What distinguishes raids from patches that have been WOTLK Gold made from the point of view of your development process? Comparatively to the past, the raids haven't been as tightly timed to patches as they were before. They come a little after. How has that impacted the development of the patches?
It's been a great way to relax. We've begun to think about the game's design and the way we distribute parts of the game a little bit differently. It was in the past that we released smaller patches, which are basically "this is this" content which is released on this date and everything the game is made available. As we build content, it's a bit prior to the release date, if you have the Tomb of Sargeras in the game prior to it being finished, it's now the right time to be in the Tomb of Sargeras. Then we can release that raid, or any other content that's time-gated , at the date that makes sense. It's not a good idea to launch it too soon.
If we'd released it earlier, in 7.2 I'd argue that it's likely to seem like we didn't have enough time to experience Nighthold. I'm sure there are plenty of guilds that are still trying to conquer some of the most difficult bosses and if we'd been waiting longer, it would most likely feel as if we'd been trapped in Nighthold too long. Some times, a level of raiding can be long and boring, and you may lose enthusiasm, and so separating these two aspects has helped free. This gives us a more room to be open to feedback and observe the way that the community's responding to what's being played and then make content whenever it feels right.
Given the magnitude of 7.2 was Do you feel more pressure in order to deliver even more? Or do you think that gives you the freedom to focus only on the class changes and the sort of things you've come to expect from the .5 patches to begin with?
I'm not sure if it's "pressure" the players experience. I mean, as WoW's growth continues, our team has gotten a little bit bigger and our efficiency's also increased, and so you will see patches tending to get larger as time passes. But that doesn't mean that every patch should be bigger than the last. 7.2.5 for sure is not nearly as huge as 7.2 however it was not meant to be. It's more of an opportunity to look at other regions of Azeroth that aren't related to the Legion storyline. 7.2 dealt with the battle on Broken Shore. Broken Shore and the Legionfall buy WOTLK Classic Gold campaign, which is very heavily in the tale of Legion who are working with Illidan and fighting against the Legion.