ion hazzikostas
World of Warcraft admits that it’s the ‘ship of Theseus of video games’
To mark World of Warcraft's 20th anniversary, Blizzard is granting interviews all over the place (although I do wish they'd stay out of my...
Blizzard insists World of Warcraft’s housing won’t just be Garrisons 2.0
So World of Warcraft is getting player housing, and this announcement was so big that nobody seems to remember or be talking about anything...
WoW Factor: Blizzard started listening to World of Warcraft players for a reason its leadership doesn’t want to say
I have a few different conflicting thoughts when it comes to the most recent interview with World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas, or...
World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas reflects on a ‘a time of introspection and reexamination’ for the MMORPG
World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas has a lot to say regarding the changes that the game's development staff is making moving forward...
World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas and Morgan Day talk about raid difficulty and defensive balance
The time-honored practice of World of Warcraft releasing a new raid tuned to challenge people racing to clear it first and then steadily making...
WoW Factor: How World of Warcraft makes you cheer for removing features
Yesterday, MOP's Justin wrote a column about The Elder Scrolls Online that detailed its key virtues. It's a good column, and one of the...
World of Warcraft adds videos and Q&A on the War Within, dynamic flight, and more
We hope you World of Warcraft fans brought a big appetite for The War Within this week because Blizzard doesn't seem in the mood...
World of Warcraft shows off the ways that Warbands will share currency, items, and reputations
Your Warband is going to share everything. Clothes, money, social standing, even boyfriends. That's the big takeaway from the new entry on Warbands from...
WoW Factor: Steve Danuser was not really the problem with World of Warcraft
So I don't want to sit here and say "oh, things were going so great" before the news that Steve Danuser had actually left...
WoW Factor: Fine, let’s talk about Blizzard being dumb with early access
All right, let's get it over with.
I didn't really want to write this column, not because I didn't think there was anything to talk...
World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas claims War Within early access won’t grant long-term advantages
So let's recap for people who have missed out on this. World of Warcraft's next expansion, The War Within, is available for pre-order. This...
WoW Factor: If this is the state of World of Warcraft, why talk about it?
The other day, I was talking with a friend about another MMO altogether. It doesn't actually matter which one it was because the important...
WoW Factor: MMO raid design and the antagonistic GM
Last week's column about World of Warcraft prompted some really interesting comments that I think are worth talking about; in fact, I very nearly...
World of Warcraft contemplates buyable trader’s tender and an old world revamp
We all learned about World of Warcraft's Guardians of the Dream patch in terms of its overall location and content offerings yesterday, along with...
WoW Factor: So what is Mike Ybarra teasing for the future of World of Warcraft?
As we are all waiting for Twitter to finish imploding under its current ownership (because nothing is more fun than rich idiots buying things...
WoW Factor: Long-shot potential additions for World of Warcraft’s next expansion
Last time we were here, I wound up just talking about potential class and race additions for the next World of Warcraft expansion. As...
WoW Factor: Overwatch 2’s failure offers a lesson for World of Warcraft
The weird thing about my current position is that for the first time in at least a little while, there isn't a new disaster...
World of Warcraft’s leads are ‘skeptical’ they’ll ever get gearing right
With Update 10.1.5 out the door, World of Warcraft's dev teams have their hands full with the subsequent fallout and adjustments from this kitchen...
WoW Factor: And now we ruin the Trading Post
Those of you who have read my work in WoW Factor for a while will know that I tend to be very cards-on-the-table about...
World of Warcraft director says Blizzard won’t sell Trader’s Tender – by itself
So not so long ago, dataminers working in the World of Warcraft data mines found Trader's Tender shop assets, leading to the presumption that...
