PAX East - Evolving Azeroth: Creating a Living World: Past, Present and Future

PAX East - Evolving Azeroth: Creating a Living World: Past, Present and Future
Some Blizzard members were live at PAX East for a special World of Warcraft panel, streaming now on the official PAX Twitch and YouTube channels.

The panel explores 20 years of world building and design that brought life to Azeroth. Associate Game Directors Jeremy Feasel and Paul Kubit, Associate Design Director Maria Hamilton, and Principal Game Designer Jesse Kurlancheek reflect on iconic moments like the opening of Ahn'Qiraj and offer a look at what's ahead, such as the player housing feature in Midnight, the upcoming expansion.


The Past
  • The team talked about what makes up a living world, recapping some examples of things that change in the world.
  • The player base isn't monolithic, there are people that enjoy just specific parts of the game (questing, PvP, PvE, etc)
  • Daily quests were built out for players that wanted to do quests, helping those players not run out of quests. It also helped the world feel more alive.
  • In Blade's Edge Mountains there was a bombing run quest and the cannons would fire back at you. The area would get really laggy on Sunday and Monday, because the cannons were shooting an invisible bunny that didn't despawn and they slowly built up over the week.
  • By Wrath of the Lich King, the team knew that there were going to be expansions in the future, lots of expansions.
  • The team realized that the world didn't change with you, despite all of your accomplishments. This led to creating phasing.
  • Phasing is super useful for showing progression in the world. Both for individual players and groups in the world.
  • The downside of phasing is you may not see your friends, or they may not see the same thing that you are seeing. It separates people, so the team is more careful with it.
  • Party Sync helps keep friends in the same phase.
  • The team used Cataclysm to re-do some
  • By the time the team got to Mists of Pandaria, they had a well polished version of the core elements of WoW.
  • The team wanted to get away from the old World Quest system, where everything was on a timer and the same, so in Legion they revamped the system to make the world and quests feel more dynamic.
  • The team added a buffer, so you didn't have to log in every single day, you could log in every few days and do things.
  • The first modern Secret the team added to the game was a murloc egg in Northrend in a cave that granted a pet.
  • The team couldn't fit all of the Artifact Questlines in the new areas, so they put some in older places in the game. It allowed the team to reuse older spaces in a new way to tell the next part of the story.
  • The team went deep into the lore of each class, as well as putting some of that lore out in the world. You got to see other classes out in the world doing things.
  • Dragonflight gave the team a huge map to hide little things out in the world everywhere.
  • Scenarios were used for the Tuskarr Soup, so the team made 60 different scenarios to make the event work. This led to updated scenario tech that is still used today.
  • Some players got motion sick when Skyriding, so the team added accessibility options.
  • Building quests let the team put objectives way up high, so that going to the next one from high above was really cool.
  • The Jenafur secret might have been too secret.
  • Roadmaps allowed for a lot of speculation, but let players know that the team would be delivering content with a steady pace.
  • Roadmaps let the team figure out what is going to happen with the story.
  • The team was working on the story for the expansion after Dragonflight, but it was too big to fit in a single expansion. Chris Metzen suggested doing a trilogy instead, allowing the team to bring back everyone that players were excited about.
  • The team wanted to experiment with reusing WoW content. One idea was expanding on Timewalking and the other was letting players relive a whole zone / expansion. At the same time, team members were playing D3 and wanted to have Seasons in WoW.
  • Remix lets everyone experience this content together, so everyone progresses together rather at different times.

Legion Remix
  • The team is going to do do Legion Remix next!
  • Legion has a lot of content, so the team is currently working on figuring out how it will work. More info is coming later, with lots of details about the systems.
  • Legion Remix will have Mythic Keystones.
  • Legion Remix will also have an increased difficulty world tier called Shattered Timeline.

Game Modes
  • Plunderstorm had a ton of players try it, a big success. Desire from player base to come up with new WoW game modes.
  • The team is working on another new WoW game mode, but more details are coming later. It has a vibe that is on the scary story side of things and it is not a battle royale.

