What are the odds of getting a new world revamp?

[TriHard]

In Legion we had a lot of class campaigns take place around Azeroth, such as resurrecting four new horsemen, bringing new elemental lords to the battle, clearing out the remaining people in Darkshire, etc.

I do wonder if they have plans to put all these stories we've already started into play in 8.0 and revamp the whole / some parts of the old world. We also know they really want to implement level scaling in old content so I'd assume that would be the perfect time to do so as well.


What would you like to see changed in a new revamp? I'd personally love to see Ashenvale and Auberdine (in Darkshore) get fixed.

[Deleted]

I really, really wish that was the case, considering how quickly old content (especially core azeroth and outland) has aged.

Is it likely? I dont think so. Cataclysm was pretty much all about that, and it was a very ambitious project from the development standpoint. It is clear that many of that expansion's issues could have been avoided if there was more time to polish certain endgame content. Instead that time was put into replacing the old stuff, and even though it helped the game a great deal, one can question if it was a good business decision (Cataclysm is where World of Warcraft started its decline)

Even though I think it is time to do that again, I doubt Blizzard will risk such move once more, considering that the last time they've tried it, it did not pay off.
The game definitely needs a streamlined leveling system, the new player experience is a nightmare, you do not experience the world you are supposed to care about at all while leveling, and the timeline is just a huge mess at this point.
I really wish they would go Guild Wars 2 route and make the world feel as a whole again rather than a set of theme parks with barely any connection to each other.
But it seems that they took the "pay to skip" approach instead, where they just gave up on the old content whatsoever and let you skip it one step further with every expansion.

That being said, perhaps that could be the reason why last two expansions (WoD and Legion) were fairly limited in terms of provided content compared to what we got used to. We know that the next expansion has been in the development before WoD has even been released, so potentially it could be much bigger.

[Deleted]

5% possibly 10% and that's a very optimistic percentage

[Imnick]

Pretty low.
The Cataclysm world revamp led to a lack of resources to spend on new content, and up until Warlords of Draenor it was the worst received expansion.
A repeat of that is unlikely.

[ls-]

Do I want it to happen? Yes, ofc.

Will they do it? Prob not. People have been bitching about it since Cata And that required a lot of resources, both time and money, to implement.

-- edit #1

It's basically either-or situation. Scenarists, quest and world designers, artists who would work on old world revamp are the same people who usually work on new expansions. You put more effort into one, you take away from another.

And it's hard to sell old world revamp as an expansion feature, majority of people doesn't see it as one, at least they didn't in Cata. So people will just bitch about lack of new stuff and features.

[DeicideUH]

With level scaling now being possible, I'd say the chances have gotten high.
I don't expect a single expansion to revamp all the old world, thought. I could see them doing it in brackets, like revamping level 1-20 zones after Legion to update the status of the races and kingdoms after the invasion, then redoing more zones in patches orin new expansions.

[Lochton]

I think minimal chance for another world revamp, unless we mess up so badly on Argus that it'll have consequences on Azeroth.

[Dracullus]

Better than usual, because this time they can actually use new areas for world quests, but still chances are rather small.

[Jester Joe]

Unless they decide to scrap the entire 1-90 leveling about and have the new revamped areas be for 110-120, I'd say highly unlikely.

[Blayze]

Considering the last time they revamped the old world they forgot to put in the casual endgame and they paid for that in millions of lost customers, I'd say it's unlikely unless they want to make the same mistake.

Ah, who am I kidding? This is Blizzard; it's a fucking certainty.

[Planetdune]

I really hope they do not add zone level scaling. One of the reasons Morrowind and Gothic 2 are the pinnacle of western RPG's is the fact they don't have zone scaling. It is partly why Oblivion and Skyrim never got to that level.

[Dartz1979]

The only way that would ever happen is if they made like 2 or so more expansions then said world of warcraft 2.0 and i highly doubt they would even consider that cause seeing as our characters wouldn't transfer and we'd have to start at clean fresh start most people would quit so yeah any dreams and hopes of a revamped completely world is not gonna happen.. however i said this in some of my other posts they can however improve the graphics engine with a new engine type perhaps unreal engine would work out well for them if they ever pursue an graphics upgrade.

[Gadzooks]

I really, really wish that was the case, considering how quickly old content (especially core azeroth and outland) has aged.

Is it likely? I dont think so. Cataclysm was pretty much all about that, and it was a very ambitious project from the development standpoint. It is clear that many of that expansion's issues could have been avoided if there was more time to polish certain endgame content. Instead that time was put into replacing the old stuff, and even though it helped the game a great deal, one can question if it was a good business decision (Cataclysm is where World of Warcraft started its decline)

Even though I think it is time to do that again, I doubt Blizzard will risk such move once more, considering that the last time they've tried it, it did not pay off.
The game definitely needs a streamlined leveling system, the new player experience is a nightmare, you do not experience the world you are supposed to care about at all while leveling, and the timeline is just a huge mess at this point.
I really wish they would go Guild Wars 2 route and make the world feel as a whole again rather than a set of theme parks with barely any connection to each other.
But it seems that they took the "pay to skip" approach instead, where they just gave up on the old content whatsoever and let you skip it one step further with every expansion.

