ion hazzikostas
WoW Factor: What do changes in Blizzard management mean for World of Warcraft?
Blizzard is going through some changes at the moment. This is a good thing, as Blizzard has made it clear that it is a...
WoW Factor: Why Blizzard’s line about story beats is so frustrating
So the most recent roundup of interviews with World of Warcraft's staff deeply hurt me on a fundamental level. Like, this was the sort...
A new slew of World of Warcraft interviews touches on the future of Sylvanas and lack of story planning
Good news, World of Warcraft fans! If you thought you were going to be done with Sylvanas after the next patch arriving tomorrow, well......
WoW Factor: What would it take for big changes in World of Warcraft?
The last time I wrote an installment of this column, it was in specific response to an interview that contained no small number of...
WoW Factor: What we really learned from the World of Warcraft Hazzikostas interview
The problem with writing about World of Warcraft right now is that there's actually less to write about than you might think. Sure, we've got...
World of Warcraft’s director Ion Hazzikostas has no plans for Legendary refunds but does promise catch-up systems in 9.1
Apparently, you should have an entire collection of Legendary items in World of Warcraft. That's one of the takeaways from an excerpt from a recent...
The Daily Grind: Do MMOs need ‘friction’ for social bonding?
Not quite a year ago, World of Warcraft Game Director Ion Hazzikostas sat for a Wired interview in which he discusses social bonding in...
World of Warcraft hints at delving deeper into Shadowlands in 2021
I can't be the only person wondering about what World of Warcraft has up its sleeve for 2021. Now that Shadowlands is going on...
World of Warcraft is making Torghast easier and faster to clear in response to player behavior
Torghast isn't too hard for what the developers had intended in World of Warcraft, but it is too hard for how players had actually been...
World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas evaluates Shadowlands’ launch
Now that we're approaching a month of exploring Shadowlands, Blizzard and players alike have a better idea of how the World of Warcraft expansion...
Massively Overthinking: The best and worst MMO developer quotes of 2020
We have a fun end-of-the-year tradition on MOP to recap the best and worst MMO developer quotes of the year. In fact, I keep...
World of Warcraft makes good on its new multiboxing policy, confirms delay of endgame grinds until post-launch
Earlier in the month, we reported on a shift in World of Warcraft's multiboxing policy that was going to leverage action against those who...
World of Warcraft goes on a Shadowlands interview blitz
With only days to go until Shadowlands ushers World of Warcraft players into the afterlife, it's definitely a good time for the studio to...
WoW Factor: Ego, philosophy, and learning the right lessons in MMOs
Picture the scene, if you will. The year is 2006, and I am working in a library with a number of people whom I...
World of Warcraft shifts its 16th anniversary event, defends raiding over the holidays
Now that the (new) release date of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is public knowledge, both players and developers are swinging into action to prepare...
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands pre-patch check-in: Hotfixes, customization insight, and quest skips
Now that the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands pre-patch is live, you might want to start your leveling experience in Warlords of Draenor but not want to...
World of Warcraft director Ion Hazzikostas promises to reverse the Shadowlands ability limitation
It was just yesterday that people found out World of Warcraft: Shadowlands had made a change to Covenant abilities by limiting them to the eponymous...
World of Warcraft players are noticing some problems with soloing old content in the pre-patch
You may be forgiven for thinking that after doing a massive item level squish twice before, World of Warcraft's developers would have learned how...
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is trying to move away from ‘anything that feels like it might be a grind’
You've heard it from the World of Warcraft development team over and over: Anima for your covenants in Shadowlands will not be a grind....
World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas suggests MMO social bonds are formed over ‘friction’
The debate over whether World of Warcraft was more social "back in the day" than now has some more fuel for the fire. In...
