Posts with tag Tom-Chilton

Tom Chilton chats about what's coming in patch 5.3

by Elizabeth Harper May 17th 2013 at 9:00AM

We know Blizzard has a lot planned for patch 5.3, which could go live any time now. But to keep us busy while we wait for the next batch of new WoW content, Blizzard Insider has posted an interview with Game Director Tom Chilton. Though the interview mostly summarizes what we already know about the upcoming patch, it provides a great overview of what's coming with a bit of added insight Blizzard's development thought process. Covered in the interview are how the devs felt patch 5.2 performed, the storyline of patch 5.3, PvP changes and the new battleground, new scenarios (and heroic scenarios), gear and the ability to choose which spec you'd like gear for, and visible pet battles.

The patches are certainly coming our way quickly. Are you looking forward to patch 5.3 or still working on patch 5.2?

Filed under: Blizzard, Interviews, Mists of Pandaria

Blizzard developers discuss patch 5.2 and more

by Anne Stickney Mar 4th 2013 at 7:00PM

Last week was a flurry of preparation for patch 5.2's launch, including a whole host of developer interviews. WoW Insider had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak, but there were plenty more interviews to be had as the week progressed. And just in case you happened to miss any of that developer excitement, we've put together a roundup of all the fan site interviews in one handy spot.

While the same developers may have done multiple interviews, each interview offers a different look at what's in store for patch 5.2 and beyond. It's certainly nice to see the developers out and about in the community and talking content -- and one thing's for certain, everyone is pumped for patch 5.2's release. Be sure to check out all of the interviews for the most in-depth look at patch 5.2 you can get.

Filed under: Blizzard, Interviews, Mists of Pandaria

Blizzard developer interviews

by Olivia Grace Dec 7th 2012 at 7:00PM

After WoW Insider's Anne Stickney rounded off Blizzard's Developer Interview schedule with her chat to Cory Stockton and Dave Kosak, discussing patch 5.1, brawler's guild, lore, dailies, proving grounds, scenarios and player housing, WoW Insider thought we should bring together all the interviews in the recent set.

Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street:

Legendary, GAMEBREAKER.tv Ghostcrawler discusses raiding, PvP, alts, reputation, dailies and cross realm zones with the Legendary hosts.
All Things Azeroth Design, Cataclysm vs. Mists, patch 5.2 release schedule, classes, transmogrification changes.
Wowjuju Brawler's guild, daily quests, transmogrification, 10man vs 25man, the gear grind, pet gear for battle pets?

Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas

Convert2Raid Scenarios, challenge modes, Brawler's Guild, dailies, and, of course, raids.
Method Coming soon!

Lead Content Designer Cory "Mumper" Stockton:

Curse Coming soon!
Warcraft Pets Pet design process, pets in future expansions, pet battles, potential for pet gender and breeding, pet model updates, "boss" pets

Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak

Darkmoon Herald Hidden quests, easter eggs, phasing, lore, future questing changes, interesting activities, tillers, dailies.
Wowhead Patch 5.1 factions, brawlers' guild, scenarios and their lore involvement, dailies, alts, faction grinds, cooking changes.

Lead Designer Tom Chilton

ArenaJunkies Coming soon!

Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

Filed under: News items

Reddit AMA transcript now available

by Anne Stickney Sep 12th 2012 at 8:00PM

Yesterday, several members of the Warcraft development team had a massive AMA on Reddit. AMA stands for Ask Me Anything -- and players responded with a deluge of questions on everything from Cross-Realm zones to story and lore. For the sake of convenience, Blizzard put together a transcript of the entire post on their website earlier today.

The questions and answers are separated by the designer who answered them. Game Director Tom Chilton focused on PvP, gameplay systems, cross-realm zones, character models and development timelines. Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak focused on lore, novels, characters, and quest and zone design. Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas focused on dungeons and raids as well as loot and talent systems and endgame progression. And of course Lead Systems Designer Greg Street focused on classes, as well as gameplay systems, cross-realm zones, and dungeons and raids.

There is a ton of information contained in the AMA, including some clarification on the purpose and mechanics of Cross-Realm zones, something that a lot of people have been wondering about. Check out the full transcript for an information overload of Warcraft goodies.

It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

Filed under: Blizzard, News items

Reddit AMA with WoW developers today

by Robin Torres Sep 11th 2012 at 9:00AM

Community Manager Zarhym will be hosting an AMA (or Ask Me Anything) in /r/WoW on Reddit this evening at 5:30 p.m. PDT (8:30 p.m. EDT). Joining him will be Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, Dave Kosak, Tom Chilton, and Ion Hazzikostas.

For those who don't know, an AMA is where you post questions for the people participating and they are supposed to answer them all -- or as many as possible in the time allotted. Because this will be a heavily attended session, they will be answering the questions that are upvoted the most.