That being said, perhaps that could be the reason why last two expansions (WoD and Legion) were fairly limited in terms of provided content compared to what we got used to. We know that the next expansion has been in the development before WoD has even been released, so potentially it could be much bigger.

The problem with Cata is that they redid the whole map, for flying, which meant rebuilding and populating every edge of every zone, the mountains, and redoing cities like Stormwind so they were actual 3-D models. They wouldn't have to do that this time - they'd just have to redo the areas effected by Deathwing, and then do the changes they would need, which is hours spent anyway, if the content were on a new map.

I don't think it's possible, but who knows? I don't think it's entirely off the table.

[TriHard]

Better than usual, because this time they can actually use new areas for world quests, but still chances are rather small.

World quests and invasion type scenarios in the leveling areas would be so fucking cool, not gonna lie.

[Soon-TM]

Like Gadzooks said, Cata's revamp took so much effort because the entire old world had to be redrawn from the ground up in order to allow flying. A second remake (which is more than due time for imo) wouldn't require that much effort. But I don't think it's likely, even if only for the "b-b-b-BUT MUH ENDGAEM QQ" crowd outcry.

[Julian Rayne]

Never say never, but Blizzard did state that the Cata revamp took more resources than they expected. However as stated above, they won't need to build the world itself from the ground up this time.

One mistake I think they made was making most of the 1-60 content about the Cataclysm itself. If they do revamp it, I hope they take aspects of the Cata revamp like better quest flow etc and combine it with elements from the Vanilla 1-60 level zones and make the stories there about local problems, and not just about the Cataclysm or the Void or whatever expansion 7 is bout,

[InfiniteCharger]

They could but the problem is they need some in-game lore reason to do so. To date the only real reason most MMOs don't revamp old world content but every so often is because the business model is to keep new content behind a pay wall. There is no more technical reason for it than that. Having new content take place in the "old world" would make it hard to separate non paying customers from paying customers on the same servers for the same expansion. Otherwise, there is no reason that each new expansion shouldn't leave some form of mark in the old world and every part of the world should naturally evolve as the story evolves. This "time warp" in the old zones is purely the result of the game designers having released so many expansions that were segregated off from the old world as "paid content". Otherwise, Legion would have more realistically taken place all over Azeroth and had left scars and a visible impact all over the planet as you would expect from a true Legion invasion...... Would that mean more effort and resources to release new expansions? Probably. But there is no "technical" reason they couldn't do it. It is all a business decision. There was nothing in early MMO design concepts that said the world couldn't expand and change over time. Expecting the same quests and same stories to stay static in a MMO makes no sense, especially when you are talking about 5-10 years on. As a result, instead of tweaking the old world in small chunks each expansion, the task is much larger because now it becomes a huge effort to totally revamp everything.

Level scaling won't fix that problem. Who wants to fight level scaled alligators from Dustwallow Marsh when the content there is irrelevant to the current expansion (level 120 murlocs/kobolds in old world anybody)? That wouldn't make absolutely any sense. A revamp of the old world would mean new towns and cities and new factions as a result of the interaction of all the groups and factions already introduced into the game. But most of that would require a bigger in game chronological shift between expansions to justify the creation of new zone content like cities and so forth. Unfortunately, the only way that will happen is with a WOW 2.0 like reset. But it doesn't have to mean old characters would not be reset. It would just mean that all characters in theory would start at say 110 and there could be a new mechanic for progressing characters beyond that point. Or maybe the entire leveling system period is revamped overall (but legacy players wouldn't have to start from scratch). Obviously that would mean reworking everything in the process which again would fit a reset of the game. But also leveling from scratch would be a more polished and cohesive experience as well and hopefully part of such a revamp would mean that new content could be integrated more easily into the game without creating such time warps. But I doubt that will happen. These are the main issues that will affect whether WOW keeps going on as is or eventually is reset. I can't see how they can keep leveling beyond 150. At some point those stats would be god like for the average player and nothing outside universal god like creatures would ever be realistically challenging lore wise. But one way around that would be to get rid of leveling all together at some point and replace it with alternate forms of progression like gear, class based talents and abilities (with trees), etc where experience can be gained across various areas and allow players to level ups skills and abilities but not necessarily the player proper. Which again, would be a big change and something that may not go down well with the player base.... (But does reflect a more D&D style of leveling).

[Super Kami Dende]

I wouldn't say impossible, but with Scaling I'd enjoy it very much. Would love to level like 1-100 in EK.

[snitcher geralt]

Pretty low.
The Cataclysm world revamp led to a lack of resources to spend on new content, and up until Warlords of Draenor it was the worst received expansion.
A repeat of that is unlikely.

cata wasn't a bad expansion, it was just too hard for the type of person wow was currently targeting, it was more bc than late WOTLK and the wrathbabies simply couldn't take it, so they tucked their tales and ran

players today don't play games for a challenge, they mostly play to hang out and chat, that's who blizz caters to now and that was the problem with cata, not a lack of resources or whatever bullshit you said

[Rudkobing]

It's as likely as Donald Trump getting elected President.......

Oh wait.....