Would island expeditions in World of Warcraft work without time pressure, allowing for exploration? The Game Director is planning something.
In an AMA (“Ask me anything”), Game Director Ion Hazzikostas answered questions from the community. A major topic was also the island expeditions, which can hardly hold up to what was promised. The rewards have already been fixed, they now drop more frequently. However, other aspects are still facing a lot of criticism.
Exploration is missing: The island expeditions were touted as an opportunity to explore and experience alien islands. However, this is hardly possible at all, because due to the time pressure (after all, there is also an enemy team on the island), one has to constantly rush from one objective to the next. For real “exploration”, there is simply no time if you don’t want to doom your group to failure.
Or as Hazzikostas puts it:
“We have received feedback that the speed of the island expeditions feels too frantic, and the “Go! Go! Go!” race to collect Azerite diminishes the ability to explore the islands or fully understand what is happening. Ultimately, the theme of “Alliance vs Horde” in the expeditions creates a competitive feel, and we know that this is not necessarily something for all players.
But we would really like to use the technology underlying the expeditions for other content that does not have the same speed.”
No exact time frame: While this is not a firm promise, it sounds like they want to revisit content where exploration and random events occur at a later date.
Whether this will happen in Battle for Azeroth or only in a future expansion remains pure speculation at this point.
Future of island expeditions: More content is still planned for island expeditions, which are set to appear in upcoming patches. This will include not only new islands but also new events and mechanics that can arise there. However, no details have been provided yet.
How would you feel about island expeditions with more freedom and less time pressure? What could that even look like to still keep it exciting when the race is absent?
Other topics addressed in the AMA:
