Next Expansion NEEDS to be Return to Northrend/Lich King to regain fan interest

[SirKickBan]

We don't need another expansion that milks our nostalgic udders any harder. They had two of those, in a row.

We need another Mists of Pandaria. We need another expansion that expands on the lore, that sets a fresh eye to the faction conflict, that tightens gameplay and brings new ideas to the table.

In other words, we need all the things BfA tried to do, but not done horribly.

[muto]

I don't think a void expansion or any other ideas will work for Blizzard next expansion in order to peak the interest of WoW fans and retired players.

They need to bring out their big guns next expansion and bring out the WotLK nostalgia. If they don't do this the game will continue to naturally regress due to age and formula.

Agree?

That's not what made Wrath great. It was the amount of new feature and systems that were added.

[Twdft]

Wrath was my favourite expansion and I still wouldn't come back. Blizzard has gone past the point of no return for millions of players.

I say the vocal part of the wow community is past the point of no return. No matter what the next expansion is, there will be whining and whinging without end.

On topic: No.

[Weeps]

Look.

Give me a fun rotation that requires a little more thought and planning.
Make single target and aoe talents into baselines.
Have more than 1 mobile spell but both are weak yet not too weak. When you have more mobility, raid bosses can have new mech to foster that.

Then I’d play any content. All day if I could.

[Barnabas]

Location doesn't matter when the bigger issue is the constant addition of RNG elements. If anything they need to reduce it to raise player satisfaction.

[Destinas]

I feel like Blizzard would need to make entirely new bad guys and concepts for WoW to be interesting, in the end.

-WoD dealt with the orcs of Warcraft 1 & 2 making a reappearance. While that expansion had many problems with gameplay and lore, the return of the orc warlords was seen as cheap (while others hated killing their Horde heroes). Every trace of WoD's story is being left on Draenor, and every character double is being killed off or left on Draenor as well, even seen recently with the Mag'har scenario.

-Legion dealt with Illidan's redemption story. Some praised it, others hated it and felt it cheapened his character. Likewise, many other demons made reappearances in Legion, like Kil'jaeden, which started in WoD with Archimonde and others. Lots of people felt like this was the "end expansion" because we were dealing with one of the major bad guys in WoW's lore.

-BfA returns to the "Alliance vs Horde" story, with some major added twists in the form of Old God corruption. This story might interest some, but overall people dislike the faction war story, and find this expansion unacceptable for that and many other reasons.

Sure, the Lich King was left open-ended, just like Sargeras, the Titans, and Illidan (among others). Sure, he will make a reappearance someday. But having another WotLK expansion heavily focused on the Lich King or Northrend would feel boring, cheap, and/or uninspired for some, similar to WoD. People might be heavily interested at first, but it has the potential to quickly fizzle out, just like with WoD or BfA.

The Lich King could easily be an important character in an expansion with new enemies. MoP had it's ups and downs, but in the end people liked having new enemies like the Sha, Mantid, and Mogu, that were related to other parts of WoW's lore, but were unique enough to feel different.

[Chillside]

Nah, thanks, last time we got a rehashed continent (or rather world), even while not looking like that (draenor is just rehashed outland with better grafics tbh), the game has lost half its subscriptions and stopped showing sub counts.

Draenor didn't lose subscriptions because it was a rehashed version of Outland, but because it was legit single player mode with more and more stuff added to garrion and alot of people got fed up with it

[Deleted]

"Next Expansion NEEDS to be Return to Northrend/Lich King to regain fan interest"

No, it doesnt.
You might like it. I would not. Thats 50-50% right from the beginning.

"needs to be"... i like the demanding headstrong phrasing, lol.

[socialmaker]

Cmon guyzzzzzzzzze, rehashed Northrend with WORLD FUCKING QUESTS. Unlocked flying in 9.2. Stormpeaks flying only in 9.3 featuring: lightforged Yogg Saron, SARONITE power grind, Ulduar Mythic Hard Mode, Halls of lightning mythic plus with a new affix: Nostalgia. Everytime you que into a Nostalgia dungeon you get a debuff where it makes the Dungeon 1% easier every 5 minutes so everybody can complete that m10+ now!

