A New Era of Warcraft Storytelling | The War Within

Summary

Dans cette édition spéciale de WoWCast, les directeurs Maria Hamilton, Morgan Day et Terran Gregory dévoilent les ambitions de la saga Worldsoul et de l'extension The War Within. Ils discutent de la réévaluation de l'approche de développement, de l'importance de l'histoire et de la création de nouvelles façons pour les joueurs de s'exprimer. L'équipe a travaillé sur l'accessibilité et la diversité du contenu, tout en préparant des intrigues épiques avec des personnages historiques et nouveaux, comme Xal'atath, pour un avenir captivant pour World of Warcraft.

Takeaways

• 🎉 L'équipe de World of Warcraft travaille sur l'extension 'The War Within' avec enthousiasme, en se basant sur les succès de 'Dragonflight' et en cherchant à atteindre de nouveaux objectifs.
• 🎂 L'approche narrative vise à célébrer le 20e anniversaire de World of Warcraft en évaluant et en innovant la manière de développer les expansions.
• 📈 Ils cherchent à intégrer les commentaires de la communauté et à offrir une expérience variée et nouvelle aux joueurs, en s'appuyant sur les succès précédents.
• 🌐 World of Warcraft vise à s'adresser à un public aussi large que possible, en développant de nouvelles fonctionnalités d'accessibilité et en proposant des idées passionnantes.
• 📖 La narrativa est au cœur du développement, avec l'objectif de créer une histoire épique qui guide les joueurs tout au long de l'aventure.
• 🧵 La mise en place de l'intrigue de 'The War Within' est un défi, nécessitant de jongler avec de nombreuses idées et de les intégrer de manière cohérente.
• 🌟 Le retour de Chris Metzen apporte une vision renouvelée pour la saga Worldsoul, qui sera développée au fil des prochaines mises à jour.
• 🏆 Ils aspirent à dépasser les attentes en investissant dans le monde et l'histoire, en les considérant comme des personnages clés de World of Warcraft.
• 📚 Ils veulent que les joueurs s'investissent dans les personnages, que ce soit des personnages bien connus, moins connus ou nouveaux.
• 🏰 La construction de mondes est verticale, allant de la surface jusqu'aux profondeurs, en respectant les cultures et les histoires de chaque zone.
• 🔍 L'attention aux détails est primordiale, avec des éléments tels que la direction des plantes vers la source de lumière unique dans une zone souterraine, pour rendre le monde crédible et immersif.
• 🎮 Des améliorations de l'interface utilisateur sont apportées pour faciliter la recherche de quêtes et d'activités, en offrant aux joueurs plus de flexibilité dans leur expérience de jeu.
• 🎲 Des fonctionnalités comme les 'Warbands', les 'Follower Dungeons' et les 'Delves' sont introduites pour offrir des expériences de jeu variées et accessibles, même aux joueurs ayant moins de temps.
• 🎬 L'équipe cinématographique a travaillé dur sur des moments spectaculaires qui seront dévoilés avec la mise à jour, promettant une immersion visuelle et narrative accrue.

Q & A

Quel est le thème central du WoWCast spécial mentionné dans le script ?

Le thème central est la présentation de la saga Worldsoul et de l'expansion The War Within de World of Warcraft, en abordant les aspects de développement et de narration.

Quelle occasion spéciale se rapproche pour World of Warcraft ?

L'occasion spéciale est le 20ème anniversaire de World of Warcraft qui approche.

Quelle approche ont pris les développeurs pour les expansions à venir après le 20ème anniversaire ?

Ils ont choisi d'adopter une approche fraîche et nouvelle, prenant en compte l'excitation et les commentaires de la communauté pour orienter le développement futur.

Quels sont les objectifs clés pour le développement de The War Within dans le contexte de la saga Worldsoul ?

Les objectifs clés incluent de nouvelles façons pour les joueurs de s'exprimer, de varier le contenu, d'améliorer l'accessibilité et d'introduire de nouvelles idées pour attirer un public plus large.

Comment la narratrice de l'histoire, Terran Gregory, décrit-elle son rôle dans le développement de la saga Worldsoul ?

