Brian Holinka Leaving World of Warcraft Team
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Five years ago, I received a phone call from Blizzard offering me the chance of a lifetime—a position on the World of Warcraft team.

Simply put, this is my favorite game of all time, and working on it these past five years has been a dream come true. I have learned so much from the women and men who make it and everyone who plays it. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on a game that so many people around the world are so passionate about.

A few weeks ago, I was offered a new opportunity at Blizzard that I’m really excited about. Tomorrow is my last day working on World of Warcraft.

As a longtime player, I couldn't be more excited about what the future has in store for World of Warcraft. In particular, the PvP team remains hard at work on some incredible plans. I fully expect that the best years of World of Warcraft PvP are ahead of us.

Thank you to everyone involved with World of Warcraft, from the development team to the players, for letting me be a part of this game's community. I consider it a great privilege.

Brian Holinka
This article was originally published in forum thread: Brian Holinka Leaving World of Warcraft Team started by chaud View original post
Comments 374 Comments
  1. RelaZ's Avatar
    Finally, now replace him with Azael, Hoodrych or some other intelligent, non-biased, high level PvPer who understands PvP. And stop this nonsense with designing PvP for PvErs, it's not working - it never did and it never will. If they do "all that" we might actually have a shot at having good PvP again next expansion.
  1. deathsreaper's Avatar
    I just want someone to tell me what the fuck is wrong with PVP. Seems to me a lot of bitching and blaming Blizzard for PVP supposedly sucking with out any suggestions that actually will fix what you say is wrong with PVP. If they do all the we might actually have a shot at having good PVP again next expansion lmao without saying one word as to what is wrong with PVP now. Also what I find so funny is how everyone also bitches about world PVP being dead yet it is actually the player base that created world PVP in the glory days of WoW so if world PVP sucks now It is not because of Blizzard it is because of the whiny bitches that play the game. Just saying!
  1. FelPlague's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gadzooks View Post
    Say what? Metzen was one of the handful of people who came up with the idea of wow, and was it's creative director from day one.
    corrected that later, i was wrong, idk why but ithought he joined mid vanilla
  1. Vzz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by RelaZ View Post
    Finally, now replace him with Azael, Hoodrych or some other intelligent, non-biased, high level PvPer who understands PvP. And stop this nonsense with designing PvP for PvErs, it's not working - it never did and it never will. If they do "all that" we might actually have a shot at having good PvP again next expansion.
    Pvp is just an addition to the game, deal with it. There are zillions of better pvp games than this one.
  1. mmoc59b5827c7e's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by xanzul View Post
    Mods seriously need to start cracking down on this shit. You do understand what you posted here could very well be taken as a real life threat right? That is an actual crime. It is getting to a point where I think the staff at this site or at Curse needs to start swinging the banhammer down on some of you and reporting comments like this to law enforcement. Enough is enough.
    Or maybe you should get yourself some tissues and get real with how the world actually works. Wow, what a pathetic behaivor.
  1. Kelsierx's Avatar
    The next guy is most likely going to be as bad, or worse. I actually didn't mind PvP in WoD (Ashran). I don't profess to be decent at PvP though.
  1. Vorkreist's Avatar
    There should be like a Jay Wilson award so we could award to Holinka. He totally deserves it.
  1. Eleccybubb's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by UcanDoSht View Post
    Or maybe you should get yourself some tissues and get real with how the world actually works. Wow, what a pathetic behaivor.
    What the real world makes threats to developers over a fucking video game and that's totally ok and normal? And you dare call someone out on their behavior?

    You didn't answer my question by the way. What would YOU do if you were face to face with Holinka or any dev for that matter?
  1. MoanaLisa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aviemore View Post
    I could be wrong (and am happy to be corrected), but I'm pretty sure Blizzard still make the most from World of Warcraft - though the gap is decreasing.
    I'm relying way too much on memory here but I think you're right. WoW still earns them a lot of revenue but I don't think it pulls in as much as everything else added together.
  1. AmazonDruid's Avatar
    Thank you to everyone involved with World of Warcraft, from the development team to