Posts with tag game-informer

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.

Our buddy Phil Kollar of Game Informer (who was on the podcast recently) got a chance to talk to Jeff Kaplan about the World of Warcraft, and while Kaplan repeats a lot of what he's said before, the interview is worth a read for a look inside Blizzard's design process. What's probably most interesting is that it's very fluid and very dynamic -- just as much as we're arguing on this site and on the forums about how Blizzard should do things, they're also arguing and going back and forth behind the scenes.

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.

The podcast returns this afternoon with our first special guest in a while: Phil Kollar will join Eddie "Brigwyn" Carrington, Turpster, and I for a spirited chat about the latest news in the World of Warcraft. He's a former editor on 1up.com, and is currently working as an associate editor at Game Informer magazine (that's the one they sell you with the card at Gamestop). And oh yeah, he's quite the WoW player as well. We'll be talking about all of the most popular stories of the last week, including faction changes and how they're going, what's up with the jousting in the 5-man, and what it means that a guild toppled one of the hardest bosses in the game.. in blue gear.

Plus, we'll be answering your emails (send along whatever you'd like us to talk about to theshow@wow.com), and just in general having a great time. Everything will kick off at September 5, 2009 3:30 PM EDT right over on our Ustream page, so if you're around and interested, stop on by and say hello. See you there!