World of LeCraft II: Burning Crusade behind-the-decisions

Jonathan LeCraft has been busy with the press these days. Right on the heels of him telling Pro-G why Wii Won’t Work With WoW, we now have him talking to Gamespot UK about Blizzard‘s newest baby, The Burning Crusade. Some of the stuff, we can get from the press releases, on in prior interviews and previews, but LeCraft spills some of the details behind some of the decisions the devs made with the expansion.

Let’s start with one big one: the new Lev-70 cap. A lot of thought went to deciding on 70; it ain’t just picking a number out of a hat. “We try to go with what feels right.” They’d talked about it, talked about players’ expectations, talked about all the new content to level up with, and once in a while go with gut instinct.

The other big one – which might draw a howl from some of the bigger guilds – is the lower raid numbers in BC. Obviously, LeCraft tells Gamespot, this may prune some guilds down to size. “I think it’s going to reduce the numbers of some guilds, or they may have to put some people on the sidelines, who may in turn decide to leave and start new guilds.” But he’s hoping that this makes raiding more meaningful for guilds – with fewer cooks to spoil the broth, everyone actually has a role to play in an instance. At least they hope.

By introducing two new races, LeCraft and the other designers found it was also much fun revisiting the experience of making starter areas. At the same time, the introduction of new skills like jewelcrafting reshapes the gaming experience somewhat: “we also wanted people to be able to differentiate themselves more, and say ‘Hey I’m a Spellfire tailor,’ and so on.”

In closing, Gamespot brought up a previous anecdote that there’s 25 years yet left in Warcraft. “I think that’s a pretty good estimate,” says LeCraft. “We’ve got the longevity in the game, we own the world, the creative rights, so we can go in all kinds of directions.”

25 years of Warcraft? How many expansions and RTS expansions is that worth?

Jonathan LeCraft has been busy with the press these days. Right on the heels of him telling Pro-G why Wii Won’t Work With WoW, we now have him talking to Gamespot UK about Blizzard‘s newest baby, The Burning Crusade. Some of the stuff, we can get from the press releases, on in prior interviews and previews, but LeCraft spills some of the details behind some of the decisions the devs made with the expansion.

Let’s start with one big one: the new Lev-70 cap. A lot of thought went to deciding on 70; it ain’t just picking a number out of a hat. “We try to go with what feels right.” They’d talked about it, talked about players’ expectations, talked about all the new content to level up with, and once in a while go with gut instinct.

The other big one – which might draw a howl from some of the bigger guilds – is the lower raid numbers in BC. Obviously, LeCraft tells Gamespot, this may prune some guilds down to size. “I think it’s going to reduce the numbers of some guilds, or they may have to put some people on the sidelines, who may in turn decide to leave and start new guilds.” But he’s hoping that this makes raiding more meaningful for guilds – with fewer cooks to spoil the broth, everyone actually has a role to play in an instance. At least they hope.

By introducing two new races, LeCraft and the other designers found it was also much fun revisiting the experience of making starter areas. At the same time, the introduction of new skills like jewelcrafting reshapes the gaming experience somewhat: “we also wanted people to be able to differentiate themselves more, and say ‘Hey I’m a Spellfire tailor,’ and so on.”

In closing, Gamespot brought up a previous anecdote that there’s 25 years yet left in Warcraft. “I think that’s a pretty good estimate,” says LeCraft. “We’ve got the longevity in the game, we own the world, the creative rights, so we can go in all kinds of directions.”

25 years of Warcraft? How many expansions and RTS expansions is that worth?