#22 - Oct. 12, 2010, 4:14 a.m.
A lot of what we do now and have been doing for the past... 8 or so years, around the Warcraft III and initial World of Warcraft development era, is putting a lot of effort into crafting unique worlds. Meaning that we put more effort into every aspect of the game world itself. Who is this secret organization? What is their history? What's their look? Do they have a specific accent? Do they have a symbol or mark that can identify them?
In the previous games I think there was a sense of "Oh it's a demon, Diablo, devil, Satan, satanism... pentagram!" and while certainly there are those influences, what we're creating now and have been creating for quite some time is evolving the game world and making something more complete. A complete world where every aspect is fully realized, maybe even if it doesn't show up in the game.
I think that same sort of world-crafting can be seen between Warcraft II and Warcraft III. A big shift in focus to fleshing out a unique fantasy world and story.