Housing
  • Housing has been worked on in WoW for many years, lots of old datamining cruft revealed that.
  • The more modern attempt at Housing started years ago, with prototypes and pitches.
  • Players have been visiting Azeroth for years, but they finally will have a home.
  • Your progression in housing can be forever if you want it to be.
  • Quests rewarding you with décor or trophies for your house is exciting for designers.
  • With housing, content can come to you. You may help an NPC with a quest and you'll see him come by from time to time.
  • The team working on housing has a very bulky roadmap of stuff that they want to do. Player feedback and ideas are being taken into account.
  • We'll get more Housing information in the next couple weeks.
  • Innkeepers will no longer say "Make this Inn my home", as in Midnight you'll have a home.

This article was originally published in forum thread: PAX East - Evolving Azeroth: Creating a Living World: Past, Present and Future started by Lumy View original post
Published on 2025-05-09 07:56 PM
18 Comments
Comments 18 Comments
  1. SinR's Avatar
    Show of hands who didn't see Legion Remix coming?


    Nobody? OK
  1. MrLachyG's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by SinR View Post
    Show of hands who didn't see Legion Remix coming?


    Nobody? OK
    I was expecting Hello Kitty Island Adventure Remix
  1. Daedius's Avatar
    Hope they don't do anything 'unreachable' for casuals in the Remix with M+ and "World Tier".

    Also make the LFR stuff tradable... was daft in MoP Remix the LFR cosmetics were hell of a load harder to acquire compared to other difficulties simply because you couldn't trade for them.
  1. Z3ROR's Avatar
    They just uploaded the youtube video:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_W9od6e_fE
  1. Aggressive's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by SinR View Post
    Show of hands who didn't see Legion Remix coming?


    Nobody? OK

    I was expecting Shadowlands Remix. LoL.............NOT
  1. kamuimac's Avatar
    scory story wow mode - we get co-op zombie shooter in wow
  1. Runicblood's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kamuimac View Post
    scory story wow mode - we get co-op zombie shooter in wow
    death by daylight
  1. Powerogue's Avatar
    "Party Sync helps keep friends in the same phase."

    It would if you guys would let level 80 players join Chromie time!
  1. ThatsOurEric's Avatar
    I'm hoping they streamline a way to get all the weapon skins as opposed to having to do all these specific conditions to unlock appearances.

    Don't recall if it was mount heavy, but have then available as well as the were during MoP ReMix would also be nice.

    Most importantly, give the rewards from the original Mage Tower.
  1. Val the Moofia Boss's Avatar
    "(Daily quests) This was also done in a way to make sure that the world felt alive. It wasn't static."
    The world quest system does not make the world feel alive. You open up a map and see UI ubisoft markers labeling everything for you, and every world quest gives you mediocre stuff you don't care about except for rep. You fly into an area and then suddely a floating head starts talking to you. Who is this person? How do they know I am here? How do they know I have free time that they are demanding me to come help them and not know I am not doing something else? It is not an immersive experience like stumbling upon a skirmish between imperials and Stormcloaks in Skyrim and you join in on your side, or stumbling upon a huge invading army in Mount & Blade, so you turn back to find your kingdom's army to meet up with them.


    "We wanted to make it feel like the world is changing when you are not there, so when you log in it will feel significantly different"
    I do not feel like the world is different when I login to WoW, not like logging into DaoC and seeing that the nations now control different zones and the frontlines have moved, or logging into Air Rivals and seeing that a brigade on our side has captured one of the three bases. Or logging into FF14 and seeing that new Moon facilities have been built while I was offline.



    "We couldn't cram all of our artifact questlines in the Broken Isles"
    See, this is pointing to the disconnect between what WoW expansions promise, versus the reality. The return of the Legion was hyped up as a world wide invasion that would threaten Darnassus, Stormwind, Orgrimmar, Pandaria, everywhere. But then you get the actual expansion and the developers focused almost all of the content on this small new island, with the rest of the world being an afterthought. I don't care about this new rando island. I care about the established nations. I wanted to be fighting here in Orgrimmar, not over there in rando land.


    "We are going more indepth into what your class is, and who they hang out with, and who their minions are, and what their whole vibe is. The class halls I think accomplished that really well"
    What? Why was my Tauren Sunwalker - a sun worshipping druid - shoved into a Christian Church surrounded by human knights? Tauren shamanism and pagan gods like ≠ the Light and angels! The Maelstorm and the Dreamgrove were more appropriate!


