Thirteen months will have passed since the fantasy MMO World of Warcraft had fresh content when Warlords of Draenor comes out on November 13. Lead designer Tom Chilton explains how this happened and what changes they want to implement in the future.
Interviews with lead designer Tom Chilton are currently circulating after Gamescom. This time he spoke with Icy Veins. They asked him about the significant content drought that will occur between the Siege of Orgrimmar and the new expansion. Blizzard has repeatedly stated that they want to introduce new content at least every six months, so that players never experience such a content drought again like before the Icecrown Citadel.
Warlords of Draenor was actually supposed to be released a few months ago
Chilton responded that the criticism is certainly justified. With Mists of Pandaria, they managed to deliver new content regularly during the expansion. They had also hoped to launch Warlords of Draenor several months ago. However, the team expansion led to setbacks and slowed down the development.
They increased the team by 50%, according to Chilton. Most of the new hires had no experience with World of Warcraft, and many had never worked on other MMOs. This made it difficult for them to start their work immediately. Ultimately, they had to redo some of the work on Warlords of Draenor to meet the quality standards they envisioned. Additionally, the Garrison took more time than planned.
In the future, they want to prevent content droughts
Quality remains Blizzard’s highest priority, according to Chilton: “When we have the choice between being finished two months early or delivering a great expansion in November, the decision is easy for us.” Chilton believes they are now in a considerably better position to avoid future content droughts.
