Future Expansions for WoW




 

WoW Logo

[Update: For an updated version of this post, please check out the new speculation here at Future Expansions for WoW – Redux.  As for those of you curious about our past speculating, read on!]

Alright, lets lay some cards on the table. What’s going to happen with WoW? Not WoW2 as we tend to discuss, but WoW.  Will we run out of characters? How many expansions will there be? How long will it go for?  The answers are, No, Five, and 2013.


Here’s the time-line with a history thrown in as well.

11/2004 – World of Warcraft released. End boss, Kel’Thuzad.

01/2007 – Burning Crusade Released. End boss, Illidan/Shade of Kil’Jaeden.

Okay, here’s where we start to speculate…

11/2008 – Wrath of the Lich King. End boss, Arthas. We also know from Metzen that there’s an Old God in the spider kingdom. You’re probably wondering how I came up with that release date. Here’s how.

Beta testing hasn’t even started yet. Heck it isn’t really even being buzzed about yet. No one is talking about Alpha. With that in mind, it’s at least 6 months out. Probably a bit more. Once you hit October, you have to figure that Blizzard as a company is going to want to milk Christmas. As a fellow fanboy though, I’d rather err on the side of optimism. So I’ll say November of this year instead of December.

Alright, lets continue to be optimists and say that after WOTLK we begin getting expansions every 18 months. There are two more expansions that are obvious.

5/2010 – The Emerald Dream. End boss, The Nightmare. I think it’s safe to say that “The Nightmare” is another Old God.

11/2011 – The Maelstrom. End boss, Queen Azshara. This expansion will feature all of the island kingdoms that we know exist like Kul Tiras and Kazan (the Undermine), not to mention the Tomb of Sageras and Tol Barad. Queen Azshara would of course be in or near Nazjatar. I would be surprised if there wasn’t an Old God down there too, along with the original portal (now dormant) to Sargeras’s home-world from the War of the Ancients.

At this point we’re now all level 100 and all five Old Gods are dead: Darkshore Skeleton, C’Thun, Spider Kingdom, The Nightmare, and Maelstrom.
So what is left? One more expansion.


05/2013 – Sargeras’s homeworld. End boss, Sargeras. In a patch similar to 2.0.3 I bet we’ll see the original War of the Ancients portal reopen, allowing us to finally take the fight to the Burning Legion’s own home-world (following in Brox’s footsteps). This is where Kil’Jaeden would really die along with all the other remaining major demons. I would not be surprised if Jarod Shadowsong returned from his long absence to lead the Horde/Alliance invasion as he’s more than capable of leading a cross-faction army against the demons. We kill Sargeras, perhaps with some help from the Titans. End of game.

The year is now 2013. We are level 110. WoW is nine years old and finally in need of a rebuild from the ground up. Everything that could serve as a major threat to the Horde and Alliance has been defeated. The perfect time for peace… and of couse, also the perfect time for the Forsaken to leave the Horde, the Night Elves and Dwarves to break out in civil war, and all sorts of other fun stuff to happen making for a rip-roaring WC4 or WoW2.

{ 72 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Dangablad April - 2008 at 6:21 am

No Sargeras?

No Old Gods?

Where does that leave WoW? I mean, epic battles is what the game is all about, and with no demons, no old gods, no legion, what will there be left to fight?

Each other? Make WoW some DAoC pvp oriented game?

God I hope not.

Up until now, we’ve mostly been fighting a losing stalemate. I’d be afraid to see that change. If we go from fighting the corrupted to fighting the corruptor, that will completely change the dynamic of the game. I mean, 25 Kil’jaedan’s couldn’t take down Sargeras. Why should we be able to?

Though… it would be pretty awesome to defeat Sargeras and find out that the Naaru aren’t all they say they are. Those twinklers have struck me as off since day 1

2 Cocles April - 2008 at 12:14 pm

Like you said. What would be left to fight? Each other.

Perfect for the beginning of WC4. Don’t forget that most of the stuff we fight now was introduced in WC3, and that game began with nothing to fight but each other. All that’s required is introducing something like “The Scourge” in the first couple missions and suddenly the whole Dynamic changes again.

But don’t underestimate fighting each other, there’s a ton of great intrigue, story and possibilities that comes just from that. And it wouldn’t be that tough to come up with some epic bosses for end game.

3 Dangablad April - 2008 at 8:51 am

Introducing a new Scourge is one thing.

Killing Sargeras and all of the Old Gods is another.

Keep in mind, Mannoroth and Magtheridon are dead. Pit Lords are dropping like flies. When they are all gone, the old Warcraft staple of Fel Orcs goes with them. No Pit Lord blood means no Fel Orcs.

Like I said, it’s the difference between killing the corrupted and killing the corruptor. Warcraft has hundreds of possibilities for the corrupted, but only one or two real corruptors. I’m talking of the Old Gods and Sargeras.

If you remove them from the equation, Warcraft will suddenly be lacking in major villains to drive all of the sub-villains in the storyline.

I could see Kil’jaedan being the final boss in a Sargeras’ homeworld expansion, but not the big man himself.

Keep in mind that WC3 started with things at a relative peace. That only changed when Ner’zhul introduced the Scourge and everything went downhill. If WotLK has us killing Arthas AND Ner’zhul, that’s one major corrupting force gone from Azeroth proper. It could also herald the killing of all of the rest, which would effectively end the story.

Ask yourself why there is no Lord of the Rings post-Sauron. It’s easy. Sauron was THE corrputing influence of Middle Earth. All other evil came directly or indirectly from him. When the ring was destroyed, all major evil in Middle Earth went with him.

So, we kill Sargeras, WC4/WoW2 starts and where are we? Suddenly, the world implodes on itself and we all start fighting each other. Fine, but for the big bosses, the epic fights, that WoW has come to be known for, you need something bigger than yourself. With no corrupting influence, there’s nothing to facilitate a new generation of Kel’thuzads, Arthases, and Illidans

Unless the Naaru are really out to corrupt and destroy us all… which is a possibility I haven’t discounted yet.

4 Cocles April - 2008 at 2:31 am

Well, like you said… all you need is one Pit Lord and you have Fel Orcs. It’s not unreasonable to say we wiped out the Burning Legion and a few Pit Lords survived. Wiping out the Burning Legion is going to be like wiping out any group of races. You’re going to have a few who always manage to get away.

