And as for, "Why go to all that trouble designing a model for an NPC in a single instance", considering he is the Alpha to Arthas' Omega, and this particular dungeon will close the book on nearly 10 years of built-up story - it's pretty clear that Bolvar will be instrumental in the downfall (and according to the leaks - "resurrection?") of The Lich King. This isn't just some guy patrolling the stables of Karazhan; this is a very powerful character who has endured more than most heroes in the WarCraft Universe and survived through sheer nobility. He's gonna play a big role in Icecrown and I'm certain people will be reminiscing about "how awesome it was when Bolvar "Flame On" Fordragon took down Arthas" a few years from now.
Although, to be honest, all these superpowered paladins just keep piling up...
I've been wondering about what Bloo Driver pointed myself. And although I know it's pretty much inevitable, this being Arthas, I'm secretly hoping that the last fight doesn't at some point turn into a parade of victims' ghosts haunting Arthas and him going "Get off my head, I have killing chores to perform!" Also, I've given up understanding what exactly is Arthas' role inside the Lich King. Or the scope of his powers. Or what happened to Ner'zhul. I fancy meself some secrets and enigmas, but somehow I fear these questions might not even get addressed.
And, most of all, my Slaughter Sense is tingling...I can't see any of the major characters dying at Icecrown - not counting Bolvar's eventual sacrifice, or Saurfang Jr's "release". I may come across as bloodthirsty regarding characters, but I just think you can't have a proper final confrontation with the main "god-like" (really?) villain without him showing he's "NOT" kidding, however much he laughs at your feeble attempts to dent his armor or at your king/overlord/archmage/moutain king/banshee queen's corpse. Or Tirion's.
What? Tons of characters in war3 with unique models translated into ordinary character models in WoW - namely, pretty much all the faction leaders. What does "Unique model" even mean in warcraft 3 - that the unit was a hero?
When you start talking about it like that you end up going in circles really.
For the most part any hero that showed up in Warcraft 3 you expect to look somewhat similar in World of Warcraft, this wasn't as possible in release of classic, Thrall using a normal Orc model, Jaina losing those wicked eyes, etc.
When Maiev was introduced in BC, along with Illidan, Kael, Vashj, her model was very very similar to what you saw in WC3. Hence, saying she had a unique model.
Many bosses in the game are rehashes of old bosses we've seen before. Kel'Thuzad for instance looks like every other Lich in the game. Every undead dog post Naxxramas looks like Gluth, etc. On occasion you get a unique models like Thaddius(at the time), or Grobbulus, or Lotheb. Most of the time you only get these new/unique models as bosses in new raids. If Bolvar is indeed the flaming man we saw before, he would be one of the very few heroes/side NPCs that's not an actual boss to get a unique model just for 1 instance.
WoW Evolution is an interesting thing, hopefully Thrall gets a new model before he steps out as the Warchief.
->->->
I still miss the eyes.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CX81UJZ8
For the lurking Phoenix Wright faithful.
What is the most important thing to you? Won't you grant me the pleasure of taking it away.
Interestingly, only some Warcraft 3 lore characters had unique models, though. Namely, Jaina / Arthas / Malfurion / Thrall / Grom all had unique hero models, everyone else was just generic (though Illidan got a unique model in TFT and iirc he was the only Demon Hunter in the War3 campaign. Sylvanas and Rexxar were also unique in this regard, and possibly Vashj as well.) So Kel'Thuzad being a generic Lich isn't really due to WoW devs being lazy... he was a generic lich from the start. He did get a spiffy special thing behind his head for his model, though.
Blizzard has gotten a lot better with using unique models for raid bosses since Ulduar, though... I think we'll be able to expect a lot of that in the future. The Bolvar model looks moderately fancy, though... but then again, if he features prominently in the ending cinematic for WotLK which will undoubtedly be added at some point, maybe that'll make it worthwhile. It does pique curiosity as to what role he might end up playing in the future... the Scourge wouldn't really fit into the Deathwing / Azshara plots.
