Is it time?

[Jikate-Stormrage]

For Blizzard to develop an RPG standalone game in the World of Azeroth?

It has been mentioned that the lack of new IPs are a concern. Many times it has been mentioned that WoW has walked away from its RPG roots (by some, not stating a huge amount).

So why not develop a single player experience in the world of Warcraft IP? One that heavily stays with RPG elements. Think Dark Souls or even the newest Zelda game. I know that’s quite a gap in development style, but you get my gist.

A game that players could go to when WoW has its lulls. I wouldn’t mind microtransactions so long as they were not linear to player progression (ie a mount is fine, so long as mounts are discoverable in game).

They could even develop it as a mini-mmorpg, where you could invite your friends to play in 5 man content/raids (capped at 5).

Thoughts on the idea? It’s not overly fleshed out on purpose, looking at feelings more than feedback on specific features.

Imagine a raid boss where you have 10-30 npcs holding off waves of adds, as you and your friends fight a really juiced up boss. The zero timer being you overrun with those adds if they kill all the npcs. The fewer the npcs alive, the group now has to deal with a few adds here and there as they trickle past the npcs.
__________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________

My continued thoughts:

I’m not exclusively interested in their survival as a company; tho neither am I invested in their downfall either.

I’m more interested as a fan. A Skyrim type game set in the WoW universe would certainly be interesting. It would be quite the job to create, but they could save time by using art assets (some like the cartoony on purpose vibe).

As for them making mobile games; I don’t have any issue with that. I do take issue with them being a PC developer and only having a mobile game to announce during what has traditionally been a PC centered convention. Had they PC games to announce and display, I would venture to say the negativity would have been minuscule at best. Outside of that, I wouldn’t tell them to not pursue the mobile market to some extent.

I actually see them entering the mobile market as a bit of a laugh. Titan was supposed to be a new MMO. But by the time they realized they were chasing their tales, the MMO genre had already taken a massive dip. By the time they finally developed Heroes of the Storm, LoL had already had way too much time to solidify their market. Hearthstone (though it does actually do well I think) came only after decades of Magic the Gathering. Overwatch also joins an already well established and saturated genre, tho that genre is fairly persistent when compared to the other ones.

What do they all have in common? They show Blizzard (imho) have really played extremely safe (almost to a self defeating pace) when it comes to innovation in their own IPs. Mobile will be no different. They wouldn’t be looking to innovate their either. But they will want to get their share of the market; but I won’t begrudge them that. Business is business.

However, what genre is just as persistent as first person shooters? Standard RPG experience games. Since the launch of D&D they have been around in one form or another. Longer than shooters even.

That is why I’m wondering if it may be time to consider such a development. I think many would enjoy a pure RPG experience. MMOs can be enjoyable, but they inherently have their design constraints. RPGs don’t really suffer from many of the issues WoW currently is hurting from today.

Just my thoughts.

[ExiHext]

Everything, but please not another souls-like. Can't stand that design anymore.

[TwoMana]

For Blizzard to develop an RPG standalone game in the World of Azeroth?

I would like a story-heavy, single-player RPG. But mostly I think Blizzard needs to release new games.
But I don't think they're going to. They're heavily invested in iterating their current franchises and trying link them to their eSports investments.

Not Dark Souls though. Hate it.

[Stricks]

Blizzards MO is sustained online multiplayer.

[Archmage Xaxxas]

I'd play the everliving hell out of an Elder Scrolls style game set in Azeroth.

Edit: And maybe even something like Assassin's Creed: Origins. A title that stands out from the other AC games. That game has a pretty stock-RPG feel but it's exploding with potential if you have the right settings. Imagine exploring Nazmir in that way, for example. The combat and all.

[deenman]

Everything, but please not another souls-like. Can't stand that design anymore.

a witcher 3 or skyrim like game with elements of game of thrones world in warcraft universe would be superb

[Razion]

No thanks. It's just too temporary an experience.
I signed up to WoW because I liked the idea of an adventure that never ended.
Even if this thing was like 300+ hours like Ni No Kuni, and even if kept faithful to a cartoon and stylized visual design like WC3, it still wouldn't be the most important thing in what I look for with Warcraft: which is mind-numbing endless replay-ability.

[clevin]

No thanks. It's just too temporary an experience.
I signed up to WoW because I liked the idea of an adventure that never ended.

Yo can have both, though. Keep WoW running but also have a single player RPG with periodic DLCs to expand that story. WoW is in a content lull after the last patch? Play the single player game.

[Lolites]

Yo can have both, though. Keep WoW running but also have a single player RPG with periodic DLCs to expand that story. WoW is in a content lull after the last patch? Play the single player game.

well we cant really, as the story would be extremely limited by other game happening in the same universe, maybe in some far past of future, but past is kinda bust as we know what would happen, and future would have to be so far that events of present azeroth (and next few decades at least i would say to keep a lot of place for wow expansions) would no longer be even remembered...
so it would be kinda stupid to do so... new ip would be a better idea i think

[Shelly]

Yo can have both, though. Keep WoW running but also have a single player RPG with periodic DLCs to expand that story. WoW is in a content lull after the last patch? Play the single player game.

I'm not so sure about that. While they could certainly make something like a game where you play as either Lothar or Turalyon through the first and second wars told from a first person perspective you'd then have people asking why they couldn't play as Durotan.

Maybe go far back and just do the War of the Ancients and let you play as Broxigar, Illidan, Malfurion or Tyrande, but then you'd end up with lore people going "how come in the War of the Ancients game Malfurion could do X but he can't in WoW? Did he just forget?"

