I never thought I’d see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in WoW, but here we are.
I missed most of the discussion, but the more that I think about it, the more disappointed I am with how heavily Blizzard is leaning into making the world so efficient. On a gameplay level, it makes perfect sense to condense players into a single city, but you lose something unique by stripping everything down to the barest mechanical bones.
As a gameplay equivalent, it would be like completely abandoning class specializations; it’s easy to understand how much of a nightmare it must be to properly balance 36 distinct spellbooks, but just homogenizing everything would kill so much of the appeal.
Especially if you get stuck with the worst option in the process. The Alliance boiling down to humans (the most bland race in the entire game) and friends might as well be taking an iconic class like priests and saying “you know what, Holy and Discipline aren’t very fun, so every priest is just a Shadow priest now” with a total disregard for the actual appeal of what the “class fantasy” is of playing a priest for so many people.
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So I guess that’s why Mueh’zala looks like… that. Didn’t expect him to be another Kil’jaeden fight. The dungeon looks really nice though!
Or they’ll put up a statue of Anduin and call it even.
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To be honest this is the most likely thing to happen. This is too accurate…
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the most likely thing to happen is that they dont touch stormwind at all
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Yeah I know, but based on Blizz history which is more likely?
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I would actually love an Anduin statue if it meant Westfall revolted.
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If they do a time skip then I can’t imagine they wouldn’t update Stormwind.
In that instance I bet the farming area near the Stormwind Embassy, where a lot of Night Elves hang out, will get replaced by a statue to Anduin.
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If we update Stormwind, can we finally take down the statues of all the people we’ve established as being alive and well?
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i pray there isnt a timeskip.
i seriously… seriously dont want to write around that.
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Would settle for a central monument that praised all those that ventured beyond the dark portal.
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My honest opinion is there won’t be in the way we think. Here is my prediction:
Ion said that time “works differently” in Shadowlands, it isn’t 2x faster, 3x slower, etc. I believe what this means is we aren’t actually stuck in Shadowlands, we will be able to come and go. And in the story we will actually come back to Azeroth, but when we come back from Shadowlands time will be different.
For example:
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First time we come back it is 10 years in the future. We will do something, and then go back into the Shadowlands.
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The second time we come back from the Shadowlands we will be in the past, around Warcraft 3, or between W3 and WoW. Again we will do something in the story and then have to go back into the Shadowlands.
That is my prediction. They didn’t update Arthas’ model in BfA just to use for 2 seconds in that Jaina cinematic… we will see him again and my guess is in the past. I also think this because there is no way we are spending the entire story of the expansion in just the zones they are giving us at launch. It was that way in Legion and BfA.
like, shadowlands is definitely reminding me of shadowbringers.
we’re going somewhere else after a big war expansion, somewhere that doesn’t super effect our world that much beyond an existential scale. time moves differently in the first compared to hydaelyn, but it was just a narrative tool used for plot details. it wasn’t for us, it was for other characters who came before us.
if anything, time moving differently in the shadowlands will mean sylvanas has been in the shadowlands longer than she’s been gone in our world, and maybe a few other characters have seen time dilated like that. perhaps by the time we get there, the waves of time have lined up for the most part, so when we get back it’ll be like we’ve barely been gone at all.
that or we go to the shadowlands and all the time we spend in there is seconds to azeroth, so we get back and it’s like no time has passed at all.
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my gut assumes something like this, but my gut also struggles with the consistent punching it gets from blizzard where they keep managing to bully my expectations into a darker, deeper locker
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My money is on “months in shadowlands is seconds on azeroth” as its basically the most straight forward return after the expansion (nothing needs to change)
And it allows sylvanas to change her outfit and build a maw army even though shes been gone for a matter of days here
And, should we return to azeroth inbetween post-patches, it allows them to rapidly advance the plot of shadowlands while were not “there”
Ie, at the end of the main expansion quest we correct the flow of souls from the maw to the right areas, we leave, and then the next patch has the shadowlands healing and changing with a new threat or whatever on the horizons
I am the opposite I am hoping for a timeskip. The passage of time gives me reasons to write more backstory or other short skits about behind the scenes moments.
I have my fingers crossed i get more background time granted to me to set some new scenes in the gap of not just my main toons but their supporting cast as well.
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Honestly, a time skip could mean an old world revamp that’d allow for stuff like player housing, smoother and modern questing experience, and new homes for the Forsaken/Night Elves, ontop of updated hubs for everybody.
You want flying in Silvermoon? That’s your chance.
The Chromie system pretty much also screams there may be an overhaul coming too.
The old world is severely outdated, and Azeroth itself should probably be the star of the show, not “outdated”.
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my guild would die with a timeskip