Blizzcon Dev Interview, Next Connected Realms, Blue Posts, Blue Tweets, DLC #416

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Blizzcon Dev Interview
PlayersCut had the chance to speak with Chris Metzen at Blizzcon.

The Emerald Dream and Warcraft 4
  • The Emerald Dream is a nice idea and the team has talked about making it into an expansion many times. Building an entire expansion worth of zones around a green lush forest theme would get very boring, so the Emerald Dream would be better used as raid, dungeon, or a subzone, not an entire expansion.
  • For the foreseeable future, the content in World of Warcraft is where the team's primary focus will be. Warcraft 4 isn't planned right now, as Starcraft 2 is where the RTS focus is.

Warcraft Movie
  • The Warcraft movie is still doing casting.
  • The Orc's corruption by the Burning Legion is a root theme of the movie story.

World of Warcraft Heroes and Villains
  • The first few WoW expansions burned through the Warcraft villains pretty fast, which is why the team introduced characters like Garrosh. There are a number of characters they have started to insert into the storyline with the hopes that they will be made into compelling characters or great villains in the future.
  • Wrathion and Anduin are characters to watch going forward. Anduin gets slightly older with every model update and Metzen would like to see him become king one day.
  • Yrel is a new character in Warlords of Draenor, starting as a naive priestess in old Draenor. When the conflict kicks into gear she will need to become a hero over the course of the story, a new major Alliance heroine, and take a leadership role among the Alliance.


Next Connected Realms 11/25
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
​We will be connecting the realms listed below on Monday, November 25 during a scheduled maintenance beginning at 6 a.m. PST through approximately 11:00 a.m. PST. Once maintenance is finished, these realm connections will be complete.

  • Azshara and Azgalor
  • Arygos and Llane
  • Cairne and Perenolde
  • Nathrezim and Anub'arak/Chromaggus/Garithos/Smolderthorn
  • Winterhoof and Kilrogg
  • Zangarmarsh and Hellscream

We will be connecting the realms listed below on Monday, December 2 during a scheduled maintenance beginning at 6 a.m. PST through approximately 11:00 a.m. PST. Once maintenance is finished, these realm connections will be complete.

  • Coilfang and Dark Iron
  • Fenris and Dragonblight
  • Icecrown and Malygos
  • Spirestone and Drak'Tharon/Firetree/Malorne/Rivendare
  • Ysondre and Magtheridon

​Future Connections
We do not have a date for the following realm connections, but will update this blog post when we do.

Next Batch
  • Andorhal and Ursin
  • Crushridge and Anub'arak/Chromaggus/Garithos/Nathrezim/Smolderthorn
  • Darrowmere and Windrunner
  • Quel'dorei and Sen'jin
  • Velen and Eonar

​Plans for these connections may change at any time, but we’ll provide additional updates on specific dates for future connections here as we can. Please note that as a part of the connection process realm times may change to match each other.

Next Connected Realms 11/25
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
The connections below should be completed shortly:

  • Uldum and Shen’dralar/Zul’jin
  • Boulderfist and Chromaggus/Shattered Halls
  • Rajaxx and Anetheron
  • Agamaggan and Emeriss/Hakkar/Crushridge
  • Terrodar and Dethecus/Mug’thol/Theradras
  • Alexstrasza and Nethersturm

As part of our ongoing Connected Realms implementation, we will be connecting additional realms as listed below. We don’t have a specific date yet on when these connections will occur, but we’ll provide another update once we do.

  • Executus and Burning Steppes/Kor’gall
  • The Venture Co and Sporeggar/Scarshield Legion
  • Arathi and Temple Noir/Naxxramas
  • Daggerspine and Boulderfist/Chromaggus/Shattered Halls
  • Area 52 and Un’Goro
  • Thunderhorn and Wildhammer

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Raid Finder
I am probably in the minority but just wanted to say anyway.
I really don't think you are. We can see by the numbers that it's a popular feature. As is the way with most things, if you're fine with something you're unlikely to make a thread about it—so thank you for going to the trouble.

Having said that, people do have valid issues with game features from time to time, and we make sure to pass on that feedback to the developers so they can decide whether to make any adjustments, and hopefully improve the game experience for everyone. We've made a number of tweaks to LFR since it was introduced based on your feedback, so also a big thanks to those who have highlighted other aspects.

Basically, we really appreciate good or bad feedback about LFR or any other game features, as long as it's constructive! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Warlords of Draenor Flying
small no-fly zones are ok, the whole continent is way to punishing. Especially without lore reason.
I don't feel the need to justify good gameplay with lore. Why can Four Winds virmen defeat Onyxia? Good gameplay. (Source)
Believable lore and setting, must be internally consistent, is very important to a RPG.
We agree, but gameplay is more important, at least at Blizzard. Other studios design with different values. (Source)

So basically not having flying has nothing to do with immersion or exploration or interaction it's just timesink
That's almost exactly the opposite of what we said, but I know you like to argue. (Source)
it is when we are forced us to fight mobs not needed wasting my now-slim play-time ...please reconsider
But that sounds like you're arguing for a dungeon with 3 bosses in the first room.... (Source)
nope cus dungeons have a path and story ...trash has to do with dungeon and since Cata they hint next boss mechanics
Yet players still complain constantly about trash because it delays them from getting to the good stuff. (Source)

I don't want leveling to be easier/quicker. I want repeated content to have less travel/downtime.
We don't think flying makes questing quicker. We think it makes it trivial. There is a difference. (Source)

You guys always talk about player "choice" yet you enforce this issue of no flying. Double standards :|
Actually, we champion interesting decisions. Deciding whether to fly or not is not interesting, b/c flying is always better. (Source)
You will take away whole playstyles. "Fly around and herb + chatting in guild" is not who I want to gamequit.
Those will still exist. Just not at day one on the new continent. (Source)

"This thing I openly admit is not fun or compelling is valuable" is, you understand, a hard sell?
Game design, like much of art, isn't about having an intense experience 100% of the time. (Source)
You need a background upon which the epic stuff can stand against. Travel, easy fights, repairs are all part of the experience. (Source)
In the near term you might not miss them if they were gone, but in the long term, the game might feel like it had less depth. (Source)

Lorewise, what's the reason we can't fly then suddenly, we can... then we can't again?
There isn't a good one. It's not a lore-based decision. (Source)

if thats true then why do you nerf quest xp, RAF, heirlooms etc to make the grind faster?
Because otherwise hitting max level would only take more and more time the longer the game had been out. (Source)
It does NOT mean that we think leveling in a new continent is lame and shouldn't be part of the game. (Source)

why can't you just give mobs a close range dismount ability? So we can still fly high, but not low to skip mobs?
Ultimately, you are still deciding when you want to face danger in the outdoor world. That's not quite the same thing. (Source)

Also, If WoW's an escape from the drudgery of the real world, how are boring commutes until 6.1 making the game more fun?
Is clearing trash a ton of fun? Some things are in the game to provide pacing and cadence. You can't be at 11 all the time. (Source)

That could easily be fixed by adding some "anti-air units" around some quest areas, where it could work anyways.
That either means quest flying is possible but super risky or it's realistically not possible. Either way not much of a difference (Source)

What was wrong with the Wrath model of grounded leveling for main, BoA tome for alts?
If leveling is supposed to be trivial for alts, why not just make them all jump to max level? (Source)

A question: Will the PvP-Zone be a "No-Fly-Zone" even after 6.1 when we get our flying-ability back?
Almost certainly. (Source)

Misc
Are we getting cinematic WOD trailer?
Of course. No ETA. (Source)

Any news on the *clean-up of karazan* stuff being related to pre-expac event ?
Like much of what is data-mined, I would wait for an official announcement before freaking out (pro or con). (Source)

Dark Legacy Comics #416
DLC #416 has been released!

