It's no secret that World of Warcraft's next expansion, WoW Dragonflight, is under pressure. As the Twilight Lands saga finally comes to an end and the curtain falls on the infamous reign of Sylvanas Windrunner, the MMORPG is in dire need of a new lease of life - Alexstrasza style. Ahead of launch, I asked Blizzard reps Pat Dawson and Erik Holmberg-Weidler why players who left for Final Fantasy XIV, it is worth returning to the shores of Azeroth.
“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” says production director Pat Dawson. “We were thrilled to see how engaged the community was in not only the excitement around this expansion, but also in the feedback.”
“We've taken a number of steps to make sure that we communicate much more closely with the community about this, and I think the talent refresh is a really good example of that. We had a lot of really good conversations to make sure we got it right during the alpha and beta."
For those who don't know, World of Warcraft's talent system dates back to the early days of WoW, much more reminiscent of Wrath of the Lich King than the system we've seen in recent WoW retail expansions. It went through several different iterations, each in response to feedback from players.
Talent aside, Dawson notes that “we did something bigger this time; Dragonriding was a big risk. We've never done anything like this before, but it was important to us that we get it right. We were all nervously biting our nails, waiting to see what people would think when they got to the alpha version, and that was the reception. , so that positive reviews, people say it's one of the coolest things to happen to World of Warcraft. This made us all very happy because this is what we live for as developers. We want to warm the hearts of our players - it makes it much easier to come to work!”
As a result of numerous positive reviews, Dawson confirmed that the final version of Dragonflight is "pretty close" to the alpha and beta versions, confirming that there will be no "major changes" after release and emphasizing that Blizzard will "make adjustments" if problems arise.
That's why Dawson encourages players to return to WoW if they take a break from adventuring in Azeroth. “This expansion is very much the essence of World of Warcraft,” he says. “It’s dragon fantasy, exploration, wonder. This is the real World of Warcraft."
“Another important thing, and this has been really important to us as a team, is how we have interacted and engaged with the community over the last year or so. Starting with patch 9.1.5 - we really wanted to make this a community-focused patch - we leaned very heavily on community requests and looked at how people played the game and how they wanted to play the game to make sure we were serving them well."
Dawson concludes, "We've really done a lot to implement some fan-favorite things in this expansion," describing Dragonflight as "a great opportunity to come and really experience what World of Warcraft is at its core."
Like a man who spent long away Spending too much time exploring the vast snowy expanse of Northrend, Dragonflight is definitely more reminiscent of its early predecessors than Shadowlands or Battle for Azeroth. There is some magic in the air, a rainbow of colors makes everything sparkle, and, of course, there is my beloved Alexstrasza.
