If Dragonflight becomes another Shadowlands, we'll probably see a WoW 2

[qwerty123456]

Probably not, no. Sequels to MMO's are extremely risky ventures, and more often than not, they fail spectacularly. As another poster pointed out - GW2 and Destiny 2 are the only real examples of MMO sequels that didn't completely fail (Everquest 2, to a lesser extent), and even though both are very successful now, they launched filled with broken promises of character progression and carry over, and frankly were inferior to their predecessors in every way.

And even then, GW2 is the only one that really warranted existing, as it was a complete overhaul from the original game, whereas Destiny 2 only existed because Activision demanded sequels to the game, because they didn't understand that the MMO genre does not, in fact, really need sequels. There was very little reason for Destiny 2 to exist, when the change from Destiny 1 to Destiny 2 is extremely minor, at best.

Lineage 2 was successful in fact they are doing another sequel and Final Fantasy while not a true sequel is still a sequel to Final Fantasy 11 and makes a fuckload more than the original. Everquest 2 was successful enough that they have been doing expansions for it for the last what 15 years? Same with Adventure Quest worlds. Wakfu still seems to be updating.

If you look at the list of failed mmos very few of them are sequels. The only one I can think of offhand is Asheron's Call 2.

[kansor]

The problem I see with this reasoning is that people leave games they've played for years for new and better games all the time. They would probably just add a feats of strength book or something that showed all of your previous accomplishments, and maybe reuse some old mounts and armor with next-gen graphics.

If one person can make something like this, imagine what Blizzard could do. Anyway, I just think players are being sold short.

That won't age well at all. It already looks sort of janky behind the individually impressive textures. I'm not always the biggest fan of WOW's cartoony style but it's a major factor in the game's longevity compared to games that tried to be realistic in order to dazzle with the newest technology of the time.

[Eurhetemec]

Blizzard have been really clear, for like, 14+ years (since 2008 I think they first mentioned it, and again in 2010 certainly), as to what would lead to them making WoW2.

The technology of the WoW engine no longer being able to tell the stories they want.

I think they've phrased it a couple of different ways, but what boils down to is WoW's technology becoming so outdated/outmoded that it doesn't feel like a game people would want to play anymore. I'll be honest, I expected that to have happened by now, but MMOs have stagnated, partly because so many MMOs have tried to be "WoW+", and ended up being "WoW-", with only FFXIV being a truly celebration-worthy success, and it's very WoW-like, just more friendly and pleasant. Hell, combat/gameplay-wise, it's actually a little older-feeling than WoW - but again, more pleasant.

So I think WoW2 is still a way off. Until WoW's gameplay, as limited by its engine, no longer fits with what consumers want to play, WoW is likely to keep going. Indeed I suspect might see "maintenance mode" WoW before we saw WoW2 even starting work, as long as technology remains the same.

One thing which could change technology enough to make WoW's gameplay/engine no longer viable would be VR actually started to take off (instead of constantly being "about to get huge!" as it has been for what, 10 years?), and if we saw an AAA VR MMO. I think that would probably get a WoW2 in motion, because however good the early AAA VR MMOs might be, a WoW-themed one with Blizzard's magpie eye for gameplay might well demolish the competition. That's still years out - probably a decade even best case. There could also be a jump in graphics/physics fidelity so large WoW started looking not awful next to, but that hasn't happened yet. At a certain point, though, the cost of updating WoW to look decent on a modern machine may be similar enough to just making a new WoW that it might make sense.

And the WoW/WoW Classic model shows how you'd do the subscription - WoW/WoW Classic/WoW2 all on the same sub.

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Lineage 2 was successful in fact they are doing another sequel and Final Fantasy while not a true sequel is still a sequel to Final Fantasy 11 and makes a fuckload more than the original. Everquest 2 was successful enough that they have been doing expansions for it for the last what 15 years? Same with Adventure Quest worlds. Wakfu still seems to be updating.

If you look at the list of failed mmos very few of them are sequels. The only one I can think of offhand is Asheron's Call 2.

Yeah it's actually pretty easy to make a case that MMO sequels are significantly safer than new AAA MMOs, in terms of how likely they are to succeed. Yes, there is a chance it'll all go terribly wrong, but it's not nearly as high as doing a new MMO entirely. If EQ2 had been a new MMO, even with identical gameplay and lore that was just renames of the same stuff, it'd have been dead within a couple of years at most given how extremely unfun and full of terrible, terrible ideas it was at launch ("if one party member dies, everyone loses XP!" jesus god), and given the fact that it ran appallingly even on the most cutting-edge systems.

[rrayy]

You don't think a new game would ever be successful?

No, not after peope ahve invested 17 years in this game and their toons, They aren't to give all that up to start completely over from scratch.

[GreenJesus]

as IF there will be wow 2, that means all my progression leveling, my collections, my mounts, my aotc, My raider io progression are waste of time mean starting over fresh in wow 2 rinse and repeat.

Well yeh its a video game. Its all a waste of time. At some point blizzard will need to update the games engine. Heck, ion admitted on the interview with Asmongold that player housing would take multiple expansions to implement because the code is nearly impossible to work with to implement it. If you have to struggle that hard to implement a feature thst nearly all mmo's have baseline, then something js clearly wrong with your engine and you are being held back. Blizzard already has the classic servers. They can keep the classic servers and make a WoW2. People are quitting the game in droves and already abandoned their progress and characters.

