Blizzcon 2023 - Interview avec Maria Hamilton & Kristy Moret !

La Blizzcon 2023 a aussi été l’occasion d’interviewer les employés de Blizzard et de leur poser des questions sur les conférences auxquelles nous venions d’assister et à propos de nos jeux préférés !

L’interview traite notamment de la narration de l’histoire, le design des zones, les bataillons (warbands), le Vol Dynamique et l’Intelligence Artificielle à Blizzard.

Retrouvez ici l’interview complète de l’Associate Design Director Maria Hamilton et la Lead World Artist Kristy Moret !

Pre-Order grants early access. Are there any safe guards that are going to be put in place to ensure players can’t corner the market on certain items in the Auction House which could be considered Pay-to-Win?
Want the early access time to be a leisurely time where players can enjoy the story of The War Within. Season content will not be available. It shouldn’t feel mandatory nor give an advantage.

Cross-Realm Guilds are now going to be opening up, but what about regions?
Regions are significantly more complicated and philosophically falls along the same lines, but there’s much greater technical hurdles.

In 10.2 we’re seeing some additional Druid customization. Will we see this expanded in The War Within and the subsequent expansions?
They hope so. Strong proponents on the team of adding more and they’re listening to player feedback.

Chris Metzen suggested that the Worldsoul Saga would be coming in quicker than players have been used to? What does that timeline look like?
We can’t get into specific, but yes it will be faster. We want to ensure that players aren’t completing this saga in 2030. Teams have been restructured to be able to create this whole saga.

Is flight form becoming a Dynamic Flight option?
We have nothing to announce at this time.

What sorta cadence is expected for Delves? How frequently will players interact with them?
It’s completely repeatable with no lockout. Ways to get improved loot may be more limited, but we want you to play with your friends.

How many characters will players be able to have in their warband?
Your entire account roster will be part of the warband. Not everyone will show up in the cool camp selection scene. Horde and Alliance included.

Is there a concern that Hero Talents and subsequent additional systems will convolute character progression similar to borrowed power?
Team is very conscious of the previous issues with these systems, and it’s something they’re taking into account. They do still want to lean into the class fantasy side of these new abilities.

With Midnight focusing heavily on the Void, will Ethereals be a focus?
I’m not sure we can say anything at this time. There’s definitely a focus on the void and shadow and threats to the Sunwell. There might be some obvious choices, but it’s not something they can mention for now.

What efforts are being made to differentiate all 3 coming expansions from each other?
Each expansion will be a full expansion with a full suite of activities and zones for players to do. While the story will carry over, there’s also a lot of individual smaller local stories that will animate these new environments. Want to ensure that we can cohesively tell the story across 3 expansions, but that each one is independently exciting and standalone. Zones and story in Midnight are already underway. Very good now at working at multiple things simultaneously and have built out that pipeline to be able to work on expansions in parallel.

Can we expect mount customization to be expanded upon similar to Dragonriding mounts and the newly announced Delve mount?
It’s definitely something we loved doing in Dragonflight and will look for opportunities for us to continue in the future. It’s less likely that older mounts will be getting additional customization options beyond being updated to Dynamic flight.

Will there be more support specs added in WoW?
Nothing to announce at this time.

Will the number of major content patches be announced so players know they’re getting similar amounts of content prior to purchasing future expansions?
The roadmap was very successful and something they’d look to continue, but the scope tends to be limited to roughly a year at this point.

Cross-Realm Guilds have been announced but will there be any trade restrictions?
Not completely sure, but it’s likely those restrictions would be reduced.

Warbands come with a lot of account-wide progression, does that include hunter pet collections.
Unsure if there’d be a shared stable.

Outdoor content was significant in Dragonflight but had limited appeal long-term. Is there anything being done to keep that content relevant?
Something they’re aware of and something they want to keep in mind for players. Superblooms have dynamic scaling that does allow for activities to be completed with fewer players. Nothing specific for The War Within, but there’s more styles of Outdoor content including Delves and other types of content of various difficulty and group size.

Are there plans to do similar events that are similar to Secrets of Azeroth or use similar tech?
It’s definitely something we love experimenting with and building upon, but there’s nothing we can announce today.

Are there any designs that have had to be scaled back due to technical limitations?
We haven’t had to scale anything back this expansion. Crystal in Hallowfall Canyon that illuminates the zone works off new tech that helps us dynamically change the lighting of the zone that helps progress the narrative thanks to our engineering tech. Similar thing for the Air-Lock zone traversal tech. Zones are now able to be reactive to players like never before.

