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Future expansions planned by Blizzard, from late 2003.Follow

#1 Sep 18 2007 at 5:38 AM Rating: Excellent
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So my computer died yesterday, leaving me no choice but to dig up my old laptop as my newer one is currently on loan to my mom. What an ancient thing. 8 gig hard drive, Windows 98, and just enough RAM to have a PDF file and internet explorer working at once...with a wait time of about 30 seconds every time I change windows. Useless for everything except surfing the internet for help reviving my desktop PC. As I waited for replies on tech support forums, I dug around a bit and found an old folder filled with crap I saved from my old desktop. I had kept the stuff there to transfer to my new PC, but it looks like I didn't care enough to go through with it.

Stuffed inside the folder were a crapload of documents and stuff pertaining to the World of Warcraft alpha and beta, back before I even cared about the game. I had been sent the stuff from my friend, who was in the friends-and-family beta that preceded the general closed beta in early 2004. Most of the documents were plastered with '2003'. A lot of them were boring, and I can't remember reading any of them. Maybe I looked at a couple and decided it was boring crap.

However, nearly four years later, I had enough of a mind to peruse them all. A lot of PDF-format conversions of early Gamespy previews, patents Blizzard took out for WoW, and so forth. I did find, however, a list of 'possible expansion sets' that looks really interesting. Some of the stuff looks a bit off, especially some of Outland and Northrend, so Blizzard isn't liable to stick to the rest of the plan down to the letter. But the quaint little PDF lists five expansion sets and the regions within. It goes as high as level 100. Nothing about it looks very official, though...it was nothing more than a wordpad document pasted into a PDF document, but I think it's of Blizzardly origins. I assume no responsibility for your actions if this list spurs you to run to the nearest auction house and buy thousands of golds' worth in armor so you can be ready for the Maelstrom.

Draenor Set

Azuremyst Isle - 1 to 10
Bloodmyrk Isle - 10 to 20

Eversong Forest - 1 to 10
Quel'thalas - 10 to 20
Hellfire Peninsula - 58 to 62
Zangarmarsh - 60 to 64
Terokkar Forest - 61 to 65
The Deadlands - 63 to 67
Nagrand - 64 to 68
Blade's Edge Mountains - 66 to 70
Netherstorm - 67 to 70
Shadowmoon Valley - 69 to 70

Northrend Set

Borean Tundra - 67 to 70
Howling Fjord - 67 to 70
Dragonblight - 69 to 72
Grizzly Hills - 70 to 73
Crystalsong Forest - 72 to 75
Zul'drak - 73 to 76
Sholazar Basin - 75 to 79
Storm Peaks - 76 to 80
Icecrown Glacier - 78 to 80

Maelstrom Set

Gilneas - 77 to 80
Grim Batol - 78 to 81
Kul Tiras - 79 to 82
Kezan - 81 to 86
Tel Abim - 83 to 85
Zandalar - 84 to 87
Plunder Isle - 86 to 88
The Broken Isles - 87 to 90
The Maelstrom - 89 to 90

Plane Set

Pandaria - 1 to 10
Hiji - 10 to 20

Wolfenhold - 1 to 10
Xorothian Plains - 10 to 20

The Green Lands - 88 to 91
The Dying Paradise - 91 to 94
The Emerald Nightmare - 94 to 97
The Eye of Ysera - 97 to 100

Deephome - 88 to 91
Skywall - 91 to 94
The Abyssal Maw - 94 to 97
The Firelands - 97 to 100

Legion Set

K'aresh - 96 to 99
Argus Meadowlands - 97 to 100
Mac'Aree - 99 to 100
Maw of Oblivion - 100+
The Burning Citadel - 100+++


I'm not sure what the plus signs indicate. I'm trying to get in touch with my friend (we had a falling-out a year and a half ago) to ascertain the origin of this strange little file.


Edited, Sep 18th 2007 7:41am by Reinjin

Edited, Mar 30th 2012 8:37am by Xsarus Lock Thread:
#2 Sep 18 2007 at 5:46 AM Rating: Good
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1,025 posts
Hmm, all this information is really interesting, seeing as they were planning to have the Draenei as a race later on as early as Release of WoW o.o, not to mention most of this is surprisingly accurate. I'm also guessing the Deadlands were the Bone Wastes around Auchindion, and it was intended to be a separate zone.
#3 Sep 18 2007 at 5:47 AM Rating: Good
If this is fairly accurate, then it's gonna be another couple years til we get Pandaren. That's sad. And the Emerald Dream is just a zone, and not an expansion. Guess it's not that big after all.
#4 Sep 18 2007 at 5:52 AM Rating: Good
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I think it is fair to say that Blizzard has a pretty steady game plan, they have the story planned out and where they want to take it and what they want to do, a LONG time in advance.

