World of Warcraft’s a curious creature. In the 10 years it’s been around, Blizzard’s MMO has been a genre-defining prodigy, an out-of-touch relic, and everything in between. From Leeroy Jenkins to the birth of the word “pwn”, WoW even managed to transcend video gaming and enter the world of popular culture proper. The last few years, however, have seen a slow but steady decline in subscriber numbers, with a lot of former players inexplicably keen to see the game’s demise. The release of Warlords of Draenor seems to have reversed everything, with former players returning at an impressive rate and subscriptions rising above the 10 million mark for the first time since the September 2012 launch of Mists of Pandaria.

While such a leap is pretty standard for the release of a new expansion, it’s never happened at this magnitude . More players are coming back than usual, (only 900,000 returned for MOP at launch, with previous expansions pulling in even fewer, while WOD saw a gargantuan 3.6 million return) and a great deal seem to be sticking around once they’re through the doors. Considering the extreme disillusionment many of these former players felt in the months and years leading up to the expansion’s release and the vitriol with which they promised never to return, it seems something must have changed their minds. World of Warcraft may finally have got its groove back. The question is, how?

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“Broadly, what we’re always trying to achieve with expansions is a mix of satisfying old and new,” reveals lead game designer Ion Hazzikostas, who joined the WoW team just before the launch of Wrath of the Lich King. “Of keeping the familiar feel for those who have been playing the game with us from the start, while at the same time showing the jaded veterans something new to surprise them.

“ The gap between 5.4 and 6.0 we certainly view as unacceptable. Reducing huge droughts in content is really a number one priority for us.

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It certainly seems to be working, so far at least. The question now is how Blizzard plans to keep this going. As one of the few subscription MMOs left , it has to work harder than most to get new faces through the door and keep others from walking off elsewhere. Hazzikostas identifies two key areas the developer plans to focus on: new content released at a regular cadence and a refocusing on community-building. Providing fresh challenges for players to tackle with their friends sees them stick around, while failing to do so has dire repercussions. A cursory glance at the 14-month content drought between Patch 5.4 Siege of Orgrimmar and the release of WOD proves that.Hazzikostas acknowledges how problematic this period was, and explains Blizzard is adamant we hopefully won’t see a similar situation ever again. Talking about why it arose in the first place, he admits it’s down to the company’s overambitious estimations for when the expansion would be ready.

“The gap between 5.4 and 6.0 we certainly view as unacceptable,” he admits. “It’s hard for us to talk about planning because if we knew now what our release date for Warlords of Draenor was going to be, we almost certainly would have paced out some of our content patches a bit differently so they were more evenly spaced. Reducing huge droughts in content is really a number one priority for us.

“ With regards to the Raid and Dungeon Finders, there was definitely social erosion that occurred thanks to the random matchmade groups.

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The trick, then, is for the developer to marry timeliness with quality. Hazzikostas explains the Mists of Pandaria model, where odd patches provide system updates and even patches offer new raid zones, PvP tiers and the like, is the answer. Asked how long Blizzard considers the ideal time between each tier of content, he suggests it’s between six or seven months, depending on patch size. After 10 years of experimentation, Blizzard believes this is long enough for most people to try the content while the most committed won’t get burned out.Hazzikostas cites the launch of MOP, where the first raid zone of Mogu'shan Vaults was immediately available, as a mistake the company learned from. The fact that carrot was immediately visible at the end of the stick contributed largely to a locust-like consumption of content Blizzard ultimately couldn’t satisfy. Learning from this, the newest expansion launched sans raid tier in a bid to encourage everyone to enjoy levelling and pace themselves. So far, it seems to have worked to check expectations.

Which brings us to the social component. A couple of years ago with the release of Cataclysm, Blizzard came under fire for fostering an environment where the game’s sense of social cohesion began to roll over and die. An overreliance on the Group Finder coupled with a focus on old capital cities meant no one met new people to build communities with, and the world felt dead. Though steps were taken to reverse this in Mists of Pandaria, the birth of the Raid Finder and the introduction of instanced Garrisons seems to suggest Blizzard is once again straying dangerously close to encouraging in a socially-stunted playground. Not so, says Hazzikostas.

“ Sylvanas is a very cool character, we haven’t heard much from her in a while, but that doesn’t mean she’s out of the picture by any means.

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“I think we’re excited to really try to push back in that social direction and recapture WoW as a game where you can meet new people and form new bonds and new friendships. Our new premade group finder, which is a massive regional matchmaking tool that’s not automated but let’s people find other like-minded players looking to do the same type of content they are, is a huge step towards this.”Designed to let more casual guilds or raiders discerningly sift through willing participants and fill out groups for raids, the hope is this will both foster communities and also offer guilds who find themselves regularly light on members an opportunity to test fresh blood out before recruiting them. Like the Raid Finder, it lowers the barrier to entry for raiding so it should be clear Blizzard doesn’t view this “catering to casuals” style of design as a bad thing. The way people play has changed, with some only having 45 minutes available and no longer able to commit to raiding three days a week. The Raid and Premade Group Finders cater for them, while Mythic difficulty is around for those desperate for a challenge.

So that’s how Warlords of Draenor set up World of Warcraft for one of its most-successful expansion launches in years. But while Hazzikostas can clearly explain how we got to where we are, he’s much more tight-lipped when it comes to where we’re heading next, though it’s well known the team is already well into production for the next two expansions.

“Honestly, I think you may be pleasantly surprised by some of the things we have in store,” he teases. “That’s all I’m going to say about that. Sylvanas is a very cool character, we haven’t heard much from her in a while, but that doesn’t mean she’s out of the picture by any means.“We certainly haven’t heard the last from the Old Gods, there’s no question that there’s going to be more nefarious Old God doings afoot, and the Emerald Dream or the Emerald Nightmare is a cool part of the tapestry of Azeroth and Warcraft lore that we’d love to visit in the future. As for next expansion plans though, all I can say is we’re working on it and we’ll talk about it more at some stage. For now though, you’ve got Draenor to deal with.”

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter.