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‘World of Warcraft’ looks to its past for its next expansion

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world warcraft looks past next expansion worlds of draenor
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To help kick off the annual “Blizzard is awesome-fest” known as BlizzCon, Blizzard’s Chris Metzen announced the fifth World of Warcraft expansion pack, Warlords of Draenor. For many fans the content will be completely new, but those that played the original Warcraft trilogy – the precursor to World of Warcraft – will likely recognize the world, even if it has been totally re-imagined.

“The expansion sends players to Draenor as it existed before it shattered into the realm World of Warcraft players know as Outland—and while some of the names of these places might be familiar, we’re building them all from scratch for the expansion,” Blizzard stated in a recently released FAQ for the game.

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The original Warcraft debuted in 1994 as a real-time strategy game known as Warcraft: Orcs & Human. It was followed the next year by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (which begat the expansion Beyond the Dark Portal and a Battle.net Edition), and concluded in 2002 with Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (Followed by the expansion The Frozen Throne). World of Warcraft was then released in 2004.

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The expansion re-imagines the land of Draenor featured in the first three games and their expansions for the WoW crowd. It also adds a few other tricks on top of that, including a new level cap of 100 (plus the ability to immediately boost to level 90), hundreds of new quests, and new character models.

No word yet on a release date.

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Ryan Fleming
Ryan Fleming
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…
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