[0:00] hi my name is ian has a hostess I'm the
[0:01] game director on world of warcraft hi my
[0:03] name is Patrick McGruder hi my name is
[0:05] Jim Edo I'm the lead gameplay engineer
[0:07] on the world of warcraft team and I am
[0:09] the visual development supervisor we are
[0:11] here to take you through the history of
[0:13] world of work
[0:30] I joined the team in the summer of 2008
[0:34] I've been at Blizzard for just shy of 10
[0:36] years now I've been playing well the
[0:38] Warcraft
[0:38] since day one back in November 2004 all
[0:41] the Warcraft presents players with a
[0:43] vast world to explore to adventure in to
[0:46] meet friends potentially to make enemies
[0:48] it's a place where players can play out
[0:50] their fantasies of being a hero and do
[0:53] so alongside millions of other players
[0:55] from around the world it's set in the
[0:57] world of Azeroth the home to the
[0:59] Warcraft franchise going all the way
[1:00] back to the RTS games of the mid-90s it
[1:03] places players in the shoes of one of
[1:06] the denizens of this world it's a world
[1:07] of swords and sorcery a world of high
[1:10] fantasy and adventure you begin
[1:12] unassuming beginnings setting off to
[1:14] make your name in a world full of danger
[1:16] and great glory to the errant as you
[1:18] explore as you do things like humble
[1:21] deeds you know helping farmers with
[1:23] beasts that are attacking their crops -
[1:26] unearthing plots that may have touched
[1:29] upon some of the major issues of the day
[1:31] in that world you gain power you gain
[1:33] renown
[1:33] in many ways it's a classical fantasy
[1:35] role-playing game in a world full of
[1:37] thousands of other people so as players
[1:38] grow in stature they would take on more
[1:40] powerful foes by the end of that initial
[1:42] journey players were heroes in this
[1:44] world players had toppled some of the
[1:45] great threats facing Azeroth we're
[1:47] looking for new adventures both in terms
[1:49] of the confines of the story but also as
[1:51] human beings playing the game they
[1:52] wanted to see what was next what great
[1:54] foe awaited around the corner
[1:59] Masek world of warcraft was the base
[2:02] game before any expansions existed this
[2:04] was just world of warcraft as a
[2:05] standalone product that came out in
[2:07] North America in November 2004 it came
[2:10] to Europe some months later in the
[2:12] spring of 2005 and the rest of the world
[2:14] to follow it really was this moment that
[2:17] united people who has the war effort yes
[2:19] franchise seized this excitement for the
[2:22] MMO genre really opening up what had
[2:24] been a relatively niche genre to the
[2:27] broader audience of gamers from all
[2:29] walks of life all ages all backgrounds
[2:31] it became something of a cultural moment
[2:33] back at launch at the very start of
[2:35] World of Warcraft there were eight
[2:37] playable races and nine playable classes
[2:40] these races half court members of the
[2:42] Horde half members the Alliance the
[2:44] Horde side you could be an orc control a
[2:47] tauren or a member of the undead
[2:49] forsaken on the alliance side you could
[2:51] be human
[2:51] dwarf elf or no and these were the
[2:55] canonical Warcraft races the players
[2:57] have seen and interacted with going back
[2:59] to the realtime strategy roots of the
[3:00] franchise and then there were character
[3:02] classes it were a mix of you know sort
[3:04] of traditional fantasy archetypes and
[3:06] abilities that have been seen in the
[3:08] realtime strategy games so you have the
[3:09] warrior wading into toe-to-toe combat
[3:11] wearing heavy armor wielding my weapons
[3:13] or shield the stealthy rogue hunter with
[3:16] an animal companion spellcasters a mage
[3:19] master of the arcane arts or the
[3:20] elements warlocks who are summoning
[3:22] demons and binding them to their will
[3:24] hybrid classes like druids who commune
[3:27] with nature can turn into various animal
[3:29] forms that they're in touch with and
[3:30] then back then there were two classes
[3:32] that were limited to specific factions
[3:34] only horde players could be shamans who
[3:36] were sort of hybrid melee combatants who
[3:39] also could harness the power of the
[3:40] elements as well as totems with a
[3:42] certain ritualistic shamanistic vibe and
[3:44] then on the Alliance side paladin's
[3:46] warriors of light who combines a mighty
[3:49] sword arm with invoking light for
[3:51] healing and support of magics and so all
[3:53] in all there were nine character classes
[3:55] playable eight available for the Horde
[3:57] eight available for the Alliance which
[3:58] was better between shaman and paladin
[4:00] was a major point of contention
[4:01] back then and it depended on who you
[4:03] asked and most would say the grass was
[4:04] greener on the other side
[4:05] it's one of the pillars from what world
[4:09] crafts was having a largest broad appeal
[4:11] a lot of games were pretty realistic in
[4:14] terms of that aesthetics a lot of MMOs
[4:16] were based off of token fantasy
[4:18] realistic medieval kind of setting and
[4:21] we knew we wanted to develop a style
[4:24] that was different than what was being
[4:25] done we had Warcraft which is the roots
[4:28] of what a World of Warcraft is and they
[4:30] had established a style that was very
[4:31] colorful it pushed a lot of exaggerated
[4:34] shapes created heroic characters epic
[4:37] environments to craft adventures and
[4:39] epic stories and so we knew okay if
[4:41] that's the root of Warcraft we would
[4:44] take that and use that for the
[4:45] aesthetics of World of Warcraft making
[4:47] something that was very memorable for
[4:48] the players from the first moment when
[4:51] it came out back in 2004 there were
[4:54] indications that it was going to be
[4:55] somewhat different game and the ones
[4:56] that had come before there were
[4:58] countless people lining up around the
[4:59] world on release night to get their
[5:01] hands on the very first boxes Blizzard
[5:03] actually found themselves quickly unable
[5:05] to meet the demand
[5:07] just from a server perspective just in
[5:09] terms of the sheer load Blizzard had
[5:11] planned for conservatively actually what
[5:13] if more people come to play this game
[5:15] than any other past MMO games such as
[5:18] EverQuest and competitors at the time
[5:19] even those expectations and projections
[5:21] weren't enough to meet the initial
[5:22] demand when wow first came out it was a
[5:27] hundred percent what server are you on
[5:29] was everything if you were on mal Ganis
[5:32] you could only interact with people who
[5:33] were on mal Ganis and we realized very
[5:36] quickly that while mon gannets itself is
[5:38] overloaded that's okay we're gonna get
[5:39] that capacity up and then people are
[5:41] gonna want to do more so we wanted to
[5:43] figure out how to cook them in able
[5:45] players to play because World of
[5:46] Warcraft is about playing the game with
[5:48] your friends it's about doing things
[5:50] together in a shared world and how could
[5:52] we get that experience moving forward a
[5:55] lot of those first months were spent
[5:57] really just trying to keep up with
[5:59] demand just trying to stabilize the
[6:01] service to get to a point where players
[6:03] could just come home from work login and
[6:05] I'll have to wait or not have their
[6:06] servers be down due to load I was just a
[6:08] player back then I bought the game the
[6:10] very first day I came out I want to say
[6:12] it was Thanksgiving weekend coming up I
[6:14] remember coming home excitedly logging
[6:16] in that first night playing and then
[6:19] could not wait to get back to the game
[6:20] the next day only to discover that my
[6:23] server was offline and was one of five
[6:25] servers that were going to remain
[6:27] offline for the next two days they were
[6:28] so hopelessly overpopulated they
[6:30] couldn't run with any sort of stability
[6:31] so we had a little enforced initial
[6:33] break from the game once they got up and
[6:34] running again
[6:35] we all jumped back in and picked up
[6:36] where we left off in many ways that was
[6:38] the story it was a testament to how
[6:40] magical that experience was back then
[6:42] despite pretty frequent down times long
[6:45] periods of lag and instability poor
[6:47] responsiveness not because of any
[6:49] technical shortcoming of the game but
[6:50] because of the unprecedented player
[6:52] demand and the load that was hitting the
[6:54] server's everyone realized they're a
[6:55] part of something magical that we had
[6:56] never seen before in a game we
