Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! The early findings of World of Warcraft's new Prey system – coming in the Midnight expansion due to launch next month – are in, and Blizzard is happy to report that a lot of you "really liked being ambushed." Hooray. If you've played Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, then the idea behind the Prey mechanic is pretty easy to understand. You opt in, and the race is on between you and a big bad to see who can knock the other over first. Eventually, the two of you will square off in a one-on-one bout, at which point you'll hopefully win. It'd be embarrassing if you didn't. Digging into why Blizzard wanted to bring such a thing to Azeroth, senior game designer Kim Flak shares that it's equal parts open-world difficulty and changing up the routine you've likely honed for years. Blizzard pleads with WoW fans not to judge removal of combat mods too early, as Midnight was designed with it in mind World of Warcraft lead teases "a lot of death" for "important characters" in the Worldsoul Saga, so pray for your faves World of Warcraft Midnight is the "the fastest expansion" Blizzard has ever made, with "no sacrifices to team health" "It's not like just clicking on a hard mode," Flak tells our pals at PC Gamer. "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…" So what would happen if you had something to challenge your long-honed habits and routines? Flak shares that Blizzard's thinking is that the specter of a nemesis – if you will – will force you to sit upright in your chair by giving you more to think about – "'Do I have crowd control? Do I have the right talents? Do I have enough health before I go into this?" Of course, Blizzard wants to keep things fair. On lower difficulties, you'll only be jumped when you're actually in combat, so if you "AFK to go get your pizza," your rival won't see that as a prime opportunity to get the jump on you. On harder difficulties, though, they won't be so merciful. "Nightmare mode kind of is the 'don't AFK' mode," Flak says. "If you need to AFK, you're going to want to go to a rested area. You might even want to log out. You might want to hearthstone back home, because on Nightmare mode, going AFK might get you killed. But hey, it's in the name, you signed up for it." Plan your meals accordingly. Naturally, we'll have to wait and see how people feel about the Prey system when Midnight launches next month. As with plenty of other expansions, though, Blizzard has plenty of sources of feedback – pre-patch events, betas, and the like. So far, so good, it would appear. "One thing that I was surprised by was that players really liked being ambushed," Flak says. "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.' "It really delighted me, because I was hoping players were going to like the surprise of ambushes, and overall, a lot of them did." Blizzard pleads with World of Warcraft fans not to judge the removal of combat mods too early, because Midnight was designed with it in mind: "We changed some of how we build encounters."