Should Blizzard start seriously considering WoW2?

[Falrinn]

WoW2 has always been little more then a vague idea of a game Blizzard should make once WoW has outlived its usefulness. However, recently I've been starting to think it might be time to at least lay the groundwork for a sequel.

So why now?

I'm sure everyone has heard that World of Warcraft subscriptions are down 5% since they peaked in late WotLK. This doesn't indicate WoW is dying, but Blizzard has acknowledged that this is a faster drop then what they saw after the release of BC and WotLK. Based on my own analysis, I believe it's because Cataclysm didn't bring as much new to the table as BC and WotLK did. That doesn't mean Cataclysm is a bad expansion per say, it was very good at what it tried to accomplish, but nothings fundamentally changed about how you play the game.

Throughout it's life cycle BC brought us arenas, heroic dungeons, more sensible questing, Badges of Justice, sockets/gems, made 10-man raids far more important, changed large raids from a 40-player to 25-player cap, daily quests, split PvP and PvE gear and gave the Alliance Shaman and the Horde Paladins.

WotLK brought Achievements, Death Knights, Vehicles, Phasing, 10/25-man raids, hardmode raids, glyphs, and the Dungeon Finder.

In both cases these are all things that fundamentally changed how the game was played. You may feel that the specific changes hurt the game, or could of been implemented better, but you can't deny they fundamentally changed how the game is played.


In Cataclysm they simply improved existing systems. Raids don't use a system all that different then ICC, the point system is just a modified emblem system, we went from having 2 types of glyphs to 3 types, new races and race/class options don't change how you play the game all that much, the new talent system only significantly changes leveling around 10-40 or so, even the upcoming Molten Front is just an improvement on the Isle of Quel'Danas concept. All of these changes improved game play significantly, but they didn't really change how the game is played. About the only radical feature I can think of is Vashj'ir, but that became an optional leveling zone without even any digsites to temp players back in once they finish the zone. As a result, experienced players are getting burnt out faster then they did in previous expansions even through there isn't anything "wrong" with Cataclysm by any rational definition.


How does this all pertain to WoW2?

I think the reason why Cataclysm didn't introduce many radical new concepts is because WoW has become matured so much that anything that really changes how the game is played would either be backtracking or something that just isn't practical within an existing game (when other companies have tried to do so it's consistently an unmitigated disaster). Things like adding a 3rd faction, moving races from one faction to another or dropping them completely, allowing players to break from the Horde/Alliance, destroying cities, adding or removing gear slots, making crafting more interactive, etc. Story-wise you could set the whole thing years or even centuries after WoW, because honestly the people of Azeroth could use a break from yet another evil stirring things up every 2 or so years. The possibilities are endless.

The current version of WoW most likely has 2, maybe 3 expansions left in it. It's not going to die anytime soon, and I think we can all agree that it would be nice to wrap up the story of WoW in a proper finale rather then just leave things hanging after Cataclysm. Going forward Blizzard should keep WoW2 in mind as they create these last few expansions. Characters that will be included in the sequel need to be further developed, while characters that won't be need to have their own stories resolved. Subtle hints of things to come in WoW2 could be spread throughout the game, a cryptic prophecy here, an odd reference there. They could even start full development of WoW2 before the final expansion is released to minimize the time between WoW's finale and the release of the sequel.


TLDR
Cataclysm, while not being a bad expansion per say, did not bring anything new to the table because there isn't anything new for it to bring without bad things happening. This has caused subscriber numbers to drop faster then after the release of BC or WotLK. Making WoW2 is the solution since it can bring lots of new things to the table without said bad things happening.

[Resentful]

Bleh impossible right now; Titan is already in progress with diablo 3 behind it

[mistuhbull]

drop in subscribers was caused by rapid rate of content consumption.

All WoW 2 would bring that would be worth it would be an updated more efficient engine and a restructuring of Factions

not really needed

[unholytestament]

I don't think the time for WoW 2 is now, but I can't deny that a whole new game system wouldn't improve a great deal of issues that Blizzard has developing for WoW. Maybe once Diablo 3 is out and the Starcraft 2 expansions are done they will have time to actually make it.

What they need to do though is make something you can carry over from WoW to WoW2. WoW2 can't be a direct sequel to WoW as in "the last level we got in WoW was 199 so WoW2 starts at 200", but it would be nice if the characters we had in WoW could carry something over to WoW2.

All WoW 2 would bring that would be worth it would be an updated more efficient engine and a restructuring of Factions

I disagree. Blizzard has learned a lot from making WoW and I'm fairly certain that there are things hardcoded into the engine that they just cannot change that could be improved upon with a completely new system.

