Spirit of Blizzcon: Leaks of expansions past

[plz delete account]

With Blizzcon coming up in a couple weeks, I'd like to celebrate MMO-Cs history of cherished WoW expansion leaks;
From @ercarp;'s Battle For Azeroth leak which ended up being fake (but hey, he got the name right!), to the more accurate Chronomaster and Jericho leaks!

Which were your favorite leaks, and why?

[ercarp]

Not to toot my own horn too much, but I'm pretty happy with the attention my Tides of Vengeance "leak" received. I like to think the patch was named after it as well, even though they came out and said it was a reference to Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness...

I don't have anything specific in mind but I love reading all the leaks from 1-post users that start popping up close to BlizzCon. One of them has almost always ended up being the real leak, but it's impossible to tell when there's so many different ones.

[plz delete account]

Not to toot my own horn too much, but I'm pretty happy with the attention my Tides of Vengeance "leak" received. I like to think the patch was named after it as well, even though they came out and said it was a reference to Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness...

I don't have anything specific in mind but I love reading all the leaks from 1-post users that start popping up close to BlizzCon. One of them has almost always ended up being the real leak, but it's impossible to tell when there's so many different ones.

You've ended up guessing both a expansion and a patch name this expansion, so there is that.

Do you have that screenshot of the guy quoting Jericho to tell him his leak was crap, only months later to change his avatar and username to Illidan and L E G I O N respectively and quit the forums, creating the most ironic screenshot ever?

[protip]

I haven't really seen anything credible this time around, I'm a bit disappointed. Seeing the real expansion info get leaked by mmo-champ mods always used to be really exciting.

Wrath: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...K-Massive-leak

Cataclysm got removed, but I remember seeing screenshots and thinking they looked pretty likely. Then I saw that they were removed, and there were all kinds of rumors going around about how Blizzard asked Boubouille to take them down. That just meant it was basically confirmed. That was a lot of fun. https://kotaku.com/massive-world-of-...lugged-5537465

Then of course WoD got leaked, and no one even believed it because the time travel nonsense seemed so crazy.
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...or-Leak-Inside
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...f-Draenor-LEAK <-- original image removed, but the comments are still gold

The Shadowlands leak was pretty fun, but it was proven false with the 8.3 stuff. Hopefully we'll see some credible leaks to keep the discussion going till Blizzcon.

[ercarp]

Wrath: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...K-Massive-leak

Then of course WoD got leaked, and no one even believed it because the time travel nonsense seemed so crazy.
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...or-Leak-Inside
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...f-Draenor-LEAK <-- original image removed, but the comments are still gold

Thanks for linking these, it's always interesting to go back and see what people were saying. People are yelling "fake" even on the Wrath leak.

[Quintalos]

One thing that's consistent throughout are the comments of majority of posters always calling it fake and imporbable etc. before it's proven true.

[Xaviaton]

My favourite leak will probably always be when the Cataclysm Worgen and Goblin races were super well encrypted but leaked because they forgot to hide the fricking Halloween masks. https://www.wowhead.com/news=108997/goblins-and-worgen

It only got better when Blizzard hastily cobbled together a random selection of more Halloween masks and force them into the build in order to hide the mistake.
https://www.ownedcore.com/forums/wor...new-races.html

[Syegfryed]

I haven't really seen anything credible this time around, I'm a bit disappointed. Seeing the real expansion info get leaked by mmo-champ mods always used to be really exciting.

Wrath: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...K-Massive-leak

Cataclysm got removed, but I remember seeing screenshots and thinking they looked pretty likely. Then I saw that they were removed, and there were all kinds of rumors going around about how Blizzard asked Boubouille to take them down. That just meant it was basically confirmed. That was a lot of fun. https://kotaku.com/massive-world-of-...lugged-5537465

Then of course WoD got leaked, and no one even believed it because the time travel nonsense seemed so crazy.
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...or-Leak-Inside
https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...f-Draenor-LEAK <-- original image removed, but the comments are still gold

The Shadowlands leak was pretty fun, but it was proven false with the 8.3 stuff. Hopefully we'll see some credible leaks to keep the discussion going till Blizzcon.

the best thing by far is to look at the comments, how people were soooooo sure that was fake

[Magicon]

Thanks for linking these, it's always interesting to go back and see what people were saying. People are yelling "fake" even on the Wrath leak.

Yeah. It is so fun seeing ppl Without imagination calls out stuff as fake

[Sondrelk]

Yeah. It is so fun seeing ppl Without imagination calls out stuff as fake

My favorite part is always going back and noticing that people were dead set on a theme for the expansion, and then considering how wrong they were.

Thinking back to both Legion and now BfA, both of which the forums were adamant were going to be south seas with Naga, which while true to some extent ended up being a small part next to the Burning Legion and Faction war.

Now that Shadowlands is talked about on the forums i feel confident in stating that we won't get that. Personally got my sights on a World revamp, especially with 8.3 reusing old zones again instead of making a new zone that will be forgotten about in a year.

[ercarp]

Now that Shadowlands is talked about on the forums i feel confident in stating that we won't get that. Personally got my sights on a World revamp, especially with 8.3 reusing old zones again instead of making a new zone that will be forgotten about in a year.

Shadowlands will almost surely play a part in the next expansion, but I think it will be a much smaller part than most people think. Something similar to the Emerald Dream, perhaps.

