Omg Top Secret!?!?!?

[alliancefever]

ok so today when my server was down i went to the wow website and found this thing that said blizzard was hiring so out of curiosity i clicked it and i was looking at the jobs and i found all these jobs that said TOP SECRET and were asking for next gen mmo help COULD THIS BE A NEW MMORPG FROM BLIZZARD

we can only hope..i mean what if its a DIABLO mmo or a STAR CRAFT mmo?

you can look for your self i mean what if there already planning another expansion after WotLK!?!

/discuss

[DrScience]

yes, blizz has another MMO in the works. everything else is pure speculation - they are remaining very tight-lipped.

[alliancefever]

ya but i still hope its a diablo mmo that would be sweet:grin::grin::thumbsup::thumbsup::idea::idea::thumbsup::thumbsup::sunny::sunny::wink2:

[Your Average WoW Player]

I still find it hard to believe that they'd release another MMORPG.

Look at it from an MMORPG Fan as opposed to a Blizzard fan:
The MMORPG Fan will be like "Diablo MMORPG? Sounds like another Wow to me. I've already got WoW. Why do I need this one?"

I'd say about 85% of all WoW players never touched another Blizzard game in their life before WoW. They all came from places like EQ1 and other MMORPGs that preceded WoW. There are people out there who are like "MMORPG?!?!?!? GIMMIE!!!!!" *drool slobber slobber drool* and those make up the bulk of WoW's playerbase is my guess, and when WoW entered the Betas, the big name in MMORPGs was EQ1 and WoW corrected one of the biggest issues with most MMORPGs and that was killing bosses. With instances, you didn't have to wait on trying to kill the bosses. (Could you imagine trying to take down Ragnaros without instances? I can't.)

The MMORPG fans would probably look at any new Blizzard MMORPG while there is this much life in WoW and say "Another WoW. Why should I bother?" and the new MMO probably would fail. While WoW is still 3 years old, I think EQ1 lasted about 7 years or so before EQ2 took over. And even today, there are still quite a number of fans who remain loyal to EQ1 as opposed to EQ2. My guess is that IF Blizzard is indeed planning a new MMORPG, it's not for several years down the road. The earliest I could see a new Blizzard MMORPG is maybe 2010 or 2011.

There's still plenty of life left in WoW.

[Kalos]

I wouldn't get exicted about a "Mystery project" just yet. We've known that things like WOTLK and BC were coming out since the beginning of WoW, fragments of data from both the Alpha, Beta, and Release versions, as well as numerous sites such as: http://nogg-aholic.blogspot.com/2006/02/why-wow-is-bad-game-reason-8.html (ignore the title, concentrate on what he's managed to snapshot wayyyy before they entered the public realm.

We've known the following things since 2005:

# That we're going into the Emerald Dream at some point, and content has already been developed a long time ago, but is offically white-washed. That'll be an expansion of it's own most likely.

# The Naga will return as a massive force, there's been a 'naga temple' undersea instance in the bare-bones since 2003. So that's two still upcoming expansions, three if you count the already announced and named WOTLK expansion.

# Level 100 has always been a goal of the developers, Chris Metzen accidentally revealed this when he was discussing when players would probably see Arthas (obviously he was wrong, WOTLK's cap is 80 and almost certainly this is the 'Arthas' expansion). So we can expect another two expansion packs E.G. The two ideas listed above, I can't think up cool names for them, so let's just call them YED [Yerasas' Emerald Dream] and NISS [Naga Islands, Southern Seas] They might just be released in the same expansion, who knows.

In perspective, in about one or two years we can expect to see the middle point of WoW, half way through it's life span. I won't claim that I've predicted accurately, or that they'll stop at two more expansions after WOTLK, but I'm fairly confident that we'll see both of these zones well before the end, else their work would have been for nothing.

