10.0 Revamp - Seems extremely likely now

[ro9ue]

A lot of Shadowlands feels contrived and forced. However, if you start to look at it from the perspective of the developers who probably want to update their 17 year old game, the plot point of a mega Lich King with the keys to remake reality starts to make a lot more sense. (BTW, sidenote: I have a feeling the Jailer won't be choosing how to remake the reality, and the main characters will just come together to "fix" a few of their past mistakes - Thrall and Garrosh/Draenor, Sylvanas and Teldrassil, Jaina and stopping Arthas at Strath etc).

1) They don't want to do a WoW 2.0 and segment the playerbase. Both EQ/EQ2 and Destiny 1/2 already did this and the issues with it are quite clear.

2) They NEED to make MASSIVE updates to the game, one of the primary faction capitals of Stormwind looks like it's made out of Legos comparatively to any other modern WoW city.

3) A zillion loose ends with time period phasing. Does it make sense to update Outland when you have Draenor? Bronze Dragonflight NPCs everywhere that you talk to for different phases.

4) WoW's file size is getting larger and larger as we speak. Destiny 2 showed us that companies are willing to "vault" content to preserve file size. This is horrible in Destiny 2 in my opinion, but WoW has WoW Classic to hold and preserve the old zones. They're also clearly going to continue progressing classic servers so everyone will always get to play old stuff whenever they want - if they follow the EverQuest path you can have multiple server sets running in parallel at different chronological periods so everyone has access to a game state they want.

5) If you look at what the game lacks from the perspective of an entire team knowing they're going to be making dramatic updates. No player housing yet, when every other MMO has it, starts to make sense if they knew they were building up to a massive reconstruction of the game. These are massive player investments. Who the hell would make a house in Stormwind or Silvermoon if you had an option to do it in Suramar or updated Dalaran?

6) Players wondered where all the big class updates are, it makes sense to wait until something like this happens to make dramatic changes.


Does anyone else feel this makes the revamp way more likely given what we know what this is all building up to? The developers have led us, however confusingly, to a point where we have a method to remake reality, seems crazy they would squander it in the light of how badly WoW needs to be refreshed updated.

[Hyrja]

Yep, will probably happen.
The 9.2 video tells it all.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

We're in desperate need of everything being visually updated to 2022/23 graphics as well as the engine getting a fresh oil change.

[Syegfryed]

Probably yes, the fear is how they will do it.

i 100% expect a well made and beautiful world, with no substance or soul, the art team is excellent like we know they are, but the lore team is awful, they will butcher the old world like they did with the lore

They will not know how to settle borders and small area conflict, they will not know how to handle individual clans, tribes, cities or groups, they will fuck up the ones already there because they have no sense of world building taking account what we already have in warcraft, they will screw the horde even more, they will not care about the differences between groups on then, neither the alliance, all other human cities will be neglect in prol of stormwind and etc.


And all of this will be exponentially worse if they don't do a timeskip, because everything will feel forced and not organic, lore overall is shocked with no time to breath, set/sink in.

[Relapses]

I wonder if this'll be another thinly veiled request for player housing...

No player housing yet, when every other MMO has it, starts to make sense if they knew they were building up to a massive reconstruction of the game.

Oh hey.

Here's an idea: Instead of asking for player housing in WoW, play a MMO that has player housing in it. Thanks.

[ro9ue]

I wonder if this'll be another thinly veiled request for player housing...



Oh hey.

Here's an idea: Instead of asking for player housing in WoW, play a MMO that has player housing in it. Thanks.

I do, I play ESO.

[Kharli]

tbh, i'm unsure. I want a refresh, sure let it take like a year, by all means but ensure its not rushed and leave zones unfinished. i'm looking at you cataclysm..

[Relapses]

I do, I play ESO.

Then keep playing it. Player housing has no business being in WoW. Blizzard should focus on improving the things the game already does different from other games instead of trying to make it just like every other MMO on the market.

[CalamityHeart]

I'd like to think that Blizzard is biding their time and building their energy to absolutely floor their playerbase with the second coming of WoW-Christ in 10.0 and revamp and transform the entire game world into a novel and revolutionary utopia with amazing graphics, a compelling story and characters, and a surplus of fun and interesting features for players of all type.

But I've learned not to get my hopes up and expect the moon from Blizzard when what's really extremely likely is that 10.0 will just be more WoW, and that people who like WoW will be content with more WoW, and that people who wanted the moon are going to be pissed that (for some reason) they got more WoW instead.

So no, I personally don't think that there's anything particularly jaw-dropping like a massive revamp that's going to be coming with 10.0. It would be a pleasant surprise, though.

[ro9ue]

Then keep playing it. Player housing has no business being in WoW. Blizzard should focus on improving the things the game already does different from other games instead of trying to make it just like every other MMO on the market.

Uh... why?

[Relapses]

Uh... why?

Maybe read the sentence which followed the one you highlighted?

[Swnem]

Looking at 9.2 and how it's more of the same, i am not so sure anything will change.
Sure, the "setting" may be leading to a revamp in story terms, but i have close to zero faith in Blizzard.

[McNeil]

I could see them making an attempt but it will utterly fail

[enigma77]

Wishful thinking.

They'll just create more mediocre expansions like Shadowlands and BFA until the game finally dies off in 5 or 6 years.

[Darththeo]

Wishful thinking.

They'll just create more mediocre expansions like Shadowlands and BFA until the game finally dies off in 5 or 6 years.

WoW isn't going to die in 5 to 6 years.
As long as it makes enough money, they'll push out content for years.

Expansion cycles may become longer. It may go Freemium model that a lot of dying MMOs do. But, that model allows games that should have died to continue to go until it finally dies.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

The evidence is definitely all there at this point. The devs are talking about a "return to Azeroth" about "a more grounded story," Classic is continuing to kick Shadowland's ass, and we have datamined HD assets for OG Human architecture.

Though we've been burned on this stove so many times before I hesitate to say confirmed until it happens.



Question is will it work or will it flop. There's a lot more wrong with WoW than just "the leveling is convoluted." The game lost its soul long ago, the class design has been stubbornly kept stagnant so long that the very foundations of most classes are rotten, the story's become incomprehensible to most and offensive to those who can understand it, and the players drive a culture of "speed speed speed rush rush rush world first world first world first." If Blizz doesn't also address those, no amount of pretty buildings will save WoW.

[darklogrus]

Blizzards past experience proves they can't handle revamps. Hell when its all said and done it took them 16 months to roll out a second content patch..

[DarkAmbient]

Unlikely. 10.0 was already being designed before Shadowlands was released and its story and major systems would have been pretty much set in stone after that. If you're looking for a "we fucked up so we did everything you wanted" expansion 10.0 ain't it.

[Faldric]

Better get used to the idea, that Blizzard is done putting major work into the game. I expect another bunch of expansion with the bare minimum of content and more "borrowed power" class progression features they will reset each new expansion.

[Khaza-R]

I think it would be a huge let down if they did do a revamp. Look at their lazy designs when they do update things. Its all very generic and missing the attention to details that the original vanilla experience had.

When they updated the starting player experience with Exile's Reach they send you to your class trainer in SW/Org but instead of sending new players to each classes "area" in the city, like for instance sending a new Alliance warlock to the Slaughtered Lamb. They just send you to a generic building where a bunch of class ambassadors are walled up.

Similarly when they updated the starting outfits for new toons they didn't go back and update each races outfit. They just made a few generic ones that looks awful on some races.