World of Warcraft Interview
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Q: With the large number of MMO titles either on the market or on the way, how do you plan to prevent player loss? Can you give FileFront any information on plans for expansion packs or free content updates?
A: That's definitely a topic that we've discussed frequently here. MMOs are designed to have a very long lifespan, and we know that we have to keep the gameplay compelling in order to keep people playing World of Warcraft for many years to come. You may have already seen us take steps to add high-level content in several of our latest patches. And that is because we know many players are hitting the level cap. So with the last patch, we added Maraudon, a huge instance for level 41-50 players. And in this upcoming patch, which you'll see this month, we're adding another instance for players of level 55-60.
In fact, our focus is to continue to develop end game content to broaden the number of things players can do post level 50. That includes tweaks to class abilities, adding new items, adding new quests, dungeons, and so forth.
Of course, we know these updates might be considered relatively minor by some, and even the new dungeons we create won't be able to sustain interest for the next three or four years if that's all we were planning to produce. Which is why we began working on our PvP system and Battlegrounds from the first day we shipped World of Warcraft, and we've continued to refine and hone it in anticipation of releasing it in the next few months. This will be the biggest and most significant update yet for World of Warcraft, and it is virtually a new leveling system, with ranks that players can strive for that will give them all-new reward and items.
Rest assured that we won't stop with the PvP system and the Alterac Valley Battleground. We're already hard at work on testing the second Battleground and fleshing out new systems to add to World of Warcraft. We are also exploring other ideas of how to expand in-game content so players that don't necessarily want to participate in PvP content- or would just like to take a break from it- will always have something to do. We hope all these features will encourage our fans to continue playing the game, as we plan on supporting it wholeheartedly for years to come.
