WoW needs a time skip expansion (10, 100, 1000 years?) to make the story fresh again

[Clone]

Only acceptable time skip is backwards to vanilla.

[Queen of Hamsters]

100 years feels right to me.

[Kithelle]

I want to kill orks again! Green, brown, red, blue what ever raindbow color - its fine for me.

But I would be allready happy if we dont get yet another eastern styled expansion (MoP), because it gets boring pretty fast.

Killed Orcs in 3 expansions (or every if you're Alliance)...repeating the same thing over and over is fun but something fun and original is boring? Sounds like you're in a rut

[AngerFork]

I'm all for a time skip, but each of these options is IMO too long. WoW is far too based around some of the major champions (Thrall, Jaina, etc) to really do a time skip & just skip past the rest of their stories. I'd go with 5 years, enough time to fix some of Azeroth's outstanding issues while still short enough that we can keep some old champions with us.

I feel like the hardest part of this would be introducing us to a time skipped world. Simply doing a "nice job" quest to let us rest and then "5 years later" would feel a bit cheesy & not as adventurous as WoW usually is. Having us step out of the Shadowlands to the world suddenly changed might be cool, but I feel it would be a bit jarring in the way the Cata release was. There's a lot of stories left to see (Horde with the council, Alliance/Horde relations, Azeroth's recovery from BfA) that it would be weird to just hand-wave away.

[Ange]

Killed Orcs in 3 expansions (or every if you're Alliance)...repeating the same thing over and over is fun but something fun and original is boring? Sounds like you're in a rut

If I wanted any eastern themed MMO I would not play WoW but the 1000 other games that are available for that kind of theme.
Warcraft, Humans vs Orcs, is what I like and I dont mind if in 16 years of content some things might come back from time to time.

Keep in mind, I enjoy the combat system in WoW, the grind in MMOs in general and I have the least amount of issues with WoWs main theme. I dont really care about lore and since I play regularly, I dont really see how you can bring up ORIGINAL or BORING, bacause thats just subjective.

But who knows, maybe I will get bored with the next repetition after 48040+ hours played on my main account?

[sephrinx]

No, it doesn't need a "time skip" - it needs new developers.

[Hollycakes]

10000 years please so we can finally become Terran and fight Zerg in Koprulu Sector.

Obviously the best answer right here.

Merge the universes so I can play Tracer in an open World of Overstarwarcraft. a la Hots.

That or Thrall wakes up as a pizza delivery boy to a one eyed Jaina and Dr. Yogg-berg. Woooooooop.

[Biomega]

Doesn't have to be a time skip, but some sort of "reset" is sorely needed.

I'd love a shift towards Light vs. Void and we get to pick our side. Reshuffle the factions, open up all races to everyone, that sort of thing.

[C20]

A time skip... an actual time skip would work only if it has completely removed all of the traditional characters, save for a select few who found a way to drastically extend their lifetime.

None of the dragonflights should appear. Even though they are ancient, and one of them can time travel, they should be locked away. We need completely new stories with new heroes, villains and leaders.

Not to say that you can't reuse stories, but you don't reuse stories. You can have some similarities and parallels between them, but you don't want to see another Lich King storyline punch for punch. You could have another Illidan style character, but you can not lock them away because his brother was fucking his crush.

One of the problems is that the story leads end up having their favourite characters, and many of the others get sidelined and killed off long before they should have. We saw it happen with Thrall. Vol'jin got sidelined and then killed. The blood elf leaders have always been sidelined, and the only attempt to make them relevant was the Throne of Thunder isle invasion.

The tauren have been sidelined. Their previous leader was killed, and their current leader gets stolen like someone painted 'free candy' on the side of a van and parked it at the school gates.

We see it now with Sylvanas. She's going to survive and eventually be forgiven, despite the fact she killed almost an entire fucking race, fed millions of souls to an evil bald dude.

Varian is one exception to this rule. I didn't want him to die when he did, and he was mostly well-written in the later stages. His early entrance into WoW was fairly glossed over, and his reasons for being that way aren't explored in the game.

Essentially, you need to read the lore of the game to understand it. There's no cross-leader interaction at a meaningful level unless you do that. Even if you do that, it's still not great.

Compare it with Starcraft. Kerrigan, Raynor, Artanis... they all interact in a meaningful way. They fight amongst themselves at times, but they work together because there is a bigger bad than them. We get to see each of their stories. Even the side characters (e.g. Zagara, Tycus, the leader of the Tal'darim, etc) interact with the story in a meaningful way. The enemies they face are mostly well written. Arcturus Mengsk didn't outstay his welcome. He was killed off in a natural procession of the game. His son was introduced, there was a bit of hatred and untrust throughout, but he was shown to be a meaningful character to the progression of the story.

