by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Alpha is alpha. Blizzard iterates a LOT on their systems in general (if you need a non-WoW example, look at how much D3 morphed in terms of UI and systems from announcement to release to Reaper of Souls) so it’s not surprising that we should see dramatic shifts in what’s coming with Warlords of Draenor. This is par for the course in the game industry, not just Blizzard, so overall it shouldn’t surprise you.

However, Lead Game Designer Cory “@mumper” Stockton revealed a big shift today, which was somewhat evident in yesterday’s alpha build for Warlords of Draenor. 

Building Specializations: GONE!!!

In response to my query, I got this surprising response:

@unlimitedBLACK @Muffinus Yup, we just recently decided against specs. We took the coolest ideas and wrapped them into the building perks.

— Mumper (@mumper) June 27, 2014

Given the absence of any mention of specializations in the buildings that were updated in these most recent builds, it sounds like it’s a change that was decided very recently. All things considered, however, the decision makes a lot of sense:

• A lot of the specializations added things that didn’t really feel mutually exclusive. Aside from just having enough real estate for the different NPCs to all be in the building, there’s no reason not to have both the Prison and the First Aid vendor in the Barracks.

• Coming up with specializations for 20+ buildings felt like it was going to be a pretty tremendous effort from the start. When you consider that many of the specializations would end up going unused because players probably won’t want the hassle of changing their buildings once they have a build they like, it might end up being more of a wasted effort anyway.

• Saving the specializations mechanism for future expansions gives them a way to carry forward the Garrison system and augment it as an expansion feature. It’s never fun to see announced concepts get left on the cutting room floor, but Blizzard’s out to make a solid game, and haven’t promised to do anything less than that.

As a follow-up, designer Jeremy “@Muffinus” Feasel added this:

@unlimitedBLACK @mumper Sure, really it was just extra complexity, and 2 “less cool” options. Might as well give you all of the cool, right? — Jeremy Feasel (@Muffinus) June 27, 2014

Stay tuned for more garrison coverage this week.