The development of any big product is first and foremost a team effort. It is the reality, however, that a team is only as good as the people leading it. In World of Warcraft‘s many years, fan engagement and interaction have had ups and downs. Now amid a new era, fans are excited about the new direction the game seems to be going in. Credit needs to be given to Holly Longdale, it seems, the new VP and Executive Producer of the game. Let’s take a look at what she’s doing to make WoW far better than it has been in recent years.
New Blood
WoW’s development history is turbulent. With any big company, people are always going to come and go. When leadership changes and evolves, however, the company can see massive changes in how it is managed. As discussed in a recent PCGamer interview, Holly Longdale has only recently been elevated to leadership over WoW. She had a prior history building the Everquest series, a legendary predecessor to WoW’s eventual success. In 2020 she joined Blizzard to work on WoW Classic and is now leading the charge on all of WoW’s fronts. This was in Activision-Blizzard’s darkest period, with scandals and lawsuits seeming to come to light every day.
An Ear for the Players
The biggest complaint WoW’s player base tends to have is feeling unheard. Development goes in many directions and the game stops feeling like the one the players fell in love with. Feedback is given, though not always kindly, and feels ignored for lengthy periods. Holly Longdale acknowledges this, realizing that changes in culture and technology mean developers are only now realizing how to incorporate feedback consistently. The Shadowlands expansion in particular is called out as feeling like it took the developers too long to respond to massive fan pushback. New technology is being worked on to see if player feedback matches with problems the developers can detect.
Early Buzz
After a weekend of early access, the positive buzz for The War Within, the newest expansion for WoW, seems to be trending. Players are getting excited by the story, the new gameplay features, and the updated presentation like never before. While we can’t say Holly Longdale is responsible for all of these improvements, her comments about trying to do right by players seem to be manifesting in a better experience. In a nearly 20-year-old game like WoW, there will still always be detractors of course. Minor issues and bugs rankle some feathers, and you can’t please everyone no matter how much effort you put into making your game the best it can be.
Final Thoughts
It can be hard to take executive types at their word when they talk about making things better. Despite that, Holly Longdale’s infectious presence in interviews and on stage seems to reflect a healthier state of being at Activision-Blizzard. After the company’s purchase by Microsoft, many hoped we were in a new era where corporate greed would stop having an impact on the game’s well-being. While big companies will always act like big companies, putting more player-friendly voices in leadership roles seems to result in a game that makes its players excited to play. We can only hope to see the impact people like Holly Longdale have to continue to make WoW the star it once was.
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