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.

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?

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

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.

There is definitely room for other MMOs out there. Perhaps they want another SciFi MMO or something but the StarCraft world just doesn't work for them anymore.

Or maybe it's another one of those Cyber-Punk games or what not. As long as the new MMO isn't another fantasy game similar to Warcraft there is definitely room for them to develop and maintain two concurrent MMOs.

I'd imagine there is room for some sort of Vampire/Werewolf MMO too considering the relative popularity of White Wolf stuff (or more specifically stuff like Vampire: the Masquerade). There are a lot of themes and ideas out there for MMOs, uncharted waters to bring in new or different people.

Most people have been speculating that Undermine will be the ‘new Dalaran’ with the Goblin trade princes being the new Kirin Tor.
This would make sense, but what about Zandalar? We have a few options here I think, here are some ideas:

1. Zandalar could become the new Dalaran/Shattrath with all races welcomed to help combat the threat of Azshara/Old Gods etc.
2. Zandalar could become a major horde city; perhaps in this expansion there would be no neutral city (expecially with the enmity brewing between the Alliance and the Horde at this point).
3. Zandalar could become a ‘troll zone’ much like Zul’drak in Northrend.
4. Zandalar could become the ‘troll raid’ 4.0.

One way or another Zandalar will not be overlooked.

In the Wowwiki article it states “…it is neutral territory for their kind, so trolls don’t battle each other when on Zandalar. The same courtesy doesn’t extend toward other races, though…”

Thus far our in-game involvement with the Zandalari has shown that they have been very un-trollish in their methods.

In Stranglethorn they recruited us, the heroes of Azeroth to battle against a common enemy- The Gurubashi high priests and Hakkar. I feel that another world event such as the cataclysm might bring them to recruit us once again; to help them defend their island kingdom against the naga and whatever else is swimming around the South Seas.

Our questlines with them in Zul’drak were heavily based on helping them chronicle the downfall of the Drakkari empire, rather than looting the spoils or headhunting (as I remember). In fact the Zandalari are beginning to remind me more of the Dwarven Explorers League than the other tribes of trolls..

Worst case scenario: Zandalar lore and concept is thrown into another melting pot of ‘King Rastakhan goes mad and wants to eliminate everyone’ and becomes a levelling zone/troll raid.

edit: grammar

If not required to be a blue dragon, what about Keristrasza? Yes, we killed her, but that's easy enough to retcon.

Well they could aways change up the number of levels it takes to cap out in each X-Pack. Anotherwords, instead of the Maelstrom pack going from level 80-90, they could easily make it go from 80-85 and double the amount of time it takes to raise one level. That would also only give us 5 talent points to spend, which would help alleviate alot of the talent tree issues foreseen in future expansions.

As far as future expansion ideas, there are still some quality super villains to utilize. In addition to Aszhara, there is Deathwing, Sargeras and likely 2-3 different Old Gods, plus the 3 other Elemental Lords. I still think Deathwing is too big a villain and lore magnet to be used as a side boss. He is a prime candidate to be the focal point of his own expansion. Here are my ideas on what a x-pack progression could look like.


Expansion III - Maelstrom and South Seas


Pretty much what's been discussed already in this thread. I expect Nazjatar to be risen from the sea as outlined in the Arthas novel. This would easily allow a new "continent" to be in place with multiple zones. In addition, the surrounding islands that would be needed, Kul Tiras, Kezan, etc, could easily be moved on the world map to be near this new risen continent, thusly making them easily accessible via standard flight paths. If Blizzard wants to continue with the dual starter zone philosophy they started in WoTK, they could easily use Gilneas or Kul Tiras as a good launching point. They could even redesign the existing Azshara zone as a level 80-81 starting zone. That zone surely needs some tender loving care.

Azshara would obvisouly be the big end boss, with Neputalon/New Old God making a perfect middle tier "Yogg Saron" boss. I love the idea bringing Cho'gall into the mix, but I think he would be better suited for an Old God focused expansion. As far as the Emerald Dream goes, I dont know. Its a tough call to figure out where it's going to come into play. I see it as being too big to be just a raid zone, yet too small to be it's own x-pack. I think the better option would be to greatly expand the Emerald Dream and give the place it's own expansion pack.


Expansion IV - Emerald Dream


Ideally, what they can do here is more or treat The Emerald Dream as an entirely different planet. More or less, what they did with Outland. Instead of making everything just a dreamy version of existing zones, which from what I understand is how the Emerald Dream is suppose to be, they should just completely scrap all that and make everything brand new. Alot of creative freedom to do all sorts of weird dark twisted looking zones. Think Alice and Wonderland entrenched into a dark evil twisted nightmare.

