I think a revamp of the old world is necessary for continued success of the game in the future. Right now the old content, while charming, feels a bit dated. It might be a turn off to some new players. As an altoholic I plan to roll at least three new characters if these rumors turn out to be true: Tauren Paladin, Goblin ... something (whatever, so long as I can make him an engineer), and Troll Druid.
Yup. This doesn't really feel like much of a stretch to imagine when you consider how large Outland and Northrend are, at least as far as scale. And they wouldn't have to completely redo everything, a lot of the work would just be modifying existing quest lines, moving and re-skinning NPCs and enemies, stuff like that. But things have to advance for the game at some point, and most of the instance content is completely skipped by most people. People get dragged through dungeons by friends for XP. There is no point to doing any of the old 50 or 60 raids anymore because the loot is inferior, and other than a maybe quick pull through a few 70 raids by 80s most people skip those raids too.
As I understand it a lot of the old world that can't be reached from the ground is unfinished, because it was never meant to be seen. Parts like the mountains between zones. All that would need touching up for flying to be allowed. But hey, this is the pefect time to do it. I'd like to see old world instances rethought as well. There's still a bit of interest in a few like SM or Zulfarrak when levelling but otherwise they tend to lie abandoned. Especially the 50-60 stuff like FordSVT says. Update some for high level players and give lowbies more incentive to do the rest. Or even both, with phasing. Right now, assuming this isn't all misiniformation. I'm guessing some things will apply from the start (Azshara becoming a lowbie zone for example) and others via phasing at 80.
Wow. A lot more of that turned out to be true than I was expecting. I've been thinking now that a lot of the older zones needed to be revamped to make questing more like in Outland and Northrend. It'll be nice to finally have flyers in Azeroth, too. Just checking out the new site, it looks like they're putting in an awful lot of those things that people have been begging for, including heroic modes of some of the old instances. Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines, at least. Plus, gnomes will finally have their priests. EDIT - Here's the new class/race list. So no Troll Warlock. I'm also kind of disappointed that undead can't be paladins.
Wow. Could that narration be any more overwrought? Oh well. At least there's anthropomorphic wolves, which moves me a tiny step closer to being willing to play WoW like my friends keep bugging me to do.
Ok, they're going to have to go into serious BS retcon mode to explain away Night Elf Mages. Last time I checked according to the lore, any Night Elf that practices arcane magic is put to death or imprisoned forever. Man, I'm a huge nerd. All the others are some what believable. But not that. The Undead wouldn't be Paladins. It would go against their evil, vengeful nature. The BE Pallys were just so Horde could have them and they came up with one hell of a convoluted reason for them in the first place. And there actually is one Undead NPC hunter in the game.
I think I'm going to like the Worgen. Not so sure about the Goblins, but I've always been a sucker for tropical zones.
The goblins seemed more interesting than I thought. First they get a drag racer mount. They automatically get the best discount at vendors regardless of rep. And they have a rocket belt that they can use to fly or do damage. I like most of the stuff they added, particularly how much they managed to change vanilla azeroth. It's pretty impressive.
Wow, this sounds really dramatic. Well done Blizzard. Trying to level a new character is somewhat torturous. I can't wait to actually play a whole new game basically. Just the other day I was lamenting how old and unused and wasted all of plain old vanilla Azeroth was. Kind of get a kick out of all the Goblin benefits. The money stuff is funny kinda like how yo'd imagine the Ferengi getting if this were a Star Trek game.
I always liked the lonely abandoned feel of Azshara, even if in game terms it was kind of a useless zone. So i'm a bit sad it'll be over-run with goblins. Anyway though looks like they really are redoing the entire world. Some places will be all churned up but from that trailer I'm sure I saw Desolace transformed into something green and bountiful. No mention of Emerald Dream, maybe they're saving that for another time. Not hugely interested in the new races personally. Werewolves as a concept bore me, I guess i could go with a goblin. Of all the new options what I'm most keen to try out is a Troll druid. Expanding the class choices represents changes in the world as races learn to adapt. I mean Taurens are spiritual guys so them being Paladins and Priests is sensible. Dwarf Shamans has precedent in lore (the wildhammers). Night Elf mages are harder to swallow but, eh, desperate times desperate measures etc. Stats to be simplified, which works for me. I never liked puzzling over whether I wanted more agility or attack power on an item. Does anyone know if Northrend will get, er, Cataclysmed? Will anything there change at all? I'm wondering how this all works in story terms; obviously we as players are doing all the parts of WoW all at the same time. But I thought expansions were meant to represent events in the world, ie Lich King actually "happens" after burning crusade and these are both a year or two in the future for a level 1 character.