Jeff Kaplan on WoW development: "We debate like crazy"
by Mike Schramm 
Dec 3rd 2009 at 2:00PM
He does talk specifically about cutscenes, saying that the Wrathgate scene was an experiment that paid off well, and we should expect some more of that kind of storytelling even as soon as in patch 3.3 (you may have seen it before if you're checking spoilers). And he does talk about raiding sizes and accessibility -- Blizzard has always wanted to do smaller raids, both for the feel of them and for the tuning, but it apparently took them a while to bring 40 down to 25 and then down to 10 correctly. Finally, he doesn't reveal anything about the new MMO, but he does say that singleplayer gaming will always have a place at Blizzard's core -- even when you're playing a multiplayer game, the singleplayer experience should still feel right. True enough, good interview.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Blizzard, Quests, Raiding, Interviews, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Nawaf Dec 3rd 2009 2:04PM
Wrathgate was great!
Blackhorn Dec 3rd 2009 2:23PM
Yay, more in-game crashematics.
You know what wrathgate is to me? It's the thing in Dragonblight where I hit complete quest and my game crashes.
Colin Dec 3rd 2009 2:42PM
Yeah, I don't get sound in my cinematics. It's a drag, but I just alt tab out and watch the files in the program folder on VLC. Inconvenient, but the cinematics are sooooo cooooooool.
Telaria Dec 3rd 2009 2:48PM
I gotta agree here - Hilariously, it ran perfectly the first time I hit it, on an aging hulk of a computer. Ever since I upgraded to slightly-less-aged model? Every time, *BOOM*, down goes WoW. It is bloody cool though.
Blackhorn Dec 3rd 2009 3:02PM
Yeah. I loved it. I've watched it a lot. But thanks for down-voting me because my WoW crashes whenever the cut-scene tries to play.
Also, my cat has feline diabetes. Feel free to down-vote my cat.
Hoggersbud Dec 3rd 2009 6:34PM
Probably because nobody really cares about whatever technical issue you're having, it's rather off-topic here. Try a tech support forum, maybe if you approach the situation as a problem to be solved rather than something complain about, you'll end up better off.
At the least we won't all have to downrank you.
jbodar Dec 3rd 2009 11:10PM
You are the exception, not the norm, so why is this relevant? It makes about as much sense as posting about Bioshock 2, "Oh great, another 2K game that crashes my PC."
bob Dec 3rd 2009 2:26PM
3.0 Wrath launches with the usually leveling up to 80. Instead of a neutral city that makes no sense for the Horde to be in the main end game hub is a still-under-construction crusade forward operating base. The raid that ships with Wrath is Ulduar... maybe because it actually makes sense to go there if the Crusade is looking for gear/weapons to fight the Lich King.
3.1 The Crusade base is finished (Hooray for dailies!) and is subsequently attacked by... wait for it... Naxx. All that Ulduar gear really helps bring down the Lich Kings greatest citadel.
3.2 Instead of the pointless ren-fest Azjol'Nerub gets to be the giant city it was always made out to be and is the penultimate raid of the expansion.
3.3 With Ice Crown cleared out on the north and east by questing adventurers, gun ships covering the sky, and the spider people wiped out on the western flank the Lich Kind is hold up in is fortress...
See? I can wing it too. It never hurt to plan a little ahead guys.
johnthediver Dec 3rd 2009 2:56PM
Except you got it wrong. Raid progression in Wrath went Naxx, Ulduar, CoT, then IC. You had to have Naxx gear to start Ulduar. Now lots of Ulduar CoT raiders are going back to Naxx with alts.
Bob Dec 3rd 2009 2:59PM
See... that was me designing. Commenting in a post about the games designers... on how I thought the expansion should have been designed. Trying to make a point about how planning can help design.
Design.
boatarific Dec 3rd 2009 3:26PM
and i think the Eiffel Tower should have been made of fiberglass and carbon fiber.
bob Dec 3rd 2009 3:33PM
Interesting idea. It would save so much weight and shore up an aging structure. Furthermore by employing modern materials and design elements the structure would serve as a testament to the enduring spirit of Gustave Eiffel's revolutionary design.
It would also make more sense then the Argent Tournament.
devilsei Dec 3rd 2009 4:08PM
Honestly Bob, that idea is much better than Blizzard's idea of progression. We went from killing the LK's right-hand man Kel, to killing an old god, to throwing a good ol' fashion Renaissance Fair across the street from his home.
Sure the logical progression in yours still doesn't quite match up (old god to sidekick to bug king). it sounds better, and we can't be sticklers about "why Yog shouldn't be killable by a bunch of naxx gear, when his brains-on-a-stick is needed just to down a big teddy bear."
