After two decades, World of Warcraft is populated with a tonne of old systems that have not been touched for years. As Blizzard looks to redux numerous old areas of the game—including looking at remaking locations like Stormwind and Orgrimmar—the team is also looking to overhaul old systems, including character customisation.
Right now, it’s very noticeable what races were added to the game in recent years as they offer a litany of additional customisation options compared to older races. Of course, Blizzard is aware of these limitations—they do make the game, after all—and the team is working behind-the-scenes to overhaul character options for older races.
Speaking to Windows Central ahead of the launch of World of Warcraft: Midnight, design director Maria Hamilton explained that the team is working to offer a multitude of new customisation options to players. However, instead of adding options in little updates, the team wants to bring out all of the new options at once.
“We don’t have a roadmap just yet,” Hamilton said. “We’ve taken runs at it from time to time, and we know players love it. But now we’re looking at it as a sort of larger project, rather than drops here and there like we did with Heritage Armor. We’ve even discussed improving character animations and things like that — what sorts of improvements we can make there. It’s down the road, though, it’s not soon.”
“So, in the future, maybe goblins will get more ears and noses for you. These are things we’re definitely interested in for ourselves too.”
World of Warcraft principal artist Jay Hwang
With Blizzard wanting to increase the broad appeal of World of Warcraft as the MMO battles an ageing population, additional character customisation is an important overhaul that needs to happen. Just like player housing, offering these levels of customisation to players helps get new players through the door, and allows players to make their character feel more unique in a world of millions.
“You can see even now with the remake of the transmog system that we understand the need [for more options],” added principal artist Jay Hwang. “We’re starting to move down that road. That’s why we’ve been investing in things like housing which aren’t player power related, and focused more on avenues of expression. So, in the future, maybe goblins will get more ears and noses for you. These are things we’re definitely interested in for ourselves too.”
World of Warcraft is likely going through its biggest shift ever now, but it’s not entirely localised to just WoW. In fact, Blizzard is ramping up its efforts on all of its titles right now, rebranding Overwatch and offering faster, larger updates, and even updating Diablo 4 alongside adding new content to the 25-year-old Diablo 2.
Blizzard has made a number of missteps with World of Warcraft over the last two decades, but the MMO is still going strong, and adding more customisation options can never be a bad thing… unless they’re proper minging.
