14 DAY TRIAL // A leading designer working on the MMO World of Warcraft, the most popular subscription based game in the world, has suggested that the company is already working on the next expansion for the title and will seek to add a new continent to the game.
Greg Street, who is the lead system designer working at Blizzard on World of Warcraft, has stated, “I think the next expansion will be something more like a new continent approach. More like the Burning Crusade or Nothrend, where we send players somewhere new that they haven't seen before.”
The fact that Blizzard is working on a new expansion already does not mean that the company will not continue to look at the game world it has created and see where patches can deliver limited changes.
Street added, “I think the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor are good now, we won't have to mess with them. There might be some small areas that may require polish or changing if things still don't feel quite right.”
He echoed earlier comments from other Blizzard executives saying that a major patch might target Outland and Northrend, which would feel somewhat disconnected from the rest of World of Warcraft after the launch of Cataclysm.
Blizzard has suggested that it aims to launch one expansion every year for World of Warcraft, but this schedule has proven too tight for the company until now.
Blizzard has repeatedly said that they will not release new content for the game until they are sure that it has been thoroughly play tested and does not change the balance of the game.
Cataclysm adds new races and increases the level cap for players, but its main achievement will be to remake a lot of the game world, with the attack of the dragon Deathwing providing the justification for the modifications, which are targeted at both cosmetic matters and the underlying gameplay mechanics.