A technology-themed expansion could have worked

[Niwes]

Dragonflight's goal is "a return to Azeroth," bringing more grounded themes and getting us away from the endless existential nightmares. I think a tech-themed expansion could serve the purpose just as well as Dragonflight. This also has the potential to introduce some sort of Tinker (engineer, machinist) class to the game, which I believe a better fit for the ranged only, mail-wearing class design intention. Also, the Undermine and possible underworld of Azeroth, in both a metaphorical and literal sense. Criminals and caves, technologies and trade, Titan facilities, Old Gods, Azerite, Nerubians, Drog'bar, the Black Dragonflight for all you dragon nerds, Earth elementals and let's not forget: Goblins and Gnomes and all the zaniness those two races bring with them.

Anyone with me here?

you ppls still don’t get that a Tinker centered xpac is just too expensive for them. they milking the cow at maximum efficiency. a Tinker centered xpac means a lot of engineering like stuff. full of small detailed knobs, cogwheels, lights and typical engineering stuff. way more expensive than cloning and finetuning some dragon rigs.

on the other side cheap rehashing from mechagnome patch of BfA would be possible then.

hmm, i assume dragons are just more cheap to do.

[Ielenia]

Use your imagination! There's all sorts of room for interesting villains with a technology theme.

Says the guy who didn't give us anything to work with, no possible "big threat" or BBEG.

Not to mention, the big bad of the expansion doesn't necessarily have to be directly tied to the theme of the expansion itself. Final boss of Mists was Garrosh who was corrupted by the Heart of Y'shaarj.

... In other words, connected to the theme of the expansion itself.

N'zoth was the final boss of BFA.

"Faction war" was not the theme of BfA. And we had 'old god' stuff from the very beginning of the expansion, on both sides.

The general theme of those expansions did not match up with their big bads, for better or worse.

They do, though.

Also, don't use bold text at me.

I will, when I want to emphasize something.

[Phob]

Dragonflight's goal is "a return to Azeroth," bringing more grounded themes and getting us away from the endless existential nightmares. I think a tech-themed expansion could serve the purpose just as well as Dragonflight. This also has the potential to introduce some sort of Tinker (engineer, machinist) class to the game, which I believe a better fit for the ranged only, mail-wearing class design intention. Also, the Undermine and possible underworld of Azeroth, in both a metaphorical and literal sense. Criminals and caves, technologies and trade, Titan facilities, Old Gods, Azerite, Nerubians, Drog'bar, the Black Dragonflight for all you dragon nerds, Earth elementals and let's not forget: Goblins and Gnomes and all the zaniness those two races bring with them.

Anyone with me here?

I'll just say this. Adding tinkers would be dumb af at this point, we already have goblins and gnomes and they already have technology. If they were to add them now why would the goblins/gnomes not be able to be tinkers from 2004 to 2024? You have to make it make sense and I don't think you can or anyone can.

[Nachtigal]

I hope they never do a techy expac. I hated Mechagon. It was repulsive. A bunch of broken dirty cogs laying around, as well as other rusty disgusting scrap piles. Robots barely hanging together by a thread... Just not aesthetically pleasing. A whole city/expac centered around that would be terrible, imo.

[The Stormbringer]

Technology themed expansion is not high fantasy, which is what Blizzard is going for with Dragonflight.

Sidenote, it doesn't matter how much you want Tinkers, evidently Blizzard would rather invent something largely new than actually implement a Tinker class.

Yeah, that's kind of what I learned with Dragonflight. They must think Goblins and Gnomes are too "annoying" to push a class, let alone an expansion. Sigh...

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I hope they never do a techy expac. I hated Mechagon. It was repulsive. A bunch of broken dirty cogs laying around, as well as other rusty disgusting scrap piles. Robots barely hanging together by a thread... Just not aesthetically pleasing. A whole city/expac centered around that would be terrible, imo.

And what about the actual Mega-Dungeon?

[Eurhetemec]

Dragonflight's goal is "a return to Azeroth," bringing more grounded themes and getting us away from the endless existential nightmares. I think a tech-themed expansion could serve the purpose just as well as Dragonflight. This also has the potential to introduce some sort of Tinker (engineer, machinist) class to the game, which I believe a better fit for the ranged only, mail-wearing class design intention. Also, the Undermine and possible underworld of Azeroth, in both a metaphorical and literal sense. Criminals and caves, technologies and trade, Titan facilities, Old Gods, Azerite, Nerubians, Drog'bar, the Black Dragonflight for all you dragon nerds, Earth elementals and let's not forget: Goblins and Gnomes and all the zaniness those two races bring with them.

Anyone with me here?

