Think there will ever be a World of Warcraft 2?

Eventually, interest in WoW will fade, and the servers will close. That's a long way down the line, and I don't think Blizzard is really in a position to force the populace into a sequel. So, they're doing the smart thing by making the sequel come to the players: think of Cataclysm as WoW 2. There's an engine update, a big storyline push and an overhaul of talents, spells and mechanics from the ground up.

The Cataclysm timeline is going to deal with some storylines that players have wanted for a while - Uldum in Tanaris, the Naga in the Maelstrom. Whatever the full extent of the apocalypse in the Eastern Kingdoms is. We're going to be busy.

Essentially, I think they're trying to wrap up all of the events on Azeroth so they can get to what will presumably be the last expansion: the Emerald Dream. When that's done, Blizzard could go either way, and I don't have any gut feeling about this.

The last storyline in WoW after the Emerald Dream is done will be the Burning Legion. We're going to have to go to Argus and put a stop to the Burning Crusade. And I have no idea if they're going to do that by way of an RTS or through the MMO.

I personally think with Cataclysm they're going to do a lot. Introducing two new races is going to create the desire to level up new characters. What I am shocked they aren't doing is entering a new class. I'm shocked that WoW doesn't have a sort of "Monk" class or hand to hand combat class.

There is a new MMORPG slated for them. But I would bet they aren't going to start mentioning it until 2012 or 2013. It's been in development but they still have mouths to feed on WoW.

For those of you who have gone through the whole large scale MMO thing...you know how hard it is to let your main character drift into the mist. EQ1, UO...Basically, you leave when all your friends leave. I've been playing with the same people since I started on the MMORPG bandwagon. We literally have watched each other have kids, get married, get divorced, hung out at BBQ's, attended weddings...and even two funerals. Kinda weird when I think about it. But nice.

Soon there will be a significant MMO graphic engine breakthrough and Blizzard will develop the Galaxy of Warcraft. With ties to Starcraft.

Three more expansions (after Cataclysm) and a level cap of 100, my guess is that they'll probably just let the franchise fade. They might even implement some sort of elite player status or mastery level so that a small group (the most hard core) can achieve the illustrious level 101. Think about it... it's the perfect place to wrap up the experience. Put a nice little ribbon on it... But then, that's it. No more new stuff. Still, I can see people playing this game for another 20 years even without content updates or dev support. Blizzard will put everything in a battle chest and hawk it for $20. Game time costs will be cut in half. It will become a relic.

Blizzard will slowly kill off servers, offering free transfers to a number of existing realms. Those neglected or left behind characters will remain in limbo until the day they're dusted off and logged in. "Your character's realm is no longer available. Please choose a new realm for this character from the following list:" Most of the people we knew moved on or relocated their characters. Once expansions cease, serious raiding guilds will move on to the next MMO, leaving behind the casual players or those whose sole desire is to conquer already exhausted content. The realms will consist of achievement junkies and the PVE / RP servers will thrive, as they are less reliant on content progress to enhance their gaming experience. Level 100 characters will steamroll their way through 80 content similar to how an 80 can solo some level 60 raids and 70 dungeons.

You'll log in one day and decide to play on that one character that you haven't played since vanilla. You get put in a BRD PUG and tell people, "Sorry, I forgot my way around here. I haven't done BRD in almost a decade."

Exploring all alone in a desolate location on your realm will become even more lonely knowing that you very well might have been the only person to bring your avatar to touch ground here in days, weeks... months. Seeing someone else fishing atop a Feralas Colossal will be an alarming occurrence as the once social game turned to an MMO hinterland. With the exception of a couple desirable PVP realms, world PVP will dwindle to random occurrences -- rare enough that new player accosted and killed by an opposing player will wonder, "What the hell was that?"

And those of us with original PVP ranks above our heads, those of us with armor sets that just simply can't be obtained any longer, those of us who remember the first Naxxramas, Onyxia and Ragnaros, we'll slowly die off until only a few remain. At that point, I don't want any thing else. I don't want a WoW II. I want my memories. I might hang up my hat and go back to consoles. NES, perhaps.

There has to be a new Warcraft RTS at some point. My expectation is that maybe one or two expansions after Cataclysm, they'll produce Warcraft 4 and use that to jumpstart WoW2. There's only so high you can push a level cap before you know you have to completely revamp the entire system.

Dunno.. EVE Online's been rolling out free expansions for a while now and a little while ago rolled out a graphics update that really prettied up the game. I figure World of Warcraft might go down the same route.

Considering they are still selling more and more subscriptions each year and they can push out as many expansions as they want - I would guess Blizzard will not release an MMO for another 10 or so years. Everquest 1 lasted 10 years and they saw subscriptions dropping off after 2 years.

Blizzard has updated the graphics numerous times so I do not think the game will become dated in the graphics department ever.

I guess we will see how FFXIV will affect WoW shortly.

I'd be SUPER excited about it if there was one. Though, if you ask me, it's more likely there'll be a World of Starcraft first, and then maybe a Warcraft 4.

But you can bet on World of Starcraft before WoW2 ... and I'd be super excited about that one too.

I'd rather play World of Starcraft

The way I see it, WoW is up to 3.2 already...

As soon as WoW stops being an absolute fuckin' behemoth, then Blizzard might start thinking about it. As long as it controls something like 66% of the market, I think they're keen on keeping the xpac's coming.

Probably worth mentioning Blizzard has a new MMO IP slated for 2011.

ACTIVISION.

so yes.

Business wise I don't think it's a good idea. It would only fragment their already paying and profitable user base. Creating a new MMO franchise, this is a good idea and that's exactly what they officially announced that they are doing (but no details on what it is).

For WOW what they should do is a complete overhaul of the game graphics and to start selling the game with all the expansions included. It's really becoming ridiculous for new players to have to buy basically the game three times (and soon four).

There won't be a WoW 2.0 - at least, not in the sense that you buy an all-new game with all-new content.

Sequels simply do not work with MMOs. No one has ever pulled it off, and the sales numbers for those who have tried (hello, Everquest2) are horrifying.

MMOs follow the service model, incremental upgrades and new features over time. It may be possible to release a massively updated game engine with better graphics as part of a new expansion. I think that's part of what Blizz is planning with Cataclysm.

I'm quite sure Blizzard would rather release a StarCraft MMO (complete with a proper implementation of RPG/RTS/FPS in the same game) than a WoW sequel. Something like a Starcraft/Planetside/Warcraft hybrid. I would not be surprised at all to see Starcraft 2 making a big effort to set up the Starcraft universe much like Warcraft 3 did for WoW.

Three words:

World. Of. Starcraft.

Even if they did upgrade the graphics engine, they could just release it as an expansion, so those who didn't have the updated specs could keep playing.

Blizzard has already announced they are working on a new MMO. Nothing about the MMO is known. From what it looks like though, Warcraft has become the MMO universe, Starcraft is becoming the RTS universe and Diablo is becoming the RPG universe.

This is strictly speculation though