Character Customization
Worldofwar.Net: Are there any plans at Blizzard to create more individual avatar styles than there are available now? Could changes like new hairstyles, tattoos, scarring or equipment dye be worked into the current art and code?
Blizzard: We are always discussing the possibilities of adding additional customizations for characters, but we don’t have any immediate plans for the current patch schedule. Anything like this would probably be part of an expansion for World of Warcraft.
Guild Support
Worldofwar.Net: Will guilds ever see any additional tools like guild reputation, instanced guild housing, or group bank slots?
Blizzard: As with the character-customization options discussed above, these features have all been discussed among the team, but we don’t have any immediate plans to implement them in the current patch schedule. While in some sense, every aspect of the game that we want to enhance could be seen as a high priority, right now our primary focus is on maintaining and improving class balance and adding significant new content to the game.
Worldofwar.Net: Originally, there was going to be support for "ticketed events" where guilds could get an instance and either hand out or sell tickets to things like arena matches. Will we see that in game?
Blizzard: We are working on dynamic Web content that will allow guilds to manage their players and recruit new ones much easier. In-game we are working on improved raid UI to help guilds organize raids better. Of course we continue to look for new features to add to improve the guild experience, and feedback from the players helps us in focusing our efforts. We have not announced any plans for housing, but large systems like that are most suitable for an expansion. As for the ticketed event system, it was unfortunately something we did not get around to implementing, as the need for new dungeons, raid encounters, PvP systems, quests, items, live events, and bug fixes has taken precedence.
Quests
Worldofwar.Net: Class-quest, both epic quests and non-epic quests, are a great way to relate to the role-playing background of ones character. What are the plans to evolve these?
Blizzard: Currently we are looking to expand on quests for several of the classes. Some quest lines will be expanded and continued, while others will be new for some classes. These will entail quests that can be completed solo, in a group, and additional quests that will require raids to acquire components. We have a fulltime staff of quest writers that are constantly looking for ways to expand on all these aspects of the game.
World Events
Worldofwar.Net: What happened to the Alliance incursion on "The Barrens"? Where the Alliance came ashore at the human fort below Ratchet and proceeded to move towards Crossroads, attacking the Tauren Camp on the way.
Blizzard: The nature of game design causes us to refocus our efforts according to many factors. The implementation of the Alliance incursion, which was mentioned early on in beta, would have forced us to drop many popular game features currently in the game, and we felt these features were more important for the overall enjoyment of our players.
Worldofwar.Net: Any plans for random weather effects? Considering the 24 hour clock, is it possible that we could actually see a fabricated weather system where storms actually moved across the world?
Blizzard: We realize that dynamic weather effects will help players further immerse themselves in to the world of Azeroth, and we are looking to add them to the game in the future.
Worldofwar.Net: Blizzard has received some criticism about the speed of new content arriving on the servers. Will we see more regular content, especially content that actually affects the game world and not just other instances/battlegrounds?
Blizzard: In the few months following the launch of the game, we focused most of our resources on improving realm stability. Once we were able to provide a stable play experience, we turned our focus to content. Since that time, we’ve provided 3 major content patches in the last 4 months, and we will do our best to continue patching in new content at this rate moving forward.
In addition, we have a dedicated team of developers whose job it is to implement world events into the game. A good example is the Darkmoon Faire, a traveling carnival that appears every so often in Mulgore and Elwynn Forest, that’s coming up in the next patch. We will also continue to hold in-game Holiday events, like the Feast of Winter Veil, Noblegarden, and Children’s Day.
Hero Classes
Worldofwar.Net: Will access to the hero classes be based on a percentage of the player base like PvP titles or will it requiring grinding out the prerequisite quests and are they actually in testing yet at Blizzard?
Blizzard: We’re not ready to release any details on the Hero system yet. When the time comes, we will definitely share the news with everyone.
PvP
Worldofwar.Net: Will a guild be able to sign for there own Battleground instance against another guild at any point in the future, for a Guild vs Guild battle?
Blizzard: We have discussed this option, but at this time we would like to streamline the existing battleground queue system before we add any new functionality.
Professions
Worldofwar.Net: What sort of new professions can we look forward to? Jeweler, hairdresser, scribe or perhaps learn some of the other neutral languages of Azeroth?
Blizzard: We would like to make improvements to our existing professions, such as fishing, before we introduce new professions to the game. We do have a few ideas for new professions, but we’re unsure at this time of when they will be added and what form they’ll take.
Logistics
Worldofwar.Net: Will Blizzard allow transatlantic play, as was mentioned during the European launch?
Blizzard: Our current focus is still on maintaining excellent realm stability for each region in which the game has launched, and of course on providing even more content for our player base. Also, on the technical end, we just launched in China and are working steadily toward launching in Taiwan later this year. With all that in mind and with us making the most of our resources to provide a high-quality overall game experience for players, it’s unlikely that we will be able to open realms to transatlantic play anytime in the near future. It’s extremely important to us to ensure that the populations on each realm remain manageable, which in turn translates into smooth gameplay for our players. With the worldwide player population having so rapidly grown to the immense size that it is for World of Warcraft, this must take priority.
