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World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King screenshot

VideoGamer.com: The expansion will have prettier graphics than the previous expansion and the original game. How far can you go with that? Is there a cut off point where you have to make a new World of Warcraft with much better graphics?

TC: That's certainly possible. A lot of different online games have taken that approach. You can debate how well that's actually worked out for them, which is why we're taking the approach a little more organically, deciding what the graphic features are we're going to release on a per patch or per expansion basis. This time around we've got new shader technology to allow the terrain to look better, more realistic ice effects. You can actually see much further than the game previously allowed you to. We've also introduced a new shadow system, so you can have character shadows or object shadows, things like that.

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VideoGamer.com: So how many expansions before you need to do that reboot?

TC: It may never be necessary. It may be possible that just through constant iteration that we're able to keep the game looking fresh enough. I mean for us it's never been a priority to have the highest tech game on the market. It's never been a priority. For us usability is a lot more important. We want to make sure that our game runs very well on low system specs. We want to make sure that our engine supports our stylised look. So for us it's really more that kind of iterative improvement works a little bit better for us. So, at least that's the approach we're going with for now.

VideoGamer.com: Do you guys expect a drop off when Warhammer Online comes out?

TC: It's hard to say. We haven't really experienced any meaningful drop-offs in the past.

VideoGamer.com: So Age of Conan didn't result in a drop-off?

TC: Yeah. It doesn't seem to have affected us very negatively. And we're still growing. Obviously it's impossible to predict, well what would you have had if they had not? But it never really had significant impact. But that's not to say that some other one in the future won't, it could be Warhammer, it could be some other game. It's definitely a possibility. It doesn't do us much good to sit around and worry about that. We just make the best game we think that we can make and if people like it that's great, if people want to play something else then that's how it goes.

JAB: If it's a good game then I'm excited about playing it. You know I'm a gamer, so I hope that's a great game because that's more fun for me to have with other games.

VideoGamer.com: So will you credit all the developers who worked on the game then?

JAB and TC: (Blank faces).

VideoGamer.com: Have you seen this online?

JAB and TC: No.

VideoGamer.com: Oh. Earlier this week Shacknews had a story with quotes from some people who worked on Warhammer Online who aren't going to be credited on the game and aren't very happy about it.

JAB: So they don't work on Warhammer any more?

VideoGamer.com: Not any more but they were saying they had a sizeable input in the game.

JAB: For us, anyone who worked on the game we try to credit appropriately. Even if we had people leave. We actually had hardly any people leave so we didn't really have to deal with that. But just from me from a philosophy standpoint if someone left, they have no idea what happened after they left, they have no idea whether they had to get rid of their stuff or re-work it or anything. They lose the right to complain if they leave. It's a weird thing to be angry about I guess.

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