I'm in favor of the timeskip

[Ryudaraku-moon-guard (Ryudaraku)]

I mean, if you wanted Gilneas you would have to sweep out all of that decade old dog fur that has been laying around.

Do you really want to clean that out?

[Anaeya-moon-guard (Anaeya)]

@Erudician-1641

When our heroes return from the Realms of Death, you can imagine them easing back into their lives and duties without an immediate crisis to address or enemy to fight.

So, during this time…where do our characters live?

[Ryudaraku-moon-guard (Ryudaraku)]

You like all adventurers are a Murder Hobo…where do hobos live?

[Ydraline-wyrmrest-accord]

I feel like time of respite (3 whole years especially) would be the time to build. No disrespect here, but you’re really telling us the Night Elves, and the Worgen, and the Forsaken have done nothing in that time in spite of all the recent build up? They all just decided to take a long vacation to Feralas Hot Springs for 3 years? Look, I’ll be the first to admit that after going through the events of Shadowlands, my character would retire on a vineyard in Hillsbrad and pretend nothing ever happened, but it doesn’t make sense lore wise for these other stories to not have progressed any.

[Drahcir-silvermoon]

I agree. It feels like the weirdest time in the story to actually commit to doing a timeskip. (Of which I have actually been a big fan of them doing, having thought it ridiculous so many world-ending threats happened back to back). But if none of the displaced peoples have taken the opportunity to reclaim their homes, (the most likely thing to happen during peacetime) what is the actual gain, from a storytelling standpoint, of putting a timeskip in this specific place in the story?

[Larrendias-moon-guard (Larrendias)]

@Erudician-1641

When our heroes return from the Realms of Death, you can imagine them easing back into their lives and duties without an immediate crisis to address or enemy to fight.

@Erudician-1641

You are free to imagine what your characters have been doing in that time of respite as you look forward to the arrival of the Dragonflight pre-patch.

So, I definitely feel the need to chime in and agree with Anaeya, here. I’d love to imagine my character in her home as she experiences a handful of years of serenity and peace.

We definitely have our differences, Steve. With that said, however, I think we’re on the same page with the core message that you are articulating in your post, here. It would be an enormous benefit to those of us in the community who care about this level of immersion if you would please do whatever you can to impart these very basic and sensible notions to your colleagues as a means of expressing the vital importance inherent to our player experiences.

We need to be able to have a piece of Azeroth that is ours. We need more customization. We need to be able to leave our mark on things.

Sadly, until your colleagues take those concerns seriously, I’m afraid that the well intentioned sentiments expressed in your post here will largely ring hollow, regardless of what your own perspectives on the matter might be.

In 2022, there is zero excuse for the fact that World of Warcraft does not have the most visually stunning and thematically explosive Player Housing and Guild Housing system in the industry.

Make them fix it, Steve.

[Plagueghoul-wyrmrest-accord (Plagueghoul)]

@Erudician-1641

For your player characters, it has always been left to your own interpretation how much time had passed when they log in after the arrival of a major update or new expansion. Dragonflight is no exception. You are free to imagine what your characters have been doing in that time of respite as you look forward to the arrival of the Dragonflight pre-patch.

Also, the big elephant in the room is the Kaldorei/Night elf fans. Are they supposed to continue to be homeless or become Stormwind nobles?

Give the nelf players a warden quest to unlock glaive combat similar to the 9.2.5 dark ranger questline. Take this idea as your own, I won’t take credit. Night elves should be able to use Glaives as rogues and warriors.

[Xreaper-bloodscalp]

@Erudician-1641

Shadowlands began in the year 35 after the opening of the Dark Portal, and Dragonflight will begin in the year 40.

Thank you so much for the clarification! If SL Began in 35 and lasted two years (along with BfA as that had started in 33). What were the separation points in BfA between year 33 and 34. Then for SL, what separated Year 35 and 36?

Edit: Also with the end of this era, now would be the perfect time for Chronicle Volume IV… Just sayin’

[Thrunn-senjin (Thrunn)]

But what of the greatest threat to Azeroth?

I’m of course talking about Fire Lord Nomi! He has been unopposed as our adventurers have been off saving the shadowlands!

What is Azeroth to become but a burnt chunk of meat?!

[Kymaea-wyrmrest-accord (Kymaea)]

Thank you for the clarification! This is very helpful.

[Murdra-wildhammer (Murdra)]

@Erudician-1641

Besides stretching out the WoW timeline a bit, another benefit of this fast-forward is that it will let our younger characters get a little older, allowing some of them to take a larger role in future storylines.

