Going into the future?

[Grahamington]

So I am not that big on the lore, I will admit this right off the get go, but I noticed that in WoW, we go into the past a lot, but never really seem to venture into the distant future? Would this work, did we do this once and I missed it not following lore?

Just curious is all. Would love to see a super futuristic patch/expansion.

[XDurionX]

End time? The Deaths of Chromie?

[Grahamington]

End time? The Deaths of Chromie?

Just looked it up and it says End Time is a dungeon added in Patch 4.3, Hour of Twilight. Players aid Nozdormu in righting the past and observing darker versions of history.

This wrong?

EDIT - Read further and I guess end time is going into the past to fix a potential future. I guess that is future stuff in a way, haha.

[Usernameforforums]

Every patch/expansion is moments or years into the future

[Grahamington]

Every patch/expansion is moments or years into the future

Oh, I know that. I was talking about possibly a whole patch or a whole expansion that goes WAY into the future hundreds or thousands of years.

[Throwme]

hundreds or thousands of years.

What would be the point?
From a game-perspective: WoW 2? Literally millions of things could happen that change the world physically, causing the need to do another Cataclysm revamp of Azeroth.

From a player perspective: It would be like dragging a caveman into the Star Wars universe. Our player characters would probably not understand anything but the most basic of stuff, which would set us back to level 1 in terms of understanding the world.

So what would be the point in a timetravel patch/expansion?

[Grahamington]

What would be the point?
From a game-perspective: WoW 2? Literally millions of things could happen that change the world physically, causing the need to do another Cataclysm revamp of Azeroth.

From a player perspective: It would be like dragging a caveman into the Star Wars universe. Our player characters would probably not understand anything but the most basic of stuff, which would set us back to level 1 in terms of understanding the world.

So what would be the point in a timetravel patch/expansion?

Well damn, I didn't think that far ahead. The writers are clever and I'm sure they would be able to make it work. Maybe it would just be ascetically pleasing. Seeing more modern designs/new models/etc...Just a thought it all.

[Throwme]

Well damn, I didn't think that far ahead.

Never hurts doing that before posting

Maybe it would just be ascetically pleasing. Seeing more modern designs/new models/etc.

That would be no different from going to new places in a "regular" expansion. The quality of the gameworld has increased over the years. Just compare any vanilla wood area to Val'Sharah. Or any city to Suramar. And that's just the previous expansion. Going forward, things are likely to get even prettier. And always with new models, modern designs and everything you would want from a time-travelling expansion. There's no reason, at all, to skip that far ahead.

[Biomega]

The problem with portraying the future is that you back yourself into a corner as a writer. You don't know what'll happen over the years with your game/story, and where you'll end up taking it - having a predetermined template forcing your hand because you revealed the future is a bad move in that respect.

You think the WoW writers would have anticipated the events of Shadowlands when they wrote, say, TBC? Hell no. And imagine they'd have had to come up with a future scenario there for whatever reason - would it have been the same? Hell no. But what would that leave current writers at, then, if they don't have the freedom to go where they want to go?

That's why whenever you see future events in a story like this, it's always with the convenient out of "oh this is just a POSSIBLE future". That way, you don't have to be a slave to the events you show and you can do whatever you want.

[Trollokdamus]

From a player perspective: It would be like dragging a caveman into the Star Wars universe.

The Warcraft universe's level of advancement will never reach that of Star Wars. I mean, Draenei were fleeing the Legion for 25k years and didn't change one bit. Same goes for Night Elves who are the same spellcasters and tree huggers they were 10k years ago. The entire universe is permanently stuck in the middle ages.

[MoanaLisa]

The most practical issue with going hundreds or thousands of years into the future is that you would need to remake the entire world. The alternative would be to be stuck in the "future" zones for the entire expansion with no way to get back to Stormwind, Orgrimmar or anywhere else. Yes, you might make the portals time machines as well but it's just a mish-mash if you do that.

