• The "Lost" Zones of Warcraft

    by
    Jeremiah
    Published on 05-16-2010 05:23 PM
    19 Comments Comments
    When I first joined the game, I was awed by the immense landscapes in World of Warcraft. What still amazes me and excites me to this day are the hidden or "lost" areas within WoW, which are unexplored due to their sheer (and legal) inaccessibility, or the inconvenience of accessing them.



    With flying mounts being introduced to Azeroth, places like Mount Ironforge and New Man's Landing will become trivial spots, as they will be able to be easily accessed by players.

    New Man's Landing was so interesting because it's purpose was a mystery. The small house along the shores of southern Westfall looks to be the scene of a horrific murder. Upon entering the house, haunting music begins to play. Players have taken videos of a ghost that is purported to have spawned multiple times in the house on random days of each month. The legitimacy of these videos remains unverified.

    Old Ironforge is alleged to be an accessible spot in Cataclysm, as reported by MMO Champion. Several other rumors and leaks have revealed that Old Ironforge will in fact play a role in the story of dwarf shamans.

    It is these hidden gems that truly makes exploration worthwhile. Finding these spots and pondering their purpose is what enchants players, making the World of Warcraft seem truly immense and mysterious, even after the shine has worn off when the game no longer seems immersive.

    What do you think? Will Cataclysm make these so accessible, that they will lose their worth?
    Comments 19 Comments
    1. Kitsuji's Avatar
      Kitsuji - 05-16-2010
      That part about Old Ironforge being a part of a dwarf shaman seems quite interesting.
    1. crazyelfjj's Avatar
      crazyelfjj - 05-16-2010
      yea, that is one of my biggest concerns... I want the old places to be and kept hidden... At least they aren't opening Kara crypt, my favorite place
    1. mmodame's Avatar
      mmodame - 05-16-2010
      I love the mysterious things out there. My first visit to the world tree and hyjal was amazing.

      The kara crypt is so creepy and definitely wouldn't be as interesting if they opened it. My imagination as to what it could be are probably much better!

      Just wish there were more new places to find.
    1. natenmaste's Avatar
      natenmaste - 05-16-2010
      I think it's good their being opened. What's the point of exploring a secret spot and "find their purpose" if their purpose is nothing. Now they will have a purpose.

      Maybe make it harder to find and access them though. Something that players wont want to go around telling every noob they see.
    1. hihiri's Avatar
      hihiri - 05-16-2010
      Ovbiously, naten your not a true explorer. To find these spots even if you have to cheat, which does take the shine off of it in the first place, then finding it yourself. Its still completely awsome then to say, let it be an actual area.. where that takes alot of the shine out more then telling people and them telling alot of people, ect. It sucks that they might be doing this, and i dislike it alot. but ooh well nothing we can really do if they need to open it. imo they should just build up ironforge more but that wont happen lol.
    1. Jeremiah's Avatar
      Jeremiah - 05-16-2010
      hihiri, I couldn't agree with you more. Finding these spots yourself for the first time in-game is absolutely exciting. Even reading guides on how to get to them makes them seem less cool, somehow. I love being able to wander around and find them. Since there was literally no trace of a hidden space in BC or WotLK (Save for the orphanage), I suppose the only thing that they could do was make a bunch of floating "landmarks" or islands. Also, think about the possibilities in the ocean!
    1. natenmaste's Avatar
      natenmaste - 05-16-2010
      Quote Originally Posted by hihiri View Post
      Ovbiously, naten your not a true explorer. To find these spots even if you have to cheat, which does take the shine off of it in the first place, then finding it yourself. Its still completely awsome then to say, let it be an actual area.. where that takes alot of the shine out more then telling people and them telling alot of people, ect. It sucks that they might be doing this, and i dislike it alot. but ooh well nothing we can really do if they need to open it. imo they should just build up ironforge more but that wont happen lol.
      It's it really that "Obvious"? I don't think it is. Finding these spots is useless expect for bragging rights. I explored many areas of the game without cheating,with cheating, and with emulated servers. I would just like to see some of the places I have found actually be put to some use.
    1. dkcas11's Avatar
      dkcas11 - 05-17-2010
      According to a GM which i spoke to a while ago, Old Ironforge will open and there will be instances and a lot more cool stuff down there, but he wouldn't tell me more, allthough it was very interesting
    1. Nyarly's Avatar
      Nyarly - 05-17-2010
      Quote Originally Posted by aphel View Post
      hihiri, I couldn't agree with you more. Finding these spots yourself for the first time in-game is absolutely exciting. Even reading guides on how to get to them makes them seem less cool, somehow. I love being able to wander around and find them. Since there was literally no trace of a hidden space in BC or WotLK (Save for the orphanage), I suppose the only thing that they could do was make a bunch of floating "landmarks" or islands. Also, think about the possibilities in the ocean!
      BC - nova shrine/portal behind black temple/kindergarten in nagrand
      WOTLK - Otherworld

