Very nice to see Ion so relaxed and speaking so freely. Feels more like a passionate dev rather than a robot. Appreciate all the work yall do Ion. Mad respect.
yeah, absolutely. The funny thing is I used to be a super group oriented player, but that was when I was younger and had nothing better to do and had a lot of friends in real life and within the game that I met who we all played together with nowadays that just isn’t the case anymore. Nowadays, I’m happy to get an hour of uninterrupted time playing. I feel like the Delves give me that little bit of fun I was missing. I wouldn’t mind joining a friend or two while running them. The problem is finding those friends.
@@InamortasFury yeah I totally get that. I would love to play the game with other people, but I play so randomly now that it isn’t really an option anymore. maybe if I was rich like really wealthy I could pay a group of people to be 24 hours. They could rotate in different shifts so whenever I logon, they could join me in my adventures. lol 😂
Dragonflight levelling was satisfying. So were the solo quests. But the end-game experience as a soloer was really disinteresting. The reputation system being a gated grind felt not-fun if you realised your main wasn't working for you. Crafting could have been great, but it fell short. Likewise with PvP. Queuing for LFR was very slow unless you had the ilvl for the current raid. But as an adult you don't have the time to commit to raiding. Even to doing Mythics because responsibilities happen. Even so, the people you have connections with also have responsibilities. You could invest time in a guild, but you need to find the right one, and that's very time-consuming. And you need to hope they share the same values as you. They do need more content that feels satisfying for a solo player, but also isn't vital for group players (so the group players don't feel overwhelmed by all the things they should be doing.) Currently, the game doesn't feel worth the subscription fee - if you're a soloist. Even if it possesses the best action bar combat of any MMORPG out there.
Reno Jackson is the new Harrison Jones, but I'm convinced the Delve Partner in season 2 will be Elise Starseeker. Elise's sister Arana is my favorite Hearthstone original character, but I'd be surprised if we get her in WoW ever.
For good reason. Look, I respect what Ian has done for the community and WoW. I remember him from Elitist Jerks. But, I have serious questions of his direction. There has been a clear pattern of crap while he has been at the helm. Last decent thing to come out of modern WoW design was Legion. Then, they screwed up world quests in BFA and most designs seemed to go downhill as things went on imo. Hell, everyone makes mistakes. Look at Metzen and his green Jesus trope with Thrall from Cata on. Will always scratch my head at the destruction/pussification of Thrall.
If I were him, I'd trust them too. Tal and Evi, at least among the largest WoW news/opinion content creators, are among the most optimistic about the game, even to a fault sometimes.
@@ex0stasis72 Tali also has a habit of demeaning and condescending to people in his chat - and not just the trolls and weirdos. I like their content, but admittedly I find Tali hard to watch live because of how pompous condescending he is towards everyone who watches him. (Though, I feel like more and more WoW streamers/content creators are like that. They read half a statement in the wrong tone and then tell you how stupid you are, or the like.)
@@christabelle__ Oh ya, I get that. That surprised me as well that he acts completely differently live than in his UA-cam videos. I happen to agree with most of what he says live, even politically, but that I wasn't tuning into his stream to watch a political stream. So it kinda just annoyed me, or rather his chat was annoying me because he was arguing with them.
To me they varied in fun level. One criticism I have is they all have some kind of ‘gimmick’ which for me often were more annoying than they were fun. Stuff like having to manage a breath meter, or have spores randomly throw you all over the place just weren’t fun for me. But for sure I think the foundation is there and glad they’re introducing a new pillar.
Fun interview , good questions, nice fun bits in between and good answers from Ion. I loved the question about how he sees the game as a player vs a game director. It made me a little emotional because I feel the same things, about the same two expansions that he mentioned. I remember so vividly going through the dark portal, and then so vividly when I was able to afford my first flying mount, and how I just shot straight up wanting to see how high I could go, and it was very high. ^^ Those feelings have never truly come back in the same way, but good memories.
My crazy theory (agreeing with Evitel) about Xal’atath not being 100% a villain. Azeroth is currently being enslaved by the Titans, and her plan is to make us realize that all life on Azeroth is also enslaved. The champions of Azeroth have been doing the Titans bidding, but now we are being manipulated to break those bonds, while also getting rid of those susceptible to being power hungry (ie the groups that Xal herself manipulates to turning to the void). As for motivation, she’s doing this because she was also enslaved, but we freed her. However, if she is a total villain, she’s going to turn Azeroth into a Void world soul, like how Argus became a Death one.
I started playing WoW with several friends, joined a guild with said friends and made more friends in that guild, but with like any game, friends tend to move on, you start playing less, more casually and end up in a situation where you're playing alone. This has been my journey with WoW, so despite changes like group and raid finder, the inclusion of follower dungeons and now delves has been great for me since I don't have anyone else to play with or have to deal with the attitudes and egos of people in groups. I'm not looking to raid, but at least being able to do the dungeons and solo stuff without the worry of not finding the group to help me is a great addition to the game.