WoW Insider will be monitoring the AMA, so we'll keep you posted on any important news items that arise.

Zarhym's post with all the details is after the break.

Filed under: Blizzard, News items

Tom Chilton on the future of PvP in Mists of Pandaria

by Adam Holisky Jun 5th 2012 at 1:00PM

Nethaera sat down with WoW's game director Tom Chilton and asked him some questions about PvP in Mists of Pandaria. While a lot of the information we already knew about, there are some highlights that are worth noting.

The first thing is particularly interesting ...

Some highlights:

Blizzard is considering putting an item in-game that would let players on the ground shoot down mounted players, pulling them into combat (if they're PvP-flagged and in close enough range).
There'll be no Wintergrasp or Tol Barad.
City guards on PvP realms will not be as tough as guards on PvE realms (PvE realm guard strength will remain as it is now).
The new BGs should be in the beta for testing in the next couple of weeks.
The new BGs may be added to the rated BG list at some point in the future.
Players will see opponents class and spec (although not how that spec is used) before they start an Arena match.

The full blue post, after the break.

Filed under: News items, PvP, Mists of Pandaria

Mists of Pandaria: Press tour interviews from around the web

by Anne Stickney Mar 19th 2012 at 8:00PM

Not only is there a ton of information about the next expansion's features floating around, there are plenty of interviews with the minds behind the expansion as well. All of the fan sites got their own chance to ask developers questions about Mists, so each interview has different information. Check out these links to other developer interviews from around the web.

Wowhead interviewed Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton about professions in Pandaria, bind on account pets, titles and mounts, transmogrification, and more.
Wowhead also quizzed Lead Game Designer Tom Chilton about monks, questing, dailies, updating old world instances, and the player community.

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

Tom Chilton suggests Mists of Pandaria "wildly overhyped"

by Anne Stickney Aug 31st 2011 at 4:00PM

Maybe Mists of Pandaria isn't quite as likely as we all thought. IGN PC had a chat with Game Director Tom Chilton about the rumors of the upcoming expansion, as well as the upcoming patch 4.3 and the possibility of WoW moving to a free-to-play model.

Chiming in on the subject of transmogrification was Art Director Chris Robinson, who explained a little about the details behind the feature and its restrictions. Robinson clarified that protecting class integrity was an important factor in both armor design and the upcoming transmogrification feature: "When you see those demon wings you know 'Okay that's a warlock,' you know you can apply that to his tier twenty-one armor but it's still a warlock."

So what about free-to-play? Chilton confirms that it's "definitely a possibility," but for those of you looking for an immediate free-to-play version of WoW, you're going to have to wait. Chilton clarified that the change would be a dramatic departure from Blizzard's current business model, and it would take quite a bit of convincing to switch models.

As to the subject of Pandaren ...

Speculation swirled recently regarding Blizzard's decision to trademark "Mists of Pandaria," as many thought it may indicate the name of the next World of Warcraft expansion. Pandaria, in Warcraft lore, refers to the home of the Pandaren, basically humanoid war pandas you may remember making an appearance as neutral heroes in Warcraft III. Chilton said the speculation was, "wildly overhyped." He added, "if you look at traditionally how we've handled that race it's been in those secondary products because we haven't realized it in the world. Most of the time when we do anything panda-related it's going to be a comic book or a figurine or something like that."

Comic books, figurines, or a new expansion? Time and undoubtedly BlizzCon will tell. Check out the full article over at IGN PC.

Filed under: News items, Rumors

Blizzard looking for "meaningful difference" in expansion releases

by Mathew McCurley Aug 23rd 2011 at 1:00PM

World of Warcraft's expansion cycle is not the norm in the MMO genre. The Blizzard expansion cycle is a new boxed expansion every two years, on average. According to Gameinformer, which got to talk to Tom Chilton at the Gamescom show in Germany last week, Blizzard is on track for a more timely release schedule with World of Warcraft expansions.

Chilton told Gameinformer:

We've been able to do it in one sense, but not as much as I would like to in another sense. I would like for all patches to reliably have raid bosses. Our first Cataclysm patch didn't have raid bosses. From a raider's persepctive, it probably doesn't feel any faster than it did before. For us, where the biggest improvement is going to be in this cycle is in the actual expansion release. Traditionally we've only been able to do an expansion about every two years. We're really hoping to make a meaningful difference in that.

Filed under: Blizzard, Cataclysm

More details emerge on Void Storage -- 80 slots of space

by Adam Holisky Aug 17th 2011 at 11:40AM

More details are emerging from Blizzard's recent talk at Gamescom. Kotaku sat down with Blizzard's Chris Metzen and Tom Chilton to talk about it all, and one of the things they covered was the upcoming void storage, slated to be released in patch 4.3.

