by Magistrate - 10 years ago     show comments

Gameplanet recently posted an interview they had with World of Warcraft game director Tom Chilton during Gamescom. In the interview, Chilton elaborates on a lot of issues–such as the history of the game, the role of Orcs in Warlords of Draenor, and where the team is at as far as the next expansion.

The highlights include the following:

• World of Warcraft has evolved as a game by allowing more players to experience every kind of game content, such as raids.
• Grommash Hellscream (previously announced as the final boss of the planned Warlords content) will be explored from a new character dynamic, as well as the other Warlords.
• Although Orcs will play a role in Warlords, the first raid tier is very Ogre-centric and has its own character.
• World of Warcraft has content “planned out for a good amount of time” and the team will continue producing content as long as it remains financially viable, which is likely for “quite a while.”
• The team is already in the development stage for next expansion’s zones. The following expansion has options ready for choosing, which will occur over the next several months.
• The team has “six or seven” ideas for expansions after the next two.
• The next beta build will unlock “a ton of different buildings that weren’t really accessible before.”
• Warlords’ secondary goal is to win back “lapsed” players and acquire new ones through things like the level 90 character boost, improved tutorials, and other improvements.
• World of Warcraft‘s subscriber demographic is much older than it used to be, including long-time players from launch a decade ago. This “definitely influences” how the content evolves.
• Chilton says that the original talent system was probably one of the biggest turning points for the game.

To read the full interview, head to the article World of Warcraft: Then, Now, Next on Gameplanet‘s website.