As far as corruptors go, sure, the old gods and the Sargeras are the big ones, but don’t forget Ner’Zhul (more on him in a sec) and plenty of other bosses, right down to Hakkar. Remember that most of the stuff we’re seeing now was added in WC3. It wouldn’t be hard for them to add more stuff once again in WC4.

I definitely think Sargeras and all of the Old Gods are goners. You’re right though that they should leave Sargeras capable of being reborn, and you make a good point with Sauron. Sargerus is too good a villain to completely let die. Sure you could bring in something else, but to have it be in the same league as Sargeras (and unknown up until this time) would feel a bit contrived. You already know what I think about Ki’Jaeden; Illidan needs to wipe the floor with him.

I’m trying to remember what it was, but Metzen said something at Blizzcon that made me all but certain that Ner’zhul will survive WOTLK.

At the end of the day I really do think that Azeroth will implode after the events of WoW. I understand your point with epic fights and I agree, but I think that applies more to MMO’s than a strategy game. What I think the Warcraft franchise needs is WoW, then WC4 which will deal with the implosion and the immediate aftermath, and then WoW2 taking place a few years after WC4. One facet of WC4 would be setting up these massive, epic bosses for WoW2.

And yeah… Naaru exist in cycles. Look at M’uru. What do you think A’dal is going to be like when he goes bad?

5 wowmaniac May - 2008 at 5:37 pm

Before you say that the wow will stop consider this
blizard have millions active acounts (i think it had 8 million worldwide) for each acount blizard takes 13€ per month or 156€ per years this mean for 8 million it takes 1,248 billion € per year! if the next expansionas proved successful blizard will not stop release more and more! if blizzard run out of bosses from warcraft 3 it will introduce or invent new bosses! It may introduce a warcraft 4 or 5! be realist wow is just a product and go for wow2 is like try introduce a new product! if blizard do it will have the risk
that a lot of players jump to other games or stop games alone! which of the blizards manager will take this risk? the answer is simple noone ! the only way blizzard stop realese new expantions is just people stop playing wow! now the profits of wow is huge and the bosses just come from the brains of the creative team of blizard! now blizard is the bigest company on onlines games so it can have the best creative team ! this will quaranty a lot of future expansions for our pleasure! personally i believe that on future the wow will be something like football today ! all we will play but there will be organized pvp/pve teams that will go on on stadiums to see like the nihilum live raids but in bigger rage

6 Cocles May - 2008 at 12:08 am

Possibly, but remember that history is circular. Eventually people will leave wow just as they did UO, and EQ. Many jumped to AoC over the past week. The trick for Blizzard then is for when WoW finally does go the way of EQ, that they have another MMO for their fan-base to jump to. Fortunately, we all already know for fact that Blizzard is currently making an entirely new MMO.

Not that I think WoW is going anywhere soon. Even my own guess has WoW expanding up through 2013. For 2008 though, we saw people just leave for AoC, I think we’ll see more leave for Warhammer this fall. Then this winter I think we’ll see some of those come back for WOTLK.

Not that any of this leaving is bad. Blizzard would be the first to admit (maybe not on the record) that their numbers are bloated simply because up until AoC there really was no competition. Even with an unbloated number though, I think WoW will be the most popular MMO on the market for a long time to come. 😉

Your idea of spectator raiding is definitely cool. Blizzard should invite some of the top guilds to come do that at BlizzCon 2008.

7 Seine June - 2008 at 4:18 pm

ok really all thats left too kill after WotLK is Sargeras, real Kil’Jaden, and Medivh he could like pop up out of no were and hes all evil and shit…..or hell we could go fight mograine again but hes alive like a CoT event or something and its all like fucking epic….really blizz is running out of people to kill and when we kill everyone we are just gonna be sitting around playing checkers after that….

8 Cocles June - 2008 at 8:46 pm

Seine – Like it says in the post, don’t forget about the 3 remaining old gods and Azshara. Eventually though, yes, they’re going to run out and have to start creating stuff from scratch.

I’m sure Warcraft 4 will repopulate our roster of bosses for World of Warcraft 2. 😉

As far as Medivh goes, the story of how he was actually resurrected was revealed in the novels “Cycle of Hatred” and a little bit in “The Last Guardian”. He’s definitely an MIA good guy right now unless they pull some sort of weird 180 with him (and that wouldn’t be surprising).

9 GodfriedtheSplastickpaladin July - 2008 at 12:19 am

What about this?
-The end of World of Warcraft: The Torn Cosmos (The final expansion pack.)
All of the Epic bosses have been slain, the Legion is conquered, Sargeras isn’t dead but he won’t be assaulting Azeroth anytime soon. The heroes of both the Horde and the Alliance return home and seal The Dark Portal and the Portal to Sargeras’ homeworld. They sink the Maelstrom, issue formal peace agreements (Leaving open the ‘for sport’ grounds like Eye of the Storm and Warsong Gulch) and the world is at peace,
-Fade Out-
*Drums of War*
-Fade in-
Zoom in on Orgrimmar, Thrall is returning to his throne room, his age is obvious as he heaves off his armor in exchange for a leather jerkin. As he slides it on, his head jerks and a line of blood runs between his eyes. His body falls to the floor, and a shadowy figure comes out, there is no face but an outline of a man in a black robe.
-Medivh’s Voice- Good Night, Thrall. The world is in good hands…
*End of World of Warcraft*

10 GodfriedtheSplastickpaladin July - 2008 at 12:33 am

Oh, explanation: Once Sargeras’ mortal body is slain, his spirit lives on (obviously) now i haven’t read any of the books, but i was thinking if we slay Sargeras, maybe he’ll go back into Medivh and use a different tactic this time: The Horde.
He tried to fell the Alliance once by using the Horde, why not again? Except this time there’s no control, its just that they think he is Thrall and so they follow his instructions. Then, once Medivh has rid himself of all the Alliance, he creates a civil war within the Horde. Then, after the war, he re-opens the Dark Portal (again, geez poor guy) and sends the Orcs back to Draenor where they belong.
Then, once he is the only living inhabitant aside from the few rogue humans.elves.trolls.and Tauren that still are wandering around, he goes to Quel’danas and taps the power of the Sunwell, becoming almost as powerful as a titan again. Then, with this amazing power, he kills all life on Azeroth, everything dies.
Finally, he reopens the portal to Sargeras’ homeworld and constructs a new body out of the old one, a body to rival all other beings, then brings it back to life using the Sunwell. He re-enters Azeroth as a titan (Waaay bigger in size than anything on the world, he uses Teldrassil as a chair is how big he is.) And harnesses the power of The Emerald Dream into his newfound body.
Sargeras is now reborn, more powerful than ever and finally sets his sights on a different world to conquer.
(It would be funny if that world turns out to be Sanctuary, which is the world of Diablo of course, and it turns out he is the one who created the Prime Evils and Warcraft was set hundreds of years before Diablo.)
Anyway, that would be the plan.
Sargeras Owns All.
-Peace

