11.0 - Reshaping of the World

[Zoopy]

I have to be honest, I'd be surprised if we have more than two expansions left in WoW. It's going to hit 20 years old in the second year of Dragonflight and it's no big secret that subscriber numbers have been steadily falling for the last decade. We're probably realistically 4 years away from the game being put into maintenance mode.

And yeah as you said, there's Classic where people will be able to play through Cata sooner or later.

I'd be surprised if we get a Cata Classic. Cata is generally accepted as the expansion where things started to go wrong and Blizzard definitely knows it. Classic is probably going to peak at WotLK and the numbers will fall off steeply if they implement Cata Classic.

[Zardas]

I have to be honest, I'd be surprised if we have more than two expansions left in WoW. It's going to hit 20 years old in the second year of Dragonflight and it's no big secret that subscriber numbers have been steadily falling for the last decade. We're probably realistically 4 years away from the game being put into maintenance mode.

There is mmorpgs with 100 times less players than WoW that still get patches and expansions.

[RobertMugabe]

I have to be honest, I'd be surprised if we have more than two expansions left in WoW. It's going to hit 20 years old in the second year of Dragonflight and it's no big secret that subscriber numbers have been steadily falling for the last decade. We're probably realistically 4 years away from the game being put into maintenance mode.

Now we don't know the sub numbers for sure, and WoW absolutely is bleeding subs, however every WoW expansion release so far has been a bigger and bigger day one success in terms of sales. More people bought SL (and every xpac since actually) than Wrath for example.

It wouldn't surprise if every time a new expansion comes out, WoW comes back to close to 10 million subs and then just quickly drops off most of these subs after 1-2months (just like how it was in MoP, WoD and Legion).

[Zardas]

Now we don't know the sub numbers for sure, and WoW absolutely is bleeding subs, however every WoW expansion release so far has been a bigger and bigger day one success in terms of sales. More people bought SL (and every xpac since actually) than Wrath for example.

It wouldn't surprise if every time a new expansion comes out, WoW comes back to close to 10 million subs and then just quickly drops off most of these subs after 1-2months (just like how it was in MoP, WoD and Legion).

Indeed, and that's not a wow-specific thing : many mmorpg are seeing the same trend. That's just how people play in a time with so many games to choose from.

[clault]

Cata removed no zones; just updated the questing, story and overall leveing experience to a more linear one.

*Thousand needles has entered the chat*

[Shadowferal]

I remember playing for a couple of days straight through.
Good times.

It doesn't sound as if that sort of thing happens anymore.

[Spoondagger]

I'm not sure if WoW will ever get an overhaul at this point. As a fan I would love it, especially if they can trim the fat, undo past mistakes, unify the lore, but it would be such a costly undertaking I don't think ActiBlizz (or ANY game company) would pony up for it.

[Worldshaper]

I've added a new reason for a possible revamp in the OP. The portal rooms of Stormwind and Orgrimmar only have one more slot, which will likely be taken by the portal to Valdrakken in Dragonflight. So what happens in 11.0? Is there no need for additional slots because Org/SW will once again serve as main hubs perhaps?

[Iain]

I'd be surprised if we get a Cata Classic. Cata is generally accepted as the expansion where things started to go wrong and Blizzard definitely knows it. Classic is probably going to peak at WotLK and the numbers will fall off steeply if they implement Cata Classic.

I'm looking forward to Cata Classic. Classic is the way to finally give Cataclysm's levelling content a fair chance by having a realm start from scratch, preferably without passive xp-boosts that accumulated over the expansions and preferably without heirloom gear.

Cataclysm's biggest flaw was the lack of end-game content. But that's compensated by giving the early-game a fair chance.

I'm not sure if WoW will ever get an overhaul at this point. As a fan I would love it, especially if they can trim the fat, undo past mistakes, unify the lore, but it would be such a costly undertaking I don't think ActiBlizz (or ANY game company) would pony up for it.

I think it's justifiable IF, and only IF, Blizzard can prove that an overhaul also means the game is turned into evergreen content from there on out. That means an end-game that involves the whole world rather than a tiny slice of epic climax right before a content-drought.

Something like the Mechagon, but applied onto the whole of Azeroth. Something that keeps the addicts coming back to the point where they feel comfortable buying their yearly subscription again and again while the game is in low maintenance.

A pipe dream? Maybe, but it's not impossible either. Content refreshes it's own novelty after a while. So the trick is to provide enough quantity to the player that by the time they run into the same content, it feels novel again.

It sure would be more justifiable than the highly wasteful episodic business model that Blizzard is pursuing right now. Pushing so much resources into a single chapter that the player forgets by the next patch. It's absurd.

[MrLachyG]

I've added a new reason for a possible revamp in the OP. The portal rooms of Stormwind and Orgrimmar only have one more slot, which will likely be taken by the portal to Valdrakken in Dragonflight. So what happens in 11.0? Is there no need for additional slots because Org/SW will once again serve as main hubs perhaps?

doesn't the portal room in Orgrimmar have a downstairs? where portals to Shattrath, Caverns of Time are located? so surely an older portal could be shifted down there to make way for a new one. Stormwind also has a floor above in the mage tower? I remember stairs leading upwards, could do the same thing there

[Iain]

I hate these portal rooms with a passion. That addition singlehandedly stripped the game of any impetus to travel its world. What a blunder.

