Blizzard just released the BlizzCast 7 podcast packed with interviews about World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.  Nethaera interviews Production Director, J. Allen Brack to find out why of all the possible expansions the developers decided to work with Northrend; and the difficulty of choosing the Hero Class they would work on.

Jeff Kaplan answers what they learned from Burning Crusade. It was pretty hard on the servers to handle every player on Hellfire Peninsula. That’s how they decided to create two entry points: Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord to lessen the stress on the servers, and to minimize the impact of players killing specific mobs in the same area. Kaplan explains Phase Technology more thoroughfully in this interview using the Wrathgate as reference. It is hinted that at some point in future expansions we will fight Deathwing and Sargeras.

In BlizzCast 7 you can also find Crygil interviewing Senior Vice President of Creative Development, Chris Metzen to discuss the lore of Wrath of the Lich King and Burning Crusade expansions. The two important plots brought up by Metzen in this interview is the conspiracy of a figure that has kept the dragonflights busy with different schemes removing their focus on what their purpose was meant to be. And that includes Deathwing. He hasn’t been protecting the Earth. What powers above are behind this conspiracy? That’s something that the World of Warcraft story progression will eventually unfold.

The other interesting bit of info from this BlizzCast 7 interview is that the creative team has been discussing what to do next about Medivh.  A hint that a new champion or guardian could arise to handle the current threat to the world (Arthas). That this new guardian could come from other than the Humans. That’s quite interesting because as of World of Warcraft # 15 comic book we have found out about a prophecy that sets Garona’s half-human, part-orc-draenei son as savior of Azeroth. Is Garona’s son eventually becoming the new Guardian of Tirisfal? Will this story eventually tie-in with the Lich King dungeon?

You can download BlizzCast 7 here, and an excerpt is available too.

  • During early development of WoW Classic, two expansions had been planned from the beginning: Northrend and Outland. Warcraft III: Frozen Throne and WoW Classic were developed simultaneously at the time. It was a matter of which of the two to release first. Outland was the one decided on for a feeling of returning home with a Northrend expansion.
  • From 29 possible Hero Classes, it was skimmed down to three possible options: Necromancer, Runemaster or Death Knight.
  • 140 people were behind the development of Wrath of the Lich King with support from many other teams.
  • The lore team is composed of less than 10 people, including Chris Metzen.
  • Phasing Technology is used as a story telling technique
  • Ulduar will have a 10-players and 25-players option.