Forum post of the day: Envisioning WoW 2.0
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Apr 4th 2007 at 3:20PM
Everyone thinks they can make a better WoW than Blizzard, but Cielaix of Elune has actually tried. In her forum post "World of Warcraft 2 Announcement," Cielaix creates some fairly realistic Blizzard interviews and press releases for WoW 2.0 (announced at Blizzcon 2012, dontcha know?) The big universe shake-up is that the Horde and Alliance have gone the way of the dodo, and there are now three different factions.
The story behind Cielaix's WoW is that the original WoW ended with a spectacular battle in Outlands: the Horde, Alliance and Illidari against the Burning Legion. Illidan and Malfurion worked together to destroy the Outlands while saving all the native races and inflicting mass casualties on the Legion. Then everyone escaped through the portal back to Azeroth. So we've got a massive change in the political landscape as everyone tries to prepare for the Legion's inevitable retaliation ...
The Malfurion-led Cenarion Alliance, consisting of the tauren, night elves, sporelings, arakkoa, and worgen, seek to destroy the Burning Legion forever while protecting the weaker races. The Azeroth Vanguard -- humans, dwarves, orcs, trolls and draenei -- want to protect Azeroth honorably. And the Shadowmoon Pact of outcast races (blood elves, undead, gnomes, ethereals and drakonids) just want to take care of themselves. Cielaix imagines twelve hero classes available, four for each faction, but has yet to go into details -- this appears to be a work in progress.
Since I love lore and brainstorming future storylines, I'm really interested in what Cielaix will come up with. There's been a lot of speculation about blood elves/undead/maybe gnomes forming a third faction, since they don't really fit in with their current ones. But orcs and humans together ... man, that would take a lot of inspiring speeches from Thrall and Jaina. Then again, they've united against the Burning Legion in the past.
For a third faction to work, I think they'd really have to start things entirely from the beginning, since it would be tough to split apart guilds and friendships made under the current Horde/Alliance system. Plus I really don't want to have to ally with these humans I've been killing for the past two years. Can you imagine the instance runs? "Hey, why didn't you heal me?" "Remember that time when you camped me for two hours in 2005? Die, sucker!"
What would you envision in WoW 2.0, or even the next expansion? Do you think there could be a third faction or hero classes? How would you like the storylines of Warcraft to progress?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Factions, RP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
MadCow Apr 4th 2007 3:51PM
I really like the 1 vs 1 faction system currently in place. A game I played a while back had a similar concept with more than 2 factions ... basically it became a pvp free for all. Quests we're done to level ... after that, no one grouped for anything outside of pvp, the system basically fell apart after a few months because no other "features" in the game were being utilized. The devs desparately tried to turn attention back to pve with arenas, raids, etc but it all took away from the main focus of the users ... killing each other, so thus it was never utilized by the players.
RG-Rhodin Apr 4th 2007 3:41PM
As for splitting factions, well, look at how guilds split, how alliances split, etc. It would be more real life to see the Horde and Alliance undergoing changes. As you said, things were different before the current WOW situation, and there is no reason things shouldn't change radically in future.
How about a Scourge/Burning Legion team-up? Or factions NOT based on race?
James Apr 4th 2007 3:42PM
They could call it
World of Warcraft II: Hogger Reloaded
Cory Apr 4th 2007 3:46PM
Wow, that went a long way to make fun of gnomes. Either that or the person that came up with it is truly ignorant to call gnomes an 'outcase' race.
solidsnake13 Apr 4th 2007 3:48PM
WTB pure CC class.
Cory Apr 4th 2007 3:49PM
And by that I of course meant 'outcast.'
James Apr 4th 2007 3:56PM
@3
I noticed the gnome thing too. And while I enjoy mocking gnomes as much as anyone, they don't exactly fit in with the blood elves and the undead.
And without bringing too much lore into this, its safe to say that the orcs and the humans will never ally with each other; there is a ton of hatred there, and for that matter, the Draenei probably wouldn't be too thrilled either. The orcs could go either way--if they embrace their shamanistic heritage more, they would be a decent fit with the Tauren and Night Elves, or they could go with the Outcast races. Same for the Trolls.
The gnomes could either be grouped with the dwarves/humans/draenei, or, and this is my preferred scenario, the gnomes could be their own faction, and beat war with everyone at the same time, including NPC races such as the goblins, Cenarion Circle, Silverwing, Timbermaw, Shattrath City, the Aldors, the Scryers, the Naaru and all of the Dragonflights. That would make my day. Basically, by WoW 3 the gnomes will have been wiped out completely.
Robert Apr 4th 2007 4:39PM
WoW 2.0 came out in December 2006.
Mervo Apr 4th 2007 4:21PM
Warcraft 2.0 would be a start from scratch in all likelyhood. Third faction should be Gnomes gaining a healing class or two, going independent with the goblins as their only allies. Their mercantile/technological domination makes every drunken dwarf, arrogant human, flaky night elf, snotty blood elf, brutish orc, hippy tauren, stoner troll, and hooved draenei RUE THE DAY THEY MADE THOSE STUPID SHORT JOKES!
Gnomes will have their revenge for these slights. With gnomish robotics and goblin explosives, Azeroth will be but a playground for your new 3 foot overlords!
Dracula Jones Apr 4th 2007 4:43PM
I'll tear Cielaix's eyes out for lumping gnomes in with those other malcontents. I'll be god damned if when we finally get Gnomeregan cleaned out we have some rotten, stinking, walking carcass buying apples from our fruit vendor.
