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Is Cataclysm the Next World of Warcraft Expansion?
ajs writes "There has been no official announcement yet, but a number of moves by Blizzard Entertainment seem to indicate that the next expansion for World of Warcraft could be titled Cataclysm. Speculation began when Blizzard trademarked Cataclysm recently, and then later when a test server briefly popped up with the word 'Maelstrom' in its name. If true, the name would fall neatly into the WoW lore and expected expansion list. The Cataclysm is another name for the Great Sundering, an event that created a swirling vortex of water and mystical energies (the 'Maelstrom') that has appeared on the world map in-game since release. There are also indications that early design work included some of the islands in this area, which has long fueled anticipation of a Maelstrom-based expansion involving the former Night Elf noble, Azshara, queen of the Naga and the Goblins whose main city is in the south seas."
I'm fairly sure most WoW players of today will not care. They will care that there is new content, they will care that there are new areas, they will care that there is a higher level cap, they will care that there is new stuff, they will care that there is some new additional goodie they can tack to their character...
They will not care what it's called. I'm fairly sure you could call it "The quest for even more loot" and people will buy it. You could call that endboss drop "the superspecialawesome axe of leet" and they will go in and farm it, they will equip it and be proud to have it.
Name does not matter. Neither does the story. Not at all.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Please stop saying "based on new IP". Based on "a new fictional universe", "new ideas" and "new franchise" are all acceptable, but every time you casually use IP to refer to a collection of related fiction you're only furthering the concept that everything created automatically becomes property.