The Digital Continuum: Expanding horizontally

The worlds we live in are always expanding some way or another. In our real world, we get promotions or new career opportunities. In our virtual equivalents, it's level cap raises and new classes. Yet for years and years, too many expansions have overlooked what they're truly capable of accomplishing.

In real life, we can't go back and make our teens, twenties and thirties better than they once were because that's physically impossible. So why in these worlds of infinite possibilities, have countless developers scoffed at the chance to do this very thing?

Lucky for us, Funcom and Blizzard recently both asked themselves this very question. While the latter may be doing something much more grandiose than the former, both deserve our praise for finally turning around and swimming upstream in a current of same old grind goals. Plus, it doesn't hurt that Blizzard is sitting on the Mt. Everest of money hills.
Now I know what some of you are thinking. You're thinking that something like Cataclysm is stupid and that time could be better spent creating all new zones, levels and classes. I also know your reasoning for thinking this: You're bored with the same old game. Except, World of Warcraft is an old game. In fact, as of this November it'll be half a decade aged and only getting older with each passing subscribed month.

I ask you, what better way to breathe life into old content than to literally do just that? Changing the face of Azeroth itself is a bold step, as it shows Blizzard is willing to apply some whiteout to their old work so they can edit into a better experience.

But let's not forget Funcom in all of this Cataclysm talk. While Rise of the Godslayer doesn't revamp old zones, it certainly seems to be adding lush new amazingly beautiful ones. Likewise, it doesn't raise the level cap one bit, and also includes an "alternative" leveling concept that could be compared to WoW-spansion number three's Path of the Titans. Yeah, it really doesn't hurt that I love Asian architecture either, but that's just a me I suppose.

I do want to make something clear and that's that this isn't a comparison of these two expansions. What I'd much rather focus on instead is that horizontal expansions have suddenly become a little more common in just one week's time. I feel like Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, while good expansions, just didn't bring too much to the table for a large portion of the once-WoWers around the world. Sure, if you'd leveled a character to 80 and were interested in nothing but new dungeons and equipment, then those expansions were pure awesome. Yet, when I talk to several of my friends who used to play the game, they've always told me that stuff was only slightly interesting. After speaking to most of them in the past several days I've been hearing far more excitement for Cataclysm. Actually, I've heard some similar mentions for Rise of the Godslayer from my ex-Age of Conan friends as well.

I think you get my point.