Q&A: Blizzard's Jon LeCraft

Hours before The Burning Crusade launched in Europe, one of Blizzard's senior designers talks about the expansion's development.

World of Warcraft needs few introductions nowadays, and the launch of the game's first expansion has been one of the PC's biggest talking points in the past few months. To find out a little more about the decisions behind The Burning Crusade, we got some time in London with one of the game's senior designers, Jon LeCraft, in the build up to the game's UK launch.

GameSpot UK: There are a lot of people playing World of Warcraft right now, so how many of the 8 million do you expect to invest in the expansion?

Jon LeCraft: I personally expect it to be pretty high; I can't imagine not buying the expansion if you're playing the game. I'm in a guild, where they don't know who I am, and everybody said yes, although one guy said he couldn't afford it. I told him it'd be worth skipping a few meals for. [Laughs] Seriously though, I do think it will help our numbers, because there are people who have taken a break, who'll come back and check Burning Crusade out.

GSUK: The game was delayed from December to add polish--did that go well?

JL: Yeah, definitely, and that time was really well spent--I'm glad we took that time. Not only were we able to polish the content, but we were able to add in some stuff that wouldn't have made it otherwise.

GSUK: What kinds of things?

JL: Mainly a lot of quests and making sure the outdoor content was a lot of fun. We took different philosophies when we were creating the monsters, and we wanted to make sure that everything was reactive, or would change your gameplay style somehow--to make it more dynamic really.

GSUK: Quests in MMORPGs seem to have limited scope in terms of a variety of style. Is finding different ways of getting players from one place to the next a challenge?

JL: Yeah, mostly the quests are there to make sure you're doing something while levelling up, so you don't feel like you have to go randomly kill a thousand of one type of monster--although some people do. The quest designers are always trying to find some new way to make it cool, but not too complex. We don't have branching quest lines for example, but we do have a nice solid reward at the end, keeping it simple, keeping you traveling, and so on.

GSUK: Accessibility has been a significant factor in World of Warcraft's success, but keeping dedicated players online is also important. How difficult is it to balance the two?

JL: It's fairly difficult. You end up creating content that can be frustrating to the casual player if they stumble across it, so you have to introduce a couple of steps that you have to achieve before you can even access it. But generally for the more hardcore, it's the "difficult to master" part, and those are a lot of fun to design--it can be challenging, but for the most part that's where we have loads of fun.

GSUK: The level cap's been raised--why did you decide on making the new cap 70?

JL: With a lot of those things we try to go with what feels right. We discuss all the possibilities and try to determine what the expectation is, what would feel too long or too short. There are a lot of gut instincts that we go with, and then there's the side that we want to have enough levels because we want to include this much content, so there's a few things in the decision.

GSUK: With the two new races, did you have fun making the starter areas?

JL: Oh yeah, we haven't made a starter area for two years, so it was a lot of fun to go back and make those and improve on our old philosophies, and make them really different looking, too. Of course, we also tried something different with the blood elves, because you hit the city before you hit the other areas.

GSUK: You added more to the professions, including jewelcrafting and specialisations to tailoring and alchemy--will crafting become more central to the game moving forward?

JL: Yeah, a lot of those options were added so that you'd feel there were meaningful choices in selecting your craft, especially the "bind-on-acquire" armour and weapons. Some of those, I don't even think they have parallels in the game right now, although they still require you to go to the dungeons and get "bind-on-pickup" items and so on. But we also wanted people to be able to differentiate themselves more, and say "Hey, I'm a Spellfire tailor," and so on.

GSUK: What impact do you think the new, lower raid numbers [25 players instead of 40] limit will have on raiding guilds in The Burning Crusade?

JL: I think it's going to reduce the numbers of some guilds, or they may have to put some people on the sidelines, who may in turn decide to leave and start new guilds. It is going to affect their memberships for sure, because not everybody will be able to go on a raid. But everybody's role in the raid is now more meaningful; that's one of the reasons we did that. In some encounters in the past, you could have about 15 people in the raid that could just about be doing anything, so it should be more beneficial overall.

GSUK: It's been said previously that there's the potential to go on making World of Warcraft for another 25 years. Are you happy that there are enough different directions that you could go in with that?