Terran Gregory est le Directeur de la narration cinématographique pour World of Warcraft et est chargé de guider la création de cette aventure épique en rassemblant les différentes idées et en les coordonnant.

Quels sont les défis rencontrés lors de la planification de la saga Worldsoul qui englobe plusieurs expansions ?

Les défis incluent la gestion de multiples expansions en même temps, la nécessité de planter les graines des idées futures tout en gérant un grand nombre d'idées et de fils narratifs.

Quel personnage est au centre de l'histoire de The War Within ?

Xal'atath est le personnage central et le nouveau vilain introduit dans The War Within.

Quels sont les aspects narratifs que les développeurs cherchent à améliorer avec la saga Worldsoul ?

Ils cherchent à créer des histoires captivantes avec des personnages connus et moins connus, à investir dans le monde et l'histoire, et à rendre le monde lui-même un personnage à travers les petites et grandes histoires.

Quelle est l'importance de la cadence et de la livraison de l'histoire dans la saga Worldsoul ?

La cadence et la livraison sont importantes pour résoudre les intrigues, poser de nouvelles questions et faire avancer l'histoire, tout en améliorant la fréquence du contenu pour maintenir l'engagement des joueurs.

Comment les développeurs abordent-ils la construction de mondes et les détails culturels dans les différentes zones de l'expansion ?

Ils se concentrent sur la création de mondes qui semblent vivants et appropriés aux cultures qu'ils abritent, en s'assurant que chaque zone reflète fidèlement les particularités de ces cultures et en incluant des détails attentifs pour renforcer l'immersion.

Quels sont les nouveaux types de contenu et de fonctionnalités introduits pour permettre aux joueurs de jouer de la manière qu'ils souhaitent ?

Les nouvelles fonctionnalités incluent des améliorations de l'interface utilisateur, des Warbands, des Delves avec un système de progression, et des modes histoire pour les donjons et les raids, offrant plus de flexibilité et de choix aux joueurs.

Quel est l'un des aspects les plus excitants pour les développeurs quant à la sortie de la nouvelle expansion ?

L'un des aspects les plus excitants est de voir les réactions des joueurs face aux nouvelles histoires, personnages, cultures et contenus cinématographiques qui seront ajoutés au jeu lors de la sortie de l'expansion.

Outlines

00:00

🎮 Lancement de l'expansion de WoW

La première partie du script présente l'édition spéciale de WoWCast, où l'équipe de développement de World of Warcraft discute de l'approche de l'expansion 'The War Within' et de la Saga des Worldsoul. Ils mettent l'accent sur l'importance de l'engagement de la communauté et des commentaires pour orienter le développement futur. Ils évoquent également la volonté d'élargir l'accessibilité du jeu et d'introduire de nouvelles fonctionnalités pour les joueurs.

05:00

📚 Développement narratif de la Saga des Worldsoul

Dans cette section, les responsables narratifs de WoW partagent leur enthousiasme pour la Saga des Worldsoul et la manière dont ils abordent l'histoire de 'The War Within'. Ils discutent de la collaboration avec Chris Metzen, de l'importance de la narration épique et de la création de personnages à la fois connus et nouveaux. Ils mettent également en évidence l'importance de l'expérience de jeu pour les joueurs et des améliorations de l'interface utilisateur pour une meilleure expérience de quête.

10:03

🌏 Conception verticale et mondes immersifs

Le script explore la conception verticale de l'expansion, allant de la plaine d'Isle of Dorn aux profondeurs d'Azj-Kahet, en passant par les Ringing Deeps. Les concepteurs discutent de la façon dont les différentes zones reflètent les cultures et l'histoire de leurs habitants, en utilisant des exemples de la vie des Earthen et des nerubians. Ils soulignent également l'attention portée aux détails pour rendre les environnements crédibles et cohérents.

