As someone who’s been journeying through the vast landscapes of Azeroth since the days of Dracula and Onyxia, let me tell you, the future is looking brighter than a golden Draenai sunrise for World of Warcraft! The news about player housing, Undermine, and the fresh realms based on vanilla experience has me more excited than Thrall atop a carpenter’s tower.
As an analyst, I participated in today’s momentous Warcraft 30th anniversary event where Blizzard unveiled the upcoming plans for World of Warcraft and several other projects. The primary focus was on remastered versions of Warcraft 1, 2, and 3: Reforged, along with significant updates for Warcraft Rumble and Hearthstone.
For World of Warcraft: The War Within players, Blizzard offered a glimpse into the future of the game. We’re getting a huge new patch dubbed Undermine(d), set in the goblin city of the same name. Undermine is a vast new subterranean city, complete with a new 8-boss raid experience with Gallywix as its ultimate villain. The patch will continue the story of Xal’atath and her efforts to subvert Azeroth itself, while also giving players new gear to hunt down and accolades to achieve.
For seasoned World of Warcraft players, the most exciting revelation or hint might be the introduction of Player Housing. In the upcoming expansion, titled Midnight, players will at last have the opportunity to personalize their own homes, even adorning them with trophies won from different in-game accomplishments. This feature has been a long-awaited tease, as it was initially conceived for the game more than two decades ago, but never before realized until now.
At the celebrations, we had a chance to chat with Game Director Ion Hazzikostas and Assistant Lead Quest Designer Mark Kelada to gather some insights into the upcoming developments in World of Warcraft.
On Mythic+ progression, Hero Talents, and Delve rewards
As an analyst, I am eager to hear your thoughts on the current state of World of Warcraft: The War Within. Specifically, I am interested in your feedback regarding the satisfaction level with the game’s progression in the endgame, including the Mythic+ difficulty curve and other aspects.
Ion Hazzikostas, Director of World of Warcraft at Blizzard Entertainment, expresses his contentment and satisfaction with the progression of The War Within. He finds joy in the narrative journey, the development of the world, and the introduction of the Worldsoul saga’s epic tale. It’s delightful to see players immerse themselves in this story while they ponder about what lies ahead.
So far, Delves and Warbands have followed our expectations, and I believe that Mythic+ this season has been all about trying out new things. We’ve altered affix mechanics, progression structure, and have been making adjustments based on player feedback. Currently, our main concern is addressing certain issues in specific dungeons, as well as assessing class balance. Additionally, we feel that we lack a suitable introduction to the system.
For many gamers reaching level 8 Delves, you’ll find extremely valuable rewards. However, when comparing this to Mythic+, it might seem that anything below a Mythic+7 isn’t worth doing, while levels 7 and above can be quite challenging. If you’re new to dungeons, a Mythic+7 isn’t the ideal starting point, and it wasn’t intended to serve as an entry point. Consequently, some players are encountering a sort of barrier or plateau. In Season 2, we aim to tackle this issue, as it was something we couldn’t adjust during Season 1.
Player: Regarding the Mythic+ Crest system, is it functioning according to your preferences? At times, I find it somewhat unclear and perplexing, even for someone like me who has been playing for a while. For beginners, I’ve noticed that it can be challenging to explain effectively at times, chuckle.
In simpler terms, the design of the Mythic+ Crest equipment system largely aligns with our objectives, except for ease of understanding and intuitive use. We aim to improve this aspect by focusing on naming conventions, tutorials, and other related elements. Our goal is to make it clearer what players should do with Crests, offering goals for every playstyle that provide continuous power progression beyond just acquiring specific item drops. Crests are crucial in the multi-tiered structure of World of Warcraft; they encourage players to tackle more challenging content instead of merely grinding basic content excessively, as was the case with Artifact Power and similar systems previously. To clarify the path to higher tier dungeons is an area we want to address.
Jez: I noticed you have been addressing some things mid-season such as racial bonuses, which were recently updated. I wondered how you guys are feeling about the overall balance of the game right now, not only for racial bonuses, but also Hero Talents. Are there more passes to come in the near term? Should we expect that Hero Talent trees end up simply being a case of “one tree for AoE, one for single target” and so on, as is the case for some of them?
As a dedicated gamer, I’m all about enhancing the underperforming races in our game, like the Draenei and their Naaru Light, which currently don’t seem impactful enough in the current gaming environment. We aim to boost their power slightly, keeping them just above being merely flavor, so they feel significant when chosen as your character. The race you pick should reflect your unique identity and personal preference, and it’s essential that each race carries a bit of mechanical charm derived from their distinctive heritage or physical traits. We strive to ensure that players don’t feel compelled to choose a specific race out of necessity. However, there are certain race-class combinations that, when considering min-maxing strategies, are more advantageous than we’d like. These adjustments wouldn’t be made during the ongoing season.
Overall, we’re content with the way Hero Talents are unfolding. Given the numerous talent trees, specializations, and ability combinations, there are instances where variety in choices is lacking, and certain aspects require fine-tuning. However, it has generally met our objectives.
