ion hazzikostas
WoW Factor: Blizzard’s week of bad decisions
First of all, before you clever clogs start in down in the comments, yes, I realize that almost any given week in World of...
WoW Classic begins testing Trial of the Crusader today as Blizzard toys with ChatGPT
Why ask players what they want out of World of Warcraft when you could ask the fancy auto-complete tool known as ChatGPT? I assume...
WoW Factor: Dragonflight wasn’t a hit – so now what?
All right, let's be real and acknowledge that the recent Activision-Blizzard earning report did not say outright that World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was an out-and-out...
World of Warcraft’s Hazzikostas discusses cross-faction queued content and class combinations
Let's not bury the lede on this particular World of Warcraft Q&A with game director Ion Hazzikostas: Yes, the team is aware of the...
World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas discusses Mythic+ keystones, reputation, and communication
After today's surprise unpleasantness with the latest Activision-Blizzard financial report, it might be a touch surprising to see World of Warcraft's game director Ion...
World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas discusses the underused Work Orders and plans for character customization in a new interview
If you've looked at the work orders available on your server in World of Warcraft and found that there, uh... aren't any, you aren't...
WoW Factor: Narrative justification for every missing class/race combo in World of Warcraft
As I implied in a recent post about the most recent Ion Hazzikostas interview, the line about making sure that there was a narrative...
World of Warcraft promises more race-class combos, discusses affixes, cross-faction guilds, and cadence
Do you want more class and race combinations in World of Warcraft? Possibly the additional ones we already know exist, like Night Elf Paladins...
Design Mockument: In which we do not design World of Warcraft 2
Over the course of my professional writing career on this site and that site we used to run before AOL screwed us all over,...
WoW Factor: Is Dragonflight the last chance for World of Warcraft?
Human beings love narratives. We love stories too, but narratives are like the arch version of that. You don't need an elaborate story about...
WoW Factor: When your MMO design is hooked on a feeling
To start this off, I want you to summon up a feeling. I want you think back to the first time you can remember...
World of Warcraft hopes to have cross-faction guilds by the end of Dragonflight’s run
A new Team Liquid interview with World of Warcraft Game Director Ion Hazzikostas unearthed a few indicators of where the game is going in...
WoW Factor: So what’s the actual prediction on Dragonflight’s quality?
I was briefly considering doing another math column now that we actually have a date when World of Warcraft: Dragonflight started alpha testing, but......
World of Warcraft’s Dragonflight alpha removes gendered body type text, briefly adds selectable pronouns
There are a lot of features present in the first alpha test of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, but one feature that wasn't highlighted directly...
World of Warcraft’s Steve Danuser promises that big sword in Silithus is still something to keep an eye on
So, uh... hey, remember when Azeroth got stabbed with a sword? It was the end of the last World of Warcraft everyone mostly agreed was...
ABK shareholders approve Microsoft buyout, World of Warcraft gets new executive producer
We've got some hefty Activision Blizzard news for you today, so buckle up and let's go for a ride.
Shareholders approve Microsoft buyout: On our...
WoW Factor: Blizzard’s excuse for not adding housing to World of Warcraft convinces no one
One of the things I noted in my initial reactions to the World of Warcraft: Dragonflight announcement was that I had not expected to get...
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight will not have a mission table but will have traditional flying
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is coming. When? Well, Blizzard isn't going to tell you, but one of the points raised during a Twitter roundtable...
WoW Factor: Good job torching Wrath of the Lich King Classic, my dudes!
All right, this is... actually just hilarious to me. Like, seriously, I caught this particular detail after I'd already finished writing my initial reaction...
World of Warcraft’s Ion Hazzikostas discusses theoretical player housing in new interview
Player housing in World of Warcraft is a topic that's come up pretty ceaselessly since the game launched, and it's even more present in people's...