This article was originally published in forum thread: Blizzcon Dev Interview, Next Connected Realms, Blue Posts, Blue Tweets, DLC #416 started by chaud View original post
Published on 2013-11-21 07:56 AM
139 Comments
Comments 139 Comments
  1. spekkiebig's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Magistrate View Post
    I still can't get over the mindset. Before Blizzard announced it would limit flying to 6.1 and beyond, people had been saying for years that flying diminished the immersiveness of the gameplay--skipping mobs, elites, quests, and essentially 95% of the game's actual content. Now that they say they're finally catering to that (previously very popular) argument, everyone and their uncle's brother is jumping on the polar opposite bandwagon. It's like everyone instantly forgot and is unwilling to acknowledge reality. It's mind-blowing.
    .
    Its only a small vocal group that was complaining, now they are forcing people to commit to a different playstyle which adds another boring timesink for those who dont care about questing at max level: they are removing choice and are listening to those who thrive on other peoples misfortune, thats just the wrong way to go (same for the removal of reforging).
    Most people I play with dislike the fact that flying at max level will be postponed and artificially gated since it means the game will be less fun for them: plain and simple.
  1. Shudder's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Doomaz View Post
    u see what you want to see. it looks like draenei culture and architecture are not familiar to you
    I'm seeing hot pink and hearts and people say blizzard is sexist with their platekinis and lack of strong female characters. Where do they come up with this stuff? It's kind of amusing, there was a big thread making fun of Blizzard for showing those 9 lore characters on the warlords poster and not one was female. And then they said just you wait we've got some women on the horizon. And this is it, a friendship is magic character.
  1. Moradim's Avatar
    no flying 90-100

    flying at the level cap

    why is this concept so fucking hard to grasp? no, we have to make things more grindy for absolutely no reason.
  1. mmocd3c303b7a4's Avatar
    "We don't think flying makes questing quicker. We think it makes it trivial. There is a difference"


    Walking takes 5 mins to get to the quest area and 5 mins to get back

    Mount takes 2 mins there and back

    Flying takes 30 seconds.

    But yeah, that won't make questing faster atall.
  1. Khazzeron's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Protar View Post
    The Emerald Dream comment disappoints me greatly and shows a lack of creativity, you could very much say the same thing for every expansion:

    Outland is a nice idea and the team has talked about making it into an expansion many times. Building an entire expansion worth of zones around a demon invaded hellscape theme would get very boring, so Outland would be better used as raid, dungeon, or a subzone, not an entire expansion.

    Northrend is a nice idea and the team has talked about making it into an expansion many times. Building an entire expansion worth of zones around a frozen wasteland theme would get very boring, so Northrend would be better used as raid, dungeon, or a subzone, not an entire expansion.

    A Cataclysm is a nice idea and the team has talked about making it into an expansion many times. Building an entire expansion worth of zones around a fire and lava theme would get very boring, so the Cataclysm would be better used as raid, dungeon, or a subzone, not an entire expansion.

    Pandaria is a nice idea and the team has talked about making it into an expansion many times. Building an entire expansion worth of zones around a green lush forest theme would get very boring, so Pandaria would be better used as raid, dungeon, or a subzone, not an entire expansion.

    I mean seriously, just as Northrend had multiple unique snowy zones, The ED could have multiple green forest zones. Ideas I have come up with:
    >Your classic green forest, swathed in glimmering mist
    >A jungle with geothermal activity - hot springs and volcanoes.
    >Fields of trippy, dream twisted landscape like this: http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__...eralddream.jpg
    > A heavily Nightmare corrupted area
    > A Worgen infested scrubland
    > Mountain forests
    > A Mountain Giant as an entire zone.
    > A charred glade which has been burnt out by the locals in an attempt to curb the Nightmare's corruption.
    >A rushing river network.
    >A lush archipalgo.

    They could do anything they wanted, it's literally a land made of dreams - how much creative freedom can you want?

    If you want ED so bad, which won't be happening, there are several quests that deal with it and even let you go there. I suggest going and doing them over...and over...cause that's the closest your getting to ED unless they make it a raid. No ED expansion. Thank god.
  1. CaptainArlong's Avatar
    That attitude towards no flying reeks of Furor. Those blue posts really come off as "Well tough luck, you should be forced to grind and grind and grind and your big reward is being able to finish quests faster when 6.1 hits.". I knew him being put back on the game was a terrible idea. If Tigole was back as well, things would be even worse.

