In the newest print issue of gaming magazine Games for Windowslead producer Shane Dabiri is quoted "And it's no secret we're workingon the next expansion." Now, I'm not totally surprised by this as WoWis an MMO and essentially needs new expansions to keep itself going.The exclusive story in GFW reveals some new little tidbits coming intoour game after 2.1.
Guild Banks
Some of the key features of guild banks will bethe ability to allow some of your members to use the money put in thebank for repairs (from NPC's and bots, which will have a new option)and reportedly will have hundreds of slots for items and such. Thepotential is ripe for abuse but Blizzard will have it set up so thattransactions are documented on their website and abusers can bereported and Customer Service would then get involved.
In-game VoIP
Good-bye Ventrilo and Teamspeak! Blizzard isgearing up to add VoIP straight into the game for players that willhelp the problem of players not knowing or recognizing someone's voiceand missing a critical heal or other critical game play needs. Aplayers name will be highlighted when they are talking and you are ableto click on their name then to select them and give them theirbuff/heal/etc.
There will also be the option to separate the voice chat from the gamemusic sound to different sound channels. So you could (in theory) havethe music and sound effects going through your regular speakers and thevoice chat going through just your headset. To begin with, the VoIPwill only be available to Parties and Raids but there may be room forexpanding on that with custom channels (presumably for guilds).
The new issue (June 2007) should be hitting newsstands in the U.S. shorty, and you'll be able to read up on all this and read about alot of the developers favorite boss encounters and zones, and othermiscellaneous trivia.