Several lead Blizzard developers have referred to Dragonflight as the “Third Era of World of Warcraft.” Between changes to the narrative direction and vast shifts to core game philosophies in Dragonflight, World of Warcraft is seeking to reinvent itself with the upcoming expansion.
Preach Gaming is a popular streamer who, disillusioned with Shadowlands, stopped covering World of Warcraft back in July 2021. With Dragonflight on the horizon, Preach made his prodigal return to the MMO that built his streaming career, beginning with a tour of the Blizzard campus. He recently shared his findings on Twitch.
During the tour, Preach interviewed several lead World of Warcraft developers, including general manager John Hight and game director Ion Hazzikostas. In the conversations, the developers spoke of how their design philosophies had changed. Recent expansions have relied heavily on mechanics that only stick around for one expansion, like Azerite, Island Explorations, and Covenants. To WoW, it made thematic sense, as the systems were designed for specific eras of the game, but to players, it felt like World of Warcraft was fielding projects only to deem them failures and abandon them. In this new era, World of Warcraft will be trying to avoid such things, instead building upon systems and making them evergreen.
According to Hazzikostas, this “Third Era” philosophy will extend to World of Warcraft’s narrative as well. Preach contrasted World of Warcraft’s narrative flow, which consists of expansions with self-contained stories, to Final Fantasy 14’s long-form storytelling. While World of Warcraft cannot and will not be copying Final Fantasy 14’s model, it does have plans to start telling longer story arcs that directly span across several expansions.
Presumably, World of Warcraft’s "First Era" was from Vanilla through Wrath of the Lich King, with Cataclysm beginning the second era. Assuming that is the case, players are interested to see what World of Warcraft will end up doing in its "Third Era." The “First Era” is what made players fall in love with World of Warcraft in the first place, as evident with WoW Classic, but it lacked convenience and narrative direction. The “Second Era,” on the other hand, modernized the game in significant ways, such as Transmogrification, storytelling chapters, and Cross-Faction play, but occasionally lacked the charm that drew players to the game. If World of Warcraft is able to take the best parts of its previous eras, the "Third Era of WoW " may be exactly what the game needs to shine in the modern market.
World of Warcraft is available now for PC. Dragonflight launches on November 28.
Source: Wowhead