[Solid Spoiler] A Spoiler Source About Blizzcon 2013 WOW X5 (History Game?)

[Hitei]

If this has something to do with extreme timeline-altering time travel....



Seriously, that will be my reaction.
I mean, a couple of CoT dungeons are fine, but making an expansion where we ALTER PAST HISTORY WHICH WOULD THROW ALL LORE OUT THE WINDOW AND EITHER A.) Digress lore into further chaos or B.) Get us nowhere in the story, making this expansion filler.

What if it were something more along the lines of:

90-95, full-sized Draenor continent on opposite side of the sea from the section that forms Outland, where you assist the Draenor natives in various battles and quest-type junk, a bunch of instances within this "past" as well as the raids of the first tier (Shat, or whatever).

95-100 The same continent but in current time, a separate shard of the planet from Outland that has also managed to survive, but the mortal races, etc, were not aware of it, because it doesn't have access to the dark portal or portals back to the Outland section. The legion has not only retained its presence on this "shard" it's built the entire continent into a heavily fortified outpost, and now has moved it back to it's original location, so that it is hovering right next to outland (with crossable points at Netherstorm and Shadowmoon. (KJ is there in command)

So the expansion goes like this:

The legion shows up on this new continent out of nowhere, Netherstorm is immediately lost, but the Ogres and Mok'nathal in Blade's Edge manage to form a solid defense on the border of the two zones, stop the bulk of the advancement. This ties Ogres into the Horde.

On the opposite side of Outland, the legion has attempted to start a similar invasion of Shadowmoon, only to be halted by the combined forces of Ashtongue revival and the redeemed Arrakoa of Skettis. Turalyon and alleria who were stranded on this other "Shard" have joined up with them and the forces of Alleria stronghold, to hold the line at the border between Terokkar and Shadowmoon. Thus tying the Arrakoa into the Alliance.

Outside of these highly contested zones, the Legion is launching renewed offensives via small portal and infernal strike across Outland, resulting in the 60-70 zones being updated to reflect current lore, and Shattrath city being attacked and partially destroyed, made into a minor hub with some underground instances or something. The neutral forces of Shattrath have retreated to Black Temple, which is now the most defensible stronghold on the remnants of Draenor.

In order to initiate the counter-strike against the legion, and to assist in putting an end to the last efforts of the Infinite flight, you go back in time to the old "shard" section of Draenor, deal with stuff there, and plant a number of magical devices that will draw and charge from the arcane energies that end up tearing apart the world, you finish up in the past, return the present and activate the devices, which have been hidden all this time and are of course charged in the present-- This makes some massive permanent shield around Outland to protect it from invasion. And the forces are now free to move across to the current "Shard" which a horrible, dark and twisted version of it's past self, under heavy legion control and filled with foul, fel-tainted wildlife. You do stuff and there are more, completely different dungeons here.

BT acts as a hub between the two times, with a massive permanent portal that sends you to a Bronze outpost in the past version of the "shard" and devices that shoot you across the gap to the current version of the "shard".

Expansion Tier 1 features raids in past "shard", Tier 2 features the final war against the Infinite flight, taking place in the twisting multi-time tunnels of the Caverns of Time (Sori dies), some of the tunnels leading to open pockets of history with dailies and chests and rares and all that other jazz, and then the final tier is KJ's fortress on the "shard".


Rather long winded, but I hope my point was made.
It can be done while not screwing up lore AND progressing the main storyline.

I doubt that everyone would like to look like a Draenei or an Orc for an entire expansion. Especially if they are going to release the new models.

Simple enough to just have a quest early on that gives you a buff that makes you appear to the native people as if you belong there, while not changing your appearance.

[NiceJazzhands]

I know so many people are very concerned about all of the lore, but to be honest, I'm really excited for some kind of curve ball. I've seen quite a few posts where people have had the future of Warcraft mapped out in their minds - We have to take care of Azshara and N'zoth, we have to defeat Kil'jaeden before we can handle Sargeras, we have to go to Argus, etc.

Sure, any of those things may happen, but I'm really pleased that I have no idea what the hell will be going on in this next expansion. All of this outcry about retconning lore and messing with the story belies the fact that this is Blizzard's story, not ours. We're paying customers, but from my standpoint, we're paying to be entertained. Right now, not knowing what is going to happen, I'm entertained.

Time travel is weird (if that's even what we're doing!). I'm ready for a weird time!

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Classic city becomes a raid dungeon?
Sacking of Stormwind in the First War confirmed. =|

Dont encourage this horrible idea.

[huth]

Yep. If all these spoilers are true, they're about to retcon the entire last 10 years away.

"You know all that stuff you've done, bosses you've fought, places you've seen? Yeah so we wrote ourselves into a corner, now forget all that and go here and start over."

Time travel is rarely well done and they are jumping the shark if they retcon the whole storyline so far...

If they are true, we get (at least) two alternate timelines, meaning the last 10 years remain in place, but a different (and likely mutually exclusive) chain of events also happened.

Try imagining it as an "what if" scenario.

