For those still interested; WarCraft Adventures was in development as a follow-up/spin-off of WarCraft II. It was to be a point-and-click adventure similar to, say, Leisure Suit Larry. It involved for certain these characters: Thrall, Grom Hellscream, Teron Gorefiend, Deathwing and Alexstraza (I am not entirely sure on how to spell her name - the Queen of the Red Dragonflight) and an appearance by Forest Troll leader Zul'jin as a... junkyard dealer.
Mus?, Reign Of Chaos has always been a Roleplaying Strategy Game. However, you are correct that the roleplaying elements were once much bigger; however, there was NEVER a build of the game in which you did not have the ability to build - as evidenced by the fact that in the second sneak peak ever on the game one of the developers, I think it was Rob Pardo, said that "The Undead Necromancer is not only the main Undead Hero, but he's also integral to their development because he summons all their buildings".
The approach was done away with because
a) overwhelming demand for another Blizzard strategy game.
b) much too difficult to balance for Multiplayer (something Blizzard games are renown for).
Questions:
1) Whatever happened to Teron Gorefiend?
2) Is Sargeras still alive? There are conflicting reports from different canonical sources. 'He' is seen alive in a cutscene in Frozen Throne - yet in the same campaign all that is found is an artifact called 'The Eye Of Sargeras'. Yet, it has also been said that Aegwynn destroyed him (causing him to bond with her unborn child Medivh).
3) More Sargeras - it has been said that the Eredar is what drove Sargeras mad; yet now Blizzard has been saying that Sargeras turned the Draenei into the Eredar when he was already evil. Explain?
4) Who were the Old Gods?