I'm in the same boat, but I've found LOTS more people in WoW are kind and generous than those who aren't - and I'm always going out of my way to be kind to random people too - I dropped in on a rogue last night at 2am or so who was about to die to a couple mobs, and killed them for 'em and gave em some mana buns to heal up with. They were esctatic that I saved them, lol! A little kindness goes a long way. Compliment someone's mog, start conversations yourself - you have toput yourself out there to be able to make new friends! But in the meantime, at least there's stuff to do while we're looking for new connections.
War Within has truly been an exceptional expansion! I must say, it's one of the best launches I've experienced in nearly 20 years of playing WOW. Thank you for the wonderful experience! 👌👏
It hasn’t launched yet. Early access has much fewer people the previous launches. Greater server stability is possibly the one upside of the early access model.
the next leveling idea for catch up and new players should be a condensed questline for each xpac that tells the basic storyline so new players can know the basics of lore. Each xpac can take 8-10 levels. Do a follower mini raid to kill end of xpac boss and then you get to move on to the next xpac
I think it's clear a lot of the decisions that he had to make were not his own over the years. Activision surely made him do things he felt awful about. He seems happier recently.
I don't think Ion get enough credit at times, he's been at the helm of wow for awhile as game director and has arguably put his blood sweat and tears into this game. Im sure he's had opportunities to jump ship but hasn't He's tried to work on wow and with his team make it the best it can be and I really just wanna say I appreciate that he has love for the game and so does his team TWW is proof of that.
Good interview, I'll say if we get warband follower dungeons then I wouldn't feel the need to have my alts get anything from it. I literally just want it for the flavor. Also I think lately there has been more of an appetite to want to hold back spoilers and knowing everything through guides than there used to be. It feels like the community is starting to reject the datamining trend that took over years ago.
The player demographic he describes at 12:45 is exactly me. I wonder if they've been looking at my play history >.> Also for the "multi-boxing" problem that comes from bringing your alts into a follower dungeon, maybe there could just be a raid-leader like DKP sort of system where you get a piece of gear and it asks which toon you want to give it to and it just gives a random piece of loot to that character. That way, if you get say five pieces of gear in a dungeon you can choose to give it all to one character or give one to each, etc. But, if you're going solo you just get all the gear to one toon.
i hope they bring back artifact weapons for the final expansion of this trilogy to take on the void lord. i loved that from legion, it was the best borrowed power system imo
17:37 One adaquate way to capture that sense of "unknown" again is exactly what they've been doing with follower dungeons and delves and more ways to play solo because when you play with randos online, you may get ridiculed for not playing "correctly". If you're playing completely solo, you can volunteer not to look up guides and builds and not hinder anyone's progress but yourself.
as tough as the past few years have been i have always believed in Ion. he is incredibly intelligent and equally as articulate. him and the union boys are bringing it home this xpac
This almost feels surreal hearing Ion talk so casually and open, it’s amazing! Just using such open friendly language when talking about how theyre responding to the community, both positive and negative reactions is so lovely. Playing this game suddenly feel more collaborative as a player not just within team 2
Ion is the man, I really like how he presents his ideas and how he communicates with you (and us as players)! What a genuine interview, loved it. I really enjoy TWW so far.
I want someone to ask them why they took away the ability to transmog artifact weapons over any other weapon type. If I have a staff on my mage for example, I can't transmog Felo'melorn over it. That said - excellent job as interviewers! Like a real journalist! Everyone else had crap audio - not to mention that your bearing and delivery really make this an excellent interview...great job, you two!
Ian has been my favorite interview for a long time now and he didnt disappoint, nothing revolutionary talked about but its always so fun to hear his takes on the game
Thank you for this interiew guys, Ion is great at what he does and I'm so thankful that the game is in his hands. He seems to truly care about the game and the player experience. Plus, the stubble - he should keep that ....;)
God, this was a great interview. Solid questions, better answers, and not the same, routine dribble we've seen in a few other interviews. Not simping, just honestly really well done.
I love the change in Ion from years ago to now. He seems more willing to talk and theorize in a more relaxed way. He genuinely seems like he is having fun and has realized that we, the players, just want to have fun. He and the rest fo the team are not so stiff and dug in in their opinions. There's still a lot that Blizzz needs to fix in the game, but Ion sounds like he is willing to try. I do feel so much better about the state of the game than where we were a few years ago.
Legion was the most amazing expansion. I will play Legion classic. I'm waiting for it. I might do Mists of Pandaria as that was more interesting than I thought, but Legion Classic is when I will be back for sure.
The change in attitude the dev team has towards dictating how players interact with the game in dragonflight is hands down the best decision they've ever made in the game. the problem people had with the game in BFA and Shadowlands wasn't necessarily due to the content not being quality or fun, but making the player base engage with it in a certain way or you're permanently behind if you miss something or try and swap characters/play alts. Ion being the face of the game caught a lot of hell during that time, and its really refreshing to see him seemingly more happy here.
