"Warlords of Draenor" might not be related to WoW

[Chain Chungus]

Do people really think they would release a F2P game without a purchasable addition with it right away?

Isn't that the whole point of making something F2P? You let them play the game for free, they get hooked, and then they want to spend money on more of it that wasn't free. Take Firefall for example: you start playing one of the frames for free, see cooler ones being used by people, and immediately want to throw down cash for another one.

So, what would you do?

I would release a game called "Hearthstone: Heroes of Azeroth" and make it free to play. I would also already have developed a booster deck called "Hearthstone: Warlords of Draenor" that is even cooler, with more unique cards, and then charge people for it. I would then continue this pattern for years and years making bank in the process.

A few months later you'll see something along the lines of "Hearthstone: Dreams of Emerald" followed by "Hearthstone: Flames of Xoroth," and so on.

[angpsy]

These threads make me giggle. I remember people denying MoP as the expansion BECAUSE it listed mousepads. If I wasn't lazy I would dig one up out of the archives.

[Treeba]

I also wouldn't bet on that he's intentionally trying to be wrong, but I think that Blizzard is trying to mislead us and he is in on it.

I doubt it. I think many of us are only entertaining the idea that this is the next expansion because he thinks it is. I would assume he's not just going on a gut feeling, but most likely has some sort of insider information. It's very likely that the head of the most popular WoW news site has some inside sources.

I doubt Blizzard cares enough to keep it a secret to actually spread disinformation. Sure they try to keep it quiet, but to go out and deceive people just to keep the title of their expansion a secret for another week... no. This isn't the Twilight Zone.

[Eazy]

Hopefully they'll explain this box art at Blizzcon.

You almost got me with this!

I don't want Grom as a main antagonist, like srsly, he's DEAD. I don't want TIME TRAVEL.
I want to fight with someone STRONG... and by strong I mean someone DEATHWING, LICH KING STRONG!

[Spuggs]

Good call on the Outland style heroes for Hearthstone.

[Feeline10]

90 percent of the people I played with from Classic through the end of LK fled the game during Cata. The other 10 percent left in early MoP. None of them have active WoW accounts anymore. A few of them have indicated they'd come back for an xpac that doesn't suck.

MoP was simply not interesting enough to attract new players. Nor was it interesting enough to keep all the old players. MMOs generally gain customers via word of mouth, not necessarily the box sitting on a shelf at the GameStop. I mean look at these forums, in some of the nostalgia threads, where people say when they began playing wow - most of the time they say things like "I play Alliance because the friend who got me to play WoW was Alliance" or "I started playing in BC when my friend convinced me to try the game".



The fewer of us with active subscriptions, the fewer of us there are sharing the game with friends and getting them to try it. Blizzard knows this. It's not only about getting new subs, it's also about keeping the ones you have happy. You don't want a game with 100 percent churn because it is going to die sooner rather than later. Blizzard is paying a vendor to run a focus group going with prior players to learn from them about why they quit and what they want. Blizzard is implementing sweeping changes and buffs to the Recruit A Friend program. Blizzard does not want existing customers to quit. They want to keep us AND get us to bring our friends.

No, they won't ever be able to achieve 100 percent retention, and that's because life happens (people quit gaming for a variety of reasons). And that is why you always need recruiting to happen, to make up for those people who have to leave for extenuating circumstances. But they can do a lot better than they've been doing the last 3 years. You never want people to quit simply because they are disappointed in your product, which has happened in both of the last 2 xpacs.

I don't disagree with a word you wrote. But, the fact remains.. they're more interested in recruiting new players than saving current ones. Of course, in a perfect world.. they'd want all players who ever played to stay subscribed, but that simply isn't possible. I agree things started going down hill after WotLK. Not denying that at all. However, their reasons were noble. They're trying to pick up more than those leaving.

