ion hazzikostas
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...
Yes, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is still on track to release this year
If you've been eagerly looking forward to World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, this year has probably not been very calming. Also, if you live on...
World of Warcraft updates its quest icons, director Ion Hazzikostas talks big changes
The floating "!" has become such an iconic part of World of Warcraft's interface that it's hard to imagine it ever going away... and...
World of Warcraft: Classic is now inviting players into Blackwing Lair for the next phase of content
It's time to raid Blackwing Lair in World of Warcraft: Classic all over again. Of course, people have a slightly better idea of what to...
Blizzard is not planning World of Warcraft 8.3.5, so N’Zoth is the last big thing until Shadowlands
If you had been hoping for more heritage armor, system expansion, or anything else in World of Warcraft ahead of Shadowlands... well, your hopes appear to...
BlizzCon 2019: World of Warcraft Shadowlands’ Covenants explained
World of Warcraft's Shadowlands expansion might not have been a total surprise when it was announced, but some of its features (as listed in...
Developers from World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, and Final Fantasy XIV talk about raid design
Raids. You either find them to be the apex of MMORPG content and challenge, or liken them as the source of community gatekeeping and...
World of Warcraft will be locking down corruption values on the test server
The new Corrupted item system being tested for World of Warcraft has already received a fair amount of feedback, generally in the negative. The...
World of Warcraft: Classic should be getting Phase 2 before the end of the year
Now don't panic, folks; if you haven't gotten everything you wanted to do in Phase 1 of World of Warcraft: Classic accomplished just yet, you've...
Blizzard is dramatically increasing WoW Classic’s server capacity to combat long queues
Hey, are you sick of people complaining about WoW Classic queues? Apparently Blizzard is too, and with today's hotfix, the studio is dramatically increasing...
Blizzard’s Ion Hazzikostas says WoW Classic’s cramped servers will reduce community disruption later
Frustrated with WoW Classic's queues? Grumpy because you expected Blizzard to have learned a trick or two about launches in the last 15 years?...
Blizzard on World of Warcraft class pruning: ‘We’ve gone too far’
With everything swirling about WoW Classic's stress test this past week and next week's Rise of Azshara content update in regular World of Warcraft,...
WoW Factor: What could win back the crowd for the next World of Warcraft expansion?
So the conclusion to the Azshara raid has been mined out, and I'm just going to link it to you here. I don't want...
WoW Factor: The level squish isn’t the whole solution for World of Warcraft
To be entirely honest, you might have expected this column a little bit earlier because it's been a hot minute since Ion Hazzikostas once...