Looking back i cant help but wonder if aluneth had gotten a memeable fan nickname wow would be heading into an expansion about the rising threat of some arcane powers with aluneth as its figure head. Brb going to go make a time machine to see if i can make "staffy boy" stick with legion era players.
Ion was very comfortable in your presence which is great for getting tidbits that you otherwise would not have got. Easily the best interview from Gamescon, and that's nothing to do with the audio.
Might be an unpopular opinion, but Shadowlands Remix would be great. They could tweek the lore to better fit the bigger picture, but so many appearances to farm, all the covenant abilities to stack and play with. It would make SL more enjoyable for people, I personally liked that expansion, but I get it.
hah when you asked him what makes a perfect expac my first thought was “everything in legion”, and then he answered as much but I was surprised to hear him think that’s an unpopular opinion. legion truly was peak wow in terms of synergy between systems, QoL, classes, aesthetics, and storytelling.
The "exploration of the unknown" part he mentioned, is a really important thing. It triggers the adventurer in us. If everything gets datamined there will be no suprises, and that takes away a lot of excitement! I can only recommend to stop watching all the datamining videos etc, just explore the game on your own...at least for the first weeks ✌🏽😎
I know this won't happen but what I'd like to see: We don't defeat Xal'atath. Instead, we can choose to join her. Instead of Alliance/Horde factions (since that's basically nonexistent anymore), we'd get Void/Light fault line, it would put the War back in Warcraft.
Rockstar interview. Appreciate this type of Q&A a lot more than some interviews where streamers just grill devs asking for new features. That's boring and kind of disrespectful imo. This is an actual convo. Kudos! 💪 And yes, so glad Ion is having his redemption arc. Was in the theatre at blizzcon and you could feel the love in the crowd. He was glowing. The game genuinely feels like it's in good hands again.
3:25 actually makes alot of sense why then that each zone felt so disconnected for the past few expansions, rather than a cohesive story there would be a sort of loose small thread that tied to a bigger story than being weaved throughout like were seeing in TWW
*I wrote them a few times in the suggestion box that they need to build up a villain for people to be invested and that they should do it over 3 expansions.*
I said a lot of terrible things about Ion during BFA that I wish I could apologize for, and someday I hope I get that chance. In hindsight, BFA did a lot of things really really well (dungeons, raids, art). I can also now appreciate the risks they took. I think DF in many ways was the result of a team that just wanted to go back to basics and play it safe, and I can't blame them for that after the years of hell they had endured (including Ion). Looking back on it now, those weekly (I think?) dev updates he was a part of were, I think, at times, humiliating. It sucks they had to go through that. I love seeing TWW taking a few more risks, and in many ways, it seems to kinda be the spiritual successor to BFA including the continuation of Xal'atah's story. I'd also love to see a mini raid again, like the CoS. Thank you to the WoW team for delivering another great expansion! You guys are doing great.
9:25 Hard hard hard disagree, Ion. The Thunder King is a perfect counter example. He wasn't even involved in MoP's story until he got his own one-and-done patch and he's honestly one of the best and most memorable Warcraft villains of all time. Building a stronger narrative with a proper long term plan is great, I'm all for it. But the way you talk abt it kind of makes it sound like you still don't understand why the Jailer didn't land. He might've been better received if he'd been built up prior to SL, but what would've worked even better is if he'd been a compelling villain with interesting hooks and a good narrative. You know, like the Thunder King was during his one patch. One of the main issues with how the Jailer was introduced isn't that he wasn't built up enough, it's that instead of being built up, he was prompted up - by stepping all over prior lore and stories in a hasty re-writing of history. And it was done so poorly that instead of cheaply lifting the Jailer up, it devalued and shrunk everything underneath him. Xal'atath works not JUST because she's been slowly brewing in the background for years, but also because what we've been given of her is cool, interesting, fun, mysterious, and it doesn't shit all over what came before to make her look important. EDIT: Nice interview though, I'm happy with how the expac is shaping up, they're doing a great job these days.
WoW devs need to take hints from Guild Wars 2's world design and meta events. Guild Wars 2 was ahead of its time. They set the standard for MMORPG design the very day the game launched. Other developers are playing catch up to that reality right now.
If you're on Character A and want to transfer all Darkmoon Faire tickets from Characters B, C and D just type in 999999 or something ridiculous, highlight and copy. Then when you switch between Characters B and then C and then D to transfer to A just paste in that ridiculous number and hit transfer. Nice and quick.
If I got to re level delv companions seasonally I will be mad lol on the flip I would like to see new companions come in with different abilities to try and maybe a tank one. I would also love to see delvs added to older zones over time.