The details on the new void storage are as follows:

80 slots to store items
All items put in void storage will have the following removed from them:
- Enchants
- Gems
- Name of player who crafted the item

Kotaku's article doesn't list what exactly are the item restrictions in the void storage. It does say "extra items," which could lead one to believe there are no restrictions. However, in the past Blizzard has said it wants to do a gear-only storage for older gear sets, so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise if there are some item restrictions in place. We'll be finding out about that as patch 4.3 is released on the PTR (eventually).

The full bit from Kotaku's interview with Chris Metzen and Tom Chilton is as follows:

Another addition coming with the patch is "Void Storage", a new 100 to 150 [See Editor's Note] items slots. Like transmogrification, void storage comes from the Ethereals. Void storage is a pocket dimension created for a player that allows them to store extra items, but there is a downside.

Anything stored in the void is stripped of its enchantments and gems and the name of the person who crafted it, Chilton said. The stripping isn't tied to the lore of the game, either, but is the byproduct of a technical issue that makes this new storage system possible. (Read: Silly databases!)

Editor's Note: Blizzard has sent word that it's actually 80 slots in the Void Storage, not 100 to 150 as originally reported at Kotaku.

Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

Filed under: News items

Raid finder coming in patch 4.3

by Adam Holisky Aug 17th 2011 at 11:20AM

It seems like only yesterday the blues were giving hints at a beefed-up raid finder coming in a future patch or expansion.

According to an interview with Kotaku:

Finally, Chilton and Chris Metzen, vice president of creative development at Blizzard, explained a new feature coming with the patch called "Raid Finder". The Raid Finder essentially operates like a dungeon finder, automating the search for fellow players on the hunt for a good raiding party. It will be built into the game's updated user interface when the patch hits, they said.

The Kotaku article doesn't call it a "cross-realm" raid finder, but I think it's safe to assume that it will be -- otherwise, it'll just be like the one that's in game now (you remember that one, right?). There's no more details on the interface or accompanying restrictions on the new raid finding, but expect that information to be discovered or announced soon.

Filed under: News items

Patch 4.3: Deathwing, cosmetic armor skins, and armor storage

by Alex Ziebart Aug 17th 2011 at 7:00AM

European gaming convention Gamescom is in full swing this week in Cologne, Germany. German entertainment site Gamona.de sat down with both Tom Chilton and Chris Robinson to discuss the details of the upcoming patch 4.3, the patch where your dreams come true. It was revealed that the patch will include:

Deathwing's raid and three new 5-man dungeons
Cosmetic armor skins (!)
An armor closet to store old gear, freeing up bank space

As patch 4.3 will include Deathwing's raid, that probably means it will be the final patch in the expansion's overall narrative. If you doubted for a moment that Blizzard will announce the next expansion at this year's BlizzCon, doubt no more. We expect that these new 5-man dungeons will provide a new tier of heroics as well, pushing difficulty about Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub.

Follow us past the cut below for details on cosmetic armor skins and more!

Filed under: Cataclysm

BlizzCast Episode 16: World of Warcraft patch 4.2

by Alex Ziebart Apr 28th 2011 at 8:30PM

BlizzCast episode 16 is a little different from what we've come to expect from the BlizzCast. It isn't an audio podcast. It's video! A vodcast, if you will. In the first-ever video BlizzCast, Blizzard's Rob Simpson speaks with Game Director Tom Chilton, Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak, and Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton on the content of patch 4.2, from the raid to the quests and back again.

You can watch it embedded above, over on YouTube, on the Battle.net BlizzCast site, or if you're a little more old-fashioned, you can still download it in MP3 form on Battle.net.

Filed under: News items

GDC 2011: Tom Chilton discusses Cataclysm design, talent and zone revamps

by Mathew McCurley Mar 2nd 2011 at 8:00PM

Tom Chilton gave a comprehensive and enlightening talk today at the Game Developers Conference, discussing remaking the World of Warcraft through Cataclysm's systems and content revamps. Chilton talked about some very interesting topics, including WoW's talent tree revamp, how he feels that the revamp of Desolace fell incredibly short of its potential, and a warning about the illusion of choice.

Alex Afrasiabi and Tom Chilton on Cataclysm

by Matthew Rossi Dec 9th 2010 at 7:00PM

"I think people are blown away. I'm blown away, and I'm so jaded at this point." If you're looking for the big quote from this interview G4's Feedback did with Alex Afrasiabi (WoW's lead world designer) and Tom Chilton (its lead designer), then look no further, my friends. Discussion topics include whether Blizzard is going to take over Harmonix (all signs seem to point to no), the attempt at parity between goblin and worgen starting zones, how it feels to step into these new zones as a player once you've taken off your designer hat, and the battle between design intent and scheduling.

If you're interested in hearing from the horse's mouth what Blizzard was thinking when it implemented Kezan or redesigned your favorite zone, here's your chance.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.

Filed under: News items, Cataclysm

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