[6:58] definitely got bonus points as a game
[6:59] just for those unique social elements
[7:02] whereas now the ability to interact with
[7:04] others in your gaming experiences has
[7:06] taken for granted almost every console
[7:08] PC mobile game you pick up in play is
[7:10] gonna have some of those interactive
[7:11] social elements what World of Warcraft
[7:13] has done over the years is add new ways
[7:16] new modes of engaging new places to
[7:18] visit in the worlds to explore and has
[7:21] really provided just this ongoing
[7:22] engaging gameplay experience that leans
[7:25] on the uniquely social nature of the
[7:27] experience so whether you are joining up
[7:29] with four players 20 friends or making
[7:32] new ones to go take on powerful dragon
[7:35] explore dungeons or test your skills
[7:37] against other players it's a game that's
[7:39] really been able to build itself from
[7:41] the ground up as a fundamentally social
[7:42] game at the same time it's a game for
[7:44] everybody it's a game that from its
[7:46] earliest days was one that could be
[7:48] played alone if you were looking for
[7:49] just meditative peaceful exploration if
[7:51] you didn't want to deal with others you
[7:52] want to come home after a long day of
[7:54] work and explore tranquil elven forests
[7:56] do good deeds there that was the game
[7:58] that it could be for you 13 years ago
[8:00] it's the game that it still can be for
[8:01] you today in many ways that really is
[8:03] the story of classic world of warcraft
[8:05] before any of the expansion the first
[8:07] year was one of stability then the next
[8:08] year was content updates that were more
[8:10] traditional in the sense of modern
[8:12] content updates adding new environments
[8:15] to explore new bosses to defeat new
[8:17] dungeons to conquer and some balancing
[8:19] to the game and adding some additional
[8:20] features like fleshing out player versus
[8:22] player combat all of those things came
[8:24] in with a course of the base game that
[8:26] really just set the stage for the
[8:28] expansions to
[8:29] [Music]
[8:37] first expansion we created was the
[8:39] Burning Crusade and it was pretty
[8:41] challenging from a visual art direction
[8:43] standpoint because it was very different
[8:45] than what was created for classic Wow
[8:47] this was the first major expansion to
[8:49] World of Warcraft players journeyed
[8:51] through the mysterious dark portal to
[8:53] the broken world of outland which was
[8:55] the home of one of the major races that
[8:58] is found in World of Warcraft at the
[9:00] orcs this was a whole new world to
[9:01] explore with its own cultures multiple
[9:03] zones and dungeons new enemies it
[9:06] massively increased the scope of the
[9:07] game we spent a lot of time thinking
[9:11] about that aesthetics of it we got the
[9:12] story and the design and oftentimes
[9:14] that's the first inspiration for the
[9:16] artist and we get a rundown ok what's
[9:18] the kind of the gameplay for the
[9:19] expansion the story arc and maybe some
[9:22] of the characters and then once we find
[9:24] out about that our imaginations start
[9:26] going wild we start to imagine how could
[9:27] these worlds look like it was coming up
[9:29] with like all these brand new worlds
[9:31] literally another planet was really cool
[9:32] really fun to do it was a lot of
[9:34] opportunity visually to create different
[9:36] experiences it also brought with it new
[9:40] features such as much more formalized
[9:42] structured competitive player versus
[9:44] player combat new races to play from
[9:46] blood elves and the drew nigh for the
[9:48] horde and Alliance respectively access
[9:49] to new classes that hadn't been around
[9:51] before new abilities in the truest sense
[9:53] a significant expansion of the base game
[9:56] on all vectors along all lines of
[9:58] progression there was more to do more to
[10:00] earn more to seek more to explore a lot
[10:04] of the initial systems of the game had
[10:06] been fleshed out over the course of the
[10:08] classic World of Warcraft period Burning
[10:10] Crusade really formalized them into
[10:12] permanent structures rating was an
[10:15] activity that involved you know groups
[10:16] of back then 25 players getting together
[10:19] and taking on from the most challenging
[10:20] foes in the game Burning Crusade also
[10:22] introduced 10 player raid size so it's
[10:24] somewhat smaller groups could still have
[10:26] that epic experience about needing to
[10:28] get together a full number of 25 people
[10:30] the arena system was added in Burning
[10:31] Crusade which allowed players for the
[10:33] first time a chance to mash themselves
[10:35] and match their skill against others
[10:36] from around their region to determine
[10:38] who was the best truly and get rewards
[10:41] in the process that was actually also
[10:42] the beginning of World of Warcraft
[10:44] eSport
[10:46] Warcraft World Championship back then a
[10:48] fledgling eSport league started to
[10:49] broadcast while arena tournaments resto
[10:52] druid and keep a few barely alive crazy
[10:55] deep into damp Ania there's a lot of
[10:57] excitement or on seeing the best from
[10:59] different countries go head-to-head
[11:00] against each other determine who the
[11:02] best World of Warcraft players were in
[11:03] the world rewards became more
[11:06] streamlined better tuned and balanced or
[11:08] as it had been the Wild West previously
[11:10] and one subtle addition to the game that
[11:12] really laid a foundation for the next
[11:14] decade to come was a system that the
[11:16] World of Warcraft team called daily
[11:18] quests previously quests had been
[11:20] something to guide players through the
[11:22] game's context a lot of massively
[11:23] multiplayer games prior to World of
[11:25] Warcraft didn't have much structure to
[11:27] them you would go out into his own and
[11:29] be expected to just find enemies and
[11:31] defeat them often repetitively for long
[11:33] stretches of time to get stronger to get
[11:35] items and grow in power
[11:36] well the Warcraft overlaid a thorough
[11:38] network of level up quest lines but not
[11:40] all have not forgotten it's telling
[11:42] stories state your business giving you
[11:44] purpose to your actions the reckoning is
[11:46] at hand in guiding you through the world
[11:48] as you explored it in the classic game
[11:49] those quests pretty much came to an end
[11:51] once you've reached level 60 the maximum
[11:53] level in the base game Burning Crusade
[11:55] raised that to 70 but it also added this
[11:58] whole new set of daily repeatable quests
[12:00] they were only available at max level
[12:02] that were randomized and varied and will
[12:05] give players a new thing to do new
[12:06] quests to explore and pursue in a
[12:08] regular basis when they were logging in
[12:10] it made outdoor gameplay a staple of the
[12:13] end game experience in World of Warcraft
[12:14] rather than something that you just did
[12:16] while leveling up that's something that
[12:18] the team has really continued to expand
[12:20] upon and it's now really a core pillar
[12:22] of what makes the franchise what it is
[12:24] introduced for the first time in Burning
[12:25] Crusade was the ability to fly around
[12:27] you could at max level are flying mounds
[12:30] that let players for the first time soar
[12:32] through the skies get around the world
[12:34] bit more quickly a bit more easily it
[12:35] also opened up literally a whole new
[12:37] perspective on looking at this expansive
[12:40] world that before had been seen you know
[12:42] from beneath the tree canopies and much
[12:44] closer
[12:47] [Music]
[12:48] flying was fun for both of our team oh
[12:51] yeah we had to figure out how to let
[12:53] characters fly one of the mute methods
[12:55] of art that we did was introduced sky
[12:58] boxes because in out man you literally
[13:01] saw great dark beyond you saw energies
[13:03] raking through base and creating these
[13:06] nebulous clouds in the sky and it was
[13:08] very fantastic and we had to kind of
[13:10] develop a new technique to sell that and
[13:12] we had done a lot of really awesome
[13:14] visual development on how that stuff
[13:15] could look like now it was time to kind
[13:17] of translate that and actually execute
[13:19] on it so we implemented this new Sky box
[13:21] system that we didn't do in classic Wow
[13:23] that was very exciting come one of the
[13:25] big question was how fast can they fly
[13:27] at the time our servers had a whole lot
[13:28] of interaction limitation that how fast
[13:30] a player could go if you fly too slow it