Solo Player already noticed a difference would love to join with others but as my sight is going I am a lot slower, Before it would have been kicked in LFG, Now with Follower can go at my pace, One thing I still want I hope it will happen is Druid class for more races, I know lore etc etc but in times of Crisis people adapt. Main is a lock and getting the Rifts back for Destro has been amazing. gutted when they were removed and not even the option for them in the talent tree
So, not directly related to this interview, but there's some interesting in game books in TWW, like The Song of Renilash, that seem fun to speculate about...
Warband follower dungeons: no alt progression. Such a thing would be entirely unnecessary. Follower dungeons do not currently level up alts, the purpose of skinning the followers to look like your warband alts is really just the gee whiz of bringing your own team in to do the solo dungeon experience.
Big Souls/Diablo fan, really only play with my 2 best mates, Delves are an absolute godsend. Give us something hard af we can do together without randos
Amazing collabs! T&E interview pyromancer iv annefucicia ie nobbel ie just missing asmogold and nixiom ie am I right lol! Love your work Ty! Loving #WarWithin
IMO with the story telling; stepping away from "the champion" is important to continue to do. Its World of Warcraft and wars are not fought by 1. It would be very cool if the MSQ cut scenes highlighted my 4 favorite warband characters and directed my warband to go out and do the things not my one champion.
Very nice to see Ion so relaxed and speaking so freely. Feels more like a passionate dev rather than a robot. Appreciate all the work yall do Ion. Mad respect.
😂
Agreed! He’s certainly more comfortable with them.
Lol
"We needed to serve them better", I appreciate the love for us solo players!
yeah, absolutely. The funny thing is I used to be a super group oriented player, but that was when I was younger and had nothing better to do and had a lot of friends in real life and within the game that I met who we all played together with nowadays that just isn’t the case anymore. Nowadays, I’m happy to get an hour of uninterrupted time playing. I feel like the Delves give me that little bit of fun I was missing. I wouldn’t mind joining a friend or two while running them. The problem is finding those friends.
@@leonardceres9061 💙I was a raider too, until Cataclysm; as I've aged I have truly enjoyed taking my time and getting immersed into the game solo.
@@InamortasFury yeah I totally get that. I would love to play the game with other people, but I play so randomly now that it isn’t really an option anymore. maybe if I was rich like really wealthy I could pay a group of people to be 24 hours. They could rotate in different shifts so whenever I logon, they could join me in my adventures. lol 😂
Play a different game
Dragonflight levelling was satisfying. So were the solo quests. But the end-game experience as a soloer was really disinteresting.
The reputation system being a gated grind felt not-fun if you realised your main wasn't working for you.
Crafting could have been great, but it fell short.
Likewise with PvP.
Queuing for LFR was very slow unless you had the ilvl for the current raid.
But as an adult you don't have the time to commit to raiding. Even to doing Mythics because responsibilities happen. Even so, the people you have connections with also have responsibilities. You could invest time in a guild, but you need to find the right one, and that's very time-consuming. And you need to hope they share the same values as you.
They do need more content that feels satisfying for a solo player, but also isn't vital for group players (so the group players don't feel overwhelmed by all the things they should be doing.)
Currently, the game doesn't feel worth the subscription fee - if you're a soloist. Even if it possesses the best action bar combat of any MMORPG out there.
I was away for 8-9 years. Glad to be back!
@@MrJoeGarner welcome back hope you're having a great time!
welcome back!
Welcome Back! It’s an awesome time to be playing :)
I hope you have attained wisdom and chiseled abs in those 8 years
Welcome back, you returned for a good one.
Good interview. Just throwing this out there... Delves with Harrison Jones, make it happen at some point.
Noo, I disagree with this idea!
Harrison basically pales in comparison to Reno. He deserves a nice quiet retirement :P
OMG HARRISON AND W LEEROY AND W HOGGER
@@Djiini07 But, why?
Reno Jackson is the new Harrison Jones, but I'm convinced the Delve Partner in season 2 will be Elise Starseeker. Elise's sister Arana is my favorite Hearthstone original character, but I'd be surprised if we get her in WoW ever.
I'm glad to see some redemption for Ion. He's put up with a lot over the last few years.
For good reason. Look, I respect what Ian has done for the community and WoW. I remember him from Elitist Jerks. But, I have serious questions of his direction. There has been a clear pattern of crap while he has been at the helm. Last decent thing to come out of modern WoW design was Legion. Then, they screwed up world quests in BFA and most designs seemed to go downhill as things went on imo. Hell, everyone makes mistakes. Look at Metzen and his green Jesus trope with Thrall from Cata on. Will always scratch my head at the destruction/pussification of Thrall.
@@VirusVanquisher Thrall could do some epic/cool shit for a change in TWW. It would be good for the character. He's been dormant long enough 🤔
@@VirusVanquisher Yeah, some people just make better analysts than creators. Ion was better at analyzing other people's content.
I love how comfortable Ion is around you guys. He clearly trusts you.
