there are also a gnome and two drakonids in that prison, it's safe to assume the Naaru visited Azeroth before, even long before, or during the War of the Shifting Sands.

 

Leviathon

If Cho'gall isn't killed in the comic before the next expansion then I guess we will see a C'Thun/Cho'gall boss somewhere in there also. Seems pretty clear from C'Thun though that they never really die.

 

Jessamy

I've been assuming that Kalecgos will be revealed as the new Blue Aspect. He's the Blue Dragonflight member that's had the most presence in WoW so far.

 

Morganoth

If the next expansion really is Maelstorm (with an Emerald Dream sideshow), as most signs seem to be pointing, then that leaves one expansion left. (If we accept as true that Blizzard planned WoW to go to level 100. They might scrap that idea, as it is such a huge money-maker, but then again the game will be very old at that point.)

The reason I bring up that there is only one expansion after next is that Blizzard will have to come up with an expansion that segue's into WoW2 nicely. With Outlands, Northrend, the Maelstorm, and the Emerald Dream all being used up, there are not a lot of options left that would be sufficiently "epic." Plus, our characters are getting extremely powerful, having defeated or turned back Arthas, Illidian, Archimonde, Kil'jaeden, Old Gods, etc.

For this reason I think the final expansion will be Xoroth. It is something the player base has wanted for a while. Our characters are sufficiently powerful to go survive and fight on a Burning Legion homeworld. And it provides Blizzard with the perfect route to pull off a plausible "reset." Just say the most powerful warriors from each race battled bravely into Xoroth, but were forced to destroy their portal home so that the Dreadlords would not be able to use it to reach Azeroth.

Suddenly us starting at level 1 in WoW2 makes sense, and the world in general is more dangerous once again (since all of our Old-God slaying heroes have sacrificed themselves to battle in an alien world).

Some sort of power reset like this is going to be necessary, because we are reaching the point where only the most powerful characters in the universe are providing any legitimate challenge to our heroes.

 

Nathanyel

Yet he doesn't have to be the most powerful or influential one.

 

Cranberry

@Morganoth - Xoroth isn't the Legion's homeworld/headquarters. Argus (the former Eredar homeworld) is.

 

Exemplar

There's your WoW 2. We trashed Draenor. We trashed Azeroth. Welcome to the new world. Puts Gnomeregon in perspective.

Please Note: You still owe 1,241,348,882,423,018,501,421,981,247,922 gold to the Consortium for your Homeworld purchase loan. Not counting further interest which will accrue.

Secondary Note: Your mailed payment of 3 gnomes, Hogger, and a horse named Blanchy is insufficient. You are currently one month overdue on payment. Late fees will be assessed. Repossession will occur if you continue to be delinquent in payment.

Rock: "We're sub-standard DPS. Nerf Paper, Scissors are fine."
Paper: "OMG, WTF, Scissors!"
Scissors: "Rock is OP and Paper are QQers. We need PvP buffs."

 

Liebestod

I vaguely recall a source a while back saying that the new blue aspect won't be Kalecgos, and actually won't be a dragon at all. Does anyone remember this?

Well, Blizzard undoubtedly has a bunch of "worlds beyond Azeroth" planned out as possible future content. I think the Emerald Dream will come first, though, and that the ED will receive its own expansion.

In general, there's a ton of potential content for the Maelstrom, so much so that I wouldn't count on seeing plot's like Cho'gall's addressed, unless it ties to Sargeras (which is certainly possible.) Even expecting Grim Batol may be something of a stretch.

As for WoW 2... I just can't see it happening, unless as mentioned there's some event that radically changes Azeroth and basically opens up a ton of new plotlines. Otherwise there's no way that Blizzard is going to make a new set of Barrens quests or whatever... in HD.

Maybe they could set things like 500 years in the future past the last expansion or something. Who knows.

 

Varuk

You mean something like Warcraft 40k?

There comes a time when you need to retire an old, used up IP. Sure, blizzard could create a world shaking event that changes everything -- but, compare the cost and reward of that as opposed to creating a new, exciting IP to base a game off of instead of re-designing the same old horse they've ridden for the last 15 years. Both would require similar amounts of work, but in general, creating a new work is superior to reusing an old work both because of the freedom in design it gives and because it gives your customers something new instead of Orcs vs. Humans all over again. In short, if I was blizzard, I would shelve the Warcraft IP and design my next MMORPG off of a new IP. Eventually I would bring Warcraft back, likely with Warcraft 4, but you would want to let it sit and marinate in nostalgia for a bit instead of just busting it out one game after another after another.

 

Shadout

The question is why we would accept such a statement as being true. There is no reason to believe Blizzard sat down some arbitrary limit on the amount of expansions somewhere in the past.
Even talking about a 'last' expansion seems a bit ridiculous, WoW has no planned end date, no planned last expansion.
Even if they release a WoW 2 within the next 5-10 years (and thats a pretty big if imo - I find it a lot more likely they will keep reiterating on what they have) its likely they would keep supporting WoW.

Blizzard isnt SOE, they arent build around having 10 different MMOs running, so why would they make a WoW 2 when they can make any other IP instead and grapb even more players.

 

Liebestod

Not really, you don't have to shift the entire genre. :P

But I basically agree. I don't think Warcraft will be "retired" after WoW, but I just can't see a Warcraft 2 happening, since you can't just make an entirely new world without an excellent plot excuse, and no one wants to do Barrens again with a new gameplay engine and higher-res quillboar models - they have a rosy image of doing new content with better graphics and possibly some fundamental gameplay/engine changes, and this ignores the fact t hat rebuilding Azeroth would mean that 90% of the development effort would have to go into WoW 1.0 content.

No one doubts that Warcraft is aging, and the devs have even made mention of this... so I really wouldn't be surprised if the next expansion heralded a general graphics update. I mean, it seems like a lot to ask, but haven't a lot of other MMOs done this as they aged?

 

Ashur25

I believe the statement was that the next Aspect of Magic might not necessarily be a (blue) dragon

 

Bregonn

Blizzard has already said that the new, secret MMO they're working on is not based on Warcraft, or any other of their franchises for that matter. The question is, will they release it after Cataclysm, or will we get another expansion in between? A few months ago, when they were seemingly delaying Ulduar as much as possible I thought Cataclysm would be the last WoW expansion. Now that they seem to speed up the content cycle again another expansion in between is becoming more likely. An expansion after Cataclysm will certainly be the last though. By the time we've finished that we're at least 4 years from now, and they're working on the new MMO for at least a year now (probably closer to two). I don't think a new game design cycle would be a lot more than 5 year for Blizzard.