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    Celebrating 20 years of WoW, Netflix’s The Remarkable Life of Ibelin and what it means to leave no player behind

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    By on THENEXUS
    Celebrating 20 years of WoW, Netflix’s The Remarkable Life of Ibelin and what it means to leave no player behind

    World of Warcraft is celebrating its 20th anniversary now, and while that may mean lots of in-game parties and festivities, it also inspires a lot of reflection on What the last two decades have meant for the game and its players. The virtual land of Azeroth has grown and evolved considerably over the years, as have the players who make up its communities. Friendships were formed, love blossomed, and players found a world within this game that allows them to flourish in ways they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

    Part of this reflection is shown in the new Netflix documentary, Ibelin’s remarkable lifewhich tells the story of a young man named Mats Steen who passed away from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Although his physical body did not allow Mats to live the same way as many of his peers, he created a full life with friends and love within himself. World of Warcrafta space where he could run, jump and live like anyone else.

    Recently, Screen speech I spoke to World of Warcraftexecutive producer, Holly Longdale in all things Wowincluding what the 20th anniversary means to the Blizzard team, as well as the new Netflix documentary. Your thoughts about what World of Warcraft means, and the legacy the game created, keeps the focus on the players and how much the gaming community has meant to it and everyone at Blizzard.

    Netflix documentary about a World Of Warcraft player

    Screen Rant: When you hear stories like the one detailed in the Netflix documentary The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, and stories of people from all walks of life who have found joy, connections, community, and even love through World of WarcraftHow does this make you and the entire Blizzard team feel about the role you play and the impact this game makes?

    Holly Longdale: It’s hard to express how fundamentally shaken and moved we were. The impact is incredibly real […] I have already participated in several things in this work, this being one of them. Meeting Robert, Mats’ father and his family, shakes you deeply.

    And you know, in everyday life when you’re making video games, you’re very focused on the next moment and being reminded of that. because the work we do really impacts people’s lives, we need this, frankly, because it’s a really healthy reminder of how we all share a human experience, even if it’s a video game, and how impactful it can be.

    I talked to veterans who – through all of us, even hearing this through their tears – how rescued they felt by this community and this escape. People in all kinds of recovery and agony, and this really is meaningful to us and a really healthy reminder, and it helps point us in good directions, like adding elements to the game that make it easier to play for people of different abilities or fears, such as arachnophobia, have recently had a huge impact. Strangely enough, for making video games, this makes your efforts extremely significant.

    Screen Rant: Wonderful, I’m glad you went to meet Mats’ family.

    Holly Longdale: I should also say, just spending time with him, the story and the journey that you saw, that he now advocates about the benefits of video games and online communities. You know, what a huge heart he and his family have. They’re just, yeah, I love them.

    Screen speech: The documentary, Ibelin, is one that may resonate with many World of Warcraft players, including myself, in many different ways. Wow served as a platform over the last two decades to bring [people] together and open possibilities for people of all backgrounds and unique stories. How does that shape your decisions when doing things for the game, especially things like this anniversary event?

    Holly Longdale: So we’ve been through a pretty significant journey, or it’s probably significant for me because, you know, I’ve been working as an executive producer for the last two years, but we’ve learned that listening is important, and not just listening.

    The direction now is: let’s not talk too much about the things we want to do. Let’s show. Let’s not just talk about it. And so in everything we’ve been doing, and particularly with The Worldsoul Saga, when we announced this, it came from sitting in a room with Chris Metzen and a group of my leaders and talking about it, this is a big moment. It’s 20 years of this world that we created together and, ultimately, we don’t own it. The players are the owners. They are the ones who bring it to life and we should honor them with the greatest story we have ever told, starting with The War Within, and even on this new journey, it’s about “leaving no player behind.”

    Selfishly, I’m more of a casual gamer. So it was like, give me my world to live in, give it to all of us. And so, there was a lot of effort to make our game more accessible. As we move into our 20th year and beyond, this is a guiding principle. We want anyone, no matter how you play, to be able to be who you want to be and live how you want in Azerothwhether you are an RPG or even the end game player, and cutting edge, in terms of performance or competitive.

    And now, you know, we’re seeing the reaction to it, the feedback has been so good, and we, we would never say we’re perfect, but, damn, we want to be.

    Let’s keep trying. As we try to serve all the different players, we have the best way we can and we still ship things because, you know, there’s a lot of deliberate thought and We do a lot of research and a lot of testing on what we’re doing to make WoW easy to play, fun to play, or accessible for anyone.

    So, it’s a 20-year journey, and we’re taking stock now, and now we’re moving towards the journey of the future, which is to leave no player behind.

    World Of Warcraft’s Focus As It Enters The Next Decade

    Making WoW available to everyone

    Screen Rant: Over the past twenty years, Wow has continually changed and evolved, facing cataclysms and more. It seems like, as you mentioned earlier, this game has taken on a life of its own. It’s just a moving freight train we’re following. What goes into planning new expansions such as The war within and the World Soul Saga maintain your legacy while continuing to evolve and grow?

    Holly Longdale: I’m sure he would hate for me to talk about him, but with the return of Chris Metzen, and we have significantly expanded the team, because as you may have heard, we want to release our expansions a little faster. So part of growth is being able to be focused on a larger scale.

    You know, I’m going to change my prejudice. I love Chris. He’s a great human being, and you may have heard me, or you’ll probably hear me say this over and over again, because I love it, but he goes to the team and asks, “In everything we’re doing, is there thunder? heart?” ?” And everything revolves around that, and everything is measured by that. And where do we look for this? You know, the classic World of Warcraft whimsy and comic relief in between these moments of extreme gravity and emotion.