Plus, doing Ulduar first means saving the watchers, which it could lead to the most badass thing ever.
After downing Kel'Thezud, one person wins a quest-starter item which essentially starts off as everyone is leaving, that one player notices something is wrong and Naxx is slowly starting to fall, threatening to unload every toxic substance it possesses in a suicidal crash into the main hub/Crusader Base.
You then have to visit Mimmiron to request aid in stopping it. He has you go back into Ulduar to reclaim several technologies (unlocking Ulduar Hardmode) so he can create a bomb capable of neutralizing the toxins and destroying the falling citadel. You then go to Alextrasza to request dragons to fly into the building, which she then orders you to go and take care of Sartharion.
When all is said and done, you accept a quest to fly into Naxxramas, get to its very core, plant the bomb and fly out before it reaches the Crusader Base, ending with a cinematic showing the dragons bursting through one of the walls or something, and escaping as it blows up.
Very rough true, but it always hints that Naxxramas crashed to the ground after defeating Kel, and having Naxxramas falling to the ground like that over the base would be a pretty tense thing.
Para Dec 4th 2009 12:05PM
Ehmm guys eye of eternity? Malygos?
bob Dec 4th 2009 12:13PM
I'm not saying my little flight of fancy is perfect or that it takes into account every bit of content that was released. My point is that with a property as large as WoW the last thing you should want to here from you design team is that "we just wing it."
Starting in Ulduar to get Titan equipment for Fighting Naxx and then Clearing out Azjol'Nerub (which in Lore is supposed to be a massive underground nation) is a simple, logical progression based on established events and locations in the Warcraft Universe. And it took me all of five minutes to write.
Titans were a massive departure after Naxx it interrupts the main plot line of the expansion. 3.2 was a hack job. It makes no sense in the over all story of the expansion. Blizzard has said it was a 'test' to work on new raids. But the fact of the matter is that this was sloppy work. Shipped product is not a test. You test in alphas, betas, PTRs and in house. When that patch goes live it is something I am paying for and I don't pay to be a beta tester.
Planning. It helps.
Thander Dec 3rd 2009 2:36PM
While singleplayer is nice, I hope this MMO has a more gradual approach to single vs multi. In WoW most players seem to go 1-80 almost completely solo. Just an occasional dungeon here and there. When you get to 80 the progression is all multiplay, which felt like a shock to most players. I don't what a good solution would be. Maybe something where slowly they introduce more group quests until the majority of the quests are group ones.
Oneiromancer Dec 3rd 2009 2:42PM
Hopefully being able to do cross-server LFG for instances while leveling up will inspire more people to group (and learn how to group) in the future.
Lankey Dec 3rd 2009 2:43PM
The downside to that? Low-pop servers mean that people have trouble finding groups and then all leveling just dies out.
I expect instances to be used more often after the release of the cross-server LFG system, especially without the need to travel to the instance first.
This may lead to people never realising how the world fits together though.
Raaj Dec 3rd 2009 2:58PM
Group quests that don't involve going into instances SUCK though. Sure, they might be fun the first time you do them, but there's unlikely to ever be a second time. Have you tried to do any of the group quests in Icecrown on an alt lately? Nobody ever wants to do them.
Hell, I can't even get them done on my main. It's the last zone I need to complete to get my Loremaster title and unless I start paying people off, it's going to remain unfinished until I can manage to get a few friends on at the same time to help out.
danawhitaker Dec 3rd 2009 3:28PM
They tried that. It was called Icecrown, where many of the quests ended up being group quests. To add insult to injury, they mated it with phasing, which means your well-geared but lazy level 80 guildmates who don't care about Loremaster and haven't quested Icecrown cannot help you get the quests done. You instead had to wait around for days hoping someone would come along who could help you with a quest because there weren't enough people actually questing out there. If you did Blade's Edge Mountains, you'd also remember there were a lot of annoying group quests there. Fortunately, they didn't think phasing would be fun there, so when I couldn't find anyone at level to help me with those, I *could* call in my level 80 guildmates as backup.
I solo almost completely from 1-80 with the exception of the earlier dungeons which I do because of the associated quests. It's easier for me to solo because I can just walk away from the game when I need to rather than worrying about a group. That's the way I need it to be to make any progress because I have a small and demanding child. I can't run dungeons or group activities until after she's asleep for the night. I don't think Blizzard could have a better balance than they do. The options for grouping are always there. People choose not to do them. It's very hard to solo most zones at level as many classes without groups for some quests. I run the zones in a manner so that the quests are always a bit under my level, making them soloable but not quite as fat in the XP department.