Jeff Kaplan
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Jeff Kaplan reveals how to get to Northrend
MMO Champion's got the rest of the details on that PC Zone interview we heard about yesterday-- Jeff Kaplan sat down with the French magazine and gave out some new hints about what we'll see up in Northrend in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. As we heard at BlizzCon, Northrend isn't all a snow-covered wasteland-- there are forests (including one full of Furbolgs) and other terrain types to find up there. We've also heard this before, but it's worth repeating again: Arthas will play a much bigger part in the day-to-day Northrend than Illidan did-- lots of people, both raiders and casuals, will have a chance to "interact" with him. Here's something new-- there will be two entry points, and previously we'd assumed that one would be for Horde and another would be for Alliance. But that's not the case-- instead, each of the zones (the Borean Tundra and the Howling Fjord) will have an entry point for each faction. So there will actually be four ways into the expansion. Alliance get to choose a battle in the Howling Fjord or a massive stronghold (complete with a brand new faction leader) and a giant steamship And Horde either go into the Forsaken's new lands (with new architecture-- we saw it at BlizzCon), or into Garrosh Hellscream's (son of Grom) Warsong Fortress. Very exciting. Hearing about four entry points instead of two definitely makes me think that we will be able to avoid the whole Hellfire Peninsula lag problem that plagued BC's release. Keep the WotLK info coming, Blizzard!
PC Zone has Wrath PvP teaser info
PC Zone magazine has an interview with WoW Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan. In it Kaplan reveals details about Wrath of the Lich King PvP warfare as well as the epic feel players will experience when first entering Northrend. Sounds great, huh?Unfortunately, you have to buy the magazine today to get the entire interview. They have only released a snippet of it online to send us into a frenzy of anticipation. What we learn from this sneak peek is that the Northrend PvP zone, Lake Wintergrasp, will be about the size of Westfall and will be all PvP. No PvE objectives in it at all. It will also be a static zone, not instanced. He also mentions that it will have destructible buildings and siege weapons, which we knew from his Leipzig interviews. Not much new there other than the size comparison to Westfall.Kaplan also talked about learning from the Hellfire Peninsula experience. This entry point into the first expansion wasn't epic enough. The design team wants to raise the bar for Northrend. We know from earlier interviews that entry into the expansion will be split. The Alliance will grab their sword and the Horde will get their own damn battlecry and both head into either Howling Fjord or Borean Tundra. How Blizzard is going to raise the bar is still a mystery.Argh! More infoz, please! If anyone gets their hands on the magazine, send us a tip with details. We'll happily give you credit.EDIT: Clarified entry points for both factions.[via World of Raids]%Gallery-5525%
More details on Blizzcast 2008
Blizzplanet got a hold of more details of Blizzard's newly announced video podcast. You read that right, it's not just a podcast, but a video podcast. And it's coming the first week of January.Along with the previously announced interviews with WoW Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan about the upcoming Patch 2.4 Sunwell content and Art Director Sam Didier, fans will get their say as well. Blizzard will be soliciting questions from the players and giving replies to Community Managers Karune and Nethaera. I suppose that means we'll be seeing them on the Blizzcast as well.Video podcasting is tricky business. Production value can make or break it. Fortunately, Blizzard is known for their high level of production value in everything they do, so I am looking forward to seeing how this goes. Either way, the content may trump all since we all want to know more about Sunwell.But I'm also a little suspicious of the "first week in January" promise for the first Blizzcast. Coming out of a two week holiday, it will be a miracle for any company to pull off something as labor intensive as a video podcast. Time will tell.[via MMO-Champion]EDIT: After the writing of this article, Blizzard has confirmed that the first installment will be an audio podcast.
