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World of Warcraft 10.0 (Next Expansion) - Officialy To Be Revaled on April 19th and More


The Future of World of Warcraft - Next Expansion Announcement on April 19th

  • March 15 - Hearthstone Expansion reveal
  • March 18 - Arena World Championship begins
  • April 19 - World of Warcraft Expansion reveal
  • May - Warcraft Mobile Game reveal
For nearly 28 years, the Warcraft Universe has ignited imaginations across the globe through rich storytelling and expansive worlds. It has built the very foundation for World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, providing entertainment, community, and competition for millions globally.
This year, we have a lot of exciting news in store for the heroes of Azeroth and the patrons of the Hearthstone Tavern.

Playing Your Hand in Hearthstone

To kick off the first of our announcements, on March 15, the Hearthstone development team will share details about the first of three expansions this year. Shortly after, they'll provide a deeper look into the plans for Hearthstone for 2022—including the annual core set changes.
Until then, you’ll want to cozy up by the fireside for the first season of Hearthstone Grandmasters now in progress. Exclusively on YouTube, you can earn Fractured in Alterac Valley drops while watching the top players in the world compete for their shot at the playoffs, a share of the $250,000 (USD) prize pool, and regional invites to the 2022 World Championship.
Don’t forget to tune in on April 2-3 for Lobby Legends: Raid Leaders—Hearthstone Esports' first Battlegrounds event of the year. It’s an exciting time for Hearthstone and you won’t want to miss a moment in the Tavern.

The Worlds of World of Warcraft

On April 19, the World of Warcraft development team will reveal the next expansion. We’re excited to show you what we've been working on and where your adventures in Azeroth will go next.
Until then, we hope you are enjoying Eternity’s End, the newest content update and final chapter of the Shadowlands saga. The heroes of Azeroth have been called forth to this intriguing new land of Zereth Mortis to thwart the Jailer's efforts and stop him from rewriting reality as we know it. This past week we have seen brave adventurers make their way into the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid zone on Normal and Heroic difficulty, and this week they will finally come face-to-face with the Jailer himself as Raid Finder and Mythic difficulties become available. I’m eager to see who will achieve world first!
In WoW Classic, players have gathered their strongest allies to go beyond the gates of the ancient troll city of Zul’Gurub, face the Blood God Hakkar, and reap the rewards in Season of Mastery. Players have also been taking on the challenges in Burning Crusade Classic Phase 3 as they make their way into the Black Temple to face Illidan within his stronghold, engage in the Battle for Mount Hyjal to preserve history, and much more.
The competition is fierce as WoW Esports celebrates 15 years this April with more seasons of epic competition ahead. For those looking to test themselves against the best players in the world, the Arena World Championship and Mythic Dungeon International are gearing up for more fast-paced action. For dungeon-runners, players who register by March 28 and complete the MDI Time Trials have a chance to earn the in-game Encrypted Banner of the Opportune. Sign-ups for the MDI Time Trials are open now on GameBattles. We wish the best of luck to all competitors. May your cooldowns be with you and your buffs strong.

In Bloom for May

Beyond World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, we're preparing to get the first game in the Warcraft Universe designed for mobile into your hands. We will tell you more about it in May.
The future of Warcraft is bright. On behalf of all of us at Blizzard working to bring even more exciting Warcraft experiences to you, we thank you for being a part of the community. We're excited about the journey in front of us and are grateful that you're joining us for it.
Thank you for playing, and we'll see you in Azeroth, the Tavern, and beyond!
—John Hight, General Manager Warcraft
 

niilokin

Member
good fucking riddance jailer the worst video game villain ever, hopefully they will also shut up about lich king, arthas and sylvanas since they just had to drag their stories on for far too long.
 

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
What will change? The game is way too bloated and heavy right now - it's just more of the same. They should commit publicly to keeping systems in place for more than 1 expansion.
 