It is not like SOE where they get one expansion done and then sit down and say "what are we doing next?"
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#5 Sep 18 2007 at 5:56 AM Rating: Good
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Quote:
Plane Set

Pandaria - 1 to 10
Hiji - 10 to 20

Wolfenhold - 1 to 10
Xorothian Plains - 10 to 20


Two new races! Pandaren and?
#6 Sep 18 2007 at 5:58 AM Rating: Good
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125 posts
Quite a good find. Makes me hope for an awesome future for the game.

Quote:
And the Emerald Dream is just a zone, and not an expansion.


It looks to me like a pretty big part of an expansion considering it looks like it would contain half of the leveling zones of the "Plane Set".
#7 Sep 18 2007 at 6:02 AM Rating: Decent
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1,025 posts
Quote:
Two new races! Pandaren and?


To the sounds of it, with things like
Wolfenhold - 1 to 10
Xorothian Plains - 10 to 20
sounds to me like the Worgen, seeing as their from another dimension.
#8 Sep 18 2007 at 6:12 AM Rating: Decent
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1,259 posts
Worgen would be easy enough. Especially if you've ever used a Torment of the Worgen in Kara. I love those books and it's really fun turning into one.

That's exciting.
#9 Sep 18 2007 at 6:44 AM Rating: Good
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2,018 posts
Oh. My. God.

I just looked up Pandaren on WoWWiki, they're human-like Pandas. Awesome. Apparently they started out as a joke but got such a response that they included them in the Warcraft III expansion. They'd be an alliance race because they are close friends (that is, drinking buddies) with the Ironforge dwarves.
#10 Sep 18 2007 at 6:47 AM Rating: Default
Placeholder wrote:
Oh. My. God.

I just looked up Pandaren on WoWWiki, they're human-like Pandas. Awesome. Apparently they started out as a joke but got such a response that they included them in the Warcraft III expansion. They'd be an alliance race because they are close friends (that is, drinking buddies) with the Ironforge dwarves.


I had to laugh at this. Nobody should play Warcraft and not know the awesome that is Pandaren. They'd have to include the Brewmaster class with it though, or thousands will be disappointed.
#11 Sep 18 2007 at 7:34 AM Rating: Good
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Lady KeikoMYA wrote:
Quote:
Two new races! Pandaren and?


To the sounds of it, with things like
Wolfenhold - 1 to 10
Xorothian Plains - 10 to 20
sounds to me like the Worgen, seeing as their from another dimension.



Quote:
Xoroth is one of the fiery, chaotic worlds belonging to the Burning Legion, or more specifically, the Nathrezim (Dreadlords) (and, presumably, the Tothrezim). This is home to the infernal Dreadsteeds, mounts to the Dreadlords. They are owned by Lord Hel'nurath, the "stable keeper". You will have to summon a Dreadsteed in a quest for a warlock's epic mount by opening a portal to this world in Dire Maul. Dreadsteeds roam the fiery Plains of Xoroth".MG 72

Given that Xoroth is the home of the Dreadsteeds, it is possible that Xoroth is the world were the Dreadlords established their citadel (seen in The Dreadlords Convene an interlude from the Undead capaign in Reign of Chaos). However, given the number of worlds consumed by the Legion, the Citadel could reside on another Nathrezim world, or even on Argus.


Nathrezim is my guess
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#12 Sep 18 2007 at 9:34 AM Rating: Excellent
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5,444 posts
If they release worgen as a playable race, I'm rerolling in a heartbeat.
#13 Sep 18 2007 at 9:54 AM Rating: Decent
eventually being able to play as a worg or pandaran would kick some serious ***. Or some cool Pandara battleground/arena! One other thing I think that would be more likely than those would be some sort of Legion Class to play
as. Fel Orc or Demon or something.

Anyways I hope that they save a _LOT_ of this for the next game. From my friends I have been hearing about WoW "The Second Age" is in the planning stages right now. WoW2, with modern graphics. Also been hearing alot about that damned movie we are promised. I just can't wait to be sitting in the Theater watching like some movie and see the warcraft trailer come out.
#14 Sep 18 2007 at 10:04 AM Rating: Good
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1,270 posts
If they released pandaren and worgen.. OH.. what a hard choice that would be. They are both neat races. Here's the "History of Rumors" section from the wowiki, which tells why pandaren wasn't not the ally race in BC.
I wish we knew more...



A history of rumors

The pandaren started as a creation of the Blizzard artist Samwise and an April Fools joke, but they got a massive response from Warcraft fans. Soon, they were included in the Warcraft III expansion and Chris Metzen began to write them into the game lore. Due to this popularity, pandaren were rumored to be the new playable Alliance race to be introduced in the Burning Crusade expansion.

