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Rob Pardo Leaving Blizzard Entertainment
Originally Posted by Rob Pardo (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Every ending is a beginning and today marks a new beginning for me.

After 17 years at Blizzard, with long and careful contemplation, I have made a difficult and bittersweet but ultimately exciting decision to pursue the next chapter in my life and career.

Before I even joined Blizzard, I was already a huge fan of the company and its games. In particular, I was extremely passionate about the emerging genre of real-time strategy games. It was a dream come true when I was given the opportunity to work on StarCraft, which at the time was being created by a very small team by today’s standards. It was tremendously fulfilling to get to know everyone on the team personally and to contribute our energies toward a shared goal in such a creative and engaging environment.

Blizzard Entertainment has been simply the best place in the world to be a game designer. The best aspect of designing games at Blizzard is that the entire company is passionate about the gameplay within each and every product. From the executive team to customer service to our global offices, every single person is a player and contributes to making the best possible games. It’s for very good reason that the first credit on every Blizzard game is “Game Design by Blizzard Entertainment.”

I’m really proud of the contributions I was able to make to Blizzard’s accomplishments. From building lasting games, to supporting the growth of eSports, to extending the Warcraft world into a feature film, and of course to being able to celebrate our shared passions with the Blizzard community online and at BlizzCon.

The Blizzard community is ultimately the reason why we come to work every day and pour our souls into every world and experience we create. Blizzard’s players are the most passionate in the world and your commitment and dedication are truly awesome to behold. Creating entertainment for you has been an incredible opportunity, and I know that you will continue to grow and become even stronger as a community over the years to come. It has been so meaningful on a personal level to help create joy for all of you.

I’m looking forward to new challenges in my career, but I will always cherish the time I spent with you all and the amazing and collaborative teams at Blizzard. It was both satisfying and humbling, and it made me a better developer and a better person. I look forward to playing Blizzard games as a player for many years to come. Most important, now I have plenty of time to learn how to build a competitive Hearthstone deck.

As to what I will be doing next, I don’t have an answer for you yet . . . but I will “when it’s ready.” My priorities are to enjoy the summer with my family, play plenty of games, and think about what’s next. The game industry is such an exciting place right now with PC gaming thriving, the new consoles, mobile games, and virtual reality becoming an actual reality. It’s like having an empty quest log and going into a new zone for the first time.

In the past, I haven’t been the most avid Twitter user, but I’ll strive to do better and keep you updated there—@Rob_Pardo. Please stay in touch!

Rob
This article was originally published in forum thread: Rob Pardo Leaving Blizzard Entertainment started by chaud View original post
Comments 591 Comments
  1. Grizzelbar's Avatar
    Just as I said not so long ago! People that have been ruling Blizzard at its prime are either not doing anything at this moment (like posting dick picks on their twitter, even though it is art and all that) or just going bonkers. So this is just a confirmation. Sad, but true.
  1. Alternategray's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Protar View Post
    This is the article people are upset about: http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/22/574...zzard-nintendo

    And you know he's the lead creative designer of Blizzard. So bigotry is hardly unexpected given the state of female characters in their games.
    Ah look, the thought police are out in full force today. Keep your trendy, pedantic and shallow internet social justice shit on tumblr; nobody fucking cares. While bigotry is real and a problem, the only thing sheltered whiny parrots like you manage to do is distract from it.
  1. mmoc93b0a7f85d's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rorcanna View Post
    How so?Do you honestly think that people stop enjoying a game they like playing because one out of a massive team behind said game moves on?

    I've been playing this game for 6 years without fail and I didn't know this guy until today. Unless we see another Cataclysm as a direct result of him leaving, I doubt this will impact me. <.<
    I believe he could be suggesting that there is a big sub drop on the way something of course an employee would know in advance of any official announcement.