Valt7786

Member
Because option = bad, right?
In a way, he's kinda right. The game started it's downhill decline once they added it in and starting merging servers/introduced that horrible phasing technique.

It completely lost it's social aspect. No one had to take the time to find people, it no longer mattered if you were blacklisted on your server, so you found a lot more keyboard warriors out there throwing out insults and kicking people out of groups etc.
Servers lost their sense of identity too. Servers used to have "infamous" players you would recognise in cities or out in the world. You just don't have that any more. Every time you log in it's different names surrounding you.
 

Lanrutcon

Member
I don't mind the finder mechanics for dungeons. Raidfinder is blech tho. Just let me get my welfare epics without having to deal with the quasi-tryhards.

And if 10.0 is more Sylvanus, aka the storyline that fucking dug up the corpse of WoW's lore to skullfuck it, then I'm out on principle.
 

Vaelka

Member
Now watch all the WoW players who have '' given up on WoW '' go back to being fanboys again when the fancy trailer is shown.
People are so easily swayed by CG trailers.
 

Landero

Neo Member
Kill it for WoW2 or continue to be left behind by the competition.
I don't think they are able. All the talent that made WoW what it was, is gone. The people who are left are barely able to keep things running at a very mediocre level to keep the money stream coming in. If they killed it for WoW2 I think they would end up with nothing because the game would be shit and no one would pay anymore. Most of the subscribers pay for old content or classic.
 

Nautilus

Banned
If it’s a MOBA it could be good. Vain Glory was a great mobile MOBA.

Time to kill WoW… make a new MMO using another IP like World of StarCraft or Diablo.
Eh.Considering the vast abyss of quality between mobile and console gaming, I don't even think about mobile games, even if some of them are "decent".

Plus, I like to keep gaming separated from other things. Phones are useful for three things: Calling, texting, and surfing the web. The moment I start using the time that was meant for other things while I am away from home(be it to travel, visit, going to ser friend) with mobile games, an inferior experience of gaming in my opinion, is the moment I let gaming take a bit too much reign over my life. And I love gaming and intend to play games until the day I die.

Kind of an extreme example: I always go to the beach. My family likes it, and we live near to it that it isn't such a hassle. So I know beaches all my life, and they are not special as they are for other people. But I would never bring a Switch with me to the beach, not only bevause I could damage it there, but also that time is meant to be spent on the beach, not on gaming.

Anyways, rant over lol.

As for WOW, yeah its time they end it. Ideally it should be replaced, and WOW 2 would have to "start from scratch" ideally, as for the bigger lore of Warcraft not get in its way, but I don't know how they would do it. At this point tought, I just want blizzard to take ten steps back and focus on the three franchises that made them who they are: Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo. Make a stellar mainline entry for each, and make people love you again. Once that's done, then Blizzard can start go in other directions again, as long as they have teams dedicated to their core franchises.
 

Plantoid

Member
In a way, he's kinda right. The game started it's downhill decline once they added it in and starting merging servers/introduced that horrible phasing technique.

It completely lost it's social aspect. No one had to take the time to find people, it no longer mattered if you were blacklisted on your server, so you found a lot more keyboard warriors out there throwing out insults and kicking people out of groups etc.
Servers lost their sense of identity too. Servers used to have "infamous" players you would recognise in cities or out in the world. You just don't have that any more. Every time you log in it's different names surrounding you.
Exactly my man, social matters, and social is what made the game huge
 

Amaranty

Member
In a way, he's kinda right. The game started it's downhill decline once they added it in and starting merging servers/introduced that horrible phasing technique.

It completely lost it's social aspect. No one had to take the time to find people, it no longer mattered if you were blacklisted on your server, so you found a lot more keyboard warriors out there throwing out insults and kicking people out of groups etc.
Servers lost their sense of identity too. Servers used to have "infamous" players you would recognise in cities or out in the world. You just don't have that any more. Every time you log in it's different names surrounding you.
Yet, this has never been an issue with FF XIV. It also has a very open community.
 