11 franks August - 2008 at 3:52 am

OR, we would find out that Diablo, like outlands, is just another world in WoW. The expansion will be called Worlds Collide adding tons of new factions, bosses and conflicts. =D

12 Jake August - 2008 at 2:08 am

It could be that Starcraft II is setting up the universe for World of Starcraft, in the same way WC3 paved the way for WoW.

13 Cocles August - 2008 at 5:34 pm

That’s an interesting thought. I wouldn’t be surprised if a Starcraft MMO was done at some point.

14 Mograine November - 2008 at 11:11 pm

Um…heres some food for thought…wow ends in 2013, and the world is predicted to end in the same year….

I think theres more to this than meets the eye

15 Mograine November - 2008 at 11:12 pm

Heres some food for thought:

The end of WoW is the same year as the end of the world’s prediction.

I think theres more to this than meets the eye

16 ????? November - 2008 at 8:41 pm

???????????????????

17 Aaron December - 2008 at 10:21 pm

You guys really think that blizzard will just jump straight to the old gods and sargares? You do know azeroth is just one world. There is a universe out there that they can use. The titans planets were not destroyed so there is a planet out there for each race. Now that’s a lot of expansions there.

18 Mike January - 2009 at 1:15 pm

It would be sweet if secretly sargares had an aprentice who, after you killed sargares would not know how to hold back his rage. He would unleash all his power on Azeroth. Then in WoW2 the game would be about reclaiming the homeland and power. That would be sweet.

19 Mograine January - 2009 at 11:07 pm

All I know is that they should implement several new hero classes making the game very diverse, I’d like to see something than paladins and death knights flooding my server

20 Cort January - 2009 at 9:44 am

5 old gods won’t be killed.

Old gods won’t be killed by mortals, C’thun still lives, only part of him was destroyed

If the old gods die, azeroth dies. Such is the cycle of a symbiotic parasitic relationship between the two. :X

21 Kaeiv February - 2009 at 6:46 am

Well, wasn’t Medivh the sole Propogater for the Orcish Invasion of Azeroth?

It would be interesting to see him intervene sometime soon, especially if Sargeras is on the path of being raid bossed.

Not to mention, the Old Gods and the remaining Legion (and the Naga) aren’t all who is left to fight in Azeroth/Warcraft. There are the Ancient Heroes, and the Valhalla-like Realms. Also, if you’ve noticed in the Titan mythos brought by HoL and HoS, there are other planets that were created by the Titans.

Who is to say we won’t see some crazy ass Gnomish Expirement gone awry and we’re able to travel to other planets? Maybe Sargeras has portals to every Planet there is in his own Realm.

So, there is still a LOT of room for Blizzard to Bullshit in.

Though, it would be nice to see something about the War. I’ve always asked my self why we haven’t seen an update in that department. (Yes, big bad Demon Army.. now the Scourge, again..doesn’t mean there aren’t backward dealings going on. I mean, the King of Stormwind DID try to take the Undercity away from the Horde during the whole post-Wrathgate Instanced Quest).

So it’ll be interesting to see where the game will go, and hopefully.. :P.. there will be a WC4 to follow in some way some day too.

22 Adam B February - 2009 at 9:53 pm

Heres what happens…

A Terran drop ship crashlands in the Barrens, dormant zerg hatchlings begin popping out of the mountains thus bringing The World of Star-WarCraft or WoSWC for short!!! dun dun daaaaa!!!!!!!
Imagine a Gnome riding a zergking with a Protoss plasma sword?? I’m loving it

23 Mournblade February - 2009 at 3:27 am

After reading all the above there is only one conclusion one can reach regarding expansions for this wonderfull game. They are limitless. The only boundries are those of the imagination itself. And from the dawn of time imaginations boundries have stretched as far as the universe’s own boundries (if such exsists). Though after saying this, like all things, it will (and must) come to an end. But rest assured Blizz will come up with an even better game to keep us busy for another 15 years(lol should i live that long). And with the advancement of prossesors, graphics cards and other tech thats not far away be ready to have your socks literally blown off. All Hail Blizz…..cough

24 chia February - 2009 at 11:40 pm

Seriously i believe 2 more expansions and that was it.

In 2010/11 we will see an “Eye of the Maelstrom” Expansion, with an all new updated graphics and whole Update to World of Warcraft because in 2 years wow will need a makeover.

In 2013 then an Emerald Nightmare Expansion and then that was it.

If there even will be a Nightmare Expansion, but Azshara Expansion is 100% for sure and is the next one to come.

Well Blizz works on another secret MMO and i think there will come Warcraft 4 and Starcraft Online and of course the WoW Movie.

And then Blizz will take a break and maybe like in 2020 or something,when the whole computer stuff will be superior, will come WOW2 with a whole new 3D game, where the graphic will look like real life and exploring like Stormwind will take an hour or something….

25 Chaz March - 2009 at 10:46 pm

If it comes down to it bliz could always just make another civil war between the Titans of the pantheon. After we kill all the villins in game includeing sargarus bliz can make WC4 where one of the Titans get power hungry break off from the pantheon and start makeing another army to destroy the universe. Bliz would be smarter this time and would set it up so that the new Titan has plenty of powerfull right hand men so that we can keep killing people for 20 or more expanshions in WoW2.

