As another former WoW player, I don't think really anything will get me to go back permanently. But you're basically removing the best part of WoW, the polished questing part where you see the gimmicks, the humor and the fun new areas (storyline if you care), in order to emphasize stuff that generally sucks. If WoW could really be 100% questing with raids interspersed (boss fights in the game) it honestly would be great. But this means that the raid is only played once to complete the quest, and the quests mostly have to be soloable (read: easy) and unless they're quite grindy (people don't like that) they will be done fast and we run out of content in almost same amount of time that a normal game does, which of course is completely unacceptable for an MMO.
Anyway I have some spare time:
-Player housing
-Guild housing
-Ways to decorate your house (items from raids, to 5 mans, to quests, etc, and ways to show this off as a badge)
Stupid gimmicks unless it is tied to some sort of territory control (or any fun gameplay mechanic if you have a better one). This is essentially a better UI for the achievements screen. Not going to resub for this.
-Find a way to make all the old raids relevant again (whether scaling up or down).
-Tons and tons of transmog gear scattered throughout old content
So ... I would resub to play raids that I already did before, and you're taking out actual new content to implement this? Genius!
-Tons of new pets to collect
-A WPvP area like Wintersgrasp
-Multiple super long legendary quest lines different for each class (with weapon rewards etc, with unique effects like EQ that make them stay relevant, stuff like the fire cat druid staff)
-Make these mostly solable or small group content like the old hunter epic bow/staff quest, that are hard as hell but rely on skill and are solable only, and don't tell anyone where they start, or make the starting item randomly drop somewhere in the world so there isn't a farming for first item roadblock of 1000's of players.
-Can even make the quest chain go even further to make the item better (2 ilvl upgrades or whatnot), through hardcore raids etc to appease the hardcore.
-A new raid tier for the hardcores and lfr users
-A good chunk of new 5 mans
-Multiple new armor model sets for each class
-Revamp tradeskills, and maybe do something cool with fishing
They do all this already in each expansion.
Didn't you just suggest that we get rid of the level increase and remove new leveling zones? Why are you now suggesting adding more quests? Super long class quest lines are generally inefficient uses of developer time because few people make it to the end. Why not just make the leveling experience more difficult, requiring small group or tough solo content?
It is impossible to keep something hidden in this age of wowhead etc. I would personally like to see future games use encryption or keep as much data serverside as possible to diminish this effect as it really kills the environment. You think having to farm a random-drop item in order to do the main quest content of an expansion is a good mechanic?
WPvP areas can be OK, but really they have just been battlegrounds that happen only at certain times. Not super interesting.
-Rare unique items off of new super rare spawns scattered throughout the world, everything from vanity to special clicky items, etc (Think Jboots, mounts, rare pets, etc)
-PVP raid bosses, like raiding Org or Stormwind and killing bosses would give actual uber (legendary?) rewards.
-And last but not least, AA's! Well, something just like it. Grind xp/old quests for small perks, new talents, etc.
Camping rares is already in the game, but I wanted to point out that this isn't something remotely appetizing and I would hate to see a game that thinks 'adding rare spawns' is going to bring people back. PvP raids were done all the time back when killing city bosses was huge honor and got you the best weaps in the game. I don't think that having towns wrecked constantly by people looking for drops would be particularly awesome - what is the motive for defending? World bosses would be much better ... but these also have issues. AAs sound terrible and I would never resub to a game that had AAs, it would just mean I could never catch up.
-Actual battleground ratings for individuals when queuing normally
-Maybe make an actual good battleground matchmaking system based off said ranking
-Actual good unique PVP rewards that dont just require honor/conquest points
Because one person makes a difference in a 40-man BG? The amount of matches you would have to play for a meaningful ranking is quite high. Not to mention things like class composition or gear which aren't an issue in MOBA type games. This could be interesting but I doubt it could really be done well. I do agree top gladiators should get fuck-you gear that automatically gives them victory against scrubs ... but that's the vanilla/TBC pvper in me talking rather than the person who was faced with grinding a month of honor to get back in the game + arenaing with a new random partner and decided to quit instead.
-A trading card game or something along those lines (integrate hearthstone?)
-A bunch of new/revamped holiday events
-New world events with cool enough rewards to draw people out of cities more (think fishing event x10 with unique rewards)
This might get me to keep subbed had I been playing, but really having a new xmas event matters to you? I honestly didn't visit the darkmoon faire ever. Playing a TCG isn't playing wow, why would I resub for $15 a month to play a TCG instead of buying the TCG? Again these are things that get people who are subbed to keep going but really aren't going to get jaded players back in.
-Maybe a new class unlockable by some long epic quest chain
-Some sort of bounty system, where you can put bountys on players? And maybe where NPC's can put bounties on rare spawns, for unique item rewards? All sorts of things you could do here.
They just introduced a new class and do this regularly, but certainly adding a quest line first could be cool (it would have to be easy though since they want people to play the new class). They already do class-specific intro lines obviously. Bounty system from NPCs == random spawn daily quest, about as boring as it gets. Having players place them is a neat idea, but in a game where death doesn't matter whatsoever it's really pointless.
I would much rather Blizzard focus on providing another awesome world for gamers to explore, where the grass is green and the experiences new again. Player controlled territory with NPC empires waging war across the landscape. EvE meets fantasy, resources in difficult to control deserts with weak supply chains to the safe carebear markets where the crafters live, honor system and gear for leveling up the ranks of your nation's army as it fights for glory in battlegrounds, treasure held by dragons in the perilous mountains requiring expeditions, quest-based theme parks and pet collection/farming/magic-ing/etc. minigames in the safe empire. Completely new leveling model (or at least heavily hybridized), new economic/crafting model (or again copied with some modification from elsewhere), combat possibly similar, new world. I'd buy it.