Their possible appearance in WoW has been hinted at multiple times by Blizzard. Katricia: "Maybe they will be found in the beta or retail version of the game and maybe they will be granted a special place in an expansion. Just imagine how exciting it will be to find one!" and "pandarens will not be a playable characters .. at this time. Will they make cameo appearances in the game as NPCs? Some things are best left unanswered I think :)"

Supposedly, a gaming magazine was brought to Blizzard's offices in the fall of 2005 to view the Burning Crusade expansion pack for the first time. There were dozens of posters and artwork depicting the pandaren as the new Alliance race. This rumor goes on to suggest the race was then canceled for reasons concerning "pandas being a sacred animal" in China, or with the "political problems [associated with a] Japanese/Chinese hybrid". Other gaming sources stated that when "mentioning the ex-April-Fools-joke Pandaren Empire to Blizzard staff got a surprisingly cagey response... " Blizzard has yet to confirm or deny these rumors directly.

In any case, Blizzard revealed in May 2006 that the new Alliance race for the expansion was to be the draenei, thus rendering most rumors incorrect. Nevertheless, Katricia's comments still leave some possibility for a future appearance in World of Warcraft.



Edited, Sep 18th 2007 2:07pm by GryphonStalker
#15 Sep 18 2007 at 11:14 AM Rating: Decent
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1,235 posts
I doubt the Pandaren. I seem to recall hearing that China had issues with using the panda in a game. Not sure if it was legal or cultural, but I think they had to remove the Pandaren from the Chinese version of WC3. And since they don't want to tick off one of their biggest customer bases...

Quote:
...seeing as they were planning to have the Draenei as a race later on as early as Release of WoW...

Not necessarily. The realm of Draenor was part of the lore for a long, long time, well before they changed lore to allow the Dranei as a player race.

Reinjin, thanks for sharing this possible look into WoW's future. Any possibility of someone authenticating this in any way?
#16REDACTED, Posted: Sep 19 2007 at 2:45 PM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) I posted this on th o boards and it wauz deleted in less than 10 minutes flat
#17 Sep 19 2007 at 3:27 PM Rating: Default
I am going to be cynical and call hoax.
#18 Sep 19 2007 at 10:22 PM Rating: Good
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Reinjin wrote:
I'm not sure what the plus signs indicate.


I'm pretty sure they used the same system of plus signs to indicate dungeon zones and raid zones before. Or was it levels of raid zones? Something like that.
#19 Sep 20 2007 at 1:43 AM Rating: Decent
Filterspawn wrote:
If they release worgen as a playable race, I'm rerolling in a heartbeat.


If they release Nathrezim as a playable race, I think everyone will.
#20 Sep 20 2007 at 7:48 AM Rating: Decent
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403 posts
Then again, they -did- apparently reskin Forsaken models to satisfy China... they could reskin their Pandaren to look like generic bear-men.

Worgen sound more likely than Nethzarim though... aren't those guys too insanely powerful to be a PC? That would be like making say, Dreadlord a playable race/class.
#21 Sep 20 2007 at 8:28 AM Rating: Decent
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1,025 posts
Quote:

Worgen sound more likely than Nethzarim though... aren't those guys too insanely powerful to be a PC? That would be like making say, Dreadlord a playable race/class.


Think Eredar to Draenei, as Nethzarim will be to the playable race, if they are an offshoot of Nethzarim.
#22 Sep 20 2007 at 8:29 AM Rating: Decent
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284 posts
why did they reskin forsaken models for china?
#23 Sep 20 2007 at 9:06 AM Rating: Decent
Dracosteve wrote:
why did they reskin forsaken models for china?



Apparently you can't show bones in China.

They look like this:
(do not link to RMT sponsored sites like that again)

Edited, Jun 27th 2008 8:53pm by Wordaen
#24 Sep 20 2007 at 10:26 AM Rating: Decent
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1,235 posts
digitalcraft wrote:
Dracosteve wrote:
why did they reskin forsaken models for china?


Apparently you can't show bones in China.

QFT. Magic: The Gathering has to do alternate art for any cards depicting human bones. They end up with skeletons that don't look like skeletons... Kinda sad, really...

As for reskinning Pandaren for the Chinese market, I hadn't thought about that. It's a possibility, unless it's the use of Chinese culture that they were objecting to (the Pandaren are from a distinctly Chinese background; China's government is very sensitive to any use of their cultural icons that they don't authorize...).
#25 Sep 20 2007 at 11:28 AM Rating: Default
I want to be a panderan :(
#26 Jun 27 2008 at 5:03 PM Rating: Decent
Bumping because people are asking for this thread all the time...


I vote for everyone who reads this thread to save the link!
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