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World of Warcraft Garrisons Unlikely to be in Future Expansions - IGXE.com
A couple of years ago with the release of Cataclysm, Blizzard came under fire for fostering an environment where the game is sense of social cohesion began to roll over and die. An overreliance on the Group Finder coupled with a focus on old capital cities meant no one met new people to build communities with, and the world felt dead. Though steps were taken to reverse this in Mists of Pandaria, the birth of the Raid Finder and the introduction of instanced Garrisons seems to suggest Blizzard is once again straying dangerously close to encouraging in a socially-stunted playground. Not so, says Hazzikostas.
ISylvanas is a very cool character, we haven it heard much from her in a while, but that doesn it mean she is out of the picture by any means. There is no question that thats a concern, he says. With regards to the Raid and Dungeon Finders, there was definitely social erosion that occurred thanks to the random matchmade groups, but at the same time it opens that content up to a whole universe of people that weren it really able to participate in it before. If you think back to the alternative of sitting in Trade Chat, spamming LFG for 30-45 minutes before you could find a tank or a healer before you could go to a dungeon and you were limited to the people just on your own server, that is not a world I think anyone is in a hurry to return to.
I think we are excited to really try to push back in that social direction and recapture WoW as a game where you can meet new people and form new bonds and new friendships. Our new premade group finder, which is a massive regional matchmaking tool that is not automated but lets people find other like-minded players looking to do the same type of content they are, is a huge step towards this.
Designed to let more casual guilds or raiders discerningly sift through willing participants and fill out groups for raids, the hope is this will both foster communities and also offer guilds who find themselves regularly light on members an opportunity to test fresh blood out before recruiting them. Like the Raid Finder, it lowers the barrier to entry for raiding so it should be clear Blizzard does not view this is catering to casuals style of design as a bad thing. The way people play has changed, with some only having 45 minutes available and no longer able to commit to raiding three days a week. The Raid and Premade Group Finders cater for them, while Mythic difficulty is around for those desperate for a challenge.
So that is how Warlords of Draenor set up World of Warcraft for one of its most-successful expansion launches in years. But while Hazzikostas can clearly explain how we got to where we are, he is much more tight-lipped when it comes to where we are heading next, though itis well known the team is already well into production for the next two expansions.
Honestly, I think you may be pleasantly surprised by some of the things we have in store, he teases.That is all Im going to say about that. Sylvanas is a very cool character, we have not heard much from her in a while, but that doesnot mean she is out of the picture by any means.
We certainly have not heard the last from the Old Gods, there is no question that there is going to be more nefarious Old God doings afoot, and the Emerald Dream or the Emerald Nightmare is a cool part of the tapestry of Azeroth and Warcraft lore that we¡¯d love to visit in the future. As for next expansion plans though, all I can say is we are working on it and we will talk about it more at some stage. For now though, you have got Draenor to deal with.