As far as villians go, I dont know. You'd have to most likely make The Old God behind the corruption the super villain and main focal point of the expansion. They'd really need to play him up though. The only other viable alternative as far as I can see would be making Malfurion into a villain and using him as the focal point of the expansion. They can easily use the corruption within The Emerald Dream as a reason for him going mad and becoming corrupted. You wouldn't even necessarily need to kill him off either. Once defeated as the final raid boss, he can easily be saved from the corruption somehow. Alot of different things you can do.

But yeah, I think that right there though is the biggest obstacle to doing an Emerald Dream expansion...not having a popular enough super villain to be the focal point.


Expansion V - Deathwing and Old God Themed Underground Expansion

This is where you could tie up most all the Titan/Old God lore and introduce Deathwing as a major player. We know he is tied with the Old Gods, and Blizzard can easily expand upon that in much the same way we expect Azshara and the naga to be tied into Neputalon and The Old Gods. In addition, this would be the perfect setup to introduce either Uldum or Grim Batol into the fold, or both. Uldum would make a perfect raid dungeon and Grim Batol could either be used as a dungeon itself, or an underground zone even, with Deathwing being the final encounter of the expansion residing there.

On top of all that, you could finally get to introduce Azjol-Nerub as a zone. The idea being that you can easily setup an underground "continent" so to speak to easily lay out all sorts of different zones, Azjol-Nerub being one of them. It would also be a great opportunity to bring Cho'Gall into the mix with all of his Old God tie-ins. Cho'Gall, A New Old God, and Deathwing would be a pretty stellar raid boss tier lineup.


Expansion VI - Sargeras and Burning Legion Expansion

This expansion would be pretty easy to setup and visualize. Basically, it would be Outland all over again, with the setting being Argus or some other Burning Legion occupied planet/homeworld. Obviously Sargeras residing in The Burning Citadel not only makes sense as a main villain/setting in his own expansion, but he also would work as the last boss/dungeon in the final expansion.

Setting up a continent with new zones to explore would be easy as pie. In addition, the amount of freedom to create any type of crazy zone Blizzard wants would be fully there, since it's an entirely new planet just as Outland was.

One final thing I wanted to touch on that isn't related to this expansion idea, but there is currently a large section of unused space on Azeroth that could be utilized as it's own expansion.

The South Pole.

What's down there currently? Nothing right? Perfect place to put in a new undiscovered continent with who knows what.

As far as I've read the continent that the dream would be located on would be nothing like current day Azeroth. It wouldn't have been affected by the sundering, would have no human or elven influence. I'm not really a big fan of the Dream, or druid lore, and don't really see how this could receive it's on expansion. Well, I guess they could fabricate a lot of content for it but I think a large content patch would be a much more justifiable way of adding the dream.

One rumor I've heard floating around is that this could possibly be used as a sort of mini zone for leveling the next hero class, starting around the well of eternity. I tend to invalidate this argument almost immediately as I mentioned above the dream is supposedly void of any mortal being.


I think we can all agree that the last major expansion that follows current lore will be us taking the fight to Sargeras on his now? home land of Argus. This expansion would have the main antagonist as Sargeras with lower tier raids consisting of the full embodiment of Kil'jaden.


Other then your opinions of a future Emerald Dream expansion I think you have some pretty solid predictions.

On the topic of what would be the new class in a hypothetical (though all but confirmed) Maelstrom expansion, i feel that the Shadow Hunter (Ranged dps/healer hybrid which uses thrown weapons and is featured in wc3 as Rexxar's companion) is a possible candidate. Some lore would have to be added for the alliance versions, maybe creating a special Zandalari training course a la Deathknight starting event. It would add another ranged physical dps (only hunters fill that spot atm) with healing capabilities (since they already added a tank with the introduction of DK's).

About their combat abilities, they could work as a buffer/debuffer with skills that benefit and work with their own buffs, in different combinations, in order to create a special kind of mechanic. For instance, you would chain debuff a target for some time, then unload main dps abilities, which would charge up the buffs to deal damage and vanish, and you could do this in different ways (bit like the way they implemented chimaera shot.
Healing could work in a similar way, they would combine different spells for different purposes (single target and raid healing, over time or instant, or even shielding?).

I doubt that, even with the current brink of war between the player factions, neutral factions, especially the Zandalar, won't encourage such a separation when there are more pressing matters. Or from a point of view this side of the fourth wall: While PvP has a major influence on the game, they want the factions/opposing players to get closer together PvE-wise, when you see other players standing idly around the city, without being ganked, you could start to actually view them as other persons, too, not just really smart NPCs with a large aggro range.
This has nothing to do with with laziness on Blizzard's side.