The cold reality is that steampunk/gnometech/goblintech themes are just have much narrower appeal than beauty of nature/dragons-type themes. Far fewer players are going to get excited about an expansion themed around tech than they are about one themed around more straightforward fantasy. People can call it "bland" or whatever, but they're blind to the reality that this sort of slightly-generic fantasy is popular in part because it's slightly-generic. It's why in Dungeons and Dragons, the most popular settings are all slightly-generic and bland ones, rather than more specific ones. The Forgotten Realms, Exandria, Eberron, they're all between bland and specific, but leaning towards bland. That's what lasts, that's what succeeds - stuff that's more specific - Dark Sun, Planescape, Spelljammer, that might be successful for a short while occasionally, but then it fades again, and doesn't come back for decades. Whilst boring old Forgotten Realms just keeps going from the 1980s to now. WoW is far more towards the FR side of things. We just had an expansion which tried "risky" aesthetics and it did not full pay off (though I thought it looked pretty cool tbh - too much goddamn time in the Maw though - a zone which managed to combine "boring" and "ugly" extremely effectively).

I think the only way you get a tech-themed expansion going is to go "full magitech", which means not really steampunk as WoW has tended to be when tech-centric, but something probably more elegant and flashy, and with less exploding/sparking/pumping steam/smoke, and more glowing and looking impressive. More Exodar, less Gnomeregan. You could still have your dreadful tinkers as the class introduced, of course.

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I hope they never do a techy expac. I hated Mechagon. It was repulsive. A bunch of broken dirty cogs laying around, as well as other rusty disgusting scrap piles. Robots barely hanging together by a thread... Just not aesthetically pleasing. A whole city/expac centered around that would be terrible, imo.

Part of the problem is Blizzard seem to have been primarily inspired by two sources when it comes to tech in WoW:

1) Warner Bros cartoons, particularly Looney Tunes, and generally that whole era of animations, which means gnome/goblin tech always looks like a joke, and always evokes Wile. E. Coyote.

2) Tinker Gnomes in Dragonlance. Whose entire concept is "they build wild devices but they usually go horribly wrong" - you see this repeated over and over and over with WoW's gnomes. It's a really lazy trope but ties in well with the WB aesthetic.

And yeah, it's not aesthetically pleasing. Blizzard often has aesthetically pleasing tech in the game - whether it's the Exodar/Draenei tech, Titan tech or whatever, but for some reason that's always backgrounded and not really seen as "tech" (even though it clearly is), where gnome/goblin stuff is frequently foregrounded.

I think if they did a techy expansion they'd absolutely have to go with an attractive kind of tech as the "main" tech rather than just continuing with gnome/goblin stuff. the BfA Mechagnome area did kind of show what more-competent gnome tech might look like, with less broken/dodgy robots and more complete/functional ones, but I doubt they could extend that aesthetic sufficiently.

[deviantcultist]

No. Stop trying to shoehorn in Tinkers. Take the hint, it ain’t happening.

After they officially dropped the ball and went for "grounded themes", Tinker and other minor things are a possibility now. It's more of a loss for people who have standards higher than MoP 2.0 that it actually sucks.

[Sorshen]

Mechagon is enough tech for this decade.

[Ezyah]

Wow we almost went 3 days without a Tinker post, i almost got scared.

[KayRule]

An Undermine expansion can still happen. Although they seem adamant on writing Kezan off like Emerald Dream and Nazjatar, we still have yet to actually go under it into the Undermine. I feel like the sudden quick turn Gallywix has made drastically into a villain is to set up a villain for an Undermine expansion. We have the void rune stuff in Argus, and then the goblin equipment looking at it in Orgrimmar as well, then Gallywix stuff in the Broker city as well.

[datguy81]

No thanks. Does not belong in wow

[KayRule]

No thanks. Does not belong in wow

Been a core part of the identity since Vanilla.

Fucking Gnommish Submarines all the way back in WC2.

Get over it.

[Trazzle]

I’m sure I’m neuroticly optimistic BUT I’ve got a good feeling about the app announcement tomorrow. If thematically/narratively related to Tinkers/Undermine, could be a really cool flashy surprise reveal to release two classes in 10.0.

[Kumorii]

Anything could work...

[Jester Joe]

If anything, Battle for Azeroth could have been a good time to add tinkers with Azerite and the Fourth War pressing the need for mechanical innovation. It could have been a monk-like class, where many races prove capable of learning from gnomes or goblins.

In practice, Azerite fizzled out before the first act was over, but they could have done a lot more with the concept than they ultimately did.