15:07

🎭 Améliorations de l'expérience de jeu et contenu narratif

Cette partie du script se concentre sur les améliorations apportées à l'expérience de jeu, notamment l'introduction de Warbands et de Delves, qui offrent de nouvelles façons de jouer et de découvrir l'histoire. Les concepteurs expliquent comment ils ont travaillé pour s'assurer que les joueurs puissent vivre l'histoire de manière plus accessible et variée, en s'appuyant sur des améliorations de l'interface utilisateur et en offrant des options de jeu plus flexibles.

Keywords

💡Worldsoul Saga

La 'Worldsoul Saga' est l'ambitieuse série de développements de l'univers de World of Warcraft, marquée par l'anniversaire des 20 ans du jeu. Elle est au cœur du message du script, représentant un tournant narratif et stratégique pour le jeu. Dans le script, cela est mentionné comme un point de départ pour une approche renouvelée du développement des expansions du jeu, avec l'objectif de créer un récit épique et de proposer de nouvelles expériences de jeu.

💡expansion

Une 'expansion' fait référence à une extension du contenu d'un jeu vidéo, ajoutant de nouvelles fonctionnalités, histoires et zones à explorer. Dans le script, l'équipe de développement discute de la préparation de la prochaine expansion, qui est un élément clé de la 'Worldsoul Saga', et comment elle sera différente des expansions précédentes, en s'appuyant sur les commentaires et l'enthousiasme de la communauté.

💡developpement

Le terme 'développement' est utilisé pour décrire le processus de conception et de création des éléments d'un jeu vidéo, y compris les histoires, les personnages et les mécanismes de jeu. Dans le script, l'accent est mis sur l'importance de la réévaluation du processus de développement des expansions de World of Warcraft, pour s'assurer qu'ils répondent aux attentes de la communauté et intégrent des idées innovantes.

💡narrative

La 'narrative' fait référence à l'histoire ou au récit d'un jeu vidéo. Dans le script, l'importance de la narrative est soulignée comme étant un élément clé de l'expérience de jeu, et l'équipe parle de la manière dont elle guide la conception de l'aventure épique de 'The War Within', enracinant les histoires des personnages et en offrant une expérience immersive aux joueurs.

💡accessibilité

L''accesibilité' se réfère au design d'un jeu qui permet à un large éventail de personnes de le jouer, indépendamment de leur capacité. Dans le script, l'équipe mentionne qu'il est important de rendre World of Warcraft accessible à un public aussi large que possible, en développant de nouvelles fonctionnalités d'accessibilité pour améliorer l'expérience de jeu de tous les joueurs.

💡expression

L'expression dans le contexte d'un jeu vidéo peut se référer à la manière dont les joueurs peuvent personnaliser et exprimer leur personnage ou leur style de jeu. Le script mentionne que l'équipe cherche à offrir de nouvelles façons aux joueurs de s'exprimer, en s'assurant qu'il y ait une grande variété de contenu dans World of Warcraft.

💡cadence

La 'cadence' fait référence au rythme ou à la fréquence à laquelle le contenu est publié ou mis à jour dans un jeu. Dans le script, l'équipe discute de l'importance de la cadence et de la livraison du contenu, en essayant de résoudre les histoires plus efficacement et de maintenir l'engagement des joueurs en offrant un contenu régulier et cohérent.

💡personnages

Les 'personnages' sont les individus虚构 ou réels qui participent à l'histoire d'un jeu vidéo. Le script met en avant l'évolution des personnages de World of Warcraft, comme Anduin, qui a grandi des yeux des joueurs, et la manière dont les développeurs cherchent à approfondir ces personnages et à les rendre plus attractifs pour les joueurs.

💡villains

Les 'villains' sont les antagonistes ou les personnages négatifs dans l'histoire d'un jeu. Dans le script, l'équipe aborde la manière dont les vilains sont développés et présentés aux joueurs, en utilisant Xal'atath comme exemple d'un personnage qui est à la fois fascinant et controversé, et dont l'histoire sera développée dans 'The War Within'.

💡cultures

Les 'cultures' dans le contexte d'un jeu vidéo se réfèrent aux différentes sociétés, races ou groupes qui ont leurs propres histoires, croyances et styles de vie. Le script parle de la construction de cultures riches et détaillées, comme les Earthen et les nerubians, pour donner vie à l'univers de World of Warcraft et offrir aux joueurs une expérience immersive.