[Swnem]

Omg... will you stop with the world revamps?
Cataclysm was a disaster, they will not be doing that again. New players don't even have to go through the base continents anymore. It would be pointless to revamp them.
As you well point out and the devs said, what you can expect is small updates here and there and no that doesn't mean mashing together a bunch of zones to miraculously lower the work load. What are you thinking?

The only chance a world revamp could happen is if they wanted to officially merge the factions, which i doubt they want given how they turtle with the options of cross factions. The chances they have planned an expansion for it is zero atm. So, it's not happening for at least another 6 years, if at all, cause it would be a waste of resources they no longer have given the size of SL and DF.
You have to remember that this is not the WoW player base of wrath anymore. We are down to around 1-2m players. There is no budget for cataclysm like projects anymore.

[Iain]

You're thinking episodically. A world revamp that merely time-freezes Azeroth into a second calamity that players will abandon for another continent by the next expansion would be futile indeed.

But that's not what's required here. What's required is a rehaul that turns Azeroth into a place that's worth coming back to regardless of where other expansions take the game. And indeed, Cataclysm removed Azeroth far away from being just that.

The rehaul would show the scars of cataclysm, but also the spillover events of other expansions, the world has slowly recovered from these events and the inhabitants are getting back to their normal lives, similar to what Vanilla was like. There's still mischief. Recurring mischief even, with the petty bandit races taking temporary turns in being the bad guy of the week but there aren't any major villains setting the sky on fire.

[Gaidax]

Lemme tell this here and now - one Cataclysm was enough.

Last thing I want them to do is spend ungodly amount of time and effort to update some legacy areas nobody gives a damn about at expense of that time potentially being put into new areas, dungeons and raids.

I don't need a 3rd reimagining of Hillsbrad Foothills, especially not when the chance of player who is leveling to get there is low as it is given Chromie Time and everyone else literal nil.

All this shit would produce is a moment of gawking at some new houses and stones here and there and eternity of bitching in MMOC how Blizzard ruined precious zones of old and replaced them with "lazy/cheap/uninspired" version as "investors/bobby/1%" dictated.

Practically ton of effort for what will be received with bitching and moaning anyway.

[Iain]

I don't need a 3rd reimagining of Hillsbrad Foothills, especially not when the chance of player who is leveling to get there is low as it is given Chromie Time and everyone else literal nil.

Yes. That would be a waste. But that shouldn't be the intention. The intention is to create a world that meshes well into any end game that follows. Blizzard can already do this with any expansion from Legion and beyond due to how adaptable world quests and mythic plus are.

The moment Blizzard consolidates Legion/BfA/Shadowlands into Dragonflight end-game world questing people will see how this will work for a complete Azeroth Rehaul.

That's not to say that players will be forced to do content they don't want. I for one, won't be prepared to visit Shadowlands for the time being. Veto whole expansions by talking to a NPC or something. But the point is that each expansion keeps contributing to an ever growing optional content that can be played for end-game progress.

Blizzard is already dipping their toes into this by including old Mythic Plus instances into the rotation. Good. One step further and ALL of this content can be included into the rotation such that a player will never feel the saturation of repetitive content.

[Shadowferal]

An npc in low level Ashenvale might have a line of dialogue that remarks on the wonders of Pandaria, or a lament over Varian's death.
Just to start.

[Usernameforforums]

*Thousand needles has entered the chat*

*The Barrens has entered the chat*

[Gaidax]

Yes. That would be a waste. But that shouldn't be the intention. The intention is to create a world that meshes well into any end game that follows.

The intention is not to lose another million subs because you do fuck knows what that only some fringe weirdos crusade for on MMO-C.

What players want is a NEW cool content, not some shitty going back to some areas that are long done and gone. What I haven't seen in Ashenvale? I don't give a fuck, I want new continents and new zones that I never seen before. New stories, new characters, new plot and not rehash of Ashenvale's deforestation industrialists vs treehuggers only this time eveyone hugs each other and plants tree because that's the fad to push.

If you have a plot point where a giant motherfucking sword wrecks the zone and leads to new expansion - fine by me, but trying to put plot hostage for sake of rehashing old zones? That's literally putting cart before the horse there and we already did it once, nothing good came out of it.

[Bwgmon]

I've added a new reason for a possible revamp in the OP. The portal rooms of Stormwind and Orgrimmar only have one more slot, which will likely be taken by the portal to Valdrakken in Dragonflight. So what happens in 11.0? Is there no need for additional slots because Org/SW will once again serve as main hubs perhaps?

The portal rooms are already made to be expandable. Orgrimmar's had a basement added because it already ran out of room with the addition of the Oribos and Caverns of Time portals, and the one in Stormwind is already designed in a way that the hallway segments can be duplicated to extend it if needed.

[Iain]

AFKing while you fly south south-east for 5-8 minutes is not entertaining gameplay, sry.

I got shit to do.

That's why Dragronriding will make sure you won't even be able to go afk.

If you have a plot point where a giant motherfucking sword wrecks the zone and leads to new expansion - fine by me, but trying to put plot hostage for sake of rehashing old zones? That's literally putting cart before the horse there and we already did it once, nothing good came out of it.

You can say a lot about the plot in WoW but a nailbiter it ain't.

With a zone rehaul Blizzard gets to have their cake and eat it though. One pass to restore the zone into normalcy, and a spectacular invasion type event that provides the "plot" that you can play over and over pretending you're advancing anything remotely resembling a story.

Either way, this episodic content is decadent and unsustainable. Pouring so much resources into a few scenes that you play for a couple of minutes once for each alt only so you can wait the next week for the timegated chapter is not how you grow an MMO.