Blizzard planning an official podcast in 2008
According to the official StarCraft II forums, Blizzard is going to enter of the world of official podcasting-- BlizzCast is set to take off sometime, we're told, around January 2008, which, I believe, makes this the first time Blizzard has ever guessed at a release date for one of their upcoming projects! Write it in the history books! All kidding aside, it should definitely be something to set your iTunes for-- there'll be interviews with Samwise Didier and Jeff Kaplan, and supposedly "a sweepstakes/giveaway and LOTS of SWAG." Swag, you say? Sounds enticing.Of course, this will be an official podcast, so while it'll definitely be a good listen, it probably shouldn't replace that other Warcraft podcast in your diet. But hopefully, if Blizzard does it right, the podcast will be another outlet for them to share not only news and hints about upcoming content, but make several issues and questions clear for the player audience at large. Can't wait to hear what they come up with-- sounds like it'll be a fun addition to their website in the new year.[Via MMO-Champion]
Tigole interviewed by Warcry
Warcry posted an interview with Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan (WoW's lead designer) last Friday, and while he doesn't reveal anything super new, he does confirm a few directions Blizzard is headed in with the game-- away from grinds, opening up more endgame content for players, and incorporating daily quests into more facets of player advancement.Kaplan does say that Blizzard thought the progression rate for Burning Crusade was done well, and that they are looking at getting even more players involved in endgame, which, with the coming of Zul'Aman and the lowering of the Heroic reputations, is something we've observed before. He says also that Blizzard is planning to involve reputation more with daily quests, while at the same time making sure it's not a grind (hopefully this will mean gaining reputation from daily quests like the new ones-- attaching instance runs or battleground fights to daily quests, with reputation as a reward). And finally, Kaplan hints at lore in Wrath of the Lich King, specifically saying that "Humans, Dwarves, Tauren, and Trolls will all have their storylines developed further" in Northrend.Sounds fun. He doesn't give any indication of where they are in the development process for the expansion (he does work for Blizzard, after all), but it definitely does sound like Blizzard is hard at work hammering WotLK together.
A Tigole flashback to Legacy of Steel
Reader Dbandith sent us this little gem-- it's Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan's old EQ guild page from back in 2002. Back before Blizzard really got started with World of Warcraft, they raided (pun intended) the biggest guilds in a few other MMOs, most notably EverQuest, for developers, and some of those folks became the Blues that we know and love today. I know both Tigole and Alex "Furor" Afrasiabi came from EQ guilds (and in fact, their old guilds still play WoW, and it's gotten them in trouble at least once), and Rob Pardo originally ran Legacy of Steel, the guild that Tigole came from.But this little flashback is extremely interesting, not only for the post at the top of the page-- it's very cool to see a fresh-faced Tigole, one excited about breaking the MMO mold and not a guy concerned with balancing Arena Ratings and an expansion beta schedule-- but also for the expletive-filled post at the bottom. "Fix your goddamn buggy bull**** half-assed encounters," rages Tigole at the EQ staff. And he sounds just like the same folks raging on the forums about Blizzard's current problems, even if their language isn't quite as strong as his.Now don't get me wrong-- Kaplan and Blizzard have done an amazing job, and created one of the best games in history. Fighting over Brewfest bugs (or even one tree of one class in the game) is 1000% better than fighting over the entire act of playing the game itself-- there's no question in my mind that Kaplan and all of the other raiders brought on board at Blizzard pushed the MMO genre light years ahead of where it was back in their raiding time. But it is an interesting sight to see Blizzard devs on the other side of the message board posting button, raging against mistakes in implementation just as so many on Blizzard's forums are today.Thanks, Dbandith!
More info on the Patch 2.3 PvP trinkets
None other than Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan answered multiple questions concerning the new PvP trinkets announced for Patch 2.3. Here's a summary of his comments: All versions of the trinket have a click effect to gain 1750 max health (kind of like the old lifegiving gem effect), along with a passive effect (your choice of 47 spell damage, 40 spell crit rating, 80 attack power, 40 melee crit rating, or 88 healing). (source) They cost badges of justice, which will also be available off Kara and Zul Aman bosses. (source) They're open to all classes. The click effects share a cooldown though, so you won't be able to stack that effect. (source) One player was very unhappy that he would be forced to PvE just so he can got back to PvP'ing. Kaplan responded that experiencing different parts of the game isn't such a bad thing and stood his ground on that decision. I wonder if he'd feel the same if he forced PvE players into PvP for better gear.
Unofficial Patch 2.3 notes
With the avalanche of information from Blizzard in the last week about Patch 2.3 it's been hard to keep track of it all. Fortunately, two sites have done just that. MMO-Champion and World of Raids have both compiled all the blue notes into a theoretical Test Realm Patch 2.3 Notes list. Most of the notes listed have links leading to the official source of the information.There will be a great deal more in the patch than what the blues have revealed so far, so take these as only partial lists. Also, a few items Blizzard hoped to get into the patch may not make it. This is the unfortunate truth in the development process.World of Warcraft Lead Developer Jeff Kaplan, aka Tigole, mentioned that Patch 2.3 may hit the Test server this week. This seems very likely since the current patch on the PTRs, 2.2.2, must move off for Brewfest to go live on Tuesday.