Valt7786

Member
Yet, this has never been an issue with FF XIV. It also has a very open community.
FF14 I find is just a case of better people playing a better game. Anytime I've seen anyone acting like the typical bratty WoW player quickly gets told to gtfo.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
FF14 I find is just a case of better people playing a better game. Anytime I've seen anyone acting like the typical bratty WoW player quickly gets told to gtfo.
The biggest single problem in WoW is the mods. The devs design everything around them, making the game far too obtuse for anyone but the most hardcore players. Combine the overly intricate encounter design with parsing and simming, which are also from mods, the player base becomes extraordinarily toxic.

Half of the nostalgia for old WoW is likely nostalgia for the game without mods. Yeah they had mods back then, but initially it was just UI mods. You could still actually play the game as an RPG, doing whatever rotation felt good to you, with whatever spec you wanted to be, blissfully ignorant of how noob you were being because the content was significantly easier. 40 man raids were fun because it was a chat room for adults drinking beer with a fight here and there. Not the sweaty esports shit it is today, with parsing and meters and full Autistic Weak Aura Guitar Hero gameplay.
 

Valt7786

Member
The biggest single problem in WoW is the mods. The devs design everything around them, making the game far too obtuse for anyone but the most hardcore players. Combine the overly intricate encounter design with parsing and simming, which are also from mods, the player base becomes extraordinarily toxic.

Half of the nostalgia for old WoW is likely nostalgia for the game without mods. Yeah they had mods back then, but initially it was just UI mods. You could still actually play the game as an RPG, doing whatever rotation felt good to you, with whatever spec you wanted to be, blissfully ignorant of how noob you were being because the content was significantly easier. 40 man raids were fun because it was a chat room for adults drinking beer with a fight here and there. Not the sweaty esports shit it is today, with parsing and meters and full Autistic Weak Aura Guitar Hero gameplay.
Can definitely agree with you on that. DPS meters especially need to be eliminated. Again, FF14 doesn't allow them, so all the toxic shit surrounding them doesn't exist. Yes people do have them, but you can't talk about them in game or you risk being banned, which is great.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Half of the nostalgia for old WoW is likely nostalgia for the game without mods. Yeah they had mods back then, but initially it was just UI mods. You could still actually play the game as an RPG, doing whatever rotation felt good to you, with whatever spec you wanted to be, blissfully ignorant of how noob you were being because the content was significantly easier. 40 man raids were fun because it was a chat room for adults drinking beer with a fight here and there. Not the sweaty esports shit it is today, with parsing and meters and full Autistic Weak Aura Guitar Hero gameplay.

WoW Classic is completely infected by the sweatlord mindset. In TBC it makes more sense as people really were starting to get sweaty during TBC and it had genuinely hard fights (Vashj and KT pre-nerf were hard kicking people's ass in 2021) but during Vanilla it was a joke. Stacking raids with 25 warriors with full world buffs because the game wasn't interesting unless you were playing it as fast as possible and then raidlogging for 6 days. It was completely insufferable and good luck finding a half decent guild that didn't require some degree of sweatines for fucking Molten Core.
 
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The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Meh, unless they say that this is the last expansion and they're working on wow 2 (totally multiplat including phones)

Whoever invented dungeon/raidfinder can go burn in hell
A wow 2 goes against what a mmorpg is.

A mmorpg is GaaS that's keeps evolving.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Hardly been an issue for FF14. Definitely wasn't an issue for EQ2.
"EverQuest has 66,000 subscribers and 82,000 monthly active players, whereas EverQuest 2 has 21,000 subscribers and 29,000 monthly active players. It's clear classic EverQuest is significantly more popular than its sequel and makes not far off double the amount of money."


Final fantasy xiv was a mess before they took the game down and started all over.

The dedicated wow players won't give up their account to play wow2.

Hell many who's left plays because they feel they wasted their time if they don't keep playing.
 
Like many already said, bloated is too kind of a word for it. It's a fucking diareah of content that just isnt that fun to play. Diffficulty? Nah. Pvp? Nah. Just do some casual dungeons get some stuff and some mats close the game and repeat daily. Its just fucking boring. Luckily classic still exists but its still just a nostalgia factor. Doubt I'll ever return to WoW.
 

Polelock

Member
good fucking riddance jailer the worst video game villain ever, hopefully they will also shut up about lich king, arthas and sylvanas since they just had to drag their stories on for far too long.
I think the idea of the Jailer is kind of cool, but we've had no fucking buildup. Like 1 minute of total time. They tried to go Thanos but Marvel had tons of movies and lore to show he is the real big bad. WoW got a scobby doo mask revealed to show the Jailer is the true villain. Definitely the worst writing of any expansion imo.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
"EverQuest has 66,000 subscribers and 82,000 monthly active players, whereas EverQuest 2 has 21,000 subscribers and 29,000 monthly active players. It's clear classic EverQuest is significantly more popular than its sequel and makes not far off double the amount of money."


Final fantasy xiv was a mess before they took the game down and started all over.

The dedicated wow players won't give up their account to play wow2.

Hell many who's left plays because they feel they wasted their time if they don't keep playing.

I'd be more interested in the numbers for EQ1 vs. EQ2 in the early 2000s when the game actually came out rather than now where it's an incredibly niche pair of titles. Could be wrong but I don't have that data. FF14 may have started rough but it's still a success without them trying to build the game on the back of FF11.

WoW is in the same boat, the game has been going since 2004, it needs to be put into maintenance mode so the mount/pet addicts can continue to mindlessly farm them and WoW2 can be built from the ground up. You can't just scrap the entire tab targeting system from WoW in an expansion and it's horribly outdated now, it's time to move on and the only way to do that is to start from the ground up. Make a Warcraft 4 and then build WoW2 off the back of that.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
You can't just scrap the entire tab targeting system from WoW in an expansion and it's horribly outdated now
People who plays wow probably enjoys tab targeting.

It's like saying battlefield should become a twitch shooter because call of duty is more popular.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
People who plays wow probably enjoys tab targeting.

It's like saying battlefield should become a twitch shooter because call of duty is more popular.

People who play modern WoW are either hooked on the challenge-less collect-a-thon aspect or they're hardcore raiders/PVPers who would absolutely move to a more modern style as long as Blizzard made it. They're not there specifically because the game has tab targeting and it's only one example of things that would need to be redone in a WoW2 anyway.

Besides, fuck the current retail WoW players anyway. WoW2's primarily focus should be getting either totally new players in or people who quit WoW at some point over the last ~15 years because of changes made to the game in the first place.

Perhaps they can still pull off a big enough change in the same game framework, I just highly doubt it. There's so much in there you can't just delete overnight.
 

hlm666

Member
good fucking riddance jailer the worst video game villain ever, hopefully they will also shut up about lich king, arthas and sylvanas since they just had to drag their stories on for far too long.
I quit after wrath of the lich king, so sometime in 2009 probably. Are they still pushing arthas? like 12 years later. What about his elf mate with the glaives (sorry name escapes me) from the first expansion they bring him back over and over aswell?
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
I quit after wrath of the lich king, so sometime in 2009 probably. Are they still pushing arthas? like 12 years later. What about his elf mate with the glaives (sorry name escapes me) from the first expansion they bring him back over and over aswell?
They ran out of ideas so players went down into the underworld so they could meet all their fan favorites.
 

Faust

Perpetually Tired
Staff Member
I want to be excited, I genuinely do, but Blizzard has routinely made it hard to be a fan of WoW over the past number of years for me. I started playing way back in the beta days, Holy Paladin since the start. I loved it then, I loved it at its official launch, and it absorbed my life until Cataclysm, where the cracks really started to show.

