Odds are they’re either going to announce a new spin-off, or give us a WoW+.
The usual group of nerdschronic posters WoW Fans got together and threw together some theories.
Survival Horror, pitched as a Civilian (Human, Half-Elf, Dwarf or Gnome) in Stratholme having to dodge first the Zombies, then the Purge forces under Prince Arthas, then the outright Scourge/Legion forces as the burning of Stratholme reaches a fever pitch to try and escape from the city and try to make it to freedom, only to realise that the ‘Plague Lands’ have no safe places anymore.
WoW Tower Defence, a companion app linked to WoW where you build defensive mazes on behalf of one of several factions to delay and weaken other factions. You get rewards in the App that can be traded in for cosmetics, trader’s tender and the like. Cash Shop Nightmare but can be played for free if you’re determined.
Pet Breeding Simulator, a companion app where you hatch eggs to receive Gryphons, Wyverns, Proto-Drakes etc and can pokemon battle them or groom, play and train them. Might also tie into WoW and WoW-Classic as a source of old or unused Battle Pets and Mounts.
Garrison Simulator. This left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. Effectively a Mobile Game companion app where you have to build a Garrison, send out Peasants or Peons to gather resources, promote your Peons and Peasants into Grunts and Guards, and then further up the tech tree, to fight off NPC and Enemy Player Invasions, all the while keeping up with the tithe demanded by Orgrimmar/Stormwind, and if you fail, they replace you as Overlord/Commander and you have to start from scratch again. Again, could tie into WoW as a source of transmog and vanity pets/toys.
WoW+, breaking the One True Timeline created a new, history and the Adventurers and Champions of Azeroth are invited to be inserted into this new Timeline to keep it safe, since without the Titanic protections of our Universe, its vulnerable to all the Primal Powers, and Nozdormu is beginning to wonder if maybe Azeroth should stand alone. Early supporters can tie their Original WoW account to the new game, transferring a lot of pets, titles and transmog but it explores a new game where nothing is quite what it seems, the Primal Powers are actively campaigning for our allegiances, the Titan Watchers have pursued their own destinies and the Old Gods remain dormant … for now. Starting in the Original Campaign Setting of WoW, players can pursue allegiance to any faction they wish to, being the Champion of the entirety of Azeroth, or its greatest villain, or simply a mercenary chasing gold and glory under the highest bidder.
Dalaran Dating Simulator in the same vein as Monster Camp and Hatori Boyfriend, extremely tongue-in-cheek where you have to navigate the single worst social environment in Human History, high school & college, to be with the one(s) you love while still keeping your GPA high enough to earn that apprenticeship under Khadgar.
A Partnership with VRChat to create a VR Game where you can explore Stormwind and Orgrimmar, with plans to include Silvermoon, the Exodar, Ironforge and Suramar in the future.
VR Dragonriding that’s compatible with WoW so that you can really experience the wild rides across the Dragon Isles, and soon the rest of Azeroth.
A Partnership with the folks behind the Blade and Sorcery game(s) to allow Players to relieve some of the most frantic and important battles of the Warcraft setting. From taking on the role of a Draenei Vindicator fighting off the Old Horde in Shattrath to give the civilians a chance to escape, to the clash of the Alliance Forces and the Dark Horde on the slopes of Blackrock Mountain, to the Troll Wars that led to the founding of Stromgarde and the alliance between Men and Elves, and even the desperate battle of the Kaldorei against the Legion and their Cultists just before the Sundering of Kalimdor.
Return to Gnomeragon. A top-down RTS strategy game. Take on the role of an overseer of G.E.A.R. and guide your team of crack-shots, explosive experts, heavy-armor masters and alchemists to plunge deep into the irradiated heart of your former Homeland to find a way to shut off the reactor once and for all, racing the clock, Trogg war-bands, Leper-Gnomes who have developed a twisted faith built around radiation and even a shadowy force that has access to much of the same equipment and training as your own agents to reach the bowels of the one-shining pinnacle of Gnomanity to shut it all down before the corroding reactors explode, and everything north of Stranglethorn starts glowing green and growing extra limbs and eyes in unfortunate places.
What do you think the ‘big announcement’ at the WoW part of Blizzcon is going to be?
I think the big announcement is Chris Metzen showing up on stage and eating an entire sleeve of chocolate chip cookies over the course of 2 hours with a quick intermission. And it’s mandatory. You are not allowed to leave the convention center while it’s happening.
World of Warcraft ends with this expansion giving the player the option to finally “beat the game” but after we kill the final boss, Topper McNabb, (who was the mastermind behind everything all along) we have to go back through the game and all of its expansions again but everything is upside down.
1 - Survival Horror - No thanks. I already play survival horror games that aren’t WoW. The point is something different in a different setting. I would not play this.
2 - When you say “app” do mean mobile? If so, no. I don’t play mobile games.
3 - See #2.
4 - See #2.
5 - I would probably try it.
6 - zero interest
7 and 8 - no. I tried VR. Makes me ill.
