WoW lead warns 'a lot of death' for important characters in Worldsoul Saga

World of Warcraft design director Maria Hamilton told PC Gamer there will be "a lot of death" for important characters during the game's Worldsoul Saga, which reaches its second act with the Midnight expansion due March 2.

Hamilton said, "There will be important characters that do not survive the trilogy... It'll be a lot of death, I'm afraid. Those are hard decisions. We have arguments about, 'Is this the right time? What will we do with that person gone?'"

The Blizzard team says telling this kind of story requires real stakes and that the MMO must embrace impermanence; "nothing is safe," and when handled well such twists can make staying with the game worthwhile.

Game director Ion Hazzikostas added that narrative threads can sit dormant: "Sometimes Chekhov's Gun, or Chekhov's Sword as the case may be, is going to lie there for a couple of expansions before something comes of it," referencing the blade plunged into the planet during Legion.

Midnight arrives on March 2, and Blizzard frames the Worldsoul Saga as a multi-part story, so which characters fall and when may unfold across the trilogy rather than all at once.

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