[13:32] feels kind of lame so you wanted to go
[13:33] nice and fast but how fast is too fast
[13:35] well how fast can we fly you go through
[13:37] this world how can we make it feel good
[13:39] cuz if you fly too fast you end up and
[13:40] there's nothing below you and then
[13:42] things are loading and it's not a great
[13:43] player experience right and you miss all
[13:45] the cool stuff that we all write and all
[13:46] the cool stuff that arts put in until it
[13:48] loads in or whatever and classic wow you
[13:50] know we created a lot of cool cool
[13:52] worlds like different zones biomes
[13:54] each were their own very distinct
[13:56] aesthetic feel and look but we never
[13:58] really had to think too much about
[13:59] transitions when you transition from one
[14:02] zone to the NEB there was certain paths
[14:03] that we know players would take to go
[14:05] from one zone to the next and we could
[14:06] control that and make that a very nice
[14:08] blend and transitions like I say a snowy
[14:10] forest two more icy mountains and there
[14:13] were areas where we didn't have to
[14:14] really worry about transitions at all
[14:16] because players never were able to get
[14:18] up there unless they were somehow like
[14:19] climb all the way up to the mountains
[14:21] but with the introduction of fly mounts
[14:23] right now it's a huge it really changed
[14:26] the way we built zones and different
[14:28] landscapes and design visually the
[14:31] landscapes too we now had to actually
[14:32] think about transition zones and how one
[14:35] last gate transitioned into the next one
[14:36] get it to feel right and feel correct in
[14:38] order to sell the fantasy of what we're
[14:40] trying to do all the way down to what
[14:42] the view distance when you're here how
[14:44] do we deal with fog how do deal with
[14:45] lighting all these things suddenly
[14:47] became more of a problem once the player
[14:49] was elevated and able to see from Taric
[14:51] our forests over to Hellfire and see the
[14:53] line and see the between them you had to
[14:55] make these beautiful transitions first
[14:56] before it was kind of hidden
[14:59] where my personal story begins as a
[15:02] member of blizzard as a member of the
[15:03] World of Warcraft team was on the eve of
[15:05] Wow second expansion Wrath of the Lich
[15:08] King you shall be someone who had played
[15:14] the game ardently it was an honor to be
[15:17] able to come work on the team to help
[15:19] shape the game that I'd look for so long
[15:21] ratha Lich King took players to the
[15:23] frozen wastes of northrend an area also
[15:26] introduced and with its roots in the
[15:27] lore of the realtime strategy games to
[15:30] face off against Arthas the Lich King
[15:31] probably the greatest most notorious
[15:34] villain ever introduced in Warcraft this
[15:40] also introduced an all new character
[15:42] class the death knight as well as
[15:43] systems such as vehicle combat which
[15:46] played out in this massive battleground
[15:48] called winter grass advancements to the
[15:51] rating game the expansion of daily
[15:53] quests as a system integrated cinematics
[15:55] in some cases having powerful
[15:57] single-player moments where you could
[15:59] see the world around you and transform
[16:01] there was new technology that the team
[16:03] had invested in around this time called
[16:05] phasing that let players actions in
[16:07] effect influence the world around them
[16:09] so whereas before there was always a
[16:10] pretty heavy element of suspension of
[16:12] disbelief where you would rescue a
[16:14] prisoner from the villains lair and have
[16:16] the prisoner thank you but then because
[16:18] of the conceits of the massively
[16:19] multiplayer world a couple of minutes
[16:21] later the prisoner we back in their cage
[16:22] for someone else to rescue because it
[16:24] was just a shared world whereas now for
[16:27] the first time you could take over an
[16:28] enemy base and have it turn into a
[16:30] friendly one for you yourself you can
[16:32] see the results of your actions played
[16:33] out in the world at large this was used
[16:35] to great effect in storytelling in
[16:37] elements such as the death knight class
[16:39] starting experience and elsewhere
[16:41] throughout Wrath of the Lich King so a
[16:42] live game with such a rapid iteration
[16:44] cycle is the ability to come in do
[16:47] something at my desk put something into
[16:49] the game and then literally see players
[16:51] reacting to that thing ten days later in
[16:53] our public test environments or back
[16:55] then our beta servers that's an
[16:56] incredibly rare privilege I didn't
[16:58] realized the time as someone that was
[16:59] sort of new to the industry new to the
[17:01] environment just how rare a privilege
[17:02] that was to have such a tight creative
[17:05] iterative loop and rapid feedback over
[17:07] the course of Wrath of the Lich King we
[17:09] continued to expand
[17:10] the pond features and try to create new
[17:12] ways for players to play the game with
[17:14] each other and one of the biggest
[17:16] changes ever introduced to World of
[17:17] Warcraft was the dungeon finder feature
[17:19] that was added in patch 3.3 it was a
[17:21] matchmaking service it was something
[17:23] that's probably pretty routinely found
[17:24] at games today it allowed you to quickly
[17:26] find other players interested in doing
[17:29] the same content that you are looking to
[17:31] do rather than standing around town
[17:33] looking to manually form a party of
[17:35] adventurers to go into a dungeon you
[17:37] could just say I'm a damage dealer
[17:38] looking to do a dungeon into yourself
[17:40] into the system and the game would find
[17:42] you for other players of the right group
[17:44] composition looking to do a dungeon as
[17:45] well and put you right into the action
[17:47] we have you know various character
[17:48] classes in world of warcraft that occupy
[17:50] different roles we have tanks whose job
[17:52] it is to sort of stand up in the front
[17:53] and absorb the brunt of the enemy's
[17:55] attack healers who keep the tanks the
[17:57] rest of the group alive and then damage
[17:59] dealers who the ones who dish out the
[18:01] damage to defeat the enemies that are
[18:02] confronting the players a balanced group
[18:04] requires one tank one healer three
[18:06] damage dealers and putting that group
[18:08] together could often take manually
[18:10] upwards of thirty forty minutes you'd be
[18:12] standing around saying all right there's
[18:13] four of us ready to go we just need to
[18:15] find one healer and then we're good
[18:17] and then maybe someone has to go or
[18:18] someone has their internet go out and
[18:19] you're back to square one but the
[18:20] dungeon finder was and what its promise
[18:22] was was automating this process it
[18:24] massively decreased the barriers to
[18:26] entry for this content led to far more
[18:29] players than ever before participating
[18:30] in the dungeon gameplay that is some of
[18:33] what makes will the Warcraft special
[18:35] field World of Warcraft does it just
[18:36] about the best there is
[18:37] this revolutionized the way people
[18:38] played the game and it remains a
[18:40] linchpin of the game for the past 10
[18:42] years
[18:43] I'm shortly at the dungeon finder was
[18:44] added the world Warcraft was integrated
[18:46] into blizzards battlenet platform which
[18:48] is its cross game communications
[18:50] platform allowing players for the first
[18:52] time to chat with their friends who are
[18:54] planning at the time starcraft 2 wings
[18:56] of Liberty is just about to come out
[18:57] that would later expand to include
[18:59] Diablo 3 overwatch etc so today players
[19:02] do battlenet can chat with their friends
[19:04] and other servers not functionalities
[19:06] only continuing to expand as people play
[19:08] games throughout the Blizzard ecosystem
[19:09] another feature that we added in Wrath
[19:12] of the Lich King is the dual spec system
[19:14] or a dual talent system that one was
[19:16] born of many folks realizing hey you
[19:19] know this is kind of a pain point
[19:20] because especially the hybrid class
[19:22] when you talk about their paladins in
[19:23] your druids in other classes as well who
[19:25] can play different roles do you want to
[19:27] go to a dungeon and you want to have a
[19:28] good group and to have a good group need
[19:30] to have that balance of the one tank one
[19:32] healer three damage dealers so a player
[19:34] would go hey I'm playing the druid I'm
