World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is perhaps one of the most divisive, if not the most divisive, expansion that has graced the wildly popular MMORPG. With it came a plethora of new dungeons, two entirely new races (one for the Horde and Alliance, respectively), and a drastic change to the world map. But Blizzard Entertainment is dedicated to preserving the nostalgia that’s integral to the success of World of Warcraft: Classic while also keeping modern sensibilities in mind to cater to players who may have missed these pivotal moments in the MMORPG’s history. This includes some user interface revamps, the inclusion of new systems like the Season of Discovery, and more that the Classic team is working on delivering once Deathwing soars back into Azeroth to wreak havoc for a second time.
“It's a balancing act.” Said Senior Game Producer of World of Warcraft Classic Joshua Greenfield. “A lot of the time, what we’ve done is divided up our team into pipeline groups. And a lot of the logistical problems we get are things like needing help from Tools to make some sort of change to the engine to support this type of data, or we need help from Live Operations to help us plan out the server setup for this.” Greenfield discussed the production schedule at length for working on World of Warcraft: Classic features along with its new seasonal content and just how interconnected the various teams that work to roll out these updates are.
“We have a ton of support from the larger team; we have a core group of developers that work on Classic and all flavors of Classic, but like I mentioned previously, Tools, Live Operations, the Gameplay Engineering teams, the Art teams that help us with new assets when we need it. It’s a little bit of plate spinning on my part and the other producers’ part. It’s like, ‘Okay, this month you’re going to work on this Hardcore feature, and then this month you’re going to work on a Cataclysm feature.’ But luckily, we have so much support that it’s not insurmountable,” Greenfield told me, with Lead Software Designer on World of Warcraft Classic Nora Valletta adding onto this.
“It’s a double-edged sword.” She adds, “We’re a small and scrappy team, which is beneficial and means we can pivot quickly. But we have the support with Technical Design, and all of our support we get from our partners on the broader World of Warcraft team that are crucial to the success of Classic.”
And with World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Classic on the horizon, along with the Season of Discovery, the team is working harder than ever. Because the Cataclysm that will launch in Classic won’t entirely be one-to-one compared to the expansion that was released in December 2010, instead, there will be #somechanges coming to streamline the experience and make Classic more approachable to players that may have never experienced World of Warcraft during Deathwing’s siege on Azeroth.
“So some changes are more planned for the future and not necessarily set. For example, one of the plans is to make adjustments to the progression system to make sure that we don't just reward mega guilds, right? Because the guild rewards that Cataclysm brought is when many smaller guilds decided, “Oh, no, like, in order to get the really cool tiers of rewards, we have to be a big mega guild.” So this is one of the things we have changes planned for.” Said Valletta. The team hopes to address this issue and allow for smaller guilds to still reap the rewards from the progression system across the board, making sure no one is left out. However, Valletta also mentioned that they’re working hard to make sure that there isn’t an imbalance with re-tuning this feature.
Greenfield also brought up changes made to World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King when it arrived in Classic. Specifically, the Titan Rune Dungeons which added additional difficulties to the iconic dungeons of the expansion while incorporating a different reward structure.
“It gave a lot of life to those dungeons throughout the expansion.” He said. “All of the dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King were so iconic, but honestly, the dungeons in Cataclysm are as well that we plan on bringing that feature forward, or some version of it. We learned so many lessons from how that feature (Titan Rune Dungeons) panned out.” Greenfield went on to elaborate on how they fine-tuned these dungeons to cater to various experiences while still keeping the core of it intact. He also touched upon how challenging Heroics were in Cataclysm and that the team wants to make it more approachable while still maintaining the original feeling of these dungeons.
Valletta also mentioned overhauls that will be coming to the user interface along with Cataclysm — specifically for Collections. The team plans to bring the Retail version of this interface into Classic along with the Cataclysm update. She noted that the team is dedicated to maintaining that “classic” feel but also wants to add some more modern conveniences into the game that don’t feel jarring or completely take players out of the experience.
But both developers spoke on the general approachability of Cataclysm once it arrives in World of Warcraft Classic while still maintaining that feeling Valletta mentioned. “We think it’s important that there is a little less of a grind,” said Greenfield on the topic of new players jumping into Classic at Cataclysm’s release so that they can enjoy the full experience as Deathwing rips the planet asunder.
“We’re going to make some experience adjustments so that if you’re a brand new player, you’re going to be able to jump in and get going to the higher level stuff a bit faster.”
And on the topic of progression-based servers, Valletta and Greenfield mentioned surveys that were taken leading up to Cataclysm, which is considered one of the most divisive expansions in the series. This is mostly due to the map changing outright due to story events that otherwise can’t be undone. Greenfield shared that the surveys revealed that most players just want to keep progressing with their group. “That’s what we’re focused on right now. But also, we’re trying to create and curate a menu of different things.”
Valletta also stated that the team is dedicated to keeping that nostalgia for players returning to experience Cataclysm for a second time. “We're committed to delivering that nostalgia while also making some tweaks to cater to a modern audience and to relieve some pain points that existed in the expansion for some.”
