Why can't Blizzard just release a next gen World of Warcraft?

[thejunglegod]

They probably just don't want to. It would also be a very long and costly project, even for them. Instead, they tried to make a new one (Titan) but canceled it, and Overwatch arose from the ashes. I do agree, currently WoW looks dated, but the type of visual fidelity upgrade we'd probably all imagine for it would essentially amount to just remaking the entire thing from scratch, I'd assume.

Personally, I'd rather see them concentrate on their new project(s). But maybe, just maybe one day in a few (many) years down the line they'll decide to come out with either a full remake, or a very extensive graphical overhaul of the existing version (which I highly doubt they'll ever do). The only thing I can imagine them doing is a 'light' upgrade version 2.0, one that follows the original upgrade that they've done a couple of years ago (when they increased polygon count on characters and whatnot). That type of upgrade... sure I guess. But an actual next generation WoW? That was pretty much their canceled game, Titan.

It might just be a coincidence (or you saw the video already, hence maybe that's why you created this thread), but there's the first video out of three, over at GameSpot, that speaks of Blizzard's (mis)adventure with Titan and essentially why they came up with Overwatch. It also sheds some light about how the atmosphere was (internally) at Blizzard during that period (when they worked on Titan). It's a nice video, and they'll release two more soon.

Yes, i did read up about it and it had all the makings of being a worthy successor. Thanks for the video link though. It's hard to imagine a company like Blizzard going through tough times. I just wish they had gone through with Titan.

i feel bad for people like you, missing out on so much because of something so stupid

Don't be. I know what i like and what i don't. And i know WOW went downhill after WOTLK anyway. So even though the graphics was the main reason i quit, i'm sure i didn't miss much.

I feel about the exact opposite.

Stats are way super-inflated. Upgrades are meaningless because of all the welfare epics being handed out, events are.... fine, end game is focused on dances and gimmicks instead of basic combat using the mechanics of the game, leveling is a stupidly easy waste of time.

The graphics are great though, last thing I want in an MMO is fancy graphics that will kill my FPS when 30 characters are on screen at the same time.

I know what you're talking about but i was out after WOTLK and i'm sure the decline happened during/after WOTLK.
Why would you not want fancy graphics in an MMO. Current gen graphic cards can easily render more than 30 characters on screen in high detail.
Guild wars 2 had better graphics but it only hitched on my GTX 680 during those mega events which had easily around a thousand characters on screen at one time. I'm sure the technology out there can easily pull off an MMO with good graphics.

 

[Elcs]

Whilst they can still milk the cash cow there's no real need for innovation on their part.

I'm sure that when subscribers hit a certain point then they'll consider making something new but until then it's milk, milk milk.

 

[xantub]

Not WOW2, I'm more looking forward to Pantheon, more like a new Everquest 1 I'm hoping. I saw a recent video of pre-alpha playing and it looks exactly like my experiences in Everquest 1, which I loved. Just going with your group of friends to some place and killing spawns while chatting.

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

Expansions are a good time for developers to take risks as it's hard to innovate with millions of players accustomed to things working a particular way. Often you'll find gameplay changes a bit in sequels, this may put of some players. Equally off-putting for some players is losing a decades worth of investment into a game - even if there's a bonus for existing players it'll never match what's lost. More active players may not have incentive to make the switch. Then, as previously mentioned, the player base splits and you may end up with additional loss as half of the MMO experience is social.

WOW2 may sound nice in theory but in reality it would probably disappoint. Square Enix tried this with FFXIV and, at least initially, failed pretty spectacularly.

And, as far as graphics, laptop sales have outpaced desktops for a while now. Whatever this is you would want it to run on Intel graphics, not just the good stuff.

 

[KMFJD]

most mmo's have felt like a quick 2-3 month game now, no reason to stick around longer

 

[Grooveriding]

MMOs are dead as a genre going on all the failed launches we've seen. WoW has been losing about 1.5 million subs for every expansion they've released since WOTLK.

I think the genre is running out of a gas, unless some developer pulls off something revolutionary, once WoW dies out, that will be it for that typical quest/grind/raid format.

 

[waggy]

I am usually also a graphics ho, but graphics was NOT why we stopped playing. Not at all.

They turned a game which (IMHO) is about exploration and adventuring into a grind fest. Where people now log-on at certain times to raid etc...where everyone gets stuff handed to them, where 10 year old Johnny logs on and will get a sense of "achievement" for nothing.

The best time in Wow (for me), was right before/about the time of BC (unfortunately never played vanilla)....and the best memories of things like walking (!!) say from S/W, through the barrens, into areas I haven't been, where you really had the sense of exploration and adventure. (Of course we also did a lot of heroics, raiding etc.)

But now it seems it's just chores.

DAILIES <--- that expression alone makes me cringe

People log on to do "their dailies", the exact some repetitive grind, every day.....'nuff said.

