How big a time jump do you want in 10.0?

[Vilendor]

Thousand years. I want Azeroth to be a living, fully healed and developed titan when we come back and the planet to be an Outland style cracked husk/egg shell

[Romanthony]

I mean i also pointed this breadcrumb to a friend and they also told me "They promised the same thing with Argus" remember when we was told time travels differently in argus, since The army of light and Co was fighting for 1000 years but when we got there, it was normal time

[Gaidax]

Overall I'd say about 10 years give or take.

If this is a thing, I still want to get back to Azeroth with characters I recognize and world I recognize and in Warcraft terms 10 years is like eternity - I mean whole bloody World of Warcraft timeline is 10 years world time from Vanilla to BFA including.

So 10 years is really enough time for whatever next big threat we face to make massive footprint on Azeroth, without having to replace whole cast with children/grandchildren/descendants.

- - - Updated - - -

Also props on actually interesting thread in MMO-C in a while. That would be a first this week.

[RyudoTFO]

None or at least insignificant. Like 1-2 years more than we actually expected but not a decade. Enough for some things to change but not revamp everything we know.

If they will be doing a big time jump at all, please, for the love of all that is holly, no "going back in time to relive some important history events but end up changing them and creating another AU" crap again.
Only way to go is forward. No "oooops, something went wrong an now we are stuck in the past" expansions.

If you want "War of the Ancients" or "Fall of Stormwind" or any other big event from Azeroth's history to be available as content, use the Caves of Time for this and not the whole expansion. Such things can be done as a raid or a sub-zone, introduced in a content patch (similar to Mechagon or Timeless Isle), through the CoT.

[Gaidax]

If they will be doing a big time jump at all, please, for the love of all that is holly, no "going back in time to relive some important history events but end up changing them and creating another AU" crap again. If you want "War of the Ancients" or "Fall of Stormwind" or any other big event from Azeroth's history to be available as content, use the Caves of Time for this and not the whole expansion. Such things can be done as a raid or a sub-zone, introduced in a content patch (similar to Mechagon or Timeless Isle), through the CoT.

As a side note, I'd add that I'd much rather have story going forward instead of back or sideways. There is a shitton of unresolved plotlines and various big bads around the corner, so doing something like "lulz now we're 10k years back to War of Ancients expansion" would be completely pointless.

[Protar95]

I think it's the sheer novelty of the idea and the promise of change for change's sake that excites people. But I believe even a cursory examination of how it would work in practice reveals it shortcomings and sheer undesirability.

It's simply impractical as an idea as it would disrupt the narrative. And there is no longer any reason for a huge 'world revamp'. People now have seven or eight levelling paths from 1-50, sinking a gross amount of development time into overhauling the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor again just doesn't make sense.

A timeskip in Warcraft lore should be saved for the one event it would actually benefit. World of Warcraft 2. Which, as we know, is so far off in the distance it's barely a concept.

I see two reasons to revamp. The first would be new players. Blizzard clearly wants to entice new players into the game - it's why they made Exile's Reach. Currently though a new player plays through this gorgeous starting zone in Exile's Reach...and then at level ten they're transported to the comparatively ugly Stormwind or Orgrimmar. And sure, on their first go around they're sent through BFA and Shadowlands. But on their first alt the odds are they'll end up playing through content that is a decade old or more. And likely they won't find it charming or nostalgic as we do, but outdated and out of place.

The second reason is to actually give Kalimdor and EK some purpose in the end game. Those continents are the "true" Azeroth, where the older players likely have their fondest memories. So it's a damn shame that players don't get to spend much time in them at endgame. A 10.0 revamp shouldn't just be for levelling but should integrate max level content like world quests.

[Amarys]

Ten thousand years! And naturally Illidan should still be around to say it. Think about how awesome it would be if he'd be like "I guarded Sargeras for TEN THOUSAND YEARS and this is the thanks I get".

But seriously yea, I want a longer time skip too. First of it to pace things out a bit lorewise. It's silly that we just kill all the major threats that have been around forever within a decade and secondly, like many have already said, the old world is outdated and stuck in Cata(I started in WoD so most of the things didn't even make sense to me while leveling) and needs an overall.

[Shinrael]

While I am not the guy you quoted...I imagine it would feel like you start a completely new and different game. Well..at first you level through a familiar game..and then...BAM it is all taken away after 24 hrs of getting familiar.

If ppl want a new game, they would probably quit and play a new game. As it is, WoW has this comfy mix of old and well known...and then tosses something new in every 2 years, within this well known frame work.

I don't even have an opinion on what I want....I haven't really considered the implication. Poll already shows that with only 3 options there will be already a lot of unhappy and alienated players....actually no matter what they do...over 50% don't get what they want (and there isn't even a "no time skip" option)

Those are fair concerns but we wouldn't know until we try it, I believe. It depends on the execution. I drew a map of a post-time skip (400 years) Azeroth about 10 years ago. I really liked the idea of a time skip and a new slate so to say. But I did have in mind that most races would still be alive (draenei, blood elves, night elves, etc). And as you said, 50% will always be unhappy with what Blizzard does. I might as well say that "unless they revamp the world, I will be unhappy" and throw a tantrum on the forums too. Except I try to be a little more mature than those guys and see the bigger picture. We can't forever be slaves to the people without imagination. At some point we have to take a bold step into an unknown future and try new things out, shake the world up.

