The Art Department is leaking...

[Frood]

Even though this sounds plausible, one thing gives it away as something you've made up.

For everyone:

First of all, Blizzard almost never outsources work out like that, and in the very RARE cases they do, freelancing artists are hired to make small things, such as weapons, armor or tiny & lore irrelevant NPCs. They would have NO idea about anything except for the specific model they've been hired to create. Any environmental art, which your rumours are based on, is made in-house by environment or dungeon artists, respectively. They are under strict NDA and would risk their careers spilling any beans.

100% troll post.

[Jerot]

Naga's playing a central role but no Nazjatar?

0/10

Legion to naga doesn't make a whole lot of sense, unless they go much heavier on the void influence. Make N'zoth an immediate threat, protecting Azeroth's titan soul from corruption. Probably play up the creepy c'thulu mythos vibe, deep dark, bottom of the ocean type stuff. Maybe some tropics to break up the scenery, but I doubt Undermine/Kezan, that just doesn't add up for me given cataclysm. Too much detail surrounding player activity and events, you don't need to know that stuff as an artist. Seems more like fan theory than a leak...

[ls-]

I am in no way a specialist in this area, but I am fairly certain there is more than your dynamic IP... Or another mechanism for your ISP to track you down either way, otherwise how does is the internet "sent" to you?

Of course, assuming the leaker is not using some expensive and trustworthy VPN or some such thing.

It's "sent" to you at your current internet address, a.k.a. IP MAC address might be a better internal identifier if you're looking for a certain someone within your network, but it can be easily changed to some BS, HWID is even better, but ISPs normally don't access to it.

For the best security one could go to PC bang or internet cafe and leak stuff while using VPN

[Adoxe]

Legion to naga doesn't make a whole lot of sense, unless they go much heavier on the void influence. Make N'zoth an immediate threat, protecting Azeroth's titan soul from corruption.

The "leak" is pure bullshit but damn, you need to pay more attention to the content in Legion if you actually think the leap makes no sense at the moment.

[Nebron]

It's all fake. Written from the art department point of view makes ir more believable, but still fake. Actually, there is nothing original, all sounds really, really boring. We have learned that Blizzard makes their stuff much more intresting nowadays and less predictible than previously. I can't imagine Kul'Tiras being Alliance only zone. I know there is a human nation only, but still I'd be mad, after being hyped so hard with this location, not to quest there as a Horde player. Kezan? Undermine? Pluder Isle with pirates theme? Yes, sounds cool, but still copy-pasted from wow forums. People that want to believe, just like they are sure of the circle of stars with tentacles on the sky , will still believe in every "leak", so it's the easiest way to troll them.

Congrats to the troll, that has written this thread. Nice try

[Sylvaeres]

Was gonna post this. No ones gonna risk a contract to tell you stuff that they aren't supposed to.

Ya, because it's so easy to prove a singular person out of dozens is the one that let the secret slip

[Swalload]

Sure..but with Blizzard? Would it be worth to ruin your career - like never again work in the industry because every company will know you as untrustworthy just to make some nerds come and 95% of the others tell you, you are lying?

Lol you think that when someone breaks an NDA there's an alarm going off? Sometimes it's not that easy to find out who talked.

[Swalload]

Yeah..I went into more detail on that already. Like:

-why would you take the (small / medium / big) risk at all? Because people gossip and somebody who would leak will very well brag about it..seeing he is an idiot in the first place
-have we ever had a confirmed x-pac leak (when at the same time not having 20 fake leaks)
-why would you do it with 95% of people calling it a fake anyhow? I mean..you cannot really come out afterwards and go "I told you so"

And last of all....the tendency is to shout "fake news" even when evidence is provided. But when somebody randomly posts without evidence (as has happened again and again and again over the last years)...you guys actually defend that?

Not defending anything, I'm saying that absolutely nothing in there says that it's 100% impossible. This kind of situation happened before, even if it was just for other games or companies, makes no different, it's still a possibility, however small the chances are.

