I’m just going to come out and say it: World of Warcraft Shadowlands was, potentially, the game’s bleakest expansion to date. Marred by confused storytelling and a general sense of hopelessness, framed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Shadowlands strayed too far from the fantasy that makes Warcraft so great. While Dragonflight has recaptured some of that magic, it generally felt overly hopeful and one-dimensional, so I asked associate design director Maria Hamilton and game designer Ion Hazzikostas how WoW The War Within will balance the light and darkness, literally and figuratively.

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