Hazzikostas Talks Content And Culture Change As World Of Warcraft 9.1.5 Hits Today

Note: Activision Blizzard is still under investigation by the state of California for serious harassment charges.

Following the currently running maintenance, World of Warcraft’s big update is finally here and despite what it might seem like – that they’re just changing things that can be perceived as offensive, there’s a lot happening in the 9.1.5 update, ranging from visual updates to races and added weather effects, to things like adding the ability for characters to fly in spirit form (provided they’ve unlocked flying in the Shadowlands). There are additions, some of which we heard about already such as the return of the Mage Tower thanks to a little Timewalking, and the host of quality of life changes like the ability to queue for island expeditions in a party or alone. Of course, it wouldn’t be an update without a slew of class tweaks – all of which you can read about on the WoW site, because there are a lot.

On a related topic, WoW director Ion Hazzikostas recently spoke to Mike Minotti of GamesBeat, answering a lot of questions not just about the update but also about what’s been going on behind the scenes in the World of Warcraft team as all the legal issues continue. The interview touches on things like why they’ve elected to focus on changing images in the game as opposed to doing other things that might seem more pertinent to the situation. Hazzikostas’ response was lengthy, but one important point was that this isn’t an “or” situation but an “and” situation…that they’re not making these changes "instead" of doing the other things that we all feel they should be doing, but in addition to. He also noted that these in-game changes are just something we’re going to see faster but that they’re still working on the bigger things.

The interview goes on to address what they’re doing to create more diversity within Blizzard and, specifically, the WoW tea, by adjusting not just hiring practices but how they even post a listing to begin with, so that they attract a more diverse group.

If you’re interested, you can read the full interview on GamesBeat. There’s quite a bit there.