I donât know if people here frequent the mmo-champion forum, a site as old as WOW itself, I took the liberty of putting here the main points raised by a post made there with the same theme, and of course the credits belong to @Worldshaper.
11.0 - Reshaping of the World
A world revamp could revitalize a fundamental aspect of the game, Azeroth itself. It is a chance for Blizzard to increase the size of the playable game for endgame characters manifold, and to future proof it for many years to come. However, a world revamp also has its drawbacks. It is a costly endeavour, and hard to get right. Opinions differ on whether the story should move forward to new places, or embrace the old.
This thread is an attempt to, as objectively as possible, look at the clues and speculate about the future potential of a world revamp.
Part 1 - Interesting facts and potential clues that might suggest a World Revamp
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The Updated Battlegrounds of WSG and AB - During Battle for Azeroth, two original battlegrounds were remade with completely updated art assets: Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin. These assets werenât used anywhere else to my knowledge. It seems strange to go through all of that effort for such a small part of the game. That said, the expansion did feature warfronts. It is possible that a planned warfront taking place right on the border between The Barrens and Ashenvale forest got scrapped. Using the assets in Warsong Gulch would make sense in that scenario. The Arathi Highlands did recieve a warfront in the expansion, and the same assets were used in an updated Arathi Basin battleground.
WoW Classic: The Ongoing Preservation of Old Expansions - Vanilla, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and by the sound of things also Cataclysm will soon all be preserved in the form of WoW Classic. Who knows, Blizzard might continue with Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, and so on. Whatâs more, the old expansion questing experiences are now also accessible in the form of Chromie Time. Whenever a player feels like it, he or she can go back and play the game as it was at a particular time. This might be a case of preserving the game in its different states, catering to playersâ wishes, or even laying the bedrock for a fundamental change to the retail game. Whatever the reason, much of the game has been preserved one way or another, so Blizzard could do a world revamp without anybody really complaining about lost content
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The Upcoming Shortage of Game Real Estate - After nearly two decades, WoW has finally reached a point where almost all of the old lore has been explored once or twice, and the landmasses known to us are placed on the in-game map. There are a few exceptions, and Blizzard could obviously create more landmasses. But there is less emotional investment with brand new lore, which might impact sales. It might be more economical at this point to look at what they already have and consider how they can re-use it. Both in terms of development costs and sale figures.
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The Slow Overhaul of Old Assets - Over the last few expansions, Blizzard has taken a look at and redone a vast amount of old assets. From critter models and monsters to buildings, flora and fauna. While it could just be a case of needing to populate their new expansions with fresh models that feel like they belong on Azeroth, itâs certainly interesting. Some of the updated assets are distinctly âVanillaâ, as in belonging primarily to The Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor.
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The World is Waking Up - As the Dragonflight announcement news made clear, the world is âwaking upâ with the next expansion. This is seen on the Dragon Isles as well. The elements are raging, and the dragons return home. In the cinematic, we see the isles return to their former glory as the sun breaks through the clouds, water start flowing in the aqueducts and nature seemingly springs to life again.
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The Sword in the Stone - Ion has been very coy about the Sword of Sargeras, sticking out of the Wound in Silithus. In fact, it seems to be a bit of a running joke among developers at this point. When asked about it, Steve Danuser has twice let us know that the sword will have a role to play in the future. While itâs certainly fully possible that the sword could simply remain in the planet forever as a testament of what once transpired there, it is hard to escape the feeling that having a giant sword the size of a mountain stuck in Azeroth kind of ruins the horizon just a smidge. If it were to be removed, it would logically fit to do so when the world is healing, being restored, and getting rid of all its ugly scars.
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The Capital Cities are Getting Updates - With patch 9.2.5, weâre seeing lots of development on the story for the Night Elves and Forsaken. Both are missing a home since Battle for Azeroth, and both are seemingly getting one back soon. For the Night Elves, this could happen through the seed gifted to Tyrande by the Winter Queen, which might grow into a world tree similar to Teldrassil or perhaps more like one of the trees found in Ardenweald. For the Forsaken, it seems likely that The Undercity will be restored. Other capital cities have seen some changes as well. Increased weather effects in Stormwind and Orgrimmar, for example. In patch 9.2.5, it is suggested that the Forsaken might pull out of Gilneas for good, which leaves another candidate for an update.
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The 20th Anniversary of WoW - In 2024, WoW turns 20. Whatâs more, the next expansion after Dragonflight will be the gameâs 10th expansion. It could be a smart business move to not only celebrate the game in a major way, but also refresh it for the next 20 years and 10 expansions. A good way to do this might be to revamp the original landmasses, the core of Azeroth. Assuming Dragonflight comes out in Q4 2022 or Q1 2023, it will probably be time to announce 11.0 in Q4 of 2023 or Q1 2024. Timeline-wise, this seems like a good match.
