World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Community Interview

Blizzard Interview

BG: At the other end of the spectrum, what about the Popcap addons in WoW, such as Peacebloom versus Ghouls? Do you have plans to do more of that stuff? It seems wonderfully anarchic, that you have this wonderfully established lore you need to stay true too, but at the same time…here’s Plants versus Zombies.

Dave: Well, that was something that just fit right into the game. It was a group of farms that had been taken over by Ghouls. We talked to Popcap and they were excited about it, so we worked it in. It was just a happy coincidence that let us create this tribute to one of our favourite games. We’ll do more stuff like that if it fits, but I don’t think it will be often. There are homages to other games too, like Joust and Katamari.

Greg: Part of it is to do with the quest experiences. If players are always doing the same Kill Quests or Package Quests, just carrying stuff around, then it gets really boring. We have to spice it up. Adding minigames or pop culture references help that, though I’m sure a lot of them go over the head of our Asian players.


BG: So, looking back, what are you personal favourite games? What are the ones which have influenced Cataclysm?

Greg: Oh man, how long do you have?

Dave: <laughs> We’re voracious. We’re constantly playing everything. A lot of the things we play don’t make an impact. I’m a big Team Fortress 2 fan, for example, and there are a lot of subtle references I wove in because of that, but the gameplay wasn’t enough of a match to influence Cataclysm.

Greg: I’m trying to think of names which came up a lot over the course of development. Borderlands and Call of Duty came up a lot, even if it’s little things like the UI or the progression system. Even how games behave during installation, whether they try to entertain you or just tell you go get a drink.


BG: Without looking at the wider PC market, how important are retail stores to Blizzard compared to digital distribution platforms?

Greg: Well, we’ve been only in bricks and mortar shops until StarCraft 2 and Cataclysm, which allowed digital downloads. The retailers are still super important and are the reason we’re here in the UK, doing this launch event. The only way to get the Collector’s Edition is to buy it in stores.

BG: Do you plan to grow the digital side of things, start releasing Digital Deluxe editions?

Greg: I don’t think we have any plans to grow it, no. We’ll see how it goes. The PC market is changing rapidly and the scope of the internet is massive and it’s hard to predict where things will be in five or ten years.

And that’s all we had time for! Keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks for our World of Warcraft: Cataclysm review and let us know your thoughts in the mean time.