In the early days of World of Warcraft, it was easy for players to feel like a real individual in a massive world full of life and stories. Over the years some players have felt that the later expansions lost some of that magic and that's part of the reason for the nostalgia and demand surrounding the WoW Classic offerings. That said, Dragonflight is making a serious effort to bring player identity back to the core of the game.
In order to recapture the magic of player identity, the third era of WoW is making some changes that help players feel more in control of their look, style, and priorities. The development team behind World of Warcraft Dragonflight is aiming to use the expansion's theme of exploration to help players feel in control of their destiny on a daily basis once they hit max level in the new expansion.
The Best War Games recently had the chance to sit down with WoW Dragonflight Associate Game Director Jeremy Feasel and Lead Software Engineer May Flores Garcia as part of a roundtable interview. During the chat, the developers had a chance to talk about the role of player identity in Dragonflight and how it was taken into consideration when designing the game's endgame experience.
Jeremy: " The refocus on class design sets on the raid design side of things helps a lot (with player identity). Getting back to class specific sets has been a lot of fun."
"Similarly, on the Profession side of things. One of the major focuses we had there was really wanting to make you feel like you were that profession. Like when you’re going that professions activities you should be decked out in a cool hat and a mining pick and you should feel like you’re a member of that profession. And that was really a focus of our Profession revamp."
"And on the other side of that, the focus on this being an exploration based expansion pack really allows players to carve out a unique identity for themselves. How you want to spend every day is up to you. Whether you want to go out on Centaur hunts or focus on Tuskarr activities and customizing your character is really up to the player. Because the sort of weekly bonus that is wrapped around all of these things allows you to do any of these things to accomplish that. So, you may have some players that focus really on Tuskarr activities and they end up becoming best cooks! And that’s awesome to see. Providing that sandbox for people to play how they want to play provides unique opportunities for players to express themselves or at least stand out amongst everyone as. Maybe it’s ‘I’m the guy who unlocks his otter mount first.’ Or ‘I’m the person who got this cool dragon riding skin first.’"
It's exciting to know that there are so many options for endgame activities in the expansion and it will be very interesting to see how players choose to spend their time as they reach the new max level and start completing weekly activities. Be sure to check back soon for more WoW news, updates, interview, and strategy guides. Until then, For The Horde!
World of Warcraft Dragonflight is available now for PC.