World of Warcraft has now been around for 22 years, and a lot of its fanbase has changed. As one of the most popular MMORPGs available today, the game has managed to keep an evolving audience, but, according to executive producer and vice president Holly Longdale, its biggest challenge is keeping the attention of its ageing population.
Longdale has already expressed a desire to keep expanding the Warcraft IP into more than “simply an MMORPG”. However, this desire to expand Warcraft also extends to expanding World of Warcraft itself. This has led to the introduction of features such as Player Housing, features designed to let people feel like they’re progressing without much time.
Speaking to The Game Business, Longale explained that the core audience of World of Warcraft simply has less time than they did 20 years ago. Back then, many players were in college, or could live on a reasonable job. Now, players have less time than ever, especially as the core fanbase gets older.
“Gamers don’t have a lot of time anymore, necessarily,” the vice president said Longdale. “We want to make sure we’re respecting the ways they play. Things like housing allow you to come in and achieve something, without pressure. We see this more and more across the industry and across our own players.”
“If you only have 20-minutes to play, you can accomplish something. But if you have an entire weekend or a vacation, and you want to go deep, that’s there as well.”
World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas
Longdale says that World of Warcraft survives because of how often Blizzard is willing to design more “breadth” to the game that allows the game to service multiple types of players with differing amounts of free time.
“We’ve got a lot of players that say to us, ‘Give me something I can play with my kids, or play with my partner’. We have so many players and the ability to really dig into how they play, it’s given us a lot of interesting opportunities to be able to broaden out,” Longdale continues. “We are aiming to be a game that’s approachable for anyone.”
World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas added onto the chat, saying “breadth really is the key”. The team doesn’t want to move away from what World of Warcraft players want, but instead it’s “more about being broader and more approachable in our offerings and meeting people where they are.”
“We already do have retired folks playing World of Warcraft, and a generation of young students who may have all the time in the world. 20 years ago, there was the sense that, for a lot of people, the game might be something that appealed to them, but they don’t have the time for it, because it might be all-consuming,” the game director continued.
“That is not what we are anymore. It’s not what we’ve been for a long time. But we still have that depth for those who want it. If you only have 20-minutes to play, you can accomplish something. But if you have an entire weekend or a vacation, and you want to go deep, that’s there as well. That’s been our approach to make sure that we are growing up with our players, but also remaining approachable and exciting for new generations, and for everything in between.”
World of Warcraft is continuing to evolve with additional expansions and updates with players receiving something new every eight weeks. It’s a colossal game, one that’s seeing multiple areas reworked with additional reworking to come, but it’s still World of Warcraft at the end of the day.