    Tigole and Furor gone (WoTLK)? Flying at 77, then changed to 70! Yeah, no flying in Pandaland until level cap, but that's still not as bad as no flying until the first major content patch. Furor comes back, NO FLYING!!!!111!!
  1. Moradim's Avatar
    why dont we just go full retard...

    no weapons till 6.1

    no armor till 6.1

    you must do 100 days of dailies to learn how to use these items again.

    see, this is how stupid no flying sounds right now.
  1. Fullmetal89's Avatar
    I just don't buy their whole story on 'immersion'. They have no good reason to back up 'no-flying till 6.1' they say it's for immersion, yet at the same time they contradict themselves saying there's not good lore reason to do it. To me it's pretty obvious, they want to push content as fast as possible that means they need to hide unfinished zones by keeping people from flying till 6.1. I can only see that as being the only logical argument for keeping people on the ground. It annoys me that they have to lie and pretend they are 'sticking to their guns' and doing it for 'immersion' when clearly they don't care about those things and have always caved in to the pressure.

    Also this argument;

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    What was wrong with the Wrath model of grounded leveling for main, BoA tome for alts?
    If leveling is supposed to be trivial for alts, why not just make them all jump to max level?


    His answer is completely moronic, you still had to do the quests and go through the whole zone to get to level 80. All it did was cut the leveling down by about 1/3 and gave you the peace of mind of not having to deal with PvP gankers at low level zones. I mean you could argue that I could reach cap without even questing just sitting at the major city and running dungeons. Lack of flying in alt, doesn't make it any less trivial than it already is. If anything it means I will likely stick to my character and level it all the way to cap. With MoP it's been such a drag for some alts especially because once you hit cap the grind becomes unbearable when you have a fresh toon.
  1. Nellyel's Avatar
    I agree with no flying until 6.1 . Im fact all that rant is from someone who prlly didnt start to play until icc, or something like that.
  1. Rioo's Avatar
    "The first few WoW expansions burned through the Warcraft villains pretty fast, which is why the team introduced characters like Garrosh."

    Yeah, the worst character ever to make it into a game. While he started as a pretty interesting character in TBC, the WotLK+ Garrosh is nothing but a one dimensional angry orc stereotype. They've had 3 expansions to develop him and absolutely nothing has changed. What a joke. I care absolutely nothing about what happens with him, and since he's now pretty much the center point of the WoW story I no longer care about that either. Which is kinda saddening since I've been a big lore fan since I first learned English and could understand the intros to each mission in the old RTS games.
  1. Khazzeron's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Moradim View Post
    why dont we just go full retard...

    no weapons till 6.1

    no armor till 6.1

    you must do 100 days of dailies to learn how to use these items again.

    see, this is how stupid no flying sounds right now.

    No. No it doesn't.

    You people are babies and forgot about what WoW was about. Vanilla and TBC/WotLK was some of the best times in WoW's history. Vanilla, you was on FOOT, no mount till 40. Even then it was slow as hell till IF YOU WAS LUCKY could afford an epic ground mount at 60, which was very few people. You went through the entire Outlands without them till 70. Went through 90% of WotlK without them. WoD will be fine, quit expecting shit to be handed to you easy peasy. What's worse, is most of you are just mad because you can't rush to 100 and then gank lowbies. All it is. Grow up people, or unsub and quit.
  1. lb's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nightgloom View Post
    I sincerely don't understand whats the big deal about not being able to fly for a while after the xpack launch.

    I think it will make the world a lot more interesting to explore & get around in.