JL: I think that's a pretty good estimate. We've got the longevity in the game, we own the world, the creative rights, so we can go in all kinds of directions. There's just a lot of lore and areas that exist, in Warcraft 3 and so on, that we haven't even touched, not to mention all the ones that we might end up creating. Although I do think we'll try to touch upon the ones that are in the previous lore first before we go on and make something new, like we have with Outland.

GSUK: Thanks for your time.

83 Comments

  • Urthrun

    Posted Jan 23, 2007 9:03 am GMT

    In the video game business, a company such as blizzard would most likely hire free lance artists to help the long time members of blizzard. The free lance artist, works a set contract >a game, or even part of a game

  • xspawn69

    Posted Jan 17, 2007 1:02 pm GMT

    When asked about StarCraft: Ghost, Sams said that it was on indefinite hold, but that Blizzard wasn't averse to exploring further console development in the future. "We've been up to MS and they've been at our office talking about Vista and 360," Sams said, "and we're certainly excited about some of the tools they have to offer in the console world as well as with Vista and DirectX 10. However, with our own online gaming service, we're going to pick and choose what we want to use; we're going to protect Battle.net and make sure Battle.net ranks supreme."

    From ign.com

  • Alcotamaysees

    Posted Jan 17, 2007 10:35 am GMT

    25 years of World of Warcraft? How many people would be playing?

  • MR_TIBB

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 11:07 pm GMT

    I am with many in the wish that they would announce Diablo 3 already...

    I never could get into the MMORPG...

  • Night_Frost

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 7:20 pm GMT

    Grrr....where the heck is Starcraft Ghost? I'll be long dead before it FINALLY goes into developement and even then It'll get delayed cause WoW needs ANOTHER expansion, how many are they gonna need, seriously?

  • Ashkanhoss29

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 6:00 pm GMT

    I NEED THE COLLECTORS EDITION.....WHY CANT THEY JUST RELEASE THE DAMN THING!!!

  • comthitnuong

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 4:59 pm GMT

    no! 25 more years??!! that means no starcraft 2

  • AJGebauer

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 3:48 pm GMT

    I'm a bit disappointed with your interview. Having spent some time in the WoW forums, it seems like a major question that should've been asked is why new classes weren't added and why Blizzard decided to make all classes available to both sides. WoW is being tranformed into Warcraft 2 in which the horde and alliance sides are identical. What's the point in playing on one side or the other when they're now the same? Even before BC, the HWL weapons were identical but with different names. The armor/weapons available to horde are also available to alliance. Any differences what once existed between the two sides are purely cosmetic now.

    Another question you missed is what effect the new lvl cap will have given that only people who purchase BC can get to lvl 70. Essentially, everyone is being forced to buy the expansion or get left behind. Require it to play as blood elves, require it to go to Outlands, require it to learn jewelcrafting, require it for flying mounts, but don't require it to achieve the max level. They risk the game becoming very unbalanced as a result. The power differential that's soon to develop is scary.

    Lastly, although more trivial, is why there was no BC event leading to the expansion's release. The Ahn Qiraj and Scourge Invasion lasted weeks and involved every player. The culmination of each event was a fairly impressive climax involving alot of fighting and alot of dying. Great stuff! For BC? Highlord Kruul attacks, rarely, and that's it. No collection of supplies for war, no destroying flying necropli, just a few light attacks from one badass. It was thoroughly forgettable.

    Seems like the effort Blizzard once put into this game has waned, possibly due to the fact they're pulling in $1 billion a year and could stop developing new content altogether without taking much of a financial hit. BC doesn't do anything new or break any boundries. It's more of the same to keep people playing. That'd be fine and expected with another MMO but given how many players WoW has, I'm surprised more wasn't done to try and freshen the formula.

  • gatsbythepig

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 3:11 pm GMT

    LeCraft? Sounds like a witch.

  • Mr_Saturn26

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 2:35 pm GMT

    i say forget WoW, and work on Starcraft, and especially Diablo 3.

  • Jebril

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 1:36 pm GMT

    Why is Blizzard ditching it's other two franchises?

    We still love Starcraft and Diablo!!

    And they will make a ton of money if they realse a sequel to one of these franchises.

    Except Starcraft Ghost no one will buy that thing.