[Gurahk]

The problem I see with this reasoning is that people leave games they've played for years for new and better games all the time. They would probably just add a feats of strength book or something that showed all of your previous accomplishments, and maybe reuse some old mounts and armor with next-gen graphics.

If one person can make something like this, imagine what Blizzard could do. Anyway, I just think players are being sold short.

That looks cool, but would be horrendous as an actual game aesthetic for a setting like Warcraft.

[ChairmanKaga]

I'm not always the biggest fan of WOW's cartoony style but it's a major factor in the game's longevity compared to games that tried to be realistic in order to dazzle with the newest technology of the time.

I 100% enjoy this game because of the stylization. The muddy brown-grey realism of so many games is frankly boring.

[MiiiMiii]

Ion is activly talking about what will happen in 2 expansions after Dragonflight, it's not gonna happen. Only possible outcome is a graphical rework, no fresh game.

[znushu]

WoW Classic = WoW 2

[SwissPod37]

yea instead we get a shit game and shit graphics!

no wonder the player base is slowly dying.

[Playintrafic]

Vanilla had no story at all. People didn't give a fuck that it didn't have lore. They played it because it was fun.

LOL What?

It had a huge sprawling story, many of them. Some of them interwoven. All those quests you do for exp... they have story behind them.

Just because there wasn't a cutscene every 3 quests in classic doesn't mean there was no lore or story.

[Niwes]

That's what I mean. If WoW expansions continue to have poor reception (and I think they will), they'll just make a new game. People complain about lore as a reason expansions have done poorly, but Vanilla had no story at all. People didn't give a fuck that it didn't have lore. They played it because it was fun.

and who shall make it? the same team that fucks up game design (not gfx design) since 3 xpacs then ? which problem exactly will wow2 solve, when it’s the same crap with new graphics?

that whole thought is beyond stupid tbh. if you can’t fix actual wow, a same shit wow2 with modern graphics will for sure not fix it too.

[Mardux]

Hopefully Microsoft does something with the franchise because we know very well Blizzard/Activision wouldn't.

You mean like Microsoft did with Banjo-Kazooie? Or Conker? I can't wait for Microsoft to buy ATVI and just let it rot.

[Feanoro]

LOL What?

It had a huge sprawling story, many of them. Some of them interwoven. All those quests you do for exp... they have story behind them.

Just because there wasn't a cutscene every 3 quests in classic doesn't mean there was no lore or story.

Sadly, there's a large amount of people who want to be railroaded through a single story, no matter how poor, than build their own path via choosing which of many stories to experience.

[NineSpine]

That's what I mean. If WoW expansions continue to have poor reception (and I think they will), they'll just make a new game. People complain about lore as a reason expansions have done poorly, but Vanilla had no story at all. People didn't give a fuck that it didn't have lore. They played it because it was fun.

Lore and story aren't the same thing. Vanilla had a fuckton of lore, but no overall story.

The idea that they are going to say "WoW isn't making money, let's spend a billion dollars on another one" is... very silly.

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Well yeh its a video game. Its all a waste of time. At some point blizzard will need to update the games engine. Heck, ion admitted on the interview with Asmongold that player housing would take multiple expansions to implement because the code is nearly impossible to work with to implement it. If you have to struggle that hard to implement a feature thst nearly all mmo's have baseline, then something js clearly wrong with your engine and you are being held back. Blizzard already has the classic servers. They can keep the classic servers and make a WoW2. People are quitting the game in droves and already abandoned their progress and characters.

That explanation is horseshit. The technology to have player housing was in WoD, and arguably in MoP.

[GreenJesus]

Lore and story aren't the same thing. Vanilla had a fuckton of lore, but no overall story.

The idea that they are going to say "WoW isn't making money, let's spend a billion dollars on another one" is... very silly.

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That explanation is horseshit. The technology to have player housing was in WoD, and arguably in MoP.

There was no customizablity of the garrison in WoD. They had like 6 pre determined spots to put uncustomizable buildings in those spots. You couldn't say "I want a chair right there and a poster on the wall and and a table here." The garrison was just a glorified instanced quest hub with upgradeable buildings. All the server had to remember was "level 3 townhall, level 3 barn, and level 3 mine, etc."

[saixilein]

The problem I see with this reasoning is that people leave games they've played for years for new and better games all the time. They would probably just add a feats of strength book or something that showed all of your previous accomplishments, and maybe reuse some old mounts and armor with next-gen graphics.

If one person can make something like this, imagine what Blizzard could do. Anyway, I just think players are being sold short.

I really hope wow will never look like this. I really dont get the hype of these UE5 Videos. Same as Ocarina of Time in EU5. it just looks bad.

[Chickat]

One area I can see Microsoft pushing Blizzard on is Starcraft. There is huge potential there for something beyond an RTS, and they really want to push Xbox. Most future Blizzard games will probably come out on console alongside PC.

I think a starcraft looter shooter MMO lite would be fantastic.

Starcaft meets destiny.

[Shadowferal]

Ion is activly talking about what will happen in 2 expansions after Dragonflight, it's not gonna happen. Only possible outcome is a graphical rework, no fresh game.

I heard Ion was getting the boot when Microsoft takes over.

[Kithelle]

Because they will spend millions trying to rehab a dying game? In a genre that has been struggling for years...