WoW The War Within will “serve solo players well,” Blizzard says

I probably played World of Warcraft too much in my years on this planet. Spend hours leveling up, raiding, dungeoning, or just hanging out in Orgrimmar watching other players go by; This is one of the biggest wastes of time. As you get older and take on more responsibilities, it can be harder to dedicate as much time to the game that once consumed your life. We spoke with WoW Executive Producer Holly Longdale about how the upcoming expansion aims to help Azeroth’s many solo players who are short on time.

Although World of Warcraft has always been fairly accessible to players venturing out on their own, it is an MMORPG at heart. As such, there are some obstacles in the way unless you have a team at your disposal. With new features like Follower Dungeons, NPC Companions, and Warbands making the game a little easier for casual players to access content, we wanted to know if WoW was moving away from its MMO roots.

“At its core, it’s still a multiplayer game and that’s how we prioritize,” Longdale explains. “But what we’ve seen over time in MMORPGs, at least for us, not everyone has the time to dedicate hours a day or a week to it.” To address this, Blizzard took a look at player data and “began looking at dividing our player base into segments based solely on their behavior and what they were playing.”

This data analysis highlighted that solo players would reliably show up to burn leveling content, but Blizzard believes they receive relatively little attention compared to segments such as raiders or PvPers . As a result, The War Within will be an opportunity to provide a boost, helping solo players access other types of content.

“We are not serving them well. So it’s their time; it is time for us to serve them well. It’s not about them only going solo, but rather offering them the opportunity to do a dive with a family member or friend. I think it’s a valid way to play. We have not supported this method in the past. We’ll give it a try.”

For this older gamer who is short on time, it’s encouraging to learn that there will be support for accessing World of Warcraft content that is better suited to when I’m able to play. As WoW is about to enter its third decade, the venerable MMO is beginning to recognize that many of its players have jobs and responsibilities that can’t be shirked, leaving them with relatively few hours each week to devote to the game. game.

If you’re eagerly awaiting the World of Warcraft sequel, our WoW The War Within release date guide will help you get all the information you need. We also had the chance to test the expansion, check out our WoW The War Within Alpha preview to see what we thought of it.

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Additional reporting by Lauren Bergin for PCGamesN.