IGN AU: Sunwell Isle is part of the next big patch. Can you tell us a little about the raid dungeon Sunwell Plateau and the five man dungeon Magister's Terrace? How is it significant to the world as a whole?
Julian Morris:
Sunwell Isle is located just north of Silvermoon City, and contains two new dungeons: a 5-person normal or Heroic dungeon (Magister's Terrace) where players will face Prince Kael'thas, and a 25-player raid dungeon (Sunwell Plateau) culminating in a battle against Kil'jaeden, one of the most challenging boss encounters we have developed to date. In addition, the island has a new daily quest hub, and the daily quest limit is being increased from 10 to 25. The Aldor and Scryer storylines will also reach their finale on Sunwell Isle, as the Shattered Sun Offensive reputation is introduced.
From a lore perspective, this patch is of great importance to the Warcraft world. Sunwell Plateau will serve as the final chapter of the Burning Crusade storyline. Players will learn additional back story for Kael'thas and they will fight to survive as a critical chapter in the Sunwell's history unfolds.
Sunwell Plateau is currently on the public test realm (PTR). Players across the world are testing the new content and we look forward to their feedback.
IGN AU: How long has it taken to design Sunwell Isle – both in terms of the geography and the gameplay, and how different is the finished area to the initial concepts?
Julian Morris:
We have been working on Sunwell Isle and all of its related content for quite some time. The zone was actually part of the original Burning Crusade map. From the very beginning of developing The Burning Crusade, we knew Sunwell Plateau was going to be a major content update. We wanted as much time as possible to develop a truly epic experience for the community. Given the extra time, we were also able to design a 5-person dungeon and a daily quest hub that further expand the lore centering on Sunwell Isle.
IGN AU: Considering how much time players spend in this world, is it difficult for the team to design new and compelling challenges?
Julian Morris:
As designers (class, world, level, character, environment, item, etc.), we always look forward to the challenge of creating new and dynamic content. We're truly passionate when it comes to new design ideas and our goal remains the same – to develop content that both the community and we ourselves want to play.
Our design process is structured to work step-by-step with the various groups within the World of Warcraft development team. We don't stop refining or reiterating a project until it is as close to our vision as we can make it. We set very high standards for ourselves, and we will take as much time as necessary to ensure the finished content will live up to our and the community's expectations.
IGN AU: To what extent is community feedback taken on board when designing new content for the game? How about for the look of new areas?
Julian Morris:
We work very closely with the World of Warcraft community team and meet with them on a regular basis. Feedback from the various message boards and forums is incredibly important to the design teams. We also like to hear the community's thoughts when content is released on the public test realm. It's always interesting to read what players like or don't like or what they want to see more or less of. Reading these types of community reactions can help us think about future content. However, we are very careful when it comes to making any design changes, as there are a number of complex, interlocking systems in the game, and it is necessary to consider the full consequences of any change.
IGN AU: What do you think are the core reasons for World of Warcraft's incredible success?
Julian Morris:
Since the launch of the original World of Warcraft, it continues to surpass our expectations and we're quite humbled by its success. One of the core philosophies that all designers and developers at Blizzard Entertainment live by is that our games should be easy to learn, but difficult to master. We wanted to ease players into the world by slowly introducing gameplay features and mechanics. World of Warcraft's art style was designed to be highly stylized and visually distinctive. We wanted the zones to feel connected and to foster a sense of continuity as players explored the world by foot, mount, or air. The user interface designers also spent a lot of time fine-tuning how players would interact within the world itself. By creating an easy-to-use and highly customizable user interface, they helped ensure that players weren't bottlenecked learning how to play the game, and could step right in and enjoy it. Lastly, the World of Warcraft community itself and the social culture it has created continues to amaze us. Their continued support and faith helps us strive to create only the best content possible.
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