In aninterview with GameSpot,World of WarcraftGame Director Ion Hazzikostas hinted that another old-world revamp of Azeroth is “likely to happen”. The last time this happened was the 2010WoWexpansionCataclysm. According to Hazzikostas, the development team would learn lessons fromCataclysmwhich got a lot of negative criticism for deleting parts of the 2004-eraWoWthat many players loved. The goal would be to use modern solutions to preserve currently existing pieces of the game.
“We are definitely open to it at some point,”Hazzikostas told GameSpot. “It is a shortcoming, if you take a step back and think aboutWorld of Warcraftas an ongoing living world, if we’ve kind of painted ourselves into a corner where we have all these iconic locations but we can’t really use them because they’ve already been used.”
Even though not everyone likes this sort of change, it’s definitely an understandable situation forWoW. The popular MMORPG turns 20 next year and much of the current game world exists on old technology and assets. However, with the popularity ofWorld of Warcraft: Classic, it’s easy to understand why the hesitance is there. Even though the two games run separately from each other, a part of the player base prefers the old content.
New expansion on the horizon
Blizzard revealed the final updateof the current expansionWorld of Warcraft: Dragonflightyesterday. The update will pave the way for the nextWoWexpansion which may get a reveal at BlizzCon 2023. The event takes place November 3-4 and the announcement is expected to come in the opening ceremony. Even though Hazzikostas didn’t confirm when the revamp will happen, we could see it as soon as this next expansion. However, it’s also possible we see the start of the revamp, but not the entire thing. The complete overhaul could take place over the course of the expansion or even several expansions.
Dragonflighthas been one of the better expansions recently, so hopefully the new expansion builds upon it. Legendary writerChris Metzen, one of the original creators ofWarcraft,recently returned to Blizzard.Hopefully, he’s a large part of the creative process and can help build upon the positives ofDragonflight.
Looking back,Cataclysmwas definitely not the greatest expansion. Other than visually, the world revamp felt like a downgrade as opposed to an upgrade in many ways. I wouldn’t mind seeing a more modern take on a complete overhaul though, using what Blizzard has learned over the last 20 years.
