So Blizzard are talking about branching out Classic WoW… Giving it its own updates and lore.
This could be interesting. No Illidan, Kael’thas, Vash being unneeded raid bosses. What do you guys think?
Also Blood Elves for the Alliance this time? Ogres for the Horde?
Are they? I thought the Classic+ idea died with TBC Classic? I always liked the idea, but it sounds very, very unlikely.
warcrafttavern. com/wow-classic/news/blizzard-is-considering-some-larger-changes-to-classic-era-servers/
Well, to be honest there is a way to kind of explain this, if the devs pick such route. As well as the changes to Warcraft 3 if the devs would be a bit more careful about what and how they do.
So, the way I could imagine this is about Nozdormu. In the original timeline during the War of the Ancienct he was trapped and could not participate in the thing. But, we as players changed the thing when we allowed him to defeat Murozond in Cataclysm.
After this, we have now a canon timeline where Broxxigar and timetravelling was a thing during the War of Ancients, and we as also took the Demon Soul from the past.
Which makes me think that the events predicted / mentioned up until Well of Eternity dungeon are a subject to change. So, we can blame Nozdormu meddling with timelines instead of protecting it how he should, and the changes could alter the flow of things from the WotA days till Cata it any way.
Also, given the fact that Shadowlands “transcend the timelines” aka there is only 1 Shadowlands for all the timelines, it can even be a way to explain why events after Cata could be not quite the same too.
All of that assumes careful handling of the topic and attention to the details.
gl hf
…why would it need to be explained at all? It would be a reboot from Classic onwards. No reason to connect it to the main game at all.
Well, the question was
And that’s what I think. That it could work out and be in-canon. Does it need to be? No. But it could be. If handled carefully.
gl hf
I don’t know, but I’d love for them to add new character models as an option for Classic. I’d quit retail in a heartbeat.
That would be absolutely terrible. I literally spent more time learning about wc history than about irl history and I’m pretty sure majority of other lore nerds have too. If they would reset the timeline back to vanilla, it wouldn’t be wow anymore and all our connection to its story would disappear as well as the authentic feel of it
Can’t say I am qualified. Since most of what I know is surrounding either the Shadowlands, or Calia Menethil.
… but I can say that I remember the feeling when they retconned draenei story. And the whole odd thing around 5th Old God. And how sudden about out of place Sylvanas’ actions felt in Cata to me since I was basing my knowledge on the game above other sources.
At some point I just stopped caring because at any moment anything I knew could be thrown away. And it was from time to time.
So, yeah. That would be “in character” for the developers IMO.
gl hf
Honestly, give me updated character models and a diverging timeline explained through some plot device, and I’d be 100% fine with jumping game versions.
in this new timeline all the trolls died and are not longer a playable race
But you forgot to change it that Elves don’t evolve from Trolls anymore. Guess the game has no Elves aswell, rip.
i’d be fine with that as i won’t play it 
It is an interesting concept, basicaly an alternate universe where events will play out in different way.
I think Vanilla had a much, much more cohesive and interesting world than we have today. Back then we had an Azeroth recuperating from decades of war, with weak factions that really couldn’t keep their eye on everything, and a need for adventurers to pick up the slack. Today we are playing in some Marvel-esque giant cosmos that is dominated by a few superheroes, the factions have become bloated beyond comprehension, and the mundane threats of Azeroth aren’t worth mentioning anymore, since you need to literally stab the planet to get anyone’s attention.
So yes, I would very much like to go back. I would like them to try to stick to a style instead of just throwing on any element that sounds interesting at the time. I would like the player characters to be the protagonists that matter, not the kings and chieftains. I would like to see the focus kept on world exploration and teasing deeper secrets instead of dominating story-structures.
But neither do I think that will ever happen, since it’s just too much of an investment… nor would I trust the current WoW-team to do that. I don’t think the current devs and writers would understand what I would like to see in WoW, so I think its story would soon become as bad to me as retail is.
Apart from that… I don’t want the 2004 gameplay and graphics anymore. So the Classic+ I would want wouldn’t be very classic apart from the setting.
If people honestly think Classic + content would mean better story, i have bad news for you. Its not like they´re going to hire new writers or drastically change their creative process or anything. We´re talking about the same people who had Illidan, Malfurion and Tyrande on the same Island for the first time in like 15 real life years, yet they spoke to each other NOT A SINGLE TIME.
This is genuinely interesting but I do indeed find it hard to believe they’ll spend more resources into this. They’re already so busy fixing/balancing stupid systems nobody ever asks for instead of creating and embellishing new and old content alike.
That being said if they created classic realms with all the quality of life upgrades of retail that would interest me. You know, modern graphics, affordable mounts, some of the better sides of phasing such as being able to tag mobs outside of groups, herbs etc…
Where did they mention that? Haven’t picked up that bit of info. Didn’t they say that about the Twisting Nether as well and then proceeded at messing up Archimonde? They really need to stop this timeline transcending nonsense. They’ve already messed so many things up, the less “wibbly wobbly, timey wimey” stuff they do the better the chances at us at getting some lore and character arcs that matter.
Without wishing to sound cynical, getting a lot of beloved content and removing it from canon, has been done so many times by all the big players… Think Star Wars / Disney takeover, Marvel, DC… Since Blizzard seem to think really highly of themselves nothing would stop of basically saying “hey guys, you know all the games, books, comics, and short stories you’ve engaged with so far? Yeah well those are all lEgEnDs here’s some new stuff, carry on paying us”… The main difference here is that most of the content isn’t quite “beloved”… I’d be more than happy with the majority of post W3 lore content to be blasted into oblivion if… And only IF, biiiiiiiiig old IF they get some new coherent writing team that has one unified vision and don’t change direction every freaking patch.
Yeah I don’t trust the game with the writers either.
Perfectly well said. I think it’s thanks to those forum whiners who cried “but I beat the Lich King by soloing him in MoP! Acknowledge what I did!” Like its some kind of elder scrolls game.
Could be interesting, with updated characters.
But i don’t get, what’s so fascinating about the Ogres?.
I mean they are just big lumps of deformed flesh, a bit like male orcs.
(orc = lego block)
Were kul tirans a massive success?.
should i play a guy with a massive beer gut, or a lady that’s 9 months pregnant, and about to pop… Yeah thanks, i’ll pass.
Besides blizz always seem to, struggle with bigger characters rigging. Zandalari male trolls running animation looks really clunky, like running on hot coals.
And I feel that this thinking is a part of what led to the situation we have now. Ogres are an established part of the world and the Horde. Making them playable makes sense, the lore doesn’t have to bend around the new race, it fits right in. Indeed it could help to introduce some new aspects into the Horde-ogre relations.
“But they aren’t pretty” is what led to Blood Elves in the Horde, and the Draenei we only knew as Broken before, being introduced as super models with build-in high heels. The lore bent around the attempt to create mass appeal. And while that might have worked out for the player numbers (which was the goal), I don’t think it worked out well for the story. And the story is what we are looking at here.