Blizzard is bringing back World of Warcraft’s popular Wrath of the Lich King expansion, but when it arrives, it may be even more old-school than some players remember.
Wrath of the Lich King was a revolutionary expansion in many ways. It was during the expansion that Blizzard’s MMORPG reached its peak in terms of subscription numbers, and the expansion introduced the game’s first new class in the Death Knight, added achievements, and introduced a fan-favorite villain who served as the perfect base to build an entire expansion. around. While many gamers, and Blizzard itself, may not have realized it at the time, Wrath of the Lich King also began to lay the groundwork for what would become the modern version of the game, with the addition of convenient features like automation. dungeon matching and markers on the map that tell players exactly where to go to complete their quests.
Esas dos características específicamente no estarán presentes en Wrath of the Lich King Classic. Esa fue una decisión consciente por parte de Blizzard para preservar lo que Blizzard describe como los “valores fundamentales” de Classic. Si bien muchos jugadores consideran que la expansión Cataclysm de 2010 del juego fue el punto de inflexión más importante en la historia del juego, cuando muchas de las clases y sistemas del juego se actualizaron para que fueran más similares a como son ahora, esas semillas se plantaron con el Wrath final. del parche del Rey Exánime. Wrath of the Lich King Classic seguirá funcionando en el último parche de la expansión, solo que sin las características que, en la mente del equipo de WoW Classic, comenzaron a erosionar la experiencia social del MMORPG.
“No hacemos este tipo de cambios a la ligera”, dijo el diseñador principal de sistemas de Wrath of the Lich King Classic, Kris Zierhut, en una entrevista grupal reciente en la que participó GameSpot. piensa que Classic se trata de ser social, hacer amigos, conocer gente nueva. Para que eso suceda, debes encontrarte con esas personas en múltiples ocasiones, debes tener la oportunidad de jugar con ellas y luego jugar con ellas un segundo. tiempo y decir ‘Oh, sí, recuerdo a ese tipo, fue genial la última vez, tal vez debería agregarlo a mi lista de amigos. Tal vez debería ponerlo en mi lista de personas con las que trato de hacer grupos de mazmorras’, después de ti’ Tuve una mazmorra exitosa. Queremos enfatizar lo social y también queremos enfatizar el mundo y la inmersión en el mundo”.
Los cambios que vienen en Wrath of the Lich King Classic son una buena indicación de cuánto ha cambiado la mentalidad de Blizzard desde que lanzó WoW Classic por primera vez en 2019. En ese entonces, Blizzard buscó recrear el WoW “vainilla” como era en 2006 lo más cerca posible. posible, con el menor número de cambios posible. Pero con el tiempo, específicamente hacia el final del ciclo de lanzamiento de contenido de WoW Classic y como parte del relanzamiento de Blizzard de la primera expansión del juego, The Burning Crusade, esa filosofía comenzó a cambiar.
El equipo de WoW Classic comenzó a analizar e implementar los comentarios de los jugadores, incluidas actualizaciones de calidad de vida que mejoraron la experiencia del jugador de WoW Classic sin dejar de ser fiel a la naturaleza de la vieja escuela del juego original y su primera expansión. Algunos de esos cambios incluyeron la actualización de la velocidad a la que los servidores del juego detectaron entradas para dar cuenta de las velocidades de Internet modernas. Otros cambios incluyeron la capacidad para campos de batalla PvP de la misma facción en Burning Crusade Classic, hecho en nombre de reducir los tiempos de espera y ayudar a resolver un problema de desequilibrio de facciones. Blizzard incluso presentó WoW Classic Season of Mastery, donde los jugadores podían crear nuevos personajes y volver a jugar WoW estándar, aunque esta vez a un ritmo acelerado con incursiones más desafiantes, mayores tasas de botín y otros cambios importantes.
Wrath of the Lich King Classic, entonces, es una oportunidad para que Blizzard dé un segundo paso en la expansión más querida del juego, esta vez teniendo en cuenta los sistemas sociales que no se consideraron cuando la expansión se lanzó originalmente en 2008.