It does pique curiosity as to what role he might end up playing in the future... the Scourge wouldn't really fit into the Deathwing / Azshara plots.
I think if the story ends as we are currently thinking and Bolvar takes up the crown to keep the Undead in check then Blizzard has a good excuse to put some undead subzones in the game without haveing to create a new undead source. Either some faction is acting against orders/control of Bolvar trying to keep them all in line or Bolvar doesn't have enough fingers for the proverbial undead dyke and some leak through and go rampaging in Azeroth. Places likte the plaguelands would be a good area for this, they are far enough from Northrend that Bolvar can't keep them in check but they are also cut off from reinforcements and the lich kings powers which would explain them being lvl 35-40 instead of 50-60 or however they end up changing the level ranges.
And things are always named oddly for inside the files. Marrowgar is called Bonegaurd, Lana'thel is named Bloodqueen, Putricide is labeled as wightscientist, Deathwhisper is called MinisterofDeath and etc.
I would suggest that’s because the work on the instance (models, terrain etc) is started long before the lore of the instance is complete. When they start, the modeling team have a basic outline of the story and concept art to work from - i.e. a brief from creative along the lines of "you guys need to create a Bone Guard, Blood Queen, Scientist and a Minister of Death - here's some concept art of what we think."
All of the minor details (names, emotes etc) would have all been finished much later in the development cycle when creative finish the story.
Hunter now retired to pugs, solo farming and Yogg 0. Long live the shaman!
And there's always the good-old re-texturing. We might yet see some sort of demonic entity using Marrowgar's frame, for example.
Bolvar's role in the future is probably one of two:
1. He keeps the Scourge in check with tremendous effort. Then, one day, the strain finally gets the upper hand and we have a new Lich King which is almost impervious to physical pain (speculation on this last part, I'm inferring from his charred state that his nerves must be seriouly damaged, plus he must've developed some serious mind scars, meaning pain would probably be the least of his problems). Cue a great invasion.
2. A new threat arises, the azerothian nations get pushed back and suddendly, someone remembers they left a paladin in Northrend who, accidentaly is also a uber necromancer. They ring to his door, convince him to help (he probably warns the heroes that he's under immense strain). He'll then play the role of the Grom Hellscream: he'll be far more ruthless than what Horde and Alliance (well, maybe not Garrosh's Horde) feel comfortable with. At some point, he may even go rogue and follow his own agenda until remind him of which one's the right side to be on (by means of ass-kicking therapy). The therapy works and we end up fighting the new threat together. He may even die in the end. If he survives, perhaps he goes back to reclusion, if he doesn't betray Horde and Alliance once again.
On a side note, how long is Azeroth supposed to endure? Some people have brought up the possibility of going to another planet/world. I'm not a huge fan of this, to say the least, but the fact is Blizzard is fond of showing how serious new threats are by having them break Azeroth's furniture.
At this point, we have a giant hole in Dalaran, forests corrupted by fel energies or plague, Sholazar sporting one less pillar and, come next expansion - and even though a few zones are now greener - we'll basically live in a train-wrecked world in which the town's fountain spills lava. Oh, there's no town anymore, most likely. And Azshara has been reshaped by orbital strike. And a titan cannon-of-doom is ripe for the taking. And a mortal race might get hold of Neptulon's scepter. And the world's resources are diminuishing. Let's hope Turalyon has found a nice cozy world when he escaped Draenor. Ours is pretty much due for recycling.
I brought up the possibility of rebooting on another planet for the eventual WoW 2.0 as I don't really see how you can start a new MMO in the same world with the same towns, reigons etc... I suppose the Cataclysm treatment could be given to everything but it seemed to make more sense to set it elsewhere. I think it would be a good ending if eventually the Titans did show up due to missing Algalon and despite our best efforts deemed the planet necessary for re-origination as they call it, causing a wide spread departure through various portals and fracturing the populations of Azeroth across many planets throughout the stars, some with much better fates than others. That is more suited to an RTS though (WC4?) which they could set a little ahead of the MMO1, say 20-50 years. Obviously thats just idle musings about the future, as we're years off WC4 if there is one and there likely won't be a WoW2 for even longer given their secret MMO project.
As for Lavaman, I think they will have him on ice as it were as a potential future bad guy, he just sits in Icecrown trying to control the scourge and when its convenient he succumbs and we have a new bad guy, they're running out of bad guys pretty swiftly so having a backup is always a bonus, and I like WoW made bad guys better than previous lore ones.
Makes you think though, they should really be having some sort of concentrated effort to remove the undead first from Kalimdor and EK and then thinning their numbers in Northrend. The reasoning seems to be that if they went wild and rampaged uncontrollably it would be worse than now so some guy has to control them, but I don't see why they couldn't have a concentrated purging off them in the mean time to try and thing their numbers for when things did eventually go to shit.
Originally Posted by Shadowed
The best part is, not only were you late in linking it, that's an April fools topic from 6 months ago.
On a side note, how long is Azeroth supposed to endure? Some people have brought up the possibility of going to another planet/world.
Cataclysm is a neat way to increase the amount of content left on Azeroth, but after that, there's not much left except occasional harpy/quilboar/gnoll attacks.
Once Azeroth is free from "larger" threats, I can totally see adventurers, if not small armies, as beachheads for later attacks, going to other planets to fight the Legion. Probably not the full worlds, maybe just a single important continent or remnants like Outland, similar to how Cataclysm's content is spread over various zones rather far from each other. K'aresh, if it still exists in a habitable form, would be one of those worlds - known in lore, some background, including a rather popular native race driven from this planet, but trying to find a way to conquer it back. Or, if he doesn't make a comeback in 3.3, we could follow Mal'ganis to Xoroth(?), assaulting a fully Legion-controlled world.
For "new" worlds, it is known that the Draenei visited several worlds trying to escape the Legion, before finding rest on Draenor for a longer time. When he finally found them there again, Kil'jaeden took his time to prepare their downfall through the Orcs, which slightly implies that earlier attacks on Draenei refuges were hasted, leaving the uncorrupted ones opportunites to escape. Worlds where this happened could still contain demonic taint, but were uninteresting to the Legion after the surviving Draenei left, so Kil'jaeden only left some small bases there, working to corrupt the indigenous races slowly, with minimal effort. Even though it's been over 5000 years, some of these worlds could still be resisting, and looking for outside help, maybe contacting Velen or the Naaru, or A'dal says something like "So you're looking for new challenges? Well, there are some worlds we were keeping an eye on, but couldn't really help them much yet, so maybe you could stop by [and do what we're too lazy er busy for]"
Such "unimportant" worlds could serve as levelling content, with e.g. Xoroth as a maxlevel questing and raid zone.
Alas, that's only idle speculation.
It will most likely come down to Bolvar succumbing anyway. If Horde and Alliance started thinning down the undead numbers, perhaps Bolvar would feel they don't trust him enough or he may eventually become "attached" to his new minions and the pain of their death affect him. It doesn't make killing all of the scourge's undead any less logical. It's an assurance. But with the Cataclysm timeline, perhaps there simply isn't enough time. The armies are returning from Northrend, so you have the necessary momentum of giant war machines. And then suddendly, pop comes a dragon aspect.
I'm hoping Blizzard does a good job at stressing how scarred Bolvar is, even mind-wise. It's ok for him to remain stoic and uncorruptible, but he's been tortured by what is supposed to be the most powerful entity in Azeroth, as of right now. He can't remain as "friendly" and kind hearted as he was before. My view is he resisted the Lich King out of an iron will, not reasoning with the Lich's influence. That can't be good for any mind.
On moving to another planet, although I remain reluctant, it might indeed be a golden opportunity for us to meet the Titans. Hopefully, they'll be a little more reasonable than Algalon.
Edit - @Nathanyel: Turalyon was particularly fond of going after threats even into other planets. He did so with the orcs, I can see it being a good excuse to bring him back so he does his signature epic good deed.
Turalyon was particularly fond of going after threats even into other planets. He did so with the orcs, I can see it being a good excuse to bring him back so he does his signature epic good deed.
Well Turalyon and Alleria could be the Alliance leading figures on other worlds, commanding what other Human soldiers got there with them - they could've chased after Orcs leaving Outland through one of the portals opened by Ner'zhul when he tried to flee, which these Orcs becoming the New Horde's allies. Good way to transport the A:H conflict to other worlds as well, where there would otherwise only be rather neutral factions. Though these of course might have conflicts on their own, with H and A allying with either one of the sides - maybe additional playab... aah too much speculation
Btw Bierz, I added a paragraph about those yet unknown worlds in my previous post.
*edit*
Originally Posted by Bierzkrieg
On moving to another planet, although I remain reluctant, it might indeed be a golden opportunity for us to meet the Titans. Hopefully, they'll be a little more reasonable than Algalon.
Well, it wouldn't be the first time for creations to rise up against their creators... There may not be outright conflict with the Titans, which would certainly lead to Azeroth' "reorigination" quickly, but it could provide some more raid content.
After that, the mortal races could argue with Titan ambassadors about independence, especially since they managed to defeat the Legion and the Old Gods on their world, cleaning it of their taint more effectively that the Titans could. Boston Tea Party references ensue.
With some backup from the Naaru (their relation with the Titans is yet to be discovered) the Titans could decide similar to Algalon, and the mortal races might be given the chance to prove themselves as an independent "task force" on other worlds. Then again, this, more than the "going to other worlds" thing, might "alienate" (ha ha) even more "high fantasy" players than the scifi-y touch of BC did.
That's my biggest fear, that we'll end up in a permanent Draenor-like world, away from the more traditional feel Azeroth had and stuck with too many floaty things. Of course, probability-wise and seeing as concept artists can get to almost anything the developers ask of them, us ending up in an "alien" world which has a gothic/medieval/underdeveloped//old style feel (while still looking distinct from Azeroth) to it is perfectly possible.
However, nothing says it'd have to be a permament change. I can see the Titans (which are different from a "programmed" Algalon) recognizing our feats against the Legion and sort of rebuilding Azeroth as a reward while we're out there fighting the Legion. Like how you move to a flat while your house is being remodelled, only you have to clear the entire building as it's full of monstrosities.
I like your idea of planets as levelling zones. Very much. Not only does it open doors for a much greater diversity as far as creatures and items (storyline-wise too) are concerned, it prevents players from being "stuck" in a place they don't like. After we clean up the pinky planet of doom, we can move to the peaceful asteroid where everything is evil-looking. Also, Blizz seems to have become an adept of making expansions out of military operations. Outland tried to give that feel, but it came out a bit more like colonization. Now Wrath did it very well, in my opinion. Cataclysm will have us on the defensive and with little breathing room, if all goes well. I can see a Legion expansion having us on a tight schedule, having to go blitzkrieg on the demon-controlled worlds before Kil'Jaeden notices us and can turn the full demonic war machine against us.
That's my biggest fear, that we'll end up in a permanent Draenor-like world, away from the more traditional feel Azeroth had and stuck with too many floaty things. Of course, probability-wise and seeing as concept artists can get to almost anything the developers ask of them, us ending up in an "alien" world which has a gothic/medieval/underdeveloped//old style feel (while still looking distinct from Azeroth) to it is perfectly possible.
However, nothing says it'd have to be a permament change. I can see the Titans (which are different from a "programmed" Algalon) recognizing our feats against the Legion and sort of rebuilding Azeroth as a reward while we're out there fighting the Legion. Like how you move to a flat while your house is being remodelled, only you have to clear the entire building as it's full of monstrosities.
I like your idea of planets as levelling zones. Very much. Not only does it open doors for a much greater diversity as far as creatures and items (storyline-wise too) are concerned, it prevents players from being "stuck" in a place they don't like. After we clean up the pinky planet of doom, we can move to the peaceful asteroid where everything is evil-looking. Also, Blizz seems to have become an adept of making expansions out of military operations. Outland tried to give that feel, but it came out a bit more like colonization. Now Wrath did it very well, in my opinion. Cataclysm will have us on the defensive and with little breathing room, if all goes well. I can see a Legion expansion having us on a tight schedule, having to go blitzkrieg on the demon-controlled worlds before Kil'Jaeden notices us and can turn the full demonic war machine against us.
