The Next Steps for Blizzard? (WoW Expansions and Next MMO)

[Lavarinth]

If StarCraft is the next universe to go big, it would further explain them releasing SC2 in 3 big expansions.  That way they add a lot of lore, characters, etc to the mythos, giving a 'World of StarCraft' a lot of material to work with.

That is true, but I still find it just too awkwardly timed with the release of the "next big thing" (StarCraft 2) over a period of 3-5 years (yeah, I went there). But then again, the last three products from Blizzard were WarCraft 3, WarCraft 3 Expansion, and World of WarCraft followed by its expansions.

WarCraft 3 Release Date: July 3, 2002
Frozen Throne Release Date: July 1, 2003
World of WarCraft Release Date: November 23, 2004

(With a madness of beta testing before 2004 during WarCraft 3.) So those release dates wouldn't surprise me, now that I think about it, if it was StarCraft, especially with a Lead Producer already familiar with the franchises. As well as how Desler mentioned, the more expansions, the more lore.

Notice how Jeff didn't say "MMORPG?"  He just said MMO.  Could we be looking at a StarCraft MMORTS?  Where players own their own armies, ban together as guilds to rule planets, and war across the galaxy?  Methinks the omission was intentional.

A key thing is that Blizzard has repeatedly stated "it will not play like World of WarCraft, it'll be unique in comparison to that," though that's not to say it'll be unique in itself. Although, I personally would love it if it was guild/clan/brood based. Your own character, obviously, in my eyes, but banded together with others around. Making you not some "invincible" being but a regular "Joe" for starters. Both StarCraft 1 and 2 both show there isn't much already conquered over, so it doesn't leave much room for random humonoid races, although it has been said that the Protoss would "watch over" lesser humanoid beings.

[RazorclawX]

The Emerald Nightmare is caused by an Old God.

Yogg-Saron is not in Ulduar, he's under Azjol-Nerub. You don't see any Faceless Ones in Storm Peaks; they're all around Azjol'Nerub (both the parts under Dragonblight and the parts under Icecrown Glacier, because there is an entrance there).

[AA7Dragoon]

^ Exactly.  They're doing it right this time, unlike the lore chinks WarCraft suffered through between WCIII and WoW.

[Dread]

The Emerald Nightmare is caused by an Old God.

Yogg-Saron is not in Ulduar, he's under Azjol-Nerub. You don't see any Faceless Ones in Storm Peaks; they're all around Azjol'Nerub (both the parts under Dragonblight and the parts under Icecrown Glacier, because there is an entrance there).

Makes sense with what happened to the roots of Vordrassil. Plus I wasn't aware there are actual whisperings, that users can see/ hear, occurring in Northrend. I haven't had much of a chance to explore the new continent. Sure, "The" Nightmare is from Yogg-Saron. Hurrah.

My apologies, as I may have simply tried to block out any mention of the Old Gods in a practical raid-approach in World of Warcraft. What I consider a total disaster in the AQ events and the introduction of C'Thun might have done it. I was totally off the wall forgetting the Old Gods.

Sigh, but thanks RX for kicking me back in the right direction. I will not allow that satisfaction to Maglok! >)

[Maglok]

Yeah that would, you know, be bad

Here is a little hope. In a recent Blizzcast it was mentioned Yogg is not gonna appear soon.

[RazorclawX]

Makes sense with what happened to the roots of Vordrassil. Plus I wasn't aware there are actual whisperings, that users can see/ hear, occurring in Northrend. I haven't had much of a chance to explore the new continent. Sure, "The" Nightmare is from Yogg-Saron. Hurrah.

You get a bunch of whispers in Ahn'Kahet, too, where there's a big mob of Twilight Hammer guys hanging around at. There's a big Saronite mine in Icecrown where all the slaves are being driven mad by the whispers; it's actually kind of funny, if annoying, as a Daily Quest.

[Maglok]

And he's been whispering to Loken. Which he explains later.

[Dread]

If Yogg will be unveiled as a boss in Northrend, it wouldn't come out as an expansion, right? He'd follow more so in the foot steps of C'Thun and be released in some major content patch.

The expansions have all been setup to introduce a new continent (or outlandish location).

Although two more expansions is a nice number, for lv. 100, ha, couldn't the Void represent a new location? Perhaps in tandem with the Titans? Perhaps the Emerald Dream might represent the next? Twisting Nether?

What I'm eluding to is that we're discussing expansions here, and we'd have to find something worth an expansion, like Outland was for the Burning Crusade, and Nortrhend for the Wrath of the Lich King.

World of Warcraft - The Void, or "The Rise of the Titans", or something.
World of Warcraft - The Emerald Dream, or "It's not so much fun being a comatose vegetable", or something.

Random thoughts, and what better a place than CC to write them down. =oP

[Meta]

This Old God crap must stop. It's such a blatant C'thullhu ripoff, it's not even funny. -_-

A Maelstrom expansion would be really sweet.

[Legion]

Just hope it ain't something like World of Starcraft.

As Desler said, it would make Starcraft go big, and I kinda prefer it small.

Crazy little Starcraft. Crazy little teeny little Starcraft.

No, serious. Humans and their politics, half-good psychic aliens, and bug-like baddies and some uber characters who create hybrids or find artifacts that are the key to the end of all things is big enough for me. The perfect game.

This is just my problem, though. I don't like milked out universes. I LOVED Diablo 1 to death. Bought D2 as well, but didn't like it. Same with Warcraft. I liked 1 and 2, but 3 and the rest kind of ruined it for me. I mean, "Uther Lightbringer" was this mysterious guy who I had to escort someplace and never see him again. Now he's got his own wiki page.

I like new games of course, and this rant thing is only about lore and stuff. Of course War3 looked better than the old ones, and Sc2 will blow Sc1's graphics to hell, but story-wise, Blizzard's extended universes always become a bit too contrived for me.

[AA7Dragoon]

One of the expansions will be the Maelstrom, and facing the Empress Azshara.  Blizzard forums have already stated they are experimenting with sea travel and player controlled sailing and want to use it at some point.

The Emerald Dream will probably be the next expansion.  They've already created drafts of the world and I've seen some of it on recorded videos of private servers.

The final expansion will then be the Maelstrom and the final level cap of 100.  After that, WoW will begin to phase down as the new MMO starts its 1st or 2nd year.  We're looking at a timetable of 4 years here.

[IskatuMesk]

There's been Emerald Dream content inside the game since pre-TBC.

[Maglok]

Since the original release. They did say they have reworked anything they had, they changed their ideas about the dream. There are still some old exploration movies around that show that old content.

@AA7: You got a source of that? Cause I haven't read anything about player controlled sea travel.

[WB]

Sargeras was originally a footnote, hes become a lot more since then. Old gods seems to have followed in those footsteps (cthun, yogg)

Emerald dream...http://www.wowwiki.com/Emerald_Dream#Blizzard_quotes

I don't think WoW will ever be phased down. Just look at EQ.

edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5oHucJj90s

That what you meant AA7?

[AA7Dragoon]

^ Yes, that's the video

@ Maglok:  I don't know where I could find that specific blue post.  It was posted several months ago, even before the release of WoTK.  Basically, it said Blizzard was considering plans for player sea travel and would like to pursue the idea for development in the future.  It would stack perfectly with a Maelstrom themed expansion.