The development of World of Warcraft is changing. The WoW chief promises once again: Now there are real, big changes.
No matter how you turn it, World of Warcraft is currently anything but at the peak of its popularity. Shadowlands has developed from a rather solid start into one of the least popular expansions ever within a few months and is at risk of falling behind “Battle for Azeroth”.
Although Patch 9.1.5 brought numerous improvements, those had been requested by players for over a year and, due to the long wait, didn’t receive the positive reception they could have.
Most find the game significantly better after the patch, but wonder why Blizzard keeps making the same mistakes instead of listening to feedback during the beta.
Game Director Ion Hazzikostas specifically addressed this topic in an interview with VentureBeat. He admits mistakes and also explains why it is so difficult to break away from old conventions. What was the perfect response back then might be absolute nonsense today.
The truth is that the way people play the game has changed. What was the right answer for the WoW player base and the game as a whole 15 years ago may no longer be the case today. There is a certain stubbornness, and we hold on to these earlier teachings, some of which are difficult to let go of when your training as a designer and developer of the team has led to these answers being ingrained in you.
With this, Ion Hazzikostas refers to several issues. One of the most prominent was probably the “Conduit Energy.” This was a necessary resource that players needed to switch their current media. Even during the Shadowlands beta, there was a lot of feedback that this only led to frustration and was not an interesting game element.
The community said: “Hey, we think that Conduit Energy will be this frustrating system and not the effects we hope for.” Our intention was similar to the respec costs in WoW Classic, to be a small obstacle that makes you think harder about your decision but never permanently excludes you from something. In practice, however, it became something that players were too bothered by. We heard this from them, and we should have changed our opinion earlier.
World of Warcraft is not only made for raiders, PvP players, and streamers
Another point Hazzikostas raises is the difficulty of designing World of Warcraft. After all, the MMORPG is not developed for just one or two player groups, but for many different ones – it aims to be an MMORPG for everyone. However, this often leads to problems, as different groups have different perceptions. This was especially evident in the decision that players should not be able to change covenants freely.
What we hear from people who are high-end raiders or completed very high keys [Mythic+] is that the choice of a single covenant and the lack of ability to switch freely was frustrating. We understood that. It was not surprising to us. We knew that if that is your approach to the game, if you are a min-max player, then you always want to be optimal.
But as we said, the design team’s goal was to have a core RPG choice that feels like an important decision to take one path or the other and then experience a different story and different experience.
Over time, we then heard from those who initially liked this choice that this diversity of experience after months of gameplay – after they had seen all stories on twinks – these players also wanted to switch more easily. And that’s where we are now.
Since Patch 9.1.5, players can switch their covenant in World of Warcraft without problems. So you can easily switch between Venthyr, Necrolords, Night Fae, and Kyrians whenever you want or if there are specific advantages in a dungeon.
Hazzikostas also explained that it is not always correct to listen to the “especially visible” players. They are not always the mainstream of the player base.
[In some areas] it’s about observing the WoW player base’s mainstream, a large mass of players and how they develop. Observing how they play the game. What we hear from people who are not just content creators or high-end raiders or PvP players with a very specific playstyle. But one of the challenges in designing WoW is that there are dozens of different playstyles. Many are not as loud or prominently represented.
Something that players also like to forget. It is easy to forget in your own bubble, which consists only of players with the same interests, that there are also other groups. That there are role players who would never step into “Mythic+” or pet battle lovers who have nothing to do with PvE and PvP. That there are casual players who only do a handful of world quests every day and are happy with that.
World of Warcraft will change – A promise or a threat?
However, Hazzikostas emphasizes in the interview that Patch 9.1.5 is not a one-off event. It is the beginning of a change in philosophy that they want to carry into the future. They have listened to a lot of feedback and want to change many things in the future and also incorporate them into the basic design.
[…] Patch 9.1.5 is not a one-time thing. It reflects that we are changing many of the philosophies that drive our motivation to design WoW. Many of these things, such as the previously mentioned “Conduit Energy,” are offshoots of teachings we have taken from our predecessors, the founders and leaders of the team, regarding significant decisions about maintaining the meaning of players’ investment time in a character – this has led us to not be so twink-friendly regarding gameplay […]
According to Hazzikostas, Blizzard wants to ensure in the future that playing twinks is more enjoyable. He also mentions a few examples:
Patch 9.1.5 marks the beginning of a change towards more accessibility for alternate characters, more catch-up mechanics, more sensitivity, and respect for players’ time. We are looking at which activities are interesting once or twice, but may be less interesting if done repeatedly. So let’s make sure that they don’t have to do them more often. In contrast to that are the mechanics that belong to the core gameplay cycle, such as dungeons or PvP at max level. Things that players want to do without having to overcome so many hurdles along the way.
This approach motivates how we are going to tackle the next patch for Shadowlands [Patch 9.2], which we will talk about in the not-so-distant future.
All this sounds as if WoW players are finally going to get exactly what they have been demanding for months and years.
Just “PR Talk” or a real change?
The problem here is: WoW players are familiar with such statements, as they are repeated with every new expansion every two years. It is emphasized again and again that feedback will have a greater impact and that they want to listen more to the wishes of the players – only to be disappointed again.
However, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands in its current form seems to have been a wake-up call for the developers. Because no matter how you turn it: The mood in the community has never been as negative as it was before the release of Patch 9.1.5. And even if Hazzikostas emphasizes that they always think about World of Warcraft in large cycles and already envision how the game will look in 5 or 10 years – if the MMORPG fails to engage players in the long term, it is questionable whether there will even be an expansion in 5 or even 10 years.
Nevertheless, one should not forget that World of Warcraft is still a giant in the MMORPG market and at least has a loyal core player base that continues to play even amidst criticism and dissatisfaction. World of Warcraft holds a certain special status and a whole group of players who are not really “gamers” but are exclusively players of World of Warcraft. For many, daily logging into WoW has become a ritual, a part of daily life.
It would be nice if World of Warcraft could retain more players in the coming years who do not belong to this group – simply because it has become a really good game again.
Let’s hope that happens.