[19:37] currently a resto druid I'm a healer but
[19:39] we need a tank
[19:40] I'm gonna go switch hold on everybody
[19:41] I'll be back in fifteen to twenty
[19:43] minutes
[19:43] that really wasn't fun cuz you had to go
[19:45] back to town and spend a lot of money
[19:47] and suddenly all your spell's are
[19:48] different so you have to change your
[19:49] action bar all over the place my
[19:50] solution for action bars was I had
[19:52] screenshots on my desktop of this is
[19:53] what I look like as holy this is what I
[19:55] look like his pride and this is what I
[19:56] look like his rent I was playing a
[19:58] paladin I'm just hitting the one two
[20:00] three four key it's all you know wired
[20:01] in my head at this point for playing I
[20:03] don't remember what that spell is I just
[20:04] know the two does what I wanted to do
[20:05] and then I'm like we can do better than
[20:07] that
[20:07] so we eventually envisioned dual spec
[20:09] start it is how do I save action bars
[20:11] and it turned into what it is now
[20:13] Deathwing has returned
[20:17] [Music]
[20:21] Cataclysm was the most ambitious
[20:23] expansion blizzard had ever made up
[20:24] until that point
[20:25] Cataclysm set out with a massive
[20:27] undertaking of actually breaking the
[20:30] world the so told the story of this
[20:32] great dragon Deathwing who burst forth
[20:34] from within the earth and unleashed
[20:36] chaos and catastrophe across Azeroth
[20:39] areas were flooded areas were broken
[20:41] apart massive crevasses appeared but
[20:43] what this did what this provided was a
[20:45] vehicle to remake the original world
[20:47] they had been crafted in 2004 and in
[20:49] fact in many cases back in 2003 during
[20:52] the pre-production development of the
[20:53] game to embrace some more of the modern
[20:55] conventions and Technology and the way
[20:57] that the team had come to build content
[20:59] by 2010 as Cataclysm raised the level
[21:02] cap has it introduced some new features
[21:05] new professions interest yeah and that
[21:06] bite it also took the unprecedented step
[21:08] of going back and remaking everything
[21:10] that had come before so the entire level
[21:12] 1 through 60 experience in all of those
[21:15] zones were fundamentally transformed
[21:17] both visually art wise but also in terms
[21:19] of the stories that were being told
[21:21] there the timeline had advanced there
[21:22] were new characters occupying those
[21:23] spaces with a truly radical
[21:25] transformation of the world art we had
[21:28] to look at the old zones okay now it's
[21:30] all being destroyed how do we actually
[21:31] make it look cool and chaotic but not
[21:33] too chaotic now that we're going back to
[21:35] some of the classic zones that was the
[21:37] start of actually upgrading some of the
[21:40] aesthetics of the classic areas so we
[21:42] started looking at all the assets that
[21:44] we paid on the trees and all the tile
[21:46] sets and we started to slowly update
[21:48] some of the zones and that is kind of
[21:50] like the start of the art in world of
[21:52] warcraft where we slowly started to
[21:54] update more and more that was when we
[21:55] decided you know it's time to start
[21:56] upgrading all this stuff yeah yeah and
[21:58] engineering has been big on that because
[21:59] they've worked on how to you know
[22:01] streamline the bow engine so it could
[22:03] run more smoothly more efficiently and
[22:05] allow us to actually have more polygons
[22:07] and more high-res textures and now we
[22:09] can upgrade the visuals
[22:12] when the initial trailer was announced
[22:15] at Blizzcon seeing side-by-side
[22:17] juxtapositions of areas like the
[22:20] thousand needles dry barren area dotted
[22:23] with tall stone spires turned into
[22:26] essentially a giant lake or the blasted
[22:28] lands that had been utterly ruined by
[22:31] the opening of the Dark Portal the
[22:32] potential that it created in terms of
[22:34] revisiting and re experiencing content
[22:36] that have been around for years the
[22:37] players may have thought of is something
[22:39] in the past some of the other challenges
[22:40] we face is one of those things you don't
[22:41] tend to think about as a player but we
[22:44] have all this data for the world as it
[22:46] is in Burning Crusade in in Lich King
[22:48] and now we have all this data for the
[22:50] world that is very different in
[22:51] Cataclysm how do you get some of that
[22:53] data to what we call propagate when you
[22:55] make a change here because we're still
[22:56] supporting the live game as we're
[22:58] developing Cataclysm and making changes
[23:01] but that was one of the bigger technical
[23:02] challenges that we faced was how do we
[23:03] manage all of this data because the
[23:05] tools team they did a great job of it
[23:07] because we literally just changed
[23:08] something like 90% of the world
[23:10] thousands of quests numerous NPCs you
[23:13] name it bit changed in Category that's
[23:16] pretty big yeah
[23:17] the most difficult thing that making
[23:19] Cataclysm really was revamping and
[23:21] rebuilding the outdoor world they're a
[23:22] bunch of maps where the team went
[23:24] through drew up maps of all of the
[23:26] existing zones that had been the game
[23:27] from its earliest days and they
[23:29] color-coded them green yellow red green
[23:31] zones were okay these are the ones that
[23:33] were they're pretty fine actually we're
[23:35] not going to do much to them they do
[23:36] some minor tweaks here and there we're
[23:37] gonna leave them as is yellow will see
[23:39] some more heavy overhaul and red is
[23:41] pretty much complete redo from the
[23:43] ground up including our level design and
[23:45] the stories being told there but once
[23:47] the team embarked down that road and
[23:49] started with the red zones they realized
[23:51] one was that it was very challenging
[23:53] both visually but also storytelling wise
[23:55] to have the old and the new side-by-side
[23:57] and second that once we cracked open
[23:59] that door the team as a whole had an
[24:01] appetite in through perfectionists and
[24:03] suddenly before he knew it some of those
[24:06] green zones were becoming yellow some of
[24:07] those yellow zones were becoming red at
[24:09] the end of the day almost the entire map
[24:11] ended up being completely redone so
[24:13] what's set out to be something more
[24:14] surgical ended up being an almost
[24:16] complete reinvention and recreation of
[24:18] the base game outdoor experience that
[24:21] was even to this day I would say
[24:22] probably the single largest task the
[24:24] World of Warcraft team is everyone
[24:26] there definitely some technical
[24:27] challenges the process of actually Sun
[24:29] during the world
[24:30] out from under players basically needed
[24:31] to have two separate versions of the
[24:33] world in parallel how do we sunder the
[24:35] world out from under the players make it
[24:36] believable and not mess everything up in
[24:39] the process because when they logged out
[24:40] they were above the ground and when they
[24:42] log in the secretary position is now
[24:44] inside of a mountain or inside of a fire
[24:46] pit or their high up in space because
[24:48] there's now a crater where they were one
[24:49] of the original requests from design was
[24:51] kill all players on login told me hey
[24:53] hey patty we get to kill all the players
[24:55] wait what so one of the initial thoughts
[24:58] was why don't we just kill everybody and
[24:59] move into a graveyard I'm like I'll come
[25:00] up we can do better than that so we did
[25:01] there was a lot of challenge in handling
[25:03] that situation the transmog system
[25:05] transmogrification transmog for short
[25:07] that was introduced in Cataclysm this is
[25:08] something that has made appearances
[25:10] later on in Diablo 3 it's been recently
[25:12] expanded upon during our Legion
[25:14] expansion it's a core part of the way
[25:17] players experience the game today the
[25:18] basic premise of the system was the
[25:20] ability to take the armor the weapons
[25:22] equipment that you're wearing as a
[25:23] character apply the appearances of other
[25:26] pieces of equipment that you have
[25:27] whereas previously people strove to
[25:29] obtain the most powerful items in the
[25:30] game this is a limited set of gear that
[25:32] might come from the most challenging
[25:34] dungeons the most challenging raids the
[25:36] long run most players looked pretty much
[25:37] the same as each other maybe some
[25:39] differences here there everyone's long
[25:41] term goal was this fixed state that
