Could a complete Azeroth takeover help to reinstate the game's freshness?

[Neverwhere]

This is not a future expansion talk outside the outline I'll put in. Only a thought.

So, we've been on Azeroth since Wrath came out. The zones while different feel strangely similiar. So how bout some seriously drastic changes to scenery? Shameless rip of Mass Effect 3 story incoming...

The demons invade, and this time, they win. We're forced to relocate somewhere, anywhere. Argus? Ethereal homeworld? Don't care. What's important is that the world, the hub, the zones are so madly different than what we've seen for the past 5 years.

Would this, in your opinion, make the game 'new' again? Game mechanics aside, does a radically different setting have the potential to hit th e reset button? Theres no returning to Orgrimmar, to Stormwind. No returning to Azeroth, until this task is done. True, that may be frustrati ng, but I'm sure Blizzard could fix that. Perhaps warping through Caverns of time for old world achievements raids and what have you.

Side tracks and theories aside, is this the same old crap with new paint, or a jumpstart to the samey feel? By the time its time to return to Azeroth, maybe I'll even be happy to see it again. Love wow to death, but I'm interested in getting my world of warcraft turned upside down...even if it only lasts a little while.

[Glaziola]

I like the idea thought always about something like this. However wouldnt everyone just go to caverns of time and still afk in orgrimmar? :P

[Uennie]

The issue at this point isn't the game, they already reworked the entire world (and few people want to admit how big a deal that is), it's the community. Nothing will change the fact that at the end of the day Blizzard can not win with their playerbase and that the players will always choose the most convenient option.

It's an interesting and cool idea, but would it change anything? Probably not.

[Deleted]

I personally love the idea, whether or not it can be done (in terms of development) remains unsolved to me. What taurenguard says is plausible, but what if the demons knew about the CoT and thus destroyed them? What then?

It would be really interesting, but I bet there's flaws that I can't see well.

[Virulina]

The demons invade, and this time, they win. We're forced to relocate somewhere, anywhere. Argus? Ethereal homeworld? Don't care. What's important is that the world, the hub, the zones are so madly different than what we've seen for the past 5 years.

TBH I personally think Cataclysm was the weakest expansion and I think a lot of that went down to the fact that Blizzard spent so much time reshaping Azeroth and land that was already there. If the next expansion is the burning legion just make a new planet like Outland. Alternatively put it all into a Scenario like the Battle for UNdercity was.

An alternative is have a Caverns of time raid set in the future only this time rather than just faff about the whyrmrest temple and the maelstrom we travel over a lot more of demonised azeroth.

The other problem is if Azeroth is no longer habited by us what happens to the 1 to 90 experience would we at 91 get instanced and no longer be able to go back? That seems to cut off a massive amount of content and will make the zones feel dead as no one will be about.

I appreciate the idea of changing stuff but imo changing the odd zone or area is better than bothering to redo everything... again.

[bufferunderrun]

isn't that what has happen since BC? new zone = new main hub, only in cata we where back to orgrimmar and stormwind. Also it's higly improbable for new character to be born right in a new world.

[Adam Jensen]

Mass Effect 3?

BRILLIANT

I know what happens at the end! I know what happens at the end!

We fight the big boss of the burning legion, but we lose! He gives us three options! We can destroy the Burning Legion . . . but all magic is destroyed and all Warlocks will be killed. We can control the burning legion but we die in the process. Or we can merge mortals and demons into a new life form, but also die in the process!

YAY!

[Deleted]

To be honest I've been thinking since Cataclysm that the Legion and Deathwing should have fully pushed us to Outland. And have Outland be made as a new WoW then go from there first to other worlds, and in the third expansion or so, return to Azeroth to fight off demons and undead.

However, someone said it's not the game that's the problem at this point, but the community. Unfortunately... I agree. I don't like Pandaria, but it is a new continent, yet people still chose to afk in Orgrimmar or Stormwind, or, at best, in the new capitals. They only go out to do some dailies if they're not done with the reputations and when a new patch comes, but only in the new patch area. Unfortunately this isn't a new people, but it's one that deepened with time.

Mass Effect 3?

BRILLIANT

I know what happens at the end! I know what happens at the end!

We fight the big boss of the burning legion, but we lose! He gives us three options! We can destroy the Burning Legion . . . but all magic is destroyed and all Warlocks will be killed. We can control the burning legion but we die in the process. Or we can merge mortals and demons into a new life form, but also die in the process!

YAY!