The end of the SC storyline was a bit... ridiculous. Kerrigan being turned into the only thing that could defeat the big bad was a way of ending the story because they had no ideas on how else to proceed. Instead of trying to milk more money out of the game, and spoiling the story they had established over the years, they closed it off with an ending.

WoW has outlived that long ago. Arthas/LK was a meaningful end for me. It closed off one of the most popular storylines, and the only one which was truly explored in games before WoW. Sargeras' story wasn't explored except in lore. We were told his mere presence would scorch a planet. We were told his sword would completely shatter planets. Instead of seeing that, and it being the end of an already overdrawn story, his sword basically gave Azeroth just the tip without going into full blown "surprise, it wasn't just the tip". WoW should have ended there... but instead, we have a story team trying to draw up new ideas.

So, yeah, a time skip would help, but new characters would need to be established. New settings need to be created. The curtain on the current timeline and events should close, and we should move onto something completely new. Throw us all into something completely new, let some new leaders grow naturally. Let their following establish gradually - not from some sort of conflict (such as how Sylvanas was only the leader because she freed people from undeath), but from being supported by their peers. Let conflict evolve over things we can relate to - resources and land, rather than over fighting some new big baddie every 2 years. Build people up to fighting against some major disruptive force that is always present, but never defeated or killed. Don't throw in distracting sideline stories (such as the troll empires) just to keep content flowing. Give things replayability for the story rather than for the loot.

[Lasombria]

If the problem is unenjoyable writing by the folks currently doing it, then more writing by them is unlikely to change much. Time skips can be potent tools for refreshing a game and opening up new horizons...but they can also lead to dull, repetitive rehashes that don't change anything except in the shallowest of surface ways.

[cparle87]

Honestly, facing constant threats is getting old and is bad writing. We need peace in Azeroth for an extended period of time. We need a time skip expansion with brand new characters and maybe older versions of the current characters with a fresh new enemy.

How many years would you prefer for a time skip?

People would just go and say "This stuff isn't and/or doesn't belong in Warcraft."

[Vaelienn]

I believe a time jump would be nice but don't think it should be too long. Maybe like 5 to 15 years?

[Accendor]

Honestly, facing constant threats is getting old and is bad writing. We need peace in Azeroth for an extended period of time. We need a time skip expansion with brand new characters and maybe older versions of the current characters with a fresh new enemy.

How many years would you prefer for a time skip?

Depends, if the rift between Alliance and horde should be mended we need at least a 10.000 year skip because of the night elves and draenei.

If that does not matter, at least 50 years.

[MoanaLisa]

Honestly, facing constant threats is getting old and is bad writing. We need peace in Azeroth for an extended period of time. We need a time skip expansion with brand new characters and maybe older versions of the current characters with a fresh new enemy.

So is a fresh new enemy going to be a threat or is this all going to be peaceful? It's very confusing. And why would a timeskip be needed just for this?

I can tell you right now: Any timeskip plotting that involves Danuser managing the story isn't going to fix anything.

[Crimson Spears]

So is a fresh new enemy going to be a threat or is this all going to be peaceful? It's very confusing. And why would a timeskip be needed just for this?

I can tell you right now: Any timeskip plotting that involves Danuser managing the story isn't going to fix anything.

I think they need new blood as well. Change the lore so a lucky arrow can kill anyone again rather then the rampaging demi gods being all over the place. Also resurrecting's knaaks characters and firing golden would be a help. At this point I really hope they let arthas stay dead. Anduin is such a hard coded copy paste in this rip off thanos story line that I don't want to see my childhood memories butchered.

[Razion]

We had a time-travel expansion before, it was WoD. Didn't do well.

[bloodmoth13]

Imm gonna go ahead and say that its probably a case of 'you think you do but you dont'.

What would a timeskip acomplish? tbh it would just make all current and old content obsolete and force blizz to essentially delete everything they have built up, kill off all current characters and start a brand new game with brand new characters with the only thing familiar being the available races.

I really wouldnt mind a roster shake up since they have butchered a lot of the characters from warcraft 3 and have gotten into a cycle where they drag legacy characters through the mud over and over again to milk nostalgia. But just deleting all of the recognizable characters and thrusting new people in our faces would result in a massive failure. Without the original characters passing the torch to a new generation of characters to take the reigns i doubt players would latch onto them.

Frankly there arent any developed characters to take the reigns up, for most races i couldnt name 3 important characters, heck even orcs are lacking, we have thrall and who else? ettrig?

What we need more than a timeskip is a proper faction war story that actually makes sense and develops new or underdeveloped characters. every race should have 5 or more named characters and stories involving them instead of dragging the kings and queens into every little story. Play each story out over the old world story and have a character developed for each zone. Make some heroes and villians for each race in each appropriate zone.