Because off screen story development is the worst kind of story development. Our characters are supposed to be part of these factions and races, so drastically changing them without showing us how or why these changes occurred is a sure recipe to get players to lose investment in the world.

A well-executed time skip does not necessarily mean that we will lose investment in the world. What investment do you have currently in the old zones which have been forgotten for over a decade? It's by having a world revamp that we can once again connect with the old, forgotten, parts of the world. It would allow us to revisit the old world in a meaningful way other than "well, time to grind another alt from level 1 to max by following an "autopilot" addon."

Oh my god.

There will be no time skip!

You've not even left a "none" option in the poll!

There's never a time skip. There's Blizzard leaving some wiggle room. But there is never a time skip.

If anything, time will be moving faster in the Shadowlands, like in the Nether.

There have been 3-4 time skips so far. Sorry to burst your bubble.

[Niroshi]

Personally I think I'd rather see centuries, but with the contrivance of Shadowlands bringing through a few of the key characters now. Blizzard's passions only really seem to pop up when they're making up brand new shit rather than iterating on old lore, so maybe this way they'd just go ham.

[Caerule]

There have been 3-4 time skips so far. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Sorry to burst yours. There has never been one. People claiming this have always been proving wrong.

The episodic nature of WoW means you see big changes pop out of nowhere sometimes. As work that should take weeks or months just gets finished in a second, because Blizzard has to give it to us in a state that they won't need to touch again for the next decade. That has never meant they have skipped ahead years between expansions. Blizzards words and the provided timelines have confirmed this, every time there's another rumored timeskip.

Don't get me wrong. I am on Team World Revamp. But I'm not on board with pushing for a timeskip. I understand you want it. But let's not let that read into things to establish an alternate view of reality. Truth is, they don't need a time skip to justify a world remake. There's so many things that happened to reshape Azeroth already in recent years. Crashing Legion ships. Old Gods. Soon a Scourge invasion. A giant war. And whatever the next expansion will bring. You don't need a time skip. If anything it'll make it harder to justify carrying on from the situation in the world right now. It's already been a decade since the great Cataclysm in most zones. That's already a huge amount of time between following up on past questlines. And that follow-up sounds more interesting to me than adding another 20 years, and making things that much more disconnected.

It's unnecessary. It's never been done. There's no real evidence of it happening now.

[Gurahk]

We'll just go back in time, calling it.

[Syegfryed]

Decades is enough to reshape the world <Kalindor and Easter kingdoms> entirely

Is enough to have new characters, zones, and questlines to explore, new factions inside races, new kingdoms, new bases, new conflicts, that could be open to people forever guess who started

Would be like "a new vanilla", in the sense of is using the old continents, with different storylines, everything would be "brand new"

but i don't know if blizz rly want to do that.

[Obelisk Kai]

I see two reasons to revamp. The first would be new players. Blizzard clearly wants to entice new players into the game - it's why they made Exile's Reach. Currently though a new player plays through this gorgeous starting zone in Exile's Reach...and then at level ten they're transported to the comparatively ugly Stormwind or Orgrimmar. And sure, on their first go around they're sent through BFA and Shadowlands. But on their first alt the odds are they'll end up playing through content that is a decade old or more. And likely they won't find it charming or nostalgic as we do, but outdated and out of place.

The second reason is to actually give Kalimdor and EK some purpose in the end game. Those continents are the "true" Azeroth, where the older players likely have their fondest memories. So it's a damn shame that players don't get to spend much time in them at endgame. A 10.0 revamp shouldn't just be for levelling but should integrate max level content like world quests.

New players now have that tailored experience. Exile's reach through Battle For Azeorth towards Shadowlands. Once they are done the first time around, they now have seven other paths they can take for other characters, ensuring a huge amount of variety and content is available for each character. And as each expansion completes, they will in time become additional levelling paths. Whilst some of the paths maybe relatively outdated compared to modern paths, on the burning crusade path is truly archaic (which has the value of giving it a unique playthrough).
The Cataclysm revamp content still holds up pretty well with the rest of the game, with a good zone flow and interesting questing design. That content took a substantial amount of effort to develop back in the day, and some way say at the expense of the endgame content of that expansion, so tossing it out now when it works, is playable, and is solid content seems counter-intutitive and, to be a little blunt, a complete waste of time they could spend productively on new content rather than refurbishing one of eight levelling paths.

The second reason is entirely subjective. Whilst Kalimdor and EK are the main continents, the majority of their content is for lower levels. Orgrimmar and Stormwind still function as important social hubs, and they will continue to be that, but the emotional attachment some feel towards the original continents doesn't justify overhauling all the content they contain now for so little reward. I mean consider what would happen if they did do what you suggest, you'd feel an abstract sense of satisfaction that the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor were again relevant. For about two years. Then the next expansion would hit, we would move on, and those continents would be left behind again. You'd need another revamp at that point and it's simply not feasible to keep revamping them, trashing tons of viable content in the process, simply for an abstract sense of satisfaction that these locations matter for a brief, ephemeral moment.

