[General Article] World of Warcraft: 5 Wishes for WoW's 10th Anniversary Expansion

SBFord

As World of Warcraft approaches its tenth anniversary and as Blizzcon nears, speculation has started about the next expansion. Sure to be a big one given WoW's decade of awesomeness, we have a list of things we'd like to see included. Check out our ideas and then add your own in the comments.

5. Get Rid of Tab Targeting

This would take a major overhaul to gameplay but MMOs have already moved in this direction. If World of Warcraft is doing a full ten year expansion then this should be one of the core pieces to the redesign of game play. I seriously doubt the team would do this because it would change too many mechanics, but I think it would bring WoW into this decade and make for a much better game.

Read more of Garrett Fuller's The List: 5 Wishes for WoW's 10th Anniversary Expansion.

Incomparable

1. Player created content. Create raids, puzzles, arenas, arenas with traps, treasure maps, quests etc.

2. Player housing

3. Open world pvp

4. Single player game for the wow story

5. Revamp wow with a new engine and better graphics.

6. Player bounties

7. Gambling and mini games.

8. Mounted combat

9. Rts in pvp mode as suggested in article.

10. Henchmen tied in with pther aspect of the game such as open world pvp trade and caravans.

 

Lunarpac

1. Vanilla servers

2. TBC servers 

3. WotLK servers

4. Cataclysm servers

5. Pandaservers

6. Remove microtransactions

7. Make F2P

 

As if. As if.

iftachby

I agree on the third point, but the rest won't fit, or doesn't make sense.

 

Petty weak wish list for an expansion in my opinion

tawess

Not to be rude but this was the most ill-concived thing i have read in a long time. So what Fuller is asking for is a complete redesign of World of Warcraft... I seem to remember another game that did this... It did not turn out very well.

 

5: As Fuller says this is a lot of work and would in my opinion make the NGE look like a fart in space. In essence it would be a new game that only wore the old WoW´s skin. Again i point towards the NGE.

 

4: Nice idea but way to much work for such a limited customer base. Heck if they did not do it for MoP i am pretty sure it will never be done. Like it or not but the people who like PvP all the time is a very small faction in the grand scheme of things.

 

3: Or it could see them plunge even further down as people felt no real reward for progressing in content. Also i do not see any example or explanation for what would replace gear as a reward that is strong enough to promote people to come back.

 

2: Yeah... Because vet rewards have worked so well in other games... It has not breed an extra layer of elitism or malcontent from people who "come in late". Nor does it create pressure to continue to come up with great rewards.

 

1: Now i support this idea (if nothing just to see the "vets" flip their collective lid as the UI get simplified to fit the console 8 button frame.) But it is a bit to late... About 5 years or so to late, again doing such a costly project would be very risky  especially as no one knows were the MMO market is going right now. It is a fair bet to say that Titan.. what ever it is will go to consoles too (or be console exclusive)

 

Now what i hope for in a 10 year celebration is perhaps some "retro" events like gates(the opening.. not the entire thing) or the WotLK pre-event. Some nice pet or a mount, or more realistly a cloak or a tabard.

It would be cool if they made a vanity set of gear with some nice retro look but updated quality texture wise that once could earn form doing some easy event or task, enough to pull people back but not so hard that it is any real work... More for the lulz.

Lord.Bachus

To everyone his own WoW...

 

1 AA system, and a max level version of all content...

2 Updated character races (graphics)

3 More Dynamic content like GW2...

4 Stories, stories, stories...

5 Player generated content like in Neverwinter.

netosampaio

1 and 5 are complete absurds, i agree with the other ones

darkedone02

1. Player Housing - Crafters and Quests (daily's as well) be able to get furniture and other decoratives and additions for our houses, all crafts should be able to add in certain decorations to choose from.

2. RTS - RPG PvP - Similar to Natural Selection 2 and Savage: Battle of Newerth, and other RTS/FPS/RPG games out there, it's time to bring this back! This PvP battleground maps allow players to vote/select a chosen player to become the commander of their team, commanders has access to build npc units and siege weapons for players to use, and provide research to improve their army and units, etd. The goal to victory is to bring ruin to the enemy HQ's, game last for an 160 minutes, once times expired, the score of  who done the most damage wins.