  • luke_wj

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 12:26 pm GMT

    25 Years ehh... It's would be wierd if it did last for 25 years more from now. I'm 17 now so i'm finding it hard to imagine still playing World of Warcraft when i'm 42.

  • cjcr_alexandru

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 12:00 pm GMT

    Enough about WoW. I want Diablo 3!

  • dryden555

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 11:23 am GMT

    actually its well documented that employees of the WOW team have regularly been leaving for other career opportuinities. nothing wrong with that but it likely slowed down development of Burning Crusade, patches, server upgrades in the past etc. Some more WOW staff left last week. google it if you want more info.

  • Cloud737

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 11:14 am GMT

    Couldn`t Gamespot ask a few questions about the next Warcraft (note I`m not referring to expansions or WoW), Starcraft or Diablo?

  • Brown52

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 10:00 am GMT

    I'm glad I don't own WoW. I can see my life being drained away if I had that game.

    But on to the interview, if I had a Blizzard rep who was going to sit and answer questions, the first thing I would ask would be starcraft 2?? Even if the guy was on WoW and probably didn't know anything about it.

  • Blazer88

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 9:30 am GMT

    I decided a long time ago I wasn't going to bother with this. WoW is s good game and all but you would have to have pretty high tolerance for repititopn if you are srill playing it at this point, even more so if your going to go out and buy what has to be historically one the weakest first expansions ever released for MMORPG by not adding a single new class.
    One can only hope that Blizz is working on Diablo 3 and raids are insanely boring and probably one the worst features in WoW.

  • peeweeshift

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 8:05 am GMT

    diablo was so boring. it just involved using an unbalanced tactic and grinding for hours apon end. WoW has so many quests and things to do. and raids are so much better than anything diablo offers

  • Berem

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 7:00 am GMT

    WORLD OF DIABLO IS BETTERRrrrrr

  • GodzillaX8

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 6:49 am GMT

    I'm sick of WoW. Give me Diablo 3 or shut up, Blizzard. Oh, and by the way, I'm not pleased with the total lack of caring for the Diablo 2 servers, you jerks.

  • KuroriKenshin

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 5:52 am GMT

    I personally want to thank Blizzard for adding more content to a game that slowly was turning into nothing but a hardcore, "I-must-adhear-to-my-raid-schedule" type of game. Seriously to get anything near decent gear to survive, you had to raid with your guild at least 3 times a week and do it for months to get anything good. Endgame content became nothing but a bore for the solo player. All in all WoW is a game for people who enjoy their RPGs with people as opposed to consoles, in most cases. Personally I balance my time between a social life, consoles, and MMO's in general (not to mention work) so it is very difficult to balance 4 time consuming issues. Which is why it is finally good to be able to do something different in a game that is still the best of its kind, especially for the one who doesn't have weeks to spend online

  • MiniBeas

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 3:14 am GMT

    Where are you getting your info that all of the art designers have left Blizzard?

  • AL13NK1LL3R

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 2:06 am GMT

    i agree with u gif!!



    gif comment " it was fun for the beta and the few months after but now? Its just boring and the all is does is copy certain aspects of every MMOG but do it sucessfully. Nothing is really new in the game and I think its a clear example of what happens to a developer when they get to big and focus too much on a endlessly balancing a game that they forget about the game and the fact that customers want more content. Its been 1-2 years and the first expansion is finally out? Plus, the game is dated by todays standards, great art direction but even the art director skipped town and doesn't work for Blizzard. In fact, a large number of artists and designers responsible for Diablo, World of Warcraft and Starcraft have left Blizzard. Now it seems like it will just be a money hungry corporation more akin to EA. I really feel its going to focus more on money as Blizzard really isn't stretching it arms with other types of games other than MMOGs. Lets face it, MMOGs aren't for everyone, including those that play casually and want a social life. Blizzard fouled up with Starcraft Ghost by shelving it or throwing it in development hell. I mean it was looking awesome and all it needed was to be reworked for next generation consoles and it I would buy it without a doubt. Who wouldn't? Its a Stealth Sci-Fi game and would have given Blizzard fans not into MMOGs a great alternative."

  • elektrixxx

    Posted Jan 16, 2007 1:44 am GMT

    It took ages for my friend to install WoW.

