Loading ...
Warcraft 4 rumors special (1/4)
(14 votes, average: 4.79 out of 5)
Loading ...
This is the first part of our “Warcraft 4 rumors” series. In the next weeks we feature the hottest Warcraft 4 rumors available on the net.
In his detailed article Alex Taldren speculates about Blizzard’s future after World of Warcraft and the announcement of Starcraft 2. Futhermore he pictures interesting patterns in Blizzard’s development:
• It spends roughly 1-2 years between releasing games, expansion packs, and sequels
• It releases expansion packs to all of its games with the exception of only two
• It fully develops its story through sequels of the same genre type before switching genres
• Its franchises represent the “if it ain’t broken, then don’t fix it” motto
• It sticks to its PC gaming platform well while catering to Apple gamers
He thinks very pessimistically about another Warcraft sequel. From his point of view there isn’t a good chance for Warcraft 4, because of WoW and it’s characteristic as an MMO. He compares a MMO to “a series finale for a television show” and WoW is such a finale. Further he does a queer statement: “It would be hard to return to a franchise that currently has an ever-changing and continuing game.” But he seems not to think of, that a RTS game is completely different from a MMORPG.
This is definitely going to be a stretch, but what are the chances of Blizzard revisiting Warcraft with another RTS? Well, in reality, the chances are very, very poor. If they do revisit the Warcraft series it will probably be in the form of a World of Warcraft 2, but that won’t be until they draw out WoW with expansion packs.
I have one major and convincing reason as to why they won’t and can’t make another Warcraft RTS game, even if it is just for an extended period of time. The MMO is, without a doubt, an interesting genre to approach. One of the reasons for why World of Warcraft is so successful is because of the franchises development from Warcraft to Warcraft III. It is in my opinion that MMOs that are released as stand alone franchises that have no prior development are practically doomed from the start. While some MMOs get their development from movie franchises (Lord of the Rings Online and The Matrix Online), others get theirs from previous games (World of Warcraft), and the rest — the ones that do poorly overall — have no prior development. Regardless of this fact, however, the MMO genre should be classified as “the end genre.” Why? Well, think of it as a series finale for a television show. A series finale brings closure, but also brings an open-ended feeling. MMOs are usually defined as open-ended RPGs on a massive scale. The very nature of an MMO corresponds with that of a series finale. It would be hard to return to a franchise that currently has an ever-changing and continuing game.
source: Alex Taldren
While I agree that it will take a while to bring out a War4, I think that Blizzard has several avenues to go down in order to keep the tradition going: make a prequel that sets up all of the stories and go back to before the first one (then it doesn’t have to be called War4, but something else); continue the story after WoW with new enemies, etc.; come up with new races, or focus on the ones that were introduced in War3, such as the Draenei and Naga; make a hero out of Rexxar in which you lead armies of ogres/orcs, there are plenty of options, and I, personally, would love to see Blizzard continue the series, because I love RTS, not MMO, which ruins the whole concept of Warcraft in the first place.
i agree with Tracy i love the wc RTS much more than WOW im not sure why but its just because mainly the whole idea of wow is that u play in the world of warcraft, its not any of the lore which is what makes wc so cool, also i think they should explore more into the fallen, the race that sylvannas created with her banshee friends when she was killed and ressurected by arthas and yeh i think it wud also be a good lead in for the movie WHICH I THINK WOULD BE MUCH BETTER BASED ON WC3-TFT, IT HAD A MUCH BETTER STORYLINE AND PEOPLE WHO HAVENT PLAYED WC COULD SEEE IT AND GET THE JIST OF IT!! AND THEN U CUD HAVE THE ENDING AS THE END OF TFT AND HAVE A SEQUEL FROM THERE IF RATING WERE GOOD ENOUGH….my opinion, anyone agree?
See i agree with both Chris and Tracy. Its true that MMO’s are ending genres because they take everything great about their previous games and put it into this world where you can play in for infinite amounts of time BUT what i think blizzard should realize is that their core audience is leaning towards a sequal to Warcraft 3 and not another WoW. I love warcraft 3 and i still play it, WoW not so much, but warcraft 3 is becoming dated and fans want something new to the franchise just not the MMO. WoW should not have been made is all im trying to say and they could have focused more on another RTS but its too late and i dont think we will see Warcraft 4 for a long time even they decided to make it right now. the reason being is that they are probly working on another WoW and the they would have to top warcraft 3 with warcraft 4 which would be a challenge. I want warcraft!(just not the mmo)