[Newname1234567890]

I mean if we ever have a Brozne Dragonflight time travel expasion. A cool patch theme could be past, present and future

[Hastis]

We cant go into future cuz that would spoiler too much what happend in past.. its just a bad for story. Its hard to make good time-traveling story and wow is one of those things that shouldnt have anything common with it

[cparle87]

The Warcraft universe's level of advancement will never reach that of Star Wars. I mean, Draenei were fleeing the Legion for 25k years and didn't change one bit. Same goes for Night Elves who are the same spellcasters and tree huggers they were 10k years ago. The entire universe is permanently stuck in the middle ages.

I dunno. The night elves are kind of a bad example because they are consciously keeping themselves at a more primal, in tune with natural level. We've had quite a bit of technology advancement. Just look at the basic tanks we used in WC2 and compare them to new ones or especially the azerite empowered ones. As for the draenei I'd bet the Vindicaar is quite a bit more advanced than the Genedar and Xenedar.

[Throwme]

The Warcraft universe's level of advancement will never reach that of Star Wars.

And yet, we are slowly moving there. Slowly, but surely. Technological advancements start out slow, then gradually come faster and faster. A computer like WOPR shown in Wargames from 1983 is so inferior to the device I'm holding in my hand right now typing this. It's been 37 years and it is immensely more powerful. Now imagine what will happen if you add another 63 years for just one decadecentury's worth of progress. And since the OP wanted hundreds or thousands years to pass, getting close to the SW level of tech is not out of the question.

Yes, WoW is stuck in medieval style because that's the way the game is meant to be. Doesn't mean it cannot change. If it did, we wouldn't have steampunk stuff and lazors. Which we do.

Edit: Decade, century, minor detail

[Kyphael]

Now I want Mechagnomes to build a DeLorean.

[Trollokdamus]

I dunno. The night elves are kind of a bad example because they are consciously keeping themselves at a more primal, in tune with natural level. We've had quite a bit of technology advancement. Just look at the basic tanks we used in WC2 and compare them to new ones or especially the azerite empowered ones. As for the draenei I'd bet the Vindicaar is quite a bit more advanced than the Genedar and Xenedar.

That's understandable, but even the Highborne and the Nightborne who have no such restraints are still on the same level when it comes to technology and magic. Even their society itself hasn't developed at all and is still medieval. And yeah, we do see some new technology from time to time (mostly coming from gnomes and goblins), but it doesn't seem to affect the universe as a whole. It's still a medieval world inhabited by people with a medieval mindset.

And yet, we are slowly moving there. Slowly, but surely. Technological advancements start out slow, then gradually come faster and faster. A computer like WOPR shown in Wargames from 1983 is so inferior to the device I'm holding in my hand right now typing this. It's been 37 years and it is immensely more powerful. Now imagine what will happen if you add another 63 years for just one decadecentury's worth of progress. And since the OP wanted hundreds or thousands years to pass, getting close to the SW level of tech is not out of the question.

Yes, WoW is stuck in medieval style because that's the way the game is meant to be. Doesn't mean it cannot change. If it did, we wouldn't have steampunk stuff and lazors. Which we do.

Edit: Decade, century, minor detail

Thing is, you're describing how technology advances in the real world, but I don't think that the same can be applied to a fantasy one. We don't see gradual technological development here. Instead, we have... "pockets" (can't think of a better word, sorry) of advanced technology which are only added to serve the plot at a particular point. What's more important though there is no social development. Look at the titans. Despite all their technology, they still look and act medieval. Draenei are supposed to have developed impressive technology on Argus, yet they were and still are medieval as well.

[Monster Hunter]

Well damn, I didn't think that far ahead. The writers are clever and I'm sure they would be able to make it work. Maybe it would just be ascetically pleasing. Seeing more modern designs/new models/etc...Just a thought it all.

Time travel is a very difficult trope to pull off properly, even some of the best writers in history mess it up. So I'm always apprehensive when ever it crops up, that said there's often less problems traveling forward in time for a story than back as long as its established alternait time lines and multiverses exhist in the fictional world which they do in wow so it means the main timeline dosnt have to link up with that specific future which would trivialise any threats between now and then as that future would be a fixed outcome in a deterministic universe.

But alternate time lines and multiverses come with there own set of problems and issues that the wow writers found out first hand with warlord of dreanors story. I doubt we will get much time travel typed plot points after the mess they made with that.