WoW Two: Pre-Sundering Prequel?

[Deleted]

Obviously the very possibility of a sequel to WoW is hotly debated, and I doubt it will happen unless Blizzard wants a completely new type of game play within the same IP. But if it ever does come to pass what about a prequel? Specifically taking place prior to the Sundering? This would provide a lot of interesting lore, with several Empires like the Highbourne, the Zandalari, the Aqir and the Mogu at their height during this period. There's an absolutely enormous mass of land, far too large to simply feature in an expansion for wow, far larger than all of the current continents + Draenor combined perhaps, which leaves plenty of room for expansions. The lore has a good framework to go on, but is also very vague and flexible with infinite potential for conflicts and now extinct races. It also allows WoW and WoW2 to exist as separate entities.

Assuming WoW2 ever did come out would this be something you would be interested in?

[Golden Yak]

A prequel-sequel? Emphatically no. Ancient warcraft lore might be something worth exploring in an expansion for WoW, but for a proper sequel I'd want it set far into the future - 500-800 years or so, long after all current threads in WoW have been resolved. Legion, known Old Gods, etc. all gone. Major shake ups - redrawn lines on the map, re-organized factions. Races disappearing, a clean slate to start new stories, etc.

There was an expansion idea a while ago with a time travel focus - it involved a single new continent that had been formed from a storm of time anomalies - each zone in the continent was a piece of a different era, some far in the past, others from far possible futures, all welded together magically into a single whole. Something like that would allow for exploring all major events from past eras - the wars with the aqir, the rise of the mogu, the pre-Sundering battles with the Legion, potential disastrous futures, etc.

[Deleted]

It's only debated because people can't accept no for an answer.

But to stay on topic. IF WoW2 ever happened (it isn't. Ever. EVER.) that would have to mean that WoW1 has failed and needed to die, hence the sequel. So no, I would not be interested in it bc something else out there is obviously a lot better if it did in WoW.

Or alternately Blizzard might have an idea for a new style of gameplay they want to use for the Warcraft IP, but don't want to completely change WoW. So they make wow 2.

But anyway, I agree it's unlikely. I was more asking about whether this would be a cool setting for the game.

[Musik-Diversity86]

It's only debated because people can't accept no for an answer.

But to stay on topic. IF WoW2 ever happened (it isn't. Ever. EVER.) that would have to mean that WoW1 has failed and needed to die, hence the sequel. So no, I would not be interested in it bc something else out there is obviously a lot better if it did in WoW.

I agree with matheney2k that if WoW2 happened, it would be because the first WoW failed and that is obviously the OPPOSITE of what happened. Making a sequel of an MMO with another MMO does mean the first was a failure. FF XI, GW, FF XIV (1st one), Lineage..... yeah I don't think I need to keep going.

[DarkTZeratul]

FF XI was not a failure. Guild Wars was not a failure. FF IV... Well, it WAS a failure, but they didn't make a sequel so much as they simply remade the entire game. You also forgot Everquest, which was very much not a failure. Everquest 2, though...

[Leonheart327]

There was an expansion idea a while ago with a time travel focus - it involved a single new continent that had been formed from a storm of time anomalies - each zone in the continent was a piece of a different era, some far in the past, others from far possible futures, all welded together magically into a single whole. Something like that would allow for exploring all major events from past eras - the wars with the aqir, the rise of the mogu, the pre-Sundering battles with the Legion, potential disastrous futures, etc.

This has to happen.

[Soeroah]

There was an expansion idea a while ago with a time travel focus - it involved a single new continent that had been formed from a storm of time anomalies - each zone in the continent was a piece of a different era, some far in the past, others from far possible futures, all welded together magically into a single whole. Something like that would allow for exploring all major events from past eras - the wars with the aqir, the rise of the mogu, the pre-Sundering battles with the Legion, potential disastrous futures, etc.

Was that my idea, or did someone else have a similar idea?


For context, this was my idea.

