The MMORPG.com staff have been busy and deliver another review, this time with Blizzard's vice president Frank Pearce and World of Warcraft Production Director J. Allen Brack.

In talking about Cataclysm, Brack explained a lot of the reasons behind the choices they made. The Goblins are there to give the Horde a small race, complimentary to the Gnomes, while the Worgen are seen as the sinister side of the Alliance being compared to the Undead of the Horde. Both classes offer something new to players who want to create a new character. The other area we did not talk as much about is giving the new class break down to the different races. There are charts out there, and if you play WoW you have likely already decided which class you will play.

This led to Brack explaining the changes in the level twenty through sixty zones of the game. There are many areas that the Blizzard team felt needed improvement in these zones so Cataclysm was a great story method for them to restructure the old world. Players will get a new, more streamlined experience with Cataclysm similar to the quest design in Lich King. Blizzard VP Frank Pearce also explained in his interview that he is not one to re-roll new characters through old content. Cataclysm gives him a reason to do that. As far as the facts about Cataclysm many have been revealed. When Blizzard does talk, especially about WoW, they are pretty clear about what they are doing. The real cause behind the interviews was why are they making those choices.

Ten Ton Hammer and a number of fansites and community representatives were invited to a Blizzard press conference with J. Allen Brack, Lead Producer on World of Warcraft to talk about their next expansion Cataclysm.

Do you have it storyboarded out or planned out a final level cap for the game? An ending point?

Not in any way, at all. We’re very much a team that does something and learns from it. We did some stuff with Ulduar that helped inform some of the decisions we made for 3.2. I’m sure that’s going to happen with 3.3 as well, and that’s going to happen for Cataclysm. Someone asked me earlier if the reason why we did 5 levels because level 100 is the final cap; did we want to slow that down. We’ve never had a discussion like that.

Ten Ton Hammer have written their impresions on the latest World of Warcraft extension and are very impressed with what is being offered.

The proposed changes to the game that have been announced this weekend is nothing short of a complete reinvention. Many MMO games have needed such an overhaul to try and rebuild an eroded player base or resuscitate a dying world; Blizzard is the first to do it while their game is still on top.  It’s akin to a fiery phoenix being reborn from another fiery phoenix.  Many were beginning to see parallels to older games that seemed to peak right around the five year mark and then start a rapid descent into obscurity, but Blizzard once again proves to have their finger squarely on the pulse of the gaming world and has hooked up a massive defibrillator to shock a still beating heart.  We look forward to seeing these changes brought to market and anticipate new heights for a game that already has reached into the stratosphere.

Blizzard have announced the latest expansion for WoW Cataclysm. The trailer is here.