Faction Conflict & Heroic World Tier in The Last Titan - Windows Central Interview

In an interview with Windows Central, Blizzard discussed the differences between WoW: Forever and Retail WoW, the Faction Conflict, and how they're thinking about adding a Heroic World Tier for leveling in The Last Titan.

Windows Central Interview on WoW: Forever

Windows Central had an interview with:

• Ion Hazzikostas (Game Director)

We've summarized the interview below, but you can see the original piece on Windows Central.

Interview Summary

Forever

• Ending the opening ceremony at BlizzCon with Forever was Blizzard's commitment to the BlizzCon audience, as they knew that many players were waiting for Classic+.
• Forever is a third pillar alongside Retail and Classic and will shape WoW in the future.
• World Buff farming for raids will be removed from WoW Forever.

Fragmenting the Playerbase

• They always have to consider fragmenting the playerbase, even for smaller experiences like Plunderstorm.
• They don't see any perceived withdrawal from the social systems of Retail WoW as desirable.
• There are strong communities in Retail, but a lot of it happens in Discord, outside of the game.

Friction vs Social Experiences

• When you reduce friction and offer more solo content, you end up with a more solitary experience for players.
• Friction and the lack of auto matchmaking typically lead to more social connections.
• Friction is a big part of Classic, but for players who can only play for a short duration, it means they can't run a dungeon, so there are trade-offs.
• There will be a very large difference between Retail and Forever.

Retail Problems

• There are real problems in Retail WoW and things they want to fix.
• They are thinking about offering something like a Heroic World Tier in The Last Titan for players who want challenging world content, more friction, and more rewards.
• They should not be telling players to go play Classic if you want friction and rewarding open world content; all versions of WoW should have that.
• They have a lot more work to do on the new player experience for Retail WoW to help players learn the class fantasy and the story.

Horde vs Alliance

• On the topic of faction-specific leveling zones or quests, when the dev team has to build two different leveling storylines with the same resources, that means they're making half the experience on both sides.
• It's also related to the story and the feedback from players, and if players want the faction conflict, then they might do more faction conflict.
• Right now, they hear that players want more cross-faction gameplay.
• However, they want to preserve Horde and Alliance identity.
• Right now, there's a need to cooperate, but there's still a deep history of enmity. It's something that they intend to return to down the road.