Kairoz's experiments on the Timeless Isle to return the Bronze Dragonflight's mastery over time have paid off, but at a cost. Ingesting a processed version of the epoch stones allows a dragon to regain their full powers of pre-Cataclysm, but it causes their minds to become weak enough that they can be more easily corrupted by the Old Gods. This side effect, however, takes several months to set in, so a sizeable portion of the Bronze Flight have accepted and used the method before anyone notices what's going wrong.

Players now find themselves at a point in Azeroth where the Infinite Dragonflight have begun to rise. Several zones take place in the past, one or two in the present. For example, one leveling zone is Elwynn Forest during the first war, where the Infinite Flight have tried to change events so the Orcs never destroyed Stormwind. You quest throughout the zone to stop the Infinites, to uphold history, and the zone's story culminates in a raid on Stormwind where you prevent the Infinites from interfering so the Horde can accomplish their destiny.

Side-antagonists can be misguided members of the Alliance (or even the Horde) who believe things could be better if history were changed.

Essentially, the story for each zone would involve preventing the Infinites from changing things, whether by travelling to the past to stop them, or stopping them in the present so they can't provide reinforcements to themselves in CoT dungeons we've done in previous expansions. Protect our past selves by fighting in the present. Scenarios in the form of 'time quakes', slivers of history becoming accessible throughout Azeroth, are another method of visiting and protecting Azeroth's history, as well as seeing some old removed content in a new context.

The final raid would be deep within the Caverns of Time; within the Hourglass. In this zone, time is non-linear, and spiritual fragments (not the real things, echoes) of history are scattered throughout. It represents a desert, with notable places and events taking place. To the south is Stromgarde, used as a setting for several boss fights. To the north is the kingdom of Zandalar. That sort of thing.

The raid culminates with meeting Noz at the Nexus of the timeways, the core of time, which was revealed to be getting weaker throughout the expansion due to corruptions to history. As we approach, Murozond suddenly appears, crazed, and fights against us. With Noz's help, we manage to weaken him, only for him to disappear into the timeways, for our past selves to eventually meet and defeat.

The final cinematic of the raid involves the Nexus buckling under the pressure of the fight, and Noz reluctantly revealing he knows how to save it, apologising to the mortals, and stepping in to the whirlpool of history. He is obviously agonised, his consciousness being spread thin across all of Azeroth's timeline, and the whispers of the Old Gods all throughout history turn to shouts delivered directly to his ears. The Nexus is stabilised, and Azeroth stops having its little time quakes, but Noz staggers out, looking up at the raid as his skin slowly turns from bronze to the Infinite's colour scheme. He yells that he has been exposed to all of time, every history, every moment, and that he must change things so events he now believes will happen will not happen.

Too mad to be able to distinguish between what he saw and reality, the newly formed Murozond disappears into the near past, obviously to fight out raid.

We leave the Hourglass to discover the time quakes have lured the Legion to Azeroth for the next expansion.

[Super Kami Dende]

Ugggh No.

I hate Prequels.

There is something about knowing what is going to happen in the future anyways that makes me feel like it is meaningless what I do.

For example in SW:TOR whenever I level on Alderaan I am just like UGGGHH WHY DO I CARE IT'S GOING TO GET DEATHSTAR'D!

[Deleted]

WoW 2 would be interesting, though I'm so sure about the prequel Idea.

[bmjclark]

I don't know why you'd think WoW 2 wouldn't happen.

That being said, i'm not really sold on the prequel idea. I'd honestly expect there to be another rts (or several books) that open up new lore in the world and move things forwards 50-100 years to get new characters in.

[Immitis]

why turn it into wow 2 which would divide the playerbase and just end up costing them money when they could turn that into one, if not multiple wow expansions and make way more money?

mmo sequels have never worked out well. the only way a wow 2 would work is if wow has ended already

[Dremall]

Prequels I find work better for books and then if its something that hasn't really been explored much by the author. Video games...I don't think it works as well. For right now the closest I can see them doing with a WoW2 is an overhaul of the engine. They pushed it with the numbers in MoP, and with the item squish are buying some time, but they can only squish numbers so much before they have to do something drastic.

[Zarc]

It's only debated because people can't accept no for an answer.

