(I posted this on the main Blizz forums and I wanted to post it here because I just wondered what your thoughts were.)
From what I've observed from many sources, the majority of the old world zones are getting a major revamp in both aesthetics (minus the look and textures of the trees *sadface*) and quest content/continuity. Blizz saw the need to do this to bring the questing experience up to par with Wrath questing. I totally agree with doing this and praise them for it. The continuity of the quests (making sure the quests are relevant to the current "cata" events of the world) is very important as well.
What I don't get is why some zones have received little to NO changes. From last I heard, here is a list of zones that this applies to:
1) Azuremyst 2) Bloodmyst 3) Eversong 4) Ghostlands 5) Dustwallow 6) Silithus 7) Arathi
So here we have seven zones that have been barely touched, if not even touched at all. Little to no quest content changes or aesthetic changes, as well as almost no continuity changes...
So... is this currently okay or acceptable with Blizzard? Okay so... here is a scenario...
1) You make a Draenei character in their 1-20 zones (technically "Vanilla" time line). Lulz being several years later and they are still "Oh noes! We are still crashed!"
2) You quest through some zones in Kalimdor ("Cataclysm" time line)
3) You get to Dustwallow (Back to "Vanilla" time line)
4) Keep questing through Kalimdor (Back to "Cata" time line)
5) Then you either finish your questing on 1-60 Azeroth in Silithus ("Vanilla" time line) or Blasted Lands ("Cata" time line)
6) Then you go to Outlands ("BC" time line)
7) Continue to Northrend ("Wrath" time line)
8) Then you get to the 80-85 zones back in Azeroth (Back to "Cata" time line)
Now mind you, I can get past the Outland and Northrend stuff if they have something like.... the Bronze Dragonflight approaching you when you achieve level 58 and saying they need your help to make sure the events in the BC and Wrath content go as they are supposed to because agents of the Infinite Dragonflight are trying to change them (add only a handful of quests involving them).
I just wonder why not finish the old world stuff? Why even bother giving the new intro cinematics to the Blood Elves and Draenei if their starting zones don't reflect what is being narrated?
Is it because:
1) Blizz is getting to "crunch" time with the new expansion and is kind of like "Well... we did as much as we could... New players are going to get confused but oh well" OR
2) "We aren't motivated enough to do those zones" aka lazy OR
3) "We are still planning to do some changes to these areas." (Like hello? Silithus? So much could be done here to relate to the more "active" Twilight's Hammer and the aftermath to the events with the battle of Med'an and Cho'gall, possibly explaining how he got to the Twilight Highlands).
I love your game Blizz but... what the heck is going on? Do you NOT want players to quest in these incomplete zones?