26 Chrus March - 2009 at 9:51 am

“where the graphic will look like real life” a game like wow should not be any where near real life, the thing that makes wow so uniqe is the hole cartonne style, and that should never be changed

27 Peter March - 2009 at 5:05 pm

Sounds epic to me, hope these expansions make it out. I think it would be interesting to see what they do with the Emerald Dream expansion..i think alot of people fear it will be Azeroth all over again..but what they dont realize is its an unspoiled Azeroth. The sundering was in our “dimension” the Emerald Dream could very well be what Azeroth USE to be before that event.

As for Maelstrom, Yea it will most likely be my favorite. I love Naga and being able to get more in depth game play (be it against them) would be awsome. I think this expansion leaves the most room for creativity.

Sargera’s Homeworld would be the best ending of expansions for WoW. I would disagree with us killing Sargeras himself though, maybe we just defeate him and he retreats to form a new legion? And lets not forget the Legion has conquered a ton of planets. Im sure a new demon could rise to power.

That said i also hope more races are release as playable. To me thats what makes or breaks an expansion. I know the chances are slim but im still hoping Alliance will get to play High Elves and Horde Ogre in a later expansion..IMO they would fit perfectly in the Maelstrom expansion. Then there is Wildhammer Dwarves and Furbolgs for the Alliance, and Goblins, Pandaren for the Horde.

28 JJR234 March - 2009 at 1:10 am

Maybe “World of Warcraft: Revenge of Sylvanas Windrunner” lol i dunno

29 Olliieee April - 2009 at 1:32 pm

A halo ring appears and arby and chief apear from a random portal and a single flood spore quickly jumps through the portal, takes over the gnome city and kills all gnomes (finally) and then there is an army of mini flood and chief becomes a super class aswell as arbiter, start off at lvl 80 requires level 80 to make and they can solo any class with a single shot and army guns and alien weapons become availible to only super classes and they may create theyre own armies with like medics and tanks and airships and shit to destroy gnomergan which is now a 1000 super class instance and the final boss is the original boss from orginal gnomer but he has been infected and is now like 10000000 times stronger and larger andis incredible difficult to kill and takes a coule hours to get him to 99% after he is killed and all flood is wiped out the crazy ass robot from portal teleports herself to Iron forge and uses theyre technology to make herself ultra powerful and then she is the next boss and the portal gun is also introduced and Black mesa makes a base at Stormwind to help out. to be continued…

30 Sam M April - 2009 at 7:48 am

So people really think that the end of the WoW will come as the same time at the end of the world?.

Here’s some food for thought.

The end of the world is predicted 2012 not 2013.

I think theres more to this than meets the eye :D.

As far as new expansions go I think blizzard will just keep going and going until noone bothers with WoW which Im pretty sure wont happen for at least 10 years.

There a company and want money its what there all about at the end of the day and expansions mean cash and more players.

As for the story line they could stick to the orignall warcraft story and charcters but whos to say they wont invent new ones etc etc?

Its a giant world with blizzard as the god

Theres ulimited possibilities.

31 NoThinG SpeC1aL is always right! April - 2009 at 4:01 am

As far as i know, WoW isnt the game that is changing the story of warcraft, it is like some portal for us to go inside the world and explore it, try to beat the bosses and collect epic stuff to feel like the real story heroes. Eventually when there wont be place to expand WoW, they will have to make the story continue ( only then there will be WC4 and others ). I know that it will be hard for them, cuz the base of the story is made so many years ago, beyond SEGA and Nintendo first consoles. Till this day every adventure quest epic sci-fi game is made from the concept of warcraft, lord of the rings and warhammer. So this blowed up market of epicness will be hard to differ from, to be as original like warcraft was till this day, and if they wont be original, they will go downhill. If this will happen, only thing will save them from sinking like titanic is make some movies about warcraft. But to maintain the fanbase to warcraft, is to make WoW sequels after making some story further to original Warcraft series. I mean we had warcraft 1,2,3 etc,etc. now he had WoW and still we will have it for couple of years to jump into the game to greet every hero we met in warcraft series. After WoW titles end there should be Warcraft 4 to continue story, after some warcraft story series, this could be the time to raise the downfallen WoW title again to take its grip of pride once more. Im hungry for some RAW warcraft series, WoW been there done that. I miss the epicness of warcraft ….. he remembers ….. jaw droped when the prologue video started …. amazing graphics and how every character had its own personality and beliefs.
He tounts :”Make the god damned story continue!!!!”

32 Darklegion May - 2009 at 2:39 am

Its true what people saying here Titan planets,Emerald dream,Maelstorm,Old Gods…

but you guys forget something…

lvl 1 to 110… they ofc will put the New character will be 60 or 50 or whatever!

and you ppl just talking about PVE rebember PVP too 🙂

Loads of stuff coming and creating

33 Eric June - 2009 at 6:36 pm

I think these are all great ideas but you gotta understand times change. By the time we finish up Maelstrom and Emerald Dream(which i beleive are great expansion ideas) the world of gaming could be quite different and there might not be a WC4. Also, this huge fanbase of wow: will it continue as such? What happens when it grows up?
Im very excited for a maelstrom and emerald dream and thats all im gonna look forward to right now or else i might be dissapointed.
So instead of focusing on the End of Warcraft as we know it,
has anyone got any ideas for the cool stuff they might do in the soon to come expansions? I highly doubt they will introduce Highelves to the alliance because those are basicly blood elves….and the Furbolgs idea is just terrible no offense XD but new races could deffinitly be added, as well as a class or two.
I also wonder what other dungeons will be added to WOTLK(besides Ulduar) cus they could be fun. just like Sunwell was added. If you beleive WOW has been going too fast for you and you want to experiience Burnning Crusade a lil more, go to a private server like Hav0c(my favorite, perfectly Blizzlike) . Fact is there is a lot of game in WOW that we can appreciate still.

last thing im going to touch on the expansions past Maelstrom and emerald dream…

making the grind from 1 to 100 is it. I do not beleive they will go past that cus it is honestly too much.

and one more thing. What someone said before about graphics.
One said ” blizz needs a makeover”
while the other said ” cartoony is wow style”

i have a solution. A more interactive world of warcraft, cartoony but better scenery . A more realistic world perhaps, with the same cartoony characters. perhaps slightly less. Think of Oblivions graphics of the world(not characters) and implement that kindof into WOW,.obviously with some cuts cus idk if the game can support graphics as good as those.idk. hahah

um the end XD

34 minitauren July - 2009 at 1:34 am

Heck. i would’nt be suprised if Jaina Proudmoore got pissed off at KIng Varian Wrynn. So she would join thrall and theramore would become a Horde City. But i thinkthat would be great
(or and in Melstrom, one more ship will be added to Booty Bay to go to Kul’Tiras

