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If you follow World of Warcraft at all then you probably already know about the newly announced expansion, Cataclysm. If not, then you really should check it out. Before I share my thoughts on Cataclysm, let’s rewind to Blizzcon 2008. My brother and I were talking about how Blizzard might continue doing expansions in the future. I didn’t think they could keep repeating the formula from past expansions. The talent system would crumble under its own weight. A whole new continent with each expansion wasn’t going to remain feasible. Adding new hero classes brings up all kinds of balance and overlap issues. I put forth the idea that at some point the concept of what an expansion is would have to change. With Cataclysm we’re starting to see that happen.

Blizzard really wants to go back and redo the 1 – 60 experience to bring it up to current standards. This is a good thing. They have learned much over the last five years and I’m glad to see them applying that knowledge to the old world. Compared to the Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, plain vanilla WoW seems crude, unpolished and boring. If Blizzard can make the 1 – 60 game just as good as Lich King then everyone who starts a character with one of the new races will have a reason to keep playing it past the starting zone. They may also be trying to entice yet more new users by making it so you don’t have to wait until level 60 and Outland to get to the “good” stuff.

The talent system is being simplified. Character and gear stats are being simplified. These are extremely positive moves. The new races sound cool. Wait, let me re-phrase that. The Worgen sound cool. It’s highly likely the starting zones and quest lines for the new races will rival that of the Death Knights which is one of the best experiences in all of WoW.

Even with the re-tooling of the old world, the new high-level zones and new instances this expansion does feel a bit less ambitious than the past two. I have a suspicion this is Blizzard’s strategy for keeping the expansions coming on a regular schedule. A while back before Burning Crusade a Blizzard executive said they intended to release an expansion for WoW every year. That seems like an impossibly ambitious goal now but if they cycle between “minor” and “major” expansions they might get a little closer to that goal.

So when it Cataclysm going to hit? When Wrath of the Lich King was announced the Burning Crusade was barely eight months old. Wrath was then released a little more than a year after it was announced. Wrath was about 10 months old when Cataclysm was announced last week. If the past is any indication of the future I’d say we’re looking at getting our hands on Cataclysm in the later half of 2010. Of course, that may also depend on when StarCraft 2 drops. No one really knows including Blizzard.

One more thing. Why would anyone go to a Blizzard convention and get up to the mic to ask a question at a panel and completely *waste* their question by asking about a release date? Seriously.