It seems every individual voice on this forum wants something completely different for 10.0, and ultimately I think that’s a good thing. World of WarCraft is a diverse universe with a lot of different appeals for a lot of people. In this post, I hope to lay out an Idea that will hopefully please a lot of people: Based on a pretty odd theory of mine.
History Repeats Itself:
In many ways, After Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft began to enter a new modern Era of gameplay that has persisted from Legion --> Shadowlands.
And from my perspective, these last 3 “Modern” expansions have closely resembled previous eras from WoW’s past. Which could hopefully give us some insight into 10.0
Legion:
Legion was a thematic rehash of Burning Crusade. Of course the Marketing material for Legion flag-shipped Illidan as a major character, and playable demon hunters. The Burning Legion return as flagship Villains, and returning major bosses like Kil’jaden. As well has the Intergalatic travel that was integral to Burning Crusade.
Secondly, Legion provided us with Notorious cut content from WoW’s original whiteboard concepts. Like the Emerald Nightmare raid.
Battle for Azeroth:
Battle for Azeroth was a rehash of Vanilla. The Marketing Materiel for BFA showed the tides of war between the Horde and the Alliance, and the story of BFA focused on the uneasy connections between the Various races of Azeroth. Much Like Vanilla, BFA served as world building for a lot of the Races in Azeroth, including thematic introductions for each of the Allied Races. Like Vanilla, the story of BFA saw us taking on the opposite faction, and Old Gods.
Secondly, BFA provided us with cut content from WoW’s original whiteboard concepts. Like Naz’jatar and Queen Azshara.
Shadowlands:
Shadowlands is a Thematic rehash of Wrath of the Lich King. Taking us back to the Frozen Throne, following Bolvar Fordragon and the Knights of the Ebon Blade into the realm of Death Itself. The story of Shadowlands follows an impossible, larger than life Villain, and is absolutely dripping with Scourge themes. From Necropolises to Runeblades. Anduin Turning into a Death Knight. The Return of Kel’thuzad. ETC.
Shadowlands doesn’t particularly deliver on cut content from WoW’s development, other than providing a more fleshed out “afterlife” rather than just vaguely referring to the Shadowlands.
With All this in Mind…
10.0 would hopefully be a Thematic Rehash of Cataclysm, and I think that’s a Very good thing. Cataclysm fundamentally overhauled much of the Systems within World of Warcraft, and we still feel its effects today.
Hopefully World of WarCraft 10.0 will come with a World overhaul, and give us a redesigned Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor.
Like Cataclysm, 10.0 could also come with a Revamp of character progression. Perhaps redesigning spec and talent design. Or removing extraneous mechanics, Like cataclysm removed weapon skill.
10.0 could also, realistically bring back cut content from WoW’s development. The only Major piece of cut content that I can think of at the Moment would be Undermine, an Underground Zone, and possibly an underground continent that would be the central focus of the Expansion.
Concerning the amount of threats we thwarted with the peace we’ve settled among the conitents, what if it’s just the Dragon Isles? It would even focus Wrathion more since that’s where he wants to go.
I can’t honestly see a whole expansion on the Dragon Isles. 10.0 is for sure going to be an expansion concerning the Light; possible Light vs. Void. People who think it’s going to be WoW: Azeroth Reborn are going to be very disappointed. If anything, that might be 11.0. But the way Blizzard operates, 10.0 was set in stone before Shadowlands even launched.
I can see Dragon Isles being 11.1’s endgame zone. Assuming 11.0 is WoW: Azeroth Reborn
The dragon isles are a cool concept. But I don’t see them carrying an entire expansion.
I think an entire underground expansion has a lot of room to be unique however… and it would give us an excuse to go back to EK and Kalimdor. Probably Kezan as well.
I would think being all underground would be boring, but I also thought all snow would be boring and I loved Wrath. lol
There is a lot of potential content underground. We have never fully explored the nerubians’ empire. Could be a pretty cool idea!
I still stand by the next expansion not being what people hope it will be. It’s too late to completely reverse direction on 10.0. I would be anything we have a world revamp in 11.0; a big reset.
I personally thought the broken isles would be the most boring expansion zone and I absolutely loved it.
Underground I’m thinking Bioluminescencent plant zones. Lava lakes. Goblin and gnome cities. It could be cool. But it’s unlikely at best I think. Just wishful thinking.
There’s a reasonable chance that they cut development on 9.3.5 and start development on 10.0
Last time they did that it lead to legion. After all
The idea of the Dragon Isles being more than some minor piece of content (like a patch zone, a dungeon or raid) seems kind of ridiculous to me.
We’ve been dealing with dragons since Vanilla. We’ve interceded in the war between the Black Dragonflight and the others. The Blue Dragonflight and the others. We’ve empowered an Aspect, united the Aspect powers to the Dragonsoul, watched the Dragon Aspects lose their power and declare that the future was for us “mortals.”
And only NOW are we finding out that there’s some super special area of dragon power with implications for the world? Come on. That’d be like Blizzard telling us that all our map makers somehow missed an entire continent because no one checked past some fog. Very unlikely.
I’m tired of discovering new Islands. Undermine may not be the dragon isles, but at least it’s an established part of the world we haven’t gone to yet. Like Zandalar or Kul’Tiras. We always knew they were there.
I’d prefer going to undermine and fighting Gobin Mafia and rival Trade Princes over going to another dimension and fighting ShadowLord MurderDeath.
I can only speak for myself, but if 10.0 is a Cata rehash I don’t know if I could deal with Azeroth getting hit with another wave of planet-scale destruction. Cata alone was rough but with the giant sword, Darkshore, etc it just keeps happening. At this rate Azeroth is going to end up being a scrap heap that’s barely distinguishable from the Maw.
I could also do without Cata’s numerous heavy-handed references that overstayed their welcome.
I’m not going to speak for Liianas, but I feel like she means just a change to the old world. Not so much a cataclysm, but just an update. The world definitely needs something like that.
That would be wonderful, and a welcome change of pace from the precedent of Azeroth only getting updates when things get blown up.
The most egregious was literally half of Uldum being an Indiana Jones reference, but stuff like the CSI Miami reference threaded through the whole of Westfall also got tired quickly. Cata had tons of things like that.
Yeah I should’ve specified. By “Cataclysm again” I meant “an overhaul of the world and progression” not literally the cataclysm again.
Ah. I see. Well we’ll just have to agree to disagree here. Personally I loved all of that stuff. But I can see how it would get very annoying so I understand your perspective.
Pre-Shadowlands Ion said that 10.0 could include a timeskip. I’ve always taken that as hinting that we’d see a revamped Azeroth when that rolls around.
I really like this thread and talking about the future of the game being positive! Kudos to you, very well thought out and explained. Sounds like a lot of fun and something to look forward to honestly.
Between all the absolute WoW/Blizzard bashing and other game threads, this is such a breath of fresh air.
Honestly, I would just love a time skip. Considering how the major events of Warcraft have all happened in the span of about 50ish years, give Azeroth a break. Give the factions a break. Let the embers of something small build to the height of a bonfire over the course of 10-20-30 years.
This way it would make sense for the next threat to actually appear. End destroyed the Lich King, killed Deathwing, opened Pandaria, dismantled the Burning Legion, killed N’zoth all in the same of about 6-8 years in game time. And We’re going to overthrow the Jailer and install either Anduin of Sylvanas as the new Arbiter/Jailer in the next year-ish.
Give us something that actually builds up to be a threat.
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