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Clay Stone on 'horizontal progression': what Blizzard has said, and a podcast clarification

The Blackrock Depths loading screen from the WoW Forever client

· ForeverDB

A player shared a transcription of developer Clay Stone talking about horizontal progression on the Skill Up (Friends Per Second) podcast. Blizzard's own posts already call the account-wide Legacy System a horizontal progression system; in the interview, as reported, Stone framed horizontal progression more broadly, as expanding the world, not just character power.

On October 18 a player posted on r/wowforever a transcription of developer Clay Stone, World of Warcraft Associate Production Director, answering a question about "horizontal progression" on the Skill Up (Friends Per Second) podcast. The podcast appearance was published on October 11. The quotes below come from that transcription and from other sites, not from a Blizzard post, so treat the exact wording as a report.

Podcast quotes are player and third-site transcriptions, not a Blizzard post. Transcriptions differ slightly, and wording may not be exact. Clay Stone's title (Associate Production Director) is confirmed in Blizzard's own posts.

What Blizzard has said in its own posts

Blizzard already uses the phrase "horizontal progression" in an official post. In the Legacy System announcement on September 23 it describes the system this way:

World of Warcraft: Forever introduces an exciting new account-wide horizontal progression system—the Legacy System. It’s a whole new way to progress, focusing on exploring everything the game has to offer, rather than power progression alone. Blizzard, Get to Know the World of Warcraft: Forever Legacy System

The same post says the Legacy System encourages levelling more characters and tradeskills, that alts are not required to benefit, and that all its advantages can be unlocked on a single character. It has three parts: Legacy Challenges, Legacy Perks and Legacy Rewards. We cover it in full in our Legacy System explainer.

What Clay Stone said in the podcast

Asked to define horizontal progression, Stone pointed back to his BlizzCon wording. In the Reddit transcription he says he meant expanding the world, not only character power:

In substance, Clay Stone, Associate Production Director (Skill Up / Friends Per Second podcast, transcribed by r/wowforever) said (source): I think what I said at Blizzcon is that we are going to expand the world horizontally. So it encompasses a lot more than even just horizontal progression

According to these reports, Stone pointed to professions and the already-announced Legacy System as ways the game will grow sideways. He also talked about keeping gear power in check between raids. AccountShark quotes him on vertical power:

There will be a little bit of vertical power progression that happens between each of the raid tiers, but we're going to try to keep it as small as possible. Clay Stone, Associate Production Director (Friends Per Second podcast, reported by AccountShark)

The same report says gear from earlier raids or dungeons could stay a player's best-in-slot item for a long time, because the power jump each tier is meant to be small.

What it means for players

Blizzard's confirmed position is in its posts: the account-wide Legacy System is a horizontal progression system, built around exploring the game rather than chasing raw power. The podcast comments, as reported, add colour (more of the world, professions, small gear jumps between raid tiers) but are not an official statement. If Blizzard puts any of this in a post or development notes, we will update this article with the exact words.

Sources

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