Blizzard is celebrating its 20th anniversary of World of Warcraft later this year, a milestone marked by reflections on past successes and missed opportunities. Holly Longdale, the Vice President and Executive Producer for the franchise, talked about what she believes could have been done differently, in the PC Gamer interview.
The Evolution of WoW’s Player Feedback
Holly Longdale, who joined the Warcraft team in 2020 after working on EverQuest, took over during a period marked by the controversial Shadowlands expansion. This expansion highlighted a growing disconnect between the developers and the community, leading to widespread criticism and a significant drop in subscribers. “We should’ve listened more to the player base,” Longdale admits, emphasizing that the company’s strategy has since shifted to prioritize player feedback more heavily.
Lessons Learned from Shadowlands
Shadowlands was a turning point for Blizzard. The introduction of locked-in covenants and the storyline’s direction were both heavily criticized by the community, who felt ignored. Holly notes that the company has since recommitted to incorporating player feedback, and you can see this shift come into fruition with the Dragonflight expansion. Blizzard reflects on 20 years of World of Warcraft, acknowledging past mistakes and emphasizing a renewed commitment to player feedback with the launch of The War Within expansion.
Blizzard’s New Approach? Data-Driven Decisions
One of the biggest changes in Blizzard’s approach has been the integration of social listening tools and in-game analytics to better understand and respond to player concerns.
This new technology allows the team to cross-reference community feedback with gameplay data, enabling more informed decisions. “Now we have the technology and the data to be able to map those two… and verify, oh yeah, this is an issue,” Holly adds.
Looking Forward: The War Within
Blizzard is devoting itself to maintaining the new player-centric approach as World of Warcraft receives its 10th expansion, the War Within.
The new expansion promises to deliver on the lessons from the past, with a strong emphasis on class balance and timely content patches. Longdale notes that the pandemic posed challenges during the Shadowlands development, the WoW team is now better equipped to meet player expectations.
For more details, you can read the full interview at PC Gamer.