If you are one of the veterans or those nostalgic for World of Warcraftthere’s a good chance that you’re leveling your character up to level 85 right now on World of Warcraft Classic. The extension Cataclysm actually opened its doors exactly a week ago. On the menu, there is obviously Deathwingthe great antagonist of this “new” content, as well as the overhaul ofAzeroth in its entirety. In short, known for who has already played in 2010, even if Blizzard took the opportunity to add some new features. Clayton Stone and Linny Cooke Saverline, respectively Associate Production Director And Game Producerspoke to us about all this and more generally about the evolution of World of Warcraft Classic as a whole.
Tell us about your day-to-day role within Blizzard.
Clayton : When I think about my role, I consider that I have a great privilege. That of being able to support the team on different aspects of the game. Firstly, I help give general direction to the project we are working on. Concretely, this consists of prioritizing the release schedule, ensuring that the game corresponds perfectly to our players and listening to them. Because it is with their support that we can build the World of Warcraft Classic they expect. The other aspect of my job is to make sure the team has everything they need to work and that we have the right people in the right positions. I would say it gives my professional life a mix of creativity and strategy.
Linny : For my part, I do pretty much the same things as Clayton, in the sense that I also take care of managing the team and its needs. I also do a lot of documentation and create a lot of resources for developers to use in their work. I am also very present for the artists of the studio for whom I do research and I coordinate their efforts with the rest of the team to integrate all of this into the game.
Do you feel pressure from the fans to create something new with an old license?
Linny : I wouldn’t talk about pressure. In fact, most fans are pretty excited about the arrival of new content. I would add that the experiments we have been able to do have made these last few years quite fun. In 2023, we were able to launch World of Warcraft Hardcore as well as Season of Discovery at the end of the year. Lots of new features that allowed us to go much further than what we expected from Classic. Cataclysm Classic is also moving in this direction as we have made some changes to the original version of this expansion. We also allowed ourselves more freedoms compared to what we did on Wrath of the Lich King.
Do you plan to distribute new content more quickly, as is the case for Discovery Season, for example?
Clayton : We have indeed announced that the content for Cataclysm will be unlocked at a much faster rate than what you may have experienced with the original version of 2010. This is above all a desire of our community which has truly mastered the Classic content after all these years. I will add that in the case of Cataclysm, the original experience was tarnished by the expansion’s last patch which was unusually long. Players found themselves stuck in for ten months with the same content. Nevertheless, Cataclysm’s gameplay remains exceptional and it is our role to highlight the best of the expansion in World of Warcraft Classic. Coming back to the Season of Discovery, this version of WoW Classic is rolling out its content at an even greater speed. This seems to suit our audience. But above all the content of the Season of Discovery is much smaller compared to Cataclysm, which explains why the patches are so close together.
Is the WoW Classic audience the same as it was 15-20 years ago?
Linny : I think there are as many new players as there are veterans. Many have told us of their curiosity when discovering a WoW expansion that they had never played. Others shared their nostalgia, especially those who started playing with Cataclysm. What is certain is that we attract a wider and much more diverse audience than before. This is simply because there are now many versions of World of Warcraft.
Aren’t you afraid that too many different versions of WoW will confuse players?
Clayton : There might one day be too many versions of World of Warcraft. But what we’ve seen over the years, particularly since we launched World of Warcraft Classic in 2019, is that the title speaks to a lot of players with a wide variety of backgrounds. Not everyone plays WoW for the same reasons and wants to enjoy the same content. So as more versions of the game come out in the future, our team needs to be careful. We are aware that our players are afraid of missing out on content, especially when new content comes out while they are already engaged in other versions of WoW. However, we are happy to see that several World of Warcraft games can coexist and that each has been able to find its audience. And that all of this is accessible for the price of a subscription, that seems to us to be a fairly substantial content offering.