[25:42] negated and undermined a lot of the
[25:44] sense of individuality and
[25:45] self-expression that is part of what's
[25:47] most exciting about the MMO genre
[25:48] transmog it's ultimately glorified
[25:51] dress-up but it's awesome
[25:52] now suddenly rather than a whole bunch
[25:53] of identical looking clones standing
[25:55] around the city you saw a mix of colors
[25:57] and looks for many players collecting
[26:00] outfits and collecting appearances is
[26:01] one of the major motivating factors they
[26:03] have in playing the game they will go
[26:05] back and do old content they will do
[26:07] things not for the story but for the
[26:09] cosmetic rewards and the appearances
[26:10] that content yields it's just a reminder
[26:13] of how profoundly important the concept
[26:15] of self-expression is to the genre the
[26:17] raid finder were looking for read system
[26:19] those introduced and our 4.3 dragon soul
[26:22] content update that was essentially an
[26:24] expansion of the dungeon finder that
[26:25] have been introduced late in the Wrath
[26:27] the Lich King that allowed players to be
[26:29] match made into forming even larger
[26:31] groups to tackle our raid content which
[26:33] let more players than ever before
[26:34] experience some of the game's most epic
[26:36] battles
[26:37] course than easier difficulty setting so
[26:38] that they could see the story
[26:40] face the villains that were the ultimate
[26:41] antagonist in the world unlike some past
[26:43] expansions that had only had one raid at
[26:45] the start cataclysm came out with three
[26:47] separate red zones when the expansion
[26:48] first released and now this is the 10 or
[26:50] 25 player large-scale group content
[26:53] intense collaboration people proving
[26:55] their skills proving their ability to
[26:56] work together to overcome the challenges
[26:58] in front of them but I think back to the
[27:00] first few months of Cataclysm I think
[27:03] back very fondly to the time that was
[27:05] spent with my friends with my guild
[27:07] mates going through those red zones for
[27:09] my kind the truth
[27:11] question is what is worth fighting for
[27:20] [Music]
[27:25] Mists of Pandaria was in many ways it
[27:28] was a deep breath it was an interlude
[27:30] following on the heels of a series of
[27:32] expansions where there's a great villain
[27:35] and an existential threat to the world
[27:36] mists of pandaria was getting back to
[27:39] the original spirits of world of
[27:40] warcraft a vibe of exploration and
[27:42] discovery
[27:42] there wasn't any immediate villain or
[27:44] existential threat facing the world it
[27:46] was about this mysterious new landmass
[27:48] Pandaria shrouded in mist s-- that have
[27:50] been discovered and yes the great forces
[27:51] of Azeroth the horde and alliance both
[27:53] mobilized they wanted to explore it they
[27:55] wanted to understand its secrets they
[27:56] wanted to lay claim to its treasures
[27:58] they were both embarking upon a journey
[28:00] of discovery mists of pandaria marked an
[28:02] advance in our storytelling weaving
[28:04] months long in fact years long narrative
[28:07] arcs through our content through the
[28:09] many content updates that mist had we
[28:11] introduced brand new characters develop
[28:14] them into villains introduced new heroes
[28:16] it was a time that began with peace and
[28:18] tranquility but ended with all-out war
[28:20] Missa Bend area was one of our strongest
[28:23] expansions in terms of art direction
[28:25] oftentimes we play off of classic motifs
[28:28] whether it be classical fantasy
[28:29] archetypes or real world archetypes just
[28:31] from the very beginning we knew we
[28:33] wanted it very heavily influenced on
[28:34] Asian landscape but you know that wasn't
[28:36] to be enough right we kind of like put
[28:38] in the Warcraft flavor in it and just
[28:40] took it to another level so that players
[28:42] could just get immersed in it and craft
[28:44] their own adventures in this new
[28:46] fantastical world first time I saw jade
[28:48] forest I couldn't believe that I was
[28:50] looking at World of Warcraft yes
[28:51] whoa these mountains oh my goodness that
[28:53] was Jim cannibal what a work I've
[28:55] already has a very colorful aesthetic so
[28:56] this one we just pushed it even further
[28:59] and we were able to do like these really
[29:01] nice blends and transitions that weren't
[29:03] possible with this new tech you're
[29:05] looking like unlined mountains and such
[29:06] wouldn't look the same without that yeah
[29:08] and that's just a constant evolution of
[29:09] not just the art style but our technique
[29:11] and our how we work too because with the
[29:14] M diffusion now artists didn't have to
[29:16] paint shadows and fake shadows within
[29:18] our textures we actually allowed the
[29:20] engine to do that for us so say that's a
[29:22] lot of time so now you know it's awesome
[29:24] tell them all the tricks mr. pan area
[29:27] had for content updates and in any way
[29:30] is looking back that served as a model
[29:31] what we've done most recently with
[29:33] Legion what we'd like to continue to do
[29:34] going forward after initially exploring
[29:36] the confident of Pandaria the first
[29:38] content update
[29:39] five one took players to the coast of
[29:41] Pandaria as horde and alliance forces
[29:43] had both set up small bases there and
[29:45] were clashing with each other for
[29:46] control of the territory their resources
[29:48] within the second patch the thunder king
[29:50] took us to the Isle of Thunder off the
[29:53] coast of Pandaria where we were
[29:54] introduced to an all-new villain the
[29:56] leader of the Mogu race called Thunder
[29:58] King and the Zandalari trolls who were
[30:00] his allies this was a huge chunk of
[30:02] content with many quests for players to
[30:05] explore guided linear scenarios that
[30:08] were used as a storytelling device that
[30:09] had not previously been done probably
[30:11] the biggest or second biggest raid zone
[30:13] we've ever made in World of Warcraft's
[30:14] history as its capstone from there over
[30:16] the course of the next two content
[30:18] updates the story veered backed asura to
[30:20] the conflict growing within the Horde as
[30:22] the forth fought against the Alliance in
[30:24] the final update of mists of pandaria
[30:26] Garrosh Hellscream the war chief the
[30:28] leader of the Horde one of the two major
[30:29] factions in world of warcraft and a
[30:31] character the players had first met back
[30:33] in Burning Crusade and Outland he had
[30:35] taken his pursuit of power in the name
[30:38] of the Horde a few steps too far and
[30:39] wittingly or not had turned into a
[30:41] tyrant and sparked all-out war were not
[30:44] only the Alliance his own faction worked
[30:46] to overthrow and oppose him to the final
[30:48] rain zone of the expansion the siege of
[30:49] Orgrimmar was an epic 14 boss journey
[30:52] into the depths of the fort capital of
[30:54] Orgrimmar culminating in a battle
[30:56] against Garrosh Hellscream himself
[30:57] Garrosh Hellscream was the first that
[30:59] was born entirely within World of
[31:01] Warcraft all of the others Billiton the
[31:03] demon lord kil jaeden the Lich King
[31:04] Arthur's who I mentioned earlier all of
[31:06] those had their roots in the realtime
[31:07] strategy games and especially in
[31:09] Warcraft 3 Garrosh Hellscream he was
[31:11] born in Outland in 2007 and that was a
[31:14] poignant and important character arc it
[31:16] marked the first time that a major
[31:17] villain like that had been created
[31:19] within this world and played out that
[31:20] full story arc within it when we build a
[31:22] new expansion in world of warcraft first
[31:24] and foremost we're creating a world the
[31:26] players are star of the story but the co
[31:28] star is the world it's not about any
[31:29] specific character any hero and a
[31:31] villain it's about the setting it's
[31:33] about the mood the atmosphere the
[31:35] environment what comes with that of
[31:36] course are new types of races new allies
[31:39] new cultures and so there's definitely a
[31:41] lot of Asian inspiration behind the
[31:43] content of Pandaria players met races
[31:45] like the mischievous monkey like hosen
[31:47] the wise Jinyu and of course the
[31:50] sagacious
[31:51] but occasionally boys
[31:52] and are one of the strengths one of the
[31:54] unique things about the expansion was
[31:55] that didn't have a villain that actually
[31:56] makes it harder to convey to players in
[31:59] some ways to introduce from the outset