They've played thier cards very well, planning it out to span almost a decade at least. These new 'Secret MMO' job openings could be nothing more than then drafting in more coders, debuggers, and scripters to speed the work along on one of these expansions. There are many different teams working on this game, partly what makes progress so slow, they all have to interlock eventually, to avoid incompatibility there has to be a large amount of coordination. It's a monumental task to do.

[Lazt]

There's still plenty of life left in WoW.
What you are forgetting, or not seeing... Is that blizzard took years to come out with the expansion... that I guarantee you was at minimum already planned if not already created before they released the game wow its self....

Same with diablo 2. You know they planned the expansion before releasing the game!

There are several reasons they do things, and most all are carefully planned.

Having "TOP SECRET MMORPG PROJECT" on their website.... is NOT to keep it secret.

Its to do exactly what its doing now, build up hype, for something to happen far far in the future to make them even more money when it finally happens.

It will happen, but not anytime soon! Its nothing more than a gimick to excite people and build up hype to make them more money in the future. Blizzard is not worried about making a quick penny today, they are worried about planning to make big bux in the years to come. They already have there big $ for today!

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

Bah, my guess is it is the Starcraft MMO. Why? Because of how WoW came about. Blizzard announced WoW before WC3. The two are somewhat interconnected, in that WC3 sets the groundwork for WoW. I'd bet that Scarcraft 2 sets the groundwork for a Starcraft-themed MMO.

[Your Average WoW Player]

Stuff

Very, very, very true. Even if it is isn't for one of the WoW X-Packs, it's still not something to get hyped up about. Blizzard will probably run WoW until they can't possibly add to it anymore because hardware and software, even then, they might keep a couple of WoW servers up after they release whatever new Warcraft thing they do.


If you all want my Speculation on what it could be, I'll run down each of the Blizzard Universes:

Warcraft. Could either be a new WoW for a few years down the road, when the current WoW starts to run dry. Unlikely, but not impossible. If it is Warcraft related, I'd wager it's the inital workings of the next X-Pack. IE: Laying down basic code, laying down basic layouts for the new area, etc. etc.

Starcraft. I highly doubt that Starcraft will be made into an MMORPG. They have WoW for that, and Blizzard was known back in the early days for its RTS games. They'll want to keep to those roots and Starcraft is ideal for that. With Warcraft already in MMORPG, they probably won't demote Warcraft back to RTS. My guess is that it won't be a Starcraft MMORPG, as they'll want to keep to the RTS roots. You can't really take a game to an MMORPG, and then bump it back to RTS. I don't think that would work.

Diablo. Diablo's gameplay style is rather unique, but people like it, A LOT. There never really has been any other game like Diablo that is extreamly popular. My guess is Blizzard will want to keep Diablo like that.


In conclusion: Who knows? Maybe Blizzard is going to create a new series, keep that stuck on MMORPGs, and keep Starcraft and Warcraft back into the RTS's. But who knows. It could be anything.
Maybe they will make Starcraft into an MMORPG, and since Blizzard thus far as been pretty savvy with everything, and if they remain smart, they'd make it a one fee gets all. Otherwise, one would get wiped out, as people really wouldn't want to pay $30 a month for two games.
They'd go one or the other, and one of them will appeal to players more, and the other would die out, as more and more people migrate to the other (the pebble that starts the avalanche kinda thing) and then people who stay at the one that most people are leaving, would be like, "Screw this, there's no one here!" and go to the other one.


As Kalos said, it's WAAAAAAY too damn early to start getting hyped up over it.

[RioteR]

Its either Diablo or Starcraft

There is reason to believe it would be a Diablo MMO because their latest product is already going to be a starcraft product.

However it is also reasonable to believe it will be a Starcraft MMO because it will be hard to differentiate a diablo mmo from a wc mmo

I don't think that it will be a new franchise... I think if it were they would have at least given us this information already. There wouldn't really be a point in holding it back.

[Leviathonlx]

More then likely it would be a Diablo MMO since hasn't Blizzard already just came right out and said several times they don't intend on having a Starcraft MMO?

