We talk with World of Warcraft's lead content designer about The Shattering patch, the upcoming Cataclysm launch, the game's sixth anniversary, and the possibility of more dynamic events!

ZAM: So let's switch topics a bit and talk about dynamic in-game events. The Elemental Invasion is going on right now, and Deathwing's going to start killing players soon. People are still talking about the Scourge event to this day. Can you reflect on those events and discuss your future plans?

Stockton: We have a team that's dedicated to that stuff called the World Events Team. They're the same group that did the Scourge Invasion. We looked at that event and said, “What worked? What didn't work? Was the timing working out right? Were too many people getting ganked?” We looked at all those things. We've been talking about this Elemental Invasion event for well over a year. The implementation on this event started so long ago that I can't even remember, as far as preparing the towns and cities for what's happening was concerned. You've got four completely unique boss fights that are part of these event, not to mention all of the background information that's been happening. It's just small text that you see in the game, but people pay attention to that kind of stuff.

As far as the elemental event in general, we knew we wanted to do something that would last about a month and would have phases so it would build up over time. We wanted it to grab the attention of players because there's no way to avoid it. We like that build-up. The other big thing is we really wanted to introduce the Twilight Hammer because that's the main antagonistic group for the expansion that's working in conjunction with Deathwing. We wanted people to know who they were.

When you do a world event like this, it affects everyone in the game. We're literally shutting down Stormwind and Orgrimmar for extended periods of time when the elementals are invading. It's somewhat difficult to use the Auction House at that time, so you need to pay attention to what's happening. It really helps people get a vibe for what's going on when we do launch Cataclysm on Dec. 7. Players are going to know who Deathwing is because he may have flown over the zone and taken them out. They're going to see Twilight Hammer in the cities chanting and talking about joining their cult.

We looked at the zombie invasion and felt it was a little invasive on players who didn't want to take a part of it because there was so much of a PvP element, so we pulled back on the PvP with the elemental event, but we also went a little more into the background story. We also have boss fights that drop item level 251 gear, which is pretty sweet, although they're not going to matter in a few weeks. From our perspective, who cares? Let's give players awesome loot because this is probably the last time they'll get loot before the expansion.

ZAM: So can we expect more of these events in the future?

Stockton: Definitely. That's the same group that does all of the holiday events, but we want them to do more actual world events. We're looking into things that are dynamic and happen more on a monthly basis. We have a lot of ideas with nothing set in stone. We could maybe have an invasion that happens across Azeroth in different locations and if you take part in it, you could earn rewards. And this could happen around every month. We have ideas where we want to take the Darkmoon Faire and really blow it out. Instead of having it happen at such far intervals like it does now, we could add a lot to it and make it a lot more integrated into the gameplay for most players instead of the ones who just want the cards, trinkets and reputation. The World Events Team also did the Argent Tournament.

ZAM: WoW's sixth anniversary is happening this week. Congratulations! Do you have any favorite memories of your time with the game?

Stockton: When I got hired here at Blizzard, it was just about three months after WoW had shipped, so this was like January 2005. My guild was in Molten Core. I was raiding extremely hardcore when I got hired. I got hired as the lead dungeon designer way back then. We were raiding Molten Core and were on Ragnaros for literally like a month. I was asking Alex Afrasiabi for tips on how to deal with the sons on Ragnaros day after day, and he was like, “You're still on Ragnaros? This is weak!” I was raiding at work from my desk. I would log into my raid after work, and we ended up beating Ragnaros while I was at work. I had only been at Blizzard for a month and a half, and the first time I beat the final raid boss was here at work, so I went completely nuts. I still have tons of screenshots from that fight, but I thought that was awesome because I got hired here to work on that content, but then I ended up beating that fight sitting at my desk here at Blizzard.

ZAM: A lot of fans were a little surprised there's not going to be an anniversary pet or gift this year. What's the philosophy behind that?

Stockton: There really isn't a philosophy behind it. I think it just comes down to if we have an idea that fits the situation and it feels like its something cool, we'll do it, but I think it's the same way that we didn't do anything for WoW's two-year anniversary. We don't feel that every year necessarily means that we have to release a pet. We added an achievement, but I think we felt like so much of our energy and time had gone into Cataclysm that we kind of put everything there. We wanted to make sure the achievement was in the game, but I don't think we feel it's a requirement that we have to release a pet for every anniversary.

ZAM: We could spend all day talking about balance issues, but at the end of the day, what are your goals for Cataclysm?

Stockton: My biggest goal is to have people feel like like any piece of content they want to do should be accessible to them. I want to see the super hardcore raider role a new character and level up through the 1-60 content. I want to see the person who has 15 alts take a single character and go raiding now because we've made it accessible via 10-man and it offers the same kind of loot that you can get in 25-man raids. I want the person who's never done Arenas because he may not be able to find a team to queue up in a rated battleground and earn conquest points to buy that awesome epic-looking PvP gear. That's our over-arching goal with the expansion. We want to give an avenue for people to play the way they want and feel they can do what they want to do without any consequences.

ZAM: Is there anything else you want to add about patch 4.0.3a or Cataclysm?

Stockton: I'm just super excited for people to finally get a chance to play it. I think it's real easy to look at the beta and the amount of information on the Internet and think it looks cool, but I don't think it compares to when you finally log into the game.

Darryl Gangloff, Editor-in-Chief