Breakfast Topic: Is it time for another Cataclysm?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how mature WoW is, and how the game effectively pressed the reset button with Cataclysm to bring in a new audience and update the world to a more modern state (while moving the story along, of course). What struck me, in particular, was how much time had actually passed since Vanilla WoW released and Cataclysm, and then where we are now. For your eye-opening pleasure:

Vanilla WoW – November 2004

1. The Burning Crusade

2. Wrath of the Lich King

Cataclysm – December 2010

1. Mists of Pandaria

2. Warlords of Draenor

3. Legion – Sometime in 2016

Six years went by between the release of WoW and Cataclysm, and another six years has gone by between the release of Cataclysm and Legion.

If Cataclysm was the reset button on Azeroth, and Legion is not pushing that button again, it begs the question … does next expansion need to be another earth-shattering event? It would be a near perfect setup if the mighty Legion was unstoppable and destroyed Azeroth as we know it, forcing the game, the players, and the very systems of WoW itself into upheaval in the expansion that follows.

Blizzard is never afraid to push the limits of what’s expected in a game, and they’re not afraid to throw everything out and start over again. In many respects Cataclysm was just that; the very world reshaped itself and became new again. The classes got entirely refreshed, long standing methods of play changed overnight (remember the AoE runs of Wrath? Gone!), and an entirely new player-base was introduced to the game through a streamlined leveling experience.

Does WoW need that again? In some respects, yes, it does. There have been a lot of advances in the customization around an individualized story that’s expected from modern RPGs. Think of the depth of Witcher and Skyrim, or the non-linear nature of those games. WoW is even testing the waters with this in their leveling path for Legion. Can we see this very thing work its way into the base game, changing the way that players level and experience WoW? I would be far from surprised if we saw it.

Maybe this is just my fandom speaking, and maybe it’s just my need for something crazy; but another Cataclysm after our failure to stop the Legion sounds like a fun expansion.