World of Wacraft is pretty much as popular today as it’s ever been, and shows no signs of slowing down. With the help of their latest expansion – Mists of Pandaria – subscriptions jumped back over 10 million gamers living, fighting and generally raising a ruckus in the virtual world of Azeroth. And let me tell you guys, I do not regret at all getting back into the game this past month after a more than two year break. There are so many new things to do and see that I’ve been playing nearly non-stop since late August and have barely even scratched the surface of the fun to be had.

And being a Pandaren Brewmaster is definitely as awesome as I had hoped!

Shonson the Level 38 Monk on Thorium Brotherhood

Mists of Pandaria will be the focus for the next few years, but somebody somewhere at Blizzard is already plotting out what their next expansion will include. Usually, the main point of the expansion is to increase the level cap and introduce new continents and dungeons to explore, because the majority of WoW players have already maxed out their characters and are looking for more end-game content. But that’s not all you get in new expansions. Usually you also get a new playable race (pandaren, goblins, blood elves, etc.), a new class (death knight, monk) or just general new features like the new Pet Battles, which basically bring a rudimentary form of Pokemon into Warcarft just for kicks and giggles. The people are Blizzard are geniuses when it comes to new content to expand their ever-growing world.

And seeing what a huge World of Warcraft fan I am, I thought I’d give them a hand with 6 suggestions for new expansion content.

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6. Homes and Trophy Rooms

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“And I won this one for participation. And this one…also for participation.”

Where does a great hero of the Horde lay his head at night? What does he do with all his awards and achievements to show them off? Wouldn’t it be great if characters could find a home to call their own? One of my absolute favorite parts of World of Warcraft is just how well they’ve created this virtual world. Unlike other MMORPGs, WoW is an entire world instead of just a series of levels. WoW has cities, towns, settlements, forests, mountain ranges, rivers, oceans, continents and so much more. And your character can travel between these places like any normal person. You can walk from one town to the next, passing through different zones, or if you want to travel long distances, you can’t just teleport there (usually), you have to take a boat or a flying machine. There is also a large emphasis on the whole role-playing aspect of WoW, in that the whole world does not revolve around you. In each of these cities and towns, there are characters going about their business, whether they’re selling meat, chopping wood or handing out quests. What I’m saying is that Blizzard created an entire world of Warcraft.

So in order to become a better part of that world, I think players should be able to purchase and accessorize their own houses or apartments in any of the major towns or cities in the game.

Let me tell you a story. The other day, while playing Sespi, my goblin rogue, I happened upon a little town called Fuselight-by-the-Sea in the Badlands. It was this picturesque little place right on the coast.

A nice place to raise little goblin chillins

And I thought to myself, when it comes time for Sespi to retire from questing, I think I’d like for him to settle down in Fuselight-by-the-Sea. Because I really enjoy the role-playing aspects of WoW, and I think about that kind of thing for my characters. And this got me thinking: wouldn’t it be great if Sespi could buy a house in Fuselight-by-the-Sea and consider himself a citizen of that town? With a house, players could spend their gold buying furniture, decorations and more, just for kicks and giggles. And each house could have a trophy room to show off all their in-game achievements in the form of trophies, ribbons or plaques on the wall. Or maybe hang certain weapons or pieces of armor on display. And your pets could roam around your apartment, or maybe have cages on a shelf.

As it stands now, each town or city has an inn, which gives you a resting bonus if you log out while standing in the inn. And there are banks where you can store your access items so you’re not lugging everything around with you. But I want people to be able to buy and decorate their own houses. Granted, Blizzard wouldn’t be able to put every single character’s house in the game world. But maybe they could treat houses or apartment buildings like instances or dungeons, where you have one building, but when each character walks through the front door, they are instantly transported to their own specific version of that room. And you would be able to invite friends and group members into your apartment to view the place. So if you really wanted to push the role-playing aspect through the roof, you and your buddy could kick your feet up on your couch and watch whatever the Warcraft equivalent of TV would be, dressed in normal clothing instead of armor, and each of you pounding back a few Trogg Ales. Now that’s role-playing!

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5. Naga and Underwater Zones

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I like the crustacean one the best

New playable races are almost a guarantee when it comes to expansions. I know I returned to WoW just so that I could play as a pandaren. I bet I could even make a whole List of Six with suggestions for new playable races(gnolls, ogres, were-bats, sentient plant people, robots and aliens!). But Warcraft is running out of room and running out of races to choose from. How many times can they introduce a hidden island that nobody knew about where this new race comes from? And I doubt anybody is dying to play as a kobold or a trogg. Well for the sake of this list, I’m only going to suggest one new playable race, and explain how their very existence makes the new starting area both completely unique and easy to place on the map.

I suggest the villainous, snake-like Naga!

