Did BFA ended all the hooks from Vanilla and Warcraft 3?

[Luck4]

I was thinking about this another day, trying to figure out why Shadowlands was the first expansion announcement that I didn't have any excitement about since I started playing back in late TBC.

In the process, I noticed that every expansion we had before explored mostly everything the Warcraft franchise had to offer.

Vanilla = Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor

Burning Crusade = Outland and Quel'thalas

Wrath of the Lich King = Northrend

Cataclysm = The elemental planes and the remaining zones from Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms.

Mists of Pandaria = Pandaria - this is when I thought they were running out of ideas, surely Pandaren was a thing back in Warcraft 3, but I never expected to see a full expansion all about them.

Warlords of Draenor = Bad attempt on Warcraft 2 lore, but still something we were familiar with. And we were able to see Draenor before it was blown up.

Legion = Broken Isles, Argus, Emerald Nightmare/Dream

Battle for Azeroth = Kul Tiras, Naz'jatar, Zandalar, and Nya'lotha.

Then in Shadowlands, we got an expansion centered around a place that we barely heard about and were more akin to visiting the Emerald Dream than anything else.


So, with that in mind, what's left?




Are we going to explore more cosmic realms/planes that everything we know about them can be summarized in a single image or even a word?




This is why I think so many players want a World Revamp because there are no longer places that we wanna visit, we literally explored everything we've heard a lot about and were excited to explore. So, the only right move would be going back home, starting over.

Another day I made a post on the 10.0 speculation thread about leaks being scarce these days, but that's also because of what I said above. I mean, back in the day anyone could make a "fake leak" about a reasonable place like: 6.0 will be about Argus, or 5.0 will be about either the South Seas, Broken Isles, or Naz'jatar. We had so many places that we knew we would explore at some point, and also who would be a major character there, such as Kil'jaeden and Sargeras, Azshara, Rasthakhan, N'zoth, etc. Feels like the Warcraft franchise already used all its characters and places we could be hyped about, and I think that's also why so many people are not engaged with the lore anymore, it seems like nobody cares about the fate of the Jailer Zovaal, and I think that's because he literally came out of nowhere and is meant only to be used as a plot device so we could have someone to blame for Sylvanas actions and an excuse to visit the Shadowlands.

While I think we still have a single character that is meant to become a villain (Nozdormu), he technically lost his Aspect powers and shouldn't be able to become (Muronozond), and the place that could fit in his expansion (Dragon Isles), we also barely heard anything about. So, even this could feel empty for many people.


What do you guys think? Did I forget something? There's still any place that we should be excited to visit?

[Powerogue]

I'd still like to visit Elune's surface if they decide to have that as a "world" we visit, and the full uncorrupted Emerald Dream, though I was pretty damn sated by Ardenweald, which felt like a fusion of everything I loved about Suramar, Teldrassil, and The Emerald Dream all in one.

[Luck4]

I think we'll visit the Emerald Dream again at some point, there's a minor hook there at the end of the raid. But I'm not sure if that's enough for an expansion.

We also got this hint in BFA:

[Derpules]

Farahlon aka Netherstorm before outlands exploded. I loved the idea of the eco-domes and the consortium form TBC and looked forward to seeing PAST netherstorm in WoD

/Sad trombone noises

'Other' side of Azeroth debate: Globes don't show Azeroth like that vs. Those same globes were wrong about Pandaria/Kul'tiras/Kezan, etc.

Inside of Azeroth. GoldenYak had a killer write up for a spider kingdom exploring azjol'nerub and the likes. Is deepholm is elemental plane (iirc), so I don't see why we can't see what's sprawling around in the deep. Could be useful for more old god shit, leftover deathwing tidbits, healing the sword wound in Silithus (is anyone gonna do something about that damn swords other than when we sacrificed legion weapons to 'stop' it?). Also maybe we go too deep and wake up Azeroth, she cracks her shell, and we're all sent screaming into the void of space..................................................................................... ...............to get sent back to the shadowlands.

[Luck4]

Every single quest is a potential hook to continue.

That goes as well for every single character, every single place, every single object. All of it.

The very notion that you could ever be "done" wrapping up all the lore is absurd imo.

