After a year's absence, the story of Azeroth continues in China

During this year's ChinaJoy, World of Warcraft's Senior Director of Games, Ion Hazzikosta, and Executive Producer Holly Longdale were interviewed by the media near the pavilion.

In the group interview, they shared the opportunities and challenges they will face after more than a year away from the Chinese market. They'll be focusing on Wrath of the Lich King in nostalgia and the upcoming Battle in the Center of the Earth, and they'll be listening more to players' needs and opinions. They are looking forward to the future and have expressed their ambition to fight for another decade.

The following is a summary of the content of the group interview:

After more than 500 days of absence, what is the biggest challenge for the return of the national server? How do you regain the trust of your players?

Ion Hazzikosta: That's a very good question, and the most important thing is to regain the trust of our players, and we're doing it one day at a time, one thing at a time, like today's – and we're very happy to be here at ChinaJoy. At the same time, including the return of our Warcraft official server on August 1st, and the global synchronous entry into "Battle for the Center of the Earth" on August 27th, the most important thing is that we will always listen to the voice of our community, so that players can know that we have come to this market, and at the same time, we will stay here forever. At the same time, we will continue to provide the best possible experience and bring our players back into the global gaming community, the community we have been working on with all our lives.

Holly Longdale: I would add that a lot of things have changed in those 500 days, including Blizzard itself. In the meantime, we've had the release of the Dragon Legion version, the Season of Exploration, and more. We're trying a lot of things in other markets around the world to provide more content to our players, and we're going to be more willing to listen to our players. We're going to inherit all of these things and bring them to our events in China, so that our players in China can experience this progress. On the other hand, our partner NetEase is also closer to the Chinese market, and they will also listen to the opinions of players and give us good suggestions. We're also going to listen to some of the advice that players in China have given us, and we're going to take this very seriously, which is very important to us.

As of this year, "World of Warcraft" has been in operation for 20 years, and in the official opinion, what are the next opportunities and challenges?

Ion Hazzikosta: We also feel very humbled by it, and it can be very stressful. Because we need to bring this game into the next three decade. Players in China, including players from all over the world, are willing to make their home in Azeroth, giving us the opportunity to create such worlds and tell them these stories. Of course, we're also going to have a big celebration for our players around the world, and that's in November, when it's our anniversary. After that, we're looking forward more to the players, and we're going to do a better job of meeting their needs, telling them a better story, presenting our world better, and listening to their opinions so that we can continue to make our games last for the next 20 years.

Holly Longdale: And I would like to add that I actually mentioned that we at Blizzard have also undergone some big changes, some changes in the leadership team, the whole team. So we're also very excited to be able to fight for the next 10 years, and we will try more courageous behaviors, which means that we need to serve our players better, and at the same time, we need to take their opinions more seriously and listen to them better. And even in both nostalgic and formal servers, we all need to do something new and very courageous, and we are excited to have Chinese players to witness some of the content that our future presents for them.

The development team mentioned that the new version has a lot of new spells and new missions that will be too complicated for returning players and new players, and also proposed planned improvements, is there any progress in this regard?

Ion Hazzikosta: We also knew that for the official server, because the world was constantly expanding, and we had to make sure that we had new spells and new stories, we had to make sure that the game was as easy as it was to get started. Whether it's for these returning players, but also for these new players in the new era, we all have to do that to make their experience better. For example, if we go from level 1 to level 10 on the Novice Island and then directly into the Dragon Age expansion pack behind us, they will be able to experience the new experience of our best live servers in this easier way to get into. On the other hand, in terms of overall difficulty, we all know that there are various types and styles of Warcraft players, so we will also provide a very wide range of difficulty adaptations in the official server. In other words, from the most difficult Epic Keystone dungeons to the Epic or Heroic difficulty, to our new Battle for the Center of the Earth, a new feature of the Dungeon that allows players to embark on their own adventures with 1 person or 1-2 friends.

Will you consider developing content exclusive to Chinese players in the nostalgia and official servers? Like mounts or something more play-like?

Ion Hazzikosta: One of them is definitely exclusive, which is some of the bonus content of the Business War after the relaunch of our China region, which is definitely exclusive to China. Another point is that we have always kept an open mind, and after re-cooperating with NetEase, we will further explore and better understand how to serve our players around the world, including China.

What do you think about the changes in the ecology of MMO players during the period of suspension in China? And how will the competition be held in the future?

Holly Longdale: Because we're players ourselves, we're very excited and happy to see some new developments on the Chinese side, and we're very competitive with that. Because it can force us to improve better from the competition, and at the same time, we can learn a lot from it, and understanding the dynamics here can also better let us know some of the preferences of the players here, which can also help us to better improve our game. So in general, we are not afraid of competition, we very much want to embrace competition.