[32:00] it's much easier more approachable to
[32:02] wrap your head around well there's the
[32:04] bad guy who's on the box purpose this
[32:06] expansionist to go kill him or her it's
[32:07] more challenging when it's just go to
[32:09] this place making sure the players
[32:11] didn't feel purposeless without the
[32:13] clear objective in front of them and
[32:15] instead felt encouraged to just explore
[32:17] and destroy come to them secondly in
[32:19] mist of pandaria we added an all new
[32:21] gameplay type that we call scenarios
[32:22] previously we'd have five player
[32:24] dungeons we'd had 10 to 25 player race
[32:26] scenarios were meant to be a bit more
[32:28] bite-sized and organized for three
[32:30] players because and didn't have specific
[32:32] role requirements I mentioned earlier
[32:34] the concept of tanks or healers or
[32:36] damage dealers scenarios could be done
[32:37] with any group of people that you had
[32:39] the idea was grab a couple friends jump
[32:41] in have some fun one of the hardest
[32:43] things we can ever do in World of
[32:44] Warcraft is pioneering an all new type
[32:46] of content I think once we have gotten
[32:47] experienced making a sort of content we
[32:49] learn lessons we learned from experience
[32:51] we'd build upon that we were fine we'd
[32:53] try some new things within the confines
[32:54] of a structure that we know but when
[32:56] we're setting out to break those rules
[32:57] and try something all new there's a lot
[32:59] of challenges that took a lot of
[33:00] iteration and they really a process in
[33:02] many ways that continues to this day
[33:03] that began back then to nail the right
[33:06] gameplay for this scenario there were a
[33:11] number of people who were turned off by
[33:12] the theme by the motif of the expansion
[33:15] they saw mists of pandaria they saw
[33:17] these pandas that and Dharan race but
[33:19] though in fact they dated back to
[33:21] Warcraft 3 they looked at it and said
[33:23] this isn't the Warcraft I know the
[33:24] Warcraft I know is about orcs and humans
[33:26] and Dragons and this feels like a
[33:28] different game this feels almost
[33:29] childish in retrospect and many of those
[33:31] players would say those who passed on
[33:33] the expansion for that reason made a
[33:35] mistake players who gave it a chance we
[33:36] got into the story quickly discovered
[33:38] that it actually was one of the most
[33:40] complex narratives and beautiful
[33:42] environments that World of Warcraft has
[33:44] ever presented to this day as players
[33:46] today discuss what was your favorite
[33:47] expansion was the best expansion mister
[33:49] Pandaria tends to figure prominently in
[33:50] those discussions what an expansion
[33:52] means is more of everything that you
[33:55] like but also something new a new angle
[33:57] a new approach a new way to spend your
[33:59] time in Azeroth new zones to explore new
[34:01] quests to complete new dungeons to
[34:03] conquer but for a long time we had had
[34:05] these little companion past critters
[34:06] scattered around the world and in many
[34:08] cases players could collect them and you
[34:09] could summon your pets we had the idea
[34:11] of making a fully fleshed out system
[34:14] that incorporated those companion pets
[34:16] and gave you something to do with them
[34:17] and that something was training them
[34:19] raising them battling them against each
[34:20] other battling them against your friends
[34:22] pets and bound them against ones in the
[34:24] underworld it was this whole separate
[34:25] meta progression that really gave some
[34:27] legs and some depth to the collection
[34:29] game that had just been purely
[34:30] superficial up until that time and it's
[34:32] something that you know was a big hit
[34:34] and mists and that we've continued to
[34:35] expand upon to this day one of the
[34:38] challenges that the engineering team has
[34:39] been working towards solving for years
[34:42] as removing barriers between players we
[34:44] started with cross-server powder grounds
[34:46] we move forward with what's called cr-z
[34:48] cross chromosomes instead of being on
[34:50] only your home server you could
[34:51] potentially end up on another server and
[34:53] if you invited a player to your party
[34:55] suddenly bang you're in the same group
[34:56] together cross realm dungeons with the
[34:58] introduction of the looking for raid
[34:59] looking for dungeon tools we realized it
[35:01] didn't make a lot of sense to limit
[35:02] those only to your server we want you to
[35:05] be able to pull from the region populous
[35:07] so that your queue isn't as long
[35:08] official if you're out on the highest
[35:09] population server you might be waiting a
[35:11] while for that tank to show up or that
[35:12] extra DPS to shovel what must we give in
[35:18] return
[35:23] increase warlords of draenor it came out
[35:27] in the fall of 2014 it was technically
[35:30] visiting the same space as we visited in
[35:33] Burning Crusade just in a different time
[35:35] period in a different timeline this
[35:36] marked the beginning of story arcs that
[35:39] weave from one expansion into the next
[35:41] but the end of mists of pandaria we the
[35:43] heroes toppled Garrosh Hellscream leader
[35:45] of the Horde but we didn't kill him he
[35:47] was imprisoned was going to stand trial
[35:49] instead he managed to escape with the
[35:51] aid of some powerful allies opened this
[35:53] portal back to drown on the origins of
[35:56] his race to the origins of the orcish
[35:58] people who would later become the
[35:59] backbone of the Horde he was disgusted
[36:01] by what he'd seen around him and was
[36:02] resolved to take a different path this
[36:04] time to achieve the destiny that he felt
[36:06] he deserved as I mentioned earlier the
[36:08] star of an expansionist is the world
[36:10] this was a case where the story was an
[36:12] excuse for us to get players into the
[36:14] world we wanted to share with them this
[36:15] is the world of Draenor the homeland of
[36:17] the orcs as described in instruction
[36:19] manuals written by Chris Metzen 23 24
[36:22] years ago and an awesome place that was
[36:24] at the heart of Warcraft lore that we
[36:26] never been able to show players the
[36:27] orcish race that they now know it has
[36:29] iraf originated in this world scattered
[36:32] across a harsh climate mix of desert
[36:34] frozen tundra lush jungles different
[36:37] tribes that had their alliances have
[36:39] their conflicts and a whole new host of
[36:41] enemies and allies Clara's Worth plunged
[36:44] into the heart of this world as they had
[36:45] to navigate its dangers be the heroes
[36:47] that they're always meant to be the
[36:49] major feature of worlds of drown or was
[36:51] what we call the garrison system no the
[36:53] conceit here was the players at this
[36:55] point are not just regular heroes
[36:56] they're actually commanders they've
[36:58] risen in stature in the world of Azeroth
[37:00] to the point that they're actually in a
[37:02] position to set up a fort set up a
[37:04] defensive emplacement and band others
[37:06] lead a literal army in pursuit of their
[37:09] shared goals one of the first things
[37:10] players did when they arrived in Genoa
[37:12] was flame a plot of land and begin to
[37:14] construct a few buildings and recruit a
[37:16] few followers a garrison was a
[37:18] persistent space of your own in the
[37:20] world that you could customize as you
[37:22] saw fit it also introduced some
[37:24] asynchronous gameplay elements where you
[37:26] would have an army of followers that you
[37:27] would send off to complete missions you
[37:29] would choose to customize and level up
[37:31] your followers and pick the best ones to
[37:33] counter the threats posed by certain
[37:35] missions to maximize your likelihood of
[37:37] success you might send them to explore a
[37:38] cave or to assault some naval outpost
[37:41] somewhere and that would take 12 or 18
[37:43] hours real time you might go to work
[37:44] come in come back home log in at the end
[37:46] of the day and your followers would have
[37:48] returned from the mission you could see
[37:49] the results for the first time there was
[37:51] a way of having events in the game
[37:52] unfold while you were away from the game
[37:54] it was used to further both the
[37:56] storytelling and players fantasy as not
[37:59] just a hero when their own right but a
[38:00] commander of other heroes late in
[38:02] warlords of draenor this is really tied
[38:03] to a specific expansion we introduced
[38:05] something called the WoW token the while
