Can I ask why people think WoW 2 would work?

[Stormspellz]

mechanically: the game is a 15 year system, do you really need an explanation?

Lore wise: cataclysm round 2 from azeroth and sarg slugging it out, would make an ideal reset point for all things warcraft.

[Deleted]

I think it wouldn't work. Why? Because no mmo sequal has ever worked.

People just want a graphics update of some sort.

[MoanaLisa]

OK. Some points, then some questions:

They take close to two years to make an expansion with five zones + patches. They have a pretty large development team that likely takes five years minimum to do a new 60-level multi-continent MMO.

- While they are taking probably five years minimum to develop WoW II what happens to the current game?
- If they split the team how much longer do you think it takes and what happens to expansions in the meantime?

Just a note that art, music and the other production groups will need to either concentrate on WoW II or split their time.

- Do they develop yet another engine or use the one they built for Overwatch?

The thing is there's just no magic hand-waving that gets something the size of even vanilla WoW done while they are maintaining and hopefully continuing to expand the current game for however many years it takes.

So how does that really work?

- Why should they? MMORPG's as a genre are not really the going thing. Is it realistic to think that 10 million people sign up for WoW II and then stay for several years?

I understand the desire to see this but as a business proposition there's a very real risk of destroying a title that still does very well with respect to revenue for little chance of lightning striking twice. World of Warcraft as an MMO is a mutant in terms of success. The history of nearly other MMO shows that what happened with WoW is an outlier that is unlikely to happen twice.

Just seems very unlikely to me as a practical business project.

[Nihilist74]

I could care less about wow 2. I don't want them to drastically improve the graphics because it is an online game. I just want them to improve the class specific game play and make the quests more interesting.

[TriHard]

It wouldn't. It's a dead IP, and by dead I mean the lore is too old at this point. if they were to make a new mmo, it'd be Overwatch or a new IP for sure.
Imagine an mmo with the Overwatch engine. The beautiful colors, models, etc. That is something I'd love to play.

[Deleted]

It wouldn't. It's a dead IP, and by dead I mean the lore is too old at this point.

hahahahahaha, yeah that makes no sense...
lore cant become old since its history of the storyline that is currently expanding.

[Xkiller9000]

Why it's needed - Wow is simply old. The mechanics, systems and graphics are severely limited on this 17 year old engine, it's like the game is crippled in one leg. And every year that goes by the game shows its age more and more.

As for how it would be - larger, expanded zones, some different classes/specs, different talent system, different races, timeline moved on, fresh lore, greater emphassis on an extensive, open and dynamic world to adventure in.

who says it needs to be updated in terms of graphics, or mechanics or systems

i prefer graphics like this in an mmorpg rather than things like rift or black desert or w/e - i STRONGLY prefer the resource systems and tab targeting over other things, theres nothing wrong with it


the only way i see a WoW 2 is a SEVERE change in lore, like we kill all the void lords and sargeras and old gods and theres nothing left

[AwkwardSquirtle]

It wouldn't. It's a dead IP, and by dead I mean the lore is too old at this point. if they were to make a new mmo, it'd be Overwatch or a new IP for sure.
Imagine an mmo with the Overwatch engine. The beautiful colors, models, etc. That is something I'd love to play.

Isn't that what Titan was? I seem to remember people saying that elements from what would have been Titan ended up being Overwatch.

[Schattenlied]

What do you envision WoW 2 to be other than a replacement for WoW?

It doesn't need to be anything else.

What content would you design?

Same kind of stuff we have now, plus whatever the new engine can handle would allow for new designs.

What would make it stand out from WoW?

Well, WoW's engine was designed in a time when most people had SINGLE CORE CPUS, which makes it, despite their efforts to update, not use multicore CPUs very well. WoW puts most of the workload on one CPU core and only minor amounts on others, and basically has almost no hyperthreading support at all, because that's the best they were able to do with this old-as-hell engine.

A new engine would, quite simply, not have that problem.

New engine would also allow for better modeling, and things like real robes that aren't texture wraps (see robes/coats in games like GW2 for what they SHOULD look like). For example, this is what T2 Judgment armor is supposed to look like .. But instead it looks like the ingame model, which is a stretchy texture wrapped around our legs.

Why do you think it is needed?

Engine is old as fuck. No other reason is needed.

[Therougetitan]

WoW 2 can work it's just too soon. Need to let WoW play out first for a good few years.

[Schattenlied]

WoW 2 can work it's just too soon. Need to let WoW play out first for a good few years.

Please tell me you're joking... WoW is 13 years old.

[Maischou]

It doesn't need to be anything else.

Same kind of stuff we have now, plus whatever the new engine can handle would allow for new designs.




Well, WoW's engine was designed in a time when most people had SINGLE CORE CPUS, which makes it, despite their efforts to update, not use multicore CPUs very well. WoW puts most of the workload on one CPU core and only minor amounts on others, and basically has almost no hyperthreading support at all, because that's the best they were able to do with this old-as-hell engine.

