Last year, around patch 9.1.5, the developers at Blizzard already announced that a new era was dawning in World of Warcraft. Many cornerstones of the game, which for years were considered absolutely untouchable, were now to be put to the test and adjusted if necessary. On the one hand, they want to listen more to player feedback, and on the other hand, they don't want to shy away from content that actually forms the basis of the game. Everything should be subordinated to the one goal: To make WoW a better experience for players.

These announcements were followed by the developers' first, albeit smaller, actions in patch 9.1.5. Above all, a lot of simplifications for stragglers and twinks were integrated. But also the stubborn adherence to systems such as timegating via Torghast restrictions is now at least partially a thing of the past.

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World of Warcraft | Faction Softening shows nothing is impossible anymore - what's next?

Table of contentsPage

1. WoW: Nothing more impossible - what comes next?Next page1.1. patch 9.2 - Blizz gets serious1.2. patch 9.2.5 - big upheaval1.3. what comes next? 1.4. the end of factions1.5. mega serversPage2. WoW: Nothing more impossible - what comes next? 2.1. the loot master2.2. class and race restrictions2.3. leveling system? And goodbye!2.4. account instead of characterPage3. picture gallery for "WoW: Nothing is impossible - what comes next?"

Patch 9.2 - Blizz is serious

With the latest update 9.2, the developers really got serious and threw things over the pile that players have been annoyed about for a long time, but always held on

to.

The biggest point here is certainly the decoupling of player power from most of the content in the new update.

Ciphers of the First, reputation with the Enlightened, the Zereth Mortis area, the new Torghast levels - all of that is optional for the most part. If you are only interested in strengthening your character, you can theoretically leave this content to the left. Not only did this make players feel less pressured, but it made the features appear in a whole new light. Instead of "having" to slog through it, you can now occupy yourself with it just as much as you want. As a result, the fun factor returned noticeably in places. Without the self-imposed pressure to perform, the new content is much easier to consume and enjoy.

Patch 9.2.5 - big change

Even before 9.2 arrived on the live servers, the developers also announced the first adjustment for patch 9.2.5 - and it has it all. With the upcoming update, Horde and Alliance players will be able to fight side-by-side for the first time in WoW (buy now )

history. Dungeons and raids will be unlocked across factions. Outside of the instances, however, the two factions will still remain enemies. Despite features such as LFR, cross-server or flexible raid sizes, this adjustment is probably the biggest upheaval in the history of the MMO so far.

After all, the split into Horde and Alliance has been an elementary and central part of the brand since the beginning of Warcraft. And just a few months ago, no one could have seriously imagined (even if we had often called for it and hoped for it) that Blizzard would soften this boundary at some point.

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WoW: End of Eternity - Launch trailer gets you in the mood for patch 9.2

What comes next?

At the same time, this won't be the end of the line. In interviews about patch 9.2, the developers never tire of explaining that all of the game's features and pillars are now being put to the test, and that they will not shy away from anything that could have a positive effect on the game experience. And even if the developers didn't communicate this directly, one got the impression that the departure of the old guard of developers, many of whom had to take their hats in the wake of the sexism scandal, was responsible for this rethinking. In the past, many such suggestions and ideas were immediately discarded because "this and that has always been the case and would be an integral part of WoW.

This is now a thing of the past. But what does this mean for the future of WoW? What changes could still follow? We sat down together and thought about which adjustments could at least be discussed by the developers and in our eyes have a positive effect on the game. We're intentionally speaking in the subjunctive, because we, too, always see WoW from only one of many perspectives. The developers, on the other hand, are currently relying primarily on the advice of the players, in which many such things are discussed calmly and in detail. But of course we want to share our thoughts with you.

The end of factions

Another major adjustment that seems obvious given the changes with 9.2.5 is, of course, the complete elimination of factions, or at least the outright fall of faction boundaries. Being able to play Mythic-Plus dungeons with my friends from the other faction is a step forward. However, there are many more obstacles. Cross-faction guilds or shared quests remain impossible with the new feature, but they are an important part of the communities in WoW. As long as the faction borders still exist, the player community will remain divided. Patch 9.2.5 softens the boundaries of factions - let's see them fall completely soon. Source: buffed

A no-brainer

With this point, we are not only sure that it is already being discussed internally, but also that it is only a matter of time until it is implemented. In our eyes, the current solution seems rather half-baked and not thought far enough. But that is completely understandable. After all, Blizzard doesn't want to do anything wrong here and would rather proceed too slowly than too quickly. The developers confirm: There is no way back.

Once the borders have fallen, they will by no means be rebuilt. The upcoming expansion, for example, would be a good time to dissolve the factions. Perhaps this is also a reason why the developers have not yet said anything about the upcoming expansion. If such a feature is planned there, then they would rather wait a few days longer to collect a lot of feedback and not announce anything that they then have to take back.

Mega server

Dividing the players into two factions is not good from the point of view of the player experience - but neither is spreading them out over dozens of servers. In addition, the server structures in WoW have been washed out over the years to the point where they don't really make sense at this point. On the one hand, we haven't had real internal server communities for a long time, but on the other hand, we still have various artificial restrictions between servers. Similar to cross-faction instances, we are allowed to play together with players from other servers, but a guild is not possible. The communities introduced by Blizzard are unfortunately a weak substitute. Real server communities have not existed in WoW for a long time. Source: buffed

Bad examples

Other MMOs have impressively demonstrated the disadvantages of individual servers in recent months: long queues, full and empty servers, lack of interaction among friends, and much more. Of course, these small servers also offer advantages. Communities are created and people know each other. Exactly what the players appreciated so much about WoW Classic.
However, the current server structure in Shadowlands offers none of that. A change to a few mega servers, for example one per language, would bring many advantages here. So why not? An important counter-argument might be the income from the character services. These would then be completely eliminated - similar to the case of factions. But whether Blizzard will continue to put revenue above the game experience in the future under Microsoft's leadership? We hope that a rethink will set in.

The name problem

As a counter-argument for mega servers, the problem of names is often brought up. After all, if all servers are thrown together without further ado, we'll certainly have some character names duplicated and triplicated. But we don't accept this argument, because it has already been solved with the connected servers. Karangor became simply Karangor-Ysera. This sounded like an emergency solution at the time, but over time it has become a habit. Today, no one crows about it anymore. Of course, it might seem a bit strange on a mega-server if common names are represented dozens of times, but we will get used to that very soon.

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