By now we’re aware that the World of Warcraft is being destroyed by a cataclysmic event but the story and reasons behind the World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm have previously been kept in the dark. PC Gamer has an interesting preview in their latest issue with behind the scenes look at the reasons for Blizzard’s Cataclysm and the nature behind remodeling Azeroth to accommodate the Cataclysm and the new changes that are coming to WoW in Cataclysm.

Here are some of the points I’ve selected that might be interesting:

• One of the main reasons for the Cataclysm is that it serves as a reason to go back and develop the now 5 year old world that Blizzard feels can be much improved
• Competition from games like Age of Conan and Warhammer Online have pushed Blizzard to remodel their starting level areas to be more user friendly – an area that new MMO’s are really focusing on and WoW never spent too much time worrying about until now
• Two new races were planned to be added from the start since it makes sense to add new races when you’re recreating a leveling experience from scratch
• CEO of Blizzard, Paul Sams, was skeptical spending all their resources and creating a new expansion that basically redo all the work they had done many years ago when a traditional approach might be easier and more appealing.
• The reason for this cataclysm had to make sense instead of a random disaster, and this is where WoW Cataclysm’s main boss, Deathwing comes in. Deathwing is a dragon that  “has been imprisoned below ground for centuries, tortured and tormented, driven mad by the whispers of old gods, and imbued with astonishing power”. Him breaking out causes the Cataclysm.
  
• Blizzard’s talented designers have been wanting to go back and make changes to Azeroth for years, so they are especially happy that they can go back and polish all the areas they weren’t happy with the first time around.
• WoW phasing technology will be used to make the starting level quests much more interesting, bringing WoW starting level leveling experiences on par with the latest MMO’s hitting the market.
• Previously annoying questing areas such as Desolace, Azshara and Stonetalon Mountains are being completely designed to make leveling much more enjoyable and less tedious. We can all remember what a pain in the ass it was having that cliff in Azshara that blocked half the map – now that is gone, and Azshara will be a Goblin zone with a high tower NPC that shoots at intruding outsiders, so beware!
  
• Remodeling the old world to allow flying will be much tougher than one might anticipate as the original world was not always modeled in full 3D. Areas that were previously unreachable will have to be designed properly this time around.

That is the major reasons and background information for why the World of Warcraft will be experiencing a cataclysm and see a radical change. As you can see, Blizzard is not exactly being ‘lazy’ with this expansion as many have tried to point out. They have simply decided to improve on the area of the game that they felt was the weakest. While long time players and hardcore raiders might not really appreciate this direction, you at least should feel better in knowing that Blizzard is doing everything it can to stay the most popular MMO out in the market. Such success guarantees that the hardcore players and long time fans keep having expansions made and new end game content made for their taste.

If you want to read the full WoW Cataclysm preview, pickup a copy of PC Gamer from your nearest shop.