Virtual Worlds #6: A Glimpse of Things to Come... Maybe

In massively-multiplayer worlds, secrets are hard to keep. When you have over four million subscribers waiting to hear what's in store for their favorite game, it's next to impossible to keep even the most minor of details quiet. So as Blizzard's inaugural BlizzCon event approaches, it's hardly a surprise that details on the convention's big announcement, World of Warcraft's first expansion pack, have started to leak out.

Be advised: While some of these rumors are almost certain to be true, some are just as likely to be complete nonsense. We'll find out more once BlizzCon starts at the end of the week -- consider nothing confirmed until then. So don't go drooling over the Blood Elf ladies and deleting your level 60 priest in readiness, OK?

One of the rumors that's most likely to be correct (thanks to some very authentic-looking leaked screenshots) is that the expansion -- reportedly titled "The Burning Crusade" -- adds at least one new race, the Blood Elves. Judging by these screens, which depict the Blood Elf starting area and non-player characters, they'll look rather like Night Elves but with a natty line in red and yellow suits and some very chic oversized shields. Nice.

One of the more attractive things about this race is that it'll finally provide Horde players a way to play nice-looking, pointy-eared lady characters. Orcs, trolls, walking corpses, and cows just don't hit the spot for many people, as evidenced by the Alliance-heavy player biases, and no doubt Blizzard would like to find some way to even things out.

Of course, they'll have to be powerful enough to make players want to switch. Specifics about the Blood Elves racial specialties aren't confirmed, but one report published in an Italian magazine puts them as an offensive mana drain ability and an area-effect silence spell. If that sounds overpowered to you, then you're not the only one. But hey, Blizzard needs to find some way to make the expansion a must-purchase for any WOW player, right?

Cynicism aside, the likely release date for the expansion isn't for another six months or so. Those in the beta -- it seems so long ago now! -- will remember that many races and classes experienced drastic changes. Undead used to be able to breathe underwater. Mages used to have invisibility. It's likely nothing is set in stone about the Blood Elves.

It would hardly be fair for the Horde to get a fancy new race without the Alliance getting one too. Trouble is, nobody seems to know what it is, except Blizzard, and they're not telling. Speculation covers a number of possibilities, but right now the leader seems to be the Pandarens, a ferocious race of Asian-looking panda-people with a penchant for beer, last seen in Warcraft III's Frozen Throne expansion.

The problem? Pandarens have always been a bit of a running joke. Blizzard followers will already be familiar with their many appearances in past April Fool's jokes. They also don't seem to fit very well with the ethos of the Alliance, being broadly peaceful and in harmony with nature. It's hard to see that sitting too well with the Alliance's militaristic and expansionist activities. If anything, they fit better as a Horde race.

Jewelcrafting, purportedly a new trade skill profession, is another rumored addition. Diablo II players will remember the way gems of various types and qualities could be inserted into weapons and armor to add status effects, and this system is expected to work similarly. Whether it'll also let players craft jewelry items like rings and trinkets remains to be seen.

It's also pretty much certain they'll give all those level 60 characters something new to do. Extending the level cap is an MMORPG expansion pack standard feature, so there's plenty of speculation Blizzard will kick it up to 75 or so. Whether they'll keep the present talent point advancement system is less sure.

Because the current system has been balanced so carefully, adding just one more point (as anybody who's specced out a level 60 will tell you) would open up some seriously powerful -- and probably unbalancing -- builds. That's not to say Blizzard couldn't deal with these problems. Maybe you'll only earn talent points up to level 60, and there will be some kind of EverQuest -style alternate advancement system after that.

So what content are we expecting? Those well versed in Warcraft lore will be happy with the rumored additions. The Caverns of Time, a new raid instance, will allow larger groups to take part in historical events from the Warcraft universe's history, like the freeing of Thrall and the opening of the Dark Portal. There's also talk of a new flying mount that can only be used in the new zones. Letting players fly about on their own is a good way to make your world seem a whole lot smaller, so we'll see whether anything comes of that or not.

Also from the rumor mill -- and take these ones with a cup or two of salt -- is word of a set of new 100-man instances where Alliance and Horde have to work together, a magic-combating character class called Spell Breakers, cross-server Battlegrounds, Gnomeregan and Echo Islands changing into starting zones for gnomes and trolls respectively, and even murlocs being added as playable characters. Actually, that last one might work quite well...

Murlocs! We want to be murlocs!

World of Warcraft's first expansion is a big step for the development team. So far, they've seemed unstoppable, amassing a subscriber base no other Western MMO could dream of while maintaining a constant flow of additions, balance tweaks, and other content. It's an enviable position to be in, but in games where players have so much invested in their characters, the tide of public opinion can change awfully fast. We should find out this week how much of this speculation turns out to be fact.

Virtual Worlds provides a regular in-depth exploration of thorny issues, news, analysis, and commentary on everything happening in the massively multiplayer world.

Recent columns:
- Virtual Worlds #5: A Plague Hits Azeroth
- Virtual Worlds #4: Have you been duped?
- Virtual Worlds #3: Sony's Great Experiment

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