Ok this is not a new call for World of Warcraft II the new mmorpg. It’s been suggested a bunch of times. I have suggested this to my friends and they look at me like I’m crazy.
When I ask them why they think Wow2 can’t be a viable thing. They shrug and respond with; “It can’t be done.” I ask “why not.” They just say; “it ain’t happening.”
I tell them what a wonderful thing Wow2 would be. Just imagine! Improved graphics, Better story writing. More lore. Revamped and improved game-play mechanics. Optimized for both modern as well as older computers. A plethora of new races, classes, and creatures. Brand new worlds to explore. A chance for the developer to create everything the fans have wanted in Wow1 embodied in Wow2 due to new and advanced gaming engine technology. I know that all the existing Wow fans would flock to Wow2 as well as new generations of younger fans.
I don’t understand my friends resistance to even the possibility of a Wow2. So I come to the forum for answers. Is it at least a possibility, we the fans can get a New World of Warcraft II mmorpg. And if no, why not?
Graphics have been improved multiple times. Stylized graphics are why WoW still looks good and every “cutting edge high def” mmo looks like trash within a few years.
Everything else I quoted can be done within the already existing game
I’m all for it. Just watched the video for poe2. If people think the hype for wow2 wouldn’t be incredible they are just lying to themselves. Poe2 looks like it’s gonna be absolutely amazing on all fronts. The trailer is just mind blowing…bringing it back to the dark, gritty, violently awe inspiring game we used to love would be a massive opportunity to bring so many people back.
If they started it today they could be done in two years with the size of the team they could put together. It’s honestly foolish for them not to do it.
Do people honestly think that people wouldn’t buy and play it? Would anyone honestly say they wouldn’t play?
It wouldn’t change anything. At all. It’s an expensive solution to issues it won’t fix. There will still be bugs that exist for too long, same team working on everything, so they won’t be able to balance to save their lives. Same mediocre store writing.
Its called common sense. There is no real investment in the MMO genre by anyone at this point…and it will likely be even worse after the 5-10 years it would take to make a completely new MMO.
Not to mention that the Warcraft IP is essentially dead at this point, with the only product released in the last 2 decades being WoW and I guess hearthstone if you can even count that
And if it doesn’t wipe characters, there’s zero reason to make it. Anything you could imagine that would be an improvement can just be added to the live game.
In every instance I can think of, the II replaces the I. They may still keep the original around, but everyone stops talking about it and it basically goes irrelevant.
For WoW II to succeed, I think they have to find a way to make WoW players of 10-20 years (IE: most WoW Players) not mind moving to a new game and leaving things behind… or somehow, by some miracle of Technology/AI, allowing players to bring everything they earned in WoW 1 and their characters with them… and somehow not having that cause friction in the new engine/game.
I won’t say its impossible… but I’m almost positive nothing like this has ever been attempted before, much less done.
WoW’s graphics are fine, especially in the most recent expansions
Doesn’t require a WoW2, and can be accomplished by expansions.
Again, can be accomplished in expansions
They’ve been consistently adjusting WoW’s engine for this for all of WoW’s existence, doesn’t require a WoW2
Can be done with new expansions
They’re creating Player Housing without needed WoW2 to accomplish that
No they wouldn’t. People would be justifiably upset to lose their literal decades worth of collections
Because it’s a dumb idea that solves nothing. Everything you listed can be achieved through future expansions of the current game. People don’t want to transition to a new game and there isn’t much of a market for MMOs at this point. WoW2 would flop.
If everything you did in WoW like achievements and titles could become “legacy” and moved to WoW 2 people would be more accepting of it.
The time sunk into the game is why you get push back. I have over 500 days on this character and there are others who have triple or more than that in game. That’s a lot of time invested and to lose it would be awful, for a lot of people.
I think the best place to find your answers may be in Googling “What happened when Everquest II released?”
It is also 20 years old this year. It released only a matter of weeks before WoW. It is considered a failure, although it’s still very much playable & gets a new expansion every year, just like the original. I’m sure those devs had “Improved graphics, Better story writing. More lore.” etc., from your post in their minds when they developed & released it but EQI players DESPISED it & refused to go there. The same would happen to a WoW II.
While what you say is true and IMO the likely outcome, the FF11 - FF14 transition is another example we have where it was successful, although it took ARR to do it.
I would prefer a World of Starcraft before a World of Warcraft 2.0. I just don’t trust Blizzard to not simply remake WoW 1.0…kind of like they’ve already done with WoW Classic…and now WoW Classic Classic…shivers
I do think the real problem with EQ II was WoW though - they came out within 2 weeks of each other. I do remember buying EQ II, but before I could really get into it to any great degree, I tried WoW and realized WoW basically did everything EQ II did, but better. The stylized graphics were better, the gameplay was better, the IP was better, the writing was better, the quest design was better, the zone design was better… and one had PvP (in whatever rough shape it was in) while the other didn’t. I was young, that was huge for me at the time.
… so I never really gave EQ II much of a chance.
I get what you’re saying, but not sure the EQ II story is exactly why Blizz won’t consider a WoW 2.
Best case scenario, WoW 2 would carry over maybe 50% of the player base, the rest would stay in classic, SoD, retail, etc… It would just divide the player base further. Players have too much invested in this game to let it all go for a different graphic engine, especially when a lot of players enjoy the WoW art style over photo realism.
I was gonna write a much, MUCH longer response to all the points brought up in the opening post, but my views on the matter can be summed up with the following two statements:
Most improvements to WoW can be done through patches (think of how far it’s come since its original “1.0.0” patch), it doesn’t need a total restart.
The only revamp validating a restart to WoW’s game is if they introduced full-drive technology (similar to what’s seen in Sword Art Online).