World of Warcraft Classic – Ion Hazzikostas Interview

Ion Hazzikostas, Blizzard Entertainment’s game director for World of Warcraft, recently had a chat with PC Gamer, focusing on the overwhelming success of World of Warcraft Classic, its lasting appeal, the differences between Classic and the retail version of the MMORPG, and the ways in which Classic’s success can potentially affect World of Warcraft’s future content. For example:

Though time will ultimately tell, the first phase of Classic’s post-launch updates has shown that players are more than willing to live with any rough edges. It begs the question of what, if any, aspects of Classic might find their way back into Warcraft’s next expansion and beyond. “I don’t think this is the case where the lesson or the takeaway is to ever to borrow specific mechanics directly or remove things that we added just to return to Classic,” Hazzikostas says. “Classic is there for those who want to play it, and I don’t think that, say, removing flying mounts permanently will suddenly endear World of Warcraft in the hearts of millions of players. We’ve learned that lesson trying that a few years back.”

“The different path, really, is looking at some of the purely positive outcomes. The sense of community, the reasons for cooperation with others, the meaningful progression, that feeling of striving for rewards that you don’t think are going to be replaced right away, and asking ourselves how can we incorporate those elements into Modern World of Warcraft in a way that’s consistent with the world and the systems without compromising the game.”

Classic’s influence on modern WoW might be unclear, but it’s own future isn’t. Earlier this year Blizzard announced its plans to expand Classic over six phases that mirror the original updates Warcraft received from 2004 to 2006. Each one will add new raids, dungeons, and PVP systems like Battlegrounds and PVP-specific gear.