Blizzard's Holly Longdale on World of Warcraft Intergenerationality

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Blizzard had a successful idea with the launch of its World of Warcraft Classic. This relaunch of the original MMO attracted millions of players alongside its modern counterpart, with its population nearly overflowing upon release. It has remained popular through the continued classic rebuilds of the original Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions. But what about this title that makes it so popular with generations of gamers? GamesBeat spoke to Blizzard's Holly Longdale about this.

Longdale was recently named vice president of World of Warcraft (she was already the executive producer). She has been working on MMOs for over 20 years. Prior to World of Warcraft, she was the executive producer of the EverQuest franchise with Darkpaw Games.

GamesBeat spoke to Longdale about the continued popularity of World of Warcraft - and MMOs in general - over several generations. Here is an edited transcript of our interview.

GamesBeat: Did you notice any differences between the Wrath of the Lich King Classic audience and the Wrath of the Lich King original?

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Holly Longdale: One thing that has been an ongoing education for our team is that the players are different. They have a lot more skills and a lot more knowledge than they had then. And of course, there are plenty of guides and web pages and information sites on how to approach content. There are all sorts of things that weren't so important to the community then, but are part of it now.

Just like in the original Wrath and now just over the past week lots of new players which is fantastic - we can determine when we have a bunch of new accounts. It's so exciting to see people who might have missed it the first time and heard all about it finally get to come in and see it with our launch. There are a fair amount of returning players who were there originally, with original Wrath. People who started in Classic and are now following this journey, who have been with us through Classic Burning Crusade and now Wrath. And then we have these beautiful new players who come to join us and become part of the community. It's different.

It's a really interesting world of nostalgia, how people enjoy reliving that nostalgia. And then it mixes with people being inspired by discovering new areas for the first time, like getting on a boat or a zeppelin to Northrend with literally hundreds of other players when it opens. It's incredible. We have looked at all the comments. That's why we develop games, to be able to participate in this joy. It's awesome.

GamesBeat: Was there a change in the average player between the two versions of Wrath of the Lich King?

Longdale: Basically, I would say no. They still represent this really dedicated community that understands what RPGs are all about in the sense that you can live out your gaming fantasy and be whatever character you want to be. Again, we have influencers that we didn't have back then, who are creating a lot of excitement in the community, engaging people and sharing information about the game.

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