ANAHEIM, California -- As extensive as the overall changes are in the new World of Warcraft expansion, a full-on sequel has never crossed anyone's minds at developer Blizzard Entertainment, says the game's lead content designer Cory Stockton.
"I think the concept of* World of Warcraft 2* has never even come through the office," said Stockton. "To us, the patches we do are almost like mini-expansions in some cases because there's a lot of content in there. But going back to the old world and doing (these changes), I think this is something that we've all wanted to do for a long time."
After weeks of rumors over Blizzard's trademarking of Cataclysm, at this past weekend's fan convention BlizzCon, the company revealed the expansion. One of the most talked-about features is the addition of two new character races, but these are merely the tip of the iceberg: Stockton says that changes are coming that will affect the entire game world.
At BlizzCon, Wired.com spoke to Stockton about these changes, as well as topics like information leaks and the challenge of catering to different types of *World of Warcraft *players.
The full Q&A is below.
Wired.com: There were a lot of leaks this year: the name and the two new races for the Cataclysm expansion hit the internet before BlizzCon. Do you think Blizzard is becoming more careless or is it just harder to keep a secret?
Cory Stockton: I think we're just getting bigger is the issue. When you have 4,000 people in this world-wide company, I think it's just hard for things to stay secret as much as we were able to do it in the past. A lot of people have access to a lot of information in the team in order to keep the product up to date since we have to ship patches so quickly. I think that makes it harder to keep things as secure as we would like. Definitely lessons learned though from this, for sure.
__Wired.com: __We won't be able to go back to old world content post-Cataclysm. So what does this mean for new players? And what about players who don't buy Cataclysm?
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Stockton: __Everyone's going to get (the world changes of) Cataclysm no matter what. You can be on vanilla WoW. You can be on* Burning Crusade *(expansion), on Northrend (in the *Wrath of the Lich King *expansion). No matter what it is, all of the changes to the level 1 to 60 zones will be patched down to everyone. Now granted, that's going to be a large patch, but everyone will get that content and be able to quest using existing races and classes. You could level up through that just like normal. That's just going to be part of (patch) 4.0.
__Wired.com: __For people who are nostalgic for the old world before Cataclysm, is there going to be some way to revisit Azeroth as it was before?
Stockton: I think that's what Caverns of Time is for. We'll definitely have the ability to do that kind of stuff, but we are also going to do a huge world event leading up to the* Cataclysm*. Some time after patch 3.3 and after (the Lich King) Arthas is defeated, you'll definitely see a giant world event that affects the Alliance and the Horde very, very much. It's going to change everything for them. It's probably going to last something like a month. Something similar to the zombie invasion before Northrend. It will be something that will roll out slowly over time. But we are planning to do a huge world event, so everyone will know the Cataclysm is coming.
Wired.com:* *Does Cataclysm affect the old world achievements?
__Stockton: __Definitely. We're going to have to go back and look at those achievements because certain things might not be available anymore and there are also going to be new things that we're going to want to add. So definitely it will affect that stuff. (Old world achievements) will be converted to "Feats of Strength" (achievements that don't add points to your player score). So if you have one, for instance, and we removed that from the game, we removed the ability to get it, but (in your list of achievements) it will just become a Feat of Strength.
__Wired.com: __What about the points?
Stockton: So if you had the points, you keep them. They don't disappear, even though it becomes a Feat of Strength. If you did it, lucky for you.
__Wired.com: __I think the same Horde players who complained about* Burning Crusade*'s "pretty" new race of Blood Elves are complaining about the addition of the "cutesy" Goblins, while the Alliance gets the Worgen. What do you say to those players?
__Stockton: __We totally did that on purpose. Our goal is to give the Alliance a bestial monster-type of race, and we wanted to give the Horde something more Gnomish, like a smaller stature character because they didn't have that. They have Taurens, Orcs, Trolls -- all these big characters. So we really wanted to mix it up and give them both something different. And now we have paid faction change that's coming up soon so people can swap if they don't like one or the other. (laughs)
__Wired.com: __The ability to change factions is also controversial. How will that work and what do you say to people that are mad about that?
Stockton: It will cost real money, and it will work similar to a realm change or paying for a new name. I think the concept of being mad about it is not really valid because people can already have multiple characters on different accounts anyway, they can be on both factions. So the concept of logging in and telling them what someone's going to do, we think that this happens already. So the paid faction change to us is really about people being able to play with their friends when they want to and to be able to experience a new level of the content.
__Wired.com: __With the new races, there are new starting areas. Are there going to be new experiences to teach the player? And does that mean you have to change the starting experience for all the races?
__Stockton: __Definitely. The actual 1 to 60 Cataclysm revamp is affecting every single zone in the game. So things like the Valley of Trials, where the orcs start in Durotar, will be completely different. For Trolls, Gnomes, everything; you'll see it all the way across the board. In some cases, it won't be huge changes. Like Elwyn Forest, for example. We're pretty happy with it, and there's not a lot we would do there. We would maybe want to put a flight path out to Eastvale Logging Camp because it's kind of annoying to run all the way there. But other than that, we fell pretty good about it.