35 Delidorn July - 2009 at 6:04 pm

About the Furbolg race. I can’t remember where I read it, but the Furbolgs have already been considered a major possibility as a new race. I mean, it’s obvious enough that the Timbermaw tribe isn’t complete. I mean, look at the Azshara Timbermaw area. Just a few Furbolg npc’s? No quests or vendors? Besides, Timbermaw Hold’s tunnels are supposed to lead not only between Moonglade, Winterspring, and Felwood; they are supposedly linked to Azshara and Mount Hyjal as well. Now, I’m not saying they will definitely be a new race, but I can almost guarantee there will be some more Furbolg content in the future.

36 Ashramm July - 2009 at 5:15 am

well honestly you are just thinking about lore and crap that blizzard has made for its books and WC WC2 WC3 and WoW thus far….your forgetting much of these demons and old gods werent even mentioned in WC and WC2 therefore they where??? *Gasp* Created…..meaning wow can go on as long as they keep creating new monsters new threats to face…..maybe an expansion actually going to the old gods plane of power……gods in mythology can be defeated but after they are defeated they return to there plane of power to regenerate. WoW takes place after the WC series….meaning its the next step in the story meaning it can go as long as they want it….fanboy’s have speculated that Planes of Power in Everquest1 would be EQ’s last expansion ummmm 6 ish years later with over a dozen expansions later EQ 1 is still played by a huge fan base…. dont see WOW dropping there ball at 5 expansions would be dumb…..and as far as 2 EQ2 that is goes…..that takes place 500 years past EQ1’s ending…..and EQ1 after all those expansions isnt even near 500 years ……

37 Ashramm July - 2009 at 5:16 am

.

38 Z July - 2009 at 3:17 am

You mention a Night Elf – Dwarf civil war. Is this actually something in the universe, or your own speculation?

39 Cocles July - 2009 at 6:08 am

Blizzard’s writers are obviously intentionally implying this is going to happen, especially with the Dwarves. That’s in the universe.

The speculation kicks in regarding whether or not Metzen and crew will actually pull the trigger, or completely forget about all this setup they went through the trouble of establishing.

40 Jackson July - 2009 at 7:31 am

As Delidorn mentioned, there is a timbermaw area with not a lot developed in it. They currently abandoned the area, and it is only visited by passing by travelers, and never inspected too much. This leaves a lot of room for a sort of hybrid race to appear that stayed back when it was abandoned so long ago. Also there is a fairly large zone that is unreleased, Hyjal.
I’m not too into lore stuff so I am not sure how this would work in, but it looks like it would work really well. They are not too far from horde and alliance 10-20 zones.
If they do not start you at level 1, then I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hyjal turn into a 30-40 or 40-50 zone and have it be like a DK start area where its just “hey lets get you used to your race and kick you out.”

41 Z July - 2009 at 8:25 am

I haven’t had a chance to play a Night Elf or Dwarf too far through yet, is all that in their questlines, or just general lore? Specifically, where in the universe is it? I’m still relatively new to Warcraft.

42 CootieB July - 2009 at 7:50 am

I find this very interesting that this conversation has been ongoing now for over a year, and yet the content is not stale.

Blizzard has some of the most creative minds in the gaming industry. I am not worried about the “End game” at this time, as I do not feel it is anytime soon, and I am sure more books, and expansions will come out between now and then and will keep the game going.

I would even not be surprised to see the COT being used more and more for newer things, it certainly has potential.

43 Alyriah August - 2009 at 5:24 am

I do not see an end to WoW at all in the near future, to the simple WoW players mind it may seem that Blizzard has boxed themselve’s in with law, e.g – “Were almost up to killing Arthas, Whats next then? The Old Gods, Sargeras, Malfurion makes his return, kill Deathwing, Fix all the problems between the dragonflights.” I have many ideas, Mally could be ressurected by Alexstraza and taught the ways of how they used to live. They could use COT as CootieB has said and use it for arthas’ corruption, Arthas’ journey for frostmourn, Deathwings corruption, Illidan’s corruption the Sunwell. Then ofcourse we have the Titan planets. We have the destruction of the naga. We have PVP aswell. Back to CoT, Moving Dalaran – Protecting Dalaran’s movement untill they get Dalaran through a portal to Northerend. Then theres maps and many quest lines, I saw an extra island on a box in Shattrath with a map on it, I couldn’t read it properly but it looked like Southerend. Theres also a possibility for an entire non-stop PVP BG where you can leave when you like, stack loads of Honor for thy PVP junkie. I have many more Ideas but am too tired to think right now, everyone else, Good ideas! I liked most of them but some did sound rather Farfetched. I enjoy reading replies to this 🙂

44 Alyriah August - 2009 at 5:26 am

For the Non-stop pvp, I ment to add it’s own currency like BG Gold to buy special PVP gear only usable in that BG or others like it.

45 Illidan January - 2010 at 9:37 am

Ok, I won’t put random day of releasing but here’s what I think:
Vanilla WoW = end boss: Kel Thuzad and Sapphiron
TBC: End boss Kael’Thalas,Illidan and Kil’Jaeden
WOTLK: End boss random one, Arthas and Syndragosa
Cataclysm: End boss random one, Deathwing
Emrald Dream( since Malfurion is back hes going to ask us help maybe?): End boss The Nightmare and maybe another Old God?
Maelstrom: End boss Azshara and maybe another naga?
The new plague: End boss Kel Thuzad again! Or another lich
Xoros or another planet: End boss.. the Lord of the planet..
The twisting Nether: End boss Kil’Jaeden,Archimonde,Manaroth and maybe more?
The NEW lich king: .. The new lich king? 😛
The last assault: Maybe Sargeras corrupting another planet and send a final assault on Azeroth? could be nice..

