Blizzard devs are able to go outside again, give interviews
by Mike Schramm 
Jan 18th 2007 at 12:33PM
I guess since the expansion is finally done, all the Blizzard devs have time to talk. While reviews on the Burning Crusade are still forthcoming for the most part, there's been a couple dev interviews pop up post-launch.There's not much you won't hear on the Collector's Edition DVD, but over on Firing Squad they have a short one-on-one with Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan. Most interesting is probably how the dev team is justifying adding the sci-fi stuff to Warcraft, via the Draenei and their spaceships-- Tigole suggests there's been an "otherworldly leaning" from the beginning, with the Titans and their worldmaking, and the alien origins of the Orcs. Also, he talks about his favorite creatures in Outland, and while I've only seen Fel Reavers so far, I was definitely impressed.
And at Gamespot UK's site, they catch Blizzard's Jon LeCraft. He says that the expansion's delay turned out to be time well spent and that the devs had a lot of fun making starter areas again (since their philosophies have changed so much-- that means we need more midgame content now, guys!). Finally, he acknowledges that the new 25-man cap on instances will mean breakups for some guilds, but that making everyone in the raid necessary was more important to Blizzard than simply allowing 15 people to stand around waiting for loot while the other 25 actually did the work.
Nothing super new, and unfortunately, no news about what's next, either in terms of an expansion or a patch direction. But we're definitely glad the devs are getting a chance to catch their breath, and learn some lessons from this week's release.
[ via Curse ]
Filed under: Orcs, Blizzard, News items, Draenei, Raiding, The Burning Crusade, Lore
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matt Jan 18th 2007 1:22PM
I'm so glad that the big raids are gone. I always had far more fun (being a raid leader) in places like ZG and AQ20 than I did in MC (although Ony wasn't too bad, glad to see that there are more Onyxia-style short raids in BC). The only people that seem to be devastated by the end of 40 mans are the huge raid guilds like DnT, because it means content that was once their domain is now open to most everyone.
You had two choices. Guild with friends, and skip endgame, or join a big raiding guild and lose out on personality. I think a 25 man cap is enough to make it a true raid without having slackers or too many people.
Pelle Jan 18th 2007 2:07PM
making a 25 cap makes items and most important, seeing these instanses, avalible for almost everyone. By adding Heroic mode makes those who have 4 hours+ gametime, able to get those special rare items. many, many, many wont even see the 40+ raids, and thats a pity. Perhaps when they reach lvl 70 and group with perhaps 15+ others, finaly get to see those instanses and the contense in them. all in all, 25 cap and diffrents modes.. super
And about guilds splitting, perhaps. but I think most will stick together. There might be some power freaks who wants to be a guild leader and takes some people from one guild and starts another one.