Phasing: Solution For a New Azeroth?
Posted by 
Amatera on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 - 19 Comments Tags: Lore, argent crusade, azeroth, blizzard, dragonflight, ebon blade, emerald dream, icecrown, infinite, kael'thas, phasing, portals, wrathgate
Amatera on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 - 19 Comments Tags: Lore, argent crusade, azeroth, blizzard, dragonflight, ebon blade, emerald dream, icecrown, infinite, kael'thas, phasing, portals, wrathgate 
One example of phased content: the Wrathgate event.The MMO is an odd beast. Like most games, or game series, it evolves and grows in expected ways over time. Players are provided with a bevy of new options or the graphics are given a shiny new coat of paint (especially if it's associated with a generational jump in hardware). But the online RPG is no moulting reptile. It can't simply shed its old skin. Expansions offer new content, but rarely do much for the old, so we're stuck with the less impressive aspects of the game, and the developers are consistently reminded by these ancient artifacts of their failings the first time around.
I'm sure Blizzard would love to reshape the original continents as much as we players would like to see them do it, but the drain on resources would be absolutely massive. I know I've stated this in previous posts, but it entails so much more than a graphical overhaul. They'd have to reconsider how quests, dungeons, leveling, and other such balance-related aspects of the game are dealt with. What starts as one problem to deal with quickly spirals out of control.
But let's be honest, who is it that wants to experience this content again? I'd wager it's largely people who are at the end game, and have been there for a very long time. Often, that means relegating yourself to a scant few zones worth of content, which, as we all know, can get boring very quickly. A first-time player should still have a lot of fun exploring the old world and those who are leveling alts likely want to progress through it as quickly as possible.
Mainland Azeroth, specifically Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, is the bread and butter of the Warcraft universe, though! It seems necessary to revisit and reinvigorate those areas so absolutely central to the lore. So, how do we do that? What can Blizzard do to persuade us to go back? Well, by moving forward, actually. Through the idea of phasing.
It's already in the game, if you're looking for it. The go-to event whenever anyone talks about this sort of thing is the Wrathgate, and as great of a showcase as it might be, it doesn't really deal with the complexities of the concept's implementation. Simply put, phasing allows parts of the world to look/act/behave differently for players at different stages of the game. The problem with Wrathgate is that it's mostly cosmetic: a player who hasn't completed the line will see a standing army and one who has will see, well, the aftermath.
A better example to look towards, and perhaps a test bed for what we can expect looking forward (should Blizz choose to go down this road) is actually Icecrown Glacier. There are several questlines involving the Argent Crusade and Ebon Blade that slowly change certain parts of the zone, even opening up new questlines along the way (which otherwise wouldn't be available to players who haven't progressed that far yet). For phasing to truly be game-changing, it needs to be able to make sweeping changes to the player experience.
What this all boils down to is this: why not phase the whole of Azeroth? If some world-changing event is ahead, make it so that level 80-90 players see a different kind of world. What if the Crossroads were in ruins or you suddenly had high-level mobs in the newbie zones? Those are simple examples, but they could scale with the amount of work Blizzard feels they want to put into it. It's the Battle for the Undercity on a much greater level!
Of course, that does present some problems to overcome. Specifically, how two such versions of Azeroth can exist concurrently. Blizzard isn't completely shy about fudging the timeline (which would explain how Kael'Thas could exist as an uber raid boss in Tempest Keep and in his weaker, defeated form in Magister's Terrace at the same time), and you could argue that's necessary in a persistent-world MMO like Warcraft, but there are more practical concerns. For instance, would it be possible for a level 80+ character to return to the old version of Azeroth and how would that even be justified in the lore? What if they want to play with or help our some of their low-level buds, who they wouldn't be able to see in the phased version of the world? Would things like auction houses be connected across the great 4th-dimensional abyss?