Linny : In the particular case of the Season of Discovery, we have implemented a rather special phase system where the content as well as the level of the players is blocked at a certain milestone. This experience showed us that many players took advantage of this restricted leveling to test the content of this version and play another mode of World of Warcraft. The advantage of all this is that players do not have the impression of being behind the others by dispersing their playing time. We try to find in our most recent projects (in particular Plunderstorm and World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria) this feeling of being able to enjoy each content, whether in the space of a brief test or in more depth for those who wish to get involved.
By releasing WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria (MoP Remix), are you not risking compromising the future of WoW Classic?
Clayton : What’s cool about MoP Remix is that it was designed as a much more modern experience that, in a sense, is aimed more at Dragonflight players. For example, in MoP remix there is the Dracthyr race available uniquely since the last expansion. As for the talents and spells available, they follow the structure of the modern version of World of Warcraft. If we wanted to do a Mists of Pandaria Classic after Cataclysm Classic, it would be very different from what you have experienced so far. Such a project would obviously be closer to what we experienced in 2012 and would have a much longer duration than MoP Remix. Ultimately, MoP Remix is an experience that has the potential to mix players of the current version of World of Warcraft with players who are nostalgic but unaccustomed to this type of experience. All this in a completely unique setting, both familiar and very different from anything our players have experienced.
The original goal of WoW Classic was to bring back the nostalgia of the first expansions. Are you still in the same approach with Cataclysm Classic and the new content created around it?
Linny : I think one of our priorities when working on WoW Classic is precisely to keep this nostalgic spirit. This feeling of constantly interacting with the world and that the world is the main character in this adventure. We want to keep this without depriving ourselves of creating new products that fit with this premise. Josh, one of the other producers of WoW Classic, sometimes compares it to finding photos of our parents that we didn’t know. This in no way changes the perception we have of them, but thanks to it we have more information to understand them. With WoW Classic, we’re trying to introduce these kinds of changes that feel like they’ve been there all along but were just never discovered.
When you talk about the new dungeon difficulty system, is this an innovation unique to the classic version, a bit like the alpha, beta and gamma dungeons that saw the light of day on Wrath of the Lich King?
Clayton : We have had excellent feedback in Wrath of the Lich King Classic regarding the Titan Rune system to increase the difficulty and quality of loot. It seems we’ve found a unique model to provide some challenge to players and perhaps even some equipment for those who aren’t quite up to date. In short, it’s an excellent way to catch up or equip secondary characters. When it comes to Cataclysm Classic, we’re looking at things the same way for now and we’re continuing to look at other ways to improve the player experience and, above all, not leave anyone behind. I would like to point out that this system solved design problems specific to Wrath of the Lich King. In particular, we wanted to keep going to dungeons relevant throughout this expansion. Cataclysm Classic does not have this problem in the sense that the loot progression curve is more consistent throughout the entire content. For the moment it is still too early to discuss this subject further. Please note, however, that we are considering this type of functionality for the future.
What is your favorite element in WoW Cataclysm Classic?
Clayton : Of the changes we’ve made to Cataclysm compared to the original version, it’s the new Collection feature that I like the most. The Collection is this interface bringing together all the mounts, toys, companions and other gadgets that make the game more alive. You were already able to discover these things towards the end of Wrath of the Lich King, but with the arrival of Cataclysm, we have also added all the Transmog models accessible for your characters. This means you no longer need to keep loads of items in your bag to change the appearance of your gear. And to go even further, this Collection is now common to all characters on the same account. We believe this is one of the biggest quality of life updates we could make and fits naturally into the experience we can expect from Cataclysm Classic.
Linny : I agree with Clayton’s comments since I am a fan of the artistic direction of the game and I love the possibility of customizing its appearance. We introduced Transmog from the start of the expansion, which wasn’t the case at all in 2010. It’s a key feature that everyone remembers, but some have probably forgotten this little detail. In any case, this allows you to create truly original looks, but also to display your legendary weapons for those who have them. Speaking of customization, we also introduced more hairstyles that were initially reserved for NPCs. Players who have created Worgen, one of the new races available in Cataclysm, may also have noticed that the appearance in wolf form is no longer linked to that in human form. It is now possible to customize both separately. In short, this expansion is the ideal time to express your creativity.