Blizzard sure can plan things ahead (Map names from 2003 and expansion plans)

[killabee]

Check out this post. I read it a long time ago back during vanilla, and a few times after that. It contains Blizzard plan regarding locations set per expansions as they saw it in 2003 (or earlier). So far everything turned out to be true...

Those guys in Blizzard never stop to amaze me... One of the very few companies out there that can have a 10 years business plan that works!

According to this info, we have 2 more expansions ahead of us after Cataclysm

http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=1547.0

Edit:

[Doylez]

so maybe pandaren race and finally emerald dream for the expansion after the cataclysm... ?

[Jasonater]

that list has been posted endlessly.

IT'S FAKE.

[tutti]

The thing is, even if it isn't fake, it only means that that was Blizzard's plan in 2003. It doesn't mean it's Blizzard's plan now, so we don't really get any information from this.

[Clusterfuck]

Nothing new here people, move along.

[Jasonater]

but although it is fake, some parts of the list have been included anyway. In the same expansion, in fact. (Maelstrom & Elemental Plane in Cata). Coincidental, though.

[Osmigos]

It takes a very long time to create new content from scratch, so there are definitely some things that have been floating around for a while.
Ever since vanilla came out and people first stepped into MC there was lore in game stating that Ragnaros was only 'peaking through a window to our world' and was at a fraction of his power (and defeating him here would not kill him, simply banish him back to the elemental plane of fire). Anyone who went into modern Hyjal before it was completely blocked off could also tell you that large sections of it were heavily scared by fire. Basically, they had the idea of this cataclysm planed out already when the game was launched. The extent of it, and a lot of other specifics may have changed a lot since then, but it certainly seems that this expansion is more than simply re-using ol content because they are lazy.

[avance70]

Yeah, it's interesting what they knew in 2003:

-Draenor Set
Azuremyst Isle - 1 to 10
Bloodmyrk Isle - 10 to 20 its actually "bloodmyst", but pretty darn close!
Eversong Forest - 1 to 10 - its "woods", but, again close
Quel'thalas - 10 to 20 - changed to "ghostlands". Again, this isn't a big error since the whole area is called like that.
Hellfire Peninsula - 58 to 62
Zangarmarsh - 60 to 64
Terokkar Forest - 61 to 65
The Deadlands - 63 to 67 - merged with Terokkar. Other Outland zones are suprisingly correct.
Nagrand - 64 to 68
Blade's Edge Mountains - 66 to 70
Netherstorm - 67 to 70
Shadowmoon Valley - 69 to 70

Northrend is pretty much spot on:

-Northrend Set
Borean Tundra - 67 to 70
Howling Fjord - 67 to 70
Dragonblight - 69 to 72
Grizzly Hills - 70 to 73
Crystalsong Forest - 72 to 75
Zul'drak - 73 to 76
Sholazar Basin - 75 to 79
Storm Peaks - 76 to 80
Icecrown Glacier - 78 to 80

Now, things get a bit more wrong here, but remember it's 6 years ago!
Let's just paste all of it and comment afterwards:

-Maelstrom Set
Gilneas - 77 to 80
Grim Batol - 78 to 81
Kul Tiras - 79 to 82
Kezan - 81 to 86
Tel Abim - 83 to 85
Zandalar - 84 to 87
Plunder Isle - 86 to 88
The Broken Isles - 87 to 90
The Maelstrom - 89 to 90

-Plane Set
Pandaria - 1 to 10
Hiji - 10 to 20
Wolfenhold - 1 to 10
Xorothian Plains - 10 to 20
The Green Lands - 88 to 91
The Dying Paradise - 91 to 94
The Emerald Nightmare - 94 to 97
The Eye of Ysera - 97 to 100
Deephome - 88 to 91
Skywall - 91 to 94
The Abyssal Maw - 94 to 97
The Firelands - 97 to 100

-Legion Set
K'aresh - 96 to 99
Argus Meadowlands - 97 to 100
Mac'Aree - 99 to 100
Maw of Oblivion - 100+
The Burning Citadel - 100+++

Fun stuff! Gilneas, Grim Batol, Skywall, The Abyssal Maw, The Firelands...
And, how about Wolfenhold? Sounds real close to something Worgen-like!

[The_Flying_Dog]

All i can say is /facepalm

[Giegumesh]

All i can say is /facepalm

Why? All this was posted in 2003, they keptthe Outlands and Northrend stuff, changed Cataclysm some, but are going to have the four last from the "Plane set". All this seems very promising and not farfetched at all. 100+++? Im curious of what it could mean

[Xiphiass]

The list was created and/or updated after the zones of WotLK have been officially known. It's fake as much as something can get fake. There is very much thought and especially development (that's why it's called game development, git it?) that goes into the game development, it's literally impossible that such things were put in stone six years ago. It's probable that back when they released WoW, they didn't even think of expansions.