NO! It isn't the big boss of the Burning Legion giving us that option, it's a star child (they could put Me'dan) that controlled him the whole time!

[Zaphiron]

This.... is..... Awesome! No really I would love this. Basically fleeing or go into hiding and making new. alliances or old ones.
In the end well get help from a new race that was able to drive the legion from their homeworld. But really should be the legion next expansion and evil of all evil shows it's face!

[Deleted]

However, someone said it's not the game that's the problem at this point, but the community. Unfortunately... I agree. I don't like Pandaria, but it is a new continent, yet people still chose to afk in Orgrimmar or Stormwind, or, at best, in the new capitals.

No AH's except for Engi's kinda forces this.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

If Azeroth falls, the Legion wins. End of story. No survivors.

We've foiled their plans 4 times now (well of eternity, sargeras, mt hyjal, Sunwell). They aren't going to play softball and conquer the world and twist us into demons. They will do as Wrathion showed, blow up Azeroth.

[Northem]

I've always had the "illusion" that we can revisit Azeroth beyond WoW. A parallel Azeroth where traveling to the past, we could avoid the cataclysm ... I hate the consequences of the cataclysm ...

Imagine a WoW 2 with the graphics engine of Skyrim and the latest enhancements to what to RPGs refers!

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I've always had the "illusion" that we can revisit Azeroth beyond WoW. A parallel Azeroth where traveling to the past, we could avoid the cataclysm ... I hate the consequences of the cataclysm ...

Imagine a WoW 2 with the graphics engine of Skyrim and the latest enhancements to what to RPGs refers!

What advancements require a sequel? Only one I can think of is abolishing the tank, and I would hate that.

[Florena]

This could maybe work as a sequel, definitely not an expansion. But I'm not sure I like the idea of being driven from Azeroth. I mean, where would we go? Outland? I wouldn't mind seeing widespread destruction from another full on BL invasion, but I'm not sure I can get behind this idea.

[DeadmanWalking]

Why would you destroy 90% of the game that you have created? Azeroth has level 1-60 and 70-90 content for 2 factions and in those there are several races. Tired of the human questing chain? Go do western kingdoms Night elves. Tired of Alliance questing zones? Go play Horde questing chains. Don't want to play through the goblin starter zone again? Start as an orc and race change later. One problem with most MMO's is that once you play through a zone and you want to play another character you pretty much have to go through the same questing chain zones.

What if you want to go and collect herbs in the 1-60 zone so you can raise alchemy on another character? Or inscription? Sorry, can't go back to old Azeroth because its been destroyed.

Now we have to recreate all these low end leveling zones on a new planet because someone thought Burning Legion winning would "freshen up the gameplay". Sorry, no time to create new content or raids because just like in Cata we have to spend all our time recreating something that we already have. Heres Dragon Soul 2.0!"

Yeah, bad ideal. Next bad ideal please!!

[Boricha]

This is not a future expansion talk outside the outline I'll put in. Only a thought.

So, we've been on Azeroth since Wrath came out. The zones while different feel strangely similiar. So how bout some seriously drastic changes to scenery? Shameless rip of Mass Effect 3 story incoming...

The demons invade, and this time, they win. We're forced to relocate somewhere, anywhere. Argus? Ethereal homeworld? Don't care. What's important is that the world, the hub, the zones are so madly different than what we've seen for the past 5 years.

Would this, in your opinion, make the game 'new' again? Game mechanics aside, does a radically different setting have the potential to hit th e reset button? Theres no returning to Orgrimmar, to Stormwind. No returning to Azeroth, until this task is done. True, that may be frustrati ng, but I'm sure Blizzard could fix that. Perhaps warping through Caverns of time for old world achievements raids and what have you.

Side tracks and theories aside, is this the same old crap with new paint, or a jumpstart to the samey feel? By the time its time to return to Azeroth, maybe I'll even be happy to see it again. Love wow to death, but I'm interested in getting my world of warcraft turned upside down...even if it only lasts a little while.

It's a nice thought, but you're basically just asking Blizzard for a new MMO. Your idea kind of takes the "World" out of "World of Warcraft."

[Drithien]

I think that your idea is quite interesting. And I like the spirit in which it is made, as an attempt to revitalise the aspect of the world of the game. Instead of one of myriads of suggestions about what to do with its instanced content.

However I disagree with the idea.

