The War Within 11.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Ashana Darkmoon]

Once again, please enlighten me:

In what world is Retail WoW a dead end?

You are arguing a point that no one else, which is that WoW has less players than it used to have, which is correct, but what's your argument?

Feels like half this forum is part of a group that strongly tied their personal identity to this game in the past (probably in their 20s), and they feel personally betrayed on a deep level by x y or z, so they need the game to fall apart to feel validated somehow. And the best part is that of course they'll eventually "win."

2030, WoW shuts down - told ya, losers! That one story beat I hated in 2016 ruined everything!

Never mind the 40,000 forum posts in between instead of just moving on lol

[Ersula]

None of which means anything rosy. (Retention of the diehards that come and go is neaningless.)

You seem to think player retention means resubs and it doesn't: Retention means uninterrupted subscriptions. It's better than during the same point in Shadowlands and its where they make the majority of their money. That's not meaningless.

Compare WoW today to the business they once had.
...quite the fall.

Compared to the mass graveyard of dead mmos? WoW is still king. You're hyperfixated on details that don't matter. Cable TV and Streaming also radically devolved but that doesn't mean they're not enormous industires or they're going to stop producing it.

[Polybius]

Errr, not really?

"Executive Creative Director of the 'Warcraft Universe'."

Hearthstone isn't canon so it won't be utilizing Chris Metzen, which leaves just WoW Classic and Retail, or some unannounced Warcraft game containing story.

However, it then goes on to state "right now he's supporting World of Warcraft leadership in crafting the next generation of adventures". That implies, at the very least, that he isn't hands on for retail development. He's supporting others who lead that.

So either he's heading up some unannounced project, OR, he's hands on working on Classic+.

Either way, it's clearly worded in a way that is ambiguous and undoubtedly wider in scope than just working on existing Warcraft games.

I’m sorry, but how does ‘next generation’ and ‘future of World of Warcraft’ imply an expansion on Classic?

Why would Classic get priority for revamp/development when the assets existed before Classic’s announcement?

[Yarathir]

You seem to think player retention means resubs and it doesn't: Retention means uninterrupted subscriptions. It's better than during the same point in Shadowlands and its where they make the majority of their money. That's not meaningless.

To be fair: the fewer people you have left, the more of those are likely to be part of the iron core that wouldn't unsub if Ion came and beat up their grandmother. More people = more potential transient players who are more willing to quit if they don't like it. Fewer people = bigger likelihood that the ones remaining are die-hards whose entire identity and life is intertwined with it.

[Cheezits]

Can we PLEASE get another megathread to contain the endless "WOW is dead" "no it isnt" back and forth?

[Ferlion]

To be fair: the fewer people you have left, the more of those are likely to be part of the iron core that wouldn't unsub if Ion came and beat up their grandmother. More people = more potential transient players who are more willing to quit if they don't like it. Fewer people = bigger likelihood that the ones remaining are die-hards whose entire identity and life is intertwined with it.

I'm like 90% that my grandmother could have taken ion in a fight, so honestly that's just free entertainment.

[Yarathir]

I'm like 90% that my grandmother could have taken ion in a fight, so honestly that's just free entertainment.

I like your grandmother already.

[Polybius]

Kinda weird some classic+ bros keep coming to this thread recently. I don't know where this idea got cooked but this will definitely not happen.
They introduced classic to recapture the initial game and expansions. The majority of classic fans expressed they don't want the game to be touched. And now some people come up with this classic+ idea.
I guess maybe those people should just stick to their weird incarnations of wow on those illegal private servers instead of trying to fake a majority of people that want whatever classic+ is, that doesn't exist. It's starting to become a little bit annoying IMO

Can we PLEASE get another megathread to contain the endless "WOW is dead" "no it isnt" back and forth?

Second this. It has no place here and it’s bordering malice.

[Ferlion]

I like your grandmother already.

Honestly, haven't talked to her in a long while due to family dynamics, but last I heard?

Dating an Elvis impersonator in her 80s.

[Cheezits]

Second this. It has no place here and it’s bordering malice.

I'm fine with Classic+ discussion as notable hint dropper is building up to it, and there are some hints in the files. It's also future Warcraft speculation so it kind of fits this thread, though a separate megathread would be better.

"Lol WoW is doing badly, cope" has no real relation to the thread.