    "(Dragonriding) it meant that we knew that you wouldn't necessarily battle things in between, so we had to make sure that when you arrived at your next destination that there had to be something cool to do there. You weren't essentially skipping the content".
    Another point towards what I have been saying about how they could used tilesets and procedural generation to give Azeroth a more realistic scale. In most the Azure Span, the Onharn plains, and Thaldrazus was devoid of content. You are just flying over large swathes of forests and plains or rocks, and maybe you look down and see a herd of animals. Given that we are already at the point where only 5% of the map actually matters and you are just flying from POI to POI, why not scale up the world to make it feel more natural and less like a fake dollhouse?


    "Legion has a lot more content that Mists of Pandaria."
    Huh? I ran out content fast and did not remain subbed for the whole duration, unlike with MoP where I was subbed during the 14 month long 5.4 drought and still hadn't run out of things to do.


    "We are going to try adding an increased difficulty world tier in Legion remix. It is current called Shattered Timeline. It is a timeline where everything went worse and everybody is significantly more difficult. So if you would like to challenge yourself while levelling up or while doing Legion world quests, head over to the Shattered Timeline and let us know what you think."
    Finally, overworld mobs that are actually threatening and makes questing engaging? Hopefully this will get applied to Retail. Too bad this test is being attached to the Legion expansion. I don't like the Broken Isles.
  1. exochaft's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss View Post
    The world quest system does not make the world feel alive. You open up a map and see UI ubisoft markers labeling everything for you, and every world quest gives you mediocre stuff you don't care about except for rep. You fly into an area and then suddely a floating head starts talking to you. Who is this person? How do they know I am here? How do they know I have free time that they are demanding me to come help them and not know I am not doing something else? It is not an immersive experience like stumbling upon a skirmish between imperials and Stormcloaks in Skyrim and you join in on your side, or stumbling upon a huge invading army in Mount & Blade, so you turn back to find your kingdom's army to meet up with them.
    If I had to hazard a guess, Blizz's version of the world "being alive" is if there are players in the area as what you mentioned would be another interpretation. If you get people doing daily quests that funnel people to the same areas every day, that would technically keep things alive. I would agree that having a more dynamic world outside of how many players you shove into phases would be much more interesting.

    When it came to the content question of MoP versus Legion, I think Blizz would have to break it down to back up their claim in a satisfactory manner. I would not be surprised if they included the AP grind as a major content contribution to Legion, where many players would highly disagree with it being a positive versus a negative despite being attached to weapons. Legion did have class and progression quests, along with more time-gate storytelling and the Mage Tower. Also MoP didn't have M+ (although it did have CMs) or mythic raiding at the start, but MoP did have scenarios. If anything, it's akin to the AP grind: yes, it technically counts as extra content, but whether it is/was deemed good or enjoyable content, and just because Legion may have had more content didn't mean people liked and/or wanted it. I'm sure most people would rather have less content that's more engaging than more content that is less engaging (or not engaged with at all).
  1. Illuminance's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss View Post
    Finally, overworld mobs that are actually threatening and makes questing engaging? Hopefully this will get applied to Retail. Too bad this test is being attached to the Legion expansion. I don't like the Broken Isles.
    I don't expect it to be anything more than "enemies do 3x damage and have 3x health," similar to how they scale delves, so it will end up more of a slog than an actual challenge.
  1. Shigma's Avatar
    Well, just read it will be about M+. Yeah i know, legion had it back then. But the hype train stopped right there for me. Moving from the current routine was refreshing in MoP remix.
  1. Elanore Maroth's Avatar
    My guess for the mode would be a survival type horde mode PVE or maybe a murder mystery type game. But I can see Horde Mode having more replay value than Murder Mystery.
  1. Lahis's Avatar
    So are we gonna see level 100 keystones in Remix? If the keystones scale normally and characters scale like in MoP Remix then the number where they start to become a challenge will be ludricilous.
  1. Oakshana's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ThatsOurEric View Post
    Most importantly, give the rewards from the original Mage Tower.
    I agree 100% with your sentiment here. But I don't see it happening, for the same reason that it's still unavailable now. Because if the remix for Legion is even remotely similar to Pandaria, they are going to have a difficult time balancing the power bloat.
  1. Fudge's Avatar
    Innkeepers will no longer say "Make this Inn my home", as in Midnight you'll have a home.

    Lol.. The change that nobody even thought about.
  1. Nerovar's Avatar
    What living world? You can travel through any given continent in the game (that wasn't introduced by the current expansion) on foot and you're most likely not going to see a single player on most servers.

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