Venturebeat Interview with Ion Hazzikostas on WoW's Future

[GratsDing45]

Sorry Ion, I can't think of 1 game that has been amazing because it appeals to every one.

[crusadernero]

I'd love to see how much it cost them to build the original WoW. Obviously, costs would be higher due to things being more advanced these days, but it was worth it the first time around, why not again?

They can either rebuild on what retail wow have and is OR do what you suggest remake the whole game with updated engine and all. What you are asking for is a monumental task, a huge one. A "wow2" cant be just "better"(subjective) graphics. It gotta be a remake of literally everything. All the zones, quests, NPCs, raids, dungeons - everything in wow right now, would have to be removed & deleted. In would new mobs, npcs, dungeons, zones, quests, lore, dungeons, raids+++++++ be made.

You are literally asking for a whole new MMORPG set in the same universe, but the universe of old is deleted. Cause lets face it, if they just did a graphics update, it would change literally nothing. Our eyes would have something pretty to look at for a while, then the same game mechanics become the main issues once again.

A wow2 means to rebuild everything, remove all the old. Thats years of work.

I've said it before but with chromie time now being a thing, were we can pick and choose what xpac to do, Blizzard can easily push retail wow forward with only focus on new xpacs(and maybe the one before the newest). Right now ppl can level from 1-60 in BFA & SL. Everything besides that is in any regard, considered obsolete. Every new player can give total F in pretty much every old xpac with ease.

[bullseyed]

In case of emergency, deploy cross-faction raiding.

If you were unaware that they had been planning to do cross-faction raiding for years, then you might be exceedingly ignorant.

[bullseyed]

"At this point, your characters are heroes and there is no way that they can go back to being anonymous adventurers, but the team also wants to go back to simple core fantasy and not so much more escalating cosmic adventures"

Yes yes yes!

Jailer wins, creates new world, we get reborn as level 1 randos. Old gods, void lords, burning legion, titans, etc all dead. New planet.

Pretty easy to do, but might also kill the game.

[StillMcfuu]

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[*]The team created an internal process for employees to flag pieces of the game for review that haven't aged well or could be seen as offensive, and a diverse group reviewed them for change.

This was probably the only way to get the devs to play the game. I'm sure they got stickers for finding things.

[*]These changes did not take away from development time and would likely have gone unnoticed if they weren't spotlighted from datamining.

Since they've produced no content in forever, and the content they've given has been awful, I believe him. Not making content means the above doesn't actually take away from content.

[*]The team understands that they aren't fixing systemic injustice by these changes, but why not do it in tandem with working on larger cultural community.

Censorship isn't diversity. If the entirety of the staff weren't emotionally 10 years old, they'd know that.

[*]The WoW team is also working closesly with the Overwatch team to try and catch toxicity in game right away without relying so much on manual reporting.

/spit

[*]In the end, the team wants WoW to be a positive place to escape the trials and tribulations of the world.

WARcraft you absolute morons.

[*]Diversity makes a better game. They don't want WoW to be for a niche audience.

Seeing as the only audience is a niche group of whales and addicts, and the way the game was before enjoyed 13 million players and was a house hold name, clearly their version of Diversity doesn't make a better game. Again, emotional children.

[*]There has been a lot of work towards allowing more open communication and feedback within the team about things going into the game.[*]9.1.5 was born out of the team being allowed to pitch ideas and try out things that they think will make the game more fun.[*]Ion acknowledges that they should have reacted to player feedback earlier about conduit energy, and knows that they can do better about communicating not only that we are being heard, but why things are not necessarily implemented or changed right away.[*]9.1.5 reflects a shift toward more accessibility and letting go of old lessons instilled on the team from the past that don't necessarily reflect the way that the game is enjoyed today.

9.1.5 is clearly just community feedback from the past 10+ years, don't pat your own back Ion for content that's been asked for from the forums.

[*]Cross-faction raiding is a bit more on the radar now. If Jaina and Thrall are working together, why can't the players?

WoW, only took them... 10 years to acknowledge this. Again, old community feedback.

[*]At this point, your characters are heroes and there is no way that they can go back to being anonymous adventurers, but the team also wants to go back to simple core fantasy and not so much more escalating cosmic adventures.

