Well, I think our #1 kid deserves a thread.
While this is pure speculation guys, keep in mind this thing:Boubouille was never wrong, since I've started reading on his site, 2 years ago, so you should trust him.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php
TL;DR version: All of WoW's content(areas, instances, everything) gets a large revamp, basically it changes WoW's landscape to something far more different than it is.
What do you guys think?

Woah, I thought I'd get more answers on this,since it's a pretty radical change that can directly affect a lot of other MMOs. Boubouille got everything right with WOTLK as well, long before it was released.

This may bring me back to the game

Every time I quit they do something to bring me back. Then I get bored again. I am not going back this time I don't care if they add /leveling to 50 if you have an 80.

Yeah some noob was spamming about this in Trade chat tonight.

I say it's a good possibility. While he may not be right on the mark, I think he hit it in the ballpark.

Oh Almighty Blizzard be praised!

If this prophecy becomes a reality....

/reroll

This is where my argument that this game is casual oriented comes into play.

They make it ENTIRELY too easy for the new people to MMOs that it keeps them in because they lack the ability to play any of the other decent MMOs.

Who cares nubs play WOW.....

Very cool idea... but I have to ask: What about people who don't buy the expansion? Are there going to "parallel worlds" on the server (i.e. instance for pre-cata and another for cata owners)?

So... I wonder how or if the Emerald Dream fits into all of this. What I'm reading means that when this is released, bye bye pre-Wrath WoW.

So what about the people who don't get the expansion? The changes sound too wide spread to be accomplished in a simple patch. Previous patches prior to the expansions included little things to match with the expansion content, such as the Stormwind Docks, various NPCs and such. Going by this, the entire world is going to change, which means some SERIOUS, DVD sized clumps of data to be installed.

So, I'm thinking if any of this is true, it'll be inside the Emerald Dream. The problem with that theory, though, is that the Goblin and Worgen player race additions are tied directly in to the cataclysmic events.

Don't really know what to think. This guy has a track record of accuracy. Maybe we'll start seeing legacy guilds form en masse to give the old content a last hurrah before the world (of Warcraft) is turned completely upside down.

Maybe they will make the previous expansions free and just charge for the new one.

That all sounds like a giant load of crap.   1 part genuine information and 99 parts crack smoke.

If they actually did redo everything in the whole game, that would get me back in for a couple of months until I got bored with the new content.  But what about the millions of braindead hulks who get off on repeating the exact same quests a hundred times in a row?  No way in Hell Blizzard is going to upset that applecart.

If they were willing to make changes like this, they'd just feed them in over time so the game would stay interesting to the people who care about that sort of thing.  But replacing one treadmill with another?  That defeats the whole purpose of having a treadmill in the first place.  It'd take a giant amount of effort, and they'd probably lose more customers than they gained.

As I said, Boubouille got some reliable inside sources, considering that he speculated perfectly about WOTLK and TBC long time before they were released.
For those without expansion, it sounds like they will be able to do 1-80 in new revamped Azeroth and play in the revamped Azeroth, but will have no access to new proper zones to do 80-85. It shouldn't be that bad since average connections aren't too expensive and are quite fast these days.
Also, "Leveling from 80-85 will be a MUCH bigger deal. Initially in 2008, they considered not raising the level cap at all, as making those quests takes a lot of manpower away from raiding content. But they are trying to make the story so grand and sweeping that ding'ing will actually MEAN something and not just be something you do." makes it sound like it won't actually be easy. I've read about 6 months ago on WoW forums that they plan to do some forced extremely long chains, with grouping between them(but they weren't sure if this is better than conventional leveling, since most WoW players won't be used with it), and the post of the dude who wrote that was deleted quite fast.
 

Could this possibly mean upgraded graphics since they are redoing mostly everything in Azeroth?

I mean, why not?

This could be a major factor in getting my subscription money, sorry to say, but I'm mostly only playing Aion for the innovative aeriel PvP and the pretty graphics.

But I'm an ex-vanilla player and will jump on that shit in an instant if they upgrade the graphics.

Anything to make the game more appealling until ToR comes out.

Originally posted by mrroboto40

Could this possibly mean upgraded graphics since they are redoing mostly everything in Azeroth?

I mean, why not?

This could be a major factor in getting my subscription money, sorry to say, but I'm mostly only playing Aion for the innovative aeriel PvP and the pretty graphics.

But I'm an ex-vanilla player and will jump on that shit in an instant if they upgrade the graphics.

 

Well, that would be a reason for them taking our comp specifications these days.
They should upgrade the graphics to be honest, WoW's starting to reach "way too outdated graphics" line.

Originally posted by logicbox9

Very cool idea... but I have to ask: What about people who don't buy the expansion? Are there going to "parallel worlds" on the server (i.e. instance for pre-cata and another for cata owners)?

That's a good question.

One way I could imagine them doing it is with their phasing tech.  Basically you have all the normal versions of the zones, then the level 90 versions after you trigger a quest (or whatever max level ends up being.)

Since it sounds like phased content is definite (as definite as any rumors can be at this point) then that might be how they keep non-expansion players separate.

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Originally posted by Thenarius
As I said, Boubouille got some reliable inside sources 

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Trusting a source like that is like trusting a stranger with a gun in your mouth.

Blizzcon is in a week, we will know then.

I loled at human hunter. But Tauren paladin is a nice addition...

Originally posted by kopema

That all sounds like a giant load of crap.   1 part genuine information and 99 parts crack smoke.

If they actually did redo everything in the whole game, that would get me back in for a couple of months until I got bored with the new content.  But what about the millions of braindead hulks who get off on repeating the exact same quests a hundred times in a row?  No way in Hell Blizzard is going to upset that applecart.

If they were willing to make changes like this, they'd just feed them in over time so the game would stay interesting to the people who care about that sort of thing.  But replacing one treadmill with another?  That defeats the whole purpose of having a treadmill in the first place.  It'd take a giant amount of effort, and they'd probably lose more customers than they gained.

You drastically overrate how many people care about Retail WOW content.  It's over and done with, and nobody but a tiny minority of players would care if it's updated.

Only thing they might care about is all that effort spent on 1-60 content (which could've been manhours spent on content for everyones' level 80+ characters.)