This past week, Blizzard revealed Chris Metzen has taken on a more formal role as Executive Creative Director of the Warcraft universe. First, I hope he has taken some time to learn how to notice the warning signs of bad behavior so he can help prevent further harm to the devs working on the various games we love. In his statement after the news about it all broke, and so many people broke their silence, he indicated that he wanted to do better in the future. This is his chance to really be present and there for everyone. Secondly, there are a few fascinating tidbits in this announcement that piqued my interest. Maybe I’m just getting hyped for Blizzcon, but I wanted to delve further into some of this statement.
So what's next for Warcraft?
The first phrase I focused on is “crafting the next generation of adventures,” specifically in a context relating to Warcraft. Of course, my first thought when considering the next generation of adventures in any MMO is a new updated MMO in that setting, essentially a WoW2. All other things aside, that would be incredibly exciting, but it can also be perilous. It reminds me of the huge differences between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, which caused some fans to reject the second game. That is always a risk. Additionally, doing something akin to what happened with Overwatch 2 would be an outright tragedy.
However, there have also been times when the long history of World of Warcraft can hold things back a bit from a technical standpoint. This has most recently reared its head regarding tearing down barriers between Alliance and Horde playing together. Since WoW wasn’t originally designed with that ever as a possibility, making everything work between the two factions hasn’t been a simple flip of a switch. Of course, some of the slowness of the rollout has been due to being cautious with players who are against players of opposite factions playing together, but the devs have cited technical difficulties as well.
These limitations have resulted in some oddities when putting cross-faction groups together. For example, currently, on Retail WoW, we cannot queue for timewalking dungeons, even if we have an entire group, but we can queue a cross-faction group for the timewalking raid. I have done both Ulduar last timewalking and Firelands this timewalking week like this. It feels odd to have the ability to queue for raids and not dungeons, especially when queuing with a full group for the timewalking dungeon. That said, this week, one raid member discovered they were marked as hostile to both factions and couldn’t be healed in the raid. That was sort of hilarious but also a bit problematic.
Situations like these make me wonder if it is time for a new World of Warcraft. It has been 19 years at this point, so starting with a new game entirely would enable them to build things in a more stable way, with more levers they can pull on to optimize and improve things over the next 20 years. It’d be a hell of a 20th-anniversary celebration next year if they either announced WoW2 or launched it. However, launching WoW2 next year seems like the least likely possibility. They would have likely had to be working on that for a few years to do that, and that is a hell of a secret to keep in normal circumstances, and the last few years have been anything but ordinary. Imagine holding that secret close when we were in the depths of the Shadowlands slog. I’d be very impressed if that were the case.
There’s also the possibility that “the next generation of adventures” just refers to the next expansion and could be a bit of PR hyperbole. Although, there have been turning points in changing the experience of playing World of Warcraft moving forward. Cataclysm certainly would fall into that category, and Legion as well. There are others, but those two are probably the easiest to make the case for, especially with the benefit of hindsight. I’d also argue Dragonflight would fall into this category, with the introduction of dragonriding, the considerable changes to how gearing works, and the removal of the barriers between Horde and Alliance players. Those things alone took some huge strides in changing the day-to-day experience of playing WoW, but I’d also say the addition of smaller-scale, more slice-of-life type quests has also greatly impacted how I play and what I choose to do.
With that in mind, it feels like reinventing everything with the next expansion would run a massive risk of ruining the gains we’ve received in Dragonflight. If anything, I’d expect the next expansion to be a continuation and iteration on what we have now. Of course, they could have also meant that line to include Dragonflight. This has undoubtedly started a new era in World of Warcraft so that phrase could be applicable in those terms. Conventional wisdom is that the next expansion will be announced at Blizzcon so they could have just been referring to that.
The Next Phase
The other phrase that stood out in this announcement is “Warcraft universe.” This could reference the existing Warcraft games, WoW, books, movies, and shorts that we already know about. Future books and shorts obviously would also fall under that category. At this point, we expect the shorts to lead into every expansion, and rightly so because they have always been brilliantly done and enjoyable, even when the expansion content has been less than great. That is a lot to oversee and keep track of, so it is quite possible they meant nothing else by it. But what if there is more?
The new Warcraft Rumble mobile game is the first Warcraft game since Hearthstone launched in 2014. Both could be considered part of the Warcraft universe as they pull their characters and settings from the Warcraft lore. They also fill niches by expanding the types of games under the Warcraft umbrella, but there is a genre they haven’t delved into: single-player RPG. That may sound wild, but developing a single-player RPG could add a ton of not just lore and stories to the larger Warcraft universe, but it can also scratch an itch that is often blocked by the realities of running an MMO.
For example, devs have often mentioned there are a lot of stories they would like to tell, but they don’t fit into the story's pacing in the WoW patch cycle. Having a whole RPG worth of story to play could help explore other things happening in the world while the various events in WoW are occurring. Additionally, having it be single-player would also allow for greater build diversity in classes and allow for some truly unique things. And lastly, it would also allow players to have some real agency in making choices that affect outcomes. In an MMO, player choice always ends up being limited in some way because, at the end of the day, everyone has to get the same basic storyline.
Now, a single-player RPG in the Warcraft universe is probably the definition of a long shot. Especially considering the trajectory of game development has been towards endless games that can be used as a cash cow for the long haul. However, single-player RPGs are far from dead, and one done well could be a real boon for the more expansive Warcraft universe. One thing is for sure: with Chris Metzen at the helm for creative development, it will be interesting to see where they decide to take things and how we get there.
