I used to play WoW pretty hardcore in Vanilla, then i’d return for each expansion on a more casual basis.
I finished most everything in Dragonflight. Loved the expansion, by the way. The dragons and Emerald Dream were just awesome!
Now… I want to do more. I enjoy the old zones, but it’s kind of silly to return there when there’s nothing to do.
SO…
What IF…
They went back and REMADE the classic zones, but with the new focus on characters and questlines. You could slowly remake the game in a modern style. It’d be fun to go back and play Elwynn and Westfall, but with the epic feel that 2024 advancements would bring.
Also, this would make WoW classic stand out even more from Retail, because Retail would reword the old zones.
The old stuff is nostalgic, but it just feels old. You have ALL this content and no real reason to go through any of it.
I’m down for any PvE content in this game, even rehashed old stuff. Totally cool with it and would enjoy such a trek. Especially with new transmogs, toys, mounts, titles, etc.
I just love how Emerald Dream looks with the more modern graphics, but most of all the cut scenes and story are all super good.
Imagine if they took Elwynn Forest and redid it, and expanded the story with a lot of cut scenes and more drama.
Each season could be one zone and it’s dungeons, with some scaling done so end game players could enjoy it like it’s new content… except it’d be like World of Warcraft 2… without being a different game.
A “modern”-ification of all older zones/expansions is my dream for WoW.
However, I don’t see it happening.
The amount of work they’d have to do, is basically infinite.
They’d have to transform all old content into something evergreen, stuff like horizontal progression like cosmetics, but the amount of stuff they’d have to add to make the old world worth playing through, would truly be insane.
We’re talking, quests and content for 20+ years of World of Warcraft.
I just don’t think the current team could do it- maybe if they hired literally every private server and got as many people as possible for the project, sure, but Blizzard currently? Heck no.
And another reason, is the financial return probably isn’t worth it, sadly.
It’s older players like us that want this stuff the most.
A complete world revamp is almost certainly being worked on. I just pray they learned their lesson with Cataclysm (and all the other outdated expansions) and can create a core world that is evergreen.
I strongly suspect we will see a revamp after The Last Titan. However, remember that Midnight will revamp Quel’thalas (we do not know exactly to what extent - i.e. Does this include Zul’Aman as a fully fledged zone? Are the Plaguelands included? Etc.) and The Last Titan will revamp Northrend.
Also, make sure you look into some other expansion content if you’ve been away. They have completely redesigned Arathi Highlands. Darkshore for a big update. Uldum and Vale of Eternal Blossoms were reused. Multiple Classic dungeons have gotten new versions. Gilneas was just updated. Tirisfal Glades is updated following the events of Battle for Azeroth.