But no matter what the MMO is even after it is announced it will easily have years to go before its out on the market and by then the current WoW would for sure start dying down making it a possibility its even a WoW 2.

[Kalos]

Personally, I'd love an 'Islands' expansion. There's been places on the map we haven't seen since 1995 such as Crestfall, Tol Barad, or Kul Tiras/Bolarus. The Goblin home/kingdom of Undermine, the realm of the Mur'guls, the underwater realm of the Naga; all good content to explore. Throw in the islands Gul'dan raised when he was hunting for the Eye of Sargaras, and you have a bunch of zones and instances; with both Horde and Alliance dominant area (Alliance have Bolarus, the island capital of Kul Tiras, Horde can have a great outpost build ontop of the original Gul'dan expedition era base, Goblins make for a good neutral city as main hub ect).

The Emerald Dream is a more tricky one. That's going to take some thinking, either that or it is just going to suck :P There's the big bad, The Nightmare within, which will obviously play a huge part. It's a mirror realm of the regular world of Azeroth, built on dreams and proportions to that which lies in the 'real' Azeroth.

I really don't think it's going to be a Diablo MMORPG. Most of the people who wrote the canon for it have left Blizzard, so the story would be massacred, and it's just too similar to WoW. They have rich and varied differences, but to the average MMORPGer, it's going to look like "Another Blizzard medival fantasy game? Sorry, I've already played this theme K?" At this point, for the purposes of differentiation, a Starcraft MMORPG is far more likely. It's clearly different to WoW at a glance, Science-Fantasy rather than traditional 'magik, swords and ye olde Worlde' mixed up for the umteenth time.

I think these vancies are nothing but filling places on the WoW development teams and generating buzz with the community, something which Blizzard seem to have down to a fine art these days.

Don't get any hopes up for some big new game, beyond Starcraft II. They cancelled Warcraft: Adventures and Starcraft Ghost when they were close to the end of their development cycles. They've sunk far more time and money into active and announced projects before, betting on something coming out due to job vacancies with a little vagueness as to what they'd be working on (few games companies actually tell you what you'd be working on until they're actually sure you're a serious candidate with credentials, not a fan or someone from the media digging for info; secrecy is the norm, not the exception) it just isn't a bet worth taking.

Could be six years before we see any of the results from this. I was seeing screenshots in 2000 of 'Warcraft 3' which actually turned out to be Westfall in WoW; originally Warcraft 3 was essentially the same project that WoW was, but they split at some point to allow Warcraft 3 to become a traditional RTS and WoW to become a MMORPG; originally 'Warcraft 3' was an RPG played in third person, you controlled an individual character for main focus, you'd gather troops and team your units up, and control them. This wasn't developed upon much, and quickly this idea faded over time, well before the Closed Beta started. I'd tell you more, but www.Warcraftiii.net hardly functions any more, nearly every section has been ripped off of it, including those old archives.

[alliancefever]

i hope blizzard will drop a hint or recognize this thread

[Kalos]

i hope blizzard will drop a hint or recognize this thread
Who says they haven't already? :wink:

Though of course, if a user was a Blizzard employee, they would be unable to publically accept or reveal their nature to be so. So all you could see are users and a few mods ticking over the night forum shift discussing an appealing and active topic in this thread :grin:

[xXmarkXx]

:'( after googling Warcraft :Adventure, it makes me wish they had brought it out. But I guess it would have had to compete with the broken sword series, and the first 2 of them were pretty awesome.

Anyway, haven't blizzard been advertising for more staff for a secret project for a few months now? I'm sure I remember lots of threads like this popping up the first time one of the staff wanted things popped up before burning crusade was released.

[spadron]

Though of course, if a user was a Blizzard employee, they would be unable to publically accept or reveal their nature to be so.

Yes, I nearly got in trouble last time.

I "think" it's World of Starcraft btw.

[Pongle]

I wouldn't think blizzard would want to make another MMO to compete with the current MMO.