[Tigercat]

Why? All this was posted in 2003, they keptthe Outlands and Northrend stuff, changed Cataclysm some, but are going to have the four last from the "Plane set". All this seems very promising and not farfetched at all. 100+++? Im curious of what it could mean

Oh ffs, now you're claiming it's been around since 2003? Even the other morons that actually believe in that list only claim it was posted in 2004, get your false facts straight.

[cyanid]

well they didint create the worlds only for wow...remember the old warcraft games maybe?

[Melonberry]

They have obviously deviated from any plan they may or may not have had.

Just using the list as an example.

Cataclysm includes most of the zones from 2 full expansions on that list. That's 20 levels of content shoved into 5.

Why? Because they want to include more content before 100. (Likely when they will stop increasing the level cap)

So now they have to add even more content, assuming the list has credibility to begin with (I think it has a little) which ...well means there is going to be even more exciting expasions.

[Nathanyel]

Yes they had a lot of lore planned, especially since Warcraft 3, and NO, the "list" is fake.

Feel free to copy&paste the following to other threads about this as well:

Arguments for the authenticity of the "list":

• "Memories" of a certain number of people, who state they have seen this and exactly this string of characters before September 2007 already, and not other, similar speculations based on the previous games or the RPG books, which have always floated around the net.

Arguments against the authenticity: (oh god where do I begin)

• The most important thing: There is no factual evidence whatsoever that this very alignment of letters existed before September 2007. The earliest known reference is that infamous thread on Allakhazam which was posted not even 2 weeks after the Northrend zones were officially announced.
• There is also a screenshot of the supposed original post by Caydiem, but this only started to appear in 2009, too. It is likely based on this 2005 screenshot of several posts by Caydiem, the date in the first post is nearly the same as in the supposed 2004 screen, with differences just the year and the time.
• Supposedly this list was known since 2003, but Blizzard had all topics mentioning it deleted - this can only be true for the official WoW forums, not for independent sites. If Blizzard had pressed those sites to also delete postings of the list, you can be sure as hell one rogue site admin would've taken this as a proof for the authenticity, and would've posted it even more, spreading it to everyone who would've wanted to read it. Plus, archive websites like Google or web.archive.org would be able to find even those deleted threads.
• Strangely, the Northrend Set has 2 starting areas, a method which isn't really used in any other set - in fact, that Northrend has 2 entry zones came from the experience they made with Hellfire Peninsula, which was heavily overpopulated the first days and weeks after the release of BC.
• Azjol-Nerub had always been planned as its own zone, up until somewhere mid-alpha, it wasn't mentioned anymore when they officially announced the Northrend zones. If the list had been from 2003, it would sure still list Azjol-Nerub as a zone.

Rather neutral points, which still should get you thinking:

• Bloodmyst Isle is misspelled as "Bloodmyrk", suggesting that this zone was renamed during development, on the other hand this could be a deliberate misspelling.
• "The Deadlands" appear to be the Bone Wastes as their own zone, which actually appeared in 2.0 as a subzone of Terokkar Forest, again you can't say whether this was a change of plans or a deliberate addition to confuse people.
• All mentioned zones were well-known in 2007 through the previous RTS games and the RPG source books, every experience player could've produced a similar list on his own, with the expansions sorted by their possibility of being made - assuming Outland and Northrend are confirmed as expansions, the Maelstrom/South Sea is the next most possible expansion, rather closely followed by the Emerald Dream. The other "sets" might be too abstract for new players, WoW would need to gain a certain playerbase through "familiar" content/zones, close to known fantasy settings, before venturing into weird stuff as the Elemental Plane or the Legion-controlled nightmares of planets. This holds true for both years of origin, 2003 and 2007, but again it's a proof for neither.

[Nahyo]

Yeah, it's interesting what they knew in 2003:

-Draenor Set
Azuremyst Isle - 1 to 10
Bloodmyrk Isle - 10 to 20 its actually "bloodmyst", but pretty darn close!
Eversong Forest - 1 to 10 - its "woods", but, again close
Quel'thalas - 10 to 20 - changed to "ghostlands". Again, this isn't a big error since the whole area is called like that.
Hellfire Peninsula - 58 to 62
Zangarmarsh - 60 to 64
Terokkar Forest - 61 to 65
The Deadlands - 63 to 67 - merged with Terokkar. Other Outland zones are suprisingly correct.
Nagrand - 64 to 68
Blade's Edge Mountains - 66 to 70
Netherstorm - 67 to 70
Shadowmoon Valley - 69 to 70