  • danielee

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 10:13 pm GMT

    i have my box..installing now.../cross fingers

  • owman

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 9:53 pm GMT

    Spartan4001, if you have a brain, nothing BAD this game didn't do with you, only good.

  • GIF

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 9:02 pm GMT

    It was fun for the beta and the few months after but now? Its just boring and the all is does is copy certain aspects of every MMOG but do it sucessfully. Nothing is really new in the game and I think its a clear example of what happens to a developer when they get to big and focus too much on a endlessly balancing a game that they forget about the game and the fact that customers want more content. Its been 1-2 years and the first expansion is finally out? Plus, the game is dated by todays standards, great art direction but even the art director skipped town and doesn't work for Blizzard. In fact, a large number of artists and designers responsible for Diablo, World of Warcraft and Starcraft have left Blizzard. Now it seems like it will just be a money hungry corporation more akin to EA. I really feel its going to focus more on money as Blizzard really isn't stretching it arms with other types of games other than MMOGs. Lets face it, MMOGs aren't for everyone, including those that play casually and want a social life. Blizzard fouled up with Starcraft Ghost by shelving it or throwing it in development hell. I mean it was looking awesome and all it needed was to be reworked for next generation consoles and it I would buy it without a doubt. Who wouldn't? Its a Stealth Sci-Fi game and would have given Blizzard fans not into MMOGs a great alternative.

  • Zonelezz

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 8:19 pm GMT

    lol i guess its time to head back in burnign crusade for another 6 months.. hmm hopefully alot has changed..

  • xonix6

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 7:05 pm GMT

    I have not played wow for a good over 5 months now but this might just bring me back into the game lol, but I have decided to wait two or so weeks to buy it, i really want a new character, so this way the new areas wont be so over populated with new chars lol, anyway if anything i think people should just wait a couple of weeks before buying it let the "hype" die down a bit so ur not overwhelmed lol. My 2 Cents.

  • The_MrB

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 6:51 pm GMT

    Even though I haven't played WoW for a good while now, and never really got into it, I have to admit, it's fun just watching this gaming phenomenon develop and grow. It will be interesting to see how fast this expansion sells and how much it increases the already astonishing subscriber count. I wouldn't be surprised if there were 12 million subscribers this time next year.

  • Neosword

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 6:40 pm GMT

    JoeSSJ3, you couldn't be more wrong. A human being can become addicted to anything. You saying that tells me that you haven't, but trust me, many can.

  • JoeSSJ3

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 6:30 pm GMT

    Congratulations to Blizzard .

    Oh, and XD at all the people who think WoW is a bad game because of what it does to people. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you can't be addicted to a video game. You can have a lot of fun with it and might not want to stop, but if anyone ignores their social life and becomes a wreck because of it, its their fault, not the games, and they should seek help.

  • robbie_basic

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 6:21 pm GMT

    They could easily go 25 years. Outland has the potential to open portals to any world they want. There is speculation of a whole other contenant on the otherside of Azeroth. The Caverns of Time can be expanded almost infinitely, plus there are already numerous random future content nodes spread around the world.

    Plenty of room for expanding.

  • DirtyRotten

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 6:00 pm GMT

    Another 25 years? ye-ah...right. Oh and for the record people have died over many games. Everquest produced some of the worst cases and who could forget all the madness in Korea over Starcraft?

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 5:40 pm GMT

    25 years? I don't think so.

  • iamBenG

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 5:00 pm GMT

    The servers will probably not crash, it will probalby be down for a while but not crash, there will be ppl makeing new cahrs (most likely those who dont have 60s) but those who do have 60s will probalby be heading directly to outland. I have a 60 Dwarf paly and i plan on ehading to the dark portal right away.

  • chiefmegadeth

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 4:45 pm GMT

    I have a mate that gave up WoW for Gears of War...
    The fact it was turning he's life to crap cause he felt he had to be on 10to12 hours a day!
    Now i have my Best mate back!!!!
    The time i new he was in over he's head was when KREATOR tickets went on sale and he said he would get them some other time.Cause he had to raid or some crap,And we love Kreator german heavy metal is our lifeblood
    well anyway he finally played Gears,and didn't leave my place until he finished
    it.That was like wtf he hadn't played any other game since Wow came out...
    Now he's a Gears nut,and we thrash the game,but not to the point where the game controls us?
    Anyway he played for about year and 4months he's name was REVAN KOTOR he's on the forums blizards about it lofar server(i think thats how you spell it)"well he was a member now he's a member of the COG!