Also idk when and I’m 80% it wont exist but what you think about Illidan’s revenge? He could maybe kill a lich king or Kil’Jaeden since he cursed him to make him blind! Maybe Sargeras.. Like Grom did to Mannaroth.. IT WOULD BE OSSOM atleast if its not an expansion I want a video 😀

46 Rilin January - 2010 at 12:28 pm

“”Vanilla WoW = end boss: Kel Thuzad and Sapphiron
TBC: End boss Kael’Thalas,Illidan and Kil’Jaeden
WOTLK: End boss random one, Arthas and Syndragosa
Cataclysm: End boss random one, Deathwing
Emrald Dream( since Malfurion is back hes going to ask us help maybe?): End boss The Nightmare and maybe another Old God?
Maelstrom: End boss Azshara and maybe another naga?
The new plague: End boss Kel Thuzad again! Or another lich
Xoros or another planet: End boss.. the Lord of the planet..
The twisting Nether: End boss Kil’Jaeden,Archimonde,Manaroth and maybe more?
The NEW lich king: .. The new lich king?
The last assault: Maybe Sargeras corrupting another planet and send a final assault on Azeroth? could be nice..””

#1. End boss for WOTLK arthas (but yogg is the old god which matters most Arthas is just a pussy put in the middle of things to mix it up a bit)
#2 End boss is deathwing (yet another dragon aspect like malygos so expect to see an old god)
#3 you got this one right emerald dream is in fact the next one with the nightmare and hopefully another old god.
#4 Maelstrom is CATACLYSM! expect to see Azshara then not later.
#5 ‘the new plague’ you made it up dont expect to see this ever
#6 Dont ever expect to go to xoros or anywhere else this is just extra work and another story line to make up.
#7 Twisting nether is possible but not probable why re create somethign that is already finished.
#8 New lich king? I would be so bored by now…
#9 More like the war of the ancients portal reopens (maelstrom) and we set up there… (expect this to be an end game instance not an expansion by now blizzard will finally come out with a new generation game)

Just my thoughts at your post not attacking it just trying to make sense of it

47 Illidan was Betrayed! March - 2010 at 11:19 pm

There was an official report that Azshara would NOT be in cataclysm, which means the next expansion will more then likely have her.

Pandaren still havent shown themselves in WoW so I expect there will be an expansion where something goes wrong on there little island and maybe have a new enemy there.

Malfurion will be returning in Cataclysm, so I doubt there will be an expansion just for the emerald dream.

*SPOILER!!!!*
Bolvar Fordragon, the new Lich King, I believe will get corrupted and we will see another Rise of the king.

What ever happened to Med’an, Medivh’s son. He is a few places in lore, but with all that power why isent he something yet?

Jaina proudmoore and Thrall should get together….whatever comes of it, comes of it, with Garosh going to lead the orcs, it may bring thrall a position as a messenger between the factions on neutral terms.

Varian Wrynn needs to die, I dont have anything against the alliance, but he is an ASS! Make it where in his last breath he apologizes to Thrall for his behavior. Anduin Wrynn would take over the kingdom, and maybe make a small peace with the horde before something big split them up again.
(Yes I know Varian actually has good reason to hate the horde, loosing his father to Garona, and a comrade, Anduin Lothar, to Ogrim Doomhammer. But still, even all that dosent give him the right to hate an entire race! They were at WAR)

Tauren NEED something big, I mean theres no HUGE parts of history with them in it…Night elves have Illidan, Humans got Arthas, Gnomes have Gnomereggan, Dwarves have quite a few steps in history , draenei have the fall of drenor, Orc’s have ALOT, Blood Elves have Prince Kael’thas, Undead have Grand Apothecary Putress and the fact they walk, Trolls have the fall of Zul’aman, but what do Tauren have thats significant? Smite….I mean really.

Rumors have it that instead of a WC4 There will be a movie comming next year that takes place 1 year before WoW started…maybe a boss will be in it that will come back in the next expansion.

Dont forget about the books either! Readers beware, you might get a look into whats coming next within the book series. Any boss introduced in the series is a potential expansion 😛 HELL, Illidan might come back and take down Icecrown, to destroy Bolvar Fordragon and actually have HIM as the new lich…imagine, Illidan and the lich kings power combined. Illidan isent dead, so its possible…its even posible that to kill Deathwing, the aspects make another Dragon soul and illidan gets it as well, becoming as mighty as the titans themselves lol. That would be an Interesting turn around, maybe he would finally kill his brother, Malfurion should die for treating his own bro like that, locking him away for 10,000 years just because he erred wanting the night elven magic back, I mean WTH! Malfurion would be dead of old age if it wasent for him, and how does he repay him….EXILE!

anyway, just some thoughts, you never know, we could be looking at ANOTHER return of Medivh. Where he preaches that some dredlord has become to powerful or something.

Thats all, im not arguing with anyone (Cept those that think Illidan deserved his fate) just my thoughts on the subject.

48 user1221 March - 2010 at 5:40 pm

In my opinion, wow popularity will end around 2010! New games are coming out that use better graphical rendering engines. So far WoW has the best developed content but with every year passing by wow feels less flashy until it will reach a boiling point. If we compare wow to new games then wow feels like watching Simpsons compared to Avatar.

Blizzard will not rebuild entire game just for better rendering because it is not worth $$.

49 Illidan was Betrayed! March - 2010 at 1:53 am

You said “Blizzard will not rebuild entire game just for better rendering because it is not worth $$.” yet isent that exactly what there doing in Cataclysm? There rebuilding and rendering all the old landscape in the game, changing graphics, and remaking old 5 mans like deadmines. I may be wrong but it seems what you say they wont do, they are doing as we speak…thats what Cataclysm is all about…that and deathwing….and if your going to compare it, just compare it to Aion, the graphics in that game are bad-ass!

50 GodfriedTheSplastickPaladin March - 2010 at 8:44 pm

Well… let’s see now, it’s been awhile since I posted. I would like to put my two sense into what i think about Cataclysm… I know that Thrall is not going to be leading the Horde in Cataclysm (or that’s at least what i’ve heard) so here’s my theory as to why.

