There's a kind of conundrum in World of Warcraft. All the dense history of Azeroth that we've been dealing with since the RTS games is in the Old World. The major cities (though Dalaran got to move up to Northrend) that have the most lore are all in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms (here's an irony for you: despite Kalimdor being the more "ancient" and "primeval" of the two original continents, the four capitals in EK are all far, far older than any of the cities in Kalimdor, unless you count Exodar, which wasn't a city until it crashed.)
It's in these continents that our characters really "live." My Paladin's home is Stormwind, for example.
And ultimately, Blizzard talks a lot about how the Old World really is where Warcraft is set - it's the hub. After all, we really only go to those exotic locales to keep the Old World safe.
The first two expansions, Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, were pretty lucky in that both Outland and Northrend were established locations from the RTS games that nonetheless felt "separate" enough not to include in the original game. Outland got to feel very different from Azeroth because it was literally a different world. Northrend always felt like it was part of the world, and it was an obvious place to go. Nowadays, I think of Northrend as fitting just as naturally into Azeroth as EK and Kalimdor.
But with those locations used in the first two expansions, Blizzard decided to go back to the Old World. I think this was for two reasons: One was that Outland and Northrend looked a lot better, and the questing experience (especially in Northrend) was far, far better. The other reason was that, with Outland and Northrend covered, there wasn't really any other established location to go to. The plot actually tied pretty well into the idea of putting us on the defensive, even if I think that ultimately, the Cataclysm zones didn't feel all that well-connected to the rest of the world (perhaps Gilneas being the exception, mainly due to the drastic and really well-done overhaul of Silverpine Forest.)
Anyway, Cataclysm was a troubled expansion. Nevertheless, I think the revamp half of it was a triumph (except for some of the zones they skipped that really could have used some attention, like Silithus or Arathi Highlands.) The Old World is "fixed" now, so even if there were enough resources to go back and revamp it again, I don't think it's necessary (aforementioned zones notwithstanding.)
Of course, the problem this generates is that this pretty much precludes them from setting more expansions in the Old World. Sure, Uldum and Hyjal had already been established, but especially now, where would you even put the new zones? Besides, having a disconnected group of zones that one accessed via portal was not a really fun way to "explore."
So it seems that we need a new continent for any future expansions, just as we've done with Outland, Northrend, and Pandaria.
But what does that mean for developing the story within the old world?
Let me pull out one of my go-to examples of a story that I feel needs to happen. Gilneas must be re-taken by the Alliance. Sylvanas' story is begging for a real setback, and the Alliance is desperate for a lasting win (don't mention Siege of Orgrimmar. It's the Horde that's ultimately going to be the better for all of that, and given the way Blizzard writes it, they're not going to make an concessions to the Alliance out of gratitude.) It would be great if Worgen (and other Alliance) players could take part in some story-rich questing that shows their side of the struggle against the Forsaken (using phasing, you could have it kind of mirror the way that Horde players get to do some quests in Gilneas.) But given that it's pretty much guaranteed that we're not going to get more leveling stuff in the Old World, that's probably not going to happen.
Now, this is not to say that going elsewhere means we can't do anything back at home. After all, look at Quel'danas/Sunwell, the Battle of Undercity (would be so cool to revive that as a scenario,) and the Siege of Orgrimmar. But it's unlikely that we'll get the kind of full-zone questing experiences that one gets with the new continent.
And that means that we can pretty much expect to see the Cataclysm-era Old World to keep looking basically like it does today. Sure, 90+ toons might see a different Warchief in Orgrimmar, and we'll probably get the occasional small update (like Stormwind Harbor, which newbies might not realize came with Wrath of the Lich King, and not Cataclysm. We used to have to use Menethil Harbor in the Wetlands to get to Darnassus!)
But is all of this permanent?
Who knows how long they're going to keep making new expansions. Sure, numbers have dipped by a huge factor, but there's still a large American city's worth of subscribers, and Blizzard certainly seems to be planning for multiple future expansions. In all that time, we might indeed see drastic changes to the old world again.
For now, I suppose all I can do is fly over to Silverpine and kill Forsaken NPCs on my Worgen characters and cheer on my fellow freedom fighters.
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