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5 Wildest Blizzcon Dreams

by - 1 year ago

This year has been one of the least hyped Blizzcons… ever? In fact you can still buy tickets right now on the official website. And resale? Not exactly a profitable enterprise.

This could be due to any number of reasons such as:

  1. Bobby K being an asswipe
  2. Blizzard fans feeling squeezed dry by corporate practices
  3. Game quality/Free to play models
  4. Everything that happened summer of 2021
  5. And of course. Bobby. Fucking. K.

It is likely true that Blizzcon this year is a tempered return after COVID and therefore not likely to be announce anything major… but what if? WHAT IF?! So… let’s play the what if game? In an age of doom and gloom and negative sentiment for clicks I’m going to try and remain as positive as possible.

Here are my top five wildest dreams being announced from Blizzcon 2023. Within reason.

5. New Hearthstone Game Mode.

This is an easy one and a slam dunk of a prediction. Hearthstone has already done what they normally do… release an expansion. Why? Well… something else has to be down the pipe. What’s more? There was a new set of packs “released” with the most recent pre order that were different from any other pack we’ve seen (shoutout to discord member Katsu for the image below). But… what in the hell could it be?

Long awaited features like tournament mode, or tournament mode, or even tournament mode seem unlikely. What’s more a different “ladder” mode like Twist or Wild also seem unnecessary. They haven’t seen much success with modes like Duels or Mercenaries (RIP) so another iteration of that might not be the best call either.

My wildest hope is a new sealed style game mode. You open X number of packs and then build decks based off of them. It would be a slightly different take on what we already have in arena while giving one of the long awaited format changes. But in my heart of hearts the thing I wish for more than anything (other than tournament mode) is an entirely new mode copying from Magic the Gathering’s Commander format.

Perhaps these cards are a different take on that. Containing only “legendary” type cards that are too powerful for standard? Please? Thank you.

4. WoW’s Newest Expansion Announced.

Another announcement that is all but guaranteed. WoW announces their expansions like I announce my hatred of Bobby K. Consistently. I mean… look at this chart from their wikipedia page! ITS SO CONSISTENT!!

So the question here isn’t whether it will be announced but what the expansion will be. With the return of Chris Metzan WoW faithful are likely hoping for something big but also… he JUST returned. Let’s keep expectations… low for now. Long term? The sky is the limit.

The most common rumor now is a Dwarf themed expansion and boy howdy I hope it is not. “World of Warcraft: Dwarf” doesn’t have a great ring to it. What’s more why would they ever have an entire expansion on a race that is in one faction? It would be very silly.

Give me the end of Warcraft!

That’s right I think it’s time we brought an end to “warcraft: orcs and humans” and instead have a more nuanced take with regards to factions. We’ve already seen cross-faction guilds, cross-faction instances, and more… so why not get rid of factions entirely? Orcs and Humans was a product of its time. Leave it in the past.

Here’s my WILD take.

This will be the last expansion of World of Warcraft before a reboot happens. The Void Lords finally make their biggest play yet and there’s only one individual who can help them… Sargeras. They “free” Sargeras to deal with this corruption one last time, but at what cost? A full reboot of the entire universe? With the titans aiding them… anything is possible.

3. Overwatch relaunches PvE

Now let’s be clear. They will never release the PvE they promised at Blizzcon in 2019 and I am definitely over it. Clearly. For reals. I haven’t sat frustrated on this topic for literal months… Okay I am. One last time. Fuck you for promising what would’ve been my favorite game ever and then not delivering it in any way shape or form. Okay. I’m good. Good. Great. Breathe.

Where was I? Right. Predictions!

What they ARE going to announce is a combination of their last round of PvE story missions with some of the recent Halloween PvE missions. What’s great about the Halloween missions? They add modifiers to your heroes abilities. It’s fun as hell. It’s great. It’s exactly what a full PvE mode with a talent tree would do to succeed.

If only… if only they had made a full game that somehow combined two of the best elements that Overwatch has to offer… in perhaps… a sequel… an Overwatch… 2? Oh right… Sorry I guess I’m still not over it.

Give me a story mode WITH new abilities! Please.

2. Diablo 4 gets a mini expansion.

I don’t think it’s close enough to even discuss a full expansion, but I do think it’s far enough along that they could announce something big here. They’ll probably just announce a new season and new patch, but let’s play in a magic pretend world where we make bold predictions!

Diablo 4 gets a new (old) class.

There are several iconic classes that are not found in Diablo 4… yet. So I think they announce the “largest patch yet” complete with a DLC purchase of a brand new class. I’m thinking… Monk? In the past most Diablo expansions come with a class itself, but I’ve got a feeling Blizzard wants to monetize this game in chunks. I can see multiple classes being released throughout its history instead of a full “expansion.”

But… let’s make this bolder.

Diablo Immortal gets its first full expansion!!

Still not hot enough?! UGH FINE!!

LILLITH DATING SIM!

There. Happy? You degenerates… Wait. No. I actually want that. Hey Blizzard. Please let me date Mommy Lillith. I’d sell my soul for it (Roughly $20 in American monies).

1. The Untitled Survival Game Gets Titled.

The “untitled Survival game” has been floating around for a very long time. What is it? We still won’t know. Supposedly the game is called “Odyssey.” Whether that’s an official name or a project name like Project TITAN is still unclear.

The last time Blizzard released new IP? 2016 Overwatch. Before that… Starcraft in 1998. Maybe this new IP will be the shot in the arm Blizzard really needs.

I don’t think we will see the game for a few more years but this year we will get a teaser trailer with a name. Gameplay? Maybe. Vibes? Likely. Release date? Soon ™.

If you want me to get really bold (and I do) then I think we’ll get to play the tutorial on the Blizzcon floor. I imagine it will be similar to the Overwatch 2 demo we got to play a few years ago (shoutout to the greatest demo of all time… seriously Overwatch 2 was going to be amazing… AND IM TOTALLY OVER IT STILL) with very limited scope, but a basic introduction of the mechanics.

STILL NOT BOLD ENOUGH?!

FINE HOW ABOUT A LILLITH DATING SURVIVAL GAME?!

Wait I’m seeing a pattern here. Okay Blizzard you can go ahead and ignore this one.

Wrapping it all up

There are a lot more announcements that I would love to see. A true Overwatch campaign? Yes. Hearthstone Tournament Mode? Yes. Diablo Expansion? Yes. Survival Game gameplay? Yes. Starcraft… anything? Man I wish…

But this is a year of tempered expectations and coming back together. Outside of WoW and Hearthstone it’s going to be pretty minimal across the board… and that’s okay.

The real hope is that after being acquired by Microsoft and with well known fuckwad Bobby K on his way out… next year might be a little bit more exciting. Blizzard may be able to retain some of its glory if only the people at the top remember players should come first. Not profits. But then again… It’s been a really long time since that was the true company motto.


Daniel Shelden

Stormraige has been playing Blizzard games since 1998 when his babysitter would play Starcraft in front of him. Now-a-days he mostly play Hearthstone and Battlegrounds, but dabbles in Overwatch, WoW, and Starcraft. He also hosts Blizzlet (sometimes Hearthstone most times not) and guests on Squelch: Another Hearthstone Podcast.


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