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WoW: The War Within devs on Warbands, hero talents, airlock loading tech, and more

World of Warcraft's Christopher 'Crash' Reed and Darren Williams answer some of our questions about what features to expect from the long-running MMORPG.

Ozzie Mejia

November 14, 2023 3:00 PM

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There's a lot to get excited about when it comes to World of Warcraft. There's a full roadmap for Azeroth's future with multiple expansions on the way, The War Within being the next one. We had a lot to ask about when it comes to what's next for WoW, so we spoke with Lead UX Designer Christopher 'Crash' Reed and Associate Technical Director Darren Williams to learn more.

Reed and Williams discuss the new Warband feature and how it allows players to keep their most important items warbound to their accounts, the expansion of the reputation system, and how many of these features can go across realms and across factions. They discuss the evolution of WoW's tech and how the Blizzard team has been able to introduce exciting new technology with minimal loading requirements. They also talk about some of the big changes to the Hero Talent system and what players can look for moving forward.

World of Warcraft has an exciting future ahead with the Worldsoul Saga about to kick off. Reed and Williams offer a great idea of what to expect from both a feature and a technical standpoint, while also talking about how much Chris Metzen's presence has rejuvenated the team. For more interviews like this one, be sure to subscribe to Shacknews and Shacknews Interviews on YouTube.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?