His and Hers battle armor

The naga have been villains since Warcraft 3, and are found in all corners of World of Warcraft. They’re large, humanoid snakepeople, most of whom live below the ocean. And therein lies the key to making the naga work: Why bother trying to find room for them on the existing continents when you can create their starting zone and capital city at the bottom of the ocean! WoW already has one underwater zone, Vashj’ir, for higher level players. Warcraft even went so far as to create Underwater Walking to make the zone playable. So Blizzard has already got the mechanisms in place to explore the undersea world.

But I say that Warcraft should forgo Underwater Walking and instead make a starting zone and an entire naga city that exist on a completely three-dimensional plane. Naga players could swim up down, left right, back and forth and move in all directions through the zones and the cities, visiting shops or inns or wherever else as if they were really swimming in water. The characters wouldn’t be bound by gravity, and shops could be stacked on top of each other, or floating just off on their own. It would be a totally unique city experience!

“If you’re looking for me, you better check under the sea…”

The naga capital city of Nazjatar and their Queen Azshara both exist in the lore, but neither has appeared in-game. Now is the chance!  Naga would get the racial benefit of underwater breathing (obviously) so they wouldn’t have to worry about going up for air, but once they beat the underwater starting zone and join the rest of the game, the naga have no problem surviving on the surface.

As playable characters, naga already have very distinct male and female forms, as you can see in the pictures. They’re also mostly humanoid, so clothing would remain the same…though Blizzard would have to come up with something unique to do about pants and boots. As for their mounts, I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to come up with some kind of creature that lives both on land and in the water. Alligators, perhaps, or maybe some kind of giant snake or lizard. In terms of which faction they’d join, I’d put them as neutral, just like the pandaren. Perhaps after the defeat of their leader Illidan Stormrage, the leftover naga have no choice but join the Horde or the Alliance. Or maybe there is a third option…

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4. Azeroth Olympics

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Like fencing…but with broadswords

There hasn’t been a rivalry as big as Alliance vs. Horde since the days of Nintendo vs. Sega! And it is a very vocal rivalry, with shouts of “For the Horde!” reverberating from the jungles of Stranglethorne to the Alterac Mountains! Essentially, the ‘war’ in ‘Warcraft’ comes from the Alliance vs. the Horde, the two opposing armies that make up the Warcraft franchise. The Alliance is composed of the more normal looking races, like humans, dwarves, gnomes and the like, while the Horde are the mongrel races, like orcs, trolls, goblins, tauren and more. Neither army is particularly good or particularly evil, it’s all up to the player and how they choose to see it. Some people are diehard Horde players, and some people are diehard Alliance players – and this rivalry leads to some brutal battles in the Player vs. Player portions of the game. There is probably a large section of WoW gamers who play just for the PvP.

But why kill each other when you can compete in a series of Olympic games?

If real world countries and governments can put aside their differences to hold the Olympics, I don’t see why the Horde and the Alliance can’t do the same in the name of glory and reward. I propose that Warcraft set aside two weeks every year to host an Olympic games, where the Horde and the Alliance players can compete against each other for high score and gold, silver and bronze medals.

If Sonic and Mario can put aside their differences, anyone can

The games themselves would probably be the hardest part to design, but there’s a simple answer: steal! There are millions of mini-games you can find online – such as Angry Birds – that use a keyboard and mouse that Warcraft could just steal straight out and repurpose for WoW. Or just design games from scratch that use a keyboard and mouse and can be competitive. In order to sprint, perhaps players have to tap the ‘A’ and ‘D’ buttons really fast, and hit the space bar to jump over hurdles. Or maybe use the mouse in a shooting gallery game. There are tons of variety that Warcraft could install and keep track of the high scores. There could be games for every level of player, and they could put limits on how many times you can play each game. The highest scores per realm will be given medals, and the faction with the most medals is the winner! Or maybe the medals are categorized by race.

One of the most fun parts, I think, would be to build the Olympic stadium. Blizzard could rotate the stadium around the various capital cities, with maybe an online vote to choose which capital city gets to be the first to host the games. And then, for those two weeks only, characters from opposing factions would be allowed to safely visit that capital city. They wouldn’t be able to kill anybody, but wouldn’t it be great to visit the opposing faction’s capital city without being slaughtered by guards? And then whichever faction wins the most medals, the next Olympics will be in a capital city of their faction. That would encourage both sides to try their best, so that they could bring the games back to their faction.

Obviously the games wouldn’t occur in real time right there in the stadium. Players would have to sign up for a certain game at a certain time, and then they’d be allowed to go about their business until a slot opened up, then they’d be teleported to a special dungeon to compete. And maybe players who are in the stadium could access some kind of viewing screen that allow them to spectate on the current games. Because watching the Olympics is almost as big a deal as the Olympics themselves.