[Aerath]

Bah, my guess is it is the Starcraft MMO. Why? Because of how WoW came about. Blizzard announced WoW before WC3. The two are somewhat interconnected, in that WC3 sets the groundwork for WoW. I'd bet that Scarcraft 2 sets the groundwork for a Starcraft-themed MMO.

Starcraft has had a recent update.

They go in circles, making Diablo the more likely candidate.

I wouldn't think blizzard would want to make another MMO to compete with the current MMO.

Non-sense. If anyone is going to kill your game (and it's only a matter of time before someone will, it being the more likely the older WoW gets), it's best to do so yourself so you can keep the customers.

I can't exactly remember the details, but do know a blue has commented on the new job offers up. Might even have been a news post here, or on blue watch. Seem to recall it indeed being a MMO, but may well be mistaken there.

[TPMdm]

They're gonna do an MMO based on this property

http://www.blizzard.com/blizzclassic/vikingsdemo.shtml

[Leviathonlx]

Personally, I'd love an 'Islands' expansion. There's been places on the map we haven't seen since 1995 such as Crestfall, Tol Barad, or Kul Tiras/Bolarus. The Goblin home/kingdom of Undermine, the realm of the Mur'guls, the underwater realm of the Naga; all good content to explore. Throw in the islands Gul'dan raised when he was hunting for the Eye of Sargaras, and you have a bunch of zones and instances; with both Horde and Alliance dominant area (Alliance have Bolarus, the island capital of Kul Tiras, Horde can have a great outpost build ontop of the original Gul'dan expedition era base, Goblins make for a good neutral city as main hub ect).

The Emerald Dream is a more tricky one. That's going to take some thinking, either that or it is just going to suck :P There's the big bad, The Nightmare within, which will obviously play a huge part. It's a mirror realm of the regular world of Azeroth, built on dreams and proportions to that which lies in the 'real' Azeroth.

I really don't think it's going to be a Diablo MMORPG. Most of the people who wrote the canon for it have left Blizzard, so the story would be massacred, and it's just too similar to WoW. They have rich and varied differences, but to the average MMORPGer, it's going to look like "Another Blizzard medival fantasy game? Sorry, I've already played this theme K?" At this point, for the purposes of differentiation, a Starcraft MMORPG is far more likely. It's clearly different to WoW at a glance, Science-Fantasy rather than traditional 'magik, swords and ye olde Worlde' mixed up for the umteenth time.

I think these vancies are nothing but filling places on the WoW development teams and generating buzz with the community, something which Blizzard seem to have down to a fine art these days.

Don't get any hopes up for some big new game, beyond Starcraft II. They cancelled Warcraft: Adventures and Starcraft Ghost when they were close to the end of their development cycles. They've sunk far more time and money into active and announced projects before, betting on something coming out due to job vacancies with a little vagueness as to what they'd be working on (few games companies actually tell you what you'd be working on until they're actually sure you're a serious candidate with credentials, not a fan or someone from the media digging for info; secrecy is the norm, not the exception) it just isn't a bet worth taking.

Could be six years before we see any of the results from this. I was seeing screenshots in 2000 of 'Warcraft 3' which actually turned out to be Westfall in WoW; originally Warcraft 3 was essentially the same project that WoW was, but they split at some point to allow Warcraft 3 to become a traditional RTS and WoW to become a MMORPG; originally 'Warcraft 3' was an RPG played in third person, you controlled an individual character for main focus, you'd gather troops and team your units up, and control them. This wasn't developed upon much, and quickly this idea faded over time, well before the Closed Beta started. I'd tell you more, but www.Warcraftiii.net hardly functions any more, nearly every section has been ripped off of it, including those old archives.

The expansion after WotLK will likely be the Maelstrom as during the first Blizzcon when the BC was announced they mentioned they were committed to making expansions of Northrend and the Maelstrom. So in that expansion we may see Undermine and the other island nations along with the places in the maelstrom.