More WotLK and future content info from Leipzig
Monde Persistants, a French Warcraft site, has released their full interview with Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan and Art Director Chris Robinson from last week's Leipzig Games Convention. Some of this information we already know, but there's quite a bit that was new to us. You can read the entire interview (in English!) and see the video at MP. Here's the summary of the new items: Part of the lore behind the Wrath of the Lich King expansion has Arthas trying to seduce players to the dark side, both Alliance and Horde. Part of the Death Knight lore will have them "break away" from the Lich King influence to be free agents, the way the Forsaken have broken away from being mindless undead. Death Knights will "probably" be able to inscribe any weapon with their Runes that give them power. Ulduar is going to be a new raid instance. It's controlled by storm giants and is a fortress of the Titans like Uldaman and Maruadon according to WoW lore. The Nerubians (spider guys) will host a few instances at the underground Azjol'Nerub. The Nexus will have a L70 5-man instance. The main boss in the CoT: Stratholme instance will be Mal'ganis. Possibly new daily quests introduced with the Sunwell Plateau patch (2.4?) Previous information gathered from Leipzig can be found here.Via World of Raids
Blizzard interviews Nihilum at Leipzig
In the last four days, we've reported on interviews with Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan at the European Game Conference going on currently in Leipzig, Germany. So far he has dropped many new bits of information about the Wrath of the Lich King and some new patch content coming before that. Turns out, Blizzard is reporting on its own activities at Leipzig on its official European page. In addition to the Wrath and Starcraft II demo stations, Blizzard hosted the demise of Illidan Stormrage. Uberguild Nihilum performed a Black Temple raid live at the Blizzard booth in front of 5,000 spectators. Afterwards, Blizzard gave away the keyboards signed by members of Nihilum to the crowd. Blizzard also interviewed the guild. You can read it here.With the convention wrapping up today, we'll have to start looking elsewhere for more news on the upcoming expansion.
Two Blizzard inverviews from Leipzig now on video
Yesterday, new Wrath of the Lich King information began trickling out of the Leipzig Game Convention in Germany. Journalists are lining up to talk to Blizzard and two of the interviews with Warcraft Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan can be viewed as video. First, we reported on German game site Buffed's interview with Jeff Kaplan that revealed more details of the new COT: Stratholme instance and an explanation of the Death Knight rune system. If you go to their page, scroll down past all that German and you'll find a video of the interview (in English!)Later in the day, we covered Curse Gaming's own interview with Kaplan that announced Utgarde Pinnacle, gave more detail on the new Inscription profession, revealed the plan behind the increased pre-60 leveling curve and explored the dev's thoughts about giving the Hunter class some PvP love. Now Curse has put up a video of the interview.Leipzig isn't over yet. Hopefully we'll have more revelations before the weekend is over.
More Wrath info from Leipzig
It seems that WoW Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan has a new bit of expansion information for every journalist he talks to at this week's European Game Conference in Leipzig, Germany. This batch of news comes from Curse gaming, who has sent a couple of journalists over to get the scoop. We already know about the L70 instance called Utgarde Keep in the Howling Fjord zone. Now we learn that there will be a second wing of the instance for L80 players called Utgarde Pinnacle. Both dungeons will have Normal and Heroic modes. Yay for key grinding! Anybody? The new Inscription profession will do more than increases effectiveness of spells and abilities. Devs are playing with the concept of using Inscription to improve other elements like range, duration, etc. The "increased leveling curve" of levels 20-60 is going to be accomplished two ways: reduction of the amount of experience required per level and increasing the amount of experience a quest grants by 30%. To address Hunter concerns, Blizzard is considering a Woodworking profession as well as a Mortal Strike kind of ability that reduces healing effectiveness on the target in PvP. These are just ideas they are currently considering and have not been confirmed as going live. The full interview can be read on Curse's front page. Curse promises a video of the interview later tonight. I'll update this post with the link when it goes live.As for the pre-60 leveling increase, I've been toying with leveling an enhancement shaman, but have been weary about the grind. This may be the incentive to get me to accomplish that goal. Is this enough for you? Will you level an alt before the expansion?
