Time skip or remake?

[Gaidax]

Leave as is and continue story.

Like really, we have so many unresolved plotlines that can be continued at any moment, that there is 0 reason to do any skips or other bullshit at all. From all the stuff we have around and brewing, they could make 5 expansion if they want so.

[glowpipe]

How would a long time skip work lore-wise if we continue playing the same characters?

Easy. We spent about a year inside the shadowlands. 50-100 years passed on the outside. Some dev already said time is percieved differently in shadowlands. Just make it seperate with different time scales.

[Jessicka]

I’d rather time skip than remake/reimagine. I mean they reimagined for WoD and it was a disaster.

Time skip is the only way we can really move on from the incoherencies of the last few expansions. From there they just need to keep time linear and forget about multiverses, time travel, extra dimensional planes and the absolute mindfuckery that is any attempt to build an in depth afterlife. As if the multiple versions of a person except when they’re Legion and then they’re just one version or whatever shit that was, and now we’re clearing out Hell of bad guys because… wait where are we sending these eternally damned spirits again? And does each multiverse have its own Shadowlands? If not, which version of a person do they use to decide where they go?

Maybe the disconnect of a time skip will also allow for them to actually introduce a bad guy instead of just pretending everyone already knew about them for 30 years and using that to avoid actually introducing them.

[Swnem]

I don't care.

A time skip or not is not the problem. It's the game design.
Regardless, whatever it is, it's been decided already and it's too late to backtrack.

[MrLachyG]

Okay. Let’s seriously discuss this. With shadowlands events. The story can now easily support a remake or a time skip.

But the question is not how, but which would you think would be better??

Do you want them to undo and re write the history - anything from all of it since trolls or from certain points like WC1 or maybe classic wow or maybe TBC onwards.

The other option is a time skip. But how much? Do we go like 5 years ? 20? 50? 200? 1000? Where we are legends thought lost. Azeroth has either flourished or being dominated by some evil we weren’t there to stop - which would be better? Fully recovered races or totally devastated world to return to.

And don’t forget to add why.

problem with a time skip of more than say 50 years is that there would be a massive disconnect from all the current wow characters; no more Jaina, Thrall etc cause they "probably" would've all passed away. I think they were kinda setting up a time jump when they had Jaina tell us that she had been in the Maw for a lot longer than we thought she had been; meaning that time passes differently in the Shadowlands. I think it would be interesting if we managed to rescue Anduin and then all the player characters along with Thrall, Jaina, Baine, Anduin and all the Ebon Blade came back to Azeroth only to discover we'd been gone for 5-10 years and everyone had presumed we'd failed

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

The most realistic one of the two to happen would be a time skip. I'd honestly just want a full blown reboot at this point but with the current writing team... yeeeeaaaaaahhh.

- - - Updated - - -

problem with a time skip of more than say 50 years is that there would be a massive disconnect from all the current wow characters; no more Jaina, Thrall etc cause they "probably" would've all passed away.

That's the idea, buddy. The old cast needs to be retired. They've been ran into the ground.

[MrLachyG]

The most realistic one of the two to happen would be a time skip. I'd honestly just want a full blown reboot at this point but with the current writing team... yeeeeaaaaaahhh.

- - - Updated - - -



That's the idea, buddy. The old cast needs to be retired. They've been ran into the ground.

yeah maybe. there needs to be some continuity though; maybe the Player Character saves the above mentioned NPC's and sends them back to Azeroth but get trapped in a time vortex after beating the Jailer. get sent through time forward 100 years and we get to meet their kids/grandkids who have heard about us via their parents. That would be cool.

[Accendor]

Okay. Let’s seriously discuss this. With shadowlands events. The story can now easily support a remake or a time skip.

But the question is not how, but which would you think would be better??

Do you want them to undo and re write the history - anything from all of it since trolls or from certain points like WC1 or maybe classic wow or maybe TBC onwards.

The other option is a time skip. But how much? Do we go like 5 years ? 20? 50? 200? 1000? Where we are legends thought lost. Azeroth has either flourished or being dominated by some evil we weren’t there to stop - which would be better? Fully recovered races or totally devastated world to return to.

And don’t forget to add why.

Depends if they want to abandon the faction barrier. If so, timeskip of multiple 1000 years is needed.
If not, already a hundred years would be interesting.

[Shoggoth]

There's no point if the same team makes it. It will be more of the same crap.

[EntertainmentNihilist]

Time skip ~20-30 years. This:

1. Gives time for significant political, technological, and cultural change to occur
2. Isn't so long that mortal characters (like Genn Greymane) would have to die of old-age.
3. Is long enough for known characters to have children and have those children grow to be adults, creating a "new generation" / cast of characters to work with.

[Nemah]

At this point, end the series. Jailer wins, undoes everything, new reality is irl and everyone goes out and smells the roses and stares at the sun.

Maybe we all become lumberjacks, with a sly look right at the end of the last fight.

[Syegfryed]

A remake would be the simple and easier solution, also the most respectful, because there is too much shit that is better to be erased and pretend to never exist

But like we know, it can't happen, just make a long, loong timeskip, enough for all the shit that was done be left under the rug.