[Bathory]

Needs to? I don't think so. But it certainly could. Kel'thuzad is still looming, Bolvar seems to be getting more and more unhinged, Wrathion is out there searching for "something" and the other flights may be involved with the reemergence of the Black Flight + Dragon Isles, the Azol'Nerub still waiting to be fully fleshed out, easy Taunka + Vyrkul allied race filler

[Varodoc]

No please. The Lich King was a garbage villain. I don't know why he is praised so much. He was basically a b!tch who always lost and after saying cliché trash like "Oh, I'll get you next time puny mortals!", retreated like a scumbag. His plan was also idiotic. He could have just unleashed the Scourge and won, but No, for some reason he wanted to "mirror his journey with the heroes as the victims" or some cryptic BS like that. One of the worst villains in World of Warcraft. Arthas was a good villain in Warcraft III, but an awful antagonist in Wrath.

And the next expansion will obviously be about the Void Lords. One only needs to look at the Void Elves, greatest ally against the incoming Void Lords, and the fact that this expansion ends with N'zoth, to get a clue of where the lore is heading.

[Nyel]

God no, no Lich King BS.

The next expansion needs:

1. Great class design
2. Better reward system
3. Less rng
4. Enticing expansion features

The setting is important but can't carry an expansion when it lacks all of the other things (like WoD).

[jasdasm]

Last time we went back worked out so well

[chooi]

Irrelevant. WoW doesn't have a content problem. They need to focus on game mechanics and fix overall game design to make WoW fun again.

[Polarthief]

I feel like playing to nostalgia is what keeps up these sub losses, and I say this as a Vanilla veteran.

Irrelevant. WoW doesn't have a content problem. They need to focus on game mechanics and fix overall game design to make WoW fun again.

WoW has an everything problem. Content is definitely one of the problems.

When a large content patch (8.1) adds very little content, something is wrong.

[chooi]

Cmon guyzzzzzzzzze, rehashed Northrend with WORLD FUCKING QUESTS. Unlocked flying in 9.2. Stormpeaks flying only in 9.3 featuring: lightforged Yogg Saron, SARONITE power grind, Ulduar Mythic Hard Mode, Halls of lightning mythic plus with a new affix: Nostalgia. Everytime you que into a Nostalgia dungeon you get a debuff where it makes the Dungeon 1% easier every 5 minutes so everybody can complete that m10+ now!

This. Nailed it. WotLK content is not gonna help fix the underlying bullcrap mechanics of current WoW.

- - - Updated - - -

I feel like playing to nostalgia is what keeps up these sub losses, and I say this as a Vanilla veteran.



WoW has an everything problem. Content is definitely one of the problems.

When a large content patch (8.1) adds very little content, something is wrong.

There is more than enough to do in BFA and no matter how much you add it's not gonna fix fucked up class design, reward systems, gambling, progression curve and other issues that have nothing to do with quantity of available content.

[Kynario]

Draenor was a rehash of Outland.

BfA is sort-of a rehash of Legion, admitting with less features.

[Gaidax]

Yes, we totally need another expansion full of beating around the bush. We know our next target, so just gun for it, instead of doing another filler expansion.

[Acelius]

The Lich King died with Arthas. Bolvar is nowhere near as interesting.

[Moggie]

No it doesnt however the game needs to return to its roots.

God no. Returning to its “roots” is what’s gotten things to now and in big trouble in every area of the game now and folks will have a Classic server if they want back to their “roots.”It needs to actually move forward with actual innovation and ideas that are not cemented into past designs. Reimagining classes (not just nerfing or pruning, homogenization), raids are becoming a tired idea, PvP needs to be completely redesigned, world environments and such should keep folks interested. Balance, designs, yada yada... it’s an old game. If they want to keep it going, then they need to get with the times and actually take steps forward.

And no, returning back to WotLK for a part two is a horrible idea.