World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Preview

If you've somehow managed to explore all of WoW, The Burning Crusade is the answer.

Pro-G: What is The Burning Crusade trying to achieve?

JL: More things to do really, just to expand the game. We've added a lot of content, we've got new systems, levelling up to 70. That's really been the main thing. It's just like, "hey, what can we add that's fun and cool to do and make this an even bigger world?" Changing the philosophy was only done where it was necessary.

Pro-G: What's it like internally at Blizzard now? Is it great relief that the expansion is out or is everyone still very stressed because everyone is going to be playing it and there will be a tonne of feedback to wade through?

JL: There was huge relief when we finally hit the point where we were done and had the patch that was going to go out on patch day. And then we were so excited. We got our collector's editions early and were just like "wow!" But yeah, there's going to be some big changes. There's going to be some things that we're going to have to react to and that's generally a pretty stressful time.

Pro-G: What will you be keeping a close eye on?

JL: I'm on the class team specifically, so I'll be watching all the new talents and the new abilities really closely and see how they're getting used or not used, or abused. Things which are overpowered and other stuff. Either side of the spectrum.

Pro-G: That must be one of the most pressured positions to have on the team, given that class balance is one of the things that gets the fanbase most worked up.

JL: Yeah it is! Even internally it's high pressured. Somebody comes in to our office once per hour. There's a small team of us, but each of us is always getting some attention at some point during the day.

Pro-G: One of the things some players have noticed due to its absence is new classes. What was the thinking behind that?

JL: It was just to keep the scope manageable, to keep the game manageable. It is not our intention to never add a new class, it just wasn't for this particular expansion.

Will Blizzard continue to offer the same amount of free content?

Pro-G: As class guru is there anything you can hint at about what fans can expect when the new classes do come in?

JL: If we were going to do something like that we wouldn't have even been solid on it internally yet. I've got some leanings, but our philosophy on that is that we want to add something that is just totally different and is also going to fit in well with groups, can solo well and all that.

Pro-G: What percentage of players do you expect to pick up the expansion?

JL: I would hope 90 per cent. I would love to see 100 percent, but not everyone will pick it up. 90 per cent would be pretty amazing.

Pro-G: Is this the most important expansion in videogame history?

JL: Yeah. It's huge. It's just immense. It's got all kinds of momentum. Just our midnight openings are unheard of for something like this. I would say most people at Blizzard definitely have a grasp of how mammoth and important it is. There's an amazing sense of pride. Once we finished we were just so happy that for that many people the game will be fun. It's really cool.

Pro-G: On a personal level, do you and the rest of the team play the game much?

JL: Oh yeah, hardcore! I actually have five level 60s because I'm on the class team. The sad thing is I haven't even decided which one I prefer playing. I don't want to say specifically because I don't want people to take it that I have a preference. We have people that play everything on the team. If there's anything we don't play, we have people coming into our office every day telling us what's going on in-game, whether it's something they don't like, don't think is fair or think is too good.

Pro-G: What excites you most about The Burning Crusade?

JL: I'm really looking forward to the instances. I want to get a group together and head to Hellfire right away, and especially as some of my characters aren't well equipped. For the guys who have been raiding it won't be that exciting, but for the other guys who haven't they'll just see those blue items that drop off those bosses and be like "whoa!"

Will 90% of WoW subscribers buy the expansion?

Pro-G: What has the success of World of Warcraft meant for Blizzard?

JL: It means that there are going to be some cool games coming from the studio because we are very successful. We can definitely afford to take the time and put everything we want into new games. I think they're going to even be a step above what people expect.

Pro-G: Are these games already in development?

JL: Maybe!

Pro-G: What about a console version of World of Warcraft?

JL: We don't have any plans for it specifically. We always keep all our options on the radar but we don't have any plans for the immediate future.

Pro-G: Is it to do with having to use a joypad?

JL: That's partially it. You really do need a keyboard to play WoW. I've seen some mods where people have hooked up WoW to their Wii. When I saw that I was like, well, that's got to be pretty easy to PVP against, honestly. It's not something we're looking at right now.

Pro-G: What about Diablo and StarCraft? Are they being considered at the moment?

JL: We're always considering our licenses when we think about our next product. Those are really strong well known licensees. We own them completely so we can do whatever we want. We can take the fiction in whatever direction or apply whatever gameplay we want.

Pro-G: Can Blizzard run another MMO alongside WoW?

JL: I think that we have the capacity for another one.

Pro-G: Finally, what's next for you personally?

JL: I'm going back to the States and I'm going to play a lot and start working on our next content patch as well as our next expansion.

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is out now for PC and Macintosh.