But to stay on topic. IF WoW2 ever happened (it isn't. Ever. EVER.) that would have to mean that WoW1 has failed and needed to die, hence the sequel. So no, I would not be interested in it bc something else out there is obviously a lot better if it did in WoW.

That's a rather stupid opinion to be honest. World of Warcraft has been a massive success story. To think that there will never be a World of Warcraft 2 means that you believe that WoW will still be here 50, 100 and 1,000 years off in the future. Because as soon as WoW dies, which will happen at some point, they will surely try to repeat the success with a new game like 5 years after it stopped being profitable. Sure you can doubt that WoW3 is ever going to happen, because if WoW2 fails chances are they'll never try to do WoW3. But to think that WoW2 is never going to happen? Laughable.

[Denkou]

I think WoW 2 is a possibility, and it doesn't necessarily have to mean that WoW 1 failed. It would give them an opportunity to start fresh and build a new game engine from the ground up. You can only keep tacking on bits and pieces to a game for so long before you start to hit walls. The new character models are nice, but they're not much more than the current models with higher poly counts and slightly improved textures. Starting from scratch would allow them to implement an engine with graphics that are much better than they could ever achieve by simply adding on to the current models. Imagine what they could do with a brand-new engine that allows them to have actual physics processing and weather that affects gameplay, and other neat things like that.

Of course, IF it ever happens it would have to come after the ending of WoW 1, and quite some time after so that they don't alienate or abandon the player base. People will still be playing the game for years to come after its over, so we would probably not see a sequel for a very, very long time, if we do see one at all.

[Madruga]

WoW 2 is only a good idea if it can exist concurrently with WoW 1. And it is not such an easy feat, look at what happened in EQ... Most people prefer Everquest 1 to its sequel up to this day .

But maybe it could work, if it had a radically different gameplay. This way, people would have a reason to continue playing the original, or even play both (given enough time).

As for the prequel idea... I like prequels, but I don't know... How about... Alternate Azeroth for WoW 2? =D

[Deleted]

There is one very good reason for a WoW2. That being the fact that WoW is 10 years old, and the room for development is running out slowly but surely. Id welcome WoW2 with open arms if it was basically WoW with a new engine built from ground up.

[Cairhiin]

I agree with matheney2k that if WoW2 happened, it would be because the first WoW failed and that is obviously the OPPOSITE of what happened. Making a sequel of an MMO with another MMO does mean the first was a failure. FF XI, GW, FF XIV (1st one), Lineage..... yeah I don't think I need to keep going.

At this point in time, WoW can't even be dubbed a failure anymore, and at a certain point in the future WoW will just have ran its course. There's no way around the fact, that as the game ages, more and more players will jump onto something new. The creation of WoW2 really does not mean that WoW failed. The same goes for the first Guild Wars, it was not a failure, not by a long stretch, the game simply had ran its course.

[The Kao]

IF WoW2 ever happened (it isn't. Ever. EVER.) that would have to mean that WoW1 has failed and needed to die, hence the sequel.

That seems a bit narrow-minded to me. There will be a point in time when WoW1 simply won't be able to keep up. It's old today already but still acceptable despite tower-high stacking technological flaws. If you ask me, had Blizzard not trashed Titan last year we'd probably be talking about an official successor right now rather than WoD. But it seems that after scrapping it Blizzard now puts every effort into prolonging WoW's existence as long as they can.

In another 10 or 15 years however it'll be like looking upon NES or DOS games from today's view - a relict of the past that isn't really played anymore since the gaming industry and its consumers will have changed fundamentally again. At this point I suppose Blizzard will simply have to come up with a successor, given they still exist, but I highly doubt it'll be Warcraft themed again. Every now and then you just need to get something fresh, and they know this.

[ro9ue]

For all intents and purposes WoD is Blizzard's attempt at WoW2. IMO

[Deleted]

For all intents and purposes WoD is Blizzard's attempt at WoW2. IMO

Not that I wanted this to turn into a discussion of whether or not WoW2 would actually exist...but what makes you think that? Seems like any other expansion to me, albeit an exciting one.