Ahead of the Early Access release for the new World of Warcraft: The War Within expansion, I had the opportunity to chat with two of the developers on the WoW development team: Associate Design Director Maria Hamilton, and Assistant Lead Quest Designer Mateusz Albrewczynski. As the first chapter in the new Worldsoul Saga trilogy, I feel like the story, and by association quest design headed into The War Within expansion are more important than ever. After all, the Worldsoul Saga will be told over the course of three expansions and is the first time Blizzard has told a Warcraft story in this way.
DESTRUCTOID: With The War Within being the first part of the Worldsoul Saga trilogy, what’s the scope and scale going into this expansion from a story perspective compared to some of the crazy things we’ve gotten into the past few expansions?
MATEUSZ: Oh I love the premise that we’ve done a lot of crazy things! That’s 20 years of doing these things, and we like to think that those 20 years kind of led to this moment. When we first started talking about what’s next, we figured that now is the time to tell a story that is so epic and so big that it cannot simply be contained in our usual one expansion, which is why this time around we’re doing a whole saga about it. And this is not just a culmination of 20 years of WoW storytelling, but this will also set the stage for what is coming after. We have no intentions of slowing down, and we have lots of ideas.
MARIA: I would add that yes we absolutely get into it right away. There is no slow roll with this one, the action starts early, and big things happen and keep happening. It’s been really exciting to pace out an entire trilogy and make sure each individual release is interesting and meaningful while still pushing our overall story. Hang on, it’s a wild ride!
DESTRUCTOID: Character development and individual character stories are one of my favorite aspects of Warcraft and of WoW. Any specific characters we should look forward to delving into either in The War Within itself or over the course of the trilogy?
MATEUSZ: A lot of our characters have been through a lot of intense events recently. For some of them, the world was literally ending, and so they are starting to really feel it. They are starting to feel it, that once again they are finding themself in this situation. I’m absolutely excited to see how players will react to Xal’atath’s story. This is not your usual Warcraft villain. She’s way more complex, and we need way more time with her to explore her motifs as they are not all exactly known to us when we begin The War Within. So seeing this multi-dimensional villain is really interesting and I can’t wait to see player reactions to it.
MARIA: I don’t want to spoil anything, but we’ve got so many characters that we’re going to see, characters that players love, and some new ones as well, like Faerin Lothar, who is quite important to our story. I really don’t want to spoil it, but there are a lot of favorite characters that you will see and stories you will hear. Part of the theme for The War Within is family, so we’re spending some time with Moira, Dagran, Brann, and of course Magni, so we’re getting more of their story. But there are other stories we’ll be looking at is well, such as Alleria. Her relationships and family also have a lot of meaning here. Once again, I don’t want to spoil here, but lots of cool faces are coming back!
DESTRUCTOID: How does the new Delve system tie into the worldbuilding in The War Within? Any quests or stories tied directly to Delves, or is it a completely side-optional thing?
MARIA: We wanted everyone to have the opportunity to try out Delves, so we did use this new feature in our main campaign. As you play through the main story, leveling up, you will enter a Delve and have specific goals in that Delve to complete to have the opportunity to see what they are like and learn about them. We can put objectives in Delves that feed into quests. Later, once you’ve reached max level, the later part of the story takes you through another Delve. The ability to change the difficulty of the Delve and have more of a challenge and greater rewards is something we want players to understand, so we did a lower level one and then a max level one. But we also know they may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I think they’re very fun, but it’s a matter of personal playstyle, so we didn’t want to force people to do Delves. We also haven’t seen how much people actually enjoy them; we haven’t gotten much feedback on them yet, so we didn’t want to put a lot of questing into them. We want to avoid the early impressions we had with Torghast where people felt they were forced to play Torghast when it may not have been something they personally enjoyed. So we’re waiting to see what kind of reception they have before we invest heavily into putting quests in them. It is a tool in our toolbox, and I’d very much like to use them more for questing, but I want to be respectful of player time and feedback around the feature, so we’ll reassess once we have more player feedback.
MATEUSZ: What’s great about Delves is they reinforce the worldbuilding and storytelling that’s happening in their zones. For example, on the Isle of Dorn, we have a region that has a lot of Nerubian presence. So when you go into the Delve, you have to help rescue miners that are under attack by the Nerubians. So it’s definitely a tool that helps us tell the stories we have throughout the zones.
DESTRUCTOID: Time for a fun one. Which of the new dungeons are each of yours favorite from a lore perspective?
MATEUSZ: I’m going to go with I think the very first dungeon we encounter which is The Rookery. It’s right in the Isle of Dorn, right in Dornogal, the new capital city. This is the home of Stormriders, the elite force of the Earthen, the guardians of the Isle. It’s a very important place for them, as it’s where they tend for their Rooks and get them. And then something happens inside The Rookery, and it’s our task to make sure it’s safe. I love this story because it shows the connection between Stormriders and their mounts. It’s an excellent experience that resonates with me very well.
MARIA: I was going to say The Rookery too, because I also have enormous interest in that one, but I think the Cinderbrew Meadery also resonates with me. In the course of our questing, we learn about an extremely volatile substance…they drink it, but they also explode things with it. It’s an entertaining idea in itself. But the Meadery has been overrun, and so it’s quite interesting what happens when someone else has control of the mead, and how we have to deal with that. In some ways the humor aspect of it appeals to me especially; I’m a fan of those tongue-in-cheek moments. So for me, that’s a fun one because it does a lot of good characterization and worldbuilding for the Earthen, and I quite like it. We’ve got another one, The Dawnbreaker, which is an airship that’s trapped in Nerubian webs. That one is pretty amazing too because the whole circumstance is pretty epic, but a lot more serious.
DESTRUCTOID: Another fun one to end on. Any specific side quests I need to make sure I hit and don’t miss?
MATEUSZ: What’s great about local stories is they expand on the overall narrative of the zone over the expansion. I would definitely recommend diving into all the Earthen local stories in the Isle of Dorn. This is an interesting culture that has lots of little secrets waiting for you. Their relationships, how they perceive the world, and their very reason for being alive are very interesting. All of that is sprinkled across the zone waiting for you to discover it it. Some are high adventure, others we try to squeeze some tears out of you, and others are pure joy to watch and observe as they unravel.
MARIA: If you’re looking for lore tidbits, I think you’ll find something in every zone that is a local story that expands on lore. If you’re looking for “Don’t miss because it’s funny or cool,” I’m going to suggest you play a quest in Azj-Kahet, which is a Nerubian who is absolutely terrified of bipedal creatures like yourself. You don’t have enough limbs, it’s really creepy, and they are just freaking out. It’s such a wonderful and amusing take on arachnophobia but for a spider creature. The NPC is really struggling to see you as anything other than just something to be squashed because you’re so creepy to them. I like when we flip things on their head like that. It’s particularly amusing because we were aware of the impact spider-like creatures and Nerubians have on a portion of our community. Worldwide it’s not an uncommon phobia. So we went ahead and created an option to turn them all into crabs, visually at least for you, so it’s fun to have a quest and narrative designer that partnered up to create this comical situation: the Nerburian that can’t cope with its fears. There are many local stories worth checking out; they are the ones that aren’t marked with the shield campaign marker. It’s highly recommended to dive into those quests if you want to really understand the places and cultures in The War Within.
World of Warcraft: The War Within launches globally on August 26, 2024. Players who purchase the Epic Edition can gain Early Access later today on August 22, 2024 at 6pm EST.
Published: Aug 22, 2024 01:01 pm