Again, really easy fix in multiple ways... Have us lose an expansion... Do a time skip... Introduce a new continent where we are grinding new reps and factions, and are not representing the Horde/Alliance old Azeroth.

[*]The team wants to keep expanding on ways to better use what they have built over the years into the game, but it's not quite there yet.[*]There really isn't a time when the game becomes so old that a reboot is needed. However, they need to be mindful of bloat.

This team hasn't built anything the fans want. The time is now to "reboot" to wipe away 6 years of bad decisions.

[MidnyteTV]

Bout fucking time he mentioned things we've all been thinking.

2 best points: Xfaction raiding and accessibility for 2021 World of Warcraft.

[Dracullus]

So... 9.3 back on the menu? 10.0 back to Azeroth, Dragon Isles (core WoW fantasy)?

I wouldn't say it. On one side he said they will soon talk about "conclusion of SL" (9.2 info? or just patch plan for late SL in general?). On other side he said "they had much more planned after 9.2 (9.3? or he talk about 10.0 already? obviously they always have something planned after next patch).

Imo they don't want to give answer now cause both ways could be interpreted as bad PR in current situation. No 9.2? OMG Blizzard is abandoning expansion, WoD 2.0, end of WoW. There will be 9.3? OMG SL will take forever it's end of WoW.

First they need push 9.2 info to gain some good PR. And for us just quick look on final boss of 9.2 will be answer. Jailer/Zovaal? No 9.3. Anduin or Malganis? 9.3.

[HateTrain]

I know I've cheated on you three times already, but baby I can change!

[Drusin]

I hope they add xfaction raiding so people can shut up about it lol

[Combatbutler]

Once again nothing but hot air and useless posturing, so the same as usual.

[Wekko]

Ion couldn't keep himself from mentioning "diversity" over and over again. Talking points being shoved down our throats.

[Dakhath]

If you were unaware that they had been planning to do cross-faction raiding for years, then you might be exceedingly ignorant.

Sure, but they shot the idea down with a quickness just a year ago. I'm sure they have all sorts of things planned, but only deploy it when needed, like Illidan and Legion in general post-WoD.

[Wekko]

Sure, but they shot the idea down with a quickness just a year ago. I'm sure they have all sorts of things planned, but only deploy it when needed, like Illidan and Legion in general post-WoD.

Are we in "Reactivate the Arthas-bot" stage of their plan?

[munkeyinorbit]

Diversity makes a better game. They don't want WoW to be for a niche audience.


So 99% normal People are now considered a niche audience ? What Kind of Diversity does he mean and want ? more black ? more Transgender more of the 5000 fabricated Genders that doesnt exist ?

no Wonder this Game is going down

How about just more females. Females are not a niche. What's wrong with creating a game that is welcoming to everyone? As a male I have no idea how this is done. Everything is safe for me.

[muto]

Ahh the ole’ “sorry for not listening to feedback loop.” The pattern that repeats every expansion.

[thelordymir]

9.1.5 reflects a shift toward more accessibility and letting go of old lessons instilled on the team from the past that don't necessarily reflect the way that the game is enjoyed today.

we NEVER enjoyed this stuff, making it sound like we have grown out of liking their borrowed power bs

[Wekko]

How about just more females. Females are not a niche. What's wrong with creating a game that is welcoming to everyone? As a male I have no idea how this is done. Everything is safe for me.

Here's the problem: You're assuming the same number of females want to play WoW as the same number of males based on the general idea that it's a 50/50 split across the population. However, you have no way of knowing this is true. That's like saying the same number of males want to wear make up as the same number of females, so they should diversify the make up industry to accommodate this belief when there is no way of actually knowing this is true. It is essentially telling the world that everyone wants do what everyone else wants to do so let's strip out the identities of the audience/customer base that we have already built.

[Dakhath]

Are we in "Reactivate the Arthas-bot" stage of their plan?

Always figured he would make an appearance at the end of the xpac, but who can say.

[woofpup]

Bloat? Like the covenant garbage?

[muto]

Starting to miss the times when the Devs ignored us now, damn.

Don’t worry you can look forward to that happening next expansion for the first year.