Behind the Blue Curtain: Further Discussion on Wrath of the Lich King with Tom “Kalgan” Chilton
Continuing our Behind the Blue Curtain series, today we bring you an interview with Tom Chilton, WoW’s second lead designer.
Both this and our prior discussion with Jeffrey Kaplan were actually just one long continuous interview, with Tom joining in at the half way point.
For the sake of readability we split the two of them up into separate articles, but, there is a bit of overlap at the beginning with both of them giving answers at the same time.
Once again, this was a group interview, with myself and two other gentlemen from Ten Ton Hammer and Curse providing the questions in turns.
Press play to listen, or read on for the transcript.
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Ten Ton Hammer: With gem socketing, I think you guys created something that was very interesting for players, allowing them more customization for their character after the initial creation process.
Are you looking to introduce more of those types of elements in Wrath of the Lich King? More gems, or more socketed items, or something completely new?
Jeffrey Kaplan: The biggest thing in that regard will be inscription, the new profession which is going to allow you to modify your spells. That will give players a lot of customization. There are other aspects, the new talent trees, being able to spend those points again. And then there are some fluff things like the barber shop, being able to change your hair, change the way your character looks.
[Asking Tom] Do you have any other parts?
Tom Chilton: Potentially legacy items, haven’t really talked about those in the past.
We are planning to do certain types of items that essentially bind to your account, so they are deliberately created as twink items. You might be able to find one of these items when you’re doing an end-game instance or raid, something like that.
You might be able to get an item that binds to your account so you are then able to hand it off to your other characters, but, it does have to stay within your account. They can be deliberately overpowered for a low-level character to help level up, or whatever.
Ten Ton Hammer: Does it go server to server, or is it just on that one single server?
Tom Chilton: On that server. You still have to be able to actually physically give it to your character.
Curse: New battlegrounds? Are there going to be any introduced?
Tom Chilton: Yep, there will be a new battleground. It’s set up as an attack-defend kind of scenario, features siege vehicles and destructible building components.
Jeffrey Kaplan: Both sides have to attack and defend.
The MMO Gamer: This is a sort of morbid curiosity question.
One of the executives at THQ, I believe it was last month, said he believed that WoW had peaked, and from here it was all downhill. I’m sure that was somewhat wishful thinking on his part, but what do you think about that statement?
Tom Chilton: I think it’s inaccurate. [Laughing]
[Nethaera is one of WoW’s Community Managers. She was sitting in on both interviews, but this was the only question where she jumped into the fray.]
Nethaera: I don’t think anybody actually knows where the peak is. We won’t know until we get there.
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