Highlights

L'édition spéciale de WoWCast accueille des invités exceptionnels pour discuter de l'extension de World of Warcraft.

L'équipe travaille sur l'approche de la Saga des Mondes-Âmes avec enthousiasme et une réévaluation de leur développement d'expansions.

L'occasion unique du 20ème anniversaire de World of Warcraft a conduit à une approche de développement basée sur l'excitation et les commentaires de la communauté.

La volonté de construire sur les succès de Dragonflight tout en cherchant de nouveaux objectifs dans la Saga des Mondes-Âmes et Dans la Guerre.

Introduction de nouvelles façons pour les joueurs de s'exprimer et de varier le contenu dans World of Warcraft.

Développement de nouvelles fonctionnalités d'accessibilité et d'idées passionnantes pour élargir l'audience de World of Warcraft.

La narration est au cœur de la conception de cette aventure épique, avec des histoires en développement tout au long de la Saga des Mondes-Âmes.

Différence avec les développements précédents, cette fois ils planifient plusieurs expansions en même temps, en semant des idées pour l'avenir.

La réception de Chris Metzen a été excitante pour l'équipe, en définissant la vision de la Saga des Mondes-Âmes.

L'ambition de War Within est de faire avancer l'histoire de World of Warcraft et de présenter de nouveaux personnages et enjeux.

La Saga des Mondes-Âmes vise à créer quelque chose d'essentiel au魔兽争霸, en investissant dans le monde et l'histoire.

Le monde est un personnage, développé à travers une multitude d'histoires, et les développeurs veulent que les joueurs s'investissent dans les personnages.

La Saga des Mondes-Âmes met en avant des personnages connus, moins connus et nouveaux, avec des histoires captivantes.

L'importance de la cadence et de la livraison de l'histoire, en résolvant des intrigues et en avançant l'histoire.

Amélioration du calendrier de contenu établi dans Dragonflight, permettant de faire avancer l'histoire par le biais de mises à jour plus petites.

Introduction de Xal'atath en tant que nouvelle antagoniste, avec des leçons tirées du développement des antagonistes précédents.

L'opportunité de présenter Xal'atath comme un personnage à dimension multiple, avec une arc narratif captivant.

La réception positive de Xal'atath et l'engagement de la communauté à découvrir les indices et à anticiper son histoire.

L'importance de la construction de monde, où chaque zone doit ressentir de vie et correspondre à la culture de ses habitants.

La décision de créer une expansion verticale, allant des plaines d'Isle of Dorn aux profondeurs d'Azj-Kahet, en passant par diverses zones.

L'attention portée aux détails, comme l'orientation des plantes vers la source de lumière unique dans Hallowfall, pour rendre le monde crédible.

L'ajout d'améliorations de l'interface utilisateur pour améliorer la navigation et la recherche de quêtes et d'activités.

Introduction de Warbands et de Delves pour offrir plus de flexibilité dans la manière de jouer, avec des histoires locales et une progression.

L'ajout de modes de jeu alternatifs, comme le mode histoire des donjons et des raids, pour permettre aux joueurs de vivre l'histoire sans un groupe.

L'excitation pour les joueurs de découvrir les nouvelles histoires locales, les personnages et les cultures développées par l'équipe.

La préparation des cinématiques et des projets multimédias pour accompagner et amplifier l'histoire de Dans la Guerre et la Saga des Mondes-Âmes.

Transcripts

[suspenseful orchestral music]

Welcome to a special edition of WoWCast.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

The team is heads-down on wrapping up

the expansion ahead of launch,

but today, we are joined

by a few incredible guests.

Please introduce yourselves.

Hi. I'm Maria Hamilton.

I'm the Associate Design Director on WoW.

Hello. My name is Morgan Day.

I am one of the Associate Game Directors

working on The War Within.

I'm Terran Gregory,

the Cinematic Narrative Director

for World of Warcraft.

So, how does the team even approach

something as ambitious as the Worldsoul Saga?