[Uvwaex]

90 percent of the people I played with from Classic through the end of LK fled the game during Cata. The other 10 percent left in early MoP. None of them have active WoW accounts anymore. A few of them have indicated they'd come back for an xpac that doesn't suck.

MoP was simply not interesting enough to attract new players. Nor was it interesting enough to keep all the old players. MMOs generally gain customers via word of mouth, not necessarily the box sitting on a shelf at the GameStop. I mean look at these forums, in some of the nostalgia threads, where people say when they began playing wow - most of the time they say things like "I play Alliance because the friend who got me to play WoW was Alliance" or "I started playing in BC when my friend convinced me to try the game".



The fewer of us with active subscriptions, the fewer of us there are sharing the game with friends and getting them to try it. Blizzard knows this. It's not only about getting new subs, it's also about keeping the ones you have happy. You don't want a game with 100 percent churn because it is going to die sooner rather than later. Blizzard is paying a vendor to run a focus group going with prior players to learn from them about why they quit and what they want. Blizzard is implementing sweeping changes and buffs to the Recruit A Friend program. Blizzard does not want existing customers to quit. They want to keep us AND get us to bring our friends.

No, they won't ever be able to achieve 100 percent retention, and that's because life happens (people quit gaming for a variety of reasons). And that is why you always need recruiting to happen, to make up for those people who have to leave for extenuating circumstances. But they can do a lot better than they've been doing the last 3 years. You never want people to quit simply because they are disappointed in your product, which has happened in both of the last 2 xpacs.

Yeah, no one left during wrath or bc or even vanilla simply because they were disappointed in the product. No one. Also, no one came back for cata or MoP. At all.

[Feeline10]

Yeah, no one left during wrath or bc or even vanilla simply because they were disappointed in the product. No one. Also, no one came back for cata or MoP. At all.

Before Cata they were always able to get more new subscribers than those who were unsubscribing. The beginning of Cata that changed, and they've been trying to fight it ever since.

[Sicarius87]

I'm sure there gonna a lot upset ppl in just few short day when's is reveal to be next wow expansion

I still dont get why so many people are bitching about a possibility of a time travel expansion. Are people really not happy with blizzard unless they're bitching at them for something? If thats the case, unsub from wow now and never come back. We dont want you.

[Feeline10]

I still dont get why so many people are bitching about a possibility of a time travel expansion. Are people really not happy with blizzard unless they're bitching at them for something? If thats the case, unsub from wow now and never come back. We dont want you.

Seriously.

I think some people just complain to complain. They have no idea the content, new features, story.. but yet immediately assume and start to complain about something they know literally zero about. Of course, they'll be the same people playing and posting in threads discussing all of this information when it's released, completely forgetting how whiny they were.

[Draenox]

An entire expansion based on time-travel seems like stalling the inevitable a lot to me. Then again it could be old warlords who where present on Draenor before it got destroyed who are travelling through portals together with the Burning Legion forces to invade Azeroth - but that would just leave a widely unfocused experience unless they have something up their sleeve.

It could work out, but I really hope that it will be the Dark Below still, I soo want to deal with Azshara and N'zoth already! Burning Legion again just feels wrong when they're still out there, since it should lead to story development towards Sargeras in some form.

Anyway, can't wait for friday.

[Duster505]

Honestly I hope this isn't the new expansion, the whole timeline/time travel thing is kinda boring.

Yes - I think this would be something that would put many ppl off.

What makes WOW such a great game is the real land masses that the game has. There has been time travel before... but to put entire expansion into such story... simply does not sound that great... and is a cheap and just overall boring way to fit a game and story around what is most convenient for the devs... Cause lets put it this way.. time travel means that story and progression... becomes pointless. Not a great thing for a RPG game. But considering that the devs are mostly RTS now.... wouldn't surprise me one bit if they did it. But I will stay miles away.

[Deleted]

I think it is hearthstone.
Look at the names:
Heroes of Azeroth
Warlords of Draenor

Yes ofc announce a Xpac wich isnt even worked on yet makes totally sense for a game that isnt even released....

