The WoW developer Kevin Martens talked to us about Shadowlands and introduced the Maw. We reveal what happens there.

The developers of World of Warcraft Shadowlands are currently working hard to complete the next expansion. Nevertheless, lead designer Kevin Martens took the time to answer some questions about the Maw in an interview. We discussed the progress in the Maw, the dangers as well as potential rewards and frustration factors and received plenty of answers.

What is the Maw? As a reminder, the Maw is the endgame zone in World of Warcraft Shadowlands. Only at the maximum level of 60 can players come here and complete a series of tasks daily. However, one cannot linger too long in the Maw, as the Jailer sees everything that happens there. Those who cause too much chaos will incur the wrath of the Jailer and will be hunted by increasingly powerful enemies until they are ultimately overwhelmed. In the same area stands Torghast, another endgame feature.

Who is speaking? We spoke with Kevin Martens, one of the lead designers at Blizzard. He is primarily responsible for the development of the new areas in Shadowlands, such as Maldraxxus or the Maw. Before World of Warcraft, he worked on Diablo III and was even significantly involved with BioWare, for example, on Dragon Age: Origins.

In the Maw, you are severely restricted

MeinMMO: How exactly does adventuring in the Maw work? Do you receive quests and start completing them, or do you simply venture out and try to kill a few rares?

Kevin Martens: There are a few quests, but not in the traditional sense. There are definitely some introductory quests, but they lead you into the gameplay cycle. (…) When you arrive there for the first time, you encounter Ve’nari, she is a Forsaken of the “Brokers” and has the only safe spot there. It serves as your hub, but not in the traditional sense – it’s a small cave that she has secured with your help. She gives you some introductory quests. But these quests exist solely to introduce you to the systems.

If you look at our experiments over the past years regarding outdoor content, that’s where we wanted to go with world quests in the BfA patches, something like in Mechagon. (…)

Everything we learned [from Mechagon and Nazjatar] has been incorporated into the Maw to make it a great playground.

Additionally, we tried to make it really difficult. No matter what goals you have for the day, they can be accomplished alone. But when you encounter other players, you will be glad about it and think: “Oh, what a stroke of luck, there’s someone else here.” (…)

But you cannot stay forever, as there is the system of the “Eye of the Jailer”. It will often be the case that you think, “Damn, I didn’t finish everything today; I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to explore that other corner, because the Jailer is already on my tail.” This fits well into the story and also into the gameplay, to keep the area fresh by not allowing you to complete everything in one sitting.

MeinMMO: How exactly does the Eye of the Jailer limit the player? Is it a strict time limit or a certain number of activities?

Kevin Martens: It’s activities. So you can [explore the area] alone, and if you don’t draw attention to yourself, for instance, as a Druid in cat form, and avoid fights to see the whole area, then you can probably see almost all of it.

Some monsters can see a bit further than average, which means you might need to flee from some fights. They might catch you, or they might not. It’s dangerous. But if you simply want to avoid fights and explore the area, we won’t stop you.

We don’t want you to complete all your goals there in a single session, but rather from a narrative perspective – not from a gameplay perspective. The idea is that this is the realm of the Jailer, and he is watching you, much like the Eye of Sauron. The Jailer is watching all the time. He sees everything that happens there.

He is always looking for you or other intruders and notices you when you do something significant. When you steal a treasure or kill some elite opponents, his generals and so on. Then you raise this meter, and the Jailer starts sending assassins after you, who get stronger and stronger. Ultimately, it becomes inevitable that you, no matter how well you play, will die or have to flee.

Every death in the Maw costs you important resources

MeinMMO: What happens if the Jailer’s forces catch you and kill you? How is the player punished? Is it just a typical run from the graveyard to the body or do you actually lose something?

Kevin Martens: It’s a bit different from a typical run to the corpse. There is this resource that you can only collect in the Maw, called “Stygia”. You also get normal loot, but almost everything grants Stygia, like killing monsters, elite opponents, completing events, and other things that change regularly. You lose some of it every time you die.

At a certain point, the Eye of the Jailer will be so overwhelming that you probably won’t be able to return to retrieve it [the Stygia]. So there’s this thing of weighing risk vs reward. Players have control over when they make the decision: “Okay, that’s enough, I’m going to try to get out now.” You can flee at any time.

But we want you to sometimes go a little overboard and try to push the boundaries. And as you get stronger and play through the rest of the game, getting better items and becoming more familiar with the systems of the Maw, we expect that you will progress further later on. We will make [the Maw] probably harder over time as well.

The Maw is good for groups, but there’s no obligation

MeinMMO: You said that you enjoy encountering other players in the Maw. Is it easier to manage the Maw with a group, or does it even increase the Jailer’s attention?

Kevin Martens: I don’t believe it scales based on group size, but rather because you complete more activities. You do more things that attract attention. You simply complete events faster.

As in many areas of WoW, we find it more fun when you play with other people, with a few exceptions. (…)

We don’t want you to have to play with other people, but we encourage you to do so. And the Maw is the place where we take a different approach. We never give you a goal that you cannot complete alone, but it’s great to meet someone else! Then you don’t have to be as careful. You don’t have to wait to avoid enemies, but can charge in and get more done. You don’t even have to be in a group for that. It can be helpful to just have other players beating on the same enemies.

Less randomness in rewards

MeinMMO: Do you think there’s a possibility of frustration for players when you limit the number of possible actions in the Maw? For players farming rare mobs, toys, or mounts.

Kevin Martens: The reward system is being revamped, as well as the entire approach to rewards in the game, driven by the idea that you can be a bit more specific and not have to farm as much. That’s part of this system.

We’ve done this with a new system called Renown and a new weekly chest. We want you to be able to do what you enjoy and not have to say “I choose this one activity and farm that until I have all the rewards”.

This time it’s a bit looser. I can do a whole lot to earn my Renown and then get both: Some random rewards, but also some that I can work toward. Even in PvP, we’ve brought back the vendor for conquest points, so one can take a more targeted approach.

A certain amount of “Oh, cool, I got something I didn’t expect” is always fun. But too much of it becomes frustrating and just feels random. We’re always looking for a balance here.

We share your concern here and hope that many players will try this in the beta and give us their feedback so we can adjust it accordingly. But like with any live game, this is an ongoing process. It’s not finished, even when the game goes live and has had some hotfixes, we’re always keeping an eye on this.

And players always find new ways to approach such things, and thus also new sources of frustration. We’re always trying to stay attentive and adjust things in real time.

MeinMMO: Does the Maw and the activities change daily, like in Mechagon, or do the things rather build upon each other?

Kevin Martens: We’re still experimenting with that. Currently, it changes more frequently than daily. If you play in the morning and then again in the evening, you’ll see different things in the Maw. However, we might make it a daily reset, as the Eye of the Jailer currently resets daily. (…)

We want it to feel different from the rest of the overworld. Whatever happens in Revendreth, in Ardenweald or in Bastion, should feel different from what happens in the Maw. (…)

The Maw should feel different. Every single aspect of it should differ a bit from the other areas.

When will we see more from the Maw? Very soon, WoW Shadowlands will enter beta, and then the endgame features such as the Maw will be playable – you can sign up for the beta here. By then, we should receive new information and make our first impression of the Maw and its feel.

Did you get excited about the Maw? Or are you not so convinced by this area?