    In my opinion its a terrific idea and I'm totally looking forward to it
    Na it is not - I like to be able to fly if I hit level 100 and to start raiding. So in Blizzard terms I have to walk to the raid instance entrances by foot till 6.1 ... for what - because it is troublesome for Blizzard to do proper quests/game mechnics that works well with flying mounts? As always they choose the cheap/simple path and telling us bull-shit about the real reason. They are plain lazy and uncreative. Why not allow flying like it was the latest expacs after hitting max level? Why delay it till another content patch? We have to go by foot 3-4 months?
  1. iindigo's Avatar
    I don't understand the people complaining that they'll have to deal with mobs when riding from point A to point B. Just do like we did before we had flying and follow the roads, where typically there are no mobs. Stop trying to take a straight line to your destination and run through everything. Stop expecting to put zero thought into navigation. Stop treating it like a game and start treating it like a world.
  1. Oohwakamuu's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by cptaylor38 View Post
    Do any of these developers have a non-childlike, professional, mindset? Every time I read their responses I just picture some ghetto black girl at a McDonald's drive through snapping her fingers and tossing her weave around while cussing out the paying customer for asking for an extra packet of ketchup. Only, they don't even put THAT much effort into it. It's just a one or two line, "f you, you're wrong and stupid" in a few more words. So condescending!
    It's Twitter. Hard to come across as professional in 150 characters.
  1. Moradim's Avatar
    no flying also limits how you can explore.

    MoP has a bunch of stuff only accessible by flying mounts. without flying, the scope of what you can do is limited. yeah, there are flight paths, but that doesnt encourage you to explore the world.

    zones like icecrown/storm peaks would be difficult, or near impossible without flying, as well.
  1. thunderdragon2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Khazzeron View Post
    No. No it doesn't.

    You people are babies and forgot about what WoW was about. Vanilla and TBC/WotLK was some of the best times in WoW's history. Vanilla, you was on FOOT, no mount till 40. Even then it was slow as hell till IF YOU WAS LUCKY could afford an epic ground mount at 60, which was very few people. You went through the entire Outlands without them till 70. Went through 90% of WotlK without them. WoD will be fine, quit expecting shit to be handed to you easy peasy. What's worse, is most of you are just mad because you can't rush to 100 and then gank lowbies. All it is. Grow up people, or unsub and quit.
    thats a lie bc was horrible for leveling and gearing take those glasses off plz.

    leveling wasnt intresting the only nice zone was nagrana and mabye blades edge rest was meh and while im at it im on a pve server so your last sentantanc dosent apply to me
  1. mevidoh's Avatar
    christ soooo many people complaining about flight, you want a lore reason how bout you're going back in time and your mounts are to dizzy headed to get off the ground it takes time for them to adjust. im mean who really cares, dont give in blizz they may whine and complain but their the ones that will have it on preorder before it even hits beta
  1. Tedstery's Avatar
    I don't understand the anger at not having flying mounts till 6.1...

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Moradim View Post
    no flying also limits how you can explore.

    MoP has a bunch of stuff only accessible by flying mounts. without flying, the scope of what you can do is limited. yeah, there are flight paths, but that doesnt encourage you to explore the world.

    zones like icecrown/storm peaks would be difficult, or near impossible without flying, as well.
    Are you that stupid? Why would they put in areas that are not accessible by ground into the game when they know you can't fly till 6.1?
  1. mmoc1e4c5b7903's Avatar
    You people are babies and forgot about what WoW was about. Vanilla and TBC/WotLK was some of the best times in WoW's history. Vanilla, you was on FOOT, no mount till 40. Even then it was slow as hell till IF YOU WAS LUCKY could afford an epic ground mount at 60, which was very few people. You went through the entire Outlands without them till 70. Went through 90% of WotlK without them. WoD will be fine, quit expecting shit to be handed to you easy peasy. What's worse, is most of you are just mad because you can't rush to 100 and then gank lowbies. All it is. Grow up people, or unsub and quit.
    I've been there . Vanila Wow was really shit .
    Let it death and burried.

    About the subscriptions ? Well , I played since vanilla , but this no-flying combined with the item-squish was the straw that broke the camel back for me .
    Unsub. Won't buy the expansion. My money already started to go on Steam games. World of Tanks , LOL and Dota2 installed.
  1. Moradim's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tedstery View Post
    I don't understand the anger at not having flying mounts till 6.1...

    - - - Updated - - -



    Are you that stupid? Why would they put in areas that are not accessible by ground into the game when they know you can't fly till 6.1?
    which is part of the problem, they cant add those kinds of things BECAUSE of the flight limitation.

    and they arent going to revise all the zones after 6.1.
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