:BAM: Deathwing crashes through the mortal plane, disturbing the elements and nature itself. It’s so destructive that Malfurion is forced back into reality, creating an opening for The Nightmare. He can’t go back and beseeches Thrall, one of the world’s greatest Shamans, to aid him in righting the forces of nature. Malfurion then sends Fandral Staghelm to aid Thrall in his quest to right nature and the elements while he attempts to fix the political dissention created by Garrosh attempting to take over Ashenvale forest.
Thrall and Fandral Staghelm find out that Deathwing can’t be destroyed without a replacement, or the element of Earth that he guards will destroy itself. So they travel to Northrend and beg Alexstraza for help. They ask her if any dragon is ready to take over that mantle and she tells them that only one of Neltharion’s (Deathwings’) children can take over his mantle correctly, but by the time they return to the Eastern Kingdoms, Heroes from the world, the same group who destroyed Frostmourne and Arthas, have already destroyed Nefarian and Onyxia. Thrall returns to Alexstraza while Fandral Staghelm goes to Kalecgos and tries to find a loophole.
Finally Thrall finds out that if all the other aspects agree to appoint the powers of the Earth to an individual that has gained complete harmony with the elements, that they canbecome the new Earth-Warder. Thrall reluctantly agrees to take on the burden of warding the Earth, but Fandral Staghelm says that they should both go to Malfurion, as he has more experience with nature and it’s balance.
However, as they prepare to travel from Stormwind, they find out that the group of heroes whom killed his offspring, are now locked in battle with the beast and are losing terribly.They also find out that the dragon was headed for Stormwind when he was intercepted by the army. They rush to aid them and arrive almost too late. Thrall tells Fandral to imbue him with every power he has, and Fandral does. Then Thrall takes in the powers of Nature, all raging elements, including the overbearing fireand magma surruding themm into himself. Jaina screams for him to stop, that the powers of nature will tear him to pieces, but he instead faces the beast alone. Deathwing then devours the shaman, who unleashes the primal fury of the elements inside the collosal dragons’ stomach, effectively destroying himself and the creature.
:BAM:
Probably not… but it would make a sexy cinematic.

51 BruceBroham April - 2010 at 3:22 pm

Hey, I own a gaming blog myself. We should be friends!

52 The J Man July - 2010 at 2:10 pm

Well it’s just interesting to read these older posts … And notice how terribly incorrect these “assumptions” are even as “sure” as you are.

53 Arnie tozacoppa July - 2010 at 10:24 am

Alright…. This is my opinion in general. Blizzard loves money. WoW is a rediculous lightening rod of the $$… I agree with the fact that Sargeras, Azshara, and the Old gods are going to be in later expansions… BUT!!! I also think that in the new storylines Blizzard will open new avenues in which to continue the story… Some already present hints are the titans (brushed on briefly in WoTLK), Naruu, and the PANDARENS!!! I would hope they would do something with the Guardian of Tirisfal, but who knows… This is the optimistic side for me… Now for the possibility of ending WoW– The new mmo Blizzard refuses to talk about. A default for WoW players after cataclysm when the world is changed irreversably, which in itself is a concern. Noobs will now be falling into pits of lava that weren’t their before and although it might allieviate the grind of creating new alts for us veterans, it will make us NOSTALGIC! It seems to me a little reckless, changing a game constant in such a significant way… Maybe they will make more books and do a few Warcraft side games to add lore. The fact is we can only take it as it comes, we know Cataclysm is coming and tats about it right now. If they quit after that I’d be pissed, but it is what it is, They could be really gay and add old gods and azshara as dungeon additions, like Ulduar. Blizz is blizz and deserves a punch in the face sometimes. Oh well!

54 Rilin July - 2010 at 7:28 pm

@ Arnie
I wish that Pandaren were to become a playable race but it doesn’t seem it will happen..

Quote:
“Their possible appearance in WoW has been hinted at multiple times by Blizzard. Katricia: “Maybe they will be found in the beta or retail version of the game and maybe they will be granted a special place in an expansion. Just imagine how exciting it will be to find one!” and “pandaren will not be a playable race … at this time. Will they make cameo appearances in the game as NPCs? Some things are best left unanswered I think :)”

Supposedly, a gaming magazine was brought to Blizzard’s offices in the fall of 2005 to view the Burning Crusade expansion pack for the first time. There were dozens of posters and artwork depicting the pandaren as the new Alliance race. This rumor goes on to suggest the race was then canceled for reasons concerning “pandas being a sacred animal” in China, or with the “political problems [associated with a] Japanese/Chinese hybrid”, in WC3 beta, pandaren wore samurai armor, but this was soon fixed. Other gaming sources stated that when “mentioning the ex-April-Fool’s-joke Pandaren Empire to Blizzard staff got a surprisingly cagey response…” Blizzard has yet to confirm or deny these rumors directly.

In any case, Blizzard revealed in May 2006 that the new Alliance race for the expansion was to be the draenei, thus rendering most rumors incorrect. Nevertheless, Katricia’s comments still leave some possibility for a future appearance in World of Warcraft.

Another persistent rumor regarding their non-inclusion in the game is that there is a law in China prohibiting any depiction of violence against pandas, even anthropomorphic pandas, even in a video game. This rumor is, in fact, baseless. Not only does such a law not exist, but there is at least one Chinese MMO that does feature both PvP and a playable race of pandas. ”

http://www.wowwiki.com/Pandaren

now that doesn’t mean they wont ever be a playable class in the future but if those rumors are true they have to really work with the Chinese government.. last thing they need is to have china ban wow and lose 50% (if not more) of their base players.

-Rilin

55 Elfis (WoW's Fate) September - 2010 at 3:52 am

I’ve played WoW since pretty much the release day of the Original WoW. I personally think that Blizzard will keep going with expansions. WoW is Blizzards cash cow, Think about it, 12 million people pay 15$ a month to play WoW. The profits to Blizzard are astronomical. And the last I heard was that the WoW subscriptions were increasing. Another good example of WoW not going anywhere. Is the game Ultima Online or U.O as its fan’s know it as. U.O (The Grandfather of WoW) started its life in the mid 1990’s and even though it lost alot of its players to WoW, It still thrives today. U.O is going on 20 years old and even at its peak of popularity did not reach what WoW is today.