[38:07] token is it's a way for players to
[38:09] exchange with each other time for
[38:11] in-game currency or token is real-life
[38:13] asset that can be purchased and listed
[38:15] on the auction house in within our game
[38:17] you sell it to another player the player
[38:19] gives you gold that player can consume
[38:21] the token and add a month of game time
[38:23] to their account now the reason why this
[38:25] exists the purpose that this serves is
[38:27] twofold first off with the popularity of
[38:28] World of Warcraft over the years there
[38:30] was a lot of interest in in-game assets
[38:32] in-game currency there was real world
[38:34] value to the time the players had
[38:36] invested in making their characters
[38:38] wealthy or more powerful in the game
[38:39] world
[38:40] there was no literal illicit black
[38:41] markets selling in-game currency for
[38:43] real-life currency the way a lot of the
[38:45] bad guys got this in-game currency was
[38:48] by hacking accounts compromising
[38:50] accounts and a bunch of activities that
[38:52] were really negatively impacting the
[38:54] game for all players we recognized that
[38:56] there is this demand there are players
[38:57] who want to buy gold they want to buy a
[38:59] game currency but the only options
[39:01] available for them to do it were harming
[39:03] the game so the while token effectively
[39:05] killed two birds with one stone
[39:06] it gives players who want to spend money
[39:09] to get some in-game gold a way to do it
[39:11] by transacting securely and safely with
[39:12] other players on the other hand it lets
[39:14] players who have a lot of gold
[39:16] effectively playing the game for free
[39:17] they can subsidize their game time by
[39:19] spending gold and Wow tokens and what is
[39:21] ordinarily a subscription-based game
[39:24] they can effectively earn their right to
[39:26] play it for free at least for some given
[39:27] number of months depending on the goal
[39:28] they have well the largest feature of
[39:31] warlords
[39:31] has been mentioned was Garrison's it was
[39:33] also one of the most significant
[39:34] technical challenges because up until
[39:36] then in the server technology side we
[39:37] had a thing called an instant server
[39:39] which is where you would go to run your
[39:40] dungeon they were set up to handle five
[39:42] person ten person 25 person 40 person it
[39:45] had a bit of an overhead for that
[39:46] suddenly the
[39:47] design realized we were going to need
[39:49] millions of Garrison's at the same time
[39:51] that's a big technological challenge
[39:54] that we number what embraced and I think
[39:55] we succeeded at but it really laid the
[39:57] groundwork actually for the future
[39:59] sharding technology they came in in
[40:01] Legion and 7'o that led to such a smooth
[40:03] launch we have been successfully driving
[40:06] the technology so that players never
[40:09] feel like they're waiting for the world
[40:10] to catch up and ever waiting for the
[40:12] world to populate there's always people
[40:13] in the world yet we can launch a massive
[40:16] success like Legion with its millions of
[40:18] players on day one and it doesn't feel
[40:20] overpopulated we just split him apart
[40:28] [Music]
[40:33] Legion passion came out in end of August
[40:37] 2016 Legion is head-to-head
[40:40] confrontation with one of the core
[40:42] enemies in the Warcraft franchise the
[40:44] Burning Legion there's their demons we
[40:46] bought them in the Burning Crusade that
[40:48] first expansion over ten years prior
[40:50] they've been a primary villain
[40:51] throughout the realtime strategy games
[40:52] so Legion saw them assaulting our world
[40:55] as opposed to us going elsewhere rifts
[40:57] opened and powerful demons came through
[41:00] and we were fighting for survival across
[41:02] our option do this to have a chance of
[41:04] even standing up to them we needed to
[41:06] seek out new aid that we never got our
[41:08] hands on before in the forum first and
[41:10] foremost of artifact weapons which all
[41:12] players began their journey through
[41:13] Legion by seeking out and claiming now
[41:15] these were 36 fabled weapons with unique
[41:18] backstories unique arc and a deep
[41:21] progression system the players could
[41:23] seek out and claim as the special weapon
[41:25] for their class and it would be you know
[41:26] their source of aid and strength in the
[41:28] face of the Legion the artifact weapon
[41:29] served two main purposes in our minds
[41:32] first off it's incredible fantasy these
[41:34] are some iconic weapons in the Warcraft
[41:36] universe that we wanted to get into
[41:37] player hands there's a reason why when
[41:39] you look at legends you think about the
[41:41] sword Excalibur and the number of
[41:43] fantasies and stories that have been
[41:44] told around mighty weapons is something
[41:46] that resonates but second the way we
[41:48] crafted this feature in some ways
[41:49] reflected lessons learned from the past
[41:52] dozen years making old-world crafts
[41:54] prior to that we build artifact weapons
[41:56] as a feature that was going to be tied
[41:58] to the Legion expansion players will not
[42:00] carry the art
[42:01] was forward into battle for Azeroth and
[42:02] expansions beyond what that meant was we
[42:05] could really double down on the amount
[42:07] of depth and complexity and power that
[42:09] could be earned through this system in a
[42:11] way that we never would be able to if we
[42:13] were signing up to continue to support
[42:15] this for further expansions and the
[42:16] concern there isn't effort on our part
[42:18] it's more about the complexity of the
[42:20] game the game's balance just how overall
[42:22] bloated it might get with years of
[42:24] layering new systems upon new systems
[42:26] upon new systems we've decided to make
[42:28] more of our mega features limited to
[42:30] specific expansions like the garrison
[42:32] that you built up in wallow to drown or
[42:33] that's still back in drown or you can go
[42:35] visit it whenever you want but it's not
[42:36] something that you brought forward with
[42:38] you we're not updating garrison as we
[42:39] release new content updates your
[42:41] artifact weapon was your trusted
[42:42] companion throughout Legion now of
[42:44] course we're always looking to learn
[42:45] lessons and take the most successful
[42:47] elements of those features and carry
[42:48] them forward in the design of the thing
[42:50] that comes next
[42:51] just as the garrisons from drown or
[42:52] heavily inform the design of the class
[42:54] order halls in Egypt these were shared
[42:56] spaces these are effectively club houses
[42:58] for members of a given class so all the
[43:00] warriors would go hang out together the
[43:02] Rogues would scheme and plot in their
[43:04] secret lair beneath the city streets the
[43:06] classes would work together to overcome
[43:08] Legion threat Legion was an expansion
[43:10] that doubled down on class identity like
[43:12] never before
[43:13] we own the visual aesthetic side
[43:14] revamped a lot of mechanics of our
[43:16] in-game combat to make them just feel
[43:18] more dynamic punchy more visceral we've
[43:20] course introduced a brand new hero class
[43:22] the demon hunter if we were ever gonna
[43:23] make this class in World of Warcraft
[43:25] this was the time to do it their purpose
[43:27] in life is to fight demons they're elves
[43:28] who sacrificed great things they've
[43:30] sacrificed everything in order to gain
[43:32] the power to fight demons they try their
[43:34] own powers against them the most dynamic
[43:36] highly mobile almost action gameplay
[43:38] class that will the Warcraft has to
[43:40] offer they attack by dashing through the
[43:42] battlefield leaving blazing trails in
[43:45] their way offer in some ways an all new
[43:46] way to play the game playing a new class
[43:48] like that and in the case of even hunter
[43:50] that was one that was paying off really
[43:51] 15 years have build up going back to
[43:53] Warcraft 3 and seminal moments in world
[43:56] Warcraft history like our Burning
[43:58] Crusade expansion where we first
[43:59] introduced non-player character demon
[44:01] hunters that players could see and fight
[44:03] against one of the significant additions
[44:04] to Legion was a legion companion app it
[44:07] was one of the first times that the
[44:09] World of Warcraft team had made an app
[44:11] for iOS and Android it allows you to
[44:13] lay your order halt while not playing
[44:16] Wow we thought this is a very reasonable
