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Continuity, "New Azeroth", and the fate of Outland/Northrend
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Post by
xaratherus
This post is from a sort of in-game, role-playing perspective. If that's not your cup of tea, don't bother reading.
One thing that I've been wondering:
With the changes to Azeroth, how is Blizzard going to address continuity breaks in the leveling process? Since Azeroth has always been a static setting, I've simply assumed that when I start a new character the world (from my perspective) has reverted to an earlier time period. For instance, when my character hits 58 and heads to Outland, I've always figured that from a continuity standpoint they are arriving in Outland around the same time as my very first character who ever hit 58 and headed off to war with the Burning Legion. Then at 68, when I head to Northrend, it's the start of the newest chapter in the conflict against the Scourge and the Lich King.
But with the changes that will be caused by the Cataclysm, this perspective doesn't work anymore. Azeroth wasn't shattered when we started the conflict with the Burning Legion in Outland; Arthas will be defeated (although possibly not dead) when Deathwing cracks the globe.
So how does this affect our new characters? Does it make sense for us to fight our way through this new, savage Azeroth and then whoops, there's 58 - better head to another dimension for awhile, and ding 68 - let's go and fight the Scourge up north!
While I know that a lot of people have been referring (sometimes jokingly, sometimes deprecatingly) to Cataclysm as World of Warcraft 2, I almost hope that they treat it as such, and make it so that you have the option to wholly level your character from 1 to 85 in "New Azeroth", rather than having to jaunt to Outland and Northrend for a total of 20 levels before returning to where the action is (and should be). Otherwise, it would sort of be like a movie where the hero witnesses the ascent of the major villain to power, and then says, "Oh, but wait, I need to focus on this sub-plot for 45 minutes before I actually get back to doing the important stuff."
Post by
LordHiccup
Hmmm, yea you do have a point there. I kinda hope that they have a Caverns of Time portal to pre-cataclysm Azeroth, other than that I have no clue how they're going to pull this off without making lore-lovers heads explode...
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271037
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Post by
xaratherus
And the old world was poorly designed compared to modern WoW standards... Imo it's a good thing it's being completely redone and I would never find a good reason to revisit it.
I don't totally agree; there are aspects of the old world, such as the flow of quests, that were very poor, but some of the storylines were great. The problem were quests that told you to go to Gadgetzan, where you pick up a bottle and go to Un'Goro, which then sends you to Booty Bay, which then sends you to Darnassus, which then sends you to Feralas, and so on.
I think I should maybe clarify what I mean: I'm not complaining about them redesigning Azeroth. I think that it's pretty much time that it was done, and I'm looking forward to
WoW 2
Cataclysm.
What I'm saying is: Does it really make sense, from a story standpoint, for our characters to level from 1-58, witnessing the horrible destruction and pain all around them - and then be perfectly okay with dashing off to Outland and Northrend for 20 levels, ignoring the destruction going on in their homelands?
I suppose what I'm suggesting is this: Blizzard should make it so that you have the
option
to level from 1-85 without ever leaving post-destruction Azeroth - specifically the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor - and the content added in Cataclysm.
As a more fiction-related metaphor: Metropolis has just been ravaged by a 9.0 earthquake. Superman is on his way to help rescue orphans from a burning building. Suddenly he decides instead that he needs to run off to Apokalips to fight Darkseid, whose plans have previously been routed - and from there he swings by an asteroid to fight an undead warlord and his minions, who are nursing their wounds from a previous battle - at which point he decides
now
he's ready to go save those orphans.
Post by
138584
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