While I have not played World of Warcraft for well over a year at this point, it is still a game that I attempt to keep tabs on. We know for certain that we are going to get the reveal of the next expansion on April 19th thanks to a twitter post. For months however there have been a number of rumors about what this expansion might be called and what it actually entails flying around the internet. As is the case with most of them… it involved a lot of nonsense and wish fulfillment. However more recently a thread of what I believe to be truthful information has started to trickle up. Essentially there is a concurrence of information from WoWHead doing some data mining and a supposed leak from a print shop that point to the next expansion being called “Dragonflight”.
The above image is pulled from Reddit and represents what is supposedly a print shop where some marketing material is being printed. The thing is that is an exceptionally believable image to me, because I spent some time working in and around a few print shops and came through college at a very specific time where I trained on both offset printing and digital methods. When something leaks out of a print press… I generally believe it because in the chain of custody of art assets… that is always going to be the weakest link. Similarly back in the day the Warez kiddies used to get their hands on titles when they went to the disc duplication plants and the two problems share a similar root. Printing and disc manufacturing have very slim margins, and as a result they generally pay their employees really poorly.
While the management might try their best to keep a tight reign on the marketing material, there are going to be a bunch of folks who are effectively working for minimum wage that are in and around everything being printed. I have to be honest I remember doing something very similar to this regarding the Phantom Menace and sending out some marketing information to some friends. I thought it was largely harmless to give some friends a peek at what was effectively a single piece of artwork carved into four magazine covers. I am sure this leak probably started in a similar manner where someone was excited to be working on something so recognizable and once it is out on the internet… it spreads. I guess in thirteen days we will be able to tell for certain if this was in fact a real thing or not.
Then there are times when what is probably complete nonsense… happens to align with the artifacts that seem more legitimate. Back in February during the height of fake wow expansion news, a post was made over on MMO Champion outlining “World of Warcraft: Dragonflight”. I am significantly less certain about this information because it is entirely possible that the “fake leakers” slung enough word salad together to happen to guess the right name. There are a few pieces of this that I find interesting. Firstly the idea of having new “skins” for classes that change the appearance of the abilities without actually changing the mechanics. I think this is probably a good call because it lowers the new complexity of trying to balance another class but also gives everyone something new and shiny to strive for. Once a system like that had been tested and working, it is a possible source of future new content with a lower development barrier.
I do feel like whatever is coming next is going to feel a lot more like Legion because that is clearly the last point Blizzard released an expansion that was fairly universally loved. Both Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands have been major disappointments, and I expect the new expansion to feel like taking a step back and reassessing the path that the game is on. While Covenants draw lineage back to the Class Order hall, the “fun” was lost along the way. Another thing I find really interesting about this leak is the mention of no new level cap. I have to be honest I feel like maybe it is time for World of Warcraft to start growing horizontally rather than vertically. Granted this might just be me talking because I am playing an excessive amount of Guild Wars 2, but I do have to admit I greatly prefer the games with evergreen content to those with a strict progression path.
So essentially I am left in a place where I absolutely believe that the next expansion for World of Warcraft is going to be called Dragonflight, but that the information “leaked” to the forum… is probably less than accurate. World of Warcraft for me is like a bad break up that no matter how much time I spend out of the game… I cannot stop paying attention to it. It has been sixteen months since the last time I played the game, which incidentally is the longest time that I have ever not played World of Warcraft since its release in 2004. That said I wish the team and the game luck and hope that they can find their footing and start to claw the game back into fighting shape. I know I will be trying to tune in for the reveal on April 19th to see how much of this information was truthful.