Timeline split. Is it feasible?

[Azadina]

Pretty sure those teams are almost gone, mate.

No, I'm pretty sure D-Anuser and Ion are holding the reigns, and have nearly the same minions leashed. Well, nearly, except for all the furries they've been adding to that minion team.

[Unholyground]

Op I think that would be a good opportunity to start a WoW 2 on a more powerful game engine that starts from a what if future. They could remake the entire game in proper hd but keep the Warcraft feel.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Obvious response: What makes you think 2022+ Blizzard would make the game any better than they do the modern game? Heck the very expansion everyone is hyped about actually layed the groundwork for modern wow and modern MMORPGs in the first place.

[Kokolums]

i think the superior option is to just drop expansions inbetween any 2 expansions. they could tell all sorts of tales and not mess with the lore. have a murloc invasion in darkshore, or a troll uprising in the barrens. a new scarlet threat in northrend. minor stuff that changes none of the big picture things.

[Calfredd]

Well, nearly, except for all the furries they've been adding to that minion team.

Furries make bad expansions and sexual harassers make good expansions?

[Thestrawman]

People really think the ten people "working" on classic are capable of making their own content?

[Tommi]

No. You classicucks got what you wanted. Stop asking for dev time to be split between 2 versions of wow. What happens when they do something you don't want? Another split?

[lordjust]

Interesting concept for a direct Wow Sequel.

Dont see it happening, lots of work when they can just continue to chug the original game at a maintenance mode with an expansion every 2 years. I suspect after wrath classic they will release some sort of "cata classic" that will flop, and they will need to rethink the future of warcraft.

There area already surveys sent by blizzard asking for opinions on a cata classic and what changes one would want. So cata classic will come.

On the topic of a timeline split. I don't think it's feasible. Didn't Ion or some other developer say back when classic launched that they have no interest in classic+ because they believe that people don't want that and they rather take feedback from classic to implement in retail? Also I don't think there is enough interest in classic for it being feasible. Blizzard does say that classic numbers are healthy but after the first few months you end up with only 2 servers per region that are healthy and every other realm being more or less dead.

[Lochton]

No, I'm pretty sure D-Anuser and Ion are holding the reigns, and have nearly the same minions leashed. Well, nearly, except for all the furries they've been adding to that minion team.

The Narrative team has a lot more people, and I am certain the newer employees are doing their best with the scraps and burning shit that was left behind for them to work with.

[Aurrora]

I'd be very interested in playing a "classic" expansion that went forward without the destruction of the talent trees that happened in Mists.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

Mmm...from a player engagement perspective, yeah I think it is. The issue would arise with the sheer amount of resources to create an entirely new expansion for the separate timeline, I don't think they'd be able manage than and pushing out another expansion for retail at the same time. I don't think it is actually feasible, because they'd need to literally double their whole WoW team. As evidenced by just how often Blizzard has job openings, I don't think it is likely they'd be able to build a whole second team dedicated to an alternate new version of WoW. Stuff like Classic is doable because they don't have to create an expansion's worth of content, so they don't need to create thousands of new assets.

Players would play it, but Blizzard wouldn't be able to make it without doing it instead of an expansion for Retail.

If they were to spin up an entire additional MMO team, I'd like to see them use it in the setting of Starcraft instead of creating a new version of Warcraft that splits off from the end of WotLK Classic. Wildstar was the last MMORPG I liked that had a sci-fi setting, and it shut down back in 2018.

[richterlevania3]

Maybe it's my fault that I didn't clearly state this, but let me correct the assumption: there wouldn't be two or three concurrent versions of WoW; there would be one, the revamped, timesplitted one.

[kranur]

It'a not. It's doable of course but there is no way in hell blizzard is willing to spend money to develop new content for 2 versions of the same game, especially given the half assed treatment classic is currently getting (filled with bugs atm ... it's a lot more bugged than it was in 2008). And even if they were willing to do it, truth is, it doesn't make much sense from a business stand point. Completely new content for classic is a huge risk, that has a very high chance to flop where re-releasing expansions is a lot less work with an absurd amount of profits.

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Maybe it's my fault that I didn't clearly state this, but let me correct the assumption: there wouldn't be two or three concurrent versions of WoW; there would be one, the revamped, timesplitted one.

That would be pointless because if they go with the classic mentality they would lose the retail players and if they continue with the retail mentality .. classic players are not interested. While lore is garbage, the playerbase splitting is mainly done by the gameplay.

[XDurionX]

It's obvious that this is not feasible in the slightest. Classic-only players are an absolute minority among WoW-Players, and alienating a huge swath of your customer base for inane reasons is not a smart business move.

[Lolites]

No, there's no general consensus among the playerbase about expansions.

or about anything else to be honest

[richterlevania3]

Op I think that would be a good opportunity to start a WoW 2 on a more powerful game engine that starts from a what if future. They could remake the entire game in proper hd but keep the Warcraft feel.

That would be dope.

[Loveliest]

Whenever I read threads like this I wonder if you guys genuinely think the lore was good before. Some of the old novels are trash. This is quite inline with the patchy ridiculous style from before. Maybe you guys are just older now and don't like this sort of thing anymore?

[RobertMugabe]

It's the general consensus (and I agree) that Cata was the start of the decline of WoW, gameplay and lore-wise.

With the success of Classic through WotLK, Blizzard is presented with an opportunity that no other company has ever had: fix the lore, retcons and design mistakes.

My idea is simple: Blizzard creates a compelling and convincing lore (I'm asking too much, I know) that explains a timeline split that happened in Cata. In one timeline we have Cata, MoP, WoD and etc. and in the other we have a fresh path to an unknown future, maybe plugging in the best features of each expansion or even entire xpacs (like Legion).

Is it feasible? I know that, technically, it is. I also know that whatever Blizzard do, the playerbase will gobble-up. So, the only question is if it's feasible from a political/player engagement perspective.

What y'all think?

This is often being suggested (by the same 5 people across reddit, mmoc, wowhead and twitter), but I think this is just a stupid idea ngl.

They should invest more money and time into the Timewalking/Chromie Time feature on retail in order to make old expansions more accessible and maybe fix up stuff there.

There is no reason why Blizzard should invest significantly more time and money what you are suggesting, especially because all that you want would be done by the same people who do stuff for retail, so if you hate retail lore, then you will still hate this alternate classic lore.

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No. You classicucks got what you wanted. Stop asking for dev time to be split between 2 versions of wow. What happens when they do something you don't want? Another split?

Made my day... and so true. Everyone gets their own WoW version!!!

[Lolites]

What happens when they do something you don't want? Another split?

this seems to be something OP and many others dont seem to get, just bcs they would make it different doesnt mean they woul like it...

[Loveliest]

No, I'm pretty sure D-Anuser and Ion are holding the reigns, and have nearly the same minions leashed. Well, nearly, except for all the furries they've been adding to that minion team.

Like the taurens?
There's only so many so many elf and big / small / medium humans you can add until it becomes stale. It's a fantasy game. We have quilboars, murlocs, those bear things we farmed rep for in vanilla, gnolls. Now all of a sudden we can't live if some of them are playable. And no, you can't go "tauren is not furry but Dracthyr is, because I say so by my subjective metric". Get over it, people.