      But yeah it's nothing compared to all theses beautiful places in azeroth
      the charm of theses places are that they're hidden and so it's so cool to explore them. it won't be the same if they have natural access
      newman's landing is easy for everyone to access but it's really cool because only few people know it ..
    1. Jeremiah's Avatar
      Jeremiah - 05-17-2010
      Quote Originally Posted by NanaCry View Post
      BC - nova shrine/portal behind black temple/kindergarten in nagrand
      WOTLK - Otherworld

      But yeah it's nothing compared to all theses beautiful places in azeroth
      the charm of theses places are that they're hidden and so it's so cool to explore them. it won't be the same if they have natural access
      newman's landing is easy for everyone to access but it's really cool because only few people know it ..
      That's what makes spots interesting. If they have no purpose, no involvement in the game, and only a few people know about them.
    1. Deviltcow's Avatar
      Deviltcow - 05-17-2010
      this is why i started playing
    1. Andros's Avatar
      Andros - 05-17-2010
      As we see today, the unique places of design in World of Warcraft has already been boring and you're used to see them. "Ah, just Feralas, no biggie", you're probably thinkin', and heartstoning to Orgrimmar.

      We already have an example. When we look at the Outlands Alpha, we find it incredible, amazing (Woah, flying mushrooms!).
      But if Blizzard had desided to use that Outlands instead of the ones, we have today, and made Outlands "hidden", it'll have been the other way 'round.

      I believe that it'll be the same with things as Shatterspear Village, the ruins+lumbermill in Stonetalon, the Gnoll camp in Feralas (yeah, i love Feralas <3), the 'help' written on certain mountainsides, and much, much more. We'll get to used to it, and people won't worship the 'pearls of exploration' anymore.

      Exploration outside of instances, battlegrounds, borders of the world, will in my opinion, be totally executed.

      - If you can't stop the players at gettin' there, make it vulnerable for all, and it'll lose its interest -


      Sorry for my grammar.
    1. DrakeFish's Avatar
      DrakeFish - 05-17-2010

      In my opinion, unlocking the secret and mysterious zones that most players only seen in videos or only heard about will make some players enjoy the old zones being re-discovered. We all know that Blizzard like to hide secrets into the game, we even already found some testing areas with mysterious things into the cataclysm alpha.. The main difference I see while they make new expansions is that they hide or remove some things that they were letting in the game before (developper/programmer island is a good example). In my opinion, they will put new secret zones into Cataclysm, may it be "Out-of-bounds" zones such as GM Island or Instanced zones where we won't be able to use flying mounts.
      I do hope they won't delete every zones that were making the game so interesting to explore.
    1. Nyarly's Avatar
      Nyarly - 05-17-2010
      Quote Originally Posted by Andros View Post
      Exploration outside of instances, battlegrounds, will in my opinion, be totally executed.
      That would be tragic, because i think it will be the only things left to explore.. :/

      And i also do believe that some secrets places reveal the future of wow. The naga temple in the developer island, old outland (in the sea),...
      With flying mount, we won't be able to find theses secrets anymore
    1. Mitron's Avatar
      Mitron - 05-17-2010
      I like it and i dont like it... =3 some things are good with it, people can go to any place they want, bad thing is that other people easily can too.

      I remember when i reached Dancing Troll Village with 2 mates =3 that was epix ^^

      Another thing... i guess some, maybe even many of these places will be destroyed, i haven't looked that much in the Alpha yet... dont have the time ;o but it seems like many places will.... get destroyed by the Cataclysm and other stuff Hyjal for example... totally new shape, Old IF dont look exactly like it did pre-cata either
    1. Jeremiah's Avatar
      Jeremiah - 05-17-2010
      I'm glad that this post has gotten so many commentators!
    1. .Baine.'s Avatar
      .Baine. - 05-18-2010
      I would imagine cataclysm will open some of them up so more players see them but keep the others as well as adding more. I am looking forward to whatever they do with the secret spots in cataclysm.
    1. Firewolf's Avatar
      Firewolf - 05-20-2010
      Newman's Landing is where new characters spawn before being quickly sent off to their starting zone. I don't know if it still serves that purpose, but I remember sitting there years ago and every once in a while a level 1 character would appear there for a second or two. Doing a /who on that person would show them in a starting zone.

      That's probably why it's called "NewMan's Landing", it's where new characters first come into existence on a realm.
    1. rudydimacali's Avatar
      rudydimacali - 05-22-2010
      I miss the old 2 story Ironforge from alpha, lol.