World of Warcraft Interview: Steve Danuser
The past couple of years have been hard for many developers, but World of Warcraft has seen a number of roadblocks. Delays from the COVID-19 pandemic compounded with lawsuits filed against Blizzard this summer. As Blizzard begins to re-examine itself and address many of the concerns raised against it, World of Warcraft announces "Eternity’s End," the next big content update for the game almost a year after the Shadowlands expansion released.To get more news about Buy WoW Items, you can visit lootwowgold.com official website.
"Eternity’s End" will take players to the Zerith Mortis; a primordial world where the ancient First Ones created the realms of the Shadowlands and the creatures who dwell within them. The Maw Walkers will finally reach the Sepulcher of the First ones – the reality-bending workshop at the heart of Zerith Mortis – where they will face down The Jailer. Game Rant spoke with lead narrative designer Steve Danuser and lead game designer Morgan Day about the story awaiting players in "Eternity’s End," and the potential future of many major characters as well as WoW itself. Interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Danuser: Sylvanas’ story has been long, and has taken many twists and turns over the years. There’s fans who love her and adore her as a hero, and there’s others who’ve seen her as a villain, not just recently, but for a while. Even back in Vanilla, when you did quests with Sylvanas, she was clearly up to some very questionable tactics. But obviously, with events in Battle for Azeroth, she escalated to a level not seen before. She’s always been linked to the powers of Death–when she was struck down by Arthas, that was the inciting incident that got her wrapped up in this. Some of those details weren’t fleshed out and didn’t come to life until we were able to show them in Shadowlands.
So, that was an interesting process, looking at the arcs we have been building up and saying, “Okay, what can we do in these realms of Death with Shadowlands to really bring all of that stuff to bear?” In Battle for Azeroth, a lot of her plans and machinations were concealed; we didn’t understand why she was doing the things she had done. Shadowlands was our time to really lay her cards on the table. No more secrets, no more lies. She was able to tell Anduin, and by extension our players, what she was up to. So, we’ve had those threads in action for a long time and we had planned the full narrative arc of Shadowlands, with her and the Jailer and Anduin–that triad was core to the story we are telling. Those threads were planted early on in the Shadowlands story planning, and it is awesome to see them come to fruition here in "Eternity’s End." It’s been a long road, but hopefully fans will see it’s a very exciting one with the twists and turns coming in this content update.
Danuser: Yeah, so we’re definitely going into spoiler territory there, but what I will say, as with "Chains of Domination" and Shadowlands itself, "Eternity’s End" has an unfolding chapter arc that takes you through the story, and once we get our legs underneath us in Zerith Mortis, get the lay of the land, and find out what the Jailer’s up to there, the story definitely goes into the fact that we need to know what Sylvanas knows. We need the information that’s inside her head because Anduin is still under the Jailer’s control. He’s gone, so without him, Sylvanas is the next best thing we have to understanding what the Jailer’s strategy is. So, we are going to need to speak to her and find out what information she has and how that information can help us confront the Jailer. So, she will be coming into the "Eternity’s End" story early on and we will find out a lot of those things, about what getting that fragment of her soul jammed back into her by the Jailer, what effect that has on her psyche.
As we’ve seen with Uther, it had a pretty devastating effect on him and that was something he took a long time to work through. I think you’ll find there are dramatic similarities there with what Sylvanas will be going through and with what Uther went through. In fact, he can serve as something of a guide for her through that process; he had no one to help guide him, but Uther understands what it is like to go through something like that, and you’ll see how maybe he can help guide Sylvanas through those treacherous waters.
Day: That’s always one of the most exciting parts about working on the story and also how we convey that story within the World of Warcraft through the gameplay. It is always fun to tackle and explore, especially with "Eternity’s End" as we step foot into the Sepulcher of the First ones. The story of Anduin and Sylvanas, where the Jailer’s power is derived from, what is he able to do with this Domination magic and how does it affect not only Anduin but how would it affect the players. We have to come face to face with the Jailer in this finale, so how do we combat that? That’s something we’re always inspired by. We always look for inspiration from the story, and how to tell that story within certain elements of the gameplay.
