So, lets just admit the elephant in the room

[Pandragon]

Wow 1 needs to die its death. At this point it is no different than an 800 lb person who everyone wonders how it functions day to day..

As someone who was over 800 lbs...and was the elephant in the room. WoW functions much better than that.

I think they would be a little cautious to make a WoW 2 considering everything else they do they get attacked for. People can't even level an allied race to get the heritage armor without complaining 24/7, imagine having these people start on a completely fresh character.

[Bigbamboozal]

Yes I agree. They can improve graphic/art but engine still restricts them in terms of what kind of tech they can use. Good example is phasing - while its allow to have two version of same area its just cheap sellout from real problem. For example current WoW engine will never have true dynamic change of environment like you could see in canceled Everquest The Next or Crowfall.

For the same reasons WoW will never have new features outside of typical dungeon/bg/scenario type. Engine is old.

For these reasons I agree with OP WoW need to die to rise from ashes into new game with new MODERN engine. Current engine just restrict both developers and players in what type of content they can create/play.

I can go along with that and what the person you quoted has said.
I'd love to see them at some point at least use a newer game engine with increased graphics that have some niceties and efficiency.
I will say though, they've done a great job of making some things look way, way better (like water and some sky boxes)

[Schattenlied]

It's not nearly as easy as a heart transplant. Technology is fickle as fuck and hard to make.

I never said it would be easy, I said it serves the same purpose.

[Jastall]

Even if WoW dropped to 1 million subs (which it won't for a very long time) it would still remain highly profitable. Expansions are still selling millions of units on release day, the game still has a very dedicated fanbase, it's still making hundreds of millions per year, only Overwatch is more profitable for Blizzard, and that's probably only in fiscal years where WoW doesn't get an expansion.

If WoD couldn't kill WoW, BfA absolutely won't. If Everquest can survive with not even a tenth of WoW's popularity, so can this game. It ain't going anywhere for the next 10+ years.

Plus, you can bet Blizzard learned the lesson Everquest 2 gave the MMO world. Sequels don't work. Players are way too invested in the current game to migrate over, unless you find some way to carry over progress/transmogs or something, then it will be thought of as a glorified expansion.

And seriously, new engine? Who plays WoW for the graphics? Their art design is top notch and they make very good use of the engine they have. Ditching 14 years of content to make a new engine would be a complete and total waste. It's not like this game has to keep up in terms of graphical horsepower.

[Kaeth]

Ultima Online will celebrate its 21st anniversary in just 12 days.

Everquest launched over nineteen years ago. Its sequel launched the same month as World of Warcraft. Both still going.

Asheron's Call launched later in the same year as the first Everquest, and its servers only shut down last year (around the same time as its less successful sequel).

Lineage II came out a year before World of Warcraft and Everquest 2. Still going as well.

What makes you think that Blizzard is going to shut down a cash cow -- which still has millions of active subscribers -- just because "it's old" or because you don't like it anymore?

[ShadowHopper]

I agree with the OP that this game is starting to show it's age. I am not saying that a dated looking game cannot be fun, as i replayed mario 64 not too long ago.

My real gripe with WoW is that it is exactly the same as it always was. I am still finding new ways to make a wall jump or to get a star in mario. There is an incentive for creativity. Meanwhile, back in warcraft, the game seems to be suffering from a lack of vision.

Every boss fight is this: don't stand in fire, interrupt (or don't), get out of group with debuff, kill/snare/slow/kite adds, stack, spread. Almost forgot my favorite, "use special button." I find the gameplay lacking creativity, and that is probably because limitations set by the engine.

I do not believe making a wow clone with better graphics is the correct course of action either. With all the advancements in gaming engines, I believe MMOs need a fresh take. I don't even have a suggestion for what this fresh take should be. However, I can tell you what i don't want it to be, and its wow atm.

[Factcheck]

There is still life in the old girl yet. That said, I'd love for us to wrap up the dangling plot threads, resolve the Horde vs Alliance story, end the game on a huge cliffhanger AND THEN get a Warcraft 4 and then WoW 2.

[Pete]

UO has been trucking for 20 years plus change. You want an exodus you speak to anybody who gamed around the time trammel came in.. admittedly we're not talking WoW figures by any stretch of the imagination because online gaming was in its infancy (100,000's at best as opposed to millions today) but at the time that was as good as purposely killing a successful game got.

Honestly if the state of WoW bothers you this bad you got to ask yourself if its worth it... either step away or take a step back and find something that fulfils what your not getting from it. Then revisit when you get the itch and see if its worth a punt.

When this first came out for all its praises it was a mess in places too.. good number of people were playing this alongside GW1 because they had strengths in different areas.

[Deleted]

Plot twist: we actually fail to save Azeroth this expansion and are forced to seek out a new planet to live on. Universe of Warcraft: World of Warcraft 2 is announced.

[lollerlaban]

Wow 1 needs to die its death. At this point it is no different than an 800 lb person who everyone wonders how it functions day to day. Now I dont say this to say the game is bad, its just gotten too big and bloated. If you really think otherwise, lets take a gander at what the game is in its current state shall we?