“No teníamos gente pensando en cómo deberían funcionar los sistemas sociales cuando originalmente hicimos Wrath of the Lich King, por lo que es una nueva perspectiva para ver las cosas”, dijo Zierhut. “¿Qué promueve lo social? ¿Qué daña lo social? Prestando mucha atención a eso… Estamos tratando de pensar en ello mientras diseñamos para Wrath of the Lich King [Classic] how can we promote the social, how can we create those situations where people can find similarities, engage in acts of reciprocity, the things that lead them to friendship and avoid damaging social proximity. That’s what we weren’t careful about when we first worked on Wrath of the Lich King.”
Other changes to be implemented stem from Blizzard already seeing Wrath of the Lich King play once, with Zierhut using the game’s Death Knights as an example. Originally, players who wanted to play a Death Knight had to catch up in the days after the expansion was released, since the class started at level 55. Meanwhile, everyone else who didn’t make a Death Knight Death were already level 70 and up. the ship to Northrend to experience the new content. Blizzard will avoid that scenario this time, with Death Knights as part of the pre-expansion patch. While Blizzard didn’t promise an exact length for the patch, the plan is for it to last between two and six weeks.
The Wintergrasp PvP Battleground introduced as part of Wrath of the Lich King was another opportunity for Blizzard to make a positive quality of life change. In the original version of Wrath of the Lich King, players were so desperate to win Wintergrasp and obtain the loot found in the Archavon Vault raid (which was only accessible to the faction that controlled Wintergrasp) that they were transferring servers and changing factions. to make sure they could win as much as possible. Blizzard will be looking at ways to make Wintergrasp less important by potentially offering different ways to earn loot traditionally associated with the activity. Dual specialization, a feature introduced in Wrath of the Lich King that allowed players to switch between two different builds (for a price), will also return, though the way it’s implemented may change compared to its original version. The in-game barber shop will be updated to use in-game gold and will allow players to change their gender along with other features, which was not an option in the original version.
Changes to various names of spells, quests, achievements, and other content have occurred in recent months in both WoW Classic and the modern version of the game in the name of inclusivity. Those changes will also be present in Wrath of the Lich King Classic, as Blizzard looks for ways to make WoW more welcoming and inclusive following recent sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits and investigations that accuse the company of having fostered a culture of fraternity.
Like Burning Crusade Classic, Blizzard will offer a single additional paid character per account when Wrath of the Lich King Classic launches, so players who haven’t played WoW Classic or Burning Crusade Classic can catch up and jump into newly released content. . When asked if Wrath of the Lich King Classic would offer a paid deluxe edition similar to that offered for Burning Crusade Classic, a package that angered a portion of the Classic community because it introduced old-school microtransactions that previously had no microtransactions. MMO: Blizzard said that they had nothing to announce at this time. Blizzard noted, however, that content similar to in-game items found in the deluxe edition of Burning Crusade Classic has been available in WoW since the beginning, since the collector’s edition of the original game in 2004. Those who have Lucky enough to have gotten your hands on one of the original WoW Collector’s Editions, those exclusive pets can be used in WoW Classic.
Blizzard made it clear that many of the changes for Wrath of the Lich King Classic come directly from the game’s community, which Blizzard emphasized is the key driving force behind nearly every decision the team makes, including what future expansions may receive. the “Classic” treatment. .
One decision players won’t have a say in, though, is whether or not they want to go ahead with Wrath of the Lich King. Unlike the Burning Crusade Classic release, where Blizzard gave players the option to keep their characters on what it now calls “Classic Era” servers or advance them to The Burning Crusade, all current Burning Crusade Classic servers they will automatically become Wrath of the Lich King Classic servers come with the release of the expansion. While the Burning Crusade servers won’t exist when Wrath of the Lich King Classic launches, Blizzard is leaving the door open to revisit the expansion in the future.
“As far as what happens after Wrath of the Lich King, we really want to hear from the community,” Zierhut said. “This whole project has been community driven, this whole project came about because the community demanded it. So we want to hear what the community wants to see next… We have our own opinions, but the community’s opinions will help us make better decisions.”
Wrath of the Lich King Classic is scheduled to arrive sometime in 2022. Blizzard recently announced the new expansion for the modern version of the game, Dragonflight. The game’s ninth expansion will add the new ranged Evoker class (which is also a new breed of dragon), the new Dragon Isles continent, and revamp a number of “evergreen” systems like professions and talents. Dragonflight will be released “when it’s ready”.
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