According to the previously announced overall roadmap for World of Warcraft in 2024, this fall, the Nostalgia Quest Season will be "End of Update", does this update refer to the 2024 Quest Season End Update, or will it not be updated in the future?

Ion Hazzikosta: Of course, for China right now, our main focus is to do our nostalgia for Wrath of the Lich King and our upcoming Battle for the Center of the Earth, which is one of our focus for the future. For our Exploration Season, now that we've basically reached its peak, we can see that the curve is slowly slowing down on some of the other servers in the world, and we can see that on the current roadmap as well. But we will also make some updated plans in the roadmap for the next 1 year, and then because China has also joined the whole family, we will also have a unified plan for this roadmap next year, and we will also announce some information later this year.

What does Chinese players mean to World of Warcraft, and what special events and gameplay will be available in the future, and what else will be exclusive to China?

Holly Longdale: I just want to say that I really mean to say that it was a really sad moment when we had to leave China. We were also very touched and we saw the reaction of the Chinese community – they were all very sad as well. So overall, we're excited to be back now, and we know that we're learning a lot more from Chinese players as well. Our biggest goal is to want all of these players around the world to be able to play World of Warcraft, so we're really excited to be here at ChinaJoy and see how much we love us.

Ion Hazzikosta: I'll just add that to be honest, we feel that Chinese World of Warcraft players are probably the most enthusiastic player base in the world, and sometimes we see that they have such a passion, such a passion for World of Warcraft, and this kind of enthusiasm really makes us feel very humbled. Whether it's whether it's when they enter a server, fill it up and shut it down, or whether it includes the enthusiasm they showed when we launched the nostalgic service 6 years ago. Besides, they are willing to trust us again and give us a second chance to give us such confidence to be able to return to the Chinese market, and we are very touched. We felt that in the future we needed to look at what kind of opportunities would make the most sense for our players, because after all, we had missed out on about a year and a half, so we did need to have something unique and exclusive to our players. But of course, we also need to have some cautious and longer discussions, including a discussion with NetEase. Right now, our first focus is to be able to get our game back in China first, including the launch of "Battle for the Center of the Earth" next month, after which we will study further.

How about the landing of AIGC in the game, it has recently been reported that 70% of the teams may have used AIGC technology in this link, and I would like to ask about the landing of "World of Warcraft".

Ion Hazzikosta: One of the things we think about AI is that it's a very new tool, and we have to make a good understanding of it, because we want to be able to have all the options in our hands so that we can make the best games to present to our players. But we think one of the biggest strengths of World of Warcraft is that everything has this sense of craftsmanship, and it's all made by hand. We felt that we could use such a tool to reduce the amount of time spent on such repetitive tasks and free up more productivity to be spent on more creative parts.

Ion Hazzikosta: To give you an example, a few years ago, we had a different size for each race of Warcraft, so when we made armor and armor, we had to manually adjust each race every time. For example, our elves can't wear molds for their ears, and they can't wear molds for their feet. But now in the last few years we've started to use machine learning to simplify this process so that we can save more time, maybe we can do an extra set of armor so that we can give players more in-game rewards like this. Including some of the content of our business war, which we didn't really have the resources to do before.

Before World of Warcraft returned to the Chinese market, it was actually more than a year apart, and then in the process, the domestic game environment has also undergone very big changes. In addition to the MMO category just mentioned, the competition is actually very fierce, and some players' game preferences have also developed to a more lightweight aspect.

Ion Hazzikosta: I think we're also very excited to see some of this change in the Chinese market, and I was here at ChinaJoy this morning and I was walking around the showroom a lot and seeing a lot of new products, including the enthusiasm that some of their players are showing. So I think it's a very exciting time to go back to the Chinese market and our partners, and to have relationships like this in the past. I think the biggest advantage of "World of Warcraft" is that it can fit the style of many such players, whether you are an exploratory player like a lone wolf, or you like to play group books, or you want to collect all these appearances, for example, if you want to play PVP, in fact, "World of Warcraft" can meet all your requirements, so I think we have a very good positioning in "World of Warcraft" to meet the needs of this kind of player diversity.

Returning to the Chinese market after a year and a half, in this "vacuum period", thanks to the recovery of version numbers and other reasons, there are many excellent new game works in the Chinese game market, and some World of Warcraft players have also lost to other games, what impact will this have on the next operation strategy of World of Warcraft in China?

