WoW VP confirms The War Within learns from past expansion mistakes

World of Warcraft: The War Within has officially entered Alpha, and excitement is building for the next expansion in the series. Though older editions are firmly in the rearview mirror, the development team is keen to learn the lessons of the past.

In a conversation with Dexerto, World of Warcraft Vice President Holly Longdale confirmed that they were aware of the shortcomings in Shadowlands in particular and those lessons are actively informing the development of The War Within.

“Essentially, as a team, we took time to reflect on how pulling up on 20 years is a pretty heavy moment. Getting to this point, [we are] being very humble about lessons we’ve learned, where we could have done better. The formula we have used in the past for expansions served us incredibly well. And then it didn’t.

“We’re looking at how we got here and then looking at where we’re going and we have learned a lot. We’ve learned a lot since Shadowlands. We certainly learned a lot during Dragonflight.

“We’ve invested more in the live game and in doing Plunderstorm and eight-week patches and then looking forward to the Mists of Pandaria Remix. It’s really a time of reinvention for us as a game. Also, we have a lot more access to our player behavior data, so we know our player base and how they play.

“We learned a lot from that and found areas of our player community that weren’t being understood. Many of those are more casual players, or players who like to play solo or with a family member or friend. You’re seeing the outcome of that in The War Within with some of the features we’re instigating.”

The relationship between the developer and the WoW community has undoubtedly grown significantly closer. Though Season of Discovery blazed the trail for collaboration, the entire WoW ecosystem is significantly more responsive to feedback.

Though a lot remains up in the air when it comes to The War Within, the mood is more positive heading into the expansion than it has been in a long time.