Will group size matter in Delves especially in terms of loot acquisition?
Delves are intended to address progression concerns for more time-restricted players, but group size shouldn’t have an effect.

Is there concern that player excitement and surprise will be tempered with the announcement of the next 3 expansions?
There’s still so much more to dive into and to announce with each expansion that should help keep players engaged including a strong cohesive narrative. Features in Midnight are expected to blow players’ socks off.

Have things changed internally that allow 3 expansions to be announced at once, or is this standard practice that we are just getting a preview of this time around?
We know we didn’t release content as fast in Shadowlands, so it’s important that we produce that content faster. We committed to a roadmap in Dragonflight and have delivered on that schedule. The next thing after 10.2 will be on the PTR a few days later. We’re doing parallel development on multiple expansions now to keep content flowing?

How has Proletariat helped speed up expansion and content cadence?
Several of those artists have been integrated seamlessly into existing teams and expect their art to be really expand the world building in future content and expansions. Quest and narrative designers have integrated beautifully and their work is featured throughout Dragonflight.

How has AI been integrated into the Blizzard pipeline?
AI is exciting and new, but we want to use it in an ethical way that doesn’t replace the creative work that we do. We’ve used machine learning to refit helmets to all character races, a huge task that can be tedious for an individual character artist to work on. We don’t want to develop zones with AI, but using it to refine training materials to streamline onboarding can be exceptional. We want to avoid AI art generation; you can’t replace passion.

Will we see a reworking of the faction system due to more recent unity in Dragonflight? Could we see a 3rd faction?
Will see more of faction interaction and cooperation narratively but not so much from a technical side. Nothing to discuss about a 3rd faction.

Are there any discussions about expanding the cultures of WoW and examining how real-life cultures influence WoW?
Team works hard to develop ‘cuture points’ that help nail down key aspects of various cultures in-game. Also try to take advantage of opportunities to investigate real-life cultures when developing in-game ones. A number of indigenous speakers came in during the development of the Tuskarr art and style in Dragonflight. We want to thoroughly investigate those cultures through the lens of experts and speakers from a diverse background that highlights those cultures and contributes to them in a positive way.

Is it easier to work in an environment where the next 3 expansions have been revealed?
Incredibly helpful to have a strong guiding vision that definitely helps with consistency to develop a compelling narrative.

How will you work to ensure that catch-up mechanics don’t become overwhelming to players?
Warbands will make it that easier for players to maintain several alts at once such as with account-wide renown. Less catch-up with certain requirements. No need to gear-up your Delve companion on every character.

Is there a philosophy on what is shared for Warbands? Will currencies be shared?
Goal is to include currency and other shared progression if it makes sense as an account achievement versus an individual character’s achievement.

How was the process aof updating older mounts to Dynamic Flight?
Some required significant rigging adjustments which is time-consuming, but the intent is to put these out in batches. Rigging can be incredibly technical and has to look and feel natural. Can’t be shortcut.

What was the goal for reintroducing Dwarves via Earthen?
Ties back into having this overarching narrative and continuing to explore our existing cultures that we can expand in the future.

Will we see some additional culture exploration for more neglected races? Tauren?
We can’t speak to individual characters necessarily, but it’s definitely something we want to take advantage of those opportunities when we can.

When we’re revisiting these older zones like Northrend and Quel’thalas, can we expect a glow up?
That would be pretty reasonable.

With the mention of specific zones in Midnight, should we expect continent-wide updates or more local updates?
Mostly local. With the detail put into modern zones, it’s just not feasible to do full updates. Really want to focus and put our full effort into the specific areas related to these expansions. Expect a fresh coat of paint on specific area, but also that older versions likely won’t be completely removed. Think Chromie Time.

Are there concerns with Dragonflight being the new leveling experience that newer players may not get introduced into major characters of the upcoming expansions?
We’ll make sure that players are aware of who core characters are, but want the focus on the Dragonflight leveling experience until they finish that leveling experience.

Who are the major characters in The War Within?
Alleria definitely based on the panel. Expect Magni, Anduin, Thrall, and so many more will play their part. Anyone is fair game though as these events affect all of Azeroth.

What is something you want to talk about or gush about?
Zones were designed with Dynamic Flight in mind and dramatically influenced how these zones were imagined and created.

Getting to work with Metzen has been a fantastic experience. He came in to meet the team and express his love for Dragonflight and then build a new vision for the future of WoW together with us. He’s really fun to work with.