    It would help if you actually thought about things rather than blindly taking a "must defend Blizzard" stance.
  1. Grizzelbar's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by DrakeWurrum View Post
    It's silly to get mad at him for the company not including LGBTQ characters, or for including overly sexualized female characters, in all their games. Why are game devs so heavily pressured to do/not do these things? Why can't they just focus on making the game as they want to make it, without having to think about all the other stuff?
    Because it is a trend of time in the free world. Try stating you opinion on this if it differs from the majority of those "free" people, and you'll get a ban at best or incessant public shaming and a real lot of acid comments at worst.
  1. Maleagant's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Master Guns View Post
    What exactly did he do at Blizzard?
    Rob Pardo was a game designer and Blizzard executive.
  1. Kallor's Avatar
    Lead Designer
    World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
    World of Warcraft
    Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
    Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
    StarCraft: Brood War

    What an epic résumé. Sad to see him go, one of the true oldschool guys @ Blizzard.
  1. DrakeWurrum's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Acelius View Post
    I dont understand how a persons sexuality is so important for a game. Why is it important for people to have gay characters?
    Also, trying to bully Blizzard into making LGBTQ characters and "strong female" characters is kinda... not cool. I don't see why they NEED to have such characters representing them inside this game. I consider myself a part of the "Straight Not Narrow" grouping, and I still can't figure what the big deal is.
  1. Durandro's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by DrakeWurrum View Post
    First of all, I don't see how his comments at the MIT speech were sexist.
    By being dismissive of the issues.
  1. DrakeWurrum's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kallor View Post
    Lead Designer
    World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
    World of Warcraft
    Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
    Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
    StarCraft: Brood War

    What an epic résumé. Sad to see him go, one of the true oldschool guys @ Blizzard.
    Yeah, he's likely to be able to get any job at any game developer studio he aims for, if he doesn't start his own company - and if he does, all sorts of people in the industry will be desperate to get involved.
  1. Jaydenkor's Avatar
    I'm sorry, but NO ONE willingly leaves work right now, to go have *summer time with the family, and to play lots of games*.. before finding the next thing.

    He doesn't have something already lined up? = He was fired, or let go *nicely* so that he got to keep whatever golden parachute he has.

    As for what this actually means at blizzard, god only knows.
    Its possible he disagrees with management, and that we, the playerbase would agree with him = This is bad for new expacs//games @Blizzard.
    OR
    Its possible that alot of the failures, that we, the playerbase have been clamoring about, have been this guys fault, and now, without this guy, blizzard expacs/games will be better.

    Which one of the above is the case... we'll find out sometime in the next 2 years or so.
  1. DrakeWurrum's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Durandro View Post
    By being dismissive of the issues.
    He wasn't being dismissive at all. People are reading between the lines of what he said: that, simply put, Blizzard is not going to actively play upon the political stage. They're going to make a fun game, and they don't want to have to deal with political issues and pandering to each and every group of people in the world in the process.
    It's silly to blow such things out of proportion. Sure, it would be NICE if the company were to actively support the LGBT community and go out of their way to try and show their support by including certain kinds of characters RIGHT in the forefront of the story, but why should they have to? They're a game development company, not a non-profit political interest group. They should do what they're good at.


    He gave a pretty good reason, as well, as to why the developers and story writers struggle with both women and LGBT characters.
  1. Duster505's Avatar
    OFC he is leaving. The showboats at BLizzard are no longer focused on making web tv rather than actually making games. So ofc the good developers all leave.
  1. Judgedredd's Avatar
    for those of you that do not know more about the background information regarding Rob Pardo, he is one of what is labelled the three 'everquest amigos' (the other 2 being Alex Afrasiabi and Jeff Kaplan) who were all at one time guild leaders of the most successful guilds back during the heyday of everquest. Indeed it can be said the reason for WoW's popularity during its starting years was down to the design decisions and influences of these three developers, who took the rather punishing and unforgiving Everquest model (for instance you had to grind mobs to level up despite the title of the game) and made it much more accessible to the masses. As to why he is resigning, my guess is either design differences or possible a mea culpa for diablo 3, which he was the lead designer on. if Afrasiabi or Kaplan decide to do something similar then it will raise more questions on the internal politics of the design team.
  1. mmoc3f6ff16fa0's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kallor View Post
    Lead Designer
    World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
    World of Warcraft
    Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
    Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
    StarCraft: Brood War

