WoW Forever: "convenience is the death of the journey"

Matthew Armstrong, a world builder at Blizzard, set out on 23 September who he is building WoW Forever for, speaking for himself rather than the team. His answer: the classic player, and the millions of people whose accounts have lapsed over the years. He put it against the alternative plainly — he did not spend the past year relearning how things were done 20 years ago in order to please players of the modern game, and says most of them would not have noticed the difference and might even have preferred the easier route.

He lists 3 sayings he has worked by since he started on the Riverglades: "Convenience is the death of the journey", "If you're making a game for everyone then you're making it for no one", and "Every change we make incurs a debt to the authenticity of the game and sooner or later that debt will be paid". He describes these as core beliefs he will hold the line on, including pestering the team about anything that feels out of place.

In practice, he says, that means decisions that run wildly against how the modern game is made: keeping friction and inconvenience in, resisting changes that set off a chain of further changes, and pushing players towards finding friends and grouping with strangers. He argues the social side has always been the pillar of the game and has been chiselled away over the years by changes that let people play alone.

Armstrong is careful about one thing: he says this is not a dig at players of the modern game or at the team behind it, because he plays it himself. He also says he hopes Forever draws in as many people as possible, whether they come from the modern game, from classic, from years away or from nothing at all. WoW Forever launches at 23:00 UK time on 4 November, which is midnight on 5 November in Central Europe.