Although, it wouldn't be unlike the Humans to kick us out after building them an entire subway system.
Jack Spicer Apr 5th 2007 2:05PM
I too have envisioned what a new Warcraft RTS would look like. My vision is not of great big factions, but rather mini-factions, with each race as their own faction and each with only 1 hero, and each having their own strengths and weaknesses. So you would have all of the playable WoW races plus a few others like Naga, Furlbogs, Golbins, etc.
In my vision, you could control up to 3 mini-factions at a time, all of them working together. Outside of story mode, you could pick and choose any three mini-factions you wanted to play when going against other players online.
James Apr 4th 2007 4:31PM
I for one welcome our new 3-foot overlords.
Rich Apr 4th 2007 4:32PM
It already looks like they are going to start working towards combining the Horde and Alliance and introducing a 3rd faction. That's the feeling I've been getting from the quests and stuff.
Jellodyne Apr 4th 2007 4:51PM
Why not goblins as a playable race? Why not that NOW?
braydn Apr 4th 2007 5:09PM
haha, i love #2's idea...can you imagine getting all the way to Sargeras lair and you find Hogger there instead? sort of like how Onyxia has her human form of Lady Prestor in Stormwind, Sargeras has his form of Hogger in Elwyn forest? that would be so funny, you have to kill Hogger all over again, and then he turns into Sargeras....
but seriously, i really do not believe there will be a WoW 2.0 at all, ever....i think it sounds like a cool idea to have a third faction and new races and classes added to the current game. they could do it when they update the game engine in a few years. i think it would be fun to play on the Burning Legion side of things. i mean, there are supposed to be countless worlds conquered already by the Legion, so there would be lots of new races to play.
or, also very cool would be a new faction from the planet Argos that is distrustful of Azeroth, but is still against the Legion, so they would be their own group. they would have 4 new races to play, 3 new classes, etc...but the twist could be that current races in Azeroth could choose to be in the Argonian faction if they wanted...they would make a choice at lvl 20 to defect to the planet Argos or stay with Azeroth and would have all new mid-level content to play through on the planet Argos.
the only problem with a third faction is that there would be literally no one in the faction at any appreciable level for quite some time because it takes so long to develop a toon and you grow attached to one or two toons and having to start all over again from scratch in another faction would be a pain. although, you could be able to choose to defect later like around lvl 40, but then it would even be harder to maintain guilds with the character base split three ways...
so, maybe even though it would be cool to imagine a third faction in the game, it probly is not a very good idea overall to the game mechanics, whether or not you add a third faction in an expansion or start a new game from scratch, it doesn't really matter. two factions work best. period.
but dang it, they can for sure add a bunch of new classes, some new races, new mid-level (20-60) content, revamp the racial abilities for all races, add lots of new talents and abilities, etc...there could be cool possibilities by mixing up the way classes are organized...they could keep all the classes we have now (warrior, rogue, paladin, shaman, druid, mage, warlock, priest) but make it where each class has a subclass as a tank class, a ranged class, or a crowd control/healing class. You would still have three talent trees of course, but they would be different depending on the subclass you chose. so that way warriors are not trapped into having to be a tank all the time, any class could tank if they chose that option as their subclass.
for instance, let's say you have chosen to be a warlock. but you can then choose a sub class at level 10 as a tank. that would then add a 4th tree in your talents that had only tanking abilities. or lets say the warlock chooses to subclass into crowd control and healing, the 4th tree would have new powerful talents for just those abilities. the subclasses would be identical no matter what your main class was, so if you were a priest or a rogue, and each one of them chose the tank subclass, they would both get the same 4th tree with the same tanking talents.
now this subclass is not supposed to be better than the main classes, but it would give more options to players that maybe can't find a warrior, or can't get a priest for a raid or an instance, etc...
what do y'all think?
Bradley Nash Apr 4th 2007 4:57PM
@7 - I agree. My blood elf definitely does not want a short, stinky, creepy looking little jerk hanging out with him.
Eff gnomes
SymetriX Apr 4th 2007 5:11PM
Human/Orc on the same team could be a reality very soon if a Scryer/Aldor battleground were to be created!
martineau Apr 4th 2007 5:58PM
It would be cool to see a situation similar to the Sullon Zek server of Everquest; a good, neutral, and evil faction server. The good faction could be called The Followers of the Light, and be made up of every race but Undead, Trolls and Orcs. The neutral faction could be called The Free Thinking Peoples of Azeroth, and would be made up of all races but, Undead, and Night Elves. And finally the evil faction could be called The Forsaken, and be made up of all but Night Elves, Draenei, and Dwarfs. Basically your race and class limit your option as to what faction you can be; with warlocks being almost exclusively evil (with the exception of Human warlocks) and Paladins being the same for goods (with the exception of Blood Elves), druids being limited to the good and neutral factions, shaman limited to the evil and neutral and all others being open to all factions. This would make for a more realistic world where the colors of your skin or your skills don’t always speak for your beliefs. I’m sure it would be easy to come up with some kind of scenario were the current faction structure is broken down a bit and reshaped due to a world event.
Don Edgecomb Apr 5th 2007 4:08AM
I always had the wish that a third faction would be made and it would be the Burning Legion. There could be classes based on the different demon types.
Dan Apr 4th 2007 6:10PM
The game needs undead gnomes. That's combining the best of both worlds (Think about both of the darkest races made into one)