In this historic interview from 2005, Shawn Carnes, a developer at Blizzard Entertainment, discusses World of Warcraft during its first year after launch. The interview provides valuable insights into Blizzard's early development philosophy, their plans for the game's first expansion (which would later become The Burning Crusade), and their approach to player retention. At the time of this interview, World of Warcraft had already broken multiple MMORPG subscription records and was continuing to grow rapidly. This interview is particularly notable for its early mentions of the expansion plans and Blizzard's stance against real-money trading, which would later become significant industry-wide topics.
Grimwell: With WoW breaking every MMOG record for subscription numbers, what is the plan at Blizzard for retention of users?
Shawn: Current retention is high, and I am more impressed by the low turnover than our resubscription spikes during patches. The WoW live team continues to work on content directed to the existing customers to keep them interested in the game. If I had to guess, somewhere between 15 – 20% of our accounts have at least one 60th level character, so the content needs to cater to those customers.
Grimwell: You mention spikes during patches. What are you seeing there?
Shawn: Every time a major patch has been dropped for the game, we see a notable number of accounts reactivate. These spikes are easy enough to see and can be related to people wanting to check out the new content.
Grimwell: What range of levels will the content cover in this expansion? Will it focus only on the high level characters, or will there be something for everyone at every level?
Shawn: While the full range of levels is covered, it won't be equal; the support will be proportional to the population of the game, so it will tip to the high end of the game (as most veteran players will be of high level). Any new quest arcs will fit into existing areas and arcs. Since WoW takes players on a deliberate path through the levels in specific areas, any new quests need to take advantage of these areas and pair up with existing content instead of making new areas for the same level range and moving or splitting up the player population.
Grimwell: What of real money trading (RMT) for in game goods? Has Sony's move to launch the 'Station Exchange' caused Blizzard to rethink its stance on RMT?
Shawn: Blizzard does not condone RMT. We are more concerned about the experience of the players than we are in expanding in other directions.
Grimwell: What about in-game advertisements?
Shawn: Blizzard has no plans for in-game advertisements. They really do not fit the general nature of WoW. The development for WoW is, first and foremost, focused on the total game experience. What the players experience is our key to continued success.
Grimwell: Can you tell us about the expansion plans?
Shawn: An expansion is planned, not in 2005, possibly in late 2006 barring unforeseen chaos. Work is already going on for the expansion, and it's going good. What to look for? Blizzard is good at polishing what we do well. The WoW expansion will be like other game expansions in that there will be new characters, items, spells, etc. but it will have the Blizzard twist.
Grimwell: How have the Battlegrounds been received since their introduction?
Shawn: The initial response is good. People are participating and enjoying themselves. For Battlegrounds to work long-term there needs to be equal buy-in on both sides. There is still some work to be done to have things work as planned and generate that buy-in. There is an imbalance on the servers, with less Horde players than Alliance, and the issue does affect the buy-in for both sides of the equation. We are looking into solutions for this. The solution is to focus on something that solves any circumstance, not just for one group. You can't focus on just one group situation and come out with a good fix.