    And also, you know, How do we relate to things in the human experience? You can see that many of the stories that our developers created around some of their own personal journeys have turned into characters that you can see audience feedback on.

    Holly Longdale: So ultimately, at the end of the day, there’s the booming heart, but also being ourselves. Our team is incredibly passionate about the stories we tell, the way the game works, and the experience people have, and they put their heart and soul into it, and I think that’s the 20-year gift.

    They take risks. They always feel like they’re doing the right thing in the content they create, and that’s important. It’s important to take risks in order to tell some stories. Not all of them work, but man, a lot of them do, like, there’s some of the simplest things. I’m not sure if you remember Dragon Flight, a quest line we called Stay A While that was just one character. Yes, a character telling stories. And that’s what we are. We tell stories, we show stories. And I think as long as we maintain that principle now and for the next 20 years, I think people will stay on this bandwagon.

    WoW’s history is full of personal stories and memories

    Each player has their own experience

    Screen speech: With so much talk about the last 20 years and what’s to come, but looking back at the anniversary and what we’ve seen so far WowI’m sure you’ve had a lot of memories in your mind, because I know you’ve been a gamer for a long time! What are some of your favorite pieces of Wow story, personally, or memories big or small.

    Holly Longdale: Well, there are a few things. I tell this story a lot more because Azeroth and World of Warcraft are really an escape for me. Even in the early days I talked about this a lot, and I even did it recently in Classic too, where I always start a Night Elf. Always. That’s what I do. I have almost all races, but my first character was a Night Elf Hunter. And I remember trying to figure out how to get to Ironforge from Teldrassil, which took about 40 minutes. And, you know, there were no mounts back then, so you were just walking along the path.

    And I’ve done this many times, but I remember the first time, even when I’m alone in the world, getting lost in the music and the beauty. And it was just, you know, yeah, it’s a 40-minute run, but there was something really engaging that really sold me on this game. I was amazed by that, to be able to just enjoy the trip.

    And then meeting people along the way, people who were also on the same journey, and trying to navigate the path to the city that can sometimes be treacherous, and just coming together, as if there were no barriers. Like, let’s get together and do this together, and then hang out with these people for the next 20, 30 minutes on this run, and then I make a friend.

    Holly Longdale: So take that original experience from about 20 years ago, and now I’m married. My husband has also been playing since the beginning. My son started playing and we are doing research together, running around and explaining to him the world of Azeroth and what mining is. You know, just getting into those depths where it feels absolutely epic.

    And, I love my stepson, he does exactly what I’ve always done this in any zone I enter, especially interiors in WoW, from the beginning, I look up. Because there isn’t an inch of space in any zone of World of Warcraft that an artist hasn’t paid attention to and cared about. And there are always details on the ceilings. There are details in the sky. And that’s just for me, it’s always a matter of looking up and paying attention.

    There’s a lot of beauty in the details of gameplay, and I see it everywhere in our character designs. And for me, it’s just being in Azeroth. Those are all my memories: being with friends. Even friends of my parents, I found out that their daughter, who was the same age as mine, was playing Wow, so we ended up becoming good friends.

    It’s so broad and sprawling how global this game really is. And, you know, even now, when people are like, what do you do? It’s like, well, you know, I kind of run a gaming team. Work with a gaming team. Like, oh, which one? Like, World of Warcraft. And I’ve yet to meet someone who doesn’t know what that is. So, it’s a real gift. It was a gift for me and I hope it will be a gift for our players, and we want to continue like this.

    20 years is a long time. By the way, for context, I’ve said this before, Facebook just launched when the game came out. I remember signing up to be invited to Gmail. You know, it’s just that people were still using dial-up when they started playing WoW. So much happened. And you know, I feel like I’m certainly lucky on this journey. When celebrating the 20th anniversary, going back to those 20 years and celebrating, like all that incredible nostalgia of, yeah, wow, that was a long time ago. You know, we’re still here!


    A World of Warcraft player piloting a dragon in the Dragonflight expansion

    Screen Rant: You were talking about the idea of ​​”looking up and seeing all the details,” and that’s one of the reasons why, whenever there’s a new expansion, especially, I love being able to be on the ground, walking, running, riding. a ground mount. Why was there a decision to War Within allow to fly immediately? I was surprised by this.

    Holly Longdale: Yes, it’s kind of a break from tradition. I think it’s because we add features and they become a way to play for a large group of people.

    And the reality, Carrie, is that you and I still exist. You and I will still be on site checking things out. Let’s get the details that we want, that maybe other players, they just want to run to the next zone and, you know, land right on top of the exclamation point for their mission, but that’s not everyone’s journey.

    And I think our goal is to be aware and think about “leaving no player behind”, play the way you want, find people who play the way you play and just enjoy. The point is to make the most of your time, right? So yeah, we’re just trying not to artificially block, get people to play the way we think they should play, that’s what we’ve come to.

    Screen speech: I know we’re running out of time, so one last question. If you could talk to Ibelin, if you could talk to Mats Steen right now, or any of the players like him in this community for whom World of Warcraft means a lot in their lives. What would you like them to know?

    Holly Longdale: That we love them back. We exist because of them and we do this because of them, and there is no greater honor and privilege when it comes to a creative endeavor like this. They are a blessing. He is a blessing.

    Ibelin’s remarkable life is available to stream now on Netflix.

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