World of Warcraft Game Director Shares Dragonflight's Pre-Release Plans

gamerant.com:

World of Warcraft just began alpha testing for Dragonflight, its ninth expansion pack. Dragonflight brings Alliance and Horde champions to the Dragon Isles, ancestral homeland of dragonkind. Full of new zones and content, Dragonflight is also adding its first new class since Legion with the Evoker, a draconic class available only to the new dragon-like Dracthyr race. The new World of Warcraft expansion is scheduled for release before the end of the year, an ambitious release date that surprised many players, given the tumultuous nature of the last few years for both Blizzard and the gaming community at large.

However, World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas is confident Dragonflight will meet its goals. Game Rant participated in a group interview with Hazzikostas about Dragonflight and its new alpha testing. During the interview, Hazzikostas outlined what World of Warcraft was doing differently this time around, and pulled back the curtain on the development process of the game. He also spoke on some of the biggest inspirations for Dragonflight, and some of the best ways players can prepare to explore the Dragon Isles.

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In the past, World of Warcraft has started alpha testing while in earlier stages of development. The testing was less-organized, and acted more like a beta test than an alpha. “[We would] slowly trickle content online over the course of multiple months,” Hazzikostas admitted. While this system worked for WoW in the past, it usually relied on longer, meandering testing schedules.

This time, World of Warcraft is trying something different. “All of our zones are ready for testing, and we’re going to be rolling