World of Warcraft: Forever devs say gear upgrades will stay relevant ‘for a long, long time’: ‘It’s very much our intention to try wherever we can to not invalidate old content’
Blizzard Entertainment has outlined its design philosophy for World of Warcraft: Forever, the new ‘Classic+’ variant of the MMO, emphasizing that gear will remain relevant far into the game’s future despite the level cap remaining fixed at 60.
Vice President and Senior Game Director Ion Hazzikostas explained in a recent interview that the development team is deliberately avoiding the power-invalidation cycle that has plagued modern World of Warcraft. In recent expansions, including the latest Midnight expansion, seasonal gear from previous content becomes obsolete, requiring players to reset their progression and prompting the developers to implement periodic stat “squishes” to prevent power scaling from becoming absurd.
Instead, Forever adopts a more gradual progression model where new gear continually offers meaningful upgrades without rendering older equipment entirely worthless. Hazzikostas indicated this mirrors Classic’s more measured approach to power creep, citing the progression from raids like Blackwing Lair to Ahn’Qiraj as an example of sustainable gear advancement.
The developers’ stated intention is to “not invalidate old content” wherever possible, acknowledging a core frustration with modern WoW where players feel pressured to constantly replace equipment and abandon previously challenging content. This approach aims to create a more stable, long-term progression system where players’ existing gear investments remain valuable and previous achievements retain gameplay relevance.