"Oh no guys, we need to go into this portal to save this world or whatever because [Bad Guy] is doing bad things in the house instead of the yard like we taught him! Quick, jump in the portal!"
[Insert thing about how the Sun's something-esphere messed with our magic jumping or the timeframe of the space/time continuum messed it up, or someone sneezed as they stepped in ...]
"Oh wow guys, it's like a PARALLEL UNIVERSE™ or something!"
Speaking of Algalon, after we stopped him, what happened to him? It isn't very clear after he gives Brann the disk. He live or die? Since he likely survived, I wonder if he could really do his job properly any more, we may have put enough of a seed of doubt in him that he would have issues re-originating other worlds.
I'm hoping eventually he comes back as a NPC, the voice actor is always available after all!
Okay time for some out there speculation! You know, there are likely other Titan heralds out there that perform the same duty as Algalon. Maybe one could eventually show up on Azeroth to see why Algalon's message was transmitted so oddly. It arrives, sees what is going on, and starts up the steps to finish what Algalon started. Algalon then helps us out, and we get a continuation of his storyline. With this idea, we could even get a cut scene of Algalon fighting the other Herald, weakening it enough that he could end up in a 5 man fight. The Algalon fight is one of the raid fights that could be scaled to a 5 man, with some changes here and there, so Blizzard would expand the story and have people that never got to fight Algalon get to do a similar style fight.
Okay now that's done..... my current theory right now is that the so called Titan Super Weapon is actually the equipment that Algalon would have activated to cause re-origination. The various groups looking for it just think whatever is there is a mundane weapon, and not something that would destroy the planet. Well okay the Twilight Hammer would be happy to destroy Azeroth, but they would be the only ones trying to get it that do so.
@Verziehen: That's what we at Speculation & Associates call the wrong way of doing things.
But really, there's little room to go as far as fantasy general storylines are concerned. Falls from grace, betrayals, redemptions...it's all been done. And WoW's pretty much an established and set in stone universe. Even with other planets, spaceships, etc, it's got a traditional feel to it so Blizzard has to be extra careful when starting a new storyline so it's not a major disruption of the universe's tone. The draenei (as in, spaceships) are a good example of what not to do - or, rather, how not to do it.
Really, these days, it's not so much about groundbreakingly original storylines, but more how you tell them: shades of white/gray/black characters, avoiding the "happily ever after", creating shock by killing important characters unexpectedly. Wrath's storyline, for examplo, is hardly a new thing. Bad guy controls a country, we invade, meanwhile inter-faction hostility escalates...it's not unheard of or at least not something that makes me say "This is completely new". Rather - and this is my point of view - it's told in such a extensive and thorough manner that it really emulates the complexity of a "real-life" setting as few others do. Side characters like Drakuru, Agmar, for example, demonstrate how leading philosophies (Arthas' and Garrosh's, respectively) translate into their followers' personalities.
The Emerald dream, for example, is pretty much a parallel universe, from afar.
I'd say the main thing Blizzard hasn't managed to beat the cliché out of is the Burning Legion. Which is common when you think the demons are the absolute evil or Warcraft. What might set them apart here is the traditional races' interaction with them. The staple of this are the dreadlords (as annoying as I find them). Constantly possessing and impersonating other characters, they almost become "Azerothian" and have, like Mal'ganis shows, descended from the "Lesser beings!" speech and begun almost respecting us, or at least stopped underestimating. Mal'ganis' "You'll need me to defeat the Lich King" line is evidence of such, I think. As was Mannoroth's connection to Hellscream.
Blizzard could showcase the technology they continue to expand, as well as repeat experiments that proved successful
We've already theorized an X-pac where we were tromping to other worlds. Expand this to not just a military task force, but as Bierz suggested, a temporary home away from home after the strident "No re-origination without representation" discussions with the Titans.
