A couple of months ago, Justin and I were joking on the podcast about how what World of Warcraft really needed wasn’t WoW Classic but a WoW Classic Classic – that eventually, people would get tired of the expansions piled on top and want a reboot of the whole thing, since it was the idea of the starting-over of the reboot that got people excited. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, and apparently I’m not alone, since I just spied a Reddit thread wondering whether WoW wouldn’t be better off abandoning its whole narrative storyline and just starting over with something fresh. And that poster wasn’t talking about Classic but Retail.
I know that Blizzard’s said it probably won’t be doing more remasters, but I think a reboot is actually something the studio should at least consider. Not a lot of MMOs have actually been successful with reboots, but if anyone’s got a shot, it’d be WoW. Just nuke the mangled narrative, tidy up the landmasses, go back to first principles, and start over, going in an entirely new direction rather than just layering on historical expansions and mistakes in a “classic” mode. Under the current circumstances, it might be the real fresh start the game – and its beleaguered studio – needs.
Would WoW be better off with a full reboot? How would you go about it if you were in charge?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
