Pro Gamer to Game Director: Warcraft 3 Story
45sReveals a personal journey from competitive player to Blizzard director, appealing to gamers' nostalgia and aspirations.
▶ Play ClipAI Summary
In this interview at BlizzCon, the game directors for Warcraft 3 Reforged and World of Warcraft discuss the new Forsaken Kingdom campaign, the first RTS content for Warcraft 3 in over 20 years. They share their personal histories with the series, the creative process behind the new campaign, and the key features of the 3.0 update, including expanded unit selection and enhanced graphics modes.
Chapters
[00:13]
Directors' RTS Pedigree
The World of Warcraft game director discusses his long history with RTS games, including competitive play in Warcraft 3 and participation in WCG 2007. He highlights his transition from professional play to game development, working on titles like Dawn of War and Company of Heroes before joining Blizzard.
[02:07]
Personal Connection to Warcraft 3
One director reveals he has played Warcraft 3 daily since age 15, spending hours at internet cafes during high school. This deep personal connection served as his 'north star' for the franchise.
[02:46]
Creative Spark for Forsaken Kingdom
The campaign idea originated from a long-standing question: how did the world transition from Warcraft 3 to World of Warcraft? The team resonated with this question, leading to collaboration with Chris Meston to tell a proper continuation of the storyline, with a focus on the Forsaken and themes of undeath, memory, and identity.
[04:10]
Community-Driven Development
To ensure the campaign's authenticity, the team recruited top custom map makers and modders from the community. They emphasized that the community will serve as the guidepost for future decisions.
[04:26]
3.0 Update Graphics Modes
The update introduces three graphics modes: Classic (original untouched version), Finned Edition (new upgrade free to all), and Reforged (kept as-is to preserve asset compatibility for modders).
[05:22]
Warcraft 3's Influence on WoW
The director credits Warcraft 3 as the foundation for World of Warcraft's stories, characters, and setting. He explains how the RTS allowed for zoomed-out grand storytelling, with WoW expanding these tiny map locations into vast environments for players to explore.
[07:11]
Unit Selection Increase
A significant quality-of-life change doubles the unit selection limit from 12 to 24, a fundamental improvement that feels surprisingly impactful during gameplay.
Mentioned in this Video
💡 Key Takeaways
💡
Lifetime Dedication
Demonstrates the profound personal impact of the game on its developers, humanizing the creation process.
02:07
💡
Filling the Narrative Gap
Explains the creative rationale behind making a campaign that connects two major franchises.
02:46
🔧
Community as Co-Creators
Highlights a model where the community directly shapes official content, a notable shift in game development.
04:10
⚖️
RTS as Storytelling Vehicle
Articulates how the RTS perspective enables unique world-building that influenced an MMO.
05:34Full Transcript
[00:00] You guys just announced Warcraft 3 Reforged Forsaken Kingdom, a new campaign, the first RTS content for Warcraft 3 in over two decades. Wait a minute. What is your history with Warcraft 3?
[00:13] I mean, you are a game director for World of Warcraft. Yes. So what is kind of your history with the RTS side of things? I mean, my history as a player, 25 years ago, spent a lot of time in my college dorm playing
[00:26] War 3. I never seriously considered a career or working in game development until getting very deeply immersed in WoW. I have a long history with RTS games. Yeah, go into it for sure.
[00:38] You know, played Warcraft 2, played Brood War, but Warcraft 3 was like my game. And I fell in love with it, played it competitively, competed in WCG 2007 for Canada,
[00:51] and ultimately playing there actually got me a job. My first gig working in RTS games. After that, I thought I was going to just make a jillion dollars playing Warcraft 3 as a professional. And then the guy gave me a card and I said, like, I don't need this.
[01:06] And then I went on to the tournament. I bombed out and I realized I needed a job. Started working on games like Dawn of War, Dawn of War 2, Company of Heroes, Company of Heroes 2, dabbled in a little bit of the Asian mythology stuff too,
[01:19] and then worked my way here to Blizzard. Warcraft 1 and 2, 3, a little bit of Heroes of the Storm, a little bit of Starcraft. Dawn of War 4 hype? Very. Okay. For me, I definitely don't have Brad's RTS pedigree.
[01:32] I was definitely much more of a single-player campaign guy who got crushed on his multiplayer a few times. Me too. It was mostly Blizzard RTS. There was War 2 and then Starcraft, Rude War, and War 3.
[01:44] And like I mentioned earlier, for me, it was the world-building. It was like the way RTF lets you just zoom out and tell this grand story that fleshes out a world, clashing of armies but you know War 3 innovation of the hero gameplay also allowed these like incredible epic characters to emerge and they remain pillars of the Warcraft franchise 25 years later I been playing
[02:07] Warcraft 3 since I was 15. Yeah I've been playing it every day. That's crazy. Even today. So like that's always kind of been like my north star. How many hours do you think you have in Warcraft 3?