Rushed content, poorly paced progression systems, rehashed dungeons/raids - Cata‘s end game was the start of something bad and it had nothing to do with LFR. Mists was a breath of fresh air, though it too struggled with a few minor annoyances. From the lack of gameplay diversity in end game to the slow build up of story that, while worth it when it all came together, left a lot of players scratching their heads.

Legion for me was the biggest straw that broke the camel’s back. I despised the design of the zones. I hated the space ships and retcons of demons history and lore. I could not stomach the ungodly terrible progression system, at least as a Mythic raider. I always felt like I was letting my team down and being forced to do content I had zero interest in or enjoyment out of to stay competitive. I could not play alts for fear of falling behind. I felt genuinely awful for getting bad legendaries that actively hindered my throughput. I wanted to play World of Warcraft, not a butchered version of Diablo in a WoW skin. That isn’t even to get into the story which is the second worst in the franchise history. From “Class Fantasy” being the forefront, which is an excellent idea, but then forcing you to play your character, your class in a very specific way that felt counter to how I created said character. One such example was the Warlock Class Hall. I always had my Warlock, ever since Vanilla, be this in-the-shadows dark summoner who played with powers beyond his control for knowledge and understanding of the greater cosmos. INstead now they are blatantly evil space faring subjugators whose home is on a giant rock. Bugger that.

Then came BFA. I wanted to love it, more than any other expansion. Zandalari trolls! Allied Races! The return of Kul’Tiras and the absolutely GORGEOUS zones that flowed well into one another. The return of a hard Horde Vs. Alliance war! Then they buggered it. All the bad systems of Legion are still here, albeit slightly improved. They removed tier sets. They finished the Horde vs. Alliance war in a single patch. Then they bring back Azshara… to finish her in a single patch. And then maybe it could have all been worth it if the old gods and N’zoth were to return and an expansion all about their corrupting influence and how… NOPE! Killed in a single patch. Also retconned that all the other old gods are now dead. Later beam to the face. The ultimate of blue balling players.

Shadowlands I tried out for one day and immediately lost interest. Never finished it, never wanted to return to it, and every time I hear something about it from friends who are bitterly playing due to lost cost fallacy, they all say the same thing. Its terrible. Its somehow worse than the previous ones.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I would love to see a WoW 2.0, however they would have to actively Retcon/change history of so much since at the very earliest MoP. Just state that Y’shaarj and its corrupting influence helped the other Old Gods trick the minds and hearts of the players, take over the world, and now we have to reawaken in a weakened state and traverse Azeroth to help those who have managed to fend off the onslaught of cultists and gods. Or just reboot the entire thing from Vanilla. Start over completely.

They need to have a strong narrative that isn’t just the “Rule of Cool”, but actual character development. Long plot arcs that flow well into each other. Focusing on player freedom and exploration/adventure first and foremost instead of making us the champion, the hero of Azeroth. Focus on having a few amazing systems and stop trying to rewriting new systems every single expansion only to throw them out the next one. Build on what exists, like they did with BC and Wrath.
 
I don't think they are able. All the talent that made WoW what it was, is gone. The people who are left are barely able to keep things running at a very mediocre level to keep the money stream coming in. If they killed it for WoW2 I think they would end up with nothing because the game would be shit and no one would pay anymore. Most of the subscribers pay for old content or classic.
Microsoft should just pay the original creators a billion. I'm sure they'll return then.
 

niilokin

Member
I quit after wrath of the lich king, so sometime in 2009 probably. Are they still pushing arthas? like 12 years later. What about his elf mate with the glaives (sorry name escapes me) from the first expansion they bring him back over and over aswell?
yeah they still had arthas lich king shit going about who was really behind it all , some nobody bald blue fucker with his nipples out...they made him the ultimate baddy basically responsible all that happens in warcraft and they still had to cram arthas in as some glowing orb and sylvanas goes something like finally we are all forgiven blah blah. the glaive elf dude came back in for 2016 expansion and they put him baby sitting captured sargeras at the end. oh and the latest cinematic even hints that the shitty storywriting is going to continue in same bad way, the ultimate blue baldy nipple villain says something along u cant stand against whats to come uuuuuh (and dies).
 

hlm666

Member
the ultimate blue baldy nipple villain says something along u cant stand against whats to come uuuuuh (and dies)
This killed me lol, If I had been killed by a blue baldy nipple villian back in the day I would have rage quit in disgust I think.
 

Polelock

Member
People who play modern WoW are either hooked on the challenge-less collect-a-thon aspect or they're hardcore raiders/PVPers who would absolutely move to a more modern style as long as Blizzard made it. They're not there specifically because the game has tab targeting and it's only one example of things that would need to be redone in a WoW2 anyway.

Besides, fuck the current retail WoW players anyway. WoW2's primarily focus should be getting either totally new players in or people who quit WoW at some point over the last ~15 years because of changes made to the game in the first place.

Perhaps they can still pull off a big enough change in the same game framework, I just highly doubt it. There's so much in there you can't just delete overnight.
I just want a basic story. Vanilla had great story telling. I seen a video of a guy who remade Orgrimmar in UE5, it looked incredible. Give me that with great combat, thats all I need. Just a grounded story that builds plot the longer you play. They have changed it to basically "The first 2/3 of the expansion don't matter, so we choose to forget about it". Legion and more so WoD had great story telling and pacing, for the content that was there. WoD could have been the best expansion ever if the cut content has made it. We'll see but I'm not playing anymore til something changes, which will probably be the 5th of neverember.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
From a lore, world building, in-universe logic, storytelling, writing, and character development perspective, what is it that makes the latest cinematic so bad? I see a lot of of Youtube videos about people hating on the newest cinematic but I don't know why it's so bad because I don't play WoW. Something about rehashed storylines, and dumb character motivations?
 

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
From a lore, world building, in-universe logic, storytelling, writing, and character development perspective, what is it that makes the latest cinematic so bad? I see a lot of of Youtube videos about people hating on the newest cinematic but I don't know why it's so bad because I don't play WoW. Something about rehashed storylines, and dumb character motivations?
It’s constant rehashing of themes and building up to a huge boss confrontation only to insert ‘villain of the week’ as a more powerful being. Sargeras was the prime evil, this should have been at least 3 expansions buildup, not a final boss in a single raid patch.

Also the boss quality went downhill. I remember Lich King, Algalon, C’Thun. I don’t recall a single boss in the last 5 years.
 
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ManaByte

Member
I'd be more interested in the numbers for EQ1 vs. EQ2 in the early 2000s when the game actually came out rather than now where it's an incredibly niche pair of titles. Could be wrong but I don't have that data.

EQ2 was strong at launch, but EQ1 still seemed to be more popular. People don't remember, but EQ2 had pretty steep system requirements for its day. They were going for cutting edge graphics compared to WoW, and that alienated a lot of the core EQ1 playerbase who didn't want to do a big PC upgrade. What most people don't know is the success of EQ1 basically paid for every expansion over the last decade or so.
 

Bogeyman

Banned
Let me take a wild guess at its "features"

- Some new leveling zones that people will rush through in a day
- A few meaningless dungeons with meaningless rewards, which can later be run again and again and again in highly toxic timed runs
- some new raids that introduce more platforms mechanics, with bosses shooting purple laser flame patch beams out of their ass which your favorite UI add on will guide you through
- some new failing unpopular pvp mechanic which the community will hate, while once again not introducing a new battleground or anything else people would actually like
- a 2137 step repetitive quest to unlock flying stretched out over a year
- more items in the cash shop

Yea.. can't wait. Will probably be a pass for me once again.
 
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