[Tuuralihn]

so they lost 600k ppl. There is still 11.5 mill people playing and paying.

There is no cause for Blizzard to worry yet

[Azuri]

Not gonna happen any time soon if ever at all just look at how much time passes between all their game titles like Diablo and SC to name a few.

[Duster505]

They should focus on improving WOW much more than what they are doing atm. It is becoming very obvious that they are starving the game of creative design ideas and game is suffering big time because of it. Many of the developers seem to be burned out and are happy to leave for new projects - causing the ppl left to burn out even faster and bringing out less quality content.

Blizzard needs to really get their focus back. There is no excuise for sending out the crap we have seen so far in CATA. 600.000 subs lost isn't that much - compared to what could happen in next two years.

[Cairm]

With a chance, if they'd start today it would be out in 5 years. Hehe

[Bitlovin]

History suggests this is a bad idea. Look what happened when Everquest tried this trick. It took what was then the dominant MMO in the genre and completely destroyed it's own fanbase. I think Blizzard would be too smart to make that same mistake that Sony did.

[unholytestament]

Like what?

The default backpack is an easy example. The communication between servers (or lack of) is another. And the graphics engine the game runs on is very poorly optimized.

We will find out more of what a new MMO from them is capable of when we find out more about Titan.

[Deleted]

They are working on Titan, forget any kind of WoW2 for the next 5-10 years (or ever).

[Jeffyjimbob]

Bleh impossible right now; Titan is already in progress with diablo 3 behind it

This, besides, there's supposedly like 2 or 3 more expansions in the works. But Project Titan? That's what I'm curious about.

[Falrinn]

I don't think the time for WoW 2 is now, but I can't deny that a whole new game system wouldn't improve a great deal of issues that Blizzard has developing for WoW. Maybe once Diablo 3 is out and the Starcraft 2 expansions are done they will have time to actually make it.

What they need to do though is make something you can carry over from WoW to WoW2. WoW2 can't be a direct sequel to WoW as in "the last level we got in WoW was 199 so WoW2 starts at 200", but it would be nice if the characters we had in WoW could carry something over to WoW2.

Yeah well, that's why I said WoW probably has 2 or 3 expansions left. By then WoW could be well under half of it's peak subscriber level, and it will become clear that they need to fundamentally change how the game is played in order to keep things fresh, something that can only be done in a sequel.

Anyways I could see some limited carryover between WoW and WoW2, even if it takes place decades after WoW. How about setting aside a handful of areas where you could stash a limited amount of gold and perhaps a few other items. Then you can take a WoW2 character to that same location an retrieve whatever was stashed there, perhaps under the guise of a treasure-hunting quest.

[mordale]

Bleh impossible right now; Titan is already in progress with diablo 3 behind it

other way around, me and my friends already got our D3 beta keys.

[klaps_05]

there will never be a WoW2 - there will be only new content expansions.

[hyphnos]

Yeah, EQ2 did wonders for EQ.

[Bitlovin]

Anyways I could see some limited carryover between WoW and WoW2, even if it takes place decades after WoW. How about setting aside a handful of areas where you could stash a limited amount of gold and perhaps a few other items. Then you can take a WoW2 character to that same location an retrieve whatever was stashed there, perhaps under the guise of a treasure-hunting quest.

As I said a few posts up, that (essentially the same) idea utterly destroyed Everquest. Didn't work then, won't work now.

---------- Post added 2011-05-12 at 03:08 PM ----------

Yeah, EQ2 did wonders for EQ.

At least someone else on this forum isn't completely ignorant to MMO history. Cheers.

[Crusades]

It'll be like left 4 dead 2, the only reason why they made a left for dead 2 was because they changed the way the zombies die.

[Schalde]

other way around, me and my friends already got our D3 beta keys.

Lie! no one has a d3 beta key yet unless you know someone from blizzard. on a topic, wow 2 will never happen and if it do it will be before 2025

[Deleted]

So surely WoW2 would have to have a bunch of new features to make people want to jump from current WoW to WoW2. Surely they'd be far better off implementing said features into current WoW?
I think that one of the things they'd want to change about WoW2 is how PvP works as a whole. It would still have Battlegrounds and most likely wouldn't try to bring back World PvP (sorry guys) but when creating the classes they'd give a lot of spells different functions in PvP or a PvP talent tree or something along those lines that would make PvP far easier to balance without hurting PvE balance.