*This article is compiled from IGN US and is not reproduced without authorization.
Recently, Blizzard announced the next step in the World of Warcraft nostalgic suit, and the content is not surprising. In the second half of this year, nostalgic clothes will be released with the expansion pack "Wrath of the Lich King".
The World of Warcraft expansion pack Wrath of the Lich King was originally released in 2008, adding a lot of new content to the game, making World of Warcraft more determined to develop towards the MMORPG route, forming the shape it is today. These include the huge Northend Continent Map, famous quests such as Violet Prison and Purification Statholm, and team quests such as Naxxamas and Ice Crown Fortress. In addition, features have been added to the expansion pack, such as an achievement system, inscription classes, and the game's first hero class, Death Knight.
Overall, although Wrath of the Lich King will have some changes when it returns to the World of Warcraft nostalgic suit, it will still take on the player's memory. One of the biggest differences is that there is no dungeon finder system, which was originally added to the game at the end of The Wrath of the Lich King. According to Brian Birmingham, head of World of Warcraft nostalgia, the reason for not adding a finder is to maintain the original intention of the World of Warcraft nostalgia costume community.
"We know that players in nostalgic costumes are more interested in long-term social interactions, and this experience comes from the contact between players and players, discussing how to team up with others in the process of playing dungeons together, trying to coordinate with each other, deciding on their respective roles; everyone tries to figure out how to get to the quest, who is responsible for summoning, and maybe one is accidentally caught up in PVP battles on the road," Birmingham said. Have friends who fight alongside you."
Birmingham assured fans that the development team was considering improving the teaming tool in Burning Expeditions, tweaking to guide players to the right chat channel so that players could find others to team up. In addition, the team is considering tweaking the large quest and quest locking system so that players don't have to be forced to participate in four versions of the large quest campaign each week to strengthen their characters.
Blizzard also made some minor tweaks that were also very meaningful, such as the team's tweaks to the game's text and character descriptions to make the text more rigorous and inclusive. For example, "Wrath of the Lich King" originally added a human race specialty, originally named "Self-Interest", which would be renamed the current Version of World of Warcraft "Will to Live". Barbershop is another element added to The Lich King's Wrath, where players can spend in-game coins instead of real-world currency to change character gender and other settings.
"I'm relieved that the team really listened to the team for the whole process," said Patrick Dawson, production director in charge of the change, "and we listened to feedback from the developers to fix areas that they weren't satisfied with." We've changed a lot of the previous content and design, which is very good, after all, there are some things that we certainly won't design so much today. In short, we're not going to deliver a game that the development team themselves finds unworkable."
Another thing worth remembering is how Blizzard handles the transition between Burning Expedition and Wrath of the Lich King. When the Nostalgia Costume first launched Burning Expedition, Blizzard allowed players to choose whether to stay in the Nostalgia Suit or switch to Burning Expedition. Although players who choose to stay in the original version still have the option, this time, players may not be able to keep the character in the Burning Expedition expansion pack, and players who have already chosen the expansion can only continue to experience the "Wrath of the Lich King".
Fortunately, Dawson says that most of the current Burning Expedition players don't want to stay on the current expansion pack.
"People want to experience the Expansion Pack of World of Warcraft's specific era in a meaningful way, and Burning Expedition has achieved that goal," he said, "for the development team, I think there will be an opportunity in the future for the development team to provide content from different periods for players who are eager to relive Burning Expedition or nostalgic suits." That's something we've been focusing on, and we'll see what we can do for everyone."
World of Warcraft nostalgic clothes will be released in 2022 "Wrath of the Lich King", and we also chatted with Dawson and Birmingham about the future direction of nostalgic clothes, and discussed whether the nostalgic clothes will eventually launch "Fission of the Earth".
"Wrath of the Lich King" can be seen as the end of an era, representing the peak of World of Warcraft's popularity, and while World of Warcraft continues to flourish, the expansion packs that have followed have become very different. Specifically, the expansion pack "The Fission of the Earth" is a time of great change in the "Old World" of the entire continent of Azeroth, and the first version of the world region ushered in many great changes. Not to mention the game's various mechanics and visual changes after this.
I asked Birmingham and Dawson: Will the nostalgic suit continue to update the other expansion packs after the release of the expansion pack "Wrath of the Lich King"? Before that, I had asked Blizzard the same question twice, once when the official announcement of the nostalgic suit was just announced, and once during the "Burning Expedition" when the nostalgic suit was announced to be online. The official answer on both occasions was "it depends on the player's response," but they were generally optimistic about it.
This time, although they still gave the same answer, the tone was obviously a little more cautious than before. Birmingham admits from the outset that "The Fission of the Earth" has been seen by the public as a turning point in World of Warcraft, but this twist actually began with "Wrath of the Lich King", when the game introduced the Dungeon Finder at the end of the expansion pack. As mentioned earlier, nostalgic clothes will not add this function.
"We're trying to find a balance that we can both keep the nostalgic feel of the costume and make sure to give players new campaign content," he says, "because obviously, if you're going to experience the game again, you're going to play to the end." And then you think, 'I want more content.' So, what can we offer our players? All we can do is try to make sure we provide players with content that they're happy with, that they have more to do, and that they feel like nostalgic clothes. We haven't made a decision on whether 'Fission of the Earth' or other expansion packs will be launched in the future, and we still want to listen to the feedback and opinions of the community."
Dawson agrees with Birmingham and encourages players to give positive feedback after the "Wrath of the Lich King" goes live.
"From the moment we decided we wanted to make a World of Warcraft nostalgia suit, the game became a love letter to our fans, and when we launched the nostalgic suit, we focused on it. At the time, we didn't even think about the next step, but immediately someone said, "We want a burning expedition." Subsequently, we launched this expansion pack. Later, players thought that "The Wrath of the Lich King" is very interesting, and we would love to be able to play this expansion pack." For now, we'll continue to focus on Wrath of the Lich King to make sure it's going to be a great experience for players, but then we'll pause development and listen to what players are thinking, see what they're thinking, and get to know how they're feeling."
The World of Warcraft nostalgic suit will be available in the Lich King's Wrath expansion pack during 2022. In addition, we discussed details about the upcoming new expansion pack Age of Dragons with several leaders of World of Warcraft.