Holly Longdale: It's a really good question, we thought about it before it was relaunched in China, but it turned out that we broke the record at the beginning of the partnership with NetEase, and it's still a nostalgic server, not our official server. I think the overall situation still looks very healthy, and I feel relatively optimistic about the follow-up in terms of World of Warcraft. Because we will continue to interact and listen more with the player's community, and I also think that we will have a better situation in the future, and we are also grateful to our partner NetEase for providing us with good support, and I believe that the follow-up situation should also be very interesting.

This return to the online line is first of all nostalgic clothing, what are the considerations for this? For China, what are the respective tasks of the nostalgic costume and the official version and the new version that follows?

Ion Hazzikosta: I think one of our key points, after we re-partnered with NetEase, we knew that the key point for us to have the opportunity to relaunch in China was to get the game complete and as soon as possible so that our players could enjoy the best possible experience. In fact, the first thing to do is the nostalgic service when it is re-launched, it just says that the nostalgic service that happens to be done first, for our Warcraft official server, the main focus is to do "Battle in the Center of the Earth", and we must ensure the simultaneous launch of the world, which is our biggest focus, because we hope that Chinese players must not lag behind other players in the world in the new version. So we're really excited because it's only been a few months since we've repartnered, but we've made it possible for the world to release a new version of our Battle for the Center of the Depths. With such a solid foundation, we can continue to explore the content of new experiences in the future, including new versions, new patches, including new game modes, new systems, etc., which we can bring to our players around the world to enjoy.

What are the difficulties in the reconstruction of the return to the national uniform? What was the hardest part, and how did you go about it?

Ion Hazzikosta: Honestly, neither of us is an expert in this area, but the real experts who are experiencing technical difficulties are mainly those people on the technical and engineering side, mainly in terms of our data retention and recovery, but also in terms of being able to continue playing in the same way that players were when they were offline, while also giving us new players some options to get into the game better. So we did try to get through this piece of difficulty, filling in some of the difficulties that have come with a year and a half, such as missing data and so on. And now, thank goodness, we've solved this problem now, and now we're close to the return of our official server, and we've already made a return to the nostalgic service, so it's really good.

Holly Longdale: I'd like to share with you a story that shows that we still have hope and still have fun. In the past year and a half, we have continued to localize in China. We will continue to do it, and we will be able to quickly relaunch operations in China when we have the opportunity to come back, so we are still hopeful during this time.

In the Chinese market, World of Warcraft players are more skewed towards male users. In other words, in fact, female users are an urgent need to be developed or a relatively blank area, will there be some strategic adjustments or gameplay changes for female players in the future?

Holly Longdale: Of course, we are very open to seeking more opportunities in this regard, and we will also be very creative in the way we do things, including we will continue to work well with NetEase in the future. The proportion of women in our development team is also a relatively healthy proportion, and it has been increasing in the past 2 and a half to 3 years, which is also our big focus, and I am also a woman myself, and I also have a good position in the team. Of course, it's not just the leadership team, our entire team is well aware of such a problem, but I can take the initiative to promote some of this activity and better serve our female players in my current role. In the past year and a half, we have made a lot of new changes, including our appearance, and we have some new content to provide in terms of appearance and transformation, because we know that female players, although not all the time, sometimes prefer cute things, so in the past year and a half, there has been a lot of content in this area, and there will be a lot of it in the future, so please look forward to it.

To learn about the Chinese market and understand the Chinese market, were they also working with NetEase to learn and understand the Chinese market and players? I would like to say that some of their production and operation have been fed back from the previous experience? Can you elaborate on some of the changes to Chinese players?

Ion Hazzikosta: That's a very good question, for example, we were very surprised when the nostalgic costume was distributed in 2019, but in fact, the players in China showed a lot of enthusiasm, and the way players in China interacted with this nostalgic costume was very different from other places. For example, there are a lot of very full, large-populated servers of this kind of large, multi-populated server, and there are actually a lot of players who will play this legion, and there may not be so many other places. Therefore, when we do similar projects in the future, we will consider some things when we build a new server in the nostalgic service, and we will consider some differences between China and other markets when setting the rules. As we mentioned earlier, the Chinese market has changed a lot in previous years, and now with the return of various versions of Warcraft, we will continue to learn the preferences of Chinese players, while maintaining our flexibility to provide better services in the future.

The MMO category is also a category with a long history, and you mentioned in the interview that you are also a player, so I would like to ask if you usually play other MMO games? Are there any games that stand out to you?

Ion Hazzikosta: I think almost all games nowadays have some MMO elements, mainly because they have a continuous progression system, including the ability to interact with other players online in all sorts of ways. Of course, we play a variety of games, and every time there is an element of MMO, we are more excited. We are mainly hoping for more new content in our World of Warcraft, especially in the live server. With each new release, we have some new systems and ways to play, as well as ways to socialize, so we're actively exploring this area and trying to improve our game.