Claws of fury and future developments

I'm not really sure why, but for some reason I had been under the impression that my druid was underpowered for the zone he is in. I tore things up back in Azeroth so I could level to 62 before continuing on in Zangarmarsh because I thought I would have some trouble there, but now that I went back I am having no trouble at all. In fact, I have no problem making quick work of almost anything I come up against, and have even soloed an elite or two in order to finish some quests. I think the problem was I had read a couple leveling guides and both said you need to be at least 62 to start Zangarmarsh, which I took as it would be a huge struggle to get through it unless I were to level up, and since I hate grinding I decided to put that character on hold for a while to focus on my others. Well I picked him back up and I am remembering why I liked my druid so much. He pretty much has a way to deal with any situation. Killing normal mobs really only requires cat form, and the occasional heal in between fights. Going up against an elite I stick with bear form for its ridiculous armor and stamina gains, then if I start to get low on health I can shapeshift out, pop a heal or two and switch back. I think I will be sticking to leveling my druid until he runs out of his rested state, which I'm thinking will take a while, then maybe go back to my priest.

Now I want to turn to the future and what Blizzard, and MMO gaming in general, has in store for us. So far none of the MMO games have come close to WoW, but there are some new ones coming out that are looking pretty good. Age of Conan and Warhammer Online being the most anticipated, but I wonder how much competition they will provide. At this point, despite some of the new games perhaps having slightly better graphics and different gameplay, how many WoW players are actually going to switch over? I know I am interested in what the other games have to offer, but I don't really see myself actually making the switch. I will probably try out the games, use up the trial period or something, but after all the time I've put into WoW I don't see myself dropping it completely, I just don't think those games will be so much better that I will make that commitment. I have tried FFXI, City of Heroes, and I even tried out EQ2 and I can tell you that despite all the rave reviews I read from players of those games, it didn't come close to WoW in my opinion, I think EQ2 came the closest, but they all tended to require too much grouping to get anywhere. I think part of the reason is I am drawn to the Warcraft universe, not that I keep up with all the lore and such, but I was a huge fan of Warcraft 2, played through the entire campaign of Warcraft 3 within two weeks of its release, and while I was hesitant to buy a game that would have a monthly charge, I can now say I am happy I bought it.

Now on the subject of future Blizzard activities, I have a few speculations that I would like to share. Keep in mind these are just speculations and have no evidence to back them up, but this is sort of what I'm hoping for. We all know, despite how great a game it is, WoW will not be able to stick around forever. We will get expansions, patches, new content, but eventually Blizzard will move on to new projects and let the game run its course until people get tired of it, much like they did with Diablo 2, which went on for quite a while, and that game only had one expansion, so don't expect WoW to die off for a significant amount of time. We know Starcraft 2 will be released in the future, as will the new Wrath of the Lich King expansion, but what I'm wondering is what can they do past this expansion? Arthas is the big guy, the main boss, the end of the game, and at this point there is no lore to suggest there is anyone more powerful, so where will they go from there? Right now I'm thinking that since so few people read the books, they are probably going to have to create Warcraft 4 in order to get all players on the same page with the events, otherwise I see no way of advancing the plot. Sure they will add new content in the form of patches, but while further expansions have the potential for new classes or races, that won't appeal to the end game players, and they will get tired of running the same instances over and over again.

Another development I would be excited to hear about is something coming out of the Diablo universe. I loved Diable 2, and an MMO version of that would be awesome, and at this point it is the only game I can think of that could pull me away from WoW. They would have to leave the style of gameplay in though, because while WoW tends to have you face one mob at a time, a Diablo style game would have huge groups of enemies that die more quickly but will gang up on you in order to take you down. I always loved gathering a huge group of enemies with my amazon, throwing a few lightning javelins into them and watching them all fall. Obviously they couldn't make everything soloable as it was in Diablo, but I will let them figure out exactly how to make it all work. Seriously, a 3D and much expanded MMO version of Diablo 2 would be all I could ask for in an MMO game. There are theories out there about a Diablo MMO already being in production but until we have an official announcement from Blizzard I can't take those too seriously. Besides, why be competition for another of your own games? Although a Diablo MMO may appeal to a different crowd who want something a little less cartoony and more dark, but I don't see it happening until the number of WoW subscribers starts to die off significantly.

Anybody else have ideas of what that future holds? Or maybe even have some inside info? (although I suppose inside info would have to be kept secret if you're a Blizzard employee)