News
WoW Forever: GM Island is back, but not meant for you
Blizzard has put the old Game Master island back into WoW Forever. You are not supposed to go there, but a designer hints that clever players will find a way.
GM Island is part of WoW Forever. Senior game designer Josh Greenfield showed it during a guided tour of the game on the last day of the beta, according to an interview published on 2 November, and said the team put it back simply because it is a piece of WoW history.
In the original game the island was where Game Masters, the Blizzard staff who answered player tickets, worked with their own characters away from curious players. It never appeared on the world map, explorers spent years trying to reach it, and it was removed during Cataclysm to stop abuse.
Players are not meant to visit it. Greenfield called it a rough area that was never really built for players, but he also said that you are not supposed to go there normally and that if you are clever, you will probably work out how. Lead encounter designer Mike Newthalls also took part in the tour.
This comes from one hands-on report rather than a Blizzard announcement, and Blizzard has not said what happens to players who find a way onto the island. Forever launches for Europe at 23:00 London time on 4 November, which is midnight on 5 November in Central Europe, and Blizzard has published a checklist for launch night.
