Senior World of Warcraft dev says we might see single player 'story mode' versions of legacy raids in the future

One of the more interesting developments to come out of World of Warcraft's The War Within expansion debuting in August is the introduction of «story mode:» a single-player way to battle the last bosses of the game's raids, so that even solo players can experience the full narrative.

PC Gamer associate editor Tyler Colp had the opportunity to interview associate game director Morgan Day this week at Blizzard headquarters in Irvine, California. Day hinted that story mode might not just be for the expansion's new content.

«In Shadowlands, we added 'Chromie Time,' where you can play past expansions to level up,» he said. «We always talk about the strength of World of Warcraft and how we have so much cool content, and how we can leverage that better. As we've seen with Remix, the team is trying new and different ideas to leverage that.»

That led to an idea: What if «story mode» could be used to help leveling players complete those narratives and experience classic raid moments solo as part of the journey to max level?

«We've talked often about, like, 'Wouldn't it be cool if I do Wrath of the Lich King Chromie Time, and I end my leveling experience defeating Arthas? How cool would that be?'» Day said. «Right now, you end that experience in a way that's like, 'Wait, what's going on?'»

According to Day, one of the advantages would be opening up raids that weren't seen by many players even when they were originally released.

«Raids in the olden days were something that only a small group of people could participate in. We've really expanded who the core audience of raids is,» he said, though he notes that the team still wants to reward players who rise to the challenge of completing raids at high difficulty close to launch, letting them be the first to play through how an expansion's story ends… «We respect that raids are for these people, while also understanding that the story is critical to these other people.»

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