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The Trilogy of Trilogies - If you look at the history of the game and its expansion packs, you are able to notice a bunch of possible patterns in the way new content is designed. One such theory says that TBC, WotLK and Cata were the original three expansions. Then newer ones simply continued their stories. So for TBC, it started the Burning Legion arc, which continued with WoD and concluded in Legion. WotLK on the other hand started the âDeathâ arc, which arguably continued with Sylvanasâ harvest of souls during BfA, and concluded in Shadowlands. That leaves us Cata and MoP. Dragonflight certainly seems to encapsulate a lot of what made these two expansions special to many players. A continent veiled in mist, lots of dragons, raging elementals, and so on. What it misses is a world revamp. So the question now remains, will 11.0 continue to build on the legacy of Cata and conclude its âtrilogyâ?
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The Full Portal Room - In the Stormwind/Orgrimmar Portal Rooms, there is currently one free slot (as of July 2022). It is likely that a portal to Valdrakken will occupy this slot during Dragonflight. So that leaves us with zero additional empty slots for the expansion after that. Now, of course Blizzard would rebuild the Portal Rooms or reshuffle a few old portals. But these locations were built fairly recently, so youâd imagine they knew going into it how many portals they would need in the years ahead. So why isnât there a need for a new portal in 11.0? Could it be because Azeroth will be revamped, and our traditional capital cities will serve as player hubs again?
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Dragonflightâs Case for World Content - One striking thing about Dragonflight is the focus on world content. It remains to be seen if itâs evergreen or if itâll run its course once weâve finished our Renowns and so on, but as of about a week into the expansion it seems clear a lot of players love the chance to simply explore and have fun - and theyâre making their voices heard on social media. Blizzard likes to use content as a testbed for further content down the line, so itâs not hard to imagine this expansion as a test for what could be a more permanent living world in 11.0.
Eastern Kingdoms Receiving Updates - Shortly after Dragonflightâs launch, a Senior Game Designer working on WoW made a couple of cryptic tweets, in which she suggested work was being done on the old Eastern Kingdoms map in their tools. She clarified she makes quests, not zones. But itâs still interesting. Could this just be for a couple of quests set in EK during Dragonflight, or is there more to it?
Part 2 - The case against a World Revamp
Letâs not beat around the bush. There are lots of reasons to dismiss all of the above. A world revamp is an expensive, risky move. While it doesnât have to play out like it did in Cata, Iâm sure a lot of people (including some working for Blizzard) blame the prior revamp for WoWâs declining subscriber numbers in 2010.
Developers have even said that changes to the world are likely to be made in small chunks, when the time is right. Perfect examples of this are to be found in Arathi Highlands, Darkshore, and Silithus. While at this pace it would take many decades to revamp the entire world, itâs still plausible that this is the route Blizzard is taking.
Blizzardâs philosophy when making new expansions for the past 15 years or so seems to have been that new is better. Old continents have been left behind in favour of more modern experiences, that are probably more easy to work with for new game systems (and more fun to work on for new developers).
So itâs absolutely possible that while Blizzard might hear and acknowledge the wishes of players wanting a revamp, itâs simply not something thatâs on their radar.
Part 3 - What would a revamp look like?
But letâs assume for a moment that a World Revamp is coming. What, then, would it look like? Iâd like to just convey one possible scenario for how this could work, just to show that itâs possible.
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They decide to revamp only Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, because those are the most important continents.
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Zones are combined into mega zones to cut down on workload and to create a more cohesive experience. For example, Ashenvale, Darkshore, Felwood, Hyjal, Moonglade, Winterspring and Azshara turn into Hyjal with Nordrassil as the Night Elven capital city. Across the sea, Quelâdanas, Eversong Woods, and Ghostlands turn into Quelâthalas with Silvermoon as the Blood Elven capital city. The old zones will still be represented as subzones akin to Krasarang Wilds in the Valley of the Four Winds. So all flavour is preserved, but borders between zones can look more natural.
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There are no longer thousands of quests and individual storylines. Instead, once you leave Exileâs Reach or your raceâs starter area, you start a faction-specific story campaign that takes you across Azeroth. If youâre Horde you primarily explore Kalimdor with occasional forays into the Eastern Kingdoms, and vice versa if youâre Alliance. A bit similar to how it worked in Battle for Azeroth. What this does is it lets Blizzard replace the immense amount of old story and quest content with two new campaigns. In addition to this, there is definitely room for race- and class-specific campaigns. These could be lesser campaigns that play out alongside the main thing. There could also be a more meta-campaign for Azeroth available to both factions, but this campaign would probably be slower-paced and lurk a bit in the background until itâs time to shine. Heck, it might not be available until you reach max level.
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While the old instances are preserved with Timewalking and Classic, they donât really have to be included in the revamp. Dungeons and raids of the past could inspire new creations, but Azeroth has moved on and the revamp would just bring new instances.
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The main source of content of each mega zones would be dynamic and evergreen activities such as world quests, events, temporary story quests, bounties, skirmishes, world bosses, and more. Once you complete the main campaign, you unlock dynamic world content across both continents.
It remains to be seen what Blizzard ends up doing, but itâs fun to speculate so letâs keep the discussion going for 11.0!