reported by Chaotic_Oracle@Azeroth

Game Informer: What steps are being taken to ameliorate the standard MMORPG “experience grind”?

Rob Pardo: Many MMORPGs can leave you feeling like you’re “grinding” because you don’t have a purpose for your character. To alleviate that feeling, we intend for players to always have active quests to complete. There will be a wide range of quests in the game—some relatively straightforward and some more elaborate. In addition to helping players feel like they always have a mission at hand, the quests will serve as tour guides, showing players all of the cool things to see and do in World of Warcraft.

GI: Will character growth follow a standard RPG formula(i.e. Level 40 mage or Level 26 warrior), or does hero advancement work a little differently?

RP: World of Warcraft will blend standard character advancement with other balanced modes of character development. Players will first select their character’s race and class, and then they’ll advance their character from level 1 to level 60. However, there will also be tons of other advancement opportunities: Players can learn trade skills, like blacksmithing, other secondary skills like fishing, talents like fire specialization for mages, and they can eventually try to obtain a Hero class such as Demon Hunter.

GI: Will there be story events that shape the history of Azeroth? If so, how will players be able to participate and influence them?

RP: Over time, the world will evolve through world events that players can participate in. For example, the Dark Portal was shut down back in the days of Warcraft II, but players in World of Warcraft may be able to find the means to once again open the portal to Draenor.

GI: What’s the hardest thing about putting together an MMORPG and bringing it up to Blizzard’s quality standards?

RP: The enormous size of the game. We’ve always been known for our high level of polish and attention to all the details in our games. We like to take our time with every feature, from how macros work, to how a dragon behaves, to how a fireball looks when cast by a mage. With the sheer amount of features and content in the game, it really puts a lot of pressure on us to maintain the level of polish that players expect of us and that we expect of ourselves, but we intend to meet these expectations.