Wow has always been a grindfest. That's not what is killing it... well not exactly. Or even the "Welfare" epics. Grinding have been part of MMO's and rpgs.

people getting easy epics arent why people are quiting. IF someone getting a purple upsets you then you need help. they in no way effect your raid playing. Same with LFR and LFG. those that want can still run the real raids.

To me what is killing WoW is the shit expansions. Grinding to open a new part of the map or grinding rep to get access to more quest. or having 10 daily's to get 10 more etc.

Wrath of the litch king was when the game was at it's top. You didn't have daily grind for bullshit things. It started in cata (what a shit expansion all way around) and really got bad in Pandora.

I think what is really hurting is how epicly shit Warlords is. very little story, grinding to get that story, and just shit.

facebook type games in the garrison tops it though.


I have no desire after warlords to continue. Legion just does not excite me at all. after getting assfucked with warlords i won't give them another penny.

 

[Sonikku]

I played on a private vanilla server and even though I had played back then, I had forgotten almost entirely what it was like. It basically felt like a different game. There was no garrison to sit in, only the world to explore. But don't even think even leveling was a "solo" experience.

When I tried questing alone in Elwynn Forest I learned pretty quickly why two stormwind guards perished as I myself got eviscerated by an angry swarm of Murlocs that pulled in packs. (Not a good way to go) But you ask for help in guild and a guildie rides in on his shiny gold unicorn to deliver the smack down and it's like the god damn calvary has arrived to save the day. It's a completely different experience. You're forced to build relationships with people as the only way to get ahead. Not like how it is in WoD. Not everyone is just "Rogue" or "Paladin" as it is now in LFR.

Then bliz shut it all down.

 

[skipsneeky2]

I think with mmo/mmorpg games the graphics can be overlooked especially in the free to play titles.Just means more people with cheap computers could play.

Don't think there is any MMORPG games that truly are free to play,you land at a certain level and unless you wanna farm low end bosses in the locked world you essentially have to pay for membership to continue on.

 

[shortylickens]

I think with mmo/mmorpg games the graphics can be overlooked especially in the free to play titles.Just means more people with cheap computers could play.

Don't think there is any MMORPG games that truly are free to play,you land at a certain level and unless you wanna farm low end bosses in the locked world you essentially have to pay for membership to continue on.

Rift is completely free if you choose. But most people want extra goodies so they buy things. However you can go thru the main quest without spending a dime, and its BIG. Plus about a zillion side quests but the majority of those are farming items or farming enemies. Theres also dungeons and battlezones. You can do a lot for absolutely no money, if you like.

 

[flexy]

Wrath of the litch king was when the game was at it's top. You didn't have daily grind for bullshit things. It started in cata (what a shit expansion all way around) and really got bad in Pandora.

BC was nice and so was WotLK. I came across some WoW soundtracks from BC and WoTLK and just hearing the sounds for the certain areas gives me shivers and great memories.

It's also a sign of odd game-design how now areas like Shatt or Dalaran are ghost cities. The same with PvP areas.

I agree, "shit" started in Cataclysm and fortunately we never played Pandora.

One thing was good and bad in Cata:

You could make INSANE amounts with farming. I made the biggest amount of g just farming whiptail.
And the biggest joke of all was archaeology. I remember I wanted that recipe for the mount and was NEVER EVER in my life as frustrated as back then trying to find it. Then however I made so much g I just bought that recipe

 

[flexy]

"The Secret World" was/is actually a good MMORPG with a different twist. This we actually enjoyed a while after we played WoW. For some reason this never got very popular.

 

[Eric1987]

Doesn't matter because BDO is the next big MMORPG.

 

[tential]

The graphics of the game I believe are intentional. It looks good no matter what hardware you have where as a "Hyper realistic" Wow would look great on high end PCs, however, many other people who play WoW on low end PCs that I know it would probably look like crap on those.

And yes, I was turned off by WoW's graphics. It's part of the reason I loved Lineage 2. It looked cool, and I couldn't believe WoW was a "new" game with worse graphics, worse gameplay, worse raids, worse, PVP, etc. But hey, people loved WoW.

Lineage 2 will always be a better MMO than WoW was to me though.

 

[tential]

Blizzard's best years are behind them at this point. They're basically in decline, though I hope to be pleasantly surprised with Overwatch.

They're just a larger corporation now. Hence the far less imaginative products/investments.

There are very few corporations that are also imaginative.

 

[tential]

I played on a private vanilla server and even though I had played back then, I had forgotten almost entirely what it was like. It basically felt like a different game. There was no garrison to sit in, only the world to explore. But don't even think even leveling was a "solo" experience.

When I tried questing alone in Elwynn Forest I learned pretty quickly why two stormwind guards perished as I myself got eviscerated by an angry swarm of Murlocs that pulled in packs. (Not a good way to go) But you ask for help in guild and a guildie rides in on his shiny gold unicorn to deliver the smack down and it's like the god damn calvary has arrived to save the day. It's a completely different experience. You're forced to build relationships with people as the only way to get ahead. Not like how it is in WoD. Not everyone is just "Rogue" or "Paladin" as it is now in LFR.

Then bliz shut it all down.

