How will WoW end?

[Deleted]

Worgens will be cured. Undead will reunite and move to Northrend and wait for being a threat in new RTS or WoW2. Draenei will leave. Most of already known characters will became old and train new ones or die. Sargeras will go for us in new RTS and then WoW2 will begin :P.

Still got Azshara expansion + minor BL invasion with another world revamp + maybe something underground or on elemental planes...

[Deleted]

There is no end.

[xenogear3]

a massive party in the faction cities or will a giant event

Does the company throw a massive party when it decides to go bankrupt or massive layoff?

It will not be pretty.
The forum will be full with "I waste 10+ years of my life!" topics.

In fact, lots of people stay subs even they are not playing simply because they are afraid it is dead.

[Deleted]

Worgens will be cured. Undead will reunite and move to Northrend and wait for being a threat in new RTS or WoW2. Draenei will leave. Most of already known characters will became old and train new ones or die. Sargeras will go for us in new RTS and then WoW2 will begin :P.

Still got Azshara expansion + minor BL invasion with another world revamp + maybe something underground or on elemental planes...

Thats kinda what I was thinking 2 expansions and such.

[Gimlix]

well ofc something will eventually come out that does everything better or looks better, or has the same and more features, i feel wow will probably have a core player base that'll never leave, in that sense who knows what the last expansion will be, if you look at everquest, that game very old now but it still has its core players and still gets content i think, i did try it once but the in game popups pissed me off so i didn't bother playing for long.

considering blizzard wrote the lore they can obviously keep churning out stories until there are none left. at that point the core base moves on also.

even if it dropped down to 1 million players eventually that still enough to keep a bunch of servers online and have a small team creating content for it. hell there are mmos out there with much less than 1 million and manage to survive quite well. probably be a looooong time before its dead altogether.

who knows if they'll bring out a wow 2, i don't think it would be worth it, give it another 3 or 4 expansions and compared to classic it probably will be wow 2, if it isn't already.

Every game has a core fanbase, but WoW's is really big.

[Yunru]

The wow will end when they pull out a cable. It wont end by story because they will just trow up a trash storys.

[Halicia]

When it's no longer profitable for Blizzard. I expect eventually it'll dwindle to the point they'll have trouble maintaining subs and go to some kind of freemium model or outright F2P.

not even. look at ragnarok online... they're going into 10+ years, and they went F2P for a while, and now they've just gone 'completely free'.

With Blizzard's desire to keep 'brand loyalty', I can definitely see them keeping the servers up indefinitely 'for free', even after they've worn out the F2P model. Kinda like with Lost Vikings, etc... its a way for them to grab new customers for their other titles.

[Spraxle]

I like to imagine that WoW ends with Azeroth being destroyed. And the Warcraft universe being rebooted somewhere else in the galaxy. No Draenor and no Azeroth but still some of the same enemies we see now with the Burning Legion still out there. Hell it could start off on a planet enslaved by the Burning Legion, and from there you have to fight for your freedom. Or something. I dunno.

WoW will end with Sargeras though. That much is almost a guarantee. But I would rather see it where 'we' never fight him. He's to much of a big baddie for us; in my eyes, to knock him off.

[Teddybearavenger]

it wont. WoW can continue forever as long as the playerbase chooses. No mmo has that luxury. Simple as that.

[Gonder]

I personally see the ending of WoW going a few ways, storyline wise. Azeroth may likely be obliterated by forces such as the Burning Legion, the Old Gods and so fourth, the big baddies. Perhaps when Sargeras returns, he moves on Azeroth, hoping to unmake it. This would likely lead to an expansion full of grandscale battles and chaos, as the rest of the Pantheon, and many other forces of good and light, return, in a hope to try and repel Sargeras, his Legion, the Old Gods, and all other forces of darkness who arise. The scale of this battle may likely find a way to begin reawakening the Old Gods, and by that point, the mortals (us) are powerless to act, and are being butchered in the millions. At this point, it'd be a game for survival, and it'd take place on a burning globe known as Azeroth.

The Dark Portal would be destroyed from our end, Northrend would melt over and mountains would crumbles, Pandaria would burn to a smoldering crisp, and the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor would meet no different of a fate, accompanied by major flooding and the loss of many capital cities. In the end, all forces of defense against those who wish to destroy Azeroth, would rise up, in a final attempt of victory and survival. This could be well known as that huge battle between light and darkness that is often mentioned by characters such as Wrathion, and Velen.

In the end, we would be 'successful', however, Azeroth is 'sacrificed', and most die. Notable characters fall all around, creatures go extinct (no, not player races, though many of them would be wrecked to a great extent), zones disappear from existence, the world is completely wrecked, it is now a post apocalyptic wasteland for any who survive. However, the Old Gods are vanquished, as is the bulk of the Burning Legion, and Sargeras. Too weak to even bother continuing an assault on the already torched Azeroth or launch an attack on a new planet, they flee. So, in truth, it is becomes a bit of a tie of a victory, both darkness and the light vanquished each other.

The player could now choose to play in this new wasteland that was once Azeroth. However, since most players would go up in a rage of fury over this, and due to the fact that it would just be far too much work on Blizzard's part to actually accomplish such a change to the world, they would either put the Bronze Dragonflight to work, who give you the ability to travel to the world before it became a ball of fire, and experience all of the old content. Otherwise, there would be no post apocalyptic Azeroth to play in, except for raids and other content relative to that expansion, and once you finish the final raid, you just go back in time to when the world was fine, or something like that. I honestly see WoW by a story perspective, ending like this. Though it would be a lot more deep, I only touched the surface of what it would be. However, it would be a probable final expansion of WoW.

Edit: Additionally, Blizzard could open up a completely new world for us during this expansion, so we don't have a Cataclysm v2 of the sorts. I think a world such as Argus, or perhaps a realm related to the Old Gods or so fourth, would prove a good place to venture to. The purpose of either would be to try and stab these enemies in the back from where they come from while they are distracted, in some kind of desperate attempt to unroot them and foil their attack from the inside. Ultimately this would come to help, though it would be too futile of an attempt to receive an any better ending to the expansion.

[Deleted]

I sincerely doubt that Blizzard would end WoW with the destruction of Azeroth, where the majority of their lore and characters reside. Imo WoW will end with the defeat of the Burning Legion, with some damage to Azeroth no doubt but it will remain intact. For future pieces of media in the series the Old Gods will take over as the main threat, and smaller stories from WoW will be given increased importance.

[Gonder]

I sincerely doubt that Blizzard would end WoW with the destruction of Azeroth, where the majority of their lore and characters reside. Imo WoW will end with the defeat of the Burning Legion, with some damage to Azeroth no doubt but it will remain intact. For future pieces of media in the series the Old Gods will take over as the main threat, and smaller stories from WoW will be given increased importance.

It is why they would present to us a version of Azeroth in past, before this battle commenced. However, if so many of our prominent characters exist, how are people going to accept that the story has come to a close? Additionally, we would likely need to bring some ultra powerful artifacts to the front to help us repel the enemy and defend our home. For example, the dragon soul, which managed to transform Deathwing into a magical show of golden pixie dust. Obviously the dragon soul would be useless (I think) to us here, though we will need to gain weapons to a scale of power of that or beyond. If Azeroth really does survive this to the extent that you mentioned, we will need a lot of them, and likely will use a lot of them.

[Deleted]

I think they will slowly revamp all PvE content to be max lvl content (dungeons, raids, scenario's) so there will be a lot to do end game in the last xpac and eventualy will will be F2P with only a few servers online. Prety sure blizz is working on a new concept for a MMO already in a small team.

[Deleted]

It is why they would present to us a version of Azeroth in past, before this battle commenced. However, if so many of our prominent characters exist, how are people going to accept that the story has come to a close? Additionally, we would likely need to bring some ultra powerful artifacts to the front to help us repel the enemy and defend our home. For example, the dragon soul, which managed to transform Deathwing into a magical show of golden pixie dust. Obviously the dragon soul would be useless (I think) to us here, though we will need to gain weapons to a scale of power of that or beyond. If Azeroth really does survive this to the extent that you mentioned, we will need a lot of them, and likely will use a lot of them.

The point is though that the story won't end. Even when WoW's servers shut down forever, the Warcraft franchise will continue to exist in book, film, comic and of course video game form. It would be absolutely idiotic to completely divorce the future of the franchise from its roots in that way - you may as well start a new IP, rather than destroying everything so many people hold dear. The future of the Warcraft franchise after WoW remains on Azeroth, with characters like Anduin, Wrathion, Thrall's kids, Dagran Thaurissan junior etc. all grown up.

[Xargoth6634]

Probably the third or fourth time they rehash outlands for an expansion.

[hrugner]

It will end in the middle of an expansion with no particular fan fare, completely unexpected and with no feeling of resolution. The boss will be seen as the reason the game died despite Blizzard having reduced staff to mostly maintenance staff almost a year earlier.

or...

It will end with a season finale style cliffhanger promoting several other newer Blizzard games.

"Well, that's what we think happened here anyway. Though some scholars up at MU think they couldn't have been so like us as all that."
"All these people dead, just like that?"
"Nah kid, not just like that. We know these people never stayed dead, which basically means all these fields of monsters and men are just sleeping, waiting for their turn to wake up again."
"Oh! The sleeping fields of Azeroth, I didn't get the name before."

[Zogarth]

The servers would shut down and you would no longer be able to log in.

[Deleted]

When will TES games end ? It's the same thing for WoW : if they wish they can keep on adding content forever.
IMO as with almost every franchise in games and film they'll know when it's too late and won't do a proper ending.

[3DTyrant]

So long as i get a Feat of Strength at the end, I'll be happy...

Who knows how it'll really end, maybe it'll be like Everquest and just, go on and on, or maybe Blizz says "Fuck it, pull the plug!"

[Tenjen]

I've made the "wow becomes the matrix" joke too many times already. maybe if I did it in a fresh new way.hmmm