If I were him, I'd trust them too. Tal and Evi, at least among the largest WoW news/opinion content creators, are among the most optimistic about the game, even to a fault sometimes.
@@ex0stasis72 Tali also has a habit of demeaning and condescending to people in his chat - and not just the trolls and weirdos. I like their content, but admittedly I find Tali hard to watch live because of how pompous condescending he is towards everyone who watches him. (Though, I feel like more and more WoW streamers/content creators are like that. They read half a statement in the wrong tone and then tell you how stupid you are, or the like.)
@@christabelle__ Oh ya, I get that. That surprised me as well that he acts completely differently live than in his UA-cam videos. I happen to agree with most of what he says live, even politically, but that I wasn't tuning into his stream to watch a political stream. So it kinda just annoyed me, or rather his chat was annoying me because he was arguing with them.
I hope Delves are well received as I'm looking forward to them as a filthy casual.
They are fun. Better version of Torghast. Your follower levels up after each run
They are interesting so far, I'm curious how the higher levels will be.
@@MrMuttly55 Cool.
having fun running them solo and with friends tbh and I like the scalability of them that way
To me they varied in fun level. One criticism I have is they all have some kind of ‘gimmick’ which for me often were more annoying than they were fun. Stuff like having to manage a breath meter, or have spores randomly throw you all over the place just weren’t fun for me. But for sure I think the foundation is there and glad they’re introducing a new pillar.
Nobody is talking about how Delves are basically the follow dungeons from WoD that everyone said we should be able to do instead of the mission table.
Thats honestly a great way of thinking about it. Yeah thats a good vibe for what ive gotten from them so far
Of all the Ion interviews at Gamesccom, the audio on this one is the best. Props to brining your own lav mics!
Audio pretty good, colour grading/white balance a bit weird...
Fun interview , good questions, nice fun bits in between and good answers from Ion. I loved the question about how he sees the game as a player vs a game director. It made me a little emotional because I feel the same things, about the same two expansions that he mentioned. I remember so vividly going through the dark portal, and then so vividly when I was able to afford my first flying mount, and how I just shot straight up wanting to see how high I could go, and it was very high. ^^ Those feelings have never truly come back in the same way, but good memories.
My crazy theory (agreeing with Evitel) about Xal’atath not being 100% a villain.
Azeroth is currently being enslaved by the Titans, and her plan is to make us realize that all life on Azeroth is also enslaved. The champions of Azeroth have been doing the Titans bidding, but now we are being manipulated to break those bonds, while also getting rid of those susceptible to being power hungry (ie the groups that Xal herself manipulates to turning to the void).
As for motivation, she’s doing this because she was also enslaved, but we freed her.
However, if she is a total villain, she’s going to turn Azeroth into a Void world soul, like how Argus became a Death one.
I started playing WoW with several friends, joined a guild with said friends and made more friends in that guild, but with like any game, friends tend to move on, you start playing less, more casually and end up in a situation where you're playing alone. This has been my journey with WoW, so despite changes like group and raid finder, the inclusion of follower dungeons and now delves has been great for me since I don't have anyone else to play with or have to deal with the attitudes and egos of people in groups. I'm not looking to raid, but at least being able to do the dungeons and solo stuff without the worry of not finding the group to help me is a great addition to the game.
I'm in the same boat, but I've found LOTS more people in WoW are kind and generous than those who aren't - and I'm always going out of my way to be kind to random people too - I dropped in on a rogue last night at 2am or so who was about to die to a couple mobs, and killed them for 'em and gave em some mana buns to heal up with. They were esctatic that I saved them, lol! A little kindness goes a long way. Compliment someone's mog, start conversations yourself - you have toput yourself out there to be able to make new friends! But in the meantime, at least there's stuff to do while we're looking for new connections.
Ion 10/10 communicator
he's was a lawyer before wow i think so
Timestamps on a video like this is really appreciated. I wish all UA-camrs could be this thorough!
Tali is an exceptional interviewer - these make for really good watching every time! Keep up the great work dudes.
War Within has truly been an exceptional expansion! I must say, it's one of the best launches I've experienced in nearly 20 years of playing WOW. Thank you for the wonderful experience! 👌👏
Game is actualy bad. Leveing is 1 giant faceroll and dungeons way too easy and small.
Someone always mad lmao dude its been nice to level fast and also you don't have to dungeons to level@jakubpelikan2393
It's 48 hours old are you 4king serious?
It hasn’t launched yet. Early access has much fewer people the previous launches. Greater server stability is possibly the one upside of the early access model.
It's not even out yet 😅
the next leveling idea for catch up and new players should be a condensed questline for each xpac that tells the basic storyline so new players can know the basics of lore. Each xpac can take 8-10 levels. Do a follower mini raid to kill end of xpac boss and then you get to move on to the next xpac
I’ve always like Ion. Even during wow’s rough patches. He is a great game designer
To me Ion was always very raiding/PvE-centered & certainly catering to the 'hardcore' crowd to a fault.
