Is it time?

[Lolites]

Yeah, playing int he same timeframe would be an issue. But playing ~2-300 years later and/or riffing off the idea of different timelines (so the single player isn't in the same one as WoW) could be workable.

New IP would be fine too, but obviously requires more work to create the background, story, etc.

well different timeline would be fine, but far future... eh, that would have to be WAY further or it would create all sort of lore problems

lets say theres anduins tomb with plaque saying how he died, that would spoil future plot for wow
and you cant really create the world ignoring the past completely so either waaaaaay further in the future, or as you said different timeline, but im not sure how would people take that after WoD

[Stardrift]

Blizz doesn't see profit in single player games. Haven't you noticed with their constant slew of trash like HS, HoTS and OW?

They only want what they can turn into a shitty eSports event.

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Stop saying stupid things like that, please. Sure Activision is not the greatest, but EA bans your threads when you comment bugs, because they don´t want to spent time in fixing them... For example.

That's their PR bullshit. They're comparing Blizzard's lust for money to EA's lust for money.

[AcidicSyn]

I'm not so sure about that. While they could certainly make something like a game where you play as either Lothar or Turalyon through the first and second wars told from a first person perspective you'd then have people asking why they couldn't play as Durotan.

Maybe go far back and just do the War of the Ancients and let you play as Broxigar, Illidan, Malfurion or Tyrande, but then you'd end up with lore people going "how come in the War of the Ancients game Malfurion could do X but he can't in WoW? Did he just forget?"

What about having the game take place in AU-Azeroth? In order to separate it from the current timeline? (Issue there though being no orcs/horde)

Then again, if it's purely to set up a single player game world that wouldn't be constrained to the lore of the MMO or cause issues for the MMOs story? I'd be fine with them just creating a brand new timeline where this game took place, pick it up at the beginning or just before the first war or just before the 3rd and go. Then they could make the whole experience about fun what-ifs.

[Craaazyyy]

i want a Warcraft RPG game that would take the best from both Dark Souls and Witcher 3

[clevin]

I'm already playing as a random adventurer. Why would I want to in single player?

If they wanted to do single player then they'd be better off to concentrate on just a single important lore character and their adventures. Like the canceled Thrall game.

Yeah that's an issue. I think the idea of a single player adventurer is to tell a story with a beginning, middle and end that doesn't involve or require things like raids. Things like balance between specs wouldn't be an issue of course. And single player RPGs can co-exist with MMOs... see ESO and the various RPGs in the Elder Scrolls world. Whether it would interest you or I isn't the gating factor, it's whether it would interest enough players.

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well different timeline would be fine, but far future... eh, that would have to be WAY further or it would create all sort of lore problems

lets say theres anduins tomb with plaque saying how he died, that would spoil future plot for wow
and you cant really create the world ignoring the past completely so either waaaaaay further in the future, or as you said different timeline, but im not sure how would people take that after WoD

The example I'm thinking of is the Mistborn works of Brandon Sanderson's novels. The 3 Mistborn novels take place in a world that's basically like medieval Europe (with magic etc). The next novel in the series is 300 years later in a world that looks like the 19th century American west. People kind of know about the events that happened in the first 3 books but they're not really part of their lives any more than people in the 19th century considered events in the 16th century part of their lives.

And, if you think about it... 19th C US West is about 300 years after the Renaissance and those are VERY different worlds and settings. Hell, you could set the single player RPG on the other side of Azeroth much like Alloy of Law (the 4th Mistborn novel) seems to be set away from the locations of the first 3 books.

[Stardrift]

Lets not pretend otherwise. Every company out there is in it to make money. In fact, the intent to gain more money than spending is something companies are required to aspire to by law. The wikipedia for the word in my language does not also link to an english page, so I tried to google it as close as possible as "Intent to make a profit"

I guess this gets "worse" once you are a public traded company, but even charity organisations are interested to make profits to pay their employees and they have had their financial scandals.

I am trying to be mater of fact and emotionless on this. We are all in this to make money ..and as much as we can. If you think you aren't, I sure love to hear your story.

There's plenty of people not in it for money. I myself wouldn't be in it for money. It's part of who I am. I love putting a smile on someone's face. Seeing someone enjoy something I created is greater than money to me. But again, that's just who I am. Who knows, I may change if a ton of money enters my pockets. I've heard that is the case with many people.

I've never stated Blizz shouldn't target profits over consumer happiness. I've only stated Blizz will exclusively target profits just like EA does. They don't think single player games are profitable enough as we can clearly see with their releases in the past 10+ years.

Side note, what language do you speak?

[Lolites]

Yeah that's an issue. I think the idea of a single player adventurer is to tell a story with a beginning, middle and end that doesn't involve or require things like raids. Things like balance between specs wouldn't be an issue of course. And single player RPGs can co-exist with MMOs... see ESO and the various RPGs in the Elder Scrolls world. Whether it would interest you or I isn't the gating factor, it's whether it would interest enough players.

