Tigole interviewed by Warcry
by Mike Schramm 
Nov 19th 2007 at 4:03PM
Warcry posted an interview with Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan (WoW's lead designer) last Friday, and while he doesn't reveal anything super new, he does confirm a few directions Blizzard is headed in with the game-- away from grinds, opening up more endgame content for players, and incorporating daily quests into more facets of player advancement.Kaplan does say that Blizzard thought the progression rate for Burning Crusade was done well, and that they are looking at getting even more players involved in endgame, which, with the coming of Zul'Aman and the lowering of the Heroic reputations, is something we've observed before. He says also that Blizzard is planning to involve reputation more with daily quests, while at the same time making sure it's not a grind (hopefully this will mean gaining reputation from daily quests like the new ones-- attaching instance runs or battleground fights to daily quests, with reputation as a reward). And finally, Kaplan hints at lore in Wrath of the Lich King, specifically saying that "Humans, Dwarves, Tauren, and Trolls will all have their storylines developed further" in Northrend.
Sounds fun. He doesn't give any indication of where they are in the development process for the expansion (he does work for Blizzard, after all), but it definitely does sound like Blizzard is hard at work hammering WotLK together.
Filed under: Blizzard, Expansions, Lore, Interviews, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Scruffy Nov 19th 2007 6:06PM
Bah. Daily rep grinds aren't better than the previous rep grinds. Ok, sure, less time and for more gold is nice, but let's face it, you're not exactly becoming better at instances by doing the same thing every day. Yeah, I can do bombing runs in my sleep now that I have an epic flyer but that's just for the easy gold. Wrangling rays is the same deal.
If they had group quests or, even better, class specific quests, that'd be better, anything that encourages group play or expanding a player's knowledge of their class. For priests, maybe mana conservation healing an NPC or kiting an elite using fears and mindflays or whatever.
Current dailies aren't all that great. Kill these things, collect those ones, bomb that, escort him... Am I missing anything? Unfortunately, anything interesting seems like it'd require those "solo dungeon" things to prevent outside help so I dunno.
Zilog Instantaneously Mojo Nov 19th 2007 9:58PM
I don't know about anyone else, but I would prefer that WoW expansions were kept super-squirrel secret right up until the point where boxes start appearing mysteriously on the shelves of my local game store.
This drip-feeding of information is really starting to annoy me. The Lich King website, despite looking pretty, is really a wasteland. Perhaps if Blizzard took some time off from snorting their profits and actually focussed on the task at hand, they may get the damn thing out before I lose interest in WoW altogether!
And what is with the emphasis on the lore of the tall folk? When are us gnomes going to get some lovin!
Oblivion Nov 19th 2007 6:17PM
I actually think dailies are a great idea. Obviously, you are going to have some repition, but I'd rather do daily quests than mob-kill for hours like a lot of the rep grinds used to be. When they introduced the daily quests for the Netherwing reputation, that was a giant step toward eliminating the "grind" feeling. The addition of even more daily quests allows for even more choices which is never a bad thing.
Baluki Nov 19th 2007 6:29PM
I like the idea of having more faction reps tied to daily quests. It seems like a great way to make it easy enough for casuals while making sure that hardcores don't blow through it in a day. It puts everyone on an even playing field.
I'm very excited to see that they'll be pushing the storyline for Humans, Dwarves, Tauren, and Trolls (yay, troll love!). We don't actually know where Humans came from; I wonder if they're related to the Vrykul somehow. We already know that the Dwarven relationship to the Titans will be explored more, and the Tauren will be encountering the Taunka, who are an offshoot of their race. I can't imagine what they could have in store for Trolls, though hopefully it's more than just more troll-killing dungeons. (LET MY PEOPLE LIVE!)
Danno Nov 19th 2007 8:37PM
Rat pushes button, rat gets pellet. Rat pushes button, rat gets pellet. Rat pushes button, rat gets pellet. Rat pushes button, rat gets pellet. Rat pushes...Oh, I'm sorry...I was enjoying some of the new "casual" content for World of Warcraft. :)
Zevik Nov 20th 2007 8:23AM
I like the daily quests - as long as you don't get stuck in thinking that they must be done every day, they're actually a pretty fun way to get rep and gold.
And making the endgame more accessible can't come fast enough for me. Personally, I love to raid. My main is geared well enough to handle anything up to maybe SSC. But I just can't put up with the BS and drama of your typical raiding guild (again). If Bliz makes it so that I can raid Arthas with people I actually like -- even though they may not be the most hardcore of players -- I'll be a happy boy.
Kevin Nov 20th 2007 11:05AM
Great, so the one race that needs some lore (Gnomes) will be ignored again.
hisame Nov 20th 2007 12:29PM
I just hope when they say Troll storyline they mean plot and quests and not more Troll instances.
With Zul'Aman, I think most of us have had enough of killing Trolls and do not want this to become World of Trollcraft.
deviationer Nov 20th 2007 1:29PM
anyone else notice the the interview seams to be really short? only 5 questions. not much info, not really much of an interview. There isn't the standard 'do you have anything you want to say' at the end of the interview