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3. Race-Specific Classes

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He’s got some witch doctoring to do

The fact that World of Warcraft is nearly 10 years old and we still can’t play as a Troll Witch Doctor is criminal. There are currently 11 character classes in World of Warcraft: warrior, rogue, hunter, monk, paladin, shaman, priest, mage, warlock, druid, and death knight. Most of these classes are available for reach race, but not all of them. All of the races can be warriors and hunters, for example, but orcs cannot be priests or paladins, and humans cannot be shamans or druids. Each race has its own restrictions. There has been very little change in the classes since WoW started. The only new classes introduced over the four expansions have been the monks and the death knights, and the death knights are a special Hero Class for high-level players. So Warcraft has been very  picky when it comes to new classes for some reason.

I know I could make a whole List of Six of new possible classes, but I think I have an even better idea. To really shake things up, create new diversity in the game and encourage longtime players to start over with a new character, I think WoW should introduce new classes specific to certain races. Create a new class for each of the 13 races, and only allow that race to be that class. It would be a lot of work, but it would be worth it.

Human…Firefighter? That could work

Take the Troll Witch Doctor for example. The entire troll culture (and yes, the races have their own unique cultures in WoW) is based around Voodoo. It’s all they talk about. Trolls dress in Voodoo clothing, they live in Voodoo-themed huts. But you can’t play as a troll Voodoo character. The most you can do is play a troll shaman or a druid and just pretend you’re doing the Voodoo.

I think it would be a lot of fun to come up with new classes for each of the races. Along with the Troll Witch Doctor, you could have a Goblin Sapper that specializes in explosives, or a Pandaren Samurai, a Gnome Tinkerer, a Tauren Medicine Man and many others. The possibilities are endless, and would revitalize all the different playable races. You’d see a ton of new Level 1 characters starting out just to try out the new classes, and the battlefields would be incredibly diverse in fighting styles and strategies. This would be the perfect way to get longtime players to start all over again.

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2. Mount-Raising Profession

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The tusks provide valuable trunk space

Mounts are animals and vehicles that you can unlock and ride that help you move around the game faster. At the very start of World of Warcraft, every race had their own mount, which they unlocked at level 40. Humans had horses, orcs had wolves, trolls had velociraptors, and so on. That was it. Since then, mounts have exploded. Each race still has their own, but now you unlock them much sooner at level 20. And there are dozens, if not hundreds of new mounts to collect. They’re rewards for killing bosses, beating dungeons, winning contests, being the best in your guild and more. There are dragons, mammoths, bears, motorcycles, zebras, flying carpets, giant scorpions and much more.

I think players should be able to raise and trade their own mounts, like a high class horse breeder. To do this, the game would just have to combine the profession and pet mechanics.

Professions are an entirely optional side project in the game that make your character more well rounded. You can choose to be a blacksmith and make your own armor and weapons, or a tailor and sew your own wizard robes, or maybe an alchemist who brews her own health potions. And new professions have been added with pretty much each expansion.

Pets are exactly as they sound, little animal friends who follow you around for the fun of it. They don’t take part in battle, they can’t get hurt, and you can collect a ton of them.

Baby polar bears are adorable in any context

My idea would involve turning pets into Tamagotchis, those little digital pets that were a big deal in the 90s. Players would have to feed and take care of their in-game pets, and keep them at your side to take them on walks. The pets would then grow overtime, as long as you took care of them. And eventually they’d grow large enough to ride as a mount, and then players could trade them back and forth or sell them for gold. Or you could keep the adult pets and breed them, making better and faster mounts. In order to keep the profession balanced, you’d only be able to raise and trade pets starting out, building up your experience. Being able to raise and trade actual mounts could still be locked until level 20.

This would be like being a champion horse breeder, only without the icky parts or the glue factory.

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1. A Third Faction

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“Go ahead! Throw your vote away!”

The battle between the Alliance and the Horde has been raging for decades. But much like the American political system, people are crying for a third party. I think Blizzard should introduce a third army into the mix, complete with its own races, banners, capital cities and everything else that goes along with it. There are a lot of ideas for potential factions, whether Blizzard wants to make the villainous Burning Legion demons into a playable army, bind some of the current neutral races into a third army or maybe just make up some brand new original faction. Robot army, perhaps? Or alien invasion? Whatever they decide to do, I think it’s time to introduce a whole new chapter in this war.

Moreso than that, I also think Blizzard should shake up the existing factions. The same races have been on the same teams all this time, but there’s always been trouble and in-fighting, especially on the Horde. Maybe the third faction could be created when several races split off and join sides. The Night Elves and Blood Elves could patch things up, and join forces with the peaceful Tauren and Draenai. Or maybe Warcraft could do the impossible and come up with some reason why the humans and the orcs join sides.

See? They said it in the title of the very first game

Whatever they might do, it is time for a monumental change in the World of Warcraft. The game can’t last forever. Someday, somehow, Blizzard will need to prepare for the end game. So why not, as they get closer to the very end, completely change everything? Break alliances, bring in new races, change the starting zones, give us hell on Earth. Orc vs. orc! Brother vs. brother!

War. War never changes. But everything else around it can.