The disconnect between gameplay and practicality does eventually reach the point of becoming undesirable if you stretch players' suspension of disbelief too far. Nonetheless, I can think of at least one solution, as cliche as it might be: portals. WoW lore does have a few built-in fail safes for things like this. We already know there are alternate versions of Azeroth, like that of the Emerald Dream. And then there's the possibility of the Infinite Dragonflight finally finding success in corrupting the timeline, resulting in a completely different chain of events. Areas, or possibilities like these, can be accessed through special gateways opened up by the dragonflights in their attempt to restore order.
What sorts of ideas might you readers have for this sort of thing? Is phasing a viable option? Would you be willing to excuse the lore to explore an alternate version of Azeroth at any cost, or should it have to jive with the existing story line? Let us know what you think in the comments section!
Reader Comments (19)
I'm not sure how much larger they can get on the scale of what can be phased. To large of phasing causes lag, as can be seen at Wrathgate if you have a slow computer/ connection. If they were to spread that over all of Azeroth they would have to figure out how to have your computer not generate the NPCs in the area(they are still there when your phased if you didn't know) so basically your computer is generating twice the amount of information for these areas as the areas surrounding them.
Personally, I would love to see something like this implemented! I agree though that it would be a hassle to make the whole thing work, but blizz might be able to think of something. Plus, who knows what kind of tech advancements could happen from now till the next expansion comes out?
True, Dan. Perhaps if phasing wouldn't work specifically, they could copy and paste all the existing assets and put them on a new server, just like they do with regular expansion content. But that's only if they planned on doing some spectacular stuff with it.
Blizz has said they would like to do this. I know the reasons for why the havent are true, but your misisng the biggest reason of all.
Money
For each Patch or expansion with content, Blizzard sets a budget, cant go over it. If they were to redo or phase Azeroth, imagine how much money that would cost? That would be enough in itself for a whole expansion!!
If anything, they'll doo it a few zones at a time
Just use the iLevel to scale your gear/talents based on the portion of the world you are in...
Regardless of what they say, I'm convinced they may slightly redesign parts of zones that border on whatever new content they're going to introduce. A far cry from what we're talking about here, but yes, a little bit at a time wouldn't hurt. Some zones could definitely use a facelift (graphically, and gameplay-wise) before others.
@Amatera
I know I'd like Sen'jin Village to be more than just a pit stop. I mean, c'mon, surely trolls have a larger part in the Horde than just being the red shirt. ("Red shirt" is a Star Trek reference; google it.)
Same for gnomes too. If anything, they probably get even more of the shortstick than trolls do (at least lore-wise, from what I've ascertained).
id really like to explore the maelstrom or maelstorm or whatever...maybe even slay Queen Azshara as the final end game boss like kil'jaeden?
@Alayea
The trolls are a good example to do phasing in the old world.
You could say the trolls can't expand their town because of the marauding Centaur and the trolls on the islands along the coast. Then when you do all the quests, the city grows. Or start out with just one hut and then when you complete more quests it gets to what we know today. It's just a small area in the Durotar zone.
I think there are a lot more of these small area's that can benefit from phasing.
another great post.
I haven't done wrathgate, but i know they phased the DK starting zone+ quest line, one which i have completed many times, but i would hate to this happen. they should make new zones and quests in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, such as Hyjal and Gilneas, that will make players, have to travel through old world content to explore.
i never got the chance to explore old world raids, maybe revamp those, with new and improved quests for them, but nothing, that would change the whole of Azeroth... thats just silly.
Revamping the early content is an excellent idea.
Give us the Heroic DM, Kara, WC, RFD, SM. Make them an upper tier heroic like they have with TotC not a cake walk like UK.
Pack them with achievements, titles, and epic lootz. You'd see people flooding back into the old world.
Better yet put the friggin' profession trainers in the dungeons so you can't get level 500 profession skills without rescuing, or clearing your way to, the trainer. We already have special trainers in Ulda and others.
