WoW Forever: weekly economy reports, no catch-up systems

Blizzard's WoW Forever team gets a report on the game's economy every week, lead designer Tim Jones said in an interview published on 3 November. The reports show which creatures and which items sold to vendors are generating the most gold. Jones said the team is watching the economy more closely than ever and is taking a much stronger stance on rule-breaking there, including real-money gold sales.

Jones did not promise to catch everything. He accepted that some exploits will get through, but said unfair spawns and gold farms can be fixed almost instantly once the team knows about them. It follows what Blizzard said in September about punishing gold buyers.

The interview also rules out the catch-up systems of the modern game. Players will not be able to skip levelling or skip raid tiers, Jones said, and the developers argue that such shortcuts would cheapen what earlier players achieved. The level cap is not moving either, so it stays at 60 as new content arrives every 4 months. Jones added that it is fine to step away for other games and come back later at your own pace.

Lead encounter designer Mike Nuthals said his first boss drafts felt too close to the modern game, with too much movement and too many moving parts. Feedback from QA and playtests led the team to cut that complexity and make cause and effect clearer. Players can judge the result when the first raids open on 9 December.