How does the Lich King story fit in with what's happened before?
Chilton: Well, the arc of the storyline is really a continuation of a long running war we've set up in the universe. We really first started introducing the character with Warcraft 3, and built on it with the Frozen Throne expansion, and its been kind of in the background all through World of Warcraft so far. So, the Lich King is something that's played a fairly significant role in the game so far, with all the scourge invasions; the areas occupied by scourge, it's really a continuation of that. So its a strong part of the storyline we've done to-date.
How grandiose is this part of the plot, and how big a role will it play going forward?
Chilton: Its hard to say how significant a role it'll play in the future, but I would say its as grandiose as it gets in terms of what we've done before. I think the level of interaction for the player is higher than anything before, players are going to interact with the Lich King on several different levels. You know, if they create a Death Knight they're getting quests from the Lich King right off the bat. Also, we have other moments in the expansion where players get to interact with him, and then, at the very end, our final expansion patch - there's a fight with the Lich King himself. So, we're trying to make sure we have a higher level of interaction with that character than we have with any other main character in the past.
Brack: This is one of the lessons from The Burning Crusade in fact, so we had this big boss, that we had, a pervasive evil across the land, but only the hardcore raiders got to really experience that, so most players never got really involved, while they knew about it, they never really got to appreciate why it was so evil.
Is Wrath of the Lich King one for the hardcore fans?
Chilton: I don't know. I think the storyline is going to be satisfying to both hardcore and casual fans, like Jay mentioned, we're making sure the storyline is a success for more than just the hardcore players. Through creating a Death Knight, and other points in the questing, there is a lot of content for the hardcore. But we're trying to ensure the pack is as successful as possible. This is the deepest storyline we've done.
How do you balance the needs of the newcomer with the needs of the hardcore fan?
Chilton: Right, well, we appraoach that promilarly by ensuring we have content for everyone. This is something we've learnt over time. We learn that with every patch you need something for everyone. In previous years, we had content patches that missed out many people, and we're adressing that.
Visually there are improvements. Is this part of a gradual visual upgrade process, or will there be one huge overhaul in the future?
Chilton: We've definitely talked about doing both, actually. Some online games have gone the route of one giant update, but that's not always 100% successful. It's only "okay". Right now, we're going down the path of with every expansion or patch, adding new visual things. To gradually improve. The game will still work on low-end machines, but if you have a high-end machine there will be new stuff.
