World of Warcraft: Expansion Announced as Warlords of Draenor

Presenting the next expansion to the World of Warcraft:

Few details have been revealed thus far except that on the abstract we’re returning to the roots of the game by moving back towards the beginning of where the conflict started to arise. That conflict centers around the lore of how the Dark Portal had been opened up in Azeroth. Now, in going back to the past, the question is how does the past handle the present moment?

Chris Metzen described the expansion as the Alliance’s finest hour in returning to what made them great over the years: the super powers that defended Azeroth from the invaders. Yet what about the Horde one asks? After the humiliation of Garrosh’s short reign and Thrall’s changing of the guard to Vol’jin, the Horde had been weakened yet with an open future to carve. Their story in this is about meeting their dark past and dealing with it.

The world of Draenor by the introductory video shows what looks like a brutal, violent world. Almost primal in some way that is bred for one purpose: war. How that eventually translates is anyone’s guess but the new monsters look quite vicious (cyclops with a rocket launcher type of siege weapon is pretty nasty indeed!). The savagery and primal world will make it a very interesting area of exploration and conflict.

Now, the main features announced thus far are the level cap being 100, new PVP zones, new character models, new world (similar to Outlands), instant level 90 and upgradeable garrisons. Okay, upgradeable garrisons? This part of the game needs a great deal of fleshing out as little detail has been provided on this feature. Currently, the only aspect of the game that might be somewhat relevant is from patch 5.1 where you could use points to upgrade your faction’s bases in the Krasarang Wilds. So what will a garrison mean to the player? Will it be very warcraft/RTS type of feature? Will this allow players to have a mini army? Will this give players control over their own customizable base for sieges just like in old Warcraft style? Indeed, this is something that I’m looking to hear more about.

A few things not announced as part of the expansion as anticipated were a new race and new class. Some people speculated about the creation of a demon hunter style class. However, in examining this new realm, it appears that Blizzard isn’t ready to pull the Burning Legion trigger yet. My assumption is that the if the Burning Legion does make its presence known, there’s a high chance of seeing the demon hunter class show up to confront them.

Quite frankly, I’m happy not seeing a new class nor race. Already, we were introduced the Pandaren and monk class. Having 11 classes to choose from, adding a new class without some core change to the game structure feels pointless. So holding off an expansion or so for a new class is fine, at least until they redefine some of the core mechanics to the game that make having a new class worth something meaningful.

The other important aspect is the level cap of 100. This seems significant since we haven’t seen an expansion with a 10 level increase since Wrath of the Lich King. I think Cataclysm and Mist of Pandaria were very short term type of expansions. They did mention that the general desire for World of Warcraft is to have faster content pushes. With 10 more levels to work on, the question is how will it all play out? Does 10 levels mean 10 separate areas? Or will it be similar to Wrath of the Lich King where you have a few zones that allow someone to pick and choose their leveling strategy?

I feel that no matter which direction they enter, I hope that the leveling part won’t be as linear, funneling and dreary as Mist of Pandaria. Also, I hope that the leveling process will be more alt friendly similar to Cataclysm. With all the new potential quests, I feel that they should evolve that aspect from the linear quest hubs to non-linear quest hubs. Wrath of the Lich King did an excellent job of this aspect and it’s something I really hope to see make a return. I’ve written that the questing system is just too out-of-date and needs to evolve more into something more meaningful with impact. Perhaps, combining this new Garrison/upgrade feature, we can see how a hero can directly contribute to a zone’s environment.

What I don’t want to see is just content for content’s sake. Just like questing, I want the game to evolve more and not just focus on the basic apparatus that has been constructed but converting it into one that shows a player how they contribute to this world. Everquest had talked about the environmental and physical influence players will have with their expansion and that’s a huge feature lacking in MMOs at this moment. The game should be less about the grind and more about community and impact of this world. That’s the direction I’m hoping that this game move towards with the expansion. Not just focusing on end bosses for raids where you avoid shit on the ground while going through a boring rotation. There needs to be more with this expansion.

Either way, we’ll see more in the coming days. At least the trailer looks excellent.

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