1. Relocating to another planet would effectively render much of the feel of each racial faction obsolete. There is a very special bond between a racial faction's homeland and their identity. Night elves without their massive forests, with their cities and shrines enveloped in them are just not the same. Neither are the tauren without their vast plains. Or the dwarves without their fortresses dug deep on the sides of snowy mountains. The high elves without their magical kingdom. Location may be a subtle factor in fleshing out a racial faction, but it's an extremely important one nonetheless.

Relocating them to another planet would just strip most of that away. It would be like -no offence meant- ethnic communities in the U.S. talking about how great "home" is. That's nice, but it doesn't change the fact that they are nowhere near "home", and that no amount of stories can be an adequate replacement of it.

Neither would be the quite bad solution of similar settlements to be found on the new planet for each race to live in. Nor creating as many stories of mourning for their lost homeland as there are racial factions. What makes such stories interesting is that they are rare.

Azeroth right now has a nicely complex system, where some factions inhabit life-long sttlements still. Some risk losing part of them. Others are trying to reclaim them. And some are trying to find a new place to call home.

2. The problem in my opinion is not as much the way things are story-wise but the way they are gameplay-wise. World of WarCraft is an open-world, role-playing game. In such a game the focus should be on creating and shaping a character to adventure with in the world of the game. Not collect points. Instanced content in the form of dungeons and battlegrounds is supposed to be a side-occupation. Not the almost-single focus of the gameplay.

But that is the way things are right now in the game. Gathering points though repeating content, instanced and non-instanced, is the primary focus. Variety has been squashed in favour of balance. Streamlining has overtaken experimentation. Experimentation is actually frowned upon as useless. Because doing something for fun shouldn't exist in a videogame. Down is up and up is sideways. A continuously wrong appraoch from the developers ever since Crusade, when they decided to focus on instanced content instead of the world of the game, has twisted the essence of the game to such an extent it is no longer developed as a game of its genre.

World of WarCraft should be like an online version of Elder Scrolls. The focus should be on creating an ever-expanding world. Not an ever-expanding tier of raiding and ranked pvping. It's what the original version of the game got right. One of the most important reasons why the game saw its biggest growth in players percentage-wise during that period of time. It's what the fact that only about 30% of players actually do raid, even with LFR available now, is saying. It's what Skyrim's success is pointing at even.

And it's what the problem is with the game right now. An open-world, role-playing game, being treated as anything but that. Classic offered two continents with tenths of zones, thousands of quests, tenths of dungeons -some unique to factions-, 6 different racial campaigns, and so on. Crusade offered only seven, and a dailies-focused zone. Wrath didn't fare much better. Cataclysm was just ridiculous. And Mists was more of the same as Wrath and Crusade. we got sixteen bosses in tier 14, but only seven zones to play in, one being primarily a dailies-focused zone as well. Next patch we'll get another dailies-focused zone. No new zones with one-time through quests. Racial campaigns are all but gone. Class quests gone as well. We are no longer playing a human paladin or blood elf ranger. Just paladin, and just hunter.

And this is what I think should change. More focus on the world of the game. More zones to play in. More racial campaigns. More class quests. Better quests, with depth, complexity, challenge (remove that ridiculous quest-tracker on the map and break any add-on that tries to replicate it). Offer some choice. Some room for players to shape their character. Bring back danger in the world. Bring back mystery. Stop spamming players with ways to "gain points". the game is supposed to be an adventure in a fictional world. Not as excercise in point-gathering.

[Justignoreme]

If Azeroth falls, the Legion wins. End of story. No survivors.

We've foiled their plans 4 times now (well of eternity, sargeras, mt hyjal, Sunwell). They aren't going to play softball and conquer the world and twist us into demons. They will do as Wrathion showed, blow up Azeroth.

They aren't that powerful. If they were they would've done it already. Only the Titan's have that kind of power.

But really, no. I miss a lot of the old zones as they were pre-Cata. There is also no where else to go. Outland is falling apart and nothing more than a wasteland trapped in the Twisting Nether, and Lolargus idea... get real. Azeroth is it. They destroy it, the story ends entirely.

[skycaptain]

YES, THEN LET'S CALL THIS PROJECT TITAN.

blizz plz

[Dragore]

An alternative is have a Caverns of time raid set in the future only this time rather than just faff about the whyrmrest temple and the maelstrom we travel over a lot more of demonised azeroth.

Kind of going off this and OP.

What if this did happen but in the future. Wrathion(or whoever) opens a portal to that future in the Caverns of Time and the entire expansion is set in that CoT. We would be of course to exit it and do other things like normal in present Azeroth(AH, BGs, etc) but all the new things happen in the future(raids, dungeons, dailies, etc).