One thing is immediately noticeable when you create a character in World of Warcraft as one of its newest races: The amount of customization options eclipses that of the older races.
Play an undead man and you get to change what hue your rotting skin looks like and what kind of malformed jaw you want. Meanwhile, on the newer races, you can change tiny details, like fur color and eyelash style.
Blizzard has been fairly open about the dramatic difference in the customization options in the past, but recently made it clear it wants to go back and improve things for the older races in an interview with Windows Central.
Design director Maria Hamilton said there’s no roadmap yet, but the team wants to address all the issues at once rather than piecemeal through multiple updates. “We’ve even discussed improving character animations and things like that—what sorts of improvements we can make there. It’s down the road, though, it’s not soon.”
That lines up with Blizzard’s strategy for Midnight. Instead of taking its time with updating the game’s antiquated transmog system, it’s been overhauled entirely for the upcoming expansion. Now, players can set up outfits and tie them to different activities, like PvP or fishing.
Principal artist Jay Hwang actually brought up player housing as an example of how the team is trying to lay down a foundation for each system to expand as time goes on. Character customization will be treated the same way. “You can see even now with the remake of the transmog system that we understand the need,” Hwang said. “We’re starting to move down that road.”
A lot of things are changing in Midnight, but I think the biggest shift is how much Blizzard is investing into letting players make their mark on the world. WoW, like many MMOs, has always had player expression at its core, but it’s been coasting on old systems for quite some time. With Midnight, it feels like the game is finally entering a new, modernized era.
