Blizzard boss says keeping World of Warcraft players happy for 20 years is so hard because the MMO is filled with “different demographics that only have so much time in their day”

Blizzard Entertainment president Johanna Fries is also kind of gobsmacked at how World of Warcraft has been chugging along for two whole decades, but she’s also aware that the evergreen MMO has been so unrelentingly consistent because Blizzard developers have struck the right balance between fresh and familiar additions.

“You want to retain the players who have been with you going on 20 years in some cases,” Fries says in an interview with Windows Central after her first year on the job. “They have a certain set of expectations. Taking World of Warcraft as an example, you can’t have every expansion being such a ‘zag’ that it feels totally unfamiliar to your core fanbase.”

At the same time, Fries acknowledges the very tough reality that Blizzard still needs to expand the game’s scope while appeasing the “core” player base that’s been grinding World of Warcraft since 2004. A seemingly impossible task that World of Warcraft’s very existence proves is possible, in fact.

“It’s a never-ending chase to strike the right balance,” Fries continues to explain. “There are different demographics that only have so much time in their day. Creators have a certain expectation too, even before we get to commercialization of the content.”

Even to this day, World of Warcraft is introducing features to keep its younger, fresher competitors on their toes. The WoW team basically called out Final Fantasy 14’s house lottery nightmare last month as the team detailed its own player housing system. That’s without even mentioning the 38,000(!) or so quests available in-game.

WoW Hardcore streamer receives $7k donation on one condition: he has to delete everything he owns