After that I could see the Emerald Dream after what Kaplan said on the forums a while back. The Emerald Dream would be pretty neat since it would be a pre-sundering Kalimdor.

[FlareCDE]

Who says Blizzard can't come up with a new IP. I mean, Warcraft and Starcraft and Diablo are great, but they created them in the first place.

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

Starcraft has had a recent update.

They go in circles, making Diablo the more likely candidate.

They do, but Warcraft had 2 updates, more or less, in a row -- Warcraft 3, and World of Warcraft. So there is evidence of them not necessarily going in circular updates.

Currently, there are 2 unannounced projects for Blizzard. One has been confirmed to be a "non-expansion unannounced new MMO" (so, no, not a WoW expansion), the other is completely unknown, but heavily speculated, in particular as possibly being Diablo III, which Blizzard's been their typical stance of completely getting around any directed questions about it. I believe those articles which reference this are in the news archives of this very site.

Blizzard's people also explained that it is easier/quicker/less resource intensive for them to continue building on their current IP's, rather than creating a completely new IP. There was also a feeling that they hadn't told all the stories in the Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft universes yet, so odds are they won't stray from them for the time being, so something completely new would be unlikely.

A Diablo-themed MMO might seem good for some people, but honestly, Blizzard's smart money would be on making an MMO of a completely different genre than WoW. Diablo would be another fantasy genre, and there would be a lot of comparison to WoW, and a pronounced problem of splitting their playerbase based on genre alone. A Starcraft-themed MMO would be a completely different genre (sci-fi rather than fantasy), which while there will be a division of the playerbase from WoW, it wouldn't necessarily be as pronounced (because there are those who like fantasy more than sci-fi), plus a sci-fi genre MMO would open up more possibility of getting into a new set of customers who don't care for fantasy but like sci-fi.

Combine that with the connection that existed with WC3 and WoW, if I remember correctly, WoW's initial press release came out before Warcraft 3's. WC3 launched first, and even had an expansion, all before WoW finally was launched. But,. the two are somewhat symbiotic. In many ways, WC3 helped test some of the ideas and technology that WoW was to have. It helped advance the storyline of the Warcraft universe to the point of where they wanted WoW to be at. The two have a rather interesting relationship. I'd think that Starcraft 2 may have a similar kind of symbiosis with a Starcraft MMO -- testing new ideas and technology that Blizzard wants to put in the MMO, advancing/setting up the storyline of the universe to the point of allowing for the MMO.

With what little we know of Starcraft 2, a Starcraft MMO wouldn't just be a "sci-fi themed WoW" I don't even think the term "Worlds of Starcraft" that people seem to like, would be a correct term (which, if memory serves, Blizzard said there will be no "Worlds of Starcraft", but not necessarily that there will be no Starcraft MMO). They could build the three races as playable, and make them be really radically different. They already have a good number of character models built -- leftovers from Starcraft: Ghost that could end up being reincarnated in a Starcraft MMO. Blizzard could do to the Sci-fi MMO genre what they already have done to MMOs in general. Right now, there aren't many sci-fi MMOs, and the ones that exist, are very niche products, appealing to a smaller base of players than other MMOs. Blizzard could make it so that the three "factions" -- Protoss, Zerg, and Terrans to really look, feel, and operate radically different from each other, to the point that it may feel like they are almost playing three different games (which honestly, right now, in WoW... Horde or Alliance are basically very similar in many ways, they are more alike than different).

But, like has been said.... it's way too early to hype about anything on it. All we know is there is an unannounced MMO project, and there is another unannounced, non-MMO project.

[piscene]

I wouldn't think blizzard would want to make another MMO to compete with the current MMO.

Not to compete, no. But they must recognize that every game has a life span, and they will definitely want to be ready with the next game before this one is officially dead.

This way, rather than lose the market share, they simply get players to move to their newest MMO.

