Are we being teased about the next expansion?
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Apr 6th 2009 at 7:00PM
So there's been a feeling in the air lately that some of the blues have been in a bit of a teasing mood. Sure, that's not neccessarily new, but what is interesting is what exactly they may be teasing us about. For example, here's a recent post in which one Sulmus of Aerie Peak asks for the Greymane Wall to be opened. Zarhym soon jumps in to say that they would be "out of their mind" to open the wall... then follows up with random ellipses. To top it all off, Bornakk and Crygil jump in with silly punctuation of their own.
Now when Alex and I were discussing this the other day, Alex insisted that they were basically admitting that the Greymane wall would be opened, likely in conjunction with the next expansion. He says it's already in the planning stages, and the blues are just waving the knowledge tantalizingly out of sight because they're not allowed to officially announce it yet. Now, at first I wasn't really on board with it, but then I noticed another post Zarhym commented in.
Imani of Aerie Peak posted a thread with the aim of advocating for more Old World content along the style of the Un'goro detour or Stormwind Harbor in Wrath. With the Maelstrom, she said, Blizzard should focus on fleshing out different areas of the old world, such as Gilneas, Azshara, and Grim Batol, weaving them in with new expansion content to give a sense of continuity. It's certainly a good idea to begin with, but what caught my eye is that Zarhym himself commented that it was a good post, thus surreptitiously tagging the thread with the air of officiality via blue text and providing a tacit endorsement of the idea.
Now of course, Zarhym's not a member of the dev team proper, and he could just simply be saying he thinks it's a cool idea (because it is), but considering his other post, I can't help but wonder if Alex had a point. Maybe these are ways to say, "Yeah, we're headed to the Maelstrom and filling out Azeroth for the next expansion, but we can't tell you that officially, so here, have some oblique references and teasing!"
It could all be wishful thinking, sure. Maybe the blues are just having some fun and commenting on some cool ideas, but still, I'm thinking I'd put good odds on a Maelstrom-related announcement at the next BlizzCon. Time will tell, but I'm starting to feel sort of optimistic.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Expansions, Lore, Rumors
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Karilyn Apr 6th 2009 7:14PM
I'm not entirely sure Maelstrom is going to be the net expansion.
I mean, the first aquatic mount seems to indicate that they might be going to. But personally, I thought the time felt more right to do the Emerald Dream.
But this doesn't have to be a next expansion thing.
I'm pretty sure it's a generally accepted fact that Gilnaes is all werewolves by now. And guess who we saw again in Northrend? Good old Arugal. What's to say that one of the WotLK patches won't include Gilnaes, like Sunwell Island or Zul'Aman for Burning Crusade?
Braundo Apr 6th 2009 7:47PM
I'm not aware of any Blizzard source that has stated anything of the sort. I thought the "Gilneas is all worgen lol" has been nothing but the speculation of bored fans.
If you ask me, it's been overrun by naga. Would tie pretty well in to the Maelstrom/Naga uprising thing, too.
Beldoro Apr 6th 2009 8:02PM
With Naga invading Gilneas and Gilneas opening the Greymane Wall looking for help? Gives a starting point to the player invasion of the Maelstrom!
Kakistocracy Apr 6th 2009 8:23PM
If only we could devise some sort of jumping/climbing process by which we increase our vertical position in order to see...
Those would have to be some pretty powerful worgen to take out an entire nation state.
Is the wall to keep us out, or to keep something in...
Amaxe Apr 6th 2009 9:12PM
http://www.wowwiki.com/Greymane_Wall
"Currently, as of patch 2.2.0, a relatively large grass expanse lies beyond the Greymane Wall surrounded by steep sides.
Oddly, as seen in the top left-hand corner of the picture of the Greymane Wall, the wall seems either never to have been fully completed or to have suffered at least an attempted invasion. This might, however, also be a result from the developers reusing the model of Thoradin's Wall, which is identical to the current in-game model of the Greymane Wall.
The humans surrounding the Greymane Wall are approximately levels 18-21 and the beasts around it are approximately levels 16-17. In addition, there is a neutral weapons vendor named Wallace the Blind.
If you stand in a certain "invisible stair" on the right side of the wall, you can clearly see that there is nothing behind the wall. There is simply a path that increases to a grade of 1 foot off of the ground, then ends.
If you try swimming from Hillsbrad Foothills to get behind it, you will find that the map is innacurate. Most of the peninsula behind the wall on the map is just more sea. "
Did they take out the Invisible Stair? I haven't been in that zone since I soloed SFK for the achievement before LK
Charlie Apr 7th 2009 12:43AM
Here's the thing thing the the Emerald Dream. AFAIK the emerald dream is merely azeroth if the mortal races had never come to live there. So its pure forests and such.
Also, from pure lore reasons it seems near impossible for non-druids to enter the dream. Even if they wanted to I dont think the green dragonflight could open it up.
The only thing that really interests me is if the emerald dream didn't take the sundering into affect since that was caused by the legion coming to azeroth cause of people using magic if i remember correctly. So a non-sundered azeroth would be cool to see, but i think the dream is overall a little limited in scope.
The thing that makes the most sense is the maelstrom, but who knows. I would hope for an azerothian expansion, really getting back to those zones that are currently on the map but unfinished. However i know this is likely to never happen because of flying mounts. Unless they completley redo it (which i doubt), it's not possible.