The situation you describe is a big challenge for our combat team, regarding picking specific trees for specific situations like AoE and single target. On the one hand, some players enjoy changing their load outs to solve specific problems. Others may dislike it, though, because they feel a certain tree is an expression of their preference or aesthetic identity. “This is what I think is the coolest, and I want this to work everywhere.” That’s true for hero talents, and maybe even specs as a whole. We try to strike a balance between strengths and weaknesses. That’s why we made Hero Talents and talents in general heavily flexible, moving from single target, to something more AoE-oriented for dungeons, and then more utility-focused for PvP. I think that’s the direction class design will likely continue in.
On story delivery, Undermine, and player housing
Jez: I feel like World of Warcraft’s story delivery took a huge leap forward in terms of quality and delivery with The War Within, but my concern would be that it was probably also very expensive to deliver too … should players continue to have increased expectations for World of Warcraft’s story as we move into 11.1 Undermine(d) patch and more?
Mark Kelada, Lead Assistant Quest Designer for World of Warcraft, emphasized maintaining high-quality storytelling throughout their work. Specifically, when developing update 11.0, they aimed to ensure that villains were equally compelling as heroes, since a hero’s worth is often defined by their adversaries. Consequently, they wanted to provide Xal’atath with a robust narrative journey, exploring the challenges and triumphs she could face. Originating from being imprisoned in a knife, Xal’atath has evolved into a key figure within the main storyline.
On the adventure “Undermine”, unlike a typical goblin tale, it deviates from the norm but still ties into the main narrative. Today, we’re not revealing spoilers, but you’ll observe that significant characters from version 11.0 will appear in 11.1 of Undermine, and the conflict between Gallywix and Gazlowe is starting to unfold. I should mention that we aim to balance these heavier stories with lighter ones as well, so as not to exhaust you by relentlessly delivering intense narratives.
Jez: It’s music to my ears about the emphasis on villains, and I do feel like Xal’atath is one of the strongest World of Warcraft has had in years. You mentioned about the balance between heroes and villains, but many felt 11.0 with The War Within’s launch was quite heavily Alliance-centric. How important is the Horde vs. Alliance narrative to the future of WoW?
In simpler terms, Ion explains that while the conflict between the Alliance and Horde has been a significant part of World of Warcraft (WoW) in the past, it is no longer the main focus of the game’s storyline at this stage. Instead, the narrative revolves around factions coming together to combat a common enemy to save Azeroth. Forcing conflict into stories feels unrealistic and frustrating for players, as it distracts from the potential apocalyptic destruction facing Azeroth.
Mark: Of course, we take your feedback into account, but our conversations frequently center around determining which cultures or characters are most effective in conveying different story elements as they unfold. Gazlowe is a character players may be familiar with from Battle for Azeroth and Heroes of the Storm, and now we have a chance to expand his character beyond his previous experiences.
Ion: We didn’t create Undermine solely to shine a light on the goblins, but primarily because we were already underground. Some notable locations beneath Azeroth’s surface include the Nerubian Empire, which we hadn’t explored much, and of course, Undermine. Crafting the storyline for Undermine was initially challenging, but neglecting it in an underground expansion would have been a great oversight. Developing Undermine was a passion project for us, encompassing humor, mystery, and the unique charm of goblin culture. We’re delving much deeper than just the surface with this expansion.
Mark: The unusual twist in the plot was intriguing, and our team was eager to bring it to life. We aimed to maintain an appealing narrative while ensuring it doesn’t confuse the audience. This is a story rooted in culture, yet we plan to incorporate various Azerothian races for a more immersive player experience. Our goal is to delve deeper into the culture when the plot permits, ensuring we do justice to the subject matter and not force elements unnaturally. We’re thrilled about exploring cultural nuances in depth as the story unfolds.
Hey team, just checking before we wrap up… Isn’t it true that you guys did indeed verify the existence of player housing in World of Warcraft?
Ion: Indeed, it was a hint! I hope we didn’t make it too obscure. The introduction of player housing will be seen in World of Warcraft: Midnight. In the upcoming year, we’ll have plenty more to share about Midnight and its housing features. Our aim with this revelation during the Warcraft Direct is to stimulate conversations and gather your feedback on what you’d like to see most. For now, we’re keeping our lips sealed on player housing details since our primary focus is The War Within. However, we’re eagerly looking forward to disclosing more in 2025.
World of Warcraft’s roadmap is looking bright
In the upcoming months, a massive wave of fresh content is set for World of Warcraft. For World of Warcraft: Classic, there’s an exciting Season of Exploration on the horizon, plus entirely new realms modeled after the original experience. The retail version of World of Warcraft will kick off the Undermine update at the start of next year, with a future expansion planned for 2025, boasting Player Housing as its main highlight. As for Blizzard’s history, Warcraft 1, 2, and 3 have been revitalized on Battle.net. Additionally, Warcraft Rumble is making its way to PC, while Hearthstone will receive new StarCraft-themed content.
After spending two decades immersed in World of Warcraft, I must admit that it’s been quite a while since the game seemed to be running at its peak performance. The takeover of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft has led to a significant shift within the company, which many fans perceive as a new chapter for one of gaming’s most iconic series. Here’s to hoping it continues to thrive! I appreciate your attention, and I’m grateful to Blizzard for addressing our inquiries.
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2024-11-13 23:39