[Duster505]

Seriously.

I think some people just complain to complain. They have no idea the content, new features, story.. but yet immediately assume and start to complain about something they know literally zero about. Of course, they'll be the same people playing and posting in threads discussing all of this information when it's released, completely forgetting how whiny they were.

The story becomes sorta pointless in a time travel universe. And most RPG elements don't fit well into it either.

[Deleted]

The story becomes sorta pointless in a time travel universe. And most RPG elements don't fit well into it either.

Absolutely right. WoW was so great up to this point because there was NO, absolutely NO, time travel involved in anything. Especially not in a mysterious cave in Tanaris. Nope.

[Deleted]

The story becomes sorta pointless in a time travel universe. And most RPG elements don't fit well into it either.

Chrono Trigger is considered one of the top three RPGs of all time, if not the best.

[Sal the Shieldhog]

I doubt it. I think many of us are only entertaining the idea that this is the next expansion because he thinks it is. I would assume he's not just going on a gut feeling, but most likely has some sort of insider information. It's very likely that the head of the most popular WoW news site has some inside sources.

I doubt Blizzard cares enough to keep it a secret to actually spread disinformation. Sure they try to keep it quiet, but to go out and deceive people just to keep the title of their expansion a secret for another week... no. This isn't the Twilight Zone.

But why would about mention it in that way? If he's been told somethings and asked to keep them under wraps, why would he uncover a trademark that someone found and cryptically say something lauding to it being the next expansion? He's (as well as Blizzard) got to know that if he says something like, "Confident about this one guys ;D" people are obviously going to take him for his word at it, and Blizzard is going to end up with a bunch of angry subscribers at the end of it due to rampant speculation. Either they keep everyone in the dark and minimalist the community's anger from rampant speculation, or let someone mention a teeny thing that ends up with half the player base going "WTFBLIZZ?!?"

It's a lose-lose for them, but one of the options is still clearly better. Mentioning something, evens as small as that, is not good for Blizzard, and if I were in charge, no one, much less Boub, would get hints from then on.

(If a mod or Boub reads this: no offense, it just doesn't make sense to me why this would happen. It's not good, it just stirs up people and ends up causing a bigger mess than the original outcome would've been.)

Yes ofc announce a Xpac wich isnt even worked on yet makes totally sense for a game that isnt even released....

Many games prepare expansions and other content packs for a game that isn't released, or even in development still. It happens for all games, CoD, Dragon Age, Assassin's Creed, every game that has some sort of DLC or extra content packs. It wouldn't surprise me if Blizzard did so for Hearthstone as well.

[Manabomb]

Absolutely right. WoW was so great up to this point because there was NO, absolutely NO, time travel involved in anything. Especially not in a mysterious cave in Tanaris. Nope.

Alright. Let's get something straight here. Time travel if implemented correctly is a good thing, for example a benevolent race of dragons specifically linked to time allowing heroes to see certain snippets of time and make sure they run correctly.

A bad implementation of time travel is when said dragonflight is no longer relevant and now it comes down to racist green and pink skinned bigots to decide which portion of history they want to obliterate this time.

An expansion purely built off time travel to Draenor or hell, any previous rendition of Azeroth not only has serious lore implications but is in general a stupid notion to even consider.

[Dracbane]

Lets look at this logically. Blizzcon is in a week(?) and they will be talking about the new xpac....so they have to have a name for it. People have hawk eyes on the trademark offices and only two things have shown up. The Dark Below and Warlords of Draenor. The Dark Below has fell out of all the trademark databases now. I don't think Blizzard will announce a new xpac and not have a name for it....so you really only have one logical choice atm....

[Feeline10]

The story becomes sorta pointless in a time travel universe. And most RPG elements don't fit well into it either.

LOL.

Everything you're saying is pure speculation. Wait until next Friday.