With their love of gimmicks these days I could see Blizz requiring us to do ship to ship combat taking control of cannons in a 10man incarnation of DM. The more mobs you destroy with the cannon emplacements = the less u have to face on foot. Timed so you don't just sit there and waste them all.... (okay... putting down the coffee and stepping away)
Well i have given Old world content alot of thought now for sometime as its still my favorite part of wow, now forget all this phasing crap & talk about somthing that can make it new & relivant to end game, now there are so many areas of Old world that havent been completed & with the upcoming xp "cataclysm" i am expecting to see things like gilneas & sen jin probably get there own city & not to mention the broken isles, the naga city, tomb of saragas etc providing great content so i was thinking along the lines of making quest hubs actually in the unfinished areas of old world & basically create "flight only" areas to level from 80 to 90 without having to alter a single thing about vanilla wow but yes... i know this creates the problem of flying in azeroth but cmon...we all want it, i mean in comparison to BC & WOTLK it makes the most scence to be able to fly in the biggest area, ok well some examples could be ironforge airport, current hyjal (MASSIVE unused area) craptons of unreachable zones like you see on the majority of flight paths, the forlorn ridge (unfinished BG in azshara could be turned into a quest hub) grim batol (potetial for an EPIC raid ie deathwing) well you all get the idea...so there you have it new,old world areas without losing ANY old world glamor but adding great new flavor :)
Phasing can only work on a small scale. Events like teh Wrathgate are suited to Phasing because it only has a minor impact to the world landscape. Phasing all of the Barren, for instance, would be impractical because there is a lot of level overlap there. There are 3 instances in the Barrens and capped players typically run lowbies through there. If the zone was phased getting high and low level players together would be a hassle, and World of Warcraft has always been about accessibility.
While the idea sounds great, it just doesn't work in practice. The suggestion of using portals to traverse the different time lines already exists in the game> Caverns of Time does an excellent job of having identical zones in different time lines.
I really don't get the desire to renovate old content. Have you gone back on your high level or low level character and re-experienced that content? Some of it's good, and some of it's terrible, but for the most part it's boring.
The only thing they need to do the old world as far as I'm concerned is to 1) make some faster land mounts since flying breaks the world and the resources to fix all the broken landmasses outweigh the benefits 2) complete the left over lore/dead end quests so there's closure. 3) create content for the heavy lore zones that have existed since launch. Grim Batol, Uldum, etc. There's no reason to spend time renovating content if there's a ton that simply hasn't been built yet. It's like wanting to refurbish a room before the house is built.
They should trie to bring the 80's back to azeroth,outland with an example of questlines, heroic classics, raids, etc
Like been said in other comments.
Its like 70% of the game just dies and the world of warcraft isnt a big world like it was used to be.
When youre level 80 you better stay on northrend if you want to progres with youre character.
I like to see a change in this...
and how would a high level player be able to assist a lowbie?
can't happen if everything is phased.
@noob,
Did u not read the whole post?
"Nonetheless, I can think of at least one solution, as cliche as it might be: portals."
Man that sounds like it would be fun i would love to have a little more of a scourge invasion were the cities would get attacked every so often like in the scourge event
I do miss the old Azeroth where it was just azeroth but now that they have two expansions there really isn't any point of going back except for revamping the old dungeons and raids but as long as blizzard keeps making new expansions and new content alot of the old stuff is going to be overlooked for example like nax. now that nax is in NR u cant experience the old nax even if it had "crappy" gear.
/miss old game :(
I'd LOVE to see an expansion where the Infinite Dragonflight changed Azeroth for the worst. Players could go through a portal to help change the broken past, to make sure the present stays the same, or better.
Their could be class specific quests... like gnomes stopping the tard that made the gnomergan goo explosion or w/e it was; Trolls would stop the raging murlocks in Stranglethorn Vale :P. Players could also kill old bosses that got special powers from the Infinite.
So many cool things could happen with the current lore. Want more Chromie! :)