WoW Dragonflight Was Made Because Blizzard was Ready to Change Approach to MMOs
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight dev Ion Hazzikostas revealed that the lauded expansion is the result of Blizzard's new strategy of listening to players' needs.
After World of Warcraft: Shadowlands debuted a few years ago with poor reception. Blizzard Entertainment's management decided to adopt an entirely new strategy - listening to player feedback. The result of the change in Blizzard's approach is Dragonflight, the lauded ninth expansion for the cult MMORPG. Blizzard dev Ion Hazzikostas recently talked about the change in approach to the game's development.
Or, how about... listening to players?
In an interview for Dot Esports the developer announced that the company realized that players were not satisfied with what they thought was a continuation of a long-standing tradition. Therefore, based on community feedback, they decided to create a title that would give people a reason to enjoy it and spend more time with it..
“What sparked it, frankly, was realizing that our old approach wasn’t working anymore. We were failing to connect with our playerbase and people were unhappy with elements of the game that we just saw as continuations of 20 years of traditions.
We definitely had a couple of wake-up calls along the way and realized at the end of the day, none of this matters if we’re not connecting with the playerbase, meeting them where they are and making a world that brings them joy and is inspiring to spend time in and return to," Hazzikostas said.
Trust is the basis
At the same time creator added that Blizzard will certainly get some things wrong, but based on the feedback from the community, it will be possible to overcome all adversities, and thus rebuild the trust of fans.
“We’re going to get things wrong. We’re not perfect, we’re going to make mistakes. When we do, our hope is that through communication we can more quickly understand exactly how we’re off, but also build trust that it’s not going to be that way forever; that if we got something wrong, it’s because we’re fallible like everybody else, and that our greatest desire is to understand how and fix it," explained Hazzikostas.
It must be admitted that the developer's words can raise hopes in the hearts of many fans of World of Warcraft. Nevertheless, it is the deeds of the developers that will matter most in this regard.
