In an interview, the developers of WoW reveal what they had in mind for systems that are only important in one expansion, such as garrisons and (possibly) artifact weapons.
Try something, learn from it, and then move on
At mmorpg.com, there was an opportunity to have a few words with the developers of the MMORPG after the release of the Warcraft movie in America. This led to a rather interesting interview with Ion Hazzikostas (Lead Game Designer) and J. Allen Brack (Executive Producer). We have filtered and translated the most important statements from this conversation regarding artifact weapons for you.
During the discussion, the question arose whether players could actually be separated from artifact weapons. After all, these bring many cool features and mechanics that players would grow accustomed to and not want to miss.
However, Hazzikostas does not see a real problem if artifact weapons were to disappear. After all, history has shown that once-popular features, such as the garrison at the beginning of Warlords of Draenor, can fall out of favor very quickly if they gain too much significance. Additionally, a permanent development of the artifact weapon could detach players from their character – because if the weapon’s development suddenly becomes more complex than the development of their own character, then it leaves a sour taste.
“We want the freedom to dive deep into a system during an expansion and learn from it. We take what we have learned, like with garrisons, take some parts of it, and carry them into the future, while leaving others behind. Hopefully, players will regret that something is left behind. Maybe they’ll also think ‘Finally, they are getting rid of the junk.'”
However, the ultimate fate of artifact weapons will be decided very late in Legion – likely when players are already in patch 7.2 or 7.3.
You can see what else is changing with the addon on our feature page for World of Warcraft: Legion.