3. More Lore, More Story, More cutscenes - One thing I love about pandaria is the story on the game and the massive lore we get from the various of races, and the many things that was escalated. Now I wish to see twice as much on this to fill us in on what could possibly on the next unknown land that we will soon embarked on.

4. Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor Post-MoP - The cataclysm as ended and so soon the events that has happened in MoP, now the land have been regenerated and I want to see the old leveling content change again, desolance has fully grown from a wasteland to a forest, certain Pandarians decided to migrate to the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor on certain settlements, and other possible storylines to improve and see the restoration of the cataclyism... I want to see changes in the burning crusade 1-20 places as well and silithus.

5. Raid Finder and Dungeon Finder Improvement - Finally allow me to select to join a fresh run or a currently running dungeon, so we don't have to miss out on content and don't have to do content we have already done.

 

junglebeast

Make it a free expansion.

And yes veteran rewards would be nice too.

MadDemon64

Update pre-WoTLK NPC, mob, player, weapon, armor, and mount models!

Aroukos

Get rid of tab targeting?  Have you ever considered that most of ppl playing wow, remains loyal because of the tab target system? not as the only reason, but a very significant one. i dont know even a single wow player (and i know many after almost 10 years) that would prefer any other targeting system. maybe in some other game they could accept this, but hell, not at wow.

itchmon

to me this is a neat thought experiment:  what 5 things would make me return after my 3 years away from the game?

 

5) Progression server A la EQ's Fippy server.

4) 5 words: return of the talent trees

3) a new class or two

2) any number of 40 person raids

and the number one thing that wouild make Da Skull return to warcraft....

1) HOUSING!

Artwolf

I like #4, the Warzone Continent idea. I feel like several things would have to be done in order for it to be popular and work - I think it would have to be a new, perpetual, never-ending battle over territory instead of the standard "match style" that is currently available. I'm just not sure Blizzard will be willing to make such drastic changes to how the game has worked for so long. Even your #5 (you touched on the massive change) and #3 are complete changes to how the game operates. Blizzard still has ~7million subscribers or so? that are presumably still playing because they like how the game is currently. I just have a hard time believing they will deviate from the norm - would be interesting though.

Aroukos

1. Revamp and USE all areas of the map. Old and new. Whats the point having a huge and pretty world, if you use it only to take 1-2 lvl's. Make the areas have a meaning even at max lvl.

2. Revamp vanila character models.

3. Veteran rewards

4. Make professions better and deeper.

5. Add open world events. Not like gw2 zerg crap though.

6. Make CC necessary again.

7. Real HC mode dungeons again, like TBC

8. Maintain both tab targeting and holy trinity.

9. Give a 3rd spec slot. 2 are not enough anymore, especially in classes like druid.

10. Roll back talent system, or make a better than the current one.

11. Lower subscription at least to 10$.

laserit

3 Factions

 

Alliance, Horde, Burning Legion

 

Give open world pvp lots of love

Lyrian

1. Progression server with all classes enabled at the start.

2. Full expanded talent trees along with near limitless AA system.

3. Crafting tree revision to include a more indepth crafting experience and to make it more valuable in addition to removing crafting/gathering limits per character.

4. Less PvP focus and balancing for PvP.

5. More world content - random events, world raids, sudden invasions, etc.

 

Then i might consider coming back. But still probably not.

kabitoshin

What other than action combat could replace tab, and would it actually be fun to use? I'm a fan of GW2 combat, you can call it spammy all you want, but what isn't spammy?

kabitoshin

Originally posted by Aroukos

1. Revamp and USE all areas of the map. Old and new. Whats the point having a huge and pretty world, if you use it only to take 1-2 lvl's. Make the areas have a meaning even at max lvl.