New engine would allow for better modeling, and things like real robes that aren't texture wraps (see robes/coats in games like GW2 for what they SHOULD look like). For example, this is what T2 Judgment armor is supposed to look like (PICTURE).. But instead it looks like the ingame model, which is a stretchy texture wrapped around our legs.



Engine is old as fuck. No other reason is needed.

Other reasons are needed :-)

Engine architectures can be updated as a game progresses.

Speaking directly to your problems with robes, for example, Blizzard already started taking steps with this in Legion. As they've mentioned themselves, more item slots may now be more than simple skins - belts were presented as a highlight in this regard. Further, they implemented physics on armour during WoD and added physics on many artifact weapons in Legion.
To say that we need a new engine because the old engine isn't keeping up is to blatantly ignore the additions Blizzard is making to the engine. They've added support for more and newer graphics APIs since the game's inception, and they've implemented newer rendering and mapping techniques over time to give their artists more tools to realise their artistic visions for the game. This goes far beyond simple poly counts, which have also gone up (significantly) since vanilla. I seem to recall that the upgrade to the animation system in MoP allowed the Pandaren [b]faces[b] to have more bones for animation than any vanilla character had in its entire model.

It's true that they worked up some significant technical debt from vanilla (see their engineering panel where they mention that the base backpack is hardcoded and very hard to maintain, for example), but I think they've demonstrated that they can add entirely new functions to the existing engine as necessary.

Unless Blizzard wanted to completely re-imagine the feel of the game, I can't see why they would need to start from scratch. They can, and have, made major changes to game systems through expansions without changing the basic targeting-and-hotbar core gameplay mechanic.

And starting over would be one big, risky, move. Everquest 2 fragmented the player base, Runescape classic (a slightly different discussion, granted) as well. Hell, Sony got crucified for their so-called "Combat Upgrade" to SWG back in the day. They tried their massive shift and it essentially killed the game in the interest of accessibility.


I wouldn't discount them announcing a fully re-developed engine as an expansion feature, but I highly doubt they would abandon over a decade worth of assets, entity scripting, and subscribers for "New WoW" :-)

[Severance]

WoW 2 can work it's just too soon. Need to let WoW play out first for a good few years.

There's not much of current WoW left. Once you're down to Azhara, Sargeras, Old Gods and Void Lords, what's going to impress? A Troll raid? The point we're at in WoW's story literally trivializes our own faction squabbles, the threats are so big and important that the lore itself literally prioritizes you and your class over your own faction allegiances. They even give you the most powerful artifacts known to the game, passed down through important lore figures, just to drive this point home.

And maybe Blizzard will just choose to milk a few more expansions out of existing lore, sure, but it's not hard to see they're writing themselves into a wall at their current rate. Maybe the best thing for them to do would be to get another MMO, with original lore, out there for players to migrate to while WoW itself is slowly wound down to the few thousand hardcore who will never quit until the servers shut off.

[Schattenlied]

Other reasons are needed :-)

Engine architectures can be updated as a game progresses.

They can, and have, made major changes to game systems through expansions without changing the basic targeting-and-hotbar core gameplay mechanic.

Not in every way, as I already said:

WoW's engine was designed in a time when most people had SINGLE CORE CPUS, which makes it, despite their efforts to update, not use multicore CPUs very well. WoW puts most of the workload on one CPU core and only minor amounts on others, and basically has almost no hyperthreading support at all, because that's the best they were able to do with this old-as-hell engine.


The engine has fucking HORRID multicore support that hasn't been updated further than it's current position for years, because they simply can't push it any further... You can only force multicore support into something that was built entirely for single core CPUs so much before you hit a hard stop, let alone Hyperthreading support, at least dual core CPUs were somewhat common when WoW's engine was made, Hyperthreading barely existed at the time (mostly only on server CPUs, not consumer level)... if I max out my settings and uncap my FPS, my CPU and GPU both won't go over 35% usage, any other modern game would push them to 100% without a framerate limit, WoW doesn't because it's entirely incapable of utilizing the power available to it.

I wouldn't discount them announcing a fully re-developed engine as an expansion feature, but I highly doubt they would abandon over a decade worth of assets, entity scripting, and subscribers for "New WoW" :-)

I'd be fine with them just porting all of WoW into a new engine too, but at that point I'd like them to just make a new game, timeskip a hundred years or so and give us a fresh story, because the current one is getting very, very stale.

Assets can be ported over to a new game very easily.

And starting over would be one big, risky, move. Everquest 2 fragmented the player base

Because they didn't shut down or even stop supporting/updating the first one... That's their own fault.

[Katie45]

Why does there have to be a new game tho? Blizzard themselves even said that if they wanted to make a new engine for wow they could, but they even then there would be no reason to reset everything.