In a word, "enthusiastically." [chuckles]

You know, we have a really unique opportunity here.

With the 20th anniversary of World of Warcraft

that's fast approaching, we really wanted to take a step back

and re-evaluate how we develop our expansions.

In the past, we might have come at it from the perspective of,

"We've done this a couple of times. How did we do it in the past?"

And moving forward, philosophically,

we really want to take a fresh, new approach,

and take our community's excitement and feedback,

and really make sure that's at the forefront

of all of our development moving forward.

We wanted to build upon the successes of Dragonflight, right?

We felt like we built a really strong foundation there.

And take a lot of those successes, and look to achieve new goals

as we move into the Worldsoul Saga and The War Within.

Some of those ideas

would be allowing the players to have new ways to express themselves,

and make sure that there's a ton of variety

in the content that they're experiencing in World of Warcraft.

Additionally, we want to make sure that we're bringing World of Warcraft

to as broad an audience as possible,

and we're really working to build new accessibility features,

and also just new, exciting ideas that we also want to bring to the table.

Finally, you know, guiding us in crafting this epic adventure

is the narrative, right?

That's at the forefront of all of our ideas

and all of the stories that we're developing along the way.

We always like to plan ahead when we're developing World of Warcraft,

but this time is a bit different, right?

It's multiple expansions, all at once,

that we're really trying to plant the seeds for these future ideas

as we move forward in the Worldsoul Saga.

And at times, I've been in meetings with our creative direction group,

and it can be a bit of a challenge

to keep all of these ideas in my head all at once.

There's a lot of threads that are flying around.

But I think the team was really energized by that opportunity

to kind of tell such an epic story.

And thankfully, Terran is here,

and he's going to talk about all of those awesome ideas as we move forward,

and he's kind of the expert

of pulling those threads and bringing them all together.

It's kind of like the conspiracy meme sometimes,

with the dots and threads, and...

[laughter]

What are you most excited for, Terran, with The War Within story?

Well, working on World of Warcraft is always exciting.

Yeah, absolutely.

I love working on this world and with this team.

It's been really, really, really exciting getting to work with Chris Metzen again

after his return,

and setting the vision for the Worldsoul Saga,

this new chapter of Warcraft

that's going to take us through the next few updates.

As Morgan mentioned, right,

during Dragonflight, we feel that that represented a lot of change,

a lot of lessons applied, lessons learned.

Looking back on Shadowlands,

I believe that we took a lot from that story

and developed new ways that we were going to present our characters,

our villains, our storylines.

And Dragonflight was the first step,

but I believe that War Within is a great leap forward in our ambitions

to create a compelling narrative,

bring our characters to the forefront,

and really open the first chapter

in the next pivotal moment of World of Warcraft

that will set the stakes for the story that will unfold

throughout the Worldsoul Saga.

What would you say are some of the narrative aspirations of the saga?

Well, I feel that we've set the bar really high,

and we want to meet those expectations, and even exceed them.

Really trying to create something in the vein of the essence of Warcraft,

or the best of Warcraft, bringing that to the forefront.

The ways we're going to do that is really investing in our world and story.

We always say world and story are some of the most critical parts

of the appeal of World of Warcraft.

But what does that really mean? You know, our world is a character.

It is fleshed out through all means of small stories, big stories.

But we want people to be invested in our characters.

We want them to go on the adventure with them, to learn more.

I believe we have some really compelling stories

with some of our most-known characters, some of our lesser-known characters,

and some new characters that we're going to meet along the way.

[Morgan] Something that I love about the Worldsoul Saga,

and we were talking about the 20th anniversary earlier,

is that's a really unique strength of World of Warcraft.

We have characters that you've literally grown up with, right?

Like, at the launch of World of Warcraft,

Anduin, I think, was literally in a crib, right?

-He was... He was... -He was a little boy.

He was a little boy. [as Anduin] "Have you seen my father?"

Yeah, exactly.

And we've watched him grow from, you know, that boy,

to the boy prince, to now the king that he is today,

and this journey is going to continue to take characters like Anduin

and continue to see them evolve, and others as well.