2. Revamp vanila character models.

3. Veteran rewards

4. Make professions better and deeper.

5. Add open world events. Not like gw2 zerg crap though.

6. Make CC necessary again.

7. Real HC mode dungeons again, like TBC

8. Maintain both tab targeting and holy trinity.

9. Give a 3rd spec slot. 2 are not enough anymore, especially in classes like druid.

10. Roll back talent system, or make a better than the current one.

11. Lower subscription at least to 10$.

 

Heroic raiding compares to BC raids imo, if not better on mechanics, and at point 5 anything open world will be zerged.

suckm3

Originally posted by Incomparable

1. Player created content. Create raids, puzzles, arenas, arenas with traps, treasure maps, quests etc.

2. Player housing

3. Open world pvp

4. Single player game for the wow story

5. Revamp wow with a new engine and better graphics.

6. Player bounties

7. Gambling and mini games.

8. Mounted combat

9. Rts in pvp mode as suggested in article.

10. Henchmen tied in with pther aspect of the game such as open world pvp trade and caravans.

 

Full loot and killing mounts !

 

ThomasN7

Playable on next-gen consoles would be awesome.  Goodbye crappy computer chair, hello couch...

Alomar

Would need a graphical rehaul, a combat system rehaul, or some type of siege warfare pvp system before I ever return to the cartoony land of gear grind.

CertheGreat

1.new character models
2.guild halls
3.arenas with traps
4.gambling poker games where we gamble using gold.
5.more pvp balancing
6.make lfr harder
7.retake gnomeregan or gilneas already

meadmoon

Originally posted by kabitoshin
What other than action combat could replace tab, and would it actually be fun to use? I'm a fan of GW2 combat, you can call it spammy all you want, but what isn't spammy?

Some people have it in their head that aiming and spamming a button is better than tabbing and spamming a button and somehow doesn't qualify as spamming. 

But then people are generally stupid.

jogumby

Losing tab targeting would cause me to stay away for good. Not everyone can move their fingers fast enough to do so manually.

My only wishes (other than fresh content) would be to make leveling "challenging" again and bring back talent trees. Not everyone plays just for end game. Some people actually enjoy the ride!

Clypto75

Originally posted by tawess

Not to be rude but this was the most ill-concived thing i have read in a long time. So what Fuller is asking for is a complete redesign of World of Warcraft... I seem to remember another game that did this... It did not turn out very well.

 

5: As Fuller says this is a lot of work and would in my opinion make the NGE look like a fart in space. In essence it would be a new game that only wore the old WoW´s skin. Again i point towards the NGE.

 

4: Nice idea but way to much work for such a limited customer base. Heck if they did not do it for MoP i am pretty sure it will never be done. Like it or not but the people who like PvP all the time is a very small faction in the grand scheme of things.

 

3: Or it could see them plunge even further down as people felt no real reward for progressing in content. Also i do not see any example or explanation for what would replace gear as a reward that is strong enough to promote people to come back.

 

2: Yeah... Because vet rewards have worked so well in other games... It has not breed an extra layer of elitism or malcontent from people who "come in late". Nor does it create pressure to continue to come up with great rewards.

 

1: Now i support this idea (if nothing just to see the "vets" flip their collective lid as the UI get simplified to fit the console 8 button frame.) But it is a bit to late... About 5 years or so to late, again doing such a costly project would be very risky  especially as no one knows were the MMO market is going right now. It is a fair bet to say that Titan.. what ever it is will go to consoles too (or be console exclusive)

 

Now what i hope for in a 10 year celebration is perhaps some "retro" events like gates(the opening.. not the entire thing) or the WotLK pre-event. Some nice pet or a mount, or more realistly a cloak or a tabard.

It would be cool if they made a vanity set of gear with some nice retro look but updated quality texture wise that once could earn form doing some easy event or task, enough to pull people back but not so hard that it is any real work... More for the lulz.

100% agreed. The celebration part would make me want to sub instantly, the AQ gates was freaking awesome! Well the opening, the gathering/stockpiling of the material not so much.

CrazKanuk

Originally posted by jogumby

Losing tab targeting would cause me to stay away for good. Not everyone can move their fingers fast enough to do so manually.

My only wishes (other than fresh content) would be to make leveling "challenging" again and bring back talent trees. Not everyone plays just for end game. Some people actually enjoy the ride!

+1, I don't really see any reason to get rid of tab targeting either.

 

Bringing back talent trees would be my biggest one. Remember when "your" build actually suited how you played the game? Now it's like 2 builds per class is plenty and if you don't adhere to those then you're not doing it right.