You wouldn't say that if you ever had to navigate around the old IF. It was a nightmare.

Flying into IF meant you had to fly around the ring to land at the FP that was near where Tinkertown is now. Leaving IF on a flight meant you continued on a trip 2/3 of the way around the ring to get out. Mind you, this was also before continous flight paths which meant you had to interact with each leg of your trip on a gryphon by selecting the next leg.

Players in those days avoided the old IF like the plague.

Yes, but we're smarter players now.

I'd loved a 2nd floor for IF as well, but I know I'll get lost. Not because I'm stupid, but I am directionally challenged.

I think all of those things are easy to fix. And it dont need to look exactly THAT way, just the feeling inside there with more levels, not just one flat thing with some obstacles.

And if Gnomeregan came back to the gnomes, Blizzard would need to do an overhaul on both of the city's.

I agree.. it looks wickedly awesome..! I'm not much of an IF fan now, but if it looked like this.. I would hang out there a LOT more. Probably also because I would get lost when I wanted to leave, yes (still gets lost in Undercity *cough*) ;)
It would be nice if they'd brought back some of this Ironforge when Cataclysm hits, with all the high levels returning to EK and Kalimdor. I think we can handle it..!

' if they'd BRING'

WTB comment edit function aagh!

The most intriguing part to me is by far the original Gnomish quarter. Nowadays, they're all cramped up into those minuscule living quarters, suspension of disbelief aside. If we are to consider the size of Gnomregan, and how it very well seems like the largest of all Alliances "capitals" as depicted in-game, there were millions of the little buggers and they breeded like rabbits. :P

I agree with Screwblade that the old IF design was way too busy...even though I wasn't there. It gave me a headache just looking at the video. Besides the idea of IF is supposed to be shaped like a cog wheel from the floor plan - thus, it's not be that complicated.

And as it stands now, the more minimalized version currently looks fantastic and awsome with it's central forging room. It's partly what sold me to the game when a friend of mine toured me threw there while I was shadowing her.

I can see why IF was redesigned to it's current layout. Back in Classic, IF used be known among Alliance players as "Lagforge". It was not uncommon to lag into the trench between the AH and Bank. If the old IF layout was used for the release version of WoW, the lag issues would have been much worse with all the levels, bridges and additional pits to lag into. Couple that with the cramp spaces and it would have been very difficult to get around IF. I can see why players in the Alpha and early Beta days avoided IF.

It really does look very cool, but even just watching I can tell that I'd get lost all the time and avoid it because of that.

Mind you, I used to get lost a lot in IF as it is, but I also get lost easily.