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The example I'm thinking of is the Mistborn works of Brandon Sanderson's novels. The 3 Mistborn novels take place in a world that's basically like medieval Europe (with magic etc). The next novel in the series is 300 years later in a world that looks like the 19th century American west. People kind of know about the events that happened in the first 3 books but they're not really part of their lives any more than people in the 19th century considered events in the 16th century part of their lives.

And, if you think about it... 19th C US West is about 300 years after the Renaissance and those are VERY different worlds and settings. Hell, you could set the single player RPG on the other side of Azeroth much like Alloy of Law (the 4th Mistborn novel) seems to be set away from the locations of the first 3 books.

well its always doable, they could go just in close future and make lore reason for very little history knowledge (another cataclysm just bigger or whatnot)
personaly i would prefer game from faaaar away past, troll empire, theres so little known from that time it would have no impact on wow and i love trolls

[Balrog]

I've had this idea for years now that when it will eventually come to the moment when WoW is no longer profitable as a MMORPG, Blizzard should re-use the assets in the entire game and make it a playable solo (or local multiplayer) RPG where the whole of Azeroth is available to you, forever, not hosted on servers, with no sub since there would be no more content updates or patches after that... as a way to let people who truly love Azeroth to be able to stay there and enjoy the world, the zones, the content, for as long as they like without being at the mercy of a company wanting to move onto more profitable pastures.

[Hellobolis]

warcraft souls style sounds like an oxymoron.

warcraft skyrim or witcher 3 style sure why not.

warcraft pillars of eternity/divinity original sin style might be best though. can really throw some war3 references in with that style.

[Guildenstern]

I think the time of great story driven, multiple choice single-player RPGs like KOTORs is, unfortunately gone. As the pace of life increases, children have ever less attention span. They want fast games, explosions everywhere and everything needs to be so oversatured and glittering and cramped with action. Obviously, being good businessmen, gaming companies deliver them just that - shallow, mindless games. Is it bad? Who knows. Maybe its just what society needs at this point in time, and there is no fighting it. But it really hurts me personally.

[Syegfryed]

i would play the fuck out of a single player rpg wow game, like elder scrolls and withcer, imagine everything you would want to do on wow, but you can't because you have no choices

of course not everything would be canon, but would be awesome, chose a faction, ascent to leadership, won faction war, make alliance, end others, when you get high levle enough to dable with politicias and warfare, after wnting on dungeon crawler

[LiteTheWay]

Sooooo it sounds like you want Diablo...but in Azeroth and with all it's frills?

[Pivotal]

I like this idea. Imagine a Singleplayer RPG like Witcher 3 but in Azeroth. I for one would love it.

[Tiwack]

I think it'd be tough and easier to make a new engine than put another game into the existing one that's more spaghetti than code at this point. I think to most and regardless of what you made, it'd feel more like wow than whatever other game you picked to make using its engine.

[Jikate-Stormrage]

I don't know if it is "time". As it stands, I barely had time to play Diablo 3 and even less their other IPs.

I guess it would be interesting to play any of our classes / speccs in a solo (offline) adventure or such. But as it stands...I am looking forward to D4 - but if WoW keeps getting more x-pacs, I am probably busy with them.

So...I guess you are asking a business strategy question to ensure the survival / future of Blizzard as a company. Seeing how even they could not copy the success of WoW with Titan (but wrangled Overwatch from the debris), I honestly have zero idea what time it is for what game to come.

Other than the unpopular opinoion that indeed mobile versions of games are downloaded more than ever, among them ""Call of Duty", "Mario Kart", "Assassin's Creed" or "Minecraft"." - So..you are gonna hate it if they make mobile games, but they sure as hell will do that. And if only for the very reason that so many people here "accuse" Blizzard of: Being only interested in money.

I’m not exclusively interested in their survival as a company; tho neither am I invested in their downfall either.

I’m more interested as a fan. A Skyrim type game set in the WoW universe would certainly be interesting. It would be quite the job to create, but they could save time by using art assets (some like the cartoony on purpose vibe).

As for them making mobile games; I don’t have any issue with that. I do take issue with them being a PC developer and only having a mobile game to announce during what has traditionally been a PC centered convention. Had they PC games to announce and display, I would venture to say the negativity would have been minuscule at best. Outside of that, I wouldn’t tell them to not pursue the mobile market to some extent.

I actually see them entering the mobile market as a bit of a laugh. Titan was supposed to be a new MMO. But by the time they realized they were chasing their tales, the MMO genre had already taken a massive dip. By the time they finally developed Heroes of the Storm, LoL had already had way too much time to solidify their market. Hearthstone (though it does actually do well I think) came only after decades of Magic the Gathering. Overwatch also joins an already well established and saturated genre, tho that genre is fairly persistent when compared to the other ones.