So you've got to abandon the old world (closed for remodeling) and either have another Cataclysm-scale revamp of leveling entirely (outside Azeroth), or cleverly use Caverns of Time to link to pre-Exodus Azeroth - the Titans opening a portal saying "If you need to access the world during re-origination, please use this pinched off segment of the timeline."
Patch x.0 is talent upgrades and x.0.1 opens up the new world at X-pac release. Initially both Horde and Alliance have a bare beachhead on the new world. This is then expanded like Isle of Quel'danas was - x.0.2, x.0.3 and so on grow your infrastructure and presence. Of course raiding is available in x.0.1 so people don't complain waiting weeks just to raid. Or raise the level cap by 1 in x.0.1 and another level in x.0.2 until you reach the new hard cap. Provide enough content and rep grinds and people will stay occupied for the 5-10 weeks this would take (rather than 2 days to a week as many rush through to new max level).
x.1.0 can be another world, another segment of current world, whatever - same growth pattern.
X-pac y.0 (where y is x+1) could be return to a fresh, clean, new Azeroth... which has a problem. Or perhaps it's Azeroth Unfinished - partway through re-origination and the Titans are nowhere to be seen... uh oh. Where'd they go? What's happening?
The ability to grow and change content over time would be phenomenal. It could even be a boon to Blizzard - a smoothing of the entire expansion process. Every mini-patch expands the game world, allowing the development of each after the next, rather than potentially long and stressful periods for large patches. Next instance a bit delayed? Just release the next segment of world content the sub-team crafted, instead.
It also allows more interaction. Imagine a Northrend where Naxxramas is now crashed due to attacks from the Argent Crusade (yet still raidable from an available entrance), Avatars of the Watchers are back in their Temples (while the real Watchers are still raidable in Ulduar), and so on. How many times have players wished their actions to be reflected in the world more than "I remember you, <name>, from <previous quest>/the mountains."? They can impact the world without obsoleting entire instances (more than new tiers always do).
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."
The idea of "relocating" Azeroth' inhabitants, including "lesser" races and all wildlife of course (and where do you put them?) during the reorigination would be way over the top, too scifi-y, even for Steampunk Fantasy.
The practice of slowly opening "the world" a.ka. the levelling zones, the addition of small content chunks doesn't fit to an established MMO and would confuse and drive away many people.
Also, old, lower-level content doesn't really need to be changed to reflect every player action, at least not more as the phasing seen in Northrend - it is intended for the appropriate levels, a return after that is more like a memory than a real revisit.
I was assuming the wildlife's disappearance would be a necessary evil...Unless they'd use a "Give me two of every animal!" system. Tragically, there's those races "in between" (kobolds, quillboar, gnolls) and those that would likely resist any attempt to parlay, such as magnataur. I imagine a part of the playerbase would find reasons to be horrified if even one of these races (and then with plausible reasons) was left behind.
The idea of "relocating" Azeroth' inhabitants, including "lesser" races and all wildlife of course (and where do you put them?) during the reorigination would be way over the top, too scifi-y, even for Steampunk Fantasy.
The practice of slowly opening "the world" a.ka. the levelling zones, the addition of small content chunks doesn't fit to an established MMO and would confuse and drive away many people.
Also, old, lower-level content doesn't really need to be changed to reflect every player action, at least not more as the phasing seen in Northrend - it is intended for the appropriate levels, a return after that is more like a memory than a real revisit.
Quote broken into three paragraphs to respond.
First, I was thinking more the Titans compromised. Rather than re-origination right this second, they're granting a week (month, year, century, whatever time frame they find acceptable) to go away before they start. The whole X-pac is this exodus and building temporary housing elsewhere.
