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

[dwarven]

People have been saying this since WOTLK and it's still here. I don't even play it anymore but I imagine it will be around for a long time.

Look at Everquest. I can't imagine it having more than 20k players and it still releases an expansion each year and has a dedicated playerbase.

It's also considerably cheaper to develop than WoW is. Each WoW expansion has an immense amount of content compared to the expansions and updates of other games these days. A "dead" WoW would still have a lot more active players than 20k most likely. Which is why Blizzard relies a lot on preorders and day 1 hype sales to support such a huge development project. I'm sure they are looking at ways to transfer the Warcraft playerbase to a game that is easier to maintain live service on, but retain a similar amount of players. A new game would let them develop on a more efficient engine that will probably be unified across all Blizzard games. A WoW sequel, or at least an analog of some kind, is almost certainly in development. Maybe it won't exactly be an MMO, but it will be something similar. And then WoW will go free to play with a broader cosmetic shop and lighter updates.

[WARSTORMS]

why would anyone be interested in a WoW 2 at this point? You're f'ing crazy if you think blizzard is ever going to act in a way that's friendly and caring towards its consumers. You show me ONE instance where they've delivered or gone above and beyond after selling to activision. These parent companies arent interested in revitalising the game, they're interested in PROFIT. Give up all, and boycot all blizzard products. You're only hurting yourselves. You want to play a game that's being treated with tender love and care? Go play a game that's trying not to DIE. like new world, have you even SEEN how active their devs are in that community? They will even respond do you if you message them on discord!? For the love of god. Understand blizzard is like the toxic ex girlfriend that slaps and shames you in public - because youre a simp and deep down don't respect yourself. F blizzard.

[dewd]

what could possibly be different in wow 2? so far overwatch '2' and diablo '4' are looking just like patches for overwatch and diablo 3. new maps, new items, talent overhaul. wowzie 60 bucks please.

also what makes you have confidence they could create a whole new game the size of wow if they havent been able to do worthwhile wow shit since legion almost 6 years ago?

[Shaqthefat]

There are already other games that rival WoW in dungeon and raid design. No, WoW continues to exist because of its aesthetics. No other game lets you play as beastman savages who go around burning treehugger cities or dropping napalm on panda village, or be a muscular man with huge shoulderpads.

You can quite literally play as a beastman savages who go around burning treehugger cities in total war warhammer

[cparle87]

Sigh. Where to start with this one...

There is only more to do in WoW because of all of the previous expansions. You have BC and SL completely backwards...if BC launched now, there would be far more to do than there is in SL. There were literally twice as many dungeons available, far more raids, more zones, more quests, etc.

Did you look at the dungeons in TBC? You could take all 2-4 wings of a compound, smoosh them together, remove a few pointless long hallways and have 1/4 the number of dungeons with no impact on the content. In BFA for instance you could've taken a dungeon like Atal'dazar, cook up a few more bosses, and make two dungeons out of it. That's what they did in TBC to bloat the numbers. If they did that today people would call them out for being lazy.

Glad we have you to tell us that collectors are doing it wrong and what they're doing isn't content. Also glad we have you to tell us what we want and need in a game.

[azka]

Not sure that such accounts make up a significant number these days.

Obviously, I was exaggerating, but on second thought, I bet we are actually the ones who pay for this thing non-stop. I don't have anything to back up my claim, only personal experience, and that's not enough. But I don't know anyone that has started playing WOW in SL. Everyone in the guild has played for a couple of expansions.

Does anyone know new players?

[Onikaroshi]

I don't find WoW's gearing to be more entertaining either. Just more of a slog because of all the Icyveins guides and stat calculator addons you have to use because how overdesigned WoW is.

Trinkets and on equip items alone make WoW gear far more interesting than FF.

But we need more stats again.

[Lahis]

I personally wouldnt want a wow 2 id rather a fresh new ip mmo from them that isnt trash garbage

It'll be a long while before Blizzard is capable of doing such a game.

[freshtendrills]

This talent that they possess has largely been wasted by continuing to publish a 17 year old game.

That's where you're wrong. The talent that created wow, SC, WC and diablo are gone. IF this studio tried to make wow 2, they would fail miserably. Wow was created in the dying days of garage band developers, and vanilla had that personality and feel. That's why people love it. This current company is not capable of that level of design. Period.

[NineSpine]

You can't compare BC zones with today zones, neither can you do it for the dungeons : yes BC added almost twice as much zones as Shadowland, but Shadowland zones are much more packed with content. Yes Hellfire Peninsula is huge, but half of it is just red no-man's land, and same goes with the majority of BC zones.
As for the dungeons, yes BC got 16 dungeons, but only 13 of them shared the same 4 environnments, and two of them reused vanilla assets.
Same for raids, when you compare the number of bosses of BC raids of Shadowland raids, the difference is much smaller, and it's hard to consider them as equals anyway...

And all of that is not considering all the additionnal content that you get today that you didn't before (new zones, new systems, chapter-based story, seasons, etc...). Saying that today's content is less than the content from times like BC is considering only what validate your point, and all of that with a very biased eye.

Maybe 16 dungeons that reuse some assets and have some thematic overlap is still better than 8 super-unique ones.

[hulkgor]

sure buddy, whatever you say buddy.

[Sluvs]

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.

While I can see your point, I also think that one of the pillars that hold current WoW is sunk cost fallacy. I do not know if throwing it away is a good idea.

- - - Updated - - -

Maybe 16 dungeons that reuse some assets and have some thematic overlap is still better than 8 super-unique ones.

I kinda agree with that.

[ChronoSul]

Maybe 16 dungeons that reuse some assets and have some thematic overlap is still better than 8 super-unique ones.

even if it is can u imagine the outcry that people will have about blizzard being lazy and reusing assets like they used to? The modern wow player is to used to having completely unique dungeons compared to the old model of making 2-4 dungeons out of the same assets

[Swnem]

Trinkets and on equip items alone make WoW gear far more interesting than FF.

But we need more stats again.

Do they? They are just frustrating to farm and things you macro to your CD's to make them more powerful. They are completely unnecessary and unbalance the game.

[Cosmic Janitor]

No we wouldn't. If the game crashes and burns then they will just put it into complete maintenance mode, milk the couple tens to hundred thousand hardcore addicts like we've never seen before and then use the IP to make mobile trash. I very much doubt if todays Blizzard is even capable of making a proper game the size of an MMO from scratch. A game like WoW would come with 5-7 years of development time and it's rather questionable if they'd be willing to invest that much. They took 4 years for DI.. Not to mention that it would probably be nothing like people actually want, it would just be more late stage WoW most likely, since that pretty much reflects the whole companies design principles.

If Ybarra does not realize that this would be folly then someone at MS proper will.

[WowIsDead64]

...

I've got tired of explaining, that you don't even understand, how bad is thing, you're asking for. Potentially infinite progress - is core MMO's feature. Wipe - is the worst thing, that can happen with MMO. It would devalue all effort, players invest into game.

Idea of infinite progress is simple. Any RPG - is meta-game. Once you have "engine" or "framework" - you are free to add any content, your imagination can produce. You have your base game, but can use any visual "wrapper" for it to create any immersion effect. Forests, mountains, even other planets. Anything. Any gear and weapon designs. So, this game is basically limited only by your imagination. But there is another factor in real gamedev - money. MMOs - are only games, that allow potentially infinite progress, because they're profitable enough. What you ask for - is to kill this great idea.

[Onikaroshi]

Do they? They are just frustrating to farm and things you macro to your CD's to make them more powerful. They are completely unnecessary and unbalance the game.

Yes, they do. But that's my opinion, people are free to have their own.

Maybe some people like boring ass FF gear.

[Swnem]

Yes, they do. But that's my opinion, people are free to have their own.

Maybe some people like boring ass FF gear.

I think the gear is equally boring or fun on both games. It's just passive gains. I guess Tier sets are good though. They returned them in this last season. That is what FF is missing.

But, the method of acquisition is far more satisfying in FF, that's for sure.

[haediff]

Yeah bc OW2 is working out so well atm...

[Onikaroshi]

I think the gear is equally boring or fun on both games. It's just passive gains. I guess Tier sets are good though. They returned them in this last season. That is what FF is missing.

But, the method of acquisition is far more satisfying in FF, that's for sure.

I actually hate the method of acquisition in FF lol, it's full deterministic, it's boring. Something like what they're doing in Season 4 of SL is much more preferable.