I'm glad he's loosened up in DF/end of SL.
Agreed
I think it's clear a lot of the decisions that he had to make were not his own over the years. Activision surely made him do things he felt awful about. He seems happier recently.
@@hobosnake1 oh yes, that's definitely true!
@@hobosnake1 I completely agree. He's probably had his hands tied for years
I always wondered why people don’t share the Ion’s view of LEGION! I tottaly agree with him, one of the best synced and thrilling expansions!
I don't think Ion get enough credit at times, he's been at the helm of wow for awhile as game director and has arguably put his blood sweat and tears into this game. Im sure he's had opportunities to jump ship but hasn't He's tried to work on wow and with his team make it the best it can be and I really just wanna say I appreciate that he has love for the game and so does his team TWW is proof of that.
Ion Hairzzikostas.
Love the look.
I don’t get it?
@@ZozoHQXHAIR, hes often had less hair showing either styling it/shaving it and his beard/stubble being less pronounced in past
Good interview, I'll say if we get warband follower dungeons then I wouldn't feel the need to have my alts get anything from it. I literally just want it for the flavor. Also I think lately there has been more of an appetite to want to hold back spoilers and knowing everything through guides than there used to be. It feels like the community is starting to reject the datamining trend that took over years ago.
The player demographic he describes at 12:45 is exactly me. I wonder if they've been looking at my play history >.>
Also for the "multi-boxing" problem that comes from bringing your alts into a follower dungeon, maybe there could just be a raid-leader like DKP sort of system where you get a piece of gear and it asks which toon you want to give it to and it just gives a random piece of loot to that character. That way, if you get say five pieces of gear in a dungeon you can choose to give it all to one character or give one to each, etc. But, if you're going solo you just get all the gear to one toon.
Thank you for the interview
Someone said he is turning into Elijah Wood and I can't unsee it
@@Shltunker my god lol 👀
@@Shltunker 😂
i hope they bring back artifact weapons for the final expansion of this trilogy to take on the void lord. i loved that from legion, it was the best borrowed power system imo
everyones all on the knifu Xal but what about my boy Thal'kiel (demo's "Skull of the Man'ari")? wonder if he'll ever be back
That dude was funny. If they gave him a sexy model maybe we'd see him again lol
@@jamesn3122 yeah. i miss having him around (sadly it doesnt go with my transmog right now, lol)
Thal'kiel is my boy. I even gave him a facelift
Delves are the literal sh*t! 😍 It is our time solo champions!!!
Fantastic interview, thanks!
I didnt get to experience plunderlord, would absolutely love to see that return or become some sort of rotational activity.
It was interesting, but really really painful for those who abhor Pvp (like me)
Find someone that looks at you the way Tali looks at Ion when he's answering a question.
17:37 One adaquate way to capture that sense of "unknown" again is exactly what they've been doing with follower dungeons and delves and more ways to play solo because when you play with randos online, you may get ridiculed for not playing "correctly". If you're playing completely solo, you can volunteer not to look up guides and builds and not hinder anyone's progress but yourself.
Love for Ion! ❤
Dad bod coming in nicely, those buttons are doing work haha I myself have gained like 10 lbs with the arrival of my second this month.
16:11 I wish they would ask for the ability to transfer currency to a character that doesn't have it listed in their currency tab
Morgan Day had that question in another interview with Anniefuchsia and he said it is coming as soon as it's ready.
as tough as the past few years have been i have always believed in Ion. he is incredibly intelligent and equally as articulate. him and the union boys are bringing it home this xpac
This almost feels surreal hearing Ion talk so casually and open, it’s amazing! Just using such open friendly language when talking about how theyre responding to the community, both positive and negative reactions is so lovely. Playing this game suddenly feel more collaborative as a player not just within team 2
Like watching these sorts of interviews where it's more chill and everyone feels comfortable. Cheers T&E !👍🏻
Ion is the man, I really like how he presents his ideas and how he communicates with you (and us as players)! What a genuine interview, loved it. I really enjoy TWW so far.
Ion is the Best Game Director
Actually good questions, and surprisingly insightful answers, great interview.
Last Q&A got me exited!
Amazing interview, Ion dropped the corporate persona and he's brilliant. Good job guys
I want someone to ask them why they took away the ability to transmog artifact weapons over any other weapon type. If I have a staff on my mage for example, I can't transmog Felo'melorn over it.
That said - excellent job as interviewers! Like a real journalist! Everyone else had crap audio - not to mention that your bearing and delivery really make this an excellent interview...great job, you two!
Ian has been my favorite interview for a long time now and he didnt disappoint, nothing revolutionary talked about but its always so fun to hear his takes on the game
Thank you for this interiew guys, Ion is great at what he does and I'm so thankful that the game is in his hands. He seems to truly care about the game and the player experience. Plus, the stubble - he should keep that ....;)
God, this was a great interview. Solid questions, better answers, and not the same, routine dribble we've seen in a few other interviews. Not simping, just honestly really well done.