[ro9ue]

To be honest, the descriptions you provided of the capital cities actually sound like a brief an artist would get from an art director (I'm an artist). So... I think yes this is real, or just really well thoughtt out.

[MoanaLisa]

If this thread disappears mysteriously then OP might be on to something if it doesnt and gets buried then Blizz hasnt let there lawyers loose on MMO champ and its parent company Curse!

This never happens with speculation threads. We close some of the most obviously stupid but speculation, even framed as a leak, is fine. If Blizzard has ever turned their lawyers loose on MMO-Champ because of a forum thread such as this I'm not aware of it. Please note that I'm specifically talking about forum stuff.

I'll reiterate what I said earlier though: Saying that you have secret information from X or Y is bound to make half the thread posts the sort of jeering at people that we see here. A true speculation thread that says as much up front is going to be a better thing to discuss every single time.

[MrExcelion]

Quality 11th post!

2013.......

Been a while my friend.

That's one thing that always fascinates me about this place, if anything it gives him more credibility to have an older account like that with just a few posts

@OP leaks/speculations are certainly welcome here, just expect the vast majority to not believe and rag on you. Thanks for the thread, fake or not. This seems actually likely based on the kind of descriptions given. Would be cool.

[MoanaLisa]

To be honest, the descriptions you provided of the capital cities actually sound like a brief an artist would get from an art director (I'm an artist). So... I think yes this is real, or just really well thoughtt out.

Zones and cities are done in-house I believe. Stuff that gets outsourced tends to be smaller things.

[Fat Mac]

Darnassus isn't particularly vulnerable. There's only 2 ways in, through the air and through that one portal in the harbor.

i dont think thats what it means. its not about how the player gets in. its about Azshara and her reasons for attacking

[Nyel]

With those contracts come nda's. So this post is mossy likely bs.

NDAs mean nothing. Someone leaked the upcoming Guild Wars 2 expansion with screenshots, new specs, new zones etc.

[Swalload]

If you wanna put it that way..yeah...sure..no matter how small the chance is, there is a chance...

Better start bookmarking all the leak threads to see who was right this time...

Doesn't matter who was right, no one wins anything for getting the right leak or the right guess. If anything, we're all better off not getting spoiled by shit like that and enjoy the real reveal at the right time.

[ro9ue]

Zones and cities are done in-house I believe. Stuff that gets outsourced tends to be smaller things.

That's probably right, but if they sub out something like props (the little stuff in the corners of houses and buildings) I think they would still supply the overarching theme of the city itself for context (probably along with some visual reference they've already had done by their concept artists).

[MoanaLisa]

That's probably right, but if they sub out something like props (the little stuff in the corners of houses and buildings) I think they would still supply the overarching theme of the city itself for context (probably along with some visual reference they've already had done by their concept artists).

Yeah, I would guess that's true. Which TO THIS DAY pisses me off that they didn't reuse some assets in garrisons to allow for real racial customization or didn't farm some of that out. Just blithering nonsense that this wasn't there. OK. Deep breath. Rant over.

[chubbybunny]

When i read "the art department is leaking".. first thing that came to mind was I wanted to shout "Put the lids back on the paints then"

[Anoregon]

Nope.

/10char

[Regalbeast]

You know that episode of GoT where Tyrion says three different things to three people and then waits to hear from the queen so that he can know who told her?

Blizzard does that with small details.

They share mostly the same information with every external company and individual they are forced to go through, but plant specific errors that they can later look for in leaks. Whoever did it, may get sued. Or just won't get another contract from them, or anyone, if the rumor of them not being trustworthy spreads in the right circles.

Companies and artists know it, and don't risk it. It's going to be announced eventually, and the benefit from leaking it is close to non-existent. The rewards of being trusted by such a huge developer, however, are massive.

Leaks now only happen in the latest stages of development, when Blizzard is shipping literal tons of merchandising and mailing information everywhere in preparation for a worldwide announcement. It's then that they have little control over the information. And even then, we've only seen individual leaks days before the reveal. It's actually quite impressive.

This is possibly one of the biggest loads of crap I've ever read on MMOC