World of Warcraft Forever developers discuss Blizzard’s plans to take risks with the new version of its MMORPG, instead of playing the hits.
Shockingly, we're still just over one week into World of Warcraft Forever, although it feels like Blizzard's 'old but new again' twist on the classic MMORPG experience has been here much longer (I'll let you make the joke). To reflect on the response so far, as well as discuss what's ahead, Senior Game Designer Josh Greenfield and Lead Game Designer Tim Jones joined Josh Corbett of the Countdown to Classic podcast and streamer Josh 'Xaryu' Lujan. On the table are the new Skyborne race, progression speed, blue overload, SD visuals, and whether we'll ever see a Classic-style UI.
The Skyborne proved to be the most divisive aspect of World of Warcraft Forever's reveal. A brand-new race, split across both Horde and Alliance, and with an initial presentation that led them to be dubbed 'blue elves' (despite other color options being available). Greenfield calls it a "full circle moment" for him: "I remember when the Draenei came out, I was just a wee lad, didn't work at Blizzard, I was just a player. I refused to call them Draenei for the first year. I was like, 'No, they're Eredar.'"
Greenfield admits "it would be disingenuous to say that we didn't expect a little bit of divided opinion on it," but says Blizzard has "a really cool story to tell," one that the team all the way up to Executive Creative Director Chris Metzen believes in. In fact, Jones reveals that Metzen specifically challenged the team to "not play it safe with the Skyborne," explaining that Blizzard's initial thoughts on Forever were to "play it safe and go with the obvious locations that we want to expand our world into."
Jones refers to his panel at Blizzcon where he talked about future zones the team wants to visit, which includes the likes of Worgen starting area Gilneas, the deserts of Uldum, and the forest kingdom of Quel'Thalas. "We could totally just check all the boxes," Greenfield adds, "I think anyone who's been a 'Classic Plus' wisher for years has all their things." However, the team realized "we're going to run out of content if we do that, if we go too aggressively," and so instead it opted to "take a swing for the fences right out of the gate."
As for why the Skyborne bridge across both factions (you pick which one you will join from the very start), Jones emphasizes that the division of beliefs in its society "was really compelling to us […] to have that divide between these elves that are more in tune with using arcane magic to solve their problems, and these elves that are more naturalists, more in tune with the shamanistic side of things." Greenfield says it allows to push that clear tension between the sides and "play up that 'war in Warcraft' thing with these guys."
The pair also touch on the need to create old-school 'SD assets' for all the new additions, whether that be the Skyborne or the extra Druid forms that have been introduced. So far, the broad sentiment from players has been that they still look a little too modern, and Greenfield says the team is considering the feedback. "I think a lot of the concerns are about the geometry - there's extra stuff sticking out." There's nothing to announce for now, though he notes that the Skyborne was "one of the first things we started working on," and that the team has "dialed in what the right kind of fidelity range is" as it's progressed.
Speaking of fostering an old-style look, Corbett asks about the possibility of a Classic-style UI toggle. Jones is firm but fair here: "We want WoW Forever to be its own pillar. It's separate from Classic Era, it's separate from modern World of Warcraft." He states that the unique menus are a good way to help "identify the game immediately as something different even if you're in a familiar location like Elwynn Forest." Of course, he notes that you're free to adopt the look of your choice through add-ons if you prefer to.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.pcgamesn.com/world-of-warcraft/forever-skyborne-visuals-classic-ui
