A time skip could mean a window of time in which they can bring out WC4 to introduce a new set of NPCs and lore figures which we can then bond with like we did with WC3 NPCs without the absolute Deus ex Machina that is the player character getting in the way and build up a new foundation to advance the story of Azeroth (they can do all this without WC4 but I figured it’d be a good chance to introduce new lore characters because they’ve admitted that’s been a problem)
I do think another reason is because another war right off the bat would feel a bit unrealistic
Well, kickstarting a thread with a “Convince me” while seemingly being 100% unwilling to allow such, may indeed tire you more when X amount of arguments come your way.
You prefaced your points as either being “too much work” which can easily be countered by highlighting the successful examples that didn’t seem to require such, or “the story is crap anyways” which honestly is a personal stance and a horse few can bring you down of.
Either way, this is all a matter of opinion. And no amount of arguing will change your mind if you feel your stance is appropriately founded.
They could give us 1-2 expansions of peace. One where we help the world after the turmoil and another where we deal with threat somewhere else.
Maybe even a threat that doesn’t want anything with Azeroth at the moment but can be problematic if left unchecked. This also let them move some characters from the main stage, like they did with Khadgar. If we go to a diferent world or to some undiscovered land we don’t have to drag Anduin, Thrall or Jaina with us.
This way we sort of have time skip without having a time skip.
WoW in it’s current form is sort of soap opera of fantasy games. You can’t just throw everything done in the past under the rug and start over with new cast. It’s as if you removed whole Foresters family from Bold & Beauty and replaced them with someone else! (or think Dynasty if that’s your gradma’s soap opera of choice).
I totally agree with you ! but as I said we have a basis of comparison, they retconned a lot going from WC3 to WOW, and then they did the same from WOTA to WC3. Nothing is gonna stop them from cheapening and botching because it is necessary for the sake of gameplay and story.
It is fairly obvious they don’t care about that with the way they handled everything, and repeatedly used the same strategy.
Besides a retcon could severely harm a race but benefit another in the story cough cough Night Elves.
But said amount of tweaking would remain inferior in quantity (and even quality) to the one required to for example turn Sylvanas into a villain “all along”. Just to name a more recent example.
Give them a “new” setting, a new set of characters, and the blank slate to “go nuts” and they will soon forget about what Thrall or Varian did back in Classic.
Because they’ll be focusing on the adventures of the new Farseer Durak, or the struggles of Prophet Anduin.
Given them new toys, and the Collector’s Edition will be left alone in the closet, and out of the harms way.
In a way I want to agree with you, however the player base is not so homogeneous, so many people would go nuts if the old heroes did not appear or were omitted from certain story lines for instance Tyrande and Malfurion were not present at Nazjatar while Thalyssra was. Thalyssra is a retcon character that benefits the Horde greatly and allows them to have representation in the patch.
That’s an interesting point. Yeah, I guess that that could be a possibility, and instead of skipping over character development and character introductions, they could just do them in that other medium, they might just be better suited for.
Thanks for that point, I don’t find it unconvincing. A WC4 is not my priority, but I can see why people would really like that.
Well, that doesn’t work so well with your WC4 argument. And I personally don’t think addons should have to be big wars. An RPG can work perfectly well, if it’s just the story of the player hero and strange lands, bringing armies into it doesn’t always make it better, and sometimes makes things worse.
Still, i’d say many more would rather have said characters “retire” in an adequate way, than to be distorted and changed for the sake of driving the story forth.
If the way to have future stories for Tyrande or Malfurion, would also include a sudden twist that turned them villains and retconned their past deeds, wouldn’t you rather have had their archs end in a satisfactory way?
Because that’s what happened with Sylvanas. And Garrosh.
That’s how we went from Thrall, to Go’el.
Or how we turned one of Stormwinds top generals, into a Draenei fanboy.
Now, compare said development with that of for example Varian. An awesome death, a cinematic, and a plausible and full-filled character arch.
Also, Time skips do no necessarily mean X amount of characters need to die of be removed.