Azizrael Apr 7th 2009 2:39AM
The Wrath quest that sends you into the Emerald Dream establishes that the Dream is Azeroth with a cheesy green fog effect. If that's the next expansion I'll be over there in the Knights of the Old Republic MMO...
Julie Apr 7th 2009 4:05AM
Filling out Azeroth would be the best way to go. They can't really create a new planet; cause it would feel too sci-fi. (like draenor did, in fact) The only other real things they can do are a) Emerald Dream or b) Time Travel. (ala. we go back to the first and second wars. maybe via keepers of time portal) I like that last idea the best. Because it would give them a chance to completely revamp Azeroth, while also giving us new content.
As far as a maelstrom expansion :/ meh. Nobody likes waterworld, nobody. A maelstrom patch, yes. A maelstrom expansion? Hi do I put this lightly. Hell no. :)
I think WoW would seriously tank if we have a naga/water based world. Subscription rates would be swimming with the fishes. Warcraft would be all washed up. Flapping like a fish out of water...
rosencratz Apr 7th 2009 5:09AM
@ Julie - You shouldn't assume that the Maelstrom will be so watery. Even with swimming mounts and such it will never be feasable for Blizz to focus so much gameplay under water, it's just too messy in WoW.
If the Maelstrom is an expansion it will undoubtedly be set on a series of chained islands, ruined temples and other such locations, with occasional underwater bits. Most likely 90% of the expansion would just be random islands in the southern sea whilst the maelstrom itself will be an instance, probably surrunded by anchored boats and possibly quite pretty to look at.
@Azizrael - That quest is not really the emerald dream proper imo, just a brief glance of it, if it was an expansion it wouldn't be like that. Though i'd imagine it'd only ever really be an instance myself. Apart from "nightmares" there isn't much to fill the emerald dream with I don't think.
Personally i'd love to see the greymane wall opened up but even more i'd like to see it not be behind a loading screen please.
Fyve and Boomstick Apr 7th 2009 5:16AM
I liked waterworld. I have the DVD and the hd DVD
I think the maelstrom/naga invasion makes sense. I would expect Flying mounts still wouldn't work but the new water mounts would be the 'new' mounts of choice. And versus naga would give the night elves some of their edge back which has been somewhat lost since Warcraft 3.
Grudge match!
And like two starting areas in wrath, on one side you could start in a revamped azshara, on the other, gilneas.
rosencratz Apr 7th 2009 7:34AM
Having read the thread it's pretty clear that the Blues are only responding in jest to a comment made early on by a troll named Nooka;
"blizzard boarded up all their sense and brains behind that wall. you will never see it again. "
.. and so none of it's contents are really hinting at anything at all.
Ryan Apr 7th 2009 10:47AM
It's pretty much 90% certain that it will be maelstrom. Undermine will be the new Dalaran/Shattrath. This all leaked a while back,
niko Apr 6th 2009 7:15PM
After finishing off the Scourge threat, it only makes sense to refocus back on the homeland, as well as the Maelstrom. I think Emerald Dream would make a great fourth expansion, as Blizz spending time in Azeroth only brings up the totality of the game, not just each expansion's zones.
Here's to flying vanilla Azeroth one day!
iDruid Apr 6th 2009 7:17PM
Even if these predictions are correct, we won't be seeing the next expansion for a long time.
Ichigo Apr 6th 2009 7:26PM
I'd say that's a false statement, as there is nothing that Blizzard is doing that would hinder a new expansion, and would probably be within the same time frame as it took the development between the BC and LK ex-pacs.
Remember that the next gen MMO, D3, SC2 and WoW dev teams are all separate with very little cross over except at the very top of the production chain.
Firestride Apr 6th 2009 7:29PM
Well, that depends on what you mean by "a long time." Didn't they say that they wanted to do slightly smaller expansions slightly faster? I wouldn't expect anything in the next year, but Summer 2010 isn't that far away.
Mognet T Apr 6th 2009 8:00PM
I agree with you Druid. If only for the fact that we need to see Ulduar, and two other raids until Wrath is complete. The amount of time it will take just to merely set up everything in Wrath is going to be a long, long trip. Factor in developing the next Xpac, plus setting up for it in-game, and Blizzard's love for releasing this stuff in or around the Holiday season; I doubt we'll be seeing the next one until Late 2011-Early 2012.
onetrueping Apr 7th 2009 1:31PM
The only reason the raid patches are so paced out is to stretch out the content to make the expansion last longer and decrease the perceived time between expansions. The devs stated as much a number of times, and pointed at the necessity of introducing the Sunwell raid (which was not originally planned in Burning Crusade development) as one of the reasons.
JDM Apr 7th 2009 4:37PM
Meh, not really. It's been what, 4ish months already of WotLK - Ulduar's coming in another two-ish weeks or whatnot. After that, there's only one more tier of gear in WotLK, Icecrown Citadel.
Following this logic, Maelstrom/Emerald Dream is only 6 months or so off.
Mattimus Apr 6th 2009 7:19PM
I always cringe at these "Slow News Days" articles. Unlike most trolls, I'm not slamming WoW Insider proper... I just find articles like these that make a big stink about nothing fairly off-putting is all.
Blues tease and dance around lots of stuff, everyday. None of this is really all that different. I'd say Daniel was right in his first assumption, that this amounts to a whole lot of 'nothin'. Crygil often goes out of his way to imply that Fel Reavers will become playable races, even. The blues just like having their fun is all.