No, far better they push forwards, create new places to explore yet always willing to create new, phased experiences in older areas if it makes sense.

[Ragnarohk]

Time skip 40,000 years and call it WORLD OF WARCRAFT 40K

where Chaos still exist corrupting planets!

This.

something, something steampunk something tinkers.

[Gaidax]

I'll just leave this here:

[Jujudrood]

When they first announced Shadowlands, I had some cockamamie theory about time moving different there, so while our PCs and the lore NPCs who come spend a 2 year campaign there (or however much time passes throughout your standard fare expansion), 100 years or more passes in Azeroth.
We would come back to find new leaders risen into power due to our prolonged absence as well as the world basically Cata 2.0'd, but all zones are evolved and revamped.
The big bad would be the Void, which has seeped in and taken control of various areas since the Champions of Azeroth and the bravest heroes have been MIA.
Then I would assume, should this come to pass, some Chromie shenanigans would take place as a way to help "restore" Azeroth or whatever.

I would like it to be a significant chunk of time; not just like "5 years has passed", or something that would feel less like a real event.
You need enough time to really make a difference, to see and feel the change, and the game needs new lore characters and stories injected to freshen it up, especially since the whole faction war was a nonsensical flop.

But, I have this deep-seeded fear that what will happen is, we spend years in Shadowlands, maybe upwards of 5-10 years lore-wise (so Wahnduin can grow up a little), on this campaign, then when we come back, we "reappear" basically at the same instant that we left and no real world time has passed, then we just pick up where we left off and everyone lets out a sigh of exasperation as they turn off their PCs, slowly stand up, then hang their head and walk away to a window, where they open the curtains and raise their heads to see the *real world* has actually changed; a world rife with wonder where they begin their journey anew on planet Earth, discovering all the sights and sounds and such, ready to start over in reality. This was the *true* intention of Shadowlands and fighting off death; to realize there's a life to live!
Or not.
Whatevs.

[Protar95]

New players now have that tailored experience. Exile's reach through Battle For Azeorth towards Shadowlands. Once they are done the first time around, they now have seven other paths they can take for other characters, ensuring a huge amount of variety and content is available for each character. And as each expansion completes, they will in time become additional levelling paths. Whilst some of the paths maybe relatively outdated compared to modern paths, on the burning crusade path is truly archaic (which has the value of giving it a unique playthrough).
The Cataclysm revamp content still holds up pretty well with the rest of the game, with a good zone flow and interesting questing design. That content took a substantial amount of effort to develop back in the day, and some way say at the expense of the endgame content of that expansion, so tossing it out now when it works, is playable, and is solid content seems counter-intutitive and, to be a little blunt, a complete waste of time they could spend productively on new content rather than refurbishing one of eight levelling paths.

The second reason is entirely subjective. Whilst Kalimdor and EK are the main continents, the majority of their content is for lower levels. Orgrimmar and Stormwind still function as important social hubs, and they will continue to be that, but the emotional attachment some feel towards the original continents doesn't justify overhauling all the content they contain now for so little reward. I mean consider what would happen if they did do what you suggest, you'd feel an abstract sense of satisfaction that the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor were again relevant. For about two years. Then the next expansion would hit, we would move on, and those continents would be left behind again. You'd need another revamp at that point and it's simply not feasible to keep revamping them, trashing tons of viable content in the process, simply for an abstract sense of satisfaction that these locations matter for a brief, ephemeral moment.

No, far better they push forwards, create new places to explore yet always willing to create new, phased experiences in older areas if it makes sense.

The older content isn't unplayable, but it's certainly showing its age. I dunno, I think as a new player I'd be pretty disappointed if I made my first alt - the first time I'd have the freedom to choose whichever levelling route I wanted, and ended up in Outland. Sure we all love Outland but to a new player a 13 year old continent would seem jarring. It's about consistency. Certainly the whole game needs to be bought up to the same level of graphics as more recent expansions.

As to the second point I'd hope that a revamp would future proof the old world. With level scaling technology Kalimdor and EK (perhaps Outland and Northrend too) could be forever relevant.

ETA: Phasing is cool and it's a useful tool. But it doesn't really feel like a "world" of Warcraft when you're stuck in squirreled away island chains or alternate dimensions and the only way to actually see plot progression in the main world is through instanced quests.

[Kyphael]

World is unrecognizable, new characters, factions, cities etc.

Thrall's son does not interest me in the slightest if you throw him into the current roster of irreparably-damaged characters, even if Anduin and Baine are a few decades older, they aren't going to be written any better. We need a clean slate and fresh start. At least it'll take Blizzard longer to fuck up the lore again from ground zero.

[Blackmist]

Time jump doesn't concern me. I'd just like to see the "Yrel and her Lightbound come to Azeroth to subjugate it in the name of the AU Lightmother" (whom is probably an AU Xe'ra) story get wrapped up properly.

I'm down with that. Alliance need some "morally grey" despots as well.

[Tang0]

Warcraft 40k?