But they do allow certain degree of wiggle room to present a new set of “veterans” that can effectually compete (in terms of spotlight and story weight), with the often tired set of dominant protagonists Blizzard has been leeching from for the past 20, 30 (?) years.
a time skip of 10 to 40 years could be realy intresting, hole of azeroth could be changed, and it could create some realy good story.
there is quite a lot of villains arround that could start something while we are gone also.
xalathat comes to mind, the Mogu would have to time organice them selfs, maby some old god that we actualy never killed is back, the dark portal might have opened for a new threath, maby yrel and her fanatics managed to get to azeroth and doing all kinds of bad things.
it could become realy good, but it all comes down to how it is done.
“To be cast into the Maw is to be doomed to a bleak eternity. it is a tumultuous, hopeless land where the vilest souls in the cosmos are imprisoned forever. Should the ancient evil chained here break free, all of reality will be consumed.”
Its from Wowhead.
An alternative future after we exit Shadowlands which we must fix?
I think they could go really massive with this. It will be wow’s 10th expansion, entering something like wow 2 and a whole new chapter and saga begins.
One thing I thought they could do is, what if when we come back, azeroth isn’t there any longer? She has hatched and become a titan, so there’s no world left. It could open so many possibilities.
I do hope they use this to launch a new, long lasting saga, beginning a new age for wow. It would be a very nice transition!
It’s the easiest most effective way to “Fix” things.
You go into a magical world where time moves slower.
Come out, X time later. All the bollox from previous expansions are sorted.
You no longer go play a game of warchief magical chairs and have a fresh new consistent story, while all the old content can be neatly packed away in a new and improved caverns of time.
Ruined city, fixed.
Giant hole in the wall? Fixed.
War machines everywhere and war, when we are supposed to be in a peace time? Fixed.
It’s cheap, it’s lazy. But with the way things are written. It’s probably the best solution instead of trying to keep going or releasing a warcraft 2.0
Still let chromie let you level wherever you want. But new players get to actually have a full story.
As for returning characters. Who’s to say some characters don’t come to sl with you. I mean Anduin won’t die of old age any time soon. And all you dam elves don’t have to worry about lifespans. Just don’t get stabbed in a cutscene you will be fine. Only one to really worry about is Thrall, and that just depends on if we are gone 4 or 40 years.
Hell you could even have a special raid which let’s you go hang out with the bronze dragons and they tell you a story about what happened while you were gone, and you do a bunch of mini encounters.
Most important thing though.
Is that they keep the old content. Just pack it neatly away in the caverns of time, so players can go visit and collect all the crap they may have missed.
I feel that it’s more likely that not, that’s for the best, if they go back and rework the base azeroth, without changing every other region it’s just going to make things more of a jumbled mess than it already is.
Regarding a time skip, it would essentially be a way to do a soft reboot of the setting, giving reason to revisit Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms and update them substantially, and introduce fresh faces to the setting.
I would love that!.
I’m imagening a huge, dense, mysty Ashenvale(inspired by Yosemite / Kings Canyon) expanse bordering the vast dangerous barrens(Thinking about the Canyon lands in Utah + The Grand Canyon ) for inspiration.
The towering Stonetalon mountains in there too, with the tech they have now it could be so much greater than it is ingam3 currently.
But you don’t need time skip to update old zones. We shouldn’t mix those two things up. It’s been what, 6 years in game since cata? Enough to justify changes to the zones.
If you want to shuffle current character cast and instantly finish some plots that’s when you go for time skip.
I think it doesn’t work that way with hatching titans, Argus was still there after Argus hatched. And not more destroyed than before as far as i can say.
I guess a time skip would have the advantage of sparing us an Anduin romance plot and jumping directly to him being married to a strong, independent woman…
…wich might not be a bad thing, because the authors might at least feel obligated to make her talk back to him…
Argus was tortured into submission before being born, but i know nothing about premature birth. We basically release a baby from endless suffering when killing him.
