How WoW could have been, if only...

[Zodiark]

Just a note: This thread is mainly just brainstorming ideas. Nothing I mention in any comment is something I feel SHOULD absolutely be implemented. Just some things that help create a more vibrant world that brings players back to the original fantasy that made WoW what it was in the first place.


WoW needs more evergreen content that would attract players back to old zones. Such as random zone events rather than one and done world quests. Those events could be dynamic and reward relevant items and gear based on your actual level.

If only WoW had went in another direction since Vanilla. Imagine if you will WoW expanded more inwards than outwards?

Let that sink in for a minute.

What if WoW utilized their phasing technology and built expansions that fleshed out the zones more, added new dungeons to existing zones, new enemies, NPC's etc, while still respecting the old ones? Help and NPC who is fighting off Kobolds from raiding his farm, he thanks you and that's that. Then after the expansion you get a letter from that NPC requesting your aid yet again. Those nasty Kobolds are at it again, this time they have tunneled under the farmers crops. You take care of business and are on your way. But wait there's more! What if during the quest you discover a tunnel deep within the makeshift tunnels the pesky Kobolds made. This tunnel leads deeper still to a forgotten grotto where magical barriers thought long forgotten still stand vigil over this long lost area of travel. You bring this to the attention of your local mage guild/wiseman, etc and it gets looked into.

Later down the line some expansions later, You receive word that those barriers are now able to be broken and a new party is forming to explore what lies beyond! Come join us Hero!

This type of content would not forget about the people you've helped before and make the world feel more rich and vibrant and alive. This is just one example. Imagine seeing actual progress in zones you helped, etc. If you join someone else on a different layer of advancement then you are simply given a warning box that explains this is a possible spoiler or some such, etc.

Right now WoW since Vanilla has made each new expansion a self contained game. This is part of what has slowed down development I believe. If only WoW had went into a different direction of building each expansion inwards instead of outwards then it doesn't mean that there could be no new zones, just that they would come slower and when it made sense to do so, while not abandoning the old ones.

[Clone]

Yeah this works have built a more interesting world. I would prefer this kind of narrative over fighting space death gods.

[Etna-the-Undying]

Someone hire this guy for world development

[A Chozo]

Insistently reusing the same setting over and over instead of exploring new interesting landscapes would have led to staleness. "long forgotten barriers" being asspulled into the game is not a substitute for actual exploration and lore expansion.

Jesus Christ thank god no one in mmochamp is designing the game, the current devs are incompetent but y'all really manage to surpass them.

[Skildar]

And as a fresh new player you would need to start the quest from 5 expansions ago with many threads started on every continent that requires you to do all questlines to really enjoy the story of one expansion...

I would really like to go back to existing continent and rediscover the land but these kind of quests are not doing it for me. It always feels too short and unrewarding.

What you are suggesting in a way is close to what we got with the dark iron questlines and it's just not long enough and missing purpose.

The goal here should not be to start questchains that would span over years but rather to tell stories that deserve to be told whatever the characters and places it involves.

[Talon8669]

Yeah this works have built a more interesting world. I would prefer this kind of narrative over fighting space death gods.

They totally lost me with the space ship stuff.

[loras]

Insistently reusing the same setting over and over instead of exploring new interesting landscapes would have led to staleness. "long forgotten barriers" being asspulled into the game is not a substitute for actual exploration and lore expansion.

Jesus Christ thank god no one in mmochamp is designing the game, the current devs are incompetent but y'all really manage to surpass them.

One does not necessarily exclude the other, though.
Practically one could imagine i.e. Northrend as starting out with a few accessible zones and the rest being murderdeath areas like Broken Shore at Legion's start.
Then you go back to distinct zones to i.e. secure reinforcements, secure supply lines, new weapons, etcetera.
Imagine going back to Silverpine to investigate the worgen's resilience to the plague, or how the forsaken remain free, with a side quest on how druid magic can be vulnerable to certain corruption.
Un'goro to gain access to Sholazar, gathering favors from the dragon flights to push into Dragonblight, Uldaman to research into titan stuff, the plaguelands to learn more of the rise of the scourge.

I mean it doesn't even need to be how i say it' it's just an example of how interactions set in the older world parts could simply be given more meat. In exchange we could lose some of the "collect X bear asses" filler quests, but that wouldn't be a bad trade.

Plus it would allow them to revisit succesful areas, and get a new chance at fixing areas where they did not immediately succeed - or outright failed (crystalsong forest anyone?).

[Talon8669]

If only WoW had went in another direction since Vanilla. Imagine if you will WoW expanded more inwards than outwards?

Let that sink in for a minute.

What if WoW utilized their phasing technology and built expansions that fleshed out the zones more, added new dungeons to existing zones, new enemies, NPC's etc, while still respecting the old ones? Help and NPC who is fighting off Kobolds from raiding his farm, he thanks you and that's that. Then after the expansion you get a letter from that NPC requesting your aid yet again. Those nasty Kobolds are at it again, this time they have tunneled under the farmers crops. You take care of business and are on your way. But wait there's more! What if during the quest you discover a tunnel deep within the makeshift tunnels the pesky Kobolds made. This tunnel leads deeper still to a forgotten grotto where magical barriers thought long forgotten still stand vigil over this long lost area of travel. You bring this to the attention of your local mage guild/wiseman, etc and it gets looked into.

Later down the line some expansions later, You receive word that those barriers are now able to be broken and a new party is forming to explore what lies beyond! Come join us Hero!

This type of content would not forget about the people you've helped before and make the world feel more rich and vibrant and alive. This is just one example. Imagine seeing actual progress in zones you helped, etc. If you join someone else on a different layer of advancement then you are simply given a warning box that explains this is a possible spoiler or some such, etc.

