Would you be open to a darker themed WoW?

[Thimagryn]

check out the story behind Thaddius in Naxx. It's crazy dark.

I didn't know about his story until Wrath. It was so twisted that I hardly could believe they put it in game. Woulda been nice if they actually did something with the Karazhan dungeon area, with the drowned corpses. That would've been a really creepy zone to explore.

[Zuben]

1. Gambling / Casino for a gold sink. Dice and card games.
Meh, I can play those elsewhere and I doubt Blizzard would bother to develop their own minigames. There could be a gamble element to PVP or something, it's just that cheating makes it problematic.

2. More gore. We have a setting for language, add one for gore and step it up a bit. The odd beheading or gout of blood never hurt any one.
Except age rating, Blizzard wants to keep WoW low to maximize subscriber numbers. It's too bad, I always welcome gore and grit in games featuring war.

3. Remove alliance / horde barriers. We should all be able to raid together. Want to be evil or good? Give us reasons and content to play either way. This also would alleviate servers ratios as this is becoming a huge issue.
Would remove the faction war aspect of lore/gameplay mechanics/world structure, which I love, so this is a big NO.

4. Ever read "Ready Player 1" ? Add this concept in but at a way smaller level. A reason for groups to bind together against other groups to get something really epic.
I don't know what that is. Care to elaborate in the opening post?

5. Game conflict in-game is not a bad thing, generate more of that but NOT in a personal way, just in a game mechanic way.
Not sure what you're getting at here either.

[Haven]

Would remove the faction war aspect of lore/gameplay mechanics/world structure, which I love, so this is a big NO.

What faction war? Horde and Alliance are always on the same side since pretty much the start of vanilla, with an exception for early Cataclysm. In all other cases we're "working together against a bigger threat". Time and again. Horde vs. Alliance conflict lost meaning long ago, and in order to kind of bring it back they had to make an orc Hitler - and even then we ended up raiding him together all the same.

I'd rather have it like IRL. No Horde, no Alliance, every race for itself, old grudges, temporary alliances, fluctuating from relative peace to Battle Royale on a geopolitical scale. Many races meet on the opposite sides of the battlefield only because they tag along with orcs or humans. Why would a tauren and draenei hate each other? Why would a gnome hate a blood elf?

[Deleted]

Bring back the night.
Sorted.

[Deleted]

yes because letting Horde and Alliance raid together would make WoW so dark themed.

It's a nice addition for those who don't give a damn about the war going on.

[twiddler]

I would love it if the art style was along the lines of Diablo.

[Deleted]

I didn't know about his story until Wrath. It was so twisted that I hardly could believe they put it in game. Woulda been nice if they actually did something with the Karazhan dungeon area, with the drowned corpses. That would've been a really creepy zone to explore.

Upside down chamber I assume.

[taliey]

Tell me what your definition of dark is, and I will give you what I think.

For me, I think a good way for World of Warcraft to go dark is to go the path of Game of Thrones.

Never a dull moment in Game of Thrones.

I wholeheartedly support a darker World of Warcraft. God knows how being cliche can be a snooze fest.

[prwraith]

The race barrier thing is long past due. The horde and alliance become more and more identical every expansion if the trend continues they may as well either merge.

I'm all for more gore, and darker subject matter tho.

[Redlokyldoreifanggore]

No to everything except number two. Personally I'd prefer more psychological things like the burnt husks of humans in Burning Steppes or the Upside-Down Sinners, but gore can have its effects. Just remember this is a Rated T for Teen game. Too much gore, too much psychological stuff, too much "dark" may result in a rated M game that parents and new people may be reluctant to buy. I know it sounds crazy in a world rife with 12 year-olds playing first person shooters and first graders running over prostitutes while annihilating a literal army of police in GTA, but the ratings do get advertised, they do get noticed, and they do get negative publicity.

As I said, I'd be okay with it, but in hindsight, I'd never let my kid play an M game until I felt they were at the maturity to handle it (or no longer living on my paycheck at the very least). Keep this in mind when you ask Blizz to grow grittier and darker. They accomplished a lot of very dark themes in this expansion between the genocide, mass executions, child enslavement, "nuclear" mana-bomb holocausts, genetic mutating, and corrupting visages of chaotic deities, all while maintaing a relatively PG-13 vibe. Just keep in mind what "darker" might result in.

[Thimagryn]

Tell me what your definition of dark is, and I will give you what I think.

For me, I think a good way for World of Warcraft to go dark is to go the path of Game of Thrones.

Never a dull moment in Game of Thrones.

I wholeheartedly support a darker World of Warcraft. God knows how being cliche can be a snooze fest.

TBH that's how I felt the RTS games were like. Even as little story as there was in Warcraft 2, it was chock full of political upheaval and deception.

Time moves far too slowly in WoW for any of it to matter though. You could breeze through the RTS stories in a few hours, getting the full impact of a story as it unfolds. WoW's story unfolds in seasonal chunks over 2 year spurts. You're actively participating in the world daily, while you have to wait a full year before any action is taken against the big bad.

[greeeed]

it make me remember some quest in FFXIV...
sex joke, sex, rape and torture is normal in ffxiv since they already said it's not all age game
(which fuel npc hatred to do some stupid shit)

true to be told it was not clear it the beginning -> quest at low level was subtle or stupid sex joke.
example: NPC A fighting NPC B (you can hear(read) what they say when you walk near them
NPC a: you will pay!
NPC B: I tried! but your mother said it's on the house!
..etc

but in middle level it was clear that one npc got gang rape....

I was like:
wait what?
are we still playing mmorpg?
(I even search about it online to make sure that what I heard was right...)

than again there was some whore selling her service at beginning area in 1.0....

though in bright side it's normal to lose your NPC comrade in battle or ambush
(like in one quest 90% of certain guild/group get wipe out)

[Selah]

I don't really like anything your put out there. To me it feels like a cheesy B movie about some self-pitying alcoholic who has a horrible demise because he couldn't make good decisions.

[Jshadowhunter]

1. It's a brainless no no.
2. If you're Alliance you probably haven't seen what Saurfang did to the Klaxxi in the tunnel at SoO, which already has some pretty nasty deaths, which makes "blood everywhere!" look insignificant.
3. Failing to see the benefit as well as lore reason, because, while Alliance and Horde at at truce at the moment, old hatreds die hard.
4. You'll have to explain better because I'm failing to understand what you're getting at.
5. Elaborate, please.

[Valerye]

Absolutely, I think that those points in time are the highlights of WoW, like in Icecrown and Plaguelands.