In a new interview over at VideoGamer.com, Blizzard's Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak talks about how World of Warcraft is ready to take on 2012 in a big way. The interview highlights key issues such as player reception of patch v4.3; how Blizzard perceives faster, smaller content updates ala Rift; and possible subscriber incentives for WoW prior to Mists of Pandaria's deployment.

Q: Many users sadly unsubscribed to Cataclysm quite quickly. Do you think users will be more satisfied with Pandaria than they were with Cataclysm?

DK: For me Cataclysm, when we talk about the expansion, for me a lot of Cataclysm was the 1-60 re-design which was an epic amount of work. And I think we managed to pull that off in a time frame and we managed to do it and refresh the old world – that was a big part of Cataclysm. We're really happy with how that turned out!

Read the full interview at the link above.

I think its more likly than not we'll see Blizzard continue to lose subscriptions to World of Warcraft in 2012 . David Kosak certainly talks the talk but Warcraft can no longer walk the walk . The expansion really has had very mixed reactions to it even amongst the fans of WoW . I can't see it stopping the rot that set in last year .

If they were smart, they would have created a persistent warzone.  Why not take what people want and add it in?

Just when Blizz seems like it learns its lessons from the last release they make ENTIRELY NEW HUGE errors.

They talked about faster content updated before 4.1 and 4.2 as well. Unfortunately, talk only gets you so far as 4.1 launched with a MASSIVE 2 heroic dungeons, and 4.2 had only 7 bosses.

Not to mention the fact that those patches weren't even released fast. WoW will continue its downward spiral in 2012 - but won't die.

I recently started from scratch with WoW ( literally: starting at level 1)  with a trial account - which I later upgraded due to actually having FUN - and must say they made starting zones a LOT more interesting . I can understand the criticism about it being "dumbed down"or oversimplified but that was and still is WoW's main selling point . I think -  given the fact the main focus of Cata was redesign of 1-60 zones - the criticism is exeggerated . 

The problem with focusing your content design on 1-60 is that it takes 3 days to get through that content. Now if you put out new content every month, it makes sense. Blizzard however usually waits 7-10 months for new content patches, which causes an issue.

If they never redid the 1-60 content i would not be playing wow, simple as that.

I love the new 1-60 experience they did an outstanding job, it took me way more than 3 days more like several months to get to 60 but I'm all about the journey and i loved every minute of it.

Ok so they gained one player, and lost 2 million. Glad you enjoyed the new 1-60.

After playing many many other offerings these past few years, I wouldn't play WoW again even if it was F2P.  It's just old news, primitive graphics, and monotonous gameplay. yawn. move along already Blizzard.

Originally posted by rikwes

I recently started from scratch with WoW ( literally: starting at level 1)  with a trial account - which I later upgraded due to actually having FUN - and must say they made starting zones a LOT more interesting . I can understand the criticism about it being "dumbed down"or oversimplified but that was and still is WoW's main selling point . I think -  given the fact the main focus of Cata was redesign of 1-60 zones - the criticism is exeggerated . 

 

Not really .I think some of  its deserved  but I can see if your just starting out playing WoW with no knowlage of what it was like before then you might see it in a different light to those of us that played it from Vanilla would see it in . Its an OK game now as opposed to a once great game .People feel like Blizzard let them down thats why you get so much negativity about Warcraft .  

i think Warcraft will continue to do great, of course a game is gonna lose subs over so many years and yeah some people dont' like the way Blizzard is going but i'll still be there.

i'm not threatened by panda's and stuff like that that people claim are childish, we are playing games, that's pretty childish to most people in itself.

I liked Cata, i like Mists.  WoW is still a great game and definetly the only mmo worth subscribing.

Yeah they spent all this time on the 1-60 content which people breeze through now at lightspeed.  Way to go blizzard and make all that work pretty much worthless.  No wonder Cataclysm bombed big time.

If you are going to spend time on something, make sure your respective audience is going to use it.

The new sea areas were ridiculous too, they forgot to add reputation to that area so there is absolutely no reason to get involved with it.

I have great doubt I will ever return to this game with the current design team in charge.  

Buy focusing on 1-60 for an expansion and cheesing the end content to 5 levels they lost my sub and my friend's.  But, hey, at least they're proud of it!

Not going back.  Ever.

I really do not understand game companies spending the amount of time and resources on low level content that they then render almost useless by DESIGN with the amount of time players actually spend there. The journey use to be the game, now the journey is designed to be done as quickly as possible. 

This is not just WoW but pretty much every MMO these days and they then wonder why people unsub so quickly.   1-2 years to create a full expansion and the content is done in less than 30 days,  Even a brand new game with 3-5 years of development time and the majority of all the game content is completed in less than 30 days by the "average" gamer.    

Think about that........ the MAJORITY of the game content is completed in less than the amount of free time that is offered with the purchase of the game.........now that is a smart sub based business model!! 

I had a lot of fun with vanilla WoW, would like to see more of that game and less of what we have gotten with every expansion.  I know that will not happen sadly....

"DK: I can't really talk about subscription numbers, [but] we've definitely seen a lot of activity on the servers, for sure. We've definitely seen a lot of people checking it out." 

Funny, can't say whether or not more people are resubbing because basically they aren't so they don't want a negative image before World of Pokemon releases HA.

DK: I can tell you with this next expansion we're definitely looking at ways that we can roll out content in a better pace." Oh, sure don't use all that money you've been collecting worldwide on subs or anything, we all know that's just fluff money and you can put out new content NOW if you wished, the gamers today aren't like yesterday we actually read spending reports.

"Q: Are you planning on bringing in any smaller patches between now and Pandaria?

DK: There's not a plan – 4.3 is definitely the climax of Cataclysm so there's no more Cataclysm content. Traditionally we've had a grace period where we patch the game before the expansion comes out and you get sort of mechanical changes before you get the new expansion content. So we'll have a world event prior to Mists of Pandaria, but that's mostly a part of Mists of Pandaria's launch and it's not really more Cataclysm content." exactly my point....

"Q: Many users sadly unsubscribed to Cataclysm quite quickly. Do you think users will be more satisfied with Pandaria than they were with Cataclysm?

DK: For me Cataclysm, when we talk about the expansion, for me a lot of Cataclysm was the 1-60 re-design which was an epic amount of work. And I think we managed to pull that off in a time frame and we managed to do it and refresh the old world – that was a big part of Cataclysm. We're really happy with how that turned out!" 

Does anyone else find that last sentence to be a politician's response or is it just me?