[Your Average WoW Player]

Whatever series this new MMO follows, my guess is that it's going to be timed for when WoW starts to die, and based on new technology, they have to replace it. There comes a point in time for an MMO like WoW that in order to keep it going, you just have to make a new game (IE: WoW2). Technology has improved too much, you want to add stuff that would be way to hard even for an X-Pack, etc. etc.

If it is true that WoW as announced before WCIII (I have no idea, but I'll take people's word for it) then WoW's initial work must have began around 1998, 1999, 2000 or so. Meaning it was in production for almost 4-6 years before release, and that doesn't surprise me with how big MMOs are, WoW being no exception. Suppose this new MMO started in 06, 07, then we might not see it until 2012, 2013ish. By which time WoW will begin to show its age.

My guess at this point is whatever it is, it's WoW's replacement. Be it WoW 2, or a Starcraft or Diablo MMO.

So it could be anything. Who knows, it might very well be WoW2. But I wouldn't hold my breath for it.

[MrBCorp]

Who says Blizzard can't come up with a new IP. I mean, Warcraft and Starcraft and Diablo are great, but they created them in the first place.

Yes, except most of the original people involved have left and they were the ones who came up with these concepts and ideas in the first place.

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

Yes, except most of the original people involved have left and they were the ones who came up with these concepts and ideas in the first place.

There was an interview, relatively recently, in the news archives of this site, where someone from Blizzard explained they've considered new IP's. The problem is, to build a completely new IP, it takes a lot of dedication to flesh it out and polish it to Blizzard's standards, before a game can be made from it. With their current IP's, that work is already done, the worlds are established. Basically, it isn't like they are completely opposed to making a new IP, it is more that it is far simpler/more convenient/has a faster development time & process to build off the existing IP's. And they aren't out of ideas for the current IP's yet.

Basically, the idea of a game made from a new IP is not as likely as a game that is made from the Warcraft, Diablo, or Starcraft series.

Oh, and for the "unannounced MMO", besides it not being a WoW expansion, I believe it was clearly stated it isn't a WoW replacement, for example, it isn't WoW2; and based off of the "bonuses" from the WoW-themed laptop, I'd say Blizzard has plans for at least 5 more WoW expansions (at their hoped 1/year, that's at least five more years, give or take, before I'd expect to see anything like a WoW replacement)

[Baboon]

Its either Diablo or Starcraft

There is reason to believe it would be a Diablo MMO because their latest product is already going to be a starcraft product.

However it is also reasonable to believe it will be a Starcraft MMO because it will be hard to differentiate a diablo mmo from a wc mmo

I don't think that it will be a new franchise... I think if it were they would have at least given us this information already. There wouldn't really be a point in holding it back.

I don't see how it can be Diablo. It doesn't have a story. It's "Oh noes Diablo is roaming the world, follow him and kill him". And because Diablo is more based on combat then grouping, why would you need a world? It would only make sense for loads of PvP imo.

And anyway, I think at some time Blizz needs to start building WoW2, because with WoW1 they have to contantly work around their original design flaws, like having to add huge stamina and resilience in TBC to deal with the rediculous amounts of spellpower. And at some point, the graphics won't be good enough anymore.

[alliancefever]

THE SECRET IS HERE http://wow.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=408827

[Xlorep DarkHelm]

THE SECRET IS HERE http://wow.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=408827

No, not it isn't. That only talks about the similarities between WoW and console games, as they are getting to be more and more online.

since you missed this quote:

WoW on console isn't going to happen

Or at least, not anytime soon. Yesterday a quote reported by Gameplayer started a rumor about WoW eventually becoming available on next-gen consoles, I got a few mails about this and it's been reported on a few sites already but if you check Gameplayer's site, you'll see that the news has been updated :

"A representative from Vivendi’s Australian office has been in contact with us and issued the following statement: “Regarding the statement above made by Chris Ansell at the recent Prototype event in Sydney. Chris was referring to the future of next-generation game development and how multiplayer online play was going to grow to encompass much larger groups. He was only making a link to World of Warcraft as a great example of where online play is going, not a reference to World of Warcraft on console"