World of Warcraft may get a “second Cataclysm” – as the developers want to fill the old world with new life.
Looking back at the past of WoW, there are some expansions that weren’t received well. One of them was “Cataclysm”. Although the story was good, many did not like the add-on because old areas were completely overhauled and old content was removed irretrievably.
Since then, Blizzard has been reluctant to massively renew old areas. While there are occasionally individual areas – like Arathi Highlands or Darkshore – often only minor changes have been made and the general structure of the zone has been retained.
However, the overwhelming feedback on “Midnight” during the beta ensures that the developers are now taking a real run-up and have big plans for Northrend.
What was said? In a video from Game Informer, various WoW developers talk about the future of the game and especially the upcoming expansion “The Last Titan”. They also discuss their concerns and fears they had when announcing the World Souls saga – especially the return to old areas.
New areas expected – Old areas delivered
What was the concern? With a new expansion, there are always high expectations that have formed clearly over the past 20 years. There are new areas and usually entirely unknown cultures to explore. Ion Hazzikostas, the Game Director of WoW, said:
It is actually essential that when we build a living world, we are able to tell new stories in familiar areas. It would be so limiting if we say that the most iconic areas in World of Warcraft cannot be utilized because we say: “We have already told a story there, which existed at a certain moment in time, and sorry, we can never go back there again.”
We are excited to finally tackle that.
At least our impression during the beta was, that Blizzard has surpassed itself with the overhaul of the Blood Elf area.
Why did Midnight make the difference? When Midnight was in development, the developers were nervous about how the “new areas” of the expansion would be received by the community. After all, the Immersangwald is essentially not a “new area”, but an ancient zone from The Burning Crusade that has been fundamentally revamped and renewed for Midnight.
According to Paul Kubit, the Associate Game Director:
I think we were very open about being quite nervous about returning to Quel’Thalas due to the implied promise that you explore unknown areas in a WoW expansion and see new cultures and faces. And now having this story, which is itself very cool – seeing Silvermoon again, how it has grown and how the characters have changed – brings a lot of excitement. Even if it doesn’t have quite the same “We’re traveling to the Dragon Isles, to a place we’ve never seen before” feel.
How much of Northrend will be revamped? Although there are no concrete statements about it yet, it currently sounds like the answer is “everything”. Because Blizzard wants to avoid having “new area” seen right next to “visually outdated areas”. That is also one of the reasons why the Ghostlands and Zul’Aman were revamped for Midnight at the same time, so that there is a large, continuous, and visually coherent experience.
To achieve that in Northrend, there is really no other option but to perform a complete overhaul here as well and maybe consolidate a few areas.
Are you excited for The Last Titan and the finale of the World Souls saga? If so, there should be new information about it later this year. Because BlizzCon takes place in September – and most people assume Blizzard will already give a first look at the 13th expansion of World of Warcraft.
