14 DAY TRIAL // The leading developer working on the Cataclysm expansion for World of Warcraft, the most popular subscription-based MMO in the world, has said that the team he leads is working on a way to integrate areas like Outland and Northrend with the wider changes that are now affecting the game world.
J. Allen Brack, who is the senior producer working on Cataclysm, has said, “We have started to talk about what we need to do with Outland and Northrend because the story that we are telling in Cataclysm is kind of interesting once you get to Outland.”
He added, “Because there’s no congruity between the two stories. It feels a little weird for you to have the whole Deathwing is back and has destroyed the world, and you walk into Outland and you´re like ‘Hey! There’s this guy Illidan’.”
Outland is made out of what's left of Draenor after it has been destroyed and was initially introduced in The Burning Crusade expansion.
Northrend was introduced when Wrath of the Lich King launched and it houses the impressive Icecrown Citadel.
Blizzard cannot simply remove all content from these areas when Cataclysm launches to maintain the world story because it would remove quests and grinding that are important for those players who aim to reach the level cap.
The developers will probably use a few patches after the launch of the new expansion to fix any issues that appear after the launch and then move on to taking a look at the various areas of the game and developing content to link them to the concept of Cataclysm.
The developer has also said that Deathwing and his minions will not be doing any more actual damage to the game world and that no capital cities will be affected.
The official launch day for the Cataclysm expansion is set for December 7, being the last big video game launch of the year.