Like, Dagran plays a huge role in The War Within,

another character that was just a little baby when we started out,

and they're going to be taking a much larger role in this epic saga.

I think another lesson we learned is cadence and delivery.

There were some instances

where it felt maybe like the story was very start and stop,

or people had to wait around for a long time

for resolutions to long-established storylines.

So, in trying to address that, we're really looking at the saga

as the opportunity to resolve more storylines,

bring up new questions, drive the story forward.

And one of the things that helps us do that now

is the improved content cadence that has been established in Dragonflight.

This gives us some really, really handy tools

for being able to have smaller updates between larger updates,

in which we can have the story move forward,

we can focus on individual characters,

flesh out their stories more,

or even just give the sense that the world is always moving forward

and that there's something always new to see in World of Warcraft

when it comes to our narrative.

Speaking of characters, Xal'atath is everywhere.

-She is amazing. -[laughter]

What do you think about our new villain?

[Terran] Xal'atath is an interesting character,

and I'm super excited to see the reception that people have had since we announced

that she's going to be very much starring in the beginning of The War Within.

When it comes to our villains and the development of our villains,

we have learned many lessons.

We feel that maybe there's been a couple of instances

where we didn't quite do the work

to earn them out or introduce them to our players

in a way that felt organic or compelling.

Xal'atath is an opportunity to have this character that,

for those who played Shadow Priest in Legion,

it was a very compelling character.

She's marked very, very highly in terms of, like,

kind of fan favorite but also lesser-known.

That's kind of a magic combination of, like, "Hey, let's take this character

and bring them into the spotlight,

and give them a really compelling arc."

And much like we had done throughout Dragonflight

in the development of the Primal Incarnates,

like Iridikron and Vyranoth and Fyrakk,

we put a lot of effort into bringing them into the story one step at a time,

introducing them to the player, giving them compelling motivations,

making them a dimensional character, making their desires,

and making them real people that we can understand and get along with.

And Xal'atath is now on her own trajectory

to step into the limelight of World of Warcraft,

and we're hoping to meet all of those same things,

and I really feel that Xal'atath is going to be a very interesting character

as we watch her story unfold.

I've been quite both surprised and excited by, you know, the reception of Xal'atath.

I think having kind of those foundations

where there's some of the community that are like, "Oh,

you're just getting to know this person,"

where other people, like Terran mentioned, have been kind of questing with her,

or experiencing her story, in the past.

And there's also a lot of really fun stuff and opportunities

as we are able to plan so far ahead now,

where we can plant these seeds, knowing, you know, "This is the destination."

And as we're moving towards that direction,

what are things that we can plant, and maybe the players find them?

Maybe they see it, maybe they don't.

There was some text that showed up in Dalaran

where they were talking about, "Wait a minute.

That's new. What's going on here?" They were piecing together some stuff.

[Terran] One thing I love that we set forth to do was,

mid-Dragonflight, you know,

in the spirit of wanting to seed these stories sooner,

to have people along for the ride to notice the little details,

there was this moment with Iridikron, when he was escaping through a portal,

and in development, we had just slipped this little shadow,

you know, elven silhouette in the background of the portal.

And a lot of people were like, "No one's going to notice that."

And we're like, "That's the idea.

The idea is that it's so subtle that, when they discover it,

it's going to generate all this convers--"

And it did, right?

There was all this conversation about Xal'atath.

Everyone started to get real excited.

And so, that kind of started building a slow burn

on everyone getting Xal'atath into the conversation,

so by the time she was announced at BlizzCon,

it actually felt like, "Oh, yes!

We've been expecting this."

-Obviously. -[laughing] Obviously, right?

So it's just fun ways that we're trying to seed, and plant,

and prepare the audience for what's ahead.

I think one of the things

that makes Xal'atath really, really interesting for players

is there's an awful lot of them that want to be her buddy,

who don't see her as a villain, right?

So, no villain is the villain of their story.

They're the hero of their story.

That makes this interesting, because we can play with that a little bit.

We can make sure that we're leaning into it.

-You know, "Is she really the villain?" -[Morgan] Right.

