Cataclysm has been explored to the very end, patch 4.3 is out – how is Azeroth going to evolve until Mists of Pandaria arrives? We sat down with the lead quest designer Dave Kosak and talked about Blizzard's future plans.
gamona: Let's talk about Patch 4.3 and at first we would like to ask you some things about the new Darkmoon Faire. It's a really great revamp of the Darkmoon Faire with all this funny minigames. But there are still some places that are under construction. Tents, which are closed for the visitors, etc. Can you tell us something about these places?
Dave Kosak: Yes, sure! We had many new ideas when we started to revamp the Darkmoon Faire and we explored most of them in the revamp. But we also wanted to make sure, that we didn't have to keep rebuilding the Darkmoon Faire when we have new ideas so we left some spaces intentionally blank. There are some empty tents there for the future but we have not anything planned right now, but there is some stuff that might happen there in the future.
gamona: Some of our users complain about the prices at the Darkmoon Faire, especially for the heirlooms and the Replica stuff. With an eye on how many tickets you can earn in one Darkmoon Faire Period, they seem to be very expensive. Is there a chance to see some lower prices in the near future? And will there be Tier 3 Set-Replicas at the Faire?
Dave Kosak: So, about the ticket prices: we haven't really talked about tweeking them yet, but we think, the Darkmoon Faire is a long-term content, so you will be there for a long time. We will keep our eyes on the prices and the peoples’ reaction about it, but I'm ok if it takes a little time to get some of this Tier items from the Darkmoon Faire. About the Tier 3-Set: Now that we have Transmogrification, it is a very exciting time for us, going through all our previous art and looking what's really cool and brainstorming new way of getting it back into the game. And if you remember any Set from the past, chance is always there for getting it back into the game so that you can use it for transmogrification in the future.
gamona: Ok, let's talk about the Dragon Soul Raid. When we saw the cinematic after defeating Deathwing, we had an interesting question in mind: Was this ending in your mind, when you began working on Cataclysm or were there other ideas of how Deathwing could "leave" Azeroth?
Dave Kosak: When it comes to such big world events like this, it comes to working together with Chris Metzen and we have to look where we want the story to go. But I'm not certain when we had the idea of the aspects turning over the responsibility to the mortals but I think we always had the idea in mind, that the death of Deathwing will be a huge transition for Azeroth. As Alextrasza says in the ending scene, this is the age of mortals now, the aspects are no longer responsible for magic or time or all the other things. So, mortal organisations are taking this over and it's pretty exciting for the franchise.
gamona: Yes, that’s really exciting. At Blizzcon you gave us a sneak peek on the new setting in Mists of Pandaria, where the mortals and their war takes a bigger place in the story. But let's talk about the aspects again: Will they play a big role in MoP again or will their presence fade out with Cataclysm?
Dave Kosak: They will continue to be important, but they may not be the super central characters. In Cataclysm they really stood in the spotlight because one of their own is Deathwing and one of their own had gone bad. So they are very important for Cataclysm and they will still be around. For example Kalecgos, the blue aspect has been elected to the blue aspect before a week I think.
Obviously he is still a dragon and he is still a very powerful mage, even if he is not immortal anymore. And he will still play a role in the world and will advise the Kirin Tor, he is just no longer the aspect of magic. So all the characters are still important and their story will continue, even if they are not in the spotlight for the next expansion.