    I never throught a game could do that and i heard stories about it,and they came true.
    anyway be carful people cause it can happen to anyone?

    thanks Epic for making a game so damn awesome you derailed a WoW freak and gave him he's life back!!!!
    100% true Oh yeah Kreator was amazing!

    Gears of War baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • NRIAgent

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 4:28 pm GMT

    I played, got to level 20 or so and then got bored. It has more longevity in the game, you could play it for months easily, some people for years... but nothing is really spectacular either, with the exception of maybe ease of use. I'll give WoW another shot maybe if I can find the time. Being a college student doesn't leave much alone time hehe.

  • death919

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 4:17 pm GMT

    WoW is ownage, greatest game ever made. It's also never-ending, which I love.

    Burning Crusade will own!!! Only a day left!!! WOOOOOT!!!

  • dannyb1988

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 4:16 pm GMT

    Yeah i agree Spartan4001...people have died playing this game, and i dont just mean in-game! It does sound like a good game, but some people enjoy a good social life too!

  • Spartan4001

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 3:46 pm GMT

    I will never touch this game. I've seen what it does to people.

  • Sumotaii

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 3:15 pm GMT

    STARCRAFT 2. Make that and then make a game worthy of a sequel of Warcraft 2.

    Us East Ladder Challenges is back. Toylander 4 Life. where is tae-z

  • sancezz

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 2:55 pm GMT

    Would anyone really still be wanting to play this game in 25 years time? I don't think so, a bit optimistic methinks. a couple of years more at most.

  • 1unateck

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 2:55 pm GMT

    Emm... "It's been said previously that there's the potential to go on making World of Warcraft for another 25 years." Translation: "No Warcraft 4, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 for 25 years more. Starcraft Ghost, scraped!"

    Tis sux..

  • jingesu99

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 2:54 pm GMT

    For all the people waiting for Diablo 3, I doubt it will be happening soon since many key people are doing hellgates london, so I would probably take some times to recruit people and then to make the game. In the mean time, I'm anticipating Hellgates London. As for WoW, I'v got a few friends who are addicted to it, and its all they do now. I admit my self control sucks, so if it can drawl people in to the addiction level in a few weeks, I'm better without it. Besides, I don't have 15 bucks a month to burn.

  • frankpaladin

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 2:06 pm GMT

    Jon LeCraft, since you actually have enough time to sit down over with gamespot. can you please get a Diablo 3 or Starcraft 2 under development?

  • reece590

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 1:27 pm GMT

    This game is sure to sell 8 million copies....So, so, sad!

  • Greydawg

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 1:25 pm GMT

    I feel like I should bring up that over the past ten days in particular I have had PLENTY of connection issues already-----no less than 3 updates (and issues downloading 2 of them), an issue where I couldn't login (but Blizzard's help site was down for over 4 hours, grr), and an issue that required a total repair and reset of all my settings. For the record, no, I don't use third-party "mods", and resetting my settings, well, let's just say I still haven't gotten everything back to where I want it. .
    And you know what? This is all BEFORE the Burning Crusade's release?! Am I supposed to expect it to get better? Of course it's going to be more popular, and therefore probably more buggy, right? I'm TIRED of waiting in line to connect, only to see the wait time jump from 6 minutes to 28. .
    Here's my thing-------I used to justify my $15 monthly fee to my friends by telling them it pays for the servers to be up all the time, for the website and help to be available all the time, and for the in-game experience to be hacker-proof and otherwise safe. Lately, I've been seriously considering quitting just because of how FRUSTRATING it can be with Blizzard's problems/schedules, and if it gets worse after the release of the Burning Crusade, let's just say it won't make my decision any more difficult, that's for sure. After all, I only have ONE character, a level 40 mage, so the expansion pack doesn't apply to me at all, and certainly not enough for a $40 one-time purchase.

  • keinuveye

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 1:24 pm GMT

    OMG two days till i get my CE in the mail. Netherwhelp and artbook FTW

  • bbjones98

    Posted Jan 15, 2007 12:59 pm GMT

    what will i need to play the game PoderOmega

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