I love the change in Ion from years ago to now. He seems more willing to talk and theorize in a more relaxed way. He genuinely seems like he is having fun and has realized that we, the players, just want to have fun. He and the rest fo the team are not so stiff and dug in in their opinions. There's still a lot that Blizzz needs to fix in the game, but Ion sounds like he is willing to try. I do feel so much better about the state of the game than where we were a few years ago.
This interview was glorious !
I love Ion riffing on his catchphrase by saying "That's not even a 'we're not ready to talk about it' thing yet"
Legion was the most amazing expansion. I will play Legion classic. I'm waiting for it. I might do Mists of Pandaria as that was more interesting than I thought, but Legion Classic is when I will be back for sure.
I think Classic stops at Cata. And I also think the MoP remix is a model.for how Blizzard will deal with revisiting expansions going forward
He really feels honest. Great person
The change in attitude the dev team has towards dictating how players interact with the game in dragonflight is hands down the best decision they've ever made in the game. the problem people had with the game in BFA and Shadowlands wasn't necessarily due to the content not being quality or fun, but making the player base engage with it in a certain way or you're permanently behind if you miss something or try and swap characters/play alts. Ion being the face of the game caught a lot of hell during that time, and its really refreshing to see him seemingly more happy here.
By far the best gamescom interview!
Looking back i cant help but wonder if aluneth had gotten a memeable fan nickname wow would be heading into an expansion about the rising threat of some arcane powers with aluneth as its figure head.
Brb going to go make a time machine to see if i can make "staffy boy" stick with legion era players.
Ion was very comfortable in your presence which is great for getting tidbits that you otherwise would not have got. Easily the best interview from Gamescon, and that's nothing to do with the audio.
Might be an unpopular opinion, but Shadowlands Remix would be great. They could tweek the lore to better fit the bigger picture, but so many appearances to farm, all the covenant abilities to stack and play with. It would make SL more enjoyable for people, I personally liked that expansion, but I get it.
hah when you asked him what makes a perfect expac my first thought was “everything in legion”, and then he answered as much but I was surprised to hear him think that’s an unpopular opinion. legion truly was peak wow in terms of synergy between systems, QoL, classes, aesthetics, and storytelling.
Is it me or is Xal’s silhouette similar to Sargerases sword?
thank you for sharing your interview with ion 🙂❤ it's great to hear from him, and i enjoyed your insightful questions 🙂
I think Ion could pull off a shaved head with that beard, a nerdy Jason Statham.
All i want in Warband Follower dungeons is just aesthetics. We dont need to go crazy in alts getting exp or gear
The "exploration of the unknown" part he mentioned, is a really important thing.
It triggers the adventurer in us.
If everything gets datamined there will be no suprises, and that takes away a lot of excitement!
I can only recommend to stop watching all the datamining videos etc, just explore the game on your own...at least for the first weeks ✌🏽😎
This is actually first time he look normal than dead inside, Im happy for him lol
I know this won't happen but what I'd like to see: We don't defeat Xal'atath. Instead, we can choose to join her. Instead of Alliance/Horde factions (since that's basically nonexistent anymore), we'd get Void/Light fault line, it would put the War back in Warcraft.
If I had to choose light or void, I choose Fel, Burning Legion all the way. Light is soooo boring and Void feels too niche to me
I'm glad Asmongold was able to get Ian on your show.
Great interview; and it's nice to see Ion looking relaxed in interviews now.
1:15 What Sword shirt is awesome 😂
Rockstar interview. Appreciate this type of Q&A a lot more than some interviews where streamers just grill devs asking for new features. That's boring and kind of disrespectful imo. This is an actual convo. Kudos! 💪
And yes, so glad Ion is having his redemption arc. Was in the theatre at blizzcon and you could feel the love in the crowd. He was glowing. The game genuinely feels like it's in good hands again.
Evitel coming in with an absolute banger of a question about follower dungeons and can we take alts from the warband 🙌🏻
3:25 actually makes alot of sense why then that each zone felt so disconnected for the past few expansions, rather than a cohesive story there would be a sort of loose small thread that tied to a bigger story than being weaved throughout like were seeing in TWW
He's so well-spoken.
*I wrote them a few times in the suggestion box that they need to build up a villain for people to be invested and that they should do it over 3 expansions.*
Delves are great. Fantastic interview
I said a lot of terrible things about Ion during BFA that I wish I could apologize for, and someday I hope I get that chance. In hindsight, BFA did a lot of things really really well (dungeons, raids, art). I can also now appreciate the risks they took. I think DF in many ways was the result of a team that just wanted to go back to basics and play it safe, and I can't blame them for that after the years of hell they had endured (including Ion). Looking back on it now, those weekly (I think?) dev updates he was a part of were, I think, at times, humiliating. It sucks they had to go through that.
