Alex Afrasiabi Interview

MMORPG.com:

Well just from the developer point of view, some stuff that *you* personally might want to put in.

Alex:

So, taking off from what Archeology is — and other games have done this, like their codexes and lore guides and books — but something more of a journal, of something that the player can keep with them that’s probably tied into the quest system. So, as you do a quest and clear out something, or you kill a big boss or something,*and* the dungeon system, it might update your journal with a nice entry, and a cool thing – an achievement or whatever it was – *that* could be cool. There’s a lot of cool ways we could integrate gameplay and story.

MMORPG.com:

So like a “Blizzard-ification” of the Tome of Knowledge?

Alex:

A little bit, yeah. From Warhammer? Is that what you’re talking about?

MMORPG.com:

Yeah.

Alex:

Yeah, something like that. That was a really cool thing I thought. Yeah, wouldn’t that be cool?

MMORPG.com:

What other races were considered before you guys decided on Goblin and Worgen?

Alex:

Oh man. I could tell ya, it was a *lot*. It was a *large* list and I remember bringing out the docs, and the pictures. I think we busted out Ogres and Dragonmen, and, it’s just a long list of things I’m better off not saying in case we do end up using them at some point. That’s not to say we would never use Ogres, because Ogres are awesome!

MMORPG.com:

What were your top-three favorites?

Alex:

Well Worgen/Goblin. Because clearly they are in the game now. I had a big thing for Ogres. I really wanted to get Ogres on the Horde.

MMORPG.com:

Is that like an Everquest flashback?

Alex:

I dunno. Maybe. Maybe it is. I just love our Ogres. I think they are so goofy and they have a great silhouette. You see that and you know that’s an Ogre. And that’s one of the big things when you choose races is silhouettes. It’s *super* important. So, that would be one of them. The Dragonmen concept is an interesting one. More like a Drakonid almost. It’s tough. It’s tough coming up with a new race, because you don’t want to just surprise the player. Like “OK. Hey, a Protoss. What? What’s that doing in this game?” It has be something that they are familiar with, and something that they want. And to fit in the world, and the silhouette has to be unique, and so forth. So there’s definitely been a lot of talk about different things: Tuskarr and Vrykul and things like that, of course, are on the list. And anything you can probably imagine, I guarantee we at least entertained.

MMORPG.com:

I thing I’ve noticed in the last couple of years has been the slow creep of the microtransaction. We had the Pandaren, and then the “pony”. It felt a little bit like you guys were testing the waters, like how high could you go. And especially as a content person, is that subscription model (with the paid subscription and the microtransaction goodies on top) something that you guys want to embrace in the future? I’m not trying to make you squirm by the way, I’m just interested.

Alex:

I’m a little squirmy. It’s something that when … Yeah … I’m not sure I’m equipped to answer this question.

MMORPG.com:

The reason I’ve asked it to you specifically, is that a lot of games when it comes to content, it’s one of the things they are very comfortable with adding as “an extra” to the player. For example, you see it in LoTRO now. Some of the quest packages you have to pay for.

Alex:

Right. Well, LoTRO is free to play now. Is it not?

MMORPG.com:

Yeah, but you can pay a bunch of money to buy a bunch of quests, so you have your “base” content and you have “bells and whistles” content-wise on top of that. I was wondering whether you guys have discussed that, or whether you purely want to go with “cool cosmetic thing; even cooler cosmetic thing; super-cool cosmetic thing” and use that as your approach to your microtransactions.

Alex:

You know, it’s not my call. I don’t *deal* with sending out the microtransactions. I wouldn’t say it’s out of the question. I think I’ve heard Rob Pardo and others in interviews speaking of, you know, the same thing. I wouldn’t say it’s out of the question, it’s just not my gig.

MMORPG.com:

OK. Fair enough. What do you think are the three coolest things that you are most excited about players finding in the new re-imagining.

Alex:

Like stumbling upon?

MMORPG.com:

Yeah, like three awesome content things that, when you were developing them, you were rubbing your little hands together, going “this is going to be awesome when players find it”.

Alex:

I think parts of Hillsbrad, Lady Sinestra in the raids, and, hmmm, what’s the third one? It’s kind of spoiled right now, but the Twilight Highlands entries, they’re really really cool. They’re already done and through with that on beta, but it’s one of those cool moments, especially if you’re a Horde player … strangely. Riding up there with Garrosh is one of those cool moments.

There’s actually so many of them, like Plants versus Zombies, that I could honestly just sit here and rattle things off. There’s just a lot of them.

MMORPG.com:

Have you ever put anything in the game that was kind of like a little in joke, that nobody ever really found that’s still waiting to be discovered?

Alex:

Probably about a thousand. Like “the meaning of” do you mean? I’m sure I have. Like, I thought it would be funny, but it wasn’t, and nobody got it. I’m sure those things are out there.

MMORPG.com:

And I guess finally, is there anything you want to make sure that, by the end of Blizzcon, particular pieces of information have been relayed to the players? Is there anything you especially want MMORPG.com readers to know about Cataclysm?

Alex:

Yeah, I said this before, and Frank Pearce laughed at me. And I think he laughed at me because he just didn’t see it coming from me. But I think you’ve got to stop and smell the roses. I’m a big power gamer. I get it. I totally totally get it. I want to rush to 85 and raid. But the world is an expansive beautiful amazing place. And the work that the designers for WoW have done on, not just the new 80-85 content, but the 1-60 stuff, the dungeons – everything – is just so wonderful. It’s such a great well-put-together *amount* of content. Just slow down. Slow down MMO gamers and take it in. I think it’s important.