New pre-WotLK zone announced: Sunwell Plateau
ActionTrip cornered WoW Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan and Art Director Chris Robinson today at the Leipzig Game Convention in Germany (E3 for Europe.) And boy, did they get a lot out of those two about Blizzard's plans for the future. Here are the highlights: The art for the expansion will look more like classic Warcraft (gothic fantasy), and less like Outlands art (high fantasy) Sunwell Plateau will be coming in a patch before the WotLK launch. It will include both a 25-main raid and a 5-main instance with both normal and heroic mode. WotLK will have "just as much" 5-man instances as TBC and more 10-main instances due to the popularity of Karazhan A new PvP area called Lake Wintergrass will combine world PvP (non-instanced) with the new siege weapons and destructible buildings. The faction that controls this zone may receive an effect that not only applies to the zone, but to the whole continent When asked about class balance, they said they had no plans for any major changes to classes The Death Knight unlocking quest will start at level 55-60 If I'm not mistaken, the Sunwell Plateau is north east of Silvermoon city, the Blood Elf capital. I hope Blizzard is planning some kind of Alliance friendly transportation into the area with the introduction of the Zul'Aman raid zone in Patch 2.3. If not, they are definitely going to need it for these new zones.Full interview can be read here. Via WorldOfWar.NetEDIT: In regards to #14's comment: Stratholme is the new CoT instance according to this interview with Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan aka "Tigole." It is a 5-man, Level 80 instance. You will travel to the past before Arthas was corrupted and help him rid the city of demons and burn it down. As far as we can tell, the Sunwell Plateau will only be accessible by traveling there physically.That same article also mentioned that future Hero Classes could be Demon Hunter, Archmage or Blademaster.He also talked about the Death Knight rune system. What runes the Death Knight carves into his blade will determine what role he plays in the group (i.e tank, dps, a mix of the two, etc.)In this separate interview, Kaplan revealed another new WotLK instance, Nexus, located in the Borean Tundra zone. It will be split into several wings, one of them for a 25-man raid that must defeat Malygyos, the blue dragon.
The masterminds of WoW on gaming
Have you ever wondered what the names and faces behind WoW do in their off time? In the recent interview 1up had with Shane Dabiri, Rob Pardo, Jeff Kaplan, and Tom Chilton, we get to find out a bit about that -- at least in regards to some of the games that they're playing right now. Two of them were really no surprise to me: Guitar Hero II and God of War. Those two have been all over the gaming media and are a lot of fun to play, so it makes total sense. The two titles that caught me off guard were several mentions of Viva Pinata and Rob saying that he plays the PopCap game, Peggle. They also covered some great background information from their gaming roots, to some ways they think WoW has changed the genre. Check it out!
Joystiq Interviews Jeff Kaplan
Joystiq managed to get a interview with World of Warcraft's lead designer, Jeff Kaplan, (you may know him as "Tigole" on the forums) - and there's some interesting stuff here. Of course there's a lot of info here, but some of the most interesting talk revolves around the new PvP system. As was posted earlier, the system will consist of arena matches of 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 which will can be alliance v. horde, alliance v. alliance, or horde v. horde and cross-server. And the honor system as we know it will be gone entirely - to quote Kaplan: It's a competitive-based ladder that uses a rating system similar to the chess ELO rating. One of the key differences is that we require a minimum number of games that you have to play. Unlike in the chess system where if you're on top, you can just sit there, we wanted to ensure that the No. 1 guy can be knocked off his top spot. But, we don't require too many games. We'll require something around ten games. Further, honor points as we know them will be significantly changed. There will be no more honor decay and instead of determining your PVP rank, the honor points you accumulate can be spent to purchase PVP gear. And other tidbits touched on by the interview include... News that there's been some thought about implementing voice chat in the game, though it won't be coming in the Burning Crusade. Dungeons (though whether all dungeons, or simply expansion dungeons) will have a "normal" and "hard" difficulty setting, and loot will be adjusted accordingly. They're currently anticipating new races with every expansion - though there is a finite limit on the number of races in Azeroth. I can't help but be excited about this news.
Exclusive: Joystiq interviews WoW's Jeff Kaplan
Earlier this week, I sat down with Jeff Kaplan, lead designer for World of Warcraft, to chat about the state of the highly successful MMO and what was in store with the coming expansion, The Burning Crusade.Jeff had some great things to say, and gave really good insight on what is going on behind the scenes at WoW. Take a look after the break at the full interview which includes some exclusives never known before about what's coming up.
Xfire's E3 Coverage
Xfire has posted a video of their E3 interviews. It's not really focusing on news (which we've probably all seen by this point already), but commentary (some interesting and some just for comic value) from Jeff Kaplan (Tigole), Caydiem, Ordinn, and Eyonix. It's an entertaining watch with a few interesting tidbits, though I must admit that I had to laugh when Tigole commented, "We know the honor system is a bit of a grind."