What do they all have in common? They show Blizzard (imho) have really played extremely safe (almost to a self defeating pace) when it comes to innovation in their own IPs. Mobile will be no different. They wouldn’t be looking to innovate their either. But they will want to get their share of the market; but I won’t begrudge them that. Business is business.

However, what genre is just as persistent as first person shooters? Standard RPG experience games. Since the launch of D&D they have been around in one form or another. Longer than shooters even.

That is why I’m wondering if it may be time to consider such a development. I think many would enjoy a pure RPG experience. MMOs can be enjoyable, but they inherently have their design constraints. RPGs don’t really suffer from many of the issues WoW currently is hurting from today.

Just my thoughts.

[MoanaLisa]

I would be down for something in Azeroth that would remind me of Skyrim. Solo or co-op would be fine.

In fact, something like this has the potential to be a huge win for Blizzard as it will play to current gamers, non-MMO gamers, and people who used to play WoW and would like to visit Azeroth again in a non-MMO environment. This could easily sell 50-65 million units.

For that reason, I don't really expect the Blizzard we know to do this. As obvious an opportunity as this is, it's very out-of-the-box for the way they design games.

On the flip side of that if they were working on something like this and announced it sometime in the next year or two it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. It's a natural way to extend the IP and something they haven't done. Chilton has been working on an unannounced project for ages now and he knows his way around Azeroth. I still don't really see it happening but stranger things, as they say.

[Shinrael]

I am dying for a single-player RPG set in the Warcraft Universe. Just, please, make it happen already... What are we waiting for?!

[TwoMana]

Chilton has been working on an unannounced project for ages now and he knows his way around Azeroth. I still don't really see it happening but stranger things, as they say.

Knowing Blizzard's track record with these things, the stuff Chilton was working on, got cancelled after 4 years of work and now he's onto some other project that never sees the light of day.

They seem to set really high standards on their releases, but due to their glacial development velocity, they never seem to quite meet those standards and we're left with yet another retouch of the games they somehow, miraculously managed to release, back before they were completely paralyzed by having to "get it 100% right"

Instead of Skyrim/Witcher-inspired single-player RPG set in Azeroth, we're probably getting 2020 Lost Vikings Remade.

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Hearthstone (though it does actually do well I think) came only after decades of Magic the Gathering.

While I agree with your post - I have to disagree with this one.
Hearthstone was an experiment to see if Blizzard could release a game using a agile, small team - and they did. While MtG had been out as a game, it didn't really have a good digital online player-vs-player product that appealed to wide audience. HS absolutely dominated the CCG market when it came out.

It was a huge success - and should have shown Blizzard the way forward - but instead of letting it fly and investing into the methodology, they "industrialized" the process and apart from pushing new packs twice a year, nothing much happened with the game. The feature set stagnated, eSports alone couldn't really carry the game, the main devs left Blizzard to start their own studio and streamers started switching to other games.

MtG: Arena is out and suddenly they're facing pretty tough competition. They've started to add new features and innovate again (Battlegrounds) - but now they're back to normal Blizzard glacial development speed, with the rest of their mothership... and I don't know.. I think the window has closed and it's downhill from here.

[Jikate-Stormrage]

Knowing Blizzard's track record with these things, the stuff Chilton was working on, got cancelled after 4 years of work and now he's onto some other project that never sees the light of day.

They seem to set really high standards on their releases, but due to their glacial development velocity, they never seem to quite meet those standards and we're left with yet another retouch of the games they somehow, miraculously managed to release, back before they were completely paralyzed by having to "get it 100% right"

Instead of Skyrim/Witcher-inspired single-player RPG set in Azeroth, we're probably getting 2020 Lost Vikings Remade.

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While I agree with your post - I have to disagree with this one.
Hearthstone was an experiment to see if Blizzard could release a game using a agile, small team - and they did. While MtG had been out as a game, it didn't really have a good digital online player-vs-player product that appealed to wide audience. HS absolutely dominated the CCG market when it came out.

It was a huge success - and should have shown Blizzard the way forward - but instead of letting it fly and investing into the methodology, they "industrialized" the process and apart from pushing new packs twice a year, nothing much happened with the game. The feature set stagnated, eSports alone couldn't really carry the game, the main devs left Blizzard to start their own studio and streamers started switching to other games.

MtG: Arena is out and suddenly they're facing pretty tough competition. They've started to add new features and innovate again (Battlegrounds) - but now they're back to normal Blizzard glacial development speed, with the rest of their mothership... and I don't know.. I think the window has closed and it's downhill from here.

Thank you for your input, as you can see in the quote I was unsure about Hearthstone. I don’t play it, nor have I kept up with its development, so I kept it ambiguous.

Thank you for adding quality detail to its issues.

[Ludvig]

I don't think they can create a good enough story or make good enough characters to justify making such an RPG.