[Khaza-R]

I never realized the WoD leak was so detailed.

[Soulwind]

Legion leaked a few hours before the announcement, as a couple of small posts in a massive speculation thread. It only got quoted once or twice, and everyone dismissed it.

MoP didn't really leak, but the trademark for the name was made public a week or so before the announcement. People wondered if it was going to be a mobile game or something other than the WoW expansion.

[Sondrelk]

Shadowlands will almost surely play a part in the next expansion, but I think it will be a much smaller part than most people think. Something similar to the Emerald Dream, perhaps.

I could definitely see it getting almost the exact same treatment the Emerald Dream did. A zone and a raid. Expecting a full continent on it when we already saw what happened with the Emerald Dream and Argus just comes off as silly i would think.

[protip]

My favorite part is always going back and noticing that people were dead set on a theme for the expansion, and then considering how wrong they were.

Thinking back to both Legion and now BfA, both of which the forums were adamant were going to be south seas with Naga, which while true to some extent ended up being a small part next to the Burning Legion and Faction war.

Now that Shadowlands is talked about on the forums i feel confident in stating that we won't get that. Personally got my sights on a World revamp, especially with 8.3 reusing old zones again instead of making a new zone that will be forgotten about in a year.

I honestly feel like now that we've seen that the Shadowlands leak is fake, half of the stuff will be true and we'll be just as confused as all those guys in the WotLK leak thread haha. Then again, Blizzard can pull out whatever they want, it'll be fun to see, whatever it is.

[ercarp]

Legion leaked a few hours before the announcement, as a couple of small posts in a massive speculation thread. It only got quoted once or twice, and everyone dismissed it.

I wish I could still find it. It specifically mentioned Illidan coming back and some other details. I remember it.

[Obelisk Kai]

One thing that used to happen was that Blizzard would have to register the trademark for an expansion months in advance. Someone would find it and that generally turned out to be true (so long as it wasn't someone spoofing).

Now, Blizzard registers the trademark in as discreet a part of the system as possible, usually an obscure third country, so that we can't do that. However, I do recall that the Battle for Azeroth name was found on the very precipice of Blizzcon 2017. I suspect that once an announcement is imminent and they have to start letting various third parties know, the leak becomes inevitable but at that point there is so little time till Blizzcon the information doesn't get too widespread and is still tainted as being potential hearsay.

This time two weeks things will really be kicking off though.

[Soulwind]

I wish I could still find it. It specifically mentioned Illidan coming back and some other details. I remember it.

Found it!

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...2#post35267612

The irony of the guy who quoted the leak like "yeah, whatever" and ended up theming his MMO-C account around Legion is, to this day, one of the best things I've seen here.

[Julian Rayne]

From @ercarp;'s Battle For Azeroth leak which ended up being fake (but hey, he got the name right!),

Got a link? I love checking out old leaks.

This was one of my favorites.

Mists of pandaria storyline and lore information
-Levels 85-90
-Expansion gives players access to the wartorn island of pandaria, kul tiras, tel'abim, and suramar.
-Two distinct pandaren races are released with the game.
-The alliance befriends the pandaren of the shadow shao'din, a proud clan of warriors with a heritage of bloodshed.
-The horde gains the support of the fire shao'din, which is a clan of pandaren monks, scholars, and poets.
-Civil war split the island of pandaria literally. The two warring pandaren clans used their magic to split the island down the middle.
-Shodo-pan zin ji is the stand-in villain for the expansion, but n'zoth and azshara play a role, as well.
-Shodo-pan zin ji is the former leader of the shadow shao'din, and initially receives support from the alliance.
-The shadow shao'din started the war by invading fire shao'din farms to steal food and supplies.
-The shadow shao'din is too powerful for the fire shao'din to handle alone. The fire shao'din sends messengers in a rowboat to a nearby horde warship to plead for support.
-The "mists" of pandaria are actually a concealing sort of magic that hid the island from the eyes of sailors for millennia.
-The fire shao'din pandaren are markedly friendlier-looking compared to the shadow shao'din pandaren. The two races are very distinct from each other. The fire shao'din pandaren have a choice of sagely beards and wise facial features, while the shadow shao'din pandaren are slightly taller and appear more vicious.
-Blizzard wanted to give the alliance another "unethical" or "shadowy" race to balance the storyline out.
-The expansion focuses greatly on the conflict between the alliance and horde by proxy of their new pandaren allies.
-Deathwing's shattering is what initially caused famine and disease to consume the island of pandaria. The shadow shao'din took a very direct approach to handling the problem, and this meant wiping out the sickly members of the population in large numbers. The alliance does not initially understand the brutality of the shadow shao'din.

[Syegfryed]

Now that Shadowlands is talked about on the forums i feel confident in stating that we won't get that. Personally got my sights on a World revamp, especially with 8.3 reusing old zones again instead of making a new zone that will be forgotten about in a year.

its mostly logic, next expansion will either be dragon isles or shadowlands, or a mix of both, like, it have to be something who make sense that was lead from this expansion, most of times we have things leading to the expansion, hints, datamined stuff, and there are hints for dragon isles or shadowlands, even if people are adamant because the fake leaks,

if they don't pull out something entirely new, my bets will e on those above.