World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Interview

CVG has cranked out a new interview with Blizzard Entertainment COO Paul Sams about a variety of topics related to their forthcoming World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, including the possibility of a tablet version, what they’re doing to attract new players with the add-on, whether or not there will be a fifth expansion beyond MoP (there will be), and more.

Mists Of Pandaria is your fourth expansion for WOW. What impact do you think it’ll have on attracting players who are late to the party? Is it getting harder to get into this game as the lore continues to expand?

I don’t know if the lore is what makes it challenging. I think it’s more that it’s been out for a long time and they make assumptions that it’s hard and it might be not for them because they might not be a hardcore gamer. But we’ve worked really really hard to make sure that we have instituted our longstanding design principle of it being easy to learn but hard to master. We worked hard to provide an incredible experience for the core folks, but it starts really easy for the newbies to come in, so they can slowly ramp their way to a place of bigger difficulty.

I think MOP packs three punches in one. You’re going to get a lot of content that will provide for a lot of wonderful new experiences on a high level of engagement. The players that are already there are going to really enjoy it. There are also a lot of players, who for whatever reason, have left and I think they’ll be drawn back in by the new stuff we have in there like the new class, the new pet system, the new world, which as you alluded to, looks amazing.

Then there are the new players; historically, when we put out these expansions, it nets us new players who haven’t tried it before. MOP is so beautiful and so accessible that I anticipate we’ll see new players. It’s a lot brighter and lighter than say, Cataclysm, which was a little darker. (laughs) Just by a smidge.