This is honestly what I was gonna say. The expansion doesn't need to be tech based, it just needs a reason to push less combat-able characters into needing to be on the front line, via inventions

[Kilpi]

Technology stuff in WoW is the least interesting aspect to me, so nah. As with everything in WoW lore, it's been getting out of hand with each expansion and the tech gets more and more ridiculous for a fantasy setting (this includes interdimensional space ships).

[KrayZ33]

Could work, but it would suck.
Tech themed instances and zones in WoW so far have been an absolute horrible sight.

I wouldn't want it.
I would rather have my fantasy kick.

[Alduin]

Could work, but it would suck.
Tech themed instances and zones in WoW so far have been an absolute horrible sight.

I wouldn't want it.
I would rather have my fantasy kick.

No clue what you are talking about because:
- Mimiron in Ulduar is one of the highly regarded fights and tech themed
- One of the best features in BfA was Mechagon, Mechagnomes and the associated tech zone
- Undermine (as gobline tech), the goblin starting area and the new Aszhara hub have a unique design
- The Iron Horde theme carried over into the Orgrimmar raid
- The tech zone in the other side works too
- Even the ethereals (TBC and now Tazavesh) work quite nicely.
- Engineering is one of the most fun professions since Vanilla with debatable gadgets.
- Siege Weapons and Dwarf tanks are one of the core techs since Warcraft.

And there is still a lot about the Titan technologies we have yet to understand (with Zereth Mortis and co we got a glimpse in the design of the reality). As well as steampunk/cyberpunk theme offering a unique design choice.

Also tech offers quite some references as being the driving factor of the 2020s. Pop culture references to Cyberpunk/Horizon are amass.

The only downside would have been a new race - but you could simply explore the current Mechagnomes/Dwarfs and Makghar/Goblin cultures a bit more. We have not seen much about Goblins yet....

Not quite sure why Alexstrasza waifu should be a better option than tech...

[Iain]

The fun about the hi-tech stuff in WoW is that it permeates the fabric of the setting and appears conveniently whenever the story needs it to. You can walk through a zone steeped in history and legends, turn around a rock and stumble right into a tech-hub filled with either goblin or gnome shenanigans.

Technology as a standalone theme isn't nearly as fun. Just like technology as a standalone class isn't fun either.

That's the problem with the tinker class. It's unimaginative. The tinker doesn't need to be a class. It could simply be engineering taken to its extreme. A player building so many gadgets that it starts replacing every piece of their gear, and by doing so, trading in class abilities for engineer abilities. There is your Tinker, your engineering profession just allowed you to tinker with your character.

People who want a Tinker as a standalone class are not just throwing their most valued profession under the bus, they're also being way too binary and dogmatic about this to deserve their transhumanist goal.

[KrayZ33]

No clue what you are talking about because:
- Mimiron in Ulduar is one of the highly regarded fights and tech themed
- One of the best features in BfA was Mechagon, Mechagnomes and the associated tech zone
- Undermine (as gobline tech), the goblin starting area and the new Aszhara hub have a unique design
- The Iron Horde theme carried over into the Orgrimmar raid
- The tech zone in the other side works too
- Even the ethereals (TBC and now Tazavesh) work quite nicely.
- Engineering is one of the most fun professions since Vanilla with debatable gadgets.
- Siege Weapons and Dwarf tanks are one of the core techs since Warcraft.

And there is still a lot about the Titan technologies we have yet to understand (with Zereth Mortis and co we got a glimpse in the design of the reality). As well as steampunk/cyberpunk theme offering a unique design choice.

Also tech offers quite some references as being the driving factor of the 2020s. Pop culture references to Cyberpunk/Horizon are amass.

The only downside would have been a new race - but you could simply explore the current Mechagnomes/Dwarfs and Makghar/Goblin cultures a bit more. We have not seen much about Goblins yet....

Not quite sure why Alexstrasza waifu should be a better option than tech...

You don't understand what I'm talking about when I say "*I* don't want this"?
How come you are using opinions as arguments but do not understand what I'm saying?

Calm your tits. What exactly in my post made you write all that?
Especially stuff like

Not quite sure why Alexstrasza waifu should be a better option than tech...

Which kinda suggest that I said "X is objectively better than Y" or "X fits better than Y."

I said that I'd rather have my fantasy kick from warcraft than the (in my opinion) ugly stuff they do with titan-technology or Mechagon. The whole island is the biggest pile of dung in WoW imho - not sure what exactly made you think it's a highly regarded part of BFA btw. That's not the consensus I came across when I talked to people about it. It's also not what I read on this forum as well - or any other site for that matter.
I certainly did not enjoy it. I also didn't enjoy the goblin/gnome dungeon (what was it called.. undermine?) and Karazhan was to me a much better dungeon than Mechagon.
But again - that's my opinion on this matter.