[Ferlion]

I'm fine with Classic+ discussion as notable hint dropper is building up to it, and there are some hints in the files. It's also future Warcraft speculation so it kind of fits this thread, though a separate megathread would be better.

"Lol WoW is doing badly, cope" has no real relation to the thread.

Honestly, I'd be here for a Classic+ that builds up to something big, even if it's WoW2.

Like, it would be an incredibly fun way (and totally impractical way) to do it.

Have Classic+ be presented as a timeline created by the Infinite Flight, and build up plot lines throughout both experiences that hint, but aren't mandatory, and then have a expansion for both retail and classic that largely mirror each other, just in the spirit of each mechanic type, ending in both timelines slamming into each other.

But alas, fanfiction.

[Magistrate]

Honestly it's also annoying sifting through pages and pages of classic discussion when the thread is about 10.x and 11.0.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I feel the whole Classic+ topic can be stopped from occurring for now until we are close to Blizzcon and the 1.15 thing has no answers then I feel the topic is fine to be discussed. (like a week prior)

Right now it just feels like we have Retail vs Classic and its just kind of stupid and we're already seeing people showcasing their venom clearly on the subject matter to no benefit of the threads' main focus.

[Ashen88]

Honestly it's also annoying sifting through pages and pages of classic discussion when the thread is about 10.x and 11.0.

Especially when there's like five people playing it

[Sebashtian]

My first post on the forums! Yay!

To bring it back to the topic... Seeing the recent updated assets, a form of revamp seems inevitable in 11.0. Even if its a 1 to 1 change in house and interior models, it'd be a start for something bigger, which we now know Ion and the team are aware of and will be working on... Well excited for Blizzcon.

[Ersula]

RIP Page 1069: We shall always remember when the speculation thread was just "I think there will be a 11.0" versus "I think there won't."

[Worldshaper]

Hot take: I'm fed up with Titan shaming.

The Titans are the good guys. You want a free and primordial Azeroth? Well go and have fun, the Titans literally shaped the mountains, carved out the seas, and ensured life grew. Azeroth was a dump before they arrived. Pretty good analogy for the Roman Empire, actually, and the aqueducts of the Dragon Isles prove it.

[Cheezits]

Hot take: I'm fed up with Titan shaming.

The Titans are the good guys. You want a free and primordial Azeroth? Well go and have fun, the Titans literally shaped the mountains, carved out the seas, and ensured life grew. Azeroth was a dump before they arrived. Pretty good analogy for the Roman Empire, actually, and the aqueducts of the Dragon Isles prove it.

It's still colonization vs freedom. I don't think they are going for Titans Bad, but "Titans still controlling us/our future Bad" which makes more sense. Like Odyn and Tyrs influence/control of Dragons will be the big sticking point moving forward.

We (good guys) don't want to time travel and kill the Titans to make Primal Azeroth, but we also want Free Dragons.

All signs point towards a complete and total of emancipation of Azeroth from the Cosmic People (besides mayyyybe Elune) being the endgame.

[Nymrohd]

It's still colonization vs freedom. I don't think they are going for Titans Bad, but "Titans still controlling us/our future Bad" which makes more sense. Like Odyn and Tyrs influence/control of Dragons will be the big sticking point moving forward.

We (good guys) don't want to time travel and kill the Titans to make Primal Azeroth, but we also want Free Dragons.

All signs point towards a complete and total of emancipation of Azeroth from the Cosmic People (besides mayyyybe Elune) being the endgame.

Freedom from being a living sacrifice to a giant eyeball

[Ersula]

Hot take: I'm fed up with Titan shaming.

The Titans are the good guys. You want a free and primordial Azeroth? Well go and have fun, the Titans literally shaped the mountains, carved out the seas, and ensured life grew. Azeroth was a dump before they arrived. Pretty good analogy for the Roman Empire, actually, and the aqueducts of the Dragon Isles prove it.

You keep saying the Titans "made" Azeroth which isn't true at all. They didn't even find Azeroth until 150,000 years before the opening of the Dark Portal & the planet is much older than that. They didn't make mountains or anything, mainly from anything they actively created on Azeroth has a distinct anti-organic aesthetic. I guess it is like the Roman Empire because they also took credit for things they didn't do.

As for the anti-titan sentimentality, the Dragonflight's perception is the most center-of-the-road: They did a bunch of unethical things, but they are the reason the planet wasn't destroyed by the Void or Legion, which is a good thing.