14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard has recently revealed that it plans to deploy yet another expansion for its successful MMO World of Warcraft. This one will be called Cataclysm and will be the most ambitious yet, if initial statements from the developer are to be believed. Players can look forward to getting a completely new game world, which will be completely torn apart and then remade as one of the most important antagonists of the game universe, Deathwing, again breaks into the material plane of existence.
Of course, players are wondering how the team plans to put together these new areas and how they will ensure that the fresh world is more dynamic and complex than the one they are currently experiencing.
One man who is in a unique position to hold some answers is Alex Afrasiabi, the lead world designer at Blizzard. He told Gamasutra that phasing was the technique that the team relied on to show rather than tell players how the world changes.
He detailed how the technique was used initially, saying that it enabled them to “tell stories like the battle for the Undercity. You go to Orgrimmar, and it's completely phased out into another phase, and you have all these Forsaken refugees pouring in instantly. You don't need to read anything. You just look. Forsaken refugees are on the floor, begging you for help. The Horde are all rounded up. Shops are all closed - just straight up just closed, can't use them. Guards direct you to the other cities.”
With all the areas of World of Warcraft changed by the arrival of Deathwing, the company needs to show or tell stories related to the transformations to its entire player base. It's a pretty big task and phasing could only help so much and it will be interesting to see how Blizzard manages to build Cataclysm out so that it shatters old Azeroth without actually destroying it for gamers.