Also, "jumping the shark" refers to the absolute best, never surpassable point of a story.(i.e. no matter what they do, anything after that can only be worse) Basically, you're saying that's the greatest thing they could possibly do.

[purebalance]

Sorry to the people claiming and wanting Demon Hunter with WoD possibly being the expansion, but if WoD is the expansion, Timewalker is the new class more than likely.

Someone already posted in connection to this thread and the others how there are 3 timewalkers at TI who each have a different subclass of timewalker which sounds eerily like tank healing and dps specs.

[Stonecloak]

I thought it was classic raid turning into a city. In which case I would have to say the iconic black temple.

[Deleted]

I vaguely recall a video file that was datamined before 5.4 went live where we see Soridormi dying. Is that already somewhere in the game or it's not in the game yet? I guess that'd add to the fact that timeways are fucked up.

[Xeroz]

I vaguely recall a video file that was datamined before 5.4 went live where we see Soridormi dying. Is that already somewhere in the game or it's not in the game yet? I guess that'd add to the fact that timeways are fucked up.

That is ingame already. Its the last vision you have from a Questline on Timeless isle

[purebalance]

That is ingame already. Its the last vision you have from a Questline on Timeless isle

Relatively speaking it is.... it hasn't happened in game but you see it through the quest just like the vision pertaining to A&G

[Bladesyphon]

Classic city becomes a raid dungeon?
Sacking of Stormwind in the First War confirmed. =|

Naw, it's most likely Shattrath becoming a raid. We'll likely be involved in some way with the Draenei Genocide if we do end up going back into Draenor's past.

Not..really sure how I'd feel about that, actually. That piece of history is one of the darkest, most disturbing "battles" in the history of Warcraft. And being told that you have to make sure it happens in order to keep the timeline working the way it's supposed to in order to foil Wrathion's insane plot..Well that's just going to be dandy. Just dandy.

[huth]

Relatively speaking it is.... it hasn't happened in game but you see it through the quest just like the vision pertaining to A&G

Which of course leaves the question of whether that will be going to have happened in our timeline.

[Lycanroc]

Also, "jumping the shark" refers to the absolute best, never surpassable point of a story.(i.e. no matter what they do, anything after that can only be worse) Basically, you're saying that's the greatest thing they could possibly do.

-Buzzer sound- WRONG!

Jumping the shark is an idiom created by Jon Hein that was used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery, which is usually a particular scene, episode, or aspect of a show in which the writers use some type of "gimmick" in a desperate attempt to keep viewers' interest.

In its initial usage, it referred to the point in a television program's history when the program had outlived its freshness and viewers had begun to feel that the show's writers were out of new ideas, often after great effort was made to revive interest in the show by the writers, producers, or network.

The usage of "over the shark" has subsequently broadened beyond television, indicating the moment when a brand, design, or creative effort's evolution loses the essential qualities that initially defined its success and declines, ultimately, into irrelevance.

This would indeed be 'jumping the shark'.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Sorry to the people claiming and wanting Demon Hunter with WoD possibly being the expansion, but if WoD is the expansion, Timewalker is the new class more than likely.

Someone already posted in connection to this thread and the others how there are 3 timewalkers at TI who each have a different subclass of timewalker which sounds eerily like tank healing and dps specs.

That'd assume it's a time travel expansion.

We've got a lot of folks who think this leak is a troll, or at least who think it was mis-translated.

[DetectiveJohnKimble]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jm6B31HKBw

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

-Buzzer sound- WRONG!


This would indeed be 'jumping the shark'.

Reading that, it sounds equally a definition of "Cash grab."

So yeah, time travel to WC2 era would be the "Shark grab" of Warcraft.



The origin of the phrase is actually relating to a series in... I think Happy Days where a character literally jumps a shark.

- - - Updated - - -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jm6B31HKBw

And I skipped breakfast so I'm off to the dining hall. I am so using that later today.

[Lycanroc]

Reading that, it sounds equally a definition of "Cash grab."

So yeah, time travel to WC2 era would be the "Shark grab" of Warcraft.



The origin of the phrase is actually relating to a series in... I think Happy Days where a character literally jumps a shark.

You are absolutely 100% correct.

[Arbs]

Classic city becomes a raid dungeon?
Sacking of Stormwind in the First War confirmed. =|

Its kinda funny how people said this when we found out about Siege of Orgrimmar 2 years ago.

[Ejmis]

"Maincity becomes raid dungeon". I'd have to guess at the Undercity or Gilneas. Because at the end of MoP, you can talk to Varian and he talks about re-taking Gilneas and keeping Sylvanas contained. So perhaps the Alliance will try and take back the Undercity?

[DetectiveJohnKimble]

Its kinda funny howpeople said this when we found out about Siege of Orgrimmar 2 years ago.

I still remember everyone crying about MoP being a "PvP expansion"

[Arbs]

I still remember everyone crying about MoP being a "PvP expansion"

I know, so glad it wasn't though . Theres a good chance it could be Undercity that becomes a raid dungeon though.