World of Warcraft is definitely one of the biggest games out there, with over 11 million paying subscribers each month spending time in Azeroth and completing quests in all of the lands featured in that fantasy universe.
That is why the recently announced
Cataclysm expansion for the game has generated a lot of hype around the world as people were eager to find out every detail in regard to all of the new changes that would be implemented in the mechanic of the gameplay.
One of the most important things introduced is the increase in the maximum level that characters can attain. After seeing it moved to level 70, with the Burning Crusade, and then to 80, with Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm takes it all the way to 85.
Talking about this big change and why it added only 5 levels, the lead developer from Blizzard, Tom Chilton, revealed the reasoning behind it. “It's certainly different. More than anything else it's a question of what we thought was the best use of our development time and what we thought the players really want the most. With this expansion we're delivering more total level up content than we have before - it's just not all post current max level.”
He also revealed that the community played an important role in the new changes. “We've gotten a lot of feedback from players that don't necessarily like it when an expansion comes out and they feel that they have to level up to the new max level as quickly as possible and then go back to their endgame activities. There are players out there who enjoy the level up experience, but by no means is it all of our players.”
He tackled the fact that, as many players would be tempted to start out with
one of the two new races, the Goblins or the Worgens, having to work until level 90 was a bit scary, so 85 was the best number. “In this case, we're trying to better balance the time and development effort we put into the different areas of the game. We're trying to make sure we get a little bit more endgame content while still appeasing the level up crowd with five more levels.”
Do you think that the level increase to 85 would benefit WoW or would one to 90 have been the best choice? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.
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