I love seeing TWW taking a few more risks, and in many ways, it seems to kinda be the spiritual successor to BFA including the continuation of Xal'atah's story. I'd also love to see a mini raid again, like the CoS.
Thank you to the WoW team for delivering another great expansion! You guys are doing great.
Loving the xpac so far, the new zones are fantastic imo. Loving the delves as well, happy to have something else to do!
9:25 Hard hard hard disagree, Ion. The Thunder King is a perfect counter example. He wasn't even involved in MoP's story until he got his own one-and-done patch and he's honestly one of the best and most memorable Warcraft villains of all time.
Building a stronger narrative with a proper long term plan is great, I'm all for it. But the way you talk abt it kind of makes it sound like you still don't understand why the Jailer didn't land. He might've been better received if he'd been built up prior to SL, but what would've worked even better is if he'd been a compelling villain with interesting hooks and a good narrative. You know, like the Thunder King was during his one patch.
One of the main issues with how the Jailer was introduced isn't that he wasn't built up enough, it's that instead of being built up, he was prompted up - by stepping all over prior lore and stories in a hasty re-writing of history. And it was done so poorly that instead of cheaply lifting the Jailer up, it devalued and shrunk everything underneath him.
Xal'atath works not JUST because she's been slowly brewing in the background for years, but also because what we've been given of her is cool, interesting, fun, mysterious, and it doesn't shit all over what came before to make her look important.
EDIT: Nice interview though, I'm happy with how the expac is shaping up, they're doing a great job these days.
Great expansion so far! Feels fantastic
WoW devs need to take hints from Guild Wars 2's world design and meta events. Guild Wars 2 was ahead of its time. They set the standard for MMORPG design the very day the game launched. Other developers are playing catch up to that reality right now.
its like watching rachel maddow interview hillary clinton
Excellent interview.
Game releases for 5 minutes: This is the best expansion EVER!!
If you're on Character A and want to transfer all Darkmoon Faire tickets from Characters B, C and D just type in 999999 or something ridiculous, highlight and copy. Then when you switch between Characters B and then C and then D to transfer to A just paste in that ridiculous number and hit transfer. Nice and quick.
If I got to re level delv companions seasonally I will be mad lol on the flip I would like to see new companions come in with different abilities to try and maybe a tank one. I would also love to see delvs added to older zones over time.
Solo Player already noticed a difference would love to join with others but as my sight is going I am a lot slower, Before it would have been kicked in LFG, Now with Follower can go at my pace,
One thing I still want I hope it will happen is Druid class for more races, I know lore etc etc
but in times of Crisis people adapt. Main is a lock and getting the Rifts back for Destro has been amazing. gutted when they were removed and not even the option for them in the talent tree
Good interview - I'd like to know Ian's thoughts on PvP rewards more broadly speaking, ie we've had the same honor level rewards since... Legion?
So, not directly related to this interview, but there's some interesting in game books in TWW, like The Song of Renilash, that seem fun to speculate about...
Having a lot of fun in TWW! The Story is awesome as well as the music and the zones are!
kinda love Ions Scruff!
Warband follower dungeons: no alt progression. Such a thing would be entirely unnecessary. Follower dungeons do not currently level up alts, the purpose of skinning the followers to look like your warband alts is really just the gee whiz of bringing your own team in to do the solo dungeon experience.
The small microphone was a mistake lol
Big Souls/Diablo fan, really only play with my 2 best mates, Delves are an absolute godsend. Give us something hard af we can do together without randos
The Dawnbreaker Dungeon is absolutely amazing, but holy hell what a nightmare the first time around!
Yeah M+ is going to be so much "fun"
Note to self: After watching the Interview, BUY THAT T-SHIRT!
Thanks Evi and Tali, cracking interview
Amazing collabs! T&E interview pyromancer iv annefucicia ie nobbel ie just missing asmogold and nixiom ie am I right lol! Love your work Ty! Loving #WarWithin
It's so great to hear that Ion is only greatly neurotic "at times".
great interview
IMO with the story telling; stepping away from "the champion" is important to continue to do. Its World of Warcraft and wars are not fought by 1.
It would be very cool if the MSQ cut scenes highlighted my 4 favorite warband characters and directed my warband to go out and do the things not my one champion.
Hey look! It’s Ian Gonnacostus….thanks for making WoW into the pay-to-win system heavy game we have now. Token sales and money for Bobby K! Nice work
Faerin Lothar is a villain, can’t trust a person who isn’t “a cat person” and can’t trust a person that cats don’t trust
I’m a dog person. 😂
Cat people are much more likely to be bat shit crazy. I bet Xalatath is a cat person.
There *are* some things the two agree upon.
That's dogs. Cats are not trustworthy
That she is not a cat person is actually the reason she won me completely!
Great Interview honestly you two are really good wow content creators
Ion looks so different! so good tho!!