People have asked on the official forums if we can expect to see another event similar to the Scourge invasion which took place when Naxxramas was released. Game designer Kisirani gave some insight into how Blizzard approach these in-game events, what prompts them to make them, and how they decide what the majority of players want.

[blue=http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=110562095&pageNo=4&sid=1#75]Torchure, you seem fond of saying that this would be popular and entertaining for “players,” but you’re not speaking for the majority. I completely understand that this is something you would like to see, and the events you’re pitching are something that would interest you and people like you. But those people are not the only people who play the game, and in more or less every example you’ve given thus far, you bring forth something that can end up being a phenomenal inconvenience for an individual who has just started the game or has a very limited time to play.

When designing events for World of Warcraft, we have to keep all players and supported playstyles in mind. The “casual” player isn’t less of a person than the hardcore; what’s important is to make such events appeal to everyone in some way, new or old, dedicated or casual.

We do have some things in the works, but please don’t expect a city to be razed or some such event. If we were to raze Stormwind, for example, that’s a whole slew of quests and the like that would have to be rewritten or repurposed—and that’s just the quest load alone. There are dozens of other tasks associated with that, including art and programming… and while this is occurring, dungeons aren’t being made, new and more relevant content isn’t being created. It’s replacement of content rather than an addition, and therefore the world isn’t necessarily the richer for it.

It’s a matter of priorities and smart use of manhours. Creating a new dungeon or epic quest line, for example, gets far more bang for the buck than a one-time event that replaces old content and never again plays out, even (or especially) at a large scale.

This isn’t to say that we won’t have one-time events, as I’m quite sure we will, but the odds of the world drastically changing as a result are slim and shouldn’t be counted upon. By doing that you often destroy existing content, and that’s not something that should be done lightly.

I’m sorry you dismiss the holidays so out of hand, as they’re becoming fairly meaty and should have something to entertain most people, even if only for a little while.

We’ll keep on making world events, holiday and not. I appreciate your passion, but I’m afraid world events likely will not take shape as you wish them to.[/blue]