World of Warcraft: Forever producer Holly Longdale says team won’t ‘listen to the loudest people in the room

By Sam Ramirez•14 October 2026

✓ Fact-Checked & Verified

World of Warcraft executive producer Holly Longdale has spoken at PAX Australia ahead of World of Warcraft: Forever’s release, discussing the game’s beta popularity and how Blizzard is processing player feedback.

According to a report by PCGamesN, Longdale called the influx of players into the World of Warcraft: Forever beta “insane”, adding that there had been “no beta bigger than this” in Blizzard’s history. This echoes earlier statements she made following a server cap increase made to the WoW Forever beta almost immediately after its release.

You don’t listen to the loudest people in the room.

Holly Longdale, World of Warcraft executive producer

Longdale said that while Blizzard was “delighted” by engagement levels, it had to be selective about what it took on board. She noted that when MMOs first launched, social media did not exist as a channel for feedback.

“Social media when these MMOs came out wasn’t really a thing, so we had some very focused areas where we got feedback. Now feedback comes from everywhere,” she said. “And I think the lesson we learned the most over time is ‘You don’t listen to the loudest people in the room.'”

The Forever team has moved quickly to apply changes as feedback arrives. One recent example involves the Skyborne elf models, which are being overhauled to fit better with the retro Classic WoW style. Over the past few weeks there have also been dungeon loot changes and significantly altered spell buffs, what Longdale called “a combination of community-sourced info and data-driven research”.

Longdale acknowledged that not everyone would be satisfied with decisions made about the game.

“You just have to accept that you’re not going to make everybody happy. We have to make some calls, determine, ‘What is our game? What is it for? Who is it for?’ We have to try and walk that line as much as possible because otherwise you’ll give a lot of people a little bit, instead of a complete experience.”

World of Warcraft: Forever appears to have captured the hearts of both lapsed and consistent WoW players alike, despite differing significantly from both modern WoW and the Classic re-releases. Whether it can retain a strong community after its full release on 4 November remains an open question.