It's a dumbed down MMO. It's simple to play and you can play by yourself if you choose. That's not possible in "good" MMOs. You simply can't do much of anything by yourself which forces you to build relationships, forces other things to happen between the groups that form, etc. That's the efun of an MMO, forcing community interaction.

WoW does way too many things to allow people to be in their own little world (LITERALLY WITH INSTANCES), rather than push people to interact. It's literally like "safe space" gaming.

 

[blankslate]

Rift is completely free if you choose.

Rift like WoW is a shadow of what it was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc3FyX7imFM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoW36Rjh-w0

The first is a pretty good video about a wildly bugged out boss in a raid of a new tier that was released too soon to fully bugfix so that the previous tier can be put on the cash shop

The second is pretty much the leader of top raiding guild explaining why they quit the game and went to WoW

Additionally if you even commented on this in the crossevents channel that most people use to speak across servers your account was banned (or suspended as they later rescinded the bans)


_____________

 

[Anubis]

FWIW - to all those that quit WoW, raiding is the best its ever been

 

[videogames101]

Blizzard has no vision at all anymore. That should be clear from everything they've done in the last 6 years. Funny enough, Valve has gone down the same path.

The pantheon of game developers has truly fallen.



Also no one knows how to make good looking games anymore.

 

[Grooveriding]

FWIW - to all those that quit WoW, raiding is the best its ever been

Sure and it's the only good thing in the game. I did raiding this xpac for the final tier. Killed M.A. and it was great.

This is why I think once it's no longer economically viable to produce the big expansions WoW gets every few years that it will not fully die. I expect them to continue to provide new raids periodically. Probably will release them in some sort of paid DLC format.

I think the expansions will stop within 4 years, but there will be new content for at least a decade. At its current rate of decline it will have about a million players in four years, but raiding will keep it going for a while even after expansions stop.

 

[TidusZ]

FWIW - to all those that quit WoW, raiding is the best its ever been

Looking at wowprogress, the last boss kill for the top guild was July 2015 so I don't see how 9 months of farm content = best raiding. I played the latest expansion for a few days and they had basically gutted any complexity in the mechanics since I played in early Cataclysm. Borrowed time buff no longer significant and effortless to maximize, renew, divine hymn, and binding heal spells removed. I realized I quit playing at the right time.

I wouldn't trust the new Blizzard to make a really amazing game.

 

[thejunglegod]

It might just be a coincidence (or you saw the video already, hence maybe that's why you created this thread), but there's the first video out of three, over at GameSpot, that speaks of Blizzard's (mis)adventure with Titan and essentially why they came up with Overwatch. It also sheds some light about how the atmosphere was (internally) at Blizzard during that period (when they worked on Titan). It's a nice video, and they'll release two more soon.

The 2nd video is out now and it is just as good as the first. Gamespot is doing a good job with these, well, at least for now and probably has the potential to make these into a series of sorts.
Also, to be honest, I'm quite disappointed that the only thing to come out after they were past an ambitious project as big as Titan is a first person MOBA. I've seen videos for Overwatch and frankly don't understand what the hype is all about. As many have said, it doesn't look anything new or revolutionary. Maybe I just have to play it to realize that its good. Even TotalBiscuit said he likes it and has been playing it non-stop.

 

[sbpromania]

In my opinion I think that they aren't making a next gen MMO because of the following reasons:
- WoW is playable on low performance computers so this means that they are targeting everyone which means more subscribers then more profit
- I think that even high end computers will have issues during raids when everyone is casting spells and there are a lot of visual effects.
- If is not broken then why fix it? When Wow will start not making profit then they will start drawing a new MMO.

 

[Sheep221]

Wow has simple but beautiful graphics, I'm not playing anymore so I don't really care but changing it anyhow would probably destroy the game experience.

 

[ritditditdidoo]

Or they could create something new for once. Not everything has to be based on one of their existing franchises. I could argue that WoW was just a rip off of EQ as well, so it wasn't a success based on their own idea. It was a success based on an already hugely successful game, they just remade that game to be far easier, more accessible, more streamlined, and to run on lower spec PC's.

I think doing something like what they did with Titan is the way to go. It is just a shame they didn't have the skills to turn that into a good game and they wasted all that time and money on something that didn't have a good enough design to begin with to prevent it developing into a failure. A company that big and that cash rich should be able to produce the next big revolution in gaming, but what usually happens is that some other company comes along first and does it. I think the next big MMO will be something like Star Citizen or something similar to that. Instead of just grinding quests to get new pants, gloves, boots etc. you can do that to get tanks, jets, and space ships, and then fly around taking part in huge battles. Like Planetside or something but bigger scope and more persistent.

I think EVE is one of the most interesting games made in the past decade or so, but it never became huge because of the presentation. If someone could remake that but with the ability to actually get into bigger dogfights and run businesses with fewer menus and spreadsheets, that could be next 10+ million subscription game. Although the industry doesn't seem to even like subs anymore. It is all about the LoL model of making it free but have 27 million people buying little microtransaction stuff.