We dont need more gods we need more people in the world of warcraft.

[HighOnMagic]

I felt called to create an account just to jump back in and offer a perspective from someone who's been away from the game for over a year engaging with radically transforming myself and the culture/community I'm part of. I haven't been on these forums for quite some time.

At this point I feel it's going to take more than a time skip to transform the game's systems and story into something profound, compelling and exciting for me. This is the first expansion in the past 13 years that I have decided not to join in, whether for a few months or several, doing so even late in the expansion. As I've been keeping up to date with the game's cinematics, watching the story unfold, the recent 9.1 has me keenly aware I won't return to the game unless word reaches me of a radical transformation to the underlying foundational systems and quality of story.

I've been studying stories, mythology and new emerging cultures this past year and begun to have a deep appreciation for what makes a provocative, enticing, and meaningful narrative that will drive my engagement towards it, resulting in the maturation of my psyche and being changed. This is not what WoW is capable of doing now.

I'm looking to start streaming part time while I start podcasting with a friend, teaching mediation, investing in authentically de-centralized crypto and blockchain technologies, and a few other local community ventures and initiations. In this dream to stream, I will not return to WoW. I don't think this game is worth our time any longer. However I will not push that narrative on anyone else. Each of us need realize this in our own unique way.

I look now to many old and newly emerging single player and multiplayer games, alongside FFXIV and ESO to experience their stories, but in my recently brief research of those latter two and their systems I'm unsure they'll hold my attention for long.

What do I truly desire? I've grown a deep appreciation for nuance and emotionally profound experiences. I desire community and challenge. A game world that drives people together by necessity as a means of survival and authentically connecting with the world around them. Combat, game play, and systems which places the reality and consequence of dying first and foremost. Player engagement and participation not out of a means of addiction or avoiding an unfulfilling life, but because it is generative, life enhancing and enriching. A game world which derives success from the profound connections and relationships it's built upon and able to realize within, actively moving players towards those interactions and outcomes. Where level 1 could be seen as fulfilling as 100, in that a person could have every reason to take up the role of taking care of a city or town, or roadside inn, so that weary travelers and adventurers passing through can rest and eat, where authentically generated AI characters can be found in abundance communicating and interacting as seamlessly as real humans and sometimes mistakenly so.

Maybe it'll be a fully body VR. Maybe it'll need to be birthed by a new style of economy and culture in our shared reality. Maybe it'll reflect something akin to Dungeons and Dragons in that the stories microcosm unfolds naturally and organically within a larger mythos and co-created narrative driven game world. Text based adventures generated from deep-learning algorithms or voice acted from a human initiated AI system. I don't know. What I do know is that my attention is beginning to wean off of the teat of modern game philosophy, and I feel a sorrow and loss in it's place.

When hearing music from this world and others the last year over it has carried with it tears and a grief which cannot be truly explained, other than with perhaps a missing of what was and cannot be brought back.. I would not bring this game back to life, not as some undead shambling reanimated fake which parodies the love I once felt for a world of learning hidden secrets, of ancient wizened magic beings, spirited tricksters, and gods whose cleverly hidden faces lurked amongst the thickly webbed forests and treacherous mountain valleys, under darkened nebulous star filled skies, out of sight and sound except for second guessed blurred glimpses in the corner of my eye, raising hairs from branches breaking too close for comfort accompanied by the whispered rustling of leafy voices and groaning trees. A world of mystery and the unknown. Our discomfort and curiosity acknowledged and held as sacred. Death present at every bend, friends await to be called upon to lend their swords, spells, and helping hands. Where it is our responsibility to keep each other alive.

I have come to know too much to go back. The grave has been dug too shallow. A partially decomposed arm reaches up from freshly tossed soil, an uneasy grin spread across a skull unwilling to rest. We must keep digging. We must fill the hole with tears and blood, with praise, poetry and song, lamenting the memories of those we loved dearly loud into the night. We must sit with the dying and say our goodbyes.

I must learn to say goodbye. My living depends on it.


"Knowing is the certainty we can bear, learning is the uncertainty we cannot." - Stephen Jenkinson, Orphan Wisdom School

[Rendark]

Skipping over a lot of time until everyone is dead really is the only way to fix the story at this point.

[MoanaLisa]

I think they need new blood as well. Change the lore so a lucky arrow can kill anyone again rather then the rampaging demi gods being all over the place. Also resurrecting's knaaks characters and firing golden would be a help. At this point I really hope they let arthas stay dead. Anduin is such a hard coded copy paste in this rip off thanos story line that I don't want to see my childhood memories butchered.

Golden mostly writes dialogue for cinematics. That's well known. Why fire her? Just because she's a name that's known? If you want to go after anyone go after Danuser. He runs the story team.