Next WoW Expansion Title Leaked?

Gamespot reports that the German software ratings board may have accidentally tipped Blizzard's hand on the title of the next World of Warcraft expansion. "Spotted by German community site Gamona, a listing for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King appeared on USK yesterday, accompanied by the tag 'GC-demo,' implying Blizzard will be showing Wrath of the Lich King at this year's Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. Responding to a request for comment, a Blizzard representative stated, 'We have not yet announced any details with regard to future expansions of World of Warcraft.'" No surprise that Northrend would be the setting for the newest expansion. A bit disappointing, really.

Emerald Dream as well?

[Tyrsenus]

There's some speculation [mmo-champion.com] that the Emerald Dream will make it in this expansion as well.

There's a ton of other good info at that site too.

Re:disappointing my ass

[the unbeliever]

It fits with the story, really.

Arthas is nearly a god in the Warcraft mythos at this point, considering he wields Frostmourne, which has all the power of the Lich King in it.

God, I'm a huge nerd.

Re:World of Grindcraft

[Gravatron]

Not really. Most are fetch quests or kill quests. Even if you do "grind" usualys its only for a few minutes to collect X number of items. Compair that to say, Everquest, where you spent 95% of the time sitting at a camp pulling mobs for hours on end for only a minor advancement in level.

Re:World of Grindcraft

[Anonymous Coward]

Jame's alliance leveling guide is pretty decent imo, and i think he wrote a horde one recently wow-pro.com

Re:What's up with Blizzard?

[everphilski]

Remember, though, the bulk of those users are Chinese, paying a few pennies an hour to play. While they are making a killing, they aren't making nearly as much as most people believe.

Re:Hmm...

[gasaraki]

Levelling is fun when you're doing quests and instances, but way too much pre-60 levelling isn't do either but running from point to point all over the world map. Quests in Shimmering Flats tell you to go to Booty Bay then to Grom'gol then back to Shimmering Flats. I won't even go into the 'epic' levelling quests like Shaman totem quests, Warlock pet quests, etc. In those days the designers though, the more of the world you cover, the harder or more rewarding the quest, In actuality it's just running around for 45 minutes to kill 3 mobs. Not fun at all.

Also, getting an instance run on a pre-60 instance is near impossible on an old server because at any given point in time, maybe 5-10% of the players online are pre-70, and even fewer around your level. There are maybe 2-3 instances you're gauaranteed to be able to run (Horde side say WC and SM Arms/Cath), anything else, good luck.

There is also the problem of relatively underpowered characters when levelling. At 70, even in greens/blues, it takes maybe 10 seconds to kill an even con mob and you'll lose almost no health/mana doing it. Grinding is very fast-paced with decent rewards and very little downtime. Pre-60 killing an even con can take 30 seconds and 30% or more of both your health and mana depending on your class. It's a much more frustrating experience when coming from the 70 game.

The fact that other MMOs are even more punishing is unimportant, most people who play WoW don't other MMOs, at least any more, for that exact reason. But within WoW, there's a massive difference to the way characters level before and after Outland, and I tihnk anyone who's played Outland is going to be spoiled by how much better the design there is when going back to the old world.