I fear for the fate of Outland

I am worried about our humble floating rock. As excited as I am for Cataclysm and all of the great changes it will bring to old-world Azeroth, I am worried what the lack of changes in Outland will mean for the continent. I won't assume that everyone feels the same way I do, so I'll just explain my person reasons for worrying. While leveling a character, I look forward to getting to Outland, for it is a big improvement over the old world. I can move from quest hub to quest hub in a linear order, rather than needing to run back and forth between them because they don't have any quests for my level. The quests award gear I'll actually use, rather than gear with a hodgepodge of stats that have no business being together. Still, Outland seems to somehow lack something when compared to Northrend. I can't quite put my finger on what it is that makes the two so different, but the fact that Borean Tundra is prettier to look at than Hellfire Peninsula might have something to do with it. Either way, while approaching level 68, I look forward to going to Northrend in the same way I looked forward to going to Outland. Thus, in my mind, Northrend > Outland > Kalimdor/Easter Kingdoms.

Cataclysm could change all of that, since Cataclysm will be bringing the old world up to speed with all of the improvements that have been made to the leveling process since WoW was released. Old world questing won't require us to run back and forth from quest hub to quest hub and back again, and those quests will reward gear that we will actually want to use. However, Outland and Northrend will only be receiving a negligible amount of attention in this overhaul, and won't be changing that much. Thus, the first round of content (Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdoms) will now be the newest, most innovative content, while Outland and Northrend, both revolutionary in tier time, will be relics of older design.

Where does that leave the humble floating rock? It means that Outland will be the oldest content in WoW, and potentially the least enjoyable. In other words, rather than a progression of solo content where each continent gets better as you go on (which we have now), I fear that players will think that they have gone backwards when they enter Outland, that they have downgraded their experience. In other words, I fear that Outland will no longer be the improvement to leveling that it is now, but instead, like the old world now, it will be an unfortunate necessity we must begrudgingly level through in order to get to the newer, more interesting content (Northrend, and eventually the 80-85 content).

How to avoid this future? One option is to improve the old world in such a way that it is better than it currently is, but still not as enjoyable as Outland, thus keeping the current flow of how enjoyable the leveling content is intact. Considering the ceiling that would put on the enjoyability of the content, though, this would probably result in players feeling cheated out of what could have been a more enjoyable experience. The other option, and the one that must thus be taken, is to redesign Outland to be more enjoyable. But how to do that when Blizzard already has their plates full, needing to redesign two continents and add another expansion's worth of content to them? Whatever the solution is, it must be simple if it is to be implemented with Cataclysm.

Still, there is always the chance that there may be no such simple solution for Outland. After all, old-world Azeroth needed a total redo to come up to speed with the current game design. Of course, Outland was a greater evolution from the design of Azeroth than Northrend was an evolution from the design of Outland, so the key lies in figuring out the differences between the two, and trying to compensate for those differences.

To me, the biggest difference between Outland and Northrend was the absence and presence, respectively, of feelings of immersion in a war. In Outland, though there is a massive battle raging before you when you enter the Dark Portal, you are never able to fight that battle, to help the soldiers you see in front of you. Instead, you fly over that battle and head to Honor Hold, where, much like in old-world Azeroth, ironically, the quest givers sit safely in their fortresses while you go out and do the dirty work alone. Not only do you not feel like part of a massive effort to take down the big bad (Illidan), but the fact that the enemies are just minding their own business makes the whole thing feel very... sterile. Most of Outland follows that same design: you allies are here, you enemies are there, go run back and forth between them. Quite simply, it feels like you are the only one doing anything.

When you get to Northrend, however, you are sent to kill enemies that are attacking the very town you dock in when you arrive. (this is the case, at least, if you are Alliance) Not only that, but there are soldiers out there fighting the enemies you are sent to kill, soldiers on your side. It would have been impractical and impossible for Blizzard to design all of Northrend this way, so obvious the whole continent doesn't look like that, but the fact is that there are still many battles raging when you enter this frozen land. Your allies are actually fighting your enemies, and you feel like part of a living, breathing battlefield. Quite simply, your allies and your enemies are not segregated, and that makes the experience more believable and more immersive.

Of course, there are likely many factors that lead to Northrend feeling more advanced in its design than Outland, but if this factor is a significant one, then it means Outland can't be improved with a simple solution. I image it would be naive of me to assume that it would be easy to just add some battles to Outland, but it's something to think about for the next expansion pack, when Blizzard will have more time for a moderately demanding project like making Outland feel less stale. Until then, I'll just have to grumble as my priest continues trudging through the remains of Draenor, while smiling as my shaman fights his way through Northrend.