WoW dev was surprised that players 'like being jumped' by the upcoming Prey system—even on its hardest difficulty, where 'going AFK might get you killed'

A rogue is about to be ambushed by their Prey in World of Warcraft: Midnight. — (Image credit: Blizzard)

One of the features of World of Warcraft: Midnight I'm the most excited for is Prey. In case you're unfamiliar, Prey is a system (that you have to sign up for) which will ambush you with a specific boss enemy you're hunting while you're out in the open world, eventually leading to a 1v1 when you take the bugger down.

It's an ingenious way to handle a spectre that's haunted MMOs for years: Open world difficulty. See, world quests, dailies, and the like are a core part of the modern MMO ecosystem—you've gotta do all your little tasks. But if you like a challenge, said tasks often start to feel like chores.

In a recent interview I had with senior game designer Kim Flak, I was told I was indeed bang on the money with this assumption: "I think that kind of gets to the core of a lot of the different goals we had with Prey. So it is a little bit 'tackling the idea of difficulty', but I think it's less straight-up difficulty. It's not like just clicking on a hard mode. It's more increasing moment-to-moment gameplay challenges, and giving players opportunities for skill expression in the outdoor world.

"It's easy to get into a flow state when you're just doing your routine, you know, you're doing your world quests, your rares, your treasures, you slouch down in your chair…" By ambushing you at inopportune points, Flak explains, Prey shakes that routine up: "What does it mean to have to all of a sudden have to think about: 'Do I have crowd control? Do I have the right talents? Do I have enough health before I go into this?"

"I was a little afraid, like you mentioned a little bit earlier, that players might see these as moments of friction that felt a little unfair. Like 'I pulled that mob, and I would've lived if that guy hadn't ambushed me!' But players overall were like, 'I like being jumped. I like that experience. It's fun, it's surprising, and it's a moment for me to, all of a sudden, shift how I'm thinking about what I'm doing.'

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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

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