Gamescom Fireside Chat - MrGM and Ion Hazzikostas

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Fireside Chat - MrGM and Ion Hazzikostas
Blizzard still hasn't shared footage from the gamescom Fireside chats. MrGM uploaded footage that he had access to so that we can get some information. A good amount of the panel ended up being covered in interviews, which you can see in our gamescom recap.


Dungeons and Delves

• Delves are a great success and are here to stay. The team tried experiments in the past with small group or solo content and they didn't land in the same way.
• The majority of players in World of Warcraft are looking for challenges they can pursue on their own. Delves really scratch that itch.
• Old Delves will likely remain accessible.
• The team hasn't picked the Season 1 dungeons yet, they are still finishing up the Midnight dungeons.
• The legacy dungeons are chosen to complement the modern dungeons. The team looks at size, structure, is it linear/winged, etc.
• Looking at older dungeons, the further back you go, the larger the gap between old and modern dungeon standards. It's fixable, but the art and visual fidelity is harder to fix. It'd be odd to be playing WoW and suddenly be in a dungeon that looks like it was created 20 years ago.

Player Housing

• In Patch 11.2.7, Neighborhoods will exist and if you own Midnight, you can claim a plot, make a house, decorate and upgrade it. Most of the Neighborhood features (activities, events, Endeavors) are coming with Midnight.
• Several dozen pieces of base decor as soon as you get your house
• Neighborhood will have lots more activity after Midnight launches. It should feel like a slice of life in Azeroth.
• There will be decor from more skill intensive accomplishments, but they are more like trophies that you'd hang on your wall. You won't be clearing a raid to get a bookcase.
• Players will need a new resource for decor called Lumber. You'll gather it in the outdoor world, just like a standard gathering skill. Grab an axe from your Neighborhood, gather Lumber, and craft a wide variety of furniture.

Patch Timing

• The War Within was the first WoW expansion that was designed from the ground up with modern game design philosophies. We saw a lot in Dragonflight, but War Within took it to another level.
• Legion and Mists of Pandaria had a good patch content cadence, but that came at the expense of the time between expansions. The way the team is set up now allows for working on the current and next expansion at a good quality level.

Outdoor World Content

• After the first few weeks of a season, the outdoor world becomes pretty trivial, which is a shame.
• Some sort of World Tier difficulty system is something we could see in the future. No specific plans for Midnight launch, but the team will look closely at the Legion Remix feedback and results.
• The Prey system is an example of the efforts being made to add a a layer of depth and challenge to the outdoor world for those who want it.
• The team could come up with a much more comprehensive system, such as World Tiers, which could be huge for the game.

Systems and Content

• Patch 11.2.7 will have the Lorewalking version of the War Within experience.
• Midnight will have a stat squish and item level squish. It will be part of the pre-patch.
• World Quests in Midnight will be fairly similar to current World Quests.
• The Renown system will work about the same in Midnight as it does with The War Within.
• The gear upgrade system will continue into Midnight. The team is looking at ways to streamline it further. It does a good job giving everyone, at every level of gameplay, a deterministic path to upgrading their gear that doesn't rely on RNG. Getting steadily stronger over the course of the season has lots of benefits. It's a pretty complicated system, especially for returning and newer players. Naming and flightstones are a pain point. Expect to see some differences.
• Expect news about alpha in a month (from late August).

Player Customization and Social Features

• More player race customizations will likely come where they fit the story, so as players visit homelands or engage with cultures, it'll be a great time to add new options.
• Ion was worried that the updated Silvermoon would be dismissed by players as just rehashing old content instead of going somewhere new. Player reaction was positive and the team will likely look for opportunities to take a similar approach to other fan favorite zones.
• No planned changes to queuing for more things cross-faction. You can cross lines to play with friends or guildmates, but in general the Horde and Alliance are still in conflict. The cross-faction play that has been allowed so far is to solve social issues.

Professions

• There is room for improvement to professions. There was depth and relevancy added to the profression system in previous expansions.
• There is a little too much complexity to professions right now. Players enjoy the fantasy of professions, but the system feels a little overwhelming.
• There is a certain level of depth and customization that makes sense if you are a Blacksmith making an item that someone is going to use for several months. You probably don't need that level of depth and customization if you are making a potion.
• The team may make professions a little more differentiated.
• The goal is to offer more approachable profession options for those who want to engage in the system without going "all the way down that rabbit hole".

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