Right now WoW since Vanilla has made each new expansion a self contained game. This is part of what has slowed down development I believe. If only WoW had went into a different direction of building each expansion inwards instead of outwards then it doesn't mean that there could be no new zones, just that they would come slower and when it made sense to do so, while not abandoning the old ones.

Honestly I wish they would just go back and start over with WoW 2.0. Retail currently is just a mess, I am there's like what 400 something mounts, 1K achievements, lore that no longer makes sense. They need to hit the reboot button and just start over fresh and I mean can the lore and everything and make a whole new game.

I would love to have a WoW where all the kingdoms still exist, the orcs can invade, a faction can split off that refuse to take the fel and the story can be about closing the dark portal and inner turmoil with the alliance factions and sides splitting off and war and the horde that did not take the fel finding their place in Azeroth. You can then more or less do away with the faction system and you can just be a character and maybe some of the internal factions are at war and you fight for the side you want. IDK I can just think of a million different ways to go than what ended up being retail.

[guisadop]

One of their first mistakes was adding more leveling with each expansion. They should have just added new zones and end-game content from the start.

[Darsithis]

While I personally enjoy reminders of the past in games - Mass Effect comes to mind - based on the outcry of “rehashed content” when Dragon Soul was put in Dragonblight, I can’t imagine spending 18 years of a video game in the same zones would work out.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

If they just didnt do the "you beat this big bad but the truth is a bigger bad was controlling him.. oh you got him.. but what you didnt know if an even bigger bigger bad.. oh he is down too.. well.. you see he had a boss that is even a bigger bad" story arc.

Then they just made the game for players that sit between normal and heroic level play as their focus. Not some hyper zoom zoom esports meta. Not to say they cannot have those things in the game. I like raiding mythic at my boomer rate. I like seeing people that are insane at m+ or pvp. But it feels like the game kinda circles around the ultra high end these days instead of the masses.

[Kithelle]

One of their first mistakes was adding more leveling with each expansion. They should have just added new zones and end-game content from the start.

Leveling is part of every mmorpg...

[Kiivar86]

They totally lost me with the space ship stuff.

Out of curiosity, why?

How is a spaceship any different than a floating castle that's airtight?

How is a robot different than a golem?

A laser versus a ray of magic?

I never really understood why some people get so hung up on these things. This game started with green men from a red planet invading via a stargate. Not so little green men from Mars! Its one of Clarke's three laws, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

[TheRevenantHero]

While the whole ridiculous narrative of some even more powerful pantheon of beings being retconned into existence is fucking absurd, what you propose is even worse. Having a level 60 character who is still doing oddjobs for some loser farmer would very quickly wear out its welcome. You can't be a hero wielding all kinds of tremendous power and feel empowered killing kobolds you killed when you first started your journey.

[shade3891]

Players want to see the zones they already know from other games and books. Even if it is just to walk there. But I agree each expansion should affect most of the existing world while adding new stuff. Maybe Blizz will do a better job with WoW2 because I don't see them changing their current concept.

- - - Updated - - -

One of their first mistakes was adding more leveling with each expansion. They should have just added new zones and end-game content from the start.

Leveling is part of being an RPG, also gaining some power once in a while feels good while you experience a new main story. Same goes for gear upgrades. Also with a new levelcap you have a new goal to get to. Also returning players don't feel they are far behind in gear-/system-progress since everyone need to get those levels first before looking at endgame stuff. Making everyone equal at the start.

[Loveliest]

Legion was a lot of that. Bringing back so many characters that we have seen before or knew about from lore. I wonder how many recognized them and how many knew of them?

For example, one of my favourite was Elerethe Renferal boss from Emerald Nightmare raid. Such an obscure character and such a grim fate she had. Wonder how many ppl cared about her or knew about her. Or the likes of Alonsus Faol or Merryl
Felstorm (Winterstorm).

Frankly, I think most ppl only follow on big big plot points. Like Sylvans burned the tree. Then she killed Saurfang. Then we killed her. Most things you see in cinematics. Everything else is lost on most ppl. Little sidequest that reference things from the past. I bet most ppl didn't even know bigger things like who Deathwing was from Cataclysm.
Because of this, I feel that, while your idea would have merit and I would enjoy it, most people wouldn't care and would get bored without massive plot things and setup changes. Like Sargeras hitting Azeroth with his sword, that kind of massive.

[Kokolums]

absolutely terrible idea. phasing was a big contributor to the problems wow faced. all phasing needs to be removed from the game.

[Relapses]

If only, then WoW would have died in its first expansion and none of us would be here right now.

...if only.

[MoanaLisa]

There is a lot to recommend in developing the original zones and content further to add interesting events and previously unknown or hidden locations to them. That's all well and fine. The game needs new zones to see as well.

I'm not clear on why every idea proposed has to be some binary thing of yes/no, do/do not, this instead of that, etc. It's self-defeating.

There's nothing stopping them from doing this now which is why it's unlikely there will be a WoW II. Never mind that it would take five-to-six years to develop and that nothing like that is on the horizon. The time to talk about a WoW II is when it becomes apparent that they're doing a WoW II. "TOO LATE", you say. Well, perhaps but if they see any useful ideas now they are logging them into stuff for future expansions, not a WoW II.

[Evaddon]

They totally lost me with the space ship stuff.

So they lost you in the Burning Crusade? Damn that's crazy what you still doing MMOC?

- - - Updated - - -

I say a good middle ground would be best, they update and expand out existing zones to evolve the stories that took place there, and tell new ones...while adding new landmasses and continents. I loved how they went back to old zones for certain quest in Legion,BFA,and Shadowlands. But to see them not updated is alittle immersion breaking! I was happy to see atleast two zones update with the times..and certain WQ in Arathi are results of things we did in the Cataclsym-Arathi, I wish they would do more of that