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Rebuilding the Foundations of Warcraft - Interview with PC Gamer
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由
Archimtiros
发表于
2024/07/10,17:55
In an
interview with PC Gamer
, World of Warcraft Game Director Ion Hazzikostas discussed the change in design philosophy between Shadowlands and Dragonflight, throwing out lessons of the past to bring new ideas into The War Within.
Game Director Interview with PC Gamer
Ion Hazzikostas, via PC Gamer
"The last few years really have been a time of introspection and reexamination of all of the building blocks, the design DNA, of WoW," he said. "Turning over every stone holding it up to the light and examining it and asking ourselves, 'This clearly served us well for a long time, is it still the right thing for our players in 2024?'
"And in many cases the answer is yes, put the stone back and we continue. In other cases, it's time to rebuild some foundations."
This topic has come up
several times
since the decline of Shadowlands, as Blizzard has set out to re-examine the foundations of World of Warcaft, asking themselves if the ideas of the past are still relevant today.
Although
some mistakes
are destined to be repeated, Blizzard received a wakeup call after subscriber numbers and failed to stablize with the launch of Dragonflight. As revealed by
then
Warcraft Franchise General Manager John Hight during a Games Developer Conference lecture reflecting on 30 years of Warcraft, these
dwindling subscriber trends
indicated a major problem - the players who left weren't coming back.
But these failures led to a radical shift in the team's design philosophy, reevaluating how players engage with the game, and the two-decade old expectations placed upon them - what Executive Producer Holly Longdale would call the
Third Era of Warcraft
. While the launch of Dragonflight may have already been compromised by the failures of Shadowlands, the expansion continued on to record post-launch subscriber growth and stability.
The failures of Shadowlands alienated many long term players - some of them for good.
With this comes the Warbands account-wide progression system, several
iterations of
Mythic+
affixes
in
The War Within
, a greater focus on
an overarching story
, more
evergreen systems
and content built to last several expansions, rather than being abandoned.
Ion Hazzikostas, via PC Gamer
"I think it was beginning but definitely accelerated over the course of Shadowlands where, from a design perspective especially, we had a bit of a reckoning," Hazzikostas said. "We had built systems and leaned on what seemed like time-honored WoW principles like deep investment in your character and meaningful choices and differentiation."
"But what we were hearing from players was 'that's not what we want anymore. I did this one, why do I have to do it again? I don't want this power to be tied to a cosmetic choice, I want them to be separate,'"
There's no great reveal here, no new information that suddenly solves every problem any player may have had with the game over the last few years. It only signifies that Blizzard is listening and taking to heart the concerns that players have been raising; looking for places where the traditional way of doing things may not be quite so relevant twenty years later.
This roller coaster of subscriber trends has taught the developers an important lesson though: players are evolving, but they don't want to leave the games they love behind. Blizzard is striving to evolve with them, giving them a reason to stay and continue to enjoy those games they love.
Ion Hazzikostas, via PC Gamer
"That kind of began that process of like , 'These were lessons that were instilled in us by our forebears as designers on the team, as developers on the team, but are we going to blindly cling to them?" Hazzikostas said.
"Or are we going to face that reality that players have changed, the way people approach WoW has changed and it's our duty as caretakers of this world not just to stubbornly cling to our original vision but to evolve and meet them where they are and to ensure that Azeroth remains a place that they want it to be.'"
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