9 - Possibly
10 - This would enrage me beyond belief. RTS / Top Down Games are difficult for me due to a TBI. Putting my beloved Gnomes in a game that I would never play? Rage inducing.
I’m a simple man. I just want a new expansion and adventure. Let’s go to Dwarf Island.
Yes, give me a survival horror game. Make it one that you can play multiplayer on a rented server (like Ark), with base building, flying, PvP that you can turn on and off, and a system for easy adminning. Multiple maps would be a plus - you could make them based as Darkshire, Tirisfal, Plaguelands, etc. Toss in other zones and give them Scourge. Bonus if you can buy each map and then link them together. Population would be anywhere from single player to 150. I’d buy the heck out of this because survival games are even more my jam than MMOs.
No apps.
No apps unless the pets I make on the app become more in-game pets in WoW. If Pokemon Go taught me anything, no matter how fun, I just won’t pay for very much on apps.
No apps. But if they want to give me a player housing in WoW, I’ll probably pay whale a ton of decos.
This just sounds like an expac.
So, this one takes place in Goldshire and the popular hang out is the Goldshire Inn. Gotcha. No.
Not enough people playing VR.
See 7.
I don’t even know this game. Is this VR? Might be fun for a weekend.
Would prefer Total War: WoW.
The big announcement is going to be that Microsoft is partnering with Acti-Blizz and plans to Game Pass as many of their games as possible. WoW will be on the list, but it’ll be farther down because they’ll have to dumb down the gameplay so you can use controllers. Unfortunately, Greyah’s head stays square.
are big devs still interested in VR? I got an Oculus many years ago and it felt like after Alyx there were just no other big VR games. Its been in a box under my bed for like 3 years now. I’ve seen some quirky indie things and I guess some facebook-backed non-games but is it still seen as like “the future” for games by any big studios?
I’m not dissing it because I do think VR is an amazing experience, I just haven’t seen any energy for it from AAA developers.
I think the biggest concern and why so many of the team fixated on mobile apps and small games is that the WoW section of the Blizzcon Event Schedule (before it got taken down again) painted a lot of WoW’s panel to be on the first day, and lots of small panels at that.
That led to the thought that they were going to be playing it safe with lots of smaller releases so we didn’t end up with another “Don’t you have phones?” debacle, and if something starts to flop, they can just quickly pivot to the next one and hope that lands better.
Phone apps make sense if they’re trying to increase both their market saturation and the ‘leash’ on players who left the game after doing content and moving on. Apps that tie into the game itself and have weekly rewards incentivize players to at least keep logging in to claim those rewards even if they’re not playing WoW itself, and phone game apps are a relatively large slice of the gaming community, especially younger demographics.
As much as we might rant and rave about it, WoW is a tool to make money, and Microsoft is going to want to squeeze this lemon for all the juice they can get, even if they are going to try and rebuild from the damage the previous owners did. The thing with the apps is that they’re cheap to make, can be fine-tuned for the various groups of people who still play WoW and are an easy dopamine hit. They’re also divorced from the oft-toxic WoW end-game community, meaning Micro-Blizz can broaden their reach over potential players without annoying the ‘raiding is how I justify my self-worth’ crowds by ‘watering down’ content to make it more accessible, one of the biggest rants I’ve heard about Dragonflight is how easy it is to get tier now.
Personally, I think that’s a good thing. More people geared up means more people doing content, meaning more people can become invested in the story and have a decent chance of getting to do content without being constantly doing the Sisyphus Grind to get gear that has pathetic drop-rates or will only give you duplicates no matter how often you run that content.
It’s been a dry market. Feels like when the 3d tv was announced. Great hype, lame follow-through. But as a lover of VR games, boy howdy are you about to get a list of great VR games from me.
Go to the toilet first before you play this one in VR. No I’m not being silly, for once. This game is a whole different beast in VR. Still the best Alien game ever created and one of the best horror games you’ll ever play, even if the campaign is about 40+ hours of you slamming yourself in a locker and screaming like a wounded jackrabbit every five minutes. God, but I loved the Alien AI in this game. Nothing like using Flares forever to distract the Alien, only for it to stop, sniff the air, and then slooooooowly turn its head to follow the arc of the flare back to you and start hissing angrily.
The damn AI behind the Xenomorph learns the more you use certain tricks and will inevitably develop in such a way that they’ll either prove significantly less effective if you spam them, or it will start tracking you down if you use them. Flares will see it follow the arc back to your throwing location, alarms will see it start tearing open hiding places looking for you, smoke bombs will see it just start flailing through the smoke, trying to catch you by any means, fire just stops being so effective, meaning even if you set it on fire, it will still bull through the flames to tear you up a little bit, and guns never work on a Xenomorph unless you’re running speed hacks. Mines just make it enraged and more likely to use ambush tactics.
Stupidly fun and quite hard once you start getting into the levels, but the premise is amazing and lets be honest, matrix’ing your way through the levels never gets old. Ever wanted to deflect bullets with a katana? Or catch bullets and throw them back at the shooters? This game is for you. Stupidly fun and amazingly simple, and yet it is entertaining for hours and hours on end.
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