Also, both ways are doomed to fail without changing the writers as well.

- - - Updated - - -

Time skip ~20-30 years. This:

1. Gives time for significant political, technological, and cultural change to occur
2. Isn't so long that mortal characters (like Genn Greymane) would have to die of old-age.
3. Is long enough for known characters to have children and have those children grow to be adults, creating a "new generation" / cast of characters to work with.

30 years is too small, we need 100+ to have new generations and erase current characters and give enough time for new plots and enemies to rise.

[Daffan]

Time skip or remake don't matter, people will freak out because how much investment they are losing -- either option will be palatable by general playerbase if given incentives like FFX11 did.

[Luck4]

I don't know if you guys noticed, but we have in Shadowlands all the characters, out of the time skip, needed.

Anduin, Jaina, Thrall, Baine, Tyrande, and also Anduin's future wife Taelia.

I don't think it's a coincidence, these characters are the ones we need to survive the time skip, and even with the time skip, many characters would still be in good shape in Azeroth such as Turalyon, Alleria, Mekkatorque, Thalyssra, Lor'themar, Velen, and probably Malfurion.

On the other hand, we would probably lose Genn, maybe Agraa, Mayla, Muradin, Falstad, Moira, Rhokan, which could show up in Oribos once we arrive back just after we finish off the Jailer Zovaal in 9.2, paving the way for the events in 10.0.

[EntertainmentNihilist]

A remake would be the simple and easier solution, also the most respectful, because there is too much shit that is better to be erased and pretend to never exist

But like we know, it can't happen, just make a long, loong timeskip, enough for all the shit that was done be left under the rug.

Also, both ways are doomed to fail without changing the writers as well.

- - - Updated - - -



30 years is too small, we need 100+ to have new generations and erase current characters and give enough time for new plots and enemies to rise.

I mean; you can have new organizations, factions, characters, and even cities arise in 20-30 years.

[Soon-TM]

Anduin, Jaina, Thrall, Baine, Tyrande, and also Anduin's future wife Taelia.

I frankly don't see the need to keep Andy and his band of Lawful Good™ clones alive, imo they are easily among the most boring characters ever made for a long standing video game. The narrative would be much better if it finally stopped latching onto the teat of WC3, especially when Danuser & co. claim that that old lore "constrains" them. Give the old guard a more or less decent exit from the stage, like they did with e.g. Illidan, and start developing new, interesting, relatable characters regardless of their alignment. Because so far, good and bad guys (or girls, as it may be the case...) alike are boring to the point of tears.

[Cosmic Janitor]

problem with a time skip of more than say 50 years is that there would be a massive disconnect from all the current wow characters; no more Jaina, Thrall etc cause they "probably" would've all passed away. I think they were kinda setting up a time jump when they had Jaina tell us that she had been in the Maw for a lot longer than we thought she had been; meaning that time passes differently in the Shadowlands. I think it would be interesting if we managed to rescue Anduin and then all the player characters along with Thrall, Jaina, Baine, Anduin and all the Ebon Blade came back to Azeroth only to discover we'd been gone for 5-10 years and everyone had presumed we'd failed

The problem with that setup was and still is that it hints at the opposite happening, time in SL going faster if anything. So the SL setup is closer to no time passing while we are off fucking up the afterlife. In Wrath the DK starter zone implied the opposite, but let's be real here, it makes more sense if time in the SL moves faster, otherwise you run into the obvious issues that one central processing system has that needs to service the whole (multi/)universe. Not that any of this matters though, Blizzard could always have us stumble into a trap that captures us in a pocket dimension with different flow of time or some other contrivance. Unless their own utterances were just flat out lies of deflection (which they have done in the past), it does not seem like they aim for a time skip at all. It wouldn't be in their favor anyway, as their current ensamble cast is pretty much their bread and butter and most of their newer charcters are either failures or one-note mayflies.

- - - Updated - - -

I mean; you can have new organizations, factions, characters, and even cities arise in 20-30 years.

As a matter of fact, vanilla had that happen within the 10 year time skip between itself and WC3:TFT.

[Lochton]

Okay. Let’s seriously discuss this. With shadowlands events. The story can now easily support a remake or a time skip.

But the question is not how, but which would you think would be better??

Do you want them to undo and re write the history - anything from all of it since trolls or from certain points like WC1 or maybe classic wow or maybe TBC onwards.

The other option is a time skip. But how much? Do we go like 5 years ? 20? 50? 200? 1000? Where we are legends thought lost. Azeroth has either flourished or being dominated by some evil we weren’t there to stop - which would be better? Fully recovered races or totally devastated world to return to.

And don’t forget to add why.

I'd rather see a time skip of a few decades to progress the story and brew up larger enemies while the world becomes well.. more.

[DarkAmbient]

Easy. We spent about a year inside the shadowlands. 50-100 years passed on the outside. Some dev already said time is percieved differently in shadowlands. Just make it seperate with different time scales.

Huh. I guess that could work, although it would mean most of our families would have grown up and died while we were away. I wonder if Blizz would have the balls to do something like this.

[username993720]

A remake.

A timeskip would just be a waste of potential events shown in game. Like how they did a timeskip between Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: the Legend of Korra.