World of Warcraft turns 22 this year, but despite spin-offs like Hearthstone and its movie adaptation, WoW vice president and executive producer Holly Longdale thinks the Warcraft IP has "been underutilized" and says Blizzard has "a bigger vision" beyond simply being an MMORPG.
Speaking to The Game Business in a new interview, Longdale explains that she wants to bring the franchise "to as many people as possible," with the aim of making it feel approachable to all.
"It's a fantastic IP," she says. "In my humble opinion, it's been underutilized and I just want to bring it to as many people as possible. And that means evolving what Warcraft means, what it is, and where it's going. We want it to be approachable."
She notes that Warcraft executive creative director Chris Metzen sometimes expresses that "'I wish we hadn't called it Warcraft. It sounds kind of intimidating.'" She disagrees, though, arguing that "nobody really thinks that about Warhammer. It's an understood name."
Even if Longdale doesn't think the name is holding Warcraft back as a franchise, though, she still sees that there's room for growth. "This idea of 'third space' in our online worlds, we couldn't even define what that means exactly, but we're working on figuring that out. We want people to come in and hang out, and have birthdays, have weddings, have raids, grand adventures, play with their friends, meet new friends, like all the things that traditionally, for over 20 years, World of Warcraft has been good at."
She's presumably on about roleplayed, online weddings there, but it would be rather amusing if Blizzard aimed for its MMO to somehow become a venue for real, officiated ceremonies. That aside, she says, "And at the same time, we want to take advantage of 20 years of stories that have been told and not told, and start bringing it out to the world in a broader way. That's my goal and vision."
Concluding, Longdale says: "We're never going to stop doing the things we know people love. But at the same time, I think we have a bigger vision simply than an MMORPG."
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