Sure lots of people say…Well eventually we are going to run out of boss’s to kill. Who says? You? Look at it like this. World of Warcraft is literally Blizzards world and story for that matter. Meaning that they can do anything with it such as…Resurrect boss’s that have already been killed, Warp players threw time to boss’s that existed hundreds of years prior or hundreds of years in the future to WoW’s initial time setting, They can create and add new enemy’s and allies to both the Alliance and Horde to the storyline. They can take this game in any direction they want to, And as long as people are paying to play, Blizzard will keep adding expansions. Now I do not have a business degree. But even so I can see that it would be stupid of Blizzard to stop updating WoW for any reason other than people not playing it anymore. And I don’t know if that will ever happen, Because personally I have not yet been let down by a WoW expansion. I know that I don’t speak for everyone but I think I speak for a majority. But the creators of the WoW Saga are doing an excellent job of keeping it interesting and keeping people interested in the game.

And in the off chance that WoW does eventually fall into the same fate as U.O I think it will most likely be due to something like World of Warcraft 2 being released. Not necessarily because the game got old. To alot of people World of Warcraft has achieved something no other MMORPG has ever done before. Its become like a favorite Book, or Movie, Something that you can always turn back to and read/watch again if you want. I think that make’s WoW one of the first and only timeless computer games in existence.

This is my just my 2 cent’s.

Elfis level 80 Night Elf Rogue.

56 Sheaya (Aman thal) March - 2011 at 4:47 pm

lvl 110 woot i reckon all races will split and own each other…. Dwarves and night elfs i wonder what happened between them eh?

57 Criss March - 2011 at 4:49 pm

Level 85 Night elf Hunter (Beast mastery)

58 flakefrost April - 2011 at 3:58 am

i hope WoW is never gets overtaken by another mmo rpg game’s popularity… WoW 4eva 🙂

59 Anderman April - 2011 at 1:04 am

Ahem, even if the few more games you pointed out are the only expansions coming out, I can see a civil war breaking out between all the factions. *Spoilers*

Cairn Bloodhoof was killed in a duel against Gromash, Thrall has apparently abandoned the Horde (Even for a moment) taken up a mate in the form of another Orc Shaman and has been told one day he’ll have to chose between leading the horde or becoming a true Shaman. Even the Trolls doubt his decision, Gromash may tear the Horde apart.

Night Elves seem to be becoming closer with the Tauren and may resent the Human/ Dwarf expansion into Kalimdor. If anything the Tauren seem to be on the verge of extinction again what with them boxed into Mulgore with only the Zepplin as a means of supply. If the Alliance chose to knock down their door they wouldn’t have a chance is Garrosh didn’t help and that is within his power.

Gnomes may have been stung by their ejection from IronForge but I think the infighting and the war against the DarkIron clan may spill into Gnomeregan, possibly the gnomes will lose their home again.

Dwarfs could become isolationists for a long time while they sort out the infighting and the looming civil war. Not much seems to hold the three together.

Goblins are integrated better than anyone else into Gromash’s Horde.

Blood Elves will see the benefits of staying with the Horde

The forsaken will not take any chances, out of all the horde they are the best defended, only one point of entry into their lands comes from the Zepplin, which is easy to see and destroy, they have the most reason to fear and be feared by the Horde, yet the Tauren admire them for their apothecary skills. I don’t see a lasting Alliance between Forsaken and Tauren but they would possibly be sought out by Bloodhoof if a war between the horde ever broke out. The forsaken being the second most advanced Horde faction is one reason.

I can see a third faction forming between Tauren, NightElves, Forsaken and possibly Worgen.

60 Dimitrovus July - 2011 at 9:42 am

I’d like to see a follow-up of 4.1, with the zandalari building up a huge empire.
As a Hero class you could be a voodoo lord and you start at lvl 75 at a new island close to stranglethorn.

Or just a war between ally and horde over a newfound continent with different questlines for horde and alliance.

:D?

61 Stephon September - 2011 at 7:28 am

makes total sense..

62 Jackson September - 2011 at 9:43 am

PEOPLE OF INTERNET, Y U NECRO SO HARD?

63 Cocles September - 2011 at 1:35 pm

It’s fine. Although if you enjoyed this post, you should really check out my updated version here:

http://www.loregy.com/world-of-warcraft/future-expansions-wow-redux/

Enjoy!

64 Caleb March - 2012 at 9:14 pm

Dude, you are so wrong.

65 Alex March - 2012 at 4:30 am

Really you are the most retard person ever.your “premonitions” never come true, RETARDED>>>

66 Cocles March - 2012 at 4:29 pm

The *first* line of this post says the information here is outdated, and directs you to where our newest predictions have been posted. Did you guys really not even read the first line of this post before commenting?

67 Tor Augustsson May - 2012 at 2:09 pm

the reason they are making more expansions is too keep as many players possible cause in like 2014-15 they will release a game called Titan

68 Mark December - 2012 at 8:16 pm

WoW Fan here, been working on my very own, very unique, completely new warcraft series. Sence Vanilla wow, New planets, new race, new gods, new heroes, new villians, new class etc etc. Early 2013 i will finnaly be presenting my idea to blizzard entertainment.

69 Futuristic March - 2013 at 9:26 pm

The current year is 2013. Max level is 9o and we’re stuck with pandas, not old gods… Who could of seen that coming lol

70 NooNee January - 2017 at 6:57 am

The current year is 2017. The burning legion is back. We are going to Argus soon. No return signs of the return of the scourge (sorry, Bolvar). Nightmare or Old Gods expansions maybe on the way.

71 Cocles January - 2017 at 6:42 pm

I wouldn’t say there have been “no signs” as Bolvar is now active again in the lore with the release of Legion. He is shown to still be friendly to those of the Alliance & Horde in the Felo’melorn questline, and if you’re playing a Death Knight you are now offcially the Lich King’s hand, enforcing his will in the Broken Isles.

And considering what’s going on with the Wrynn’s, and Bolvar’s past relationship to Anduin as his once sworn protector. Consider the Lord of the Rings… remember how Aragorn ended up having that army of ghosts at his disposal to light his darkest hour? Anduin has the Scourge; he just doesn’t know it yet. The Lich King isn’t going to mobilize (Blizzard’s writer’s aren’t going to play that card) until Anduin’s darkest hour moment where it would have the maximum effect.

72 33Lanora May - 2017 at 5:30 am

I must say it was hard to find your website in google. You write great posts but you should rank your page higher in search
engines. If you don’t know how to do it search on youtube: how to rank a website
Marcel’s way

Leave a Comment

{ 6 trackbacks }