Cataclysm for World of Warcraft Was Hard to Balance for Blizzard

Speaking at the Game Developers Conference, the World of Warcraft Game Director Tom Chilton has said that creating and launching the Cataclysm expansion for the MMO was hard to developer Blizzard because it meant cutting out and recreating areas of the game.

Tom Chilton said that the people working on the expansion worked hard to make sure that they chose right when deciding which areas needed to be redone and which ones will be left alone.

The game director stated, “We really knew we had to retain the soul of the original. This is where we really knew we could [expletive] it up.”

He compared the work his team has done with that of plastic surgeons, going through the game in order to extract all the fact that had accumulated and lift the sections that were showing signs of age.

After the process was done, Chilton still says, “I feel like this is a case that it lost a little bit of its soul. I think we really have to watch where we take from the original. Really keep in mind what the soul of the original was. Make sure it's a really conscious decision and you're doing it for the right reason.”

Cataclysm showed that despite its age World of Warcraft is still unchallenged in the subscription-powered MMO space, with more than 12 million players ready to tackle the new content and many newcomers interested in going through the game from the beginning, with quicker leveling and better designed quests.

An internal document from Blizzard China that was leaked in late 2010 says that the company is interested in delivering a new expansion for World of Warcraft in the fall of this year, although it’s not clear what areas of the MMO it might focus on.

Blizzard is also working on a new MMO called Titan, but it refuses to deliver any details about it.