I was under the impression that the Isle of QD unlock was regarded by the community as quite well done. Especially in contrast to the invasion events and the arbitrary gating mechanics Sunwell, Coliseum, and now Icecrown have. Arguing it doesn't fit and would confuse or drive people away is just resistance to change. Just because it's not been done before doesn't mean it's bad. I'll grant, it could confuse and/or drive some people away, but I rather doubt it would. Why do lots of people log on every holiday? New things to do and new achievements to earn. New content on a regular basis would keep a lot of people paying monthly subscriptions. Hell, let Blizzard be so crass as to intentionally release mini-patches on a monthly basis.
Old lower-level content doesn't need changes. Old current-level content receiving some touch-ups would be nice. Does it really make sense that we're planning to storm Icecrown if we have a floating citadel (Naxxramas) threatening one of our staging points? If we can't/haven't defeated Naxx, do we really think we're ready for ICC?
Slightly off topic, I still wish they had more cookie crumb quests into Raid instances. We get quests to perform 5mans (normal mode, not dailies), having quests telling us to enter Naxx, OS, Uld, and so on would be nice. EoE was the closest with the Key quest. Think ZA quests - that was done well. Go in, explore, perform tasks unrelated to clear.
Regarding the "OMG Titan Genocide of little fluffy animals", probably not. The Emerald Dream seems pretty lively, and since that was supposed to be their backup or restore point for re-origination, I'm suspecting most organic non-sentients will be refreshed from this (now flawed) blueprint. If they'll compromise on sentient life, they rather have to provide other life (Azeroth isn't ready to go Vegan). We all know it will eventually occur - very likely for an end-of-WoW activity, where WoW 2.0 would be post re-origination, rather than part of an X-pac as I suggested could be done.
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."
The reorginiation idea sounds good, but I don't believe it holds up to scrutiny.
Plotwise, it defeats the purpose of Bolvar. Barring a really contrived escape, he and all the Scourge will be wiped out. Thus, any reorigination would have to occur after a second round in Northrend.
Gameplaywise, the idea requires blocking out all original content, as well as all Wrath and Cataclysm content. Even notable portions of Burning Crusade content are lost (starter zones, the Caverns of Time). You're losing all starting zones, all leveling content, almost all crafting resources, all but one Battleground, all PvP zones, almost all raid and instance content, all capital cities, numerous achievements etc. The amount of content Blizzard would have to replace is enormous, and that's understating the issue. If you're going to WoW 2.0 this is less of an issue, as it's likely assumed that you'll be completely redoing the game anyway. However, it remains effectively impossible for anything else.
Lorewise, the act of reorigination disconnects history. Part of what makes WoW so appealing is the connection to previous lore. Encountering the floating, broken halves of Mannoroth's weapon in Ashenvale, standing in front of the very throne where King Terenas was struck down, standing in the shadow of Blackrock Mountain, it's elements such as these which act as a very strong glue for holding the World of Warcraft together. Reoriginating the world erases all of that.
Moreover, it would most definitely feel like a cop out. Good storytellers don't have to completely reset their world/universe/story in order to continue forward. It's the fallback of the irresponsible or the lazy, and while sometimes necessary it always stands as a black mark against those who used the plot device.
Don't forget that eventually WarCraft IV will come, and with it new lore and history to work off of. I suspect that we won't see WoW 2 until then, and I don't feel particularly worried that we'll run out of places to go or raid bosses to kill while waiting.
What I lack in intelligence I make up for in verbosity.
All true, Darion. I just don't think any of us were thinking of Azeroth's "reset" as a subterfuge, but more of a necessity. I admit to having got a little carried away with the speculation, but the truth is, at this rate, we'll end up in a post-apocalyptic world.
Of course, this is linear (and narrow) thinking. Nothing says Blizzard won't find the means to have Azeroth look shiny, once again (it's the resource part that's harder). Real life shows us that places where catastrophes or major landscape changes took place can be occupied and make for very interesting aspects to their inhabitants.
Failing that, and returning to the perma-wrecked Azeroth, it's not that bad a possibility. The only problem is it might go against Blizzard's current "a bit on the light side" feel of Azeroth. I know this is debatable, characters die in gruesome ways, true genocides take place. It's just the warcraft universe never loses its "fantasy" style and feel.
11/20/09, 8:05 AM
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