OMG RPG

About two hours ago I got the chance to meet with Alex Afrasiabi, lead designer on Wrath of the Lich King. It gave me a chance to ask more of my burning questions about the game, the story behind the expansion, and what we can expect from the quests we will encounter as we set sail for Northrend at Midnight tonight. In a couple hours I'll be heading over to the Lunar Festival in San Francisco for the Midnight Launch event. I would say I'll have a report for you first thing as soon as I get home, but they tell me Brewfest inspired beer will be available, so I can't promise anything. Hit the jump to read about my chat with Alex.

omgRPG: Mostly with lore, the story is more of interest here. Having to do with Warcraft 3 heroes...we're coming to the end of our list, we're killing them off one by one: We're killing off the heroes we know from the current pantheon, in TBC we have the Draenei folded in as new into the old. How are we going to stay true to the original storyline and yet expand into new areas with Wrath and beyond?

Alex: Wrath is easy, Wrath is jut pretty much taking off where we started off with the Frozen Throne, with maybe a five year gap. There is a lot of stuff that is still available, the Titans, you mentioned Azshara, and the big thing here is that as we kill off new heroes we build up new ones. If we are taking away heroes we want to give back some too.

omgRPG: Portals worlds, is there a plan in the immediate plan in the future to address them if not step through them. How will portal worlds work into the current storylines and flavor and themes that we see in Northrend?

Alex: Well it's something that we really want to do, but always it's a question of time with the production schedule. Not sure exactly how it would sync up with the current lore, but there are a lot of opportunities there, we'd love to head back to the Dreadlords homeworld and to Argus the Draenei homeland, but it really is just a question of time.

omgRPG: There are still zones that are unused in Azeroth. Are there plans to reach back to old world content to enrich the world that is already there.

Alex: The old world to us is precious. Again it's a time issue, and it is within the realm of possibility as it connects to the story we are telling in Wrath.

omgRPG: We've always been curious about Grim Batol and what's behind the Greymane Wall in Gilneas.

Alex: I am too. That is stuff we definitely want to get to in the future if we have time.

omgRPG: On the subject of the box a year ultimatum stated at BlizzCon a couple of years ago, are we still on track for that?

Alex: I'm just a developer, I have no say in that kind of thing.

omgRPG: Quests....everyone I introduce to wow I make sure they experience the Prophesy of Akida questline. What will be the signature questline in Wrath?

Alex: There are so many. Every zone has its signature quests, though the overarching series that sort of ties things together is the whole Wrath Gate series which we flushed out with the first ingame cinematic. That's a quest series that you can't miss unless you entirely skip Dragonblight.

omgRPG: Will there be access to such signature quests for each faction? I know I was concerned that I had picked the wrong race for wanting to see all the lore the game has to offer in terms of the origins of Thrall and Nagrand.

Alex: Each faction has lore associated with it, but if you're a story person this is the expansion for you. Hopefully you will enjoy it.

omgRPG: How will original classes stay viable with the addition of hero classes?

Alex: We have to be careful when considering what Hero Classes to add to the mix. We don't want to replace classes already in the game, we want each class to feel unique and powerful and interesting. In patch 3.0.02 a lot of classed got a lot of love. We always want to make sure that, you know that the original classes are precious to us just like the old world content. As we go forward we are going to continue to pay attention to how the original classes play.

omgRPG: How will all types of players, casual and raiding, get the chance to access to the end game lore?

Alex: One of our big pushes with the instances is that we want as many people as possible to be able to experience all facets of the content. There's been a shift in philosophies in the creation of content, you know we have the 10 and the 25 man dungeons the design of the instances themselves has changed greatly. We are looking to avoid what happened with Sunwell. We want there to be option for raids rather than a requirement like with Muru. We're moving towards the hard mode in many dungeons like in ZulAman and the bear run. Naxxramas will have a lot of cool titles and mounts and things folded in like the Bear Run, Sartharion encounter is also a good example where you can choose how hard you want the encounter to go. If you leave the drakes all up you get a mount that drops, and an entire different tier of gear. The more casual players can still do the fight, and the hardcore will have something for them as well.

omgRPG: In the realm of PvP, Lake Wintergrasp is such a novel use of world PvP. Are there plans to use PvP with consequence in other ways in the future a la Arathi Basin?

Alex: We have to be careful with world PvP because of server population issues. Some servers are heavily horde and some heavily alliance and we need to be sensitive to that. In the battlegrounds it's easier because we can pull from multiple servers and force the balance. Wintergrasp is something we are excited about, but we will have to see how it plays out, as a sort of test.

omgRPG: Are there currently any plans for a bundle of all the expansions?

Alex: We have the WoW Battle Chest now, so I am going to guess that in the future we will come out with an updated version.

omgRPG: Any special promotions for new players to come in for people to get in and experience Wrath?

Alex: With things like the Refer-a-friend program we are definitely looking to get players in and leveled and experiencing Northrend as quickly as possible.

omgRPG: How do you keep the game looking fresh when there are a lot of other MMOs out there that are mimmicking what WoW is doing but looking better?

Alex: We've added new graphics, including the shadows that were recently added to the game and those look really slick. The WoW style itself is incredibly distinctive and we're doing what we can to stay true to that while at the same time updating our technology. If you step into Nagrand you'll see what I'm talking about. It's some of the most beautiful design out there.

omgRPG: Do you go back and touch up old zones?

Alex: We have, and it's something that we are definitely interested in, but again it's a time issue.

omgRPG: EQ2 just implemented guild housing, when will we see it in WoW?

Alex: I am not sure, that would definitely be cool, and it's certainly something we'd like to do.

omgRPG: What happened to the dance studios?

Alex: We put them on hold for the moment. We may revisit that but for now it's not something we're working on.