Dragonflight’s plans to breathe new life into World of Warcraft
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Earlier this week, World of Warcraft announced its 9th expansion: Dragonflight. It has a lot of work to do if it wants to get WoW soaring again.
The MMO is coming off of an unpopular expansion, Shadowlands, which itself followed Battle for Azeroth and its tepid reception. Blizzard looks to correct course with a new game plan, one that focuses less on a reliance on expansion-specific endgame systems and grinding.
I was able to talk with World of Warcraft lead game designer Jeremy Feasel and UI designer Laura Sardinha about Dragonflight’s new features and how it hopes to lift WoW up for a stronger future.
GamesBeat: Does Dragonflight have a release window?
Laura Sardinha: No dates yet. When ready, we’ll have a date. But not for now.
Jeremy Feasel: And that’s on purpose. We want to make sure Dragonflight’s released when it’s ready. There’s a lot of cool stuff we want to do here, a refresher for a lot of systems that will last for hopefully many years. We want to build a talent system that can last 10-plus years. We want to build an awesome UI that can last 10-plus years and that we can add to in the future. We want to do it right.
Sardinha: The old UI lasted 18 years, so hopefully the new one will go for 20.
GamesBeat: There’s a different tone with what we’ve seen of Dragonflight so far. We’re seeing features that can last beyond just this expansion. Is that intentional
Feasel: I think Dragonflight represents a return to Azeroth for us in a number of different ways. We’re not only physically returning to Azeroth from the past. It’s also a great chance to tell some core WoW stories. The Dragonflight have been a part of
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