So, the world is just as important as the villains.

Maria, what approach have you taken for world-building?

I mean, as Terran pointed out,

and I think we've talked about in the past,

the world really is one of our main characters,

and it's really important that,

when we go into these different zones that we've created, they feel alive,

they feel appropriate to their cultures that live within them.

Unexpectedly, perhaps,

we decided to make this a very vertical expansion.

So, we're starting off on the surface in the Isle of Dorn,

which has your classic plains, your beautiful grasslands.

And big city Dornogal - this is where our Earthen live.

They're trying to carry out the edicts of the Titans.

And this is where the Coreway is located.

So, we go down the Coreway and we get down into the Ringing Deeps.

And the Ringing Deeps is where the Machine Speakers,

the Earthen that are dedicated to tending the machines

and the vast works of the Titans live and work.

And so, where we're really starting to subvert expectations

is when you go from the Ringing Deeps into Hallowfall.

It's a huge, huge area.

You can't tell that it's underground. You can't tell that it's a cavern.

It's lit by this enormous crystal.

And then, as you descend,

you're going to go down into the last kingdom of the nerubians,

into Azj-Kahet,

and this is all about danger and dark elegance.

And the whole area is meant to serve as an opportunity

to learn about the nerubians and their big city there,

which has been built upon centuries and centuries and centuries of decay.

They just built a city on top of itself.

Yeah, I wouldn't have expected that, going vertically down.

Yeah, yeah.

It's one of the things that we learned from Zaralek Cavern in Dragonflight.

We knew we were making an underground space.

We knew we wanted players to be able to transition seamlessly into that space.

The idea was to sort of give you this increasingly wondrous,

joyful descent, and make the world really feel alive,

make it feel like it fits with those cultures that are living there.

The reactions that we saw from people playing on beta

when they first entered Hallowfall were just amazing.

Yeah, I love the attention to detail on all the zones.

I mean, you just mentioned Hallowfall, but, like, something that...

It took me a while to even notice it, but when I did, it blew my mind.

You mentioned there's that huge crystal underground,

and it's the sole light source.

So, if you look around the zone, all of the trees and the plants

are actually facing that light source.

Like, if you think about plants out in the world, they follow the sun.

Well, what if the sun was static?

We have a desire to help make everything feel right.

Everything needs to feel like it makes sense.

So, for the Arathi, they have these airships.

And so, all of their tables and chairs and props

and things that are scattered around their city,

they all have these brackets on them,

because they would have been mounted on the airships when they traveled.

Another good example is the Earthen.

So, the Earthen are made of stone,

and their beds, entertainingly, look almost like a barbecue,

because they like to be warm.

So, there's fiery coals underneath them, on their beds, and you can see them.

One other thing I love about the Earthen is

they actually have these memory crystals.

Because they themselves are almost more of a construct,

but this memory crystal has their experiences, their memories,

their, you know, life story in them.

And early on in the campaign, we learn about that memory crystal.

And Dagran, who is quite the little tinkerer,

finds this fascinating.

There's, like, a whole questline

where you have to learn about these memory crystals,

and you put them back in the archive, and you get to learn about this culture

as you're kind of experiencing through the lens of these memory crystals.

And then, for the nerubians,

we have a really funny local story,

a really funny sort of take on,

what would happen if you encountered a nerubian

who had a fear like arachnophobia,

but they're terrified of bipedal creatures,

because they don't have enough limbs,

and it's just creepy, and it freaks them out.

And there's so many more examples.

The team really had a great time

building out these cultures and these stories.

One of the things Morgan mentioned earlier

was making it easier for players to play the way they want to play.

How is that being reflected in the content we're building?

Yeah.

I mean, we certainly learned a lot from Dragonflight.

One of the areas that we started to improve on,

and now have continued, is some UI improvements

around both the icons on quests in the world,

but also the quest journal.

We've got some cool filtering

that will let people find the kinds of quests that they're looking for,

and the kinds of activities.

We have some great UI elements, when you hover over markers on the map,

that lets you see what sort of reward there might be

and how much time it's going to be before something starts,

for events, for example.