[02:19] Early on when I was playing Warcraft 3 I would play basically I would go to an internet cafe from like 4 p.m. all the way to like 11 p.m. during high school. Uncle had to come in and drag me out of the chair to take me back home.
[02:33] And yeah, it's a lot. First new campaign in 20 years. How did you guys approach making something new, but for an older game and making that feel consistent with the kind of existing campaign?
[02:46] There was a four-year time gap from Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft. I always had these questions like, how did we go from Warcraft 3 to World of Warcraft? After just asking that question and having it stuck with me for like a gazillion years,
[03:00] I was like, can we answer this? And, you know, it resonated with the team, it resonated with everyone here, and it kind of just pulled a piece and kind of fell after that. And we also have this guy named Chris Meston who's still hanging around. Never heard of him. And being able to jam with him on what felt like a proper continuation and expansion of that Warcraft 3 timeline,
[03:19] what was a cool story to tell, both from a faction perspective, both from, like, where it was in the world, but also kind of shining a light, without getting into too many spoilers, on the unique nature of the Forsaken,
[03:31] on what it means, like, draining from life into undeath and somehow, you know, still have your memories, still have this sense of connection, but also separation from who you were. It all came together, and, you know, Chris loved it, and we were off to races.
[03:45] The new campaign also, it coincides with the 3.0 update, that's going to make a lot of improvements and changes. And of course Warcraft 3 and 4 has had a little bit of a rocky road to where it is right now. How important was the community in determining what direction you guys needed to go with this game and get it to where it needed to be a lot of the actual map makers that contributed to this campaign are
[04:10] actually from the community and so we actually reached out to some of the best custom map makers and modders and we actually just got them on board what are the features in the 3.0 update that you guys are like most excited about i know i saw like the hd visual um kind of puzzle and is
[04:26] Is that kind of replacing, because I mean, Reforge already had kind of updated graphics, and so this is kind of just overhauling that as well, I guess? So there's going to be three graphics modes. There's going to be your classic, untouched Warcraft 3, how it is,
[04:40] and then there's the finned edition, which is, you know, the new upgrade into that style that everyone gets for free if they don't Reforge, and then we keep Reforge just as is because there's a lot of map makers and modders that actually use those assets for their own thing,
[04:54] and we didn't want to mess around with that. Responding to community feedback, we want to settle on a definitive version for development going forward for this campaign and anything that may follow, but also recognizing that choice is a hallmark of the experience you want to deliver.
[05:08] And when it comes to visuals, especially with the history Warcraft 3 has and the use mapmakers have made of those assets, we want to make sure they stay available. Ian, you mentioned the world building of Warcraft 3 kind of inspired you and was what really kind of hooked you.
[05:22] and then you went straight into World of Warcraft. How has that world building inspired your work as director of World of Warcraft? It was an inspiration as a player back then,
[05:34] but really everything that WoW was and is, we owe to Warcraft 3. Warcraft 3 laid the foundation for all the stories, all the characters, and the setting. Part of the magic of the RTS as a vehicle
[05:47] is that you can take an area that's like a grid of like a couple dozen, you know, text or the tiles on a map. And that's a place that has a fantasy and in fiction await to it But it just this tiny thing that you pass through And World of Warcraft takes that blows it out into an environment you might adventure through for hours and that was repeated
[06:09] time and time and time again and we're just excited to be able to tell new stories in this medium because I mean it's one of the richest vehicles for storytelling and world building again that like you zoom all the
[06:21] way out and you're seeing things at this bird's eye view the scale of armies clashing and heroes making their way through the world and just captures the imagination. And I think that I'm excited for people who maybe didn't play
[06:34] Warcraft 3 back in the day when it first came out to have this invitation to dive in and see where it all began. Can we expect a lot more kind of quality of life updates and things?
[06:46] Yeah, I mean the thing is we always want to improve. And you know there's no rule book or guideline on how you handle games, you know, 20 years out, 10 years out, 5 years out.
[06:59] But we just want to keep making things better day after day. Was there anything that you guys just kind of wanted to dive into that we haven't touched on yet? This might sound kind of crazy, and it also might not sound like a big deal,
[07:11] but we increased the unit selection from 12 to 24. I mean, that's double. That's pretty big. Yeah, now I can finally put my heroes and all my huntresses in one hockey. It's going to be great.
[07:24] But, you know, this is a really big fundamental change. change, but when we were working for it, it felt so good and I think, you know, a lot of players, classic and new players are going to really enjoy this. We're so excited to revisit this iconic franchise of games that has, you know, laid dormant
[07:40] for a minute, to tell new stories in it, and just to reiterate, like, the community is really going to be our guidepost when it comes to what comes next. And so can't wait after this weekend to see all the reactions, both to the client improvements
[07:53] for the new version and just the campaign itself. Warcraft 3 Reforged Forsaken Kingdom is out now along with its 3.0 update and stay tuned to GameSpot for more BlizzCon coverage.