Dagran Jr. ascends to God-Emperor of Ironforge, when?

[Låchesis-moon-guard]

The only thing that confuses me here is that you confirmed 100% there’s always been 1-2 years between individual expansions, but then put in numbers that don’t allow for that time passage at all. If TBC was year 26 and Pandaria 30, how did we get through TBC’s 2 years plus 1 yr skip, Wrath’s 2 years plus 1 yr skip, and Cata’s 2 years and 1 yr skip. Even absent the skips, that’s 6 years that are squeezed into 4 and directly contradicts this information.

Any chance Blizzard would ever release a neat little timeline/map to be able to really see the full layout of all this, or any chance even on clarification of the above?

[Xreaper-bloodscalp]

@Låchesis-moon-guard

The only thing that confuses me here is that you confirmed 100% there’s always been 1-2 years between individual expansions, but then put in numbers that don’t allow for that time passage at all. If TBC was year 26 and Pandaria 30, how did we get through TBC’s 2 years plus 1 yr skip, Wrath’s 2 years plus 1 yr skip, and Cata’s 2 years and 1 yr skip. Even absent the skips, that’s 6 years that are squeezed into 4 and directly contradicts this information.

Any chance Blizzard would ever release a neat little timeline/map to be able to really see the full layout of all this, or any chance even on clarification of the above?

there hasn’t been skips between years, that’s just the duration of the xpacs. it’s been back to back up until this point. The 2 years are only for the last couple xpacs+cata. Chronicle and the UVG are great sources for this content (and the Before the Storm novel/dev tweets for the start of BfA)
Classic: 25 ADP
TBC: 26 ADP
Wrath: 27 ADP
Cata: 28-29 ADP
MoP: 30 ADP
WoD: 31 ADP
Legion: 32 ADP
BfA: 33-34 ADP
SL: 35-36 ADP

[Morpheas-nemesis]

@Erudician-1641

That said, we plan to offer a digital short story on our website that details one particularly joyous occasion which has been referenced in the alpha build. It’s going to be a fun and charming read, but it won’t be necessary in order to understand the events of Dragonflight.

Thank you Steve! I can’t wait! Please give void elves more development, theres so many questions without answers like they can make more velves? Where those darkfallen velves come from? Ty!

[Låchesis-moon-guard]

It’s worded the gap between expansions. Perhaps it’s poor wording is all.

[Xreaper-bloodscalp]

I think it is just poor wording, especially with how he followed it up with the TBC and MoP dates. Chronicle and UVG both have the listed dates for the expansions they cover and still line up with everything thus far.

[Anenzo-wyrmrest-accord]

By the way, this applies to minor NPCs just as much as the zones themselves.

Is Stormwind still going to have night elf refugees just twiddling their thumbs five years later? Is Brill still going to be under construction five years later? Is that little girl still going to be running through Stormwind with her brother’s gorilla toy, or are they going to be teenagers now?

I hope the answer is “We will be changing those and other such examples”, because if you’re simply going to say a time skip happened and not commit to actually making any changes that reflect it, then why bother?

[Makasi-bleeding-hollow (Makasi)]

Some thoughts on time passing…

While Nomi grew up overnight, Li Li Stormstout had the same kid model in Legion and BFA. If she shows up again, she should definitely be an adult. Perhaps exploring the Dragon Isles with that new combined faction?

The pandaren camps in Orgrimmar and Stormwind haven’t been updated since they arrived in MoP. How about adding a real pandaren district in each? It’s true that pandaren joined as adventurous individuals, not as a people, but they ought to have built up more than a couple of tents by now.

Likewise, the vulpera could use a larger camp in Orgrimmar with more wagons. I’m not sure what permanent buildings would look like for them. Maybe they don’t even know.

[Låchesis-moon-guard]

You have brained better than I have. Ty! LOL

[Carhagen-moon-guard (Carhagen)]

@Anaeya-moon-guard

So, during this time…where do our characters live?

Same place as they’ve always lived. In a murder-hobo tent.

In all seriousness, roleplayers will likely have to just create stories that justify where their characters have been living and what they’ve been doing during the 3 years of the time skip. I know Astrid Carhagen (the RP name of this character) will be taking the time to explore the world now that there’s a measure of peace to be found.

As awesome as player housing would be (and I hope we get it sooner rather than later) I can’t see it being added in Dragonflight, but maybe 11.0? Now that Blizzard has an entirely new studio dedicated solely to WoW, that could be a thing we could see in the future.