In the wake of this year’s BlizzCon, interviews with the World of Warcraft team continue to trickle out, with the latest one being with general manager John Hight. He’s talking about the rather pregnant question of cosmic expansions returning to the game, discussing the ways that the studio is working on putting guardrails in place to ensure that players feel empowered and a part of the expansion without breaking the expectations about character power or the like along the way:
It’s not only Chris [Metzen], we have a creative director for World of Warcraft itself. That’s Chris Robinson, [who] was Senior Art Director for a long time. He actually works very closely with Chris, and he’s looking at literally every zone, every character, every quest line and reviewing it with that lens. It’s like, ‘Is this being consistent’ with who we believe this place or these individuals are?’ ‘Are we empowering the heroes in the players in a natural way, not in a way that feels wrong?’
For those who prefer WoW Classic, Hight also discusses that in the context of Season of Discovery by stating unambiguously that the developers don’t want to deviate from the story or progression of the game as it originally existed. While they’re not completely leaving new content off the table, they’re much more interested in turning dials for the classic experience rather than reinventing or creating wholly new content. Which does not directly discuss the return of Cataclysm but does certainly answer some questions about it.
