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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsTigole: Naxx in Northrend
by Eliah Hecht 
Aug 7th 2007 at 7:48PM
The MMO Gamer sat down for an interview with WoW lead developer Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan recently. You can hear the audio or read the transcript at their site, but for my money, here's the most interesting bit. In the middle of a rehashing of the debate over whether Blizzard should spend a lot of time developing raids that few people will see, he drops this great idea:So what I want to do in Northrend is to take Naxxramas in all of its glory, scale it down to the 25 man raid size, and then take the difficulty and retune it-obviously we'd tune for level 80, it would no longer be tuned for level 60, since that would be a little silly and it wouldn't be a lot of fun for people at that point-but I want to put rewards in there that are very exciting to level 80 players, but make it the entry-level raid, very accessible, tune the encounters so that there's something for everybody to do, and let the majority get a chance to see that content that they hadn't seen before.
Naxx as the Karazhan of Northrend. I like it. I am one of the many who never got a chance to try Naxx the first time around, and I hear it's a well-designed raid. I also like that the entry-level raid is planned to be 25-man, not 10-man; the transition from KZ to Gruul and SSC has caused problems for a lot of guilds. Apparently it's also a bit of a misconception that raiding is unpopular; Tigole says out of all the instances in the live game right now, Karazhan is the one that gets done by the most people each week.
The interview goes on to discuss the links between WoW raiding and EverQuest raiding (Tigole was a raid guild leader in EQ for some time before working on WoW), and what Tigole would have done differently if he could go back in time to when WoW was first being made. It's a good read, like most developer interviews, so go check it out. But Naxx in Northrend? Awesome!
Filed under: Raiding, Interviews, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Jason Aug 8th 2007 10:15AM
@4, STFU and learn about economics. The fact is, you hardcore players are a minority, albeit a vocal one, so maybe you should understand that you wouldn't even have these beautiful and complex dungeons if it weren't for the mass of casual players paying for it.
How? you ask. Because the 5% of you (I doubt it is that high) who are hardcore could NEVER support (financially) the subscription fees that are needed to fund huge design efforts like Naxx.
So next time you complain that casuals are ruining content, just rememebr that is their subscription fees that give YOU that great content.
IT is were all hardcore players, WoW content would suck because Blizz would have like much less players to support and much less content to create.
Kaylek Aug 8th 2007 10:22AM
I think there's still going to be a 10man to 25man ramp, I just took Tigole to mean that Naxx would start the 25man content, ie. the level 80 version of Molten Core or Gruul.
I think this is good news. Also, I'm predicting they'll simply retune all of the Naxx drops for level 80 content, maybe rename it so no of us with tier 3 or Might of Menethil, Wraith Blade, or whatever else in their bank suddenly has free level 80 epics.
Then again, if you claimed some Naxx gear the first time around, you probably deserve it.
Eldiablohijo Aug 8th 2007 10:37AM
I was one of the few people on my server who actually saw the inside of Naxx and had a chance to fight the majority of it's bosses. I love that dungeon, the fights were challenging and fun.
I'm glad Blizzard is revisiting the dungeon, not just because it was my favoriate raid dungeon, but because so few people got to see it. Even fewer made it all the way through.
That's one thing that bothers me most about the expansions and level increases is that there is no reason to go in and do these old 25 man raids anymore, there is a lot of lore and fun fights in AQ40/Naxx, but few people had a chance to clear these instances, and no one does them anymore because there isn't a point.
I'm worried the same thing is going to happen to Black Temple and Hyjal, those look like fun instances, but since I got a new job and am no longer to raid as actively as I would like the chance of me seeing the inside of either in the near future is very unlikely, and that's disapointing.
Levi Aug 8th 2007 10:57AM
They're going to have to tweak the Naxx bosses quite a bit to make them 25-man friendly. One of the reasons I liked the little bit of Naxx I got into so much was that everyone had a lot of responsibility in the raid--it wasn't like MC or BWL where 20 or 25 people carried the rest.
anthonyabby Aug 8th 2007 11:39AM
Isn't it odd how every new MMO is going to be a "WoW Killer!"? Yet they never seem to pan out? Vanguard and LOtR Online come to mind. And now Warhammer. they're all the same.
Seriously folks, if you are unhappy with WoW and the fact that the uber hardcore players can't shut out casual players completely, then please do leave and go play Warhammer. Or Pirates of the Caribbean, or whatever else you want to play. WoW is popular, to the extent that it's popular, exactly because it's inclusive. It caters to hardcore and casual alike.
I am fairly happy with this move, though I still wish to see the final details. I'm sure things will work out though.
Omnimax Aug 8th 2007 11:53AM
With some of his answers, Kalgan shows that he isn't the ideal choice to direct dungeon design for WoW. Because he was a hardcore raider in Everquest, he's trapped in a raiding mindset.
So he overestimates the number of raiders in WoW, thinks everyone is interested in raiding, continues to make raiding the focus of the WoW endgame, and squanders an enormous amount of time and talent on developing content for a very small number of people.
Kara is popular, but not because it's a raid. People spend time there because it can be has the best PvE gear available to non-raiders, and can be accessed by a small group of people without getting into the time investment, hassle, and the drama of raiding.
I've been to Kara myself, because my guild has 7 people in mostly heroic gear, and it's not terribly hard to find 3-5 puggers to fill out the slots, and if no one does show up, we can always run another heroic. But we'll never hit the 25-mans, because we'd rather spend our GAME time having fun.
To most people, raiding isn't fun. It requires a level of organization, time commitment, and tolerance of boredom that most people get plenty of in their normal lives, and play WoW to escape from.
Blizzard is throwing too much money down the raid design rathole. Until Tigole recognizes this, or Bliz replaces him, expect dissatisfaction with the game to increase.
Juliah Aug 22nd 2007 11:57AM
Agreed with commenter #26. While I'm pleased that they'll be redoing Naxxramas, it would be far better to structure it for 10 people, rather than 25.
I think Kalgan may be suffering from anecdotal evidence: because he's surrounded by hardcore gamers, it inflates the perception of how many there really are. Out in the real world, it can be difficult to coordinate ten different schedules, much less 25 or 40.