Things we would do is to go back and look at quests that say, "Bring me 20 of this item." These days, we might want to cut that to 10. And maybe we'll up the spawn rate on the thing you're looking for. That's the kind of stuff that we go back and do, and those are things we can do really quickly. So in a zone like that, we can burn through it really quick. But in something like the Barrens, where it's split in half, it's regrown, there are huge cracks in it, and Camp Taurajo is burned down and attacked by the Alliance -- in that case, you are talking about an entire revamp. And the zones that are big like that, that we think every player will flow through, those are the zones we are going to spend that time on.
Wired.com: By revamping the entire world, it seems like practically a brand new game. Why go through the trouble? Why not release World of Warcraft 2? Or do you consider this World of Warcraft 2?
Stockton: I think the concept of World of Warcraft 2 has never even come through the office. I think to us the game is the game. To us, the patches we do are almost like mini-expansions in some cases because there's a lot of content in there. But going back to the old world and doing this stuff, I think this is something that we've all wanted to do for a long time. Because a lot of us roll (alternate characters) at work, and we play through it all. You know, after playing (Wrath of the Lich King) and even Burning Crusade-type content, when you go back, it just doesn't feel the same. Level up a new night elf through (original old world areas) Teldrassil and Darkshore... It doesn't feel as good as going to (Wrath of the Lich King's) Howling Fjord, brand new at level 70. It just doesn't feel that same way to us, and I think we all want to bring it up to that level.
__Wired.com: __With changing the entire landscape and Cataclysm being steeped in lore, it might be intimidating to new players. What do you say to those who feel too behind to start playing now?
__Stockton: __Well, one thing we are doing is pushing a huge initiative specifically to help introduce new players to the game in a better way. And that's a big thing that we are going to be doing. We are trying to do those kinds of things before Cataclysm even ships, such as helping players be able to find quest targets easier, teaching them how to use the camera controls in-game, taking them on quests that explain a little more of the story -- like a "why-am-I-doing-this" type of thing. And that's a big initiative that we have that we want to roll out even before we get to Cataclysm. We definitely want to bring new players in, and I think the concept of redoing 1 to 60 is going to push that, so we want to be ready. When those new players come in, they are going to get an experience that would make them want to get past level 10, level 20 and keep playing.
__Wired.com: __There are so many different kinds of WoW players, is it challenging to cater to everyone's play style? In a way, I guess you are trying to do that with Cataclysm.
Stockton: It definitely is. You have the hardcore raiders, the heroic players, the re-rollers who keep re-starting, but never get past 35. They have eight characters and they are all between 30 and 40. We want to get that player to 80. We want to get them to experience the content, and I think that's why, with every expansion, we go back and make the leveling curve a little bit easier. Like the mount changes we just did, (making it easier to obtain mounts).
Wired.com: Thanks for that. It helps a lot.
Stockton: Yeah, I know! That was one of my changes. I'm so excited about that. We want to get you past those humps. Those humps shouldn't be there. The game should be fun to play, should get you all the way through no matter what level you are. It should always be fun; there should always be another carrot that you want to get. I don't want you to feel that between 40 and 50 that it's "grindy" or it's "slow" and "there's no dungeon for me." That's the point of this revamp.
__Wired.com: __When you make the content for the high-level players and low-level players, do you ever feel that you have to make a compromise that is to the detriment to one or the other?
__Stockton: __We do. I think we feel like we have to do things a little differently, but that's where you see something like "hard" modes and "normal" modes come in to play. It's our stab at trying to do that. You want to make the normal mode accessible to absolutely everyone, then we want to have hard modes for our top percent players who can have something that's really hard but has really great rewards. They get better loot, they get achievements.
I think you also see a little bit of a difference between 10- and 25-man (raids), also. It's easier to get 10 people together and to do that content, but in some cases, the 10-man hard modes are harder then the 25-man because losing one person in 10 is a lot worse than 1 in 25.
It's something that we constantly struggle with, but the biggest key thing that we always come back to is we want as many people as possible to experience the content. I think that's the key factor. And whatever changes we make to hard modes and normal modes in the future to try and get that right, I think you'll still see changes there in between now and Cataclysm. We didn't even know how it's going to play out for Icecrown (zone) yet because we are watching Trials of the Crusade in (patch) 3.2. I think it is a little bit of a moving target, but we definitely want to have as many people as possible be able to see Arthas, for example.
__Wired.com: __There were changes that were recently made to the game in order to go back online in China. Was there a different team that worked on changing the game or did that affect your development team?
__Stockton: __Oh, 100 percent. That's definitely our team. But the changes have been really small. There have been things like changing icons, like the fact that we are not allowed to show bones for instance. Nothing that has had an effect overall yet or anything that's really serious. Not too much of an impact. I'm just glad it's back online. That's the best thing.
__Wired.com: __What are your thoughts about editing that content?
__Stockton: __Well, we would love to have the original content, but... I don't live in China. I don't know what the standards are. Like what is acceptable for, say, a nine-year-old girl in China? I don't think I can really say what that is. Obviously, there is the Chinese government so that's where we stand on it. I would rather them have the content that we have since it's rated. We say what age the person should be to play the content. But we love the market there and have a ton of players there. If we need to change things that are going to allow them to play the game, I think that everyone feels that that's acceptable to do that kind of stuff.
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