I know, but we had so much to think about before, and while what you said is true it's hard for me to name like four places or villains out there, and all of them feel very vague and empty to some extent, like no major plots that could be hiding there, or something that wasn't finished yet.

[MrLachyG]

honestly I am still waiting for a Dragon Isles expansion where we re-empower the Dragonflights. When we re-empower them at the end of a questline we get given an ability which activates in their zone (similar to WoD zone perks) and can use in raid but only one per boss fight - but you can choose which one before each boss fight

[LostSinclair]

I think we'll either get a dragon isles type continent or maybe a Cataclysm 2.0 and suddenly old zones are current again. Still there's bound to be some unexplored zones on Azeroth we haven't been introduced to yet.

[Nachtigal]

I don’t know. But I enjoy them trying to expand and diversify the Warcraft universe. Sure some things are coming in an order I don’t prefer, but truth is they’ve expanded on a lot of things I’ve wanted to see. Nazjatar, emerald dream, Argus, etc.. I just hope they have enough time to fill out the rest of the universe before the game dies

[Cosmic Janitor]

Obviously not every hook has ended by now, but the ones that you can make an expansion out of have dwindled to near zero. One of the few remaining is probably Azjol'Nerub. While an "other side of azeroth" expansion would be kinda cool, the state of the world makes that one completely illogical, not that this has ever stopped Blizzard. Certainly when it comes to the bigger stories of vanilla and WC3 we don't have much left. We've had plenty of contact with the Titans and their creations, so all that seeded stuff has practically evaporated, the endgame dungeon questlines of vanilla have been used up and resolved. Blackrock is more or less conquered, the black dragon flight has been driven to near extinction and the dwarves united, the pestlands are healing and the scourge has been beaten, the thousand sands and CThun have been defefeated and nuked from orbit with a giant sword, Hyjal has been secured and the firelord beaten, etc. I can't think of anything right now that is still open.

We have plenty of expanson hooks from after vanilla left, like dragon isles, other planets, void and light rubbish, elune, etc. I doubt you can make a decent expansion out of Mankrik's wife..

[Luck4]

honestly I am still waiting for a Dragon Isles expansion where we re-empower the Dragonflights.

I think we'll either get a dragon isles type continent or maybe a Cataclysm 2.0 and suddenly old zones are current again.

We have plenty of expanson hooks from after vanilla left, like dragon isles, other planets, void and light rubbish, elune, etc.

I feel like Dragon Isles is probably the only place left that could be big enough to make one expansion that's also located in Azeroth, besides "the other side of Azeroth" speculation, ofc.

Other than that I can only think about a few islands here and there such as:

Tel'Abim



Plunder Isle

[melzas]

Going back to EK and Kalimdor seems like the best idea. I don't mean cataclysm 2.0, but completely redesigned zones from scratch, updating them to 10.0 standards, giving them endgame purpose. Put old EK and Kalimdor accessible in caverns of time though.

For instance 10.0 could deal in Tanaris, with Gadzetzan being the main hub (looking at Hearthstone mean streets expansion), with city being reimagined as a metropolis of Borealus size, with districts, gangs and all the big city vibes. From there we could explore new Ungoro dealing with some Titan facilities and dinosaurs, AhnQiraj remade as a remnant of dark empire zone, Silithius and aftermath of the wound. Caverns of time could be entire new zone with dungeons and raid...

These are just some loose ideas, but the point is we don't need completely new continent or planet, with EK and Kalimdor having so much potential.

[Chonar]

I feel like Dragon Isles is probably the only place left that could be big enough to make one expansion that's also located in Azeroth, besides "the other side of Azeroth" speculation, ofc.

Other than that I can only think about a few islands here and there such as:

Tel'Abim

OOoohh, BANANA.

[Luck4]

Going back to EK and Kalimdor seems like the best idea. I don't mean cataclysm 2.0, but completely redesigned zones from scratch, updating them to 10.0 standards, giving them endgame purpose. Put old EK and Kalimdor accessible in caverns of time though.

That would be a dream becoming true, they could even make this a two expansion deal, like Kalimdor in 10.0, then 11.0 Eastern Kingdoms, and 12.0 Dragons Isles.

