WoW dev was surprised that players 'like being jumped' by the upcoming Prey system—even on its hardest difficulty, where 'going AFK might get you killed'

WoW dev was surprised that players ‘like being jumped’ by the upcoming Prey system—even on its hardest difficulty, where ‘going AFK might get you killed’ | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these RPG ‘We lost things such as physics in games:’ The dev behind my most anticipated RPG thinks players are craving more interactive games, not just ‘moving around in a static 3D environment’ RPG Obsidian was ‘surprised’ that Avowed players bounced off one of the RPG’s most important systems: ‘That frustration came through loud and clear’ Third Person Shooter Arc Raiders design director says players ‘never worked together’ in testing, but the emergence of care bear lobbies ‘encourages us to lean toward giving opportunities to have friendly interactions’ World of Warcraft WoW lead says they ‘lost something along the way’ by building dungeons for sweaty Mythic+ timers instead of 20-boss mazes like the good old days, but Labyrinths could be the solution Third Person Shooter Arc Raiders’ matchmaking isn’t ‘binary’, says design lead: ‘There’s no such thing as a friendly lobby or an aggressive lobby’ Third Person Shooter Embark admits Arc Raiders’ bosses are dying too fast because ‘they’re not intended for the full server to go up against’ and ‘we gave players too effective abilities’ RPG The best parts of my favorite World of Warcraft classes are being turned into new heroes for Fellowship’s pre-season 2 update this week World of Warcraft WoW’s classes were pruned for Midnight because many were ‘built in a world’ where its devs assumed they’d be using addons Games Fight At Midnight Third Person Shooter Let’s settle this: Should Arc Raiders add a PvE mode? 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter One of the features of World of Warcraft: Midnight I’m the most excited for is Prey. In case you’re unfamiliar, Prey is a system (that you have to sign up for) which will ambush you with a specific boss enemy you’re hunting while you’re out in the open world, eventually leading to a 1v1 when you take the bugger down.It’s an ingenious way to handle a spectre that’s haunted MMOs for years: Open world difficulty. See, world quests, dailies, and the like are a core part of the modern MMO ecosystem—you’ve gotta do all your little tasks. But if you like a challenge, said tasks often start to feel like chores.In a recent interview I had with senior game designer Kim Flak, I was told I was indeed bang on the money with this assumption: “I think that kind of gets to the core of a lot of the different goals we had with Prey. So it is a little bit ‘tackling the idea of difficulty’, but I think it’s less straight-up difficulty. It’s not like just clicking on a hard mode. It’s more increasing moment-to-moment gameplay challenges, and giving players opportunities for skill expression in the outdoor world. Related articles World of Warcraft: Midnight’s new solo-friendly Prey mode will have bosses attacking you out of nowhere: ‘There’s going to be some really mean stuff that we’re going to do to you’ World of Warcraft: Midnight’s new roadmap includes prop hunt, mega-dungeon sized delves, and a new experimental game mode from the folks who brought you Remix and Plunderstorm WoW’s classes were pruned for Midnight because many were ‘built i