- while only being a "mere" 58GB on the drive, it does this with graphics that, lets be honest here, are still 14 years old. yes its how the game was supposed to be and the style is the entire reason the game files are not requiring their own TB drive for the game, because if they had done everything the way the rest of the games are done with graphics over everything else, you would never fit it on older hard drives, or any kind of SSD

- as it currently stands at the release of BFA, we now have 109,845 unique items, 108,751 sounds, 12955 objects (world interactable things), 116,182 NPC's and, get this goodie, 26,873 quests

and lets be honest, we dont need to add to that. we need a fresh slate for the game to be built on, not a 15 year old jenga tower that is starting to collapse. I really dont even want to know how bad that looks from the coding side, let alone the debugging it takes to make things work anymore.

But how would it work? They flat out told us that with all the problems the scaling took, a level squish would be far, far worse. And we cant really make it so that its so bad to start fresh if they do a wow 2 that everyone who is feels they have to spend all the time in old wow to not be so left out. is there a good solution to this growing problem or do we just accept that its coming close to the time we just let the game die out and accept that all starting fresh(ish) is the only real option.

So, let's just admit the elephant in the room.

No one is willingly gonna let go of 14-15 years of character progression and achievements ingame

- - - Updated - - -

No, it's not...


The engine is old, it's struggling, it can't keep up with modern technology, and no matter how much blizzard tries to "improve" it, they will never get there unless they rebuild the engine from scratch... At some point a game engine needs to stop being used and be replaced with something that is acceptably functional on modern hardware, not one that is absurdly single threaded in an age where the average CPU has 6+.

I'm not saying the game needs to die, but at the the engine does need to be replaced... Think of it as a heart transplant.

And you don't "simply" overhaul an engine that's 14 years old nor would you ever have a reason to because
People. Still. Play.
It took us this many years just to get rid of x86 plebs

[korijenkins]

Or you can just move on with your life.

The game doesn't need to die, especially not to cater to people suffering from ex-partner syndrome. I for one find new MMORPGs shallow and lacking when compared.

And yet WoW, with its gutted systems, and flash over substance philosophy, is somehow not shallow?

[prwraith]

I think to advance the story to any meaningful degree Warcraft 4 needs to be released, wow sunsetted, and wow 2 released.

OR

Warcraft 4 released, wow time skips to post Warcraft 4 with MAJOR updates.

[tyng1]

We dont need a Wow 2. Does everyone forget the diaster that starcraft 2 was? Rip starcraft

[iamthedevil]

No, it's not...


The engine is old, it's struggling, it can't keep up with modern technology, and no matter how much blizzard tries to "improve" it, they will never get there unless they rebuild the engine from scratch... At some point a game engine needs to stop being used and be replaced with something that is acceptably functional on modern hardware, not one that is absurdly single threaded in an age where the average CPU has 6+.

I'm not saying the game needs to die, but at the the engine does need to be replaced... Think of it as a heart transplant.

Then you make a new engine, yes. I get what you are trying to say but it does not go along with the OPs statements regarding the death of wow.

Just like I was saying, if your cats sick, you make it better, you don't kill it. And this is digital, there is no life expectancy. We're saying the same thing here.

[Charge me Doctor]

Is the "fuck old fans" a new thing now? So many companies are indulging in this.

[Deleted]

Wow 1 needs to die its death. .

to quote ur sig: Never believe you have seen the peak of human stupidity and ignorance, or you will constantly be surprised by the new levels the reach almost every day

[yamix]

Personally, I would love to see a WoW 2 with the same engine with all the legacy support ripped out - ideally leveraging all their existing tools and years of enhancements to efficiently build something new without the baggage.

[Adamas102]

So, let's just admit the elephant in the room.

No one is willingly gonna let go of 14-15 years of character progression and achievements ingame

Plenty of people have, and continue to do so.

If you're having trouble doing so, then you lack perspective. If anything, the more my achievements etc. built up the less any of them actually mattered.

- - - Updated - - -

Then you make a new engine, yes. I get what you are trying to say but it does not go along with the OPs statements regarding the death of wow.

Just like I was saying, if your cats sick, you make it better, you don't kill it. And this is digital, there is no life expectancy. We're saying the same thing here.

It's really bizarre comparing WoW to a cat and then in the very next sentence noting that they're completely different...

For the record, I think it's a terrible analogy to make either way. If you're as attached to WoW as you are to your cat then that's a bit of an issue.

[xcitng]

I'd give you some advice about living and dying but I'm on my last infraction

[Nynax]

WoW will die...

When it's down to 500,000 or less active players, and Blizzard decides keeping servers up costs too much
(hint: you should look into how long Diablo 2 servers remained active)

Right now, WoW is still the reigning champion of all MMORPGs of it's kind. It still has far more players and makes more money than the runner up, FFXIV (by millions last I looked).

WoW is so far from dead it's not even worth considering. I wonder how many players continue to play simply because WoW, and WoW specifically not gaming, is part of their lifestyle now?

The only thing that's going to "kill" this game is Blizz. If they stop all future development, stop all updates, and just end it.... and even then, fucking Classic servers and private servers. There are people still playing a version of WoW that hasn't seen an update in a decade. The dedication to this franchise is beyond unreal. WoW has a core subset of players that will be logging in from their retirement homes, for god's sake.