[44:19] but awesome extension to the game itself
[44:21] back in 2004 he was perfectly normal for
[44:24] a person playing an MMO to sit down for
[44:26] four hours that was kind of expected
[44:27] these days a lot of folks don't
[44:29] necessarily I was much time they got
[44:30] families they got kids sometimes they
[44:31] wanted more bite-sized play experience
[44:33] World of Warcraft has so many ways to
[44:35] play you can play everything from these
[44:37] short bite-sized experiences to those
[44:40] long epic sessions if you'd like it is
[44:42] all about playing the game how you want
[44:43] to play it one of the most stunning
[44:44] visual aspects I believe for Legion is
[44:47] the significant improvement we've made
[44:49] to the draw distance and what I mean by
[44:50] that is how far you can see this is any
[44:53] player of all - Warcraft
[44:54] playing Legion you stand in Dollar on or
[44:56] you fly over to Dollar on now and you
[44:57] look out towards high mountain and you
[45:00] see all of sirum are beneath you as you
[45:02] look towards their that distance is
[45:04] really far and all that stuff that
[45:06] you're seeing that would not have been
[45:07] possible in an earlier version of World
[45:09] of Warcraft there's just too much stuff
[45:10] there it was through some significant
[45:12] engineering effort and significant
[45:14] artifice to make that possible and I
[45:16] think really sells some of the most
[45:18] fantastic vistas I've ever seen in world
[45:20] of warcraft when you're flying in from
[45:22] the north over high mountain and you see
[45:24] the Turin city down there that valley
[45:27] surrounded with the river yeah that just
[45:31] goes to show like this a constant
[45:32] evolution of just like the tech in the
[45:34] art now that you could see far like you
[45:36] know two zones away it really changed
[45:38] the way we design zones and just
[45:40] aesthetically how we come up with
[45:41] visuals for for the different zones we
[45:43] emphasize more time and effort into just
[45:45] art direction and visual design for our
[45:48] landscapes now cuz we knew as players
[45:50] they can actually see into the distance
[45:51] and see if we could compose shots better
[45:54] because I each one you could actually
[45:55] see literally the transition from the
[45:57] zone you're in to the next zone that's
[45:58] right next to it to the zone that's next
[46:00] to that one so that was one of the big
[46:02] challenges for that just be able to come
[46:04] up aesthetically designs that work in
[46:06] tandem légion effectively had six
[46:07] content updates patch seven one seven
[46:10] one five seven two seven three without
[46:12] fives in between alternating between
[46:15] major content releases that took players
[46:17] to new outdoor zones gave them the new
[46:19] raid to tackle a new dungeon smaller
[46:21] releases added
[46:22] and more evergreen background ways of
[46:24] playing the game with systems such as
[46:26] micro holidays periodic events that
[46:28] happen throughout the calendar year the
[46:30] diff players unique ways of engaging at
[46:31] the game or an expansion of her time
[46:33] walking system that lets players revisit
[46:35] old content for current rewards
[46:37] massively multiplying the number of
[46:39] dungeons or raids that you might have
[46:40] available to do and a given gate we were
[46:42] able to deliver content updates in a
[46:44] pretty regular cadence throughout the
[46:46] lifetime of Legion with the goal of
[46:47] players always having something new to
[46:50] do or something just around the corner
[46:51] to look forward to that was an ambitious
[46:53] challenge that we took on as a team but
[46:55] I couldn't be more proud of the team's
[46:57] effort in delivering on those goals we
[47:00] have paid the price for sharing this
[47:02] world and we have forgotten
[47:13] battle froth is the upcoming next
[47:16] chapter in world of warcraft
[47:18] it's coming out this summer and if
[47:20] Legion was an expansion in many ways
[47:22] about character classes battle for
[47:24] Azeroth is a return to the roots of the
[47:26] franchise it's an expansion about
[47:27] factions it's an expansion about horde
[47:29] and alliance this binary identity that's
[47:32] been at the heart of the franchise and
[47:33] going back to the RTS games in the 90s
[47:35] players are going to venture to new
[47:38] continents of coal Terrace and zandale
[47:40] are in search of aid and new allies as
[47:42] Azeroth as a whole is plunged into war
[47:44] hoardin alliance are at each other's
[47:46] throats they're fighting for control of
[47:49] the planet on which they live and
[47:50] they're at a stalemate they've reached
[47:51] an impasse players were at the forefront
[47:53] of this conflict but working at the
[47:54] upper hand will control the fate of
[47:56] Azeroth the same time there are dark
[47:58] threats that aren't necessarily in the
[47:59] foreground right now they threaten to
[48:01] destroy the world that were fighting
[48:03] over even as we're fighting over it and
[48:04] so as players ventured to these new
[48:06] lands in search of allies they're also
[48:08] going to begin to uncover mysterious
[48:09] threats and secrets that will need to be
[48:11] explored and understood otherwise we
[48:13] risk losing the earth beneath us even as
[48:15] we're fighting to claim control of it
[48:17] one of the things in the new expansion
[48:18] they're working on is the islands
[48:19] expeditions I think they're going to be
[48:21] a truly remarkable new experience for
[48:23] the World of Warcraft player and for the
[48:25] player who hasn't played World or
[48:26] workout before - one of the things that
[48:28] I'm super excited about is the new
[48:29] artificial intelligence we're adding
[48:31] when you start up an island expedition
[48:33] it will be with you and to other people
[48:34] harkening back to the mists of pandaria
[48:35] three person scenarios where role
[48:37] doesn't matter you and two other friends
[48:38] get together you sign up you get on your
[48:40] island exposition and it'll be you three
[48:42] against three
[48:43] cunning smart well depends on how smart
[48:45] you want them you actually can choose
[48:46] artificial intelligence BOTS they're
[48:48] trying to beat you to the same objective
[48:50] you're trying to get to the other thing
[48:51] that's truly exciting about them is it's
[48:53] in randomized at content and we've
[48:55] worked very closely with the art team
[48:56] using assets that we have developed over
[48:58] the entirety of World of Warcraft to
[49:01] make these islands be populated by
[49:03] buildings and creatures that will feel
[49:05] familiar but not always be the same
[49:07] they'll be different every time one of
[49:09] the really exciting things we're doing
[49:11] for this one is going back to what is
[49:13] the foundation of Warcraft and that is
[49:16] essentially Alliance and horde coming
[49:18] together and being able to go back to
[49:20] the just the foundations of what makes
[49:22] Warcraft but also updating it so
[49:24] modernizing it
[49:25] old Warcraft look now with you know the
[49:27] new stuff designs in the new art
[49:29] direction yeah it's definitely about the
[49:31] Horde comes in and they're establishing
[49:33] a base and the Alliance says no you're
[49:35] not a sad-looking that base we're going
[49:36] to burn it down or the Horde says we're
[49:37] going to build a base here Alliance get
[49:39] the heck out I'm going back and forth
[49:40] like that it's all about the war and
[49:42] that's what we're front it's gonna be
[49:43] twenty players and you and 19 other
[49:45] people get together and go take out the
[49:46] other faction we're putting the war in
[49:48] local there you go world Warcraft it's
[49:53] been an incredible journey me personally
[49:56] it's been the lasts and 13 and a half 14
[49:58] years of my life first supplier limo
[50:00] recently as a developer and could not be
[50:02] more excited as a team you to push the
[50:04] boundaries of what we can do in the
[50:06] MMORPG genre to create worlds to explore
[50:08] new adventures to have we have
[50:10] incredible stories left to tell each new
[50:12] expansion we add to the game we're
[50:14] looking to expand the core of the game
[50:16] the players have come to know and love
[50:17] over all these years but also a brand
[50:20] new ways of playing the game new
[50:22] features new types of gameplay new
[50:24] challenges to undertake and a fresh look
[50:26] at you know game that seeks to reinvent
[50:29] itself every couple of years as we
[50:31] update again
[50:39] [Music]