[Pheraz]

Yes. I really don't like other planets with one exception being Argus. The weird theme is the problem of SL. They should totally make a world revamp plus some new Islands on azeroth. And also they need to calm the f*ck with the power level of our enemies. We've entered DBZ mode

[Accendor]

I was thinking about this another day, trying to figure out why Shadowlands was the first expansion announcement that I didn't have any excitement about since I started playing back in late TBC.

In the process, I noticed that every expansion we had before explored mostly everything the Warcraft franchise had to offer.

Vanilla = Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor

Burning Crusade = Outland and Quel'thalas

Wrath of the Lich King = Northrend

Cataclysm = The elemental planes and the remaining zones from Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms.

Mists of Pandaria = Pandaria - this is when I thought they were running out of ideas, surely Pandaren was a thing back in Warcraft 3, but I never expected to see a full expansion all about them.

Warlords of Draenor = Bad attempt on Warcraft 2 lore, but still something we were familiar with. And we were able to see Draenor before it was blown up.

Legion = Broken Isles, Argus, Emerald Nightmare/Dream

Battle for Azeroth = Kul Tiras, Naz'jatar, Zandalar, and Nya'lotha.

Then in Shadowlands, we got an expansion centered around a place that we barely heard about and were more akin to visiting the Emerald Dream than anything else.


So, with that in mind, what's left?




Are we going to explore more cosmic realms/planes that everything we know about them can be summarized in a single image or even a word?




This is why I think so many players want a World Revamp because there are no longer places that we wanna visit, we literally explored everything we've heard a lot about and were excited to explore. So, the only right move would be going back home, starting over.

Another day I made a post on the 10.0 speculation thread about leaks being scarce these days, but that's also because of what I said above. I mean, back in the day anyone could make a "fake leak" about a reasonable place like: 6.0 will be about Argus, or 5.0 will be about either the South Seas, Broken Isles, or Naz'jatar. We had so many places that we knew we would explore at some point, and also who would be a major character there, such as Kil'jaeden and Sargeras, Azshara, Rasthakhan, N'zoth, etc. Feels like the Warcraft franchise already used all its characters and places we could be hyped about, and I think that's also why so many people are not engaged with the lore anymore, it seems like nobody cares about the fate of the Jailer Zovaal, and I think that's because he literally came out of nowhere and is meant only to be used as a plot device so we could have someone to blame for Sylvanas actions and an excuse to visit the Shadowlands.

While I think we still have a single character that is meant to become a villain (Nozdormu), he technically lost his Aspect powers and shouldn't be able to become (Muronozond), and the place that could fit in his expansion (Dragon Isles), we also barely heard anything about. So, even this could feel empty for many people.


What do you guys think? Did I forget something? There's still any place that we should be excited to visit?

I mean they literally wasted zones like the emerald dream, Argus, Nazjatar and Nyalotha for single patches, when each of them had the potential for a whole expansion...

[TheRevenantHero]

After BfA and SL, I don't think it really matters what is next. Blizzard clearly just....doesn't care anymore. So whatever we get will likely be half-assed.

[rayvio]

there's still Undermine the home of most of the Goblin Cartels

[Cosmic Janitor]

OOoohh, BANANA.

Lol, I always have https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tou8-Cz8is playing in my head when I see that name.

[Luck4]

also they need to calm the f*ck with the power level of our enemies. We've entered DBZ mode

I wonder if we're gonna see the First Ones on 9.2 already.

I mean they literally wasted zones like the emerald dream, Argus, Nazjatar and Nyalotha for single patches, when each of them had the potential for a whole expansion...

Yeah, that's a shame. And Azshara/Naz'jatar wasted potential being the biggest casualty IMO.

After BfA and SL, I don't think it really matters what is next. Blizzard clearly just....doesn't care anymore. So whatever we get will likely be half-assed.

While I agree to some extent, I'm still trying to stay optimistic for 10.0.

[Chonar]

Lol, I always have https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tou8-Cz8is playing in my head when I see that name.

Similarily, I cannot listen to the Banana Boat song anymore without envisioning this positively glorious scene from Beetlejuice.