WoW designer Kaplan on Trolls and Heroic Instances

Kaplan speaks on attunement - Image 1

Blizzard Lead Designer for World of Warcraft Jeffrey Kaplan was recently interviewed by online site WarCry. One of the many interesting points raised by the designer is the planned addition of more ground mounts as well as aerial mounts in the future. He added that Blizzard is still weighing its options on how to make these available.

Kaplan then went on and talk about in-game world events for WoW. According to him, they definitely have plans to do more world event content and they certainly have plenty more exciting ideas yet to be implemented. Speaking of ideas, it is imminent in the latest instance portals that Blizzard is giving a lot of attention to Trolls.

That doesn’t mean that the designers are running out of ideas. Kaplan admitted that they are really focusing on the race, “Trolls are a core part of Warcraft lore and are one of the oldest races in Warcraft history. They have a lot of rich and exciting material to draw from, so naturally, this is reflected when we create dungeons and other content for the game”.

Kaplan further explained that all are essentially the same regardless of the number of players needed to complete such. The designer shared,

We don’t have a vastly different approach in our dungeon-creation process. The same basic elements that make a 5-person instance great – pacing, story, varied creatures, varied abilities, punctuating boss fights, good itemization, accessibility, and understandability – will also make for a great 25-person experience.

Lastly, when asked about the recent issues concerning getting keyed and attuned for many Heroic instances, Kaplan said that it’s finding the balance between a sense of progression and keeping them not so complicated,

When you group with people in a Heroic instance, you know that they have a certain level of understanding when it comes to that particular dungeon because they needed to do it a few times. As time goes on, we’ll continue to tweak and balance the attunement processes in response to player feedback and our own observations.

Via WarCry

Kaplan speaks on attunement - Image 1

Blizzard Lead Designer for World of Warcraft Jeffrey Kaplan was recently interviewed by online site WarCry. One of the many interesting points raised by the designer is the planned addition of more ground mounts as well as aerial mounts in the future. He added that Blizzard is still weighing its options on how to make these available.

Kaplan then went on and talk about in-game world events for WoW. According to him, they definitely have plans to do more world event content and they certainly have plenty more exciting ideas yet to be implemented. Speaking of ideas, it is imminent in the latest instance portals that Blizzard is giving a lot of attention to Trolls.

That doesn’t mean that the designers are running out of ideas. Kaplan admitted that they are really focusing on the race, “Trolls are a core part of Warcraft lore and are one of the oldest races in Warcraft history. They have a lot of rich and exciting material to draw from, so naturally, this is reflected when we create dungeons and other content for the game”.

Kaplan further explained that all are essentially the same regardless of the number of players needed to complete such. The designer shared,

We don’t have a vastly different approach in our dungeon-creation process. The same basic elements that make a 5-person instance great – pacing, story, varied creatures, varied abilities, punctuating boss fights, good itemization, accessibility, and understandability – will also make for a great 25-person experience.

Lastly, when asked about the recent issues concerning getting keyed and attuned for many Heroic instances, Kaplan said that it’s finding the balance between a sense of progression and keeping them not so complicated,

When you group with people in a Heroic instance, you know that they have a certain level of understanding when it comes to that particular dungeon because they needed to do it a few times. As time goes on, we’ll continue to tweak and balance the attunement processes in response to player feedback and our own observations.

Via WarCry

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