World of Warcraft is taking to the skies with its latest expansion pack, Dragonflight. World of Warcraft is leaving the otherworldly Shadowlands behind, and is taking players to the storied Dragon Isles — the hidden homeland of the dragons of Azeroth. Beyond uncovering the numerous mysteries lying in wait across the Isles, players can also train and customize their own dragon mount and create new characters of the new draconic drakthyr race, which uses the exclusive Evoker class.
Game Rant talked to lead game designer Jeremy Feasel and senior game designer Graham Berger about the ongoing journey of creating World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. They spoke of several features coming in the new expansion, and how World of Warcraft was learning from its past to improve upon future content. The developers also shared some sources of inspiration World of Warcraft drew from in the process of building the new player experiences in Dragonflight, and of the nature of customization and player freedom.
Learning from Past World of Warcraft Expansions
One of the expansions World of Warcraft is drawing from most heavily in Dragonflight is Mists of Pandaria, described by Feasel as “our last great exploration-based expansion.” Those parallels were not lost on many Warcraft fans — traveling to a storied island hidden from the world until recently to uncover its mysteries is a premise that shares much in common with the eastern-themed expansion. However, considering the last several expansions have focused around war or extraplanar conflict, Feasel agreed both the players and developers are looking forward to the change of pace.
“It’s a lot of fun to go to a very Warcraft space with ancient lore and fill in some of those gaps with stories we think would be interesting, whether those are stories about an entire dragonflight or an individual character.”
World of Warcraft is also taking the overhauls to the sandbox experience from Legion and enhancing them in further Dragonflight. According to Feasel, World of Warcraft has staffed a content team whose focus is on the overworld experience. These individuals are focusing on creating fun activities to explore and discover.
Engaging rare spawns, jumping puzzles, rock climbing, and Dragonriding points of interest were some examples given, but Feasel also teased the addition of Dragon Racing. Though in the early stages of development, World of Warcraft hopes to make competitive Dragon Racing tournaments using the new Dragonriding system, taking inspiration from the Fishing Tournaments already in game.
Of course, Dragonflight is also learning from Shadowlands, its most recent expansion. Though it was unlike any other expansion in Warcraft’s history, Shadowlands was a polarizing experience for many World of Warcraft players. One of its biggest criticisms was its high-concept setting, which did not feel like Warcraft to many. According to Feasel, Warcraft will be avoiding that pitfall with its new expansion.
“Dragonflight gives us a chance to go in a very different direction and return to core Azeroth. Not just returning to Azeroth from the lands of death physically, but a return to core Azerothian and World of Warcraft things.”
Berger also explained World of Warcraft has learned a lot from its past on the systems side of the game. “The past three or four expansions, we’ve done a lot of different systems,” he said, “we’ve taken the lessons from a lot of those going into Dragonflight and looked at our core systems.” The revamps to the talents, professions, and user interface in Dragonflight seem to be evolutions to this new design philosophy — one that seeks to improve evergreen systems intrinsic to World of Warcraft, rather than inventing new ones that become obsolete after the expansion, like Covenant abilities and other borrowed power.
Customization and the Sandbox Experience of Dragonflight
Customization and freedom are important to World of Warcraft players. A large part of the draw to MMORPGs is in the ways one can customize their characters and explore the world.
The new drakthyr race is one example of customizations coming in Dragonflight. The race itself has two fully-customizable forms with more options than any other existing race in World of Warcraft. However, the race can only choose one class — the Evoker, a dragon-themed class only available to the drakthyr. Despite their vast customization options, many worry the Evoker restriction is too limited.
“Early on,” Berger said, “we knew we wanted to make a playable dragon. We started with the pillar of making you feel like a dragon — not just looking like one, but feeling like one.” He explained that, by embracing the Evoker class restriction, World of Warcraft was able to double down on the fantasy of playing a dragon in ways they couldn’t have done otherwise. In many ways, it is like creating a class based on racial abilities.
“If [the drakthyr] had to have every capability other races have, that’s going to restrict us in other ways on the class side. Embracing what is special about them felt really uniquely draconic”
Unfortunately, World of Warcraft is focusing on the vast customization options of the drakthyr, meaning existing races are unlikely to get new options during Dragonflight’s initial release, though it is still possible other customization options could come in a patch before or after the expansion. Feasel assured fans the WoW team knew how important character customization was to players, and encouraged players to continue giving feedback.
The new Dragonriding system of Dragonflight seems to be the intersection of customization and freedom. Not only will the new drake mounts make exploration seem more visceral, reactive, and faster than ever before, the drake mount itself is highly customizable. Feasel explained there were four base models of dragons to choose from, and each one had at least 50 different options, not including colors. “This is a legendary mount,” Feasel explained, “and the idea is to make your perfect dragon friend.”
As for freedom of player choice, it seems Dragonflight has learned from the mistakes of Covenants from Shadowlands. While Renown is making a return, players will not have to choose a single “Covenant” to join. Feasel described the system as “Reputation 2.0,” saying players could choose to gain Renown with any of the four major factions simultaneously. While the different organizations will have rewards and questlines locked behind them, a single character can access all of them without having to commit to or swap between Covenants as in Shadowlands.
“You can log in and do Valdrakken Accord things that feel very dragony, you can log in and do Dragonscale Expedition things which involve mountain climbing and explorative stuff. We want it to feel very ‘spend your time how you want’ friendly, very alt friendly, in terms of an overall reputation system.“
It seems Dragonflight is trying to balance creating a solid modern MMO experience with the things that made World of Warcraft so popular in the first place. If these renovations land successfully, World of Warcraft may begin to rebuild the trust it had lost from its fanbase over the last few years. Many believe WoW’s next expansion will make or break it, and though it is still early in development, many have high hopes for Dragonflight based on what has been shown so far.
World of Warcraft is available now on PC.