[Zathan666]

WoW 2 will never happen. It makes zero sense from a money perspective. If they do another MMO it will be "based" either on Overwatch or Diablo.
However, I doubt that Blizzard will work on another MMO anytime soon.

[Schattenlied]

Why does there have to be a new game tho? Blizzard themselves even said that if they wanted to make a new engine for wow they could, but they even then there would be no reason to reset everything.

Because the story has gotten stale as fuck, we need fresh, and a long timeskip to "reset" the world is really the only way that is getting fixed, and it would make no sense for us to keep characters through that. Also player power levels in lore have gotten beyond absurd...

- - - Updated - - -

WoW 2 will never happen. It makes zero sense from a money perspective.

Oh please do explain why. Releasing ANY new MMORPG without shutting down WoW1 would either fracture the playerbase (likely) or kill WoW(unlikely), whether it's WoW2 or WoDiablo. It doesn't matter.

If they do another MMO it will be "based" either on Overwatch or Diablo

Overwatch was an MMO(Titan), it failed before they even launched it, which was why it was scrapped, and the PvP was salvaged to be turned into an arena shooter.

[huehuehue]

I think I would much rather have a Diablo MMO in development. There is so much to explore in Sanctuary. I'm not even that much of a diablo fan, but I recognize there needs to be mystery in the world, and WoW has lost that over time. Azeroth is old news. The newest landmass with 4-5 zones doesn't retain as many players as an entire world once did.

[WowIsDead64]

When xpacks are released, that are tuned around endgame, i.e. they're some sort of claustrophobic "isles" - game starts to lack that "open world MMO" feeling. Also storyline starts to become stale - game starts to repeat itself or rehash old ideas. Conclusion - at some point game needs complete reset.

P.S. Legion - is already World of Diablo. Why do we need another one?

[Ynna]

What content would you design?

This is probably the least interesting to speculate on. No matter what issues WoW may or may not have, Blizzard is pretty good at putting out content. Any answer to this would just be my personal preference. Like, I like organized PvE content, so I'd design tough dungeons and raids that require good coordination and cooperation. I liked the difficulty of early Cataclysm dungeons (apart from the fact that they strained healers more than other roles), where every role in the dungeon had important tasks and had to pay attention.

[QUOTE=Eleccybubb;46282134]What would make it stand out from WoW?
It's novelty factor would be a start, but I think its biggest appeal might be that Blizzard can start over from scratch and not be tied to designed decisions made over a decade ago. What ultimately matters in a game is gameplay and WoW's gameplay has reached its potential by now.

The question isn't so much what would make it stand out from WoW. If Blizzard made this thing, they'd have to make it a full-on replacement for WoW, because I can't see them having two full-time teams dedicated to MMOs. The more important question is what would make it stand out from other MMOs and online experiences. I don't play enough other games nowadays, so I can't really elaborate on this too much. What makes it stand out from MOBAs and first-person shooters (which I think are the most popular online games) would be persistent progression, a focus on developing your own character and role, easily organized cooperative gameplay with an in-built focus on said cooperation...

The only other MMO I every played for some amount of time was Guild Wars 2 and there were a lot things I liked about that game, but what ruined it for me is that they removed the role of healer (or any meaningful support, really). This didn't make it a game for me.

Why do you think it is needed?

Needed is probably worded too strongly, but the possibility of seeing an MMO that learned from everything World of Warcraft did right and wrong is amazing to me. WoW is a good game, no doubt, but if Blizzard knew what they know now when they first created it, they'd definitely do a lot of things differently. There are recurrent mistakes that stem from early design decisions and can currently get changed pretty slowly. Occasionally we see big, sweeping changes, such as the overhaul of the talent system, giving Druids a fourth spec, giving hunters a brand-new resource, completely redesigned Discipline, etc. but a lot of the time they can't address the underlying issues. I can't speak for all problems, but part of the problem with Discipline is that it needs to be distinct from healing as a Holy Priest, but Holy Priests have a lot of mechanics and all niches of healing in the game are taken. Being able to start over on early Priest design could fix this.

Some other things they can address more easily with a brand-new game:

• Gear inflation
• Flying mounts
• Tightening up the lore
• Telling story through quests
• PvP
• The talent system
• Making combat more responsive
• The size of the default backpack

To give some examples. And that's without touching on much larger things, like rethinking the Holy Trinity or making the game to support mounted combat or whatever.

Lack of attachment to the original game model. They confuse 'new' with 'better'.

I don't think this is true. Particularly not for WoW's playerbase :-)

Why does there have to be a new game tho? Blizzard themselves even said that if they wanted to make a new engine for wow they could, but they even then there would be no reason to reset everything.

It doesn't have to be a new game, but starting over has certain advantages, just like how continuing to build on what exists has advantages.