[Relapses]

Blizzard seems more inclined to make WoW single-player accessible than developing its own single player version of the game. I've said this before but I believe Blizzard's preferred approach is, "massive MMORPG with strong single player elements attached," rather than "strong single player game with massive MMORPG elements attached."

[Mirishka]

For Blizzard to develop an RPG standalone game in the World of Azeroth?

It has been mentioned that the lack of new IPs are a concern. Many times it has been mentioned that WoW has walked away from its RPG roots (by some, not stating a huge amount).

So why not develop a single player experience in the world of Warcraft IP? One that heavily stays with RPG elements. Think Dark Souls or even the newest Zelda game. I know that’s quite a gap in development style, but you get my gist.

A game that players could go to when WoW has its lulls. I wouldn’t mind microtransactions so long as they were not linear to player progression (ie a mount is fine, so long as mounts are discoverable in game).

They could even develop it as a mini-mmorpg, where you could invite your friends to play in 5 man content/raids (capped at 5).

Thoughts on the idea? It’s not overly fleshed out on purpose, looking at feelings more than feedback on specific features.

Imagine a raid boss where you have 10-30 npcs holding off waves of adds, as you and your friends fight a really juiced up boss. The zero timer being you overrun with those adds if they kill all the npcs. The fewer the npcs alive, the group now has to deal with a few adds here and there as they trickle past the npcs.

Hard pass on a 'Souls like' Warcraft game. I'm quite tired of games trying (and generally failing) to copy that design.

[Jetstream]

I’d be into it. I’d love to see Blizzard do a better Skyrim. I keep wanting to like Bethesda games, but I just can’t. A Blizzard rpg in that sort of style would make me happy.

Doesn’t even have to be Warcraft.

[McNeil]

I always liked the idea of a game similiar to Witcher 3 and Skyrim in the WoW universe, but I doubt that Blizzard is interested in singleplayer games these days. I wish they'd go for a new IP instead, could be interesting to explore a brand new world.

[apples]

Activision is the new EA. They don't believe in anything that can't be completely and utterly monetized. Blizzard is Activision and Activision is Blizzard. They are one and the same.

You want a company that "retired" digital items to create false scarcity to make a single player game that they can't have a cash shop for? Keep dreaming.

Warcraft 3 Reforged even looks to have disgusting cheesy Hero skins like HoTS.

Diablo. Traditionally a single player experience with some co-op elements and a bit of online? Now a fully online experience with a real money auction house LOL.

id appreciate it if blizz shills like you could stay in your own containment threads. im sick of people who think blizzard has done anything except propagate the secret black agenda of the 8th column

[Soon-TM]

id appreciate it if blizz shills like you could stay in your own containment threads. im sick of people who think blizzard has done anything except propagate the secret black agenda of the 8th column

If anything, the one who's always shilling for Blizzard it's you, and the rest of the BDS. Are you sick? Go to a !@#$ing doctor, otherwise be prepared to deal with people who think differently.

OT: I'd love to see a Blizzard version of Skyrim, or even better, Morrowind. Too bad that AAA companies have ditched that sort of projects long ago.

[clevin]

well we cant really, as the story would be extremely limited by other game happening in the same universe, maybe in some far past of future, but past is kinda bust as we know what would happen, and future would have to be so far that events of present azeroth (and next few decades at least i would say to keep a lot of place for wow expansions) would no longer be even remembered...
so it would be kinda stupid to do so... new ip would be a better idea i think

Yeah, playing int he same timeframe would be an issue. But playing ~2-300 years later and/or riffing off the idea of different timelines (so the single player isn't in the same one as WoW) could be workable.

New IP would be fine too, but obviously requires more work to create the background, story, etc.

I'm not so sure about that. While they could certainly make something like a game where you play as either Lothar or Turalyon through the first and second wars told from a first person perspective you'd then have people asking why they couldn't play as Durotan.

Maybe go far back and just do the War of the Ancients and let you play as Broxigar, Illidan, Malfurion or Tyrande, but then you'd end up with lore people going "how come in the War of the Ancients game Malfurion could do X but he can't in WoW? Did he just forget?"

I wouldn't let people play as heroes. I'd model it after Skyrim et al - you're an adventurer in a world. So, similar vibe to early WOW, but with a story. Think Dragon Age but set in Azeroth.

[Shelly]

I wouldn't let people play as heroes. I'd model it after Skyrim et al - you're an adventurer in a world. So, similar vibe to early WOW, but with a story. Think Dragon Age but set in Azeroth.

I'm already playing as a random adventurer. Why would I want to in single player?

If they wanted to do single player then they'd be better off to concentrate on just a single important lore character and their adventures. Like the canceled Thrall game.

[CrawlFromThePit]

Everything, but please not another souls-like. Can't stand that design anymore.

I'm gonna go the opposite way and say yes please more dark souls. It's not a good idea on Blizzard part since most of their playerbase enjoys extremely easy stuff that basically plays itself but I would personnally enjoy it very much and I think a darker turn to the visual of the world would be interesting. Otherwise it's just gonna be like that Reckoning game but with orcs. It was fun but it wouldn't feel that fresh in the Warcraft universe.

[shise]

Activision is the new EA. )

Stop saying stupid things like that, please. Sure Activision is not the greatest, but EA bans your threads when you comment bugs, because they don´t want to spent time in fixing them... For example.