By now you probably know what’s going on: a new one World of Warcraft Expansion appears and the level cap reaches new heights. However, in the last few expansions, the focus has shifted from traditional leveling to alternative forms of progression and improvement, such as Keeps, Order Halls, and Artifact Weapons. Additionally, the zones became non-linear. Blizzard has now let it be known that they are considering omitting traditional leveling altogether.
“There are times where we’ve considered, ‘What if we get rid of leveling altogether?’” explained Wow Game Director Ion Hazzikostas during an interview at BlizzCon. “And we’ve always found ourselves coming up with a new construct that sounded a whole lot like levels, but with a different name. So at that point, it’s like, ‘OK, let’s keep doing levels.’”
What has changed, however, is the role of leveling up World of Warcraft. Once its meaning came from skills. But WowIt’s been going on for more than a decade now and there’s no end in sight. The result. Ability bars that spanned nations and oceans. Skill bars that could be seen from space.
“When you leveled from 60-70, at 61 you were getting rank seven Shadow Bolt or whatever,” said Hazzikostas. “There was something that made every level feel meaningful. We’ve realized over the years that that’s not sustainable. It was fine in the short term, but we can’t just keep piling abilities onto your bar. We got to a point where you’d have 40-45 separate abilities, and that’s insanity.”
That’s why I put it down Blizzard increased emphasis on progression through zones, with leveling becoming something of a tape measure rolled out behind the player. But there legion now has non-linear zones, something has to change again when leveling up. However, leveling up still has a purpose, even if it is increasingly fading into the background.
“There used to be these five or six foundations that made leveling essential,” said Hazzikostas. “We’ve peeled away three or four of those over the years. Are the others still important enough? The answer has generally come down in the ‘yes’ column.”
“Traditional leveling is still a useful benchmark to measure your progress as you’re getting towards the endgame,” he explained. “Even though we didn’t have a rigid order to our zones and you could choose your path through Legion, at 102 you could seek out your second and third artifacts. At 104 or 105, there are extra class order things. It gives a very clear, readable, familiar sort of pacing.”
Alternative progression methods will probably never completely replace traditional leveling, but you can expect there to be more of them. Blizzard has learned a lot from the Artifact Weapons and has considered treating other systems in the same way.
“That feeling of alternate advancement that Artifact Weapons have given—especially at max level—is something that even if it’s not expressed in that exact form, it’s something we want to recapture and carry forward. “It’s great to always have a goal to work towards at max level,” said Hazzikostas.
What the equivalent of Artifact Weapons will be in the next expansion is still up in the air. But if we keep our fingers crossed and hope fervently, perhaps we will finally get those dance studios that everyone is so eagerly waiting for.
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