    What an epic résumé. Sad to see him go, one of the true oldschool guys @ Blizzard.
    Executive Producer
    Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
    Diablo III (2012)

    Chief Creative Officer
    Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (2014)
    StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (2013)

    Design Director
    StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010)


    Or maybe more importantly;

    Executive Vice President of Game Design
    World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (2010)
    World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (2008)


    This was more meant to the people who goes 'herp derp, he hasn't been involved in anything wow related since vanilla or tbc'
  1. Duster505's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jaydenkor View Post
    I'm sorry, but NO ONE willingly leaves work right now, to go have *summer time with the family, and to play lots of games*.. before finding the next thing.

    He doesn't have something already lined up? = He was fired, or let go *nicely* so that he got to keep whatever golden parachute he has.

    As for what this actually means at blizzard, god only knows.
    Its possible he disagrees with management, and that we, the playerbase would agree with him = This is bad for new expacs//games @Blizzard.
    OR
    Its possible that alot of the failures, that we, the playerbase have been clamoring about, have been this guys fault, and now, without this guy, blizzard expacs/games will be better.

    Which one of the above is the case... we'll find out sometime in the next 2 years or so.
    Rob was one of the few WOW lead designers who was level minded and focused on the project rather than some stupid shenanigans. Can not say the same about the ones that are left now tbh. Just look at the crap of the web TV chopper series to see who are in charge now....
  1. DrakeWurrum's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jaydenkor View Post
    I'm sorry, but NO ONE willingly leaves work right now, to go have *summer time with the family, and to play lots of games*.. before finding the next thing.

    He doesn't have something already lined up? = He was fired, or let go *nicely* so that he got to keep whatever golden parachute he has.

    As for what this actually means at blizzard, god only knows.
    Its possible he disagrees with management, and that we, the playerbase would agree with him = This is bad for new expacs//games @Blizzard.
    OR
    Its possible that alot of the failures, that we, the playerbase have been clamoring about, have been this guys fault, and now, without this guy, blizzard expacs/games will be better.

    Which one of the above is the case... we'll find out sometime in the next 2 years or so.
    I do agree that's weird, but considering his position at the company, he likely has PLENTY of money put away. People who have as much industry influence and experience as him (to the point that he got to be a CCO) are the kind of people who can make that decision - because he's not part of middle America, where the employment problems exist.

    If he was in desperate need of a job, he could go to ANY other game studio, and they'd be able to recognize him by face alone and be eager to hire him on. He's that influential, famous, and experienced.
  1. mmocedbf46d113's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ralufar View Post
    Something is up at Blizzard...
    Absolutely. First Ghostcrawler, now Rob Pardo. When GC left I thought, why would anyone give up a place in such a great company. Starting to feel Blizzard is having some trouble. Who's next, Chris Metzen?
  1. Hooky's Avatar
    like rats jumping a sinking ship
  1. Judgedredd's Avatar
    you can't take the statement he has written at face value as being the actual reason for his departure. for those of you who aren't dyed in the wool enough, statements like these are just a PR exercise. Ghostcrawler also typed a similar panegyric when he resigned but only recently mentioned that the real reason he had left was due to differences in design philosophy.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by DrakeWurrum View Post
    I do agree that's weird, but considering his position at the company, he likely has PLENTY of money put away. People who have as much industry influence and experience as him (to the point that he got to be a CCO) are the kind of people who can make that decision - because he's not part of middle America, where the employment problems exist.

    If he was in desperate need of a job, he could go to ANY other game studio, and they'd be able to recognize him by face alone and be eager to hire him on. He's that influential, famous, and experienced.
    damn right there, he even appeared in TIME magazine back in 2006.
  1. mmocedbf46d113's Avatar
    Just remembered, Rob Pardo designed a card for the Magic: The Gathering 2015, any chance he might be following another passion now?

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