Northrend is pretty much spot on:

-Northrend Set
Borean Tundra - 67 to 70
Howling Fjord - 67 to 70
Dragonblight - 69 to 72
Grizzly Hills - 70 to 73
Crystalsong Forest - 72 to 75
Zul'drak - 73 to 76
Sholazar Basin - 75 to 79
Storm Peaks - 76 to 80
Icecrown Glacier - 78 to 80

Now, things get a bit more wrong here, but remember it's 6 years ago!
Let's just paste all of it and comment afterwards:

-Maelstrom Set
Gilneas - 77 to 80
Grim Batol - 78 to 81
Kul Tiras - 79 to 82
Kezan - 81 to 86
Tel Abim - 83 to 85
Zandalar - 84 to 87
Plunder Isle - 86 to 88
The Broken Isles - 87 to 90
The Maelstrom - 89 to 90

-Plane Set
Pandaria - 1 to 10
Hiji - 10 to 20
Wolfenhold - 1 to 10
Xorothian Plains - 10 to 20
The Green Lands - 88 to 91
The Dying Paradise - 91 to 94
The Emerald Nightmare - 94 to 97
The Eye of Ysera - 97 to 100
Deephome - 88 to 91
Skywall - 91 to 94
The Abyssal Maw - 94 to 97
The Firelands - 97 to 100

-Legion Set
K'aresh - 96 to 99
Argus Meadowlands - 97 to 100
Mac'Aree - 99 to 100
Maw of Oblivion - 100+
The Burning Citadel - 100+++

Fun stuff! Gilneas, Grim Batol, Skywall, The Abyssal Maw, The Firelands...
And, how about Wolfenhold? Sounds real close to something Worgen-like!

It also says "Pandaria"... good try though... and it also goes to level 90, 85 in Cata!

[velourea]

Yes they had a lot of lore planned, especially since Warcraft 3, and NO, the "list" is fake.

Feel free to copy&paste the following to other threads about this as well:

Arguments for the authenticity of the "list":

• "Memories" of a certain number of people, who state they have seen this and exactly this string of characters before September 2007 already, and not other, similar speculations based on the previous games or the RPG books, which have always floated around the net.

Arguments against the authenticity: (oh god where do I begin)

• The most important thing: There is no factual evidence whatsoever that this very alignment of letters existed before September 2007. The earliest known reference is that infamous thread on Allakhazam which was posted not even 2 weeks after the Northrend zones were officially announced.
• There is also a screenshot of the supposed original post by Caydiem, but this only started to appear in 2009, too. It is likely based on this 2005 screenshot of several posts by Caydiem, the date in the first post is nearly the same as in the supposed 2004 screen, with differences just the year and the time.
• Supposedly this list was known since 2003, but Blizzard had all topics mentioning it deleted - this can only be true for the official WoW forums, not for independent sites. If Blizzard had pressed those sites to also delete postings of the list, you can be sure as hell one rogue site admin would've taken this as a proof for the authenticity, and would've posted it even more, spreading it to everyone who would've wanted to read it. Plus, archive websites like Google or web.archive.org would be able to find even those deleted threads.
• Strangely, the Northrend Set has 2 starting areas, a method which isn't really used in any other set - in fact, that Northrend has 2 entry zones came from the experience they made with Hellfire Peninsula, which was heavily overpopulated the first days and weeks after the release of BC.
• Azjol-Nerub had always been planned as its own zone, up until somewhere mid-alpha, it wasn't mentioned anymore when they officially announced the Northrend zones. If the list had been from 2003, it would sure still list Azjol-Nerub as a zone.

Rather neutral points, which still should get you thinking:

• Bloodmyst Isle is misspelled as "Bloodmyrk", suggesting that this zone was renamed during development, on the other hand this could be a deliberate misspelling.
• "The Deadlands" appear to be the Bone Wastes as their own zone, which actually appeared in 2.0 as a subzone of Terokkar Forest, again you can't say whether this was a change of plans or a deliberate addition to confuse people.
• All mentioned zones were well-known in 2007 through the previous RTS games and the RPG source books, every experience player could've produced a similar list on his own, with the expansions sorted by their possibility of being made - assuming Outland and Northrend are confirmed as expansions, the Maelstrom/South Sea is the next most possible expansion, rather closely followed by the Emerald Dream. The other "sets" might be too abstract for new players, WoW would need to gain a certain playerbase through "familiar" content/zones, close to known fantasy settings, before venturing into weird stuff as the Elemental Plane or the Legion-controlled nightmares of planets. This holds true for both years of origin, 2003 and 2007, but again it's a proof for neither.

just gonna quote this before it's overlooked and more people start jumping to rediculous conclusions.