World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Interview (con't)

FiringSquad: What are some of the team's favorite new NPC monsters in Burning Crusade?

Jeff Kaplan: We've introduced many new creatures with the expansion and I don't think anyone would agree on the same one as a favorite. Each new region of Outland has some creature or other that stands out.

In Hellfire Peninsula we've introduced one particularly prominent enemy, the Fel Reavers, which are giant constructs that serve Kazzak and the Burning Legion. As they walk, they shake the ground beneath their feet and players can hear the gears squeaking with each step.

Some other favorites include the the Arrakoa in the Terrokar Forest, Flesh Beasts, the Elekks of the draenei, and the Ethereals who can be found in several locations throughout Outland. There is no shortage of new and interesting creatures to discover.

FiringSquad: After the expansion's release in January, what can you tell us about future updates to World of Warcraft in terms of new free downloadable content?

Jeff Kaplan: We do intend to continue producing free content updates for World of Warcraft. Blizzard recognizes how important it is to keep the game fresh; there is a lot more that we would like to do and we have no shortage of ideas. A lot of those ideas will be realized in content updates, while others may find their way into new expansions in the future.

FiringSquad: World of Warcraft now has over 8 million subscribers and it looks like it will continue to grow. How hard is it to keep up support for all those customers?

Jeff Kaplan: It's been a learning experience for all of us. We didn't quite anticipate the degree of popularity the game has reached. We've had our growing pains and learned a lot about how we needed to build our infrastructure to support our growth. We've been very busy upgrading our hardware over the period leading up to the release of the expansion in order to anticipate the growing populace and prepare for the launch.

We certainly recognize that with all the success comes added responsibility to our players, so we've also continued to grow our staff in order to maintain the best possible support and service for our community.

FiringSquad: Finally there has been a lot of speculation about future Blizzard products. Will Blizzard concentrate on developing more MMORPG titles?

Jeff Kaplan: We do have some unannounced projects that we're working on, but we're not quite ready to divulge any details on these just yet. With The Burning Crusade just about ready to release, we're wholly focused on that game right now.