Additionally, with the introduction of Warbands,

we know that players may not want to play the story over and over.

They may choose to play it on one of their characters,

and then play other things.

So we've made sure to provide a lot of local stories.

These are stories that tell more about zones themselves,

tell about the cultures in those zones, tell about the places,

different individual, smaller characters.

We've provided those in slightly greater number than we have in the past.

We are making sure that we're using some of our new features as well

to help tell the story.

So, we have been quite cognizant of the concerns

that players who don't do a lot of raiding have raised,

about wanting to see that final moment.

And so, we're allowing players to do a story mode version of the raid,

to have that final fight,

without needing to go to the trouble of getting a raid group

or finding, you know, enough friends to go defeat that boss.

Same thing with dungeons.

We added Follower Dungeons,

that allowed people to play by themselves or with friends,

and followers, that are controlled by the computer.

Delves is a new feature that we're really, really excited about.

It's intended to help those outdoor players

be able to pop in and do something fun and meaningful,

and maybe they only have a short period of time.

Now, Delves also have a progression system

and a whole bunch of other stuff associated with it.

So, we want to make sure that everybody gets a chance to understand

and enjoy the story in the way that they like to play,

recognizing that everybody doesn't have as much time or opportunity

to sit down and, you know, join a big, big group of people.

[Morgan] That's one of the major goals.

Not only with the variety of things you might be familiar with,

like a lot of the cool outdoor events that you might have seen.

We want to make sure that you can pick and choose

the ones that you find exciting, and you feel rewarded for those

without feeling like you're kind of required to do everything.

And then, with Delves,

that's a new pillar of content that we're building,

where you wouldn't previously have been able to kind of experience

this idea of, like, progression,

but also building upon the story that we've been discussing.

There's a big bad in there named Zekvir, who's kind of a lieutenant of Xal'atath,

and this person's in charge of looking for the Worldsoul Memories

that we're going to be learning more about as we progress through The War Within.

And you'll eventually be able to unlock this Zekvir's Lair,

which, you know, I equate it to, like, Onyxia's Lair.

So, there's this big boss at the end of this experience

that really feels like it's kind of the cherry on top for this progression,

as well as this story that we're telling, as you experience Delves.

What's one thing you guys are excited for players to experience?

Oh, I think there's just some fantastic local stories out there

that are helping sell some of the themes that we are exploring.

We also have a fascinating situation where Anduin,

who has had some pretty tough times

and is doubting himself quite a bit,

comes face-to-face with Faerin,

who is a great contrast.

She's very strong in her faith, and herself, and in the Light.

And the two of them meeting and having this opportunity to talk to each other,

I think this is also a really key and important moment.

[Morgan] I'm right there with Maria.

I'm just excited for people to get to meet these new characters.

And there's a lot of really fun story,

not only with those individual characters,

but also the cultures that the team has been building.

You know, a fun little detail, which isn't a spoiler,

is you actually see these, like, lynxes

that the Arathi in the zone are riding around on.

And that's, like, a fun kind of nod to how, when they set out,

they actually went with some elves.

And there's almost, like, this blend of cultures

that are coming together in this zone.

It's really fun to kind of see all those little details

as they express themselves in the game.

I think it's always an exciting time

as we draw closer to the launch of an expansion,

where all of the content is going to be added to the game,

even stuff that was obscured or hidden during testing or PTR.

This classically represents the cinematics

that the team has been working on for a long time,

and have some really amazing moments.

I think the team has done amazing work on this,

and I can't wait to see people's reactions to that content.

And also, you know, from all directions,

every tool in our toolkit, we release more multimedia projects.

I know that, just recently, we saw the story of Queen Ansurek

in the cinematic we released.

And that's in this vein of trying to build up our villains,

give context, give backstory,

give dimensionality and seeing how things are stirring.

And all of these different projects are coming together

to really amplify and excite around the story of The War Within,

and set the stage for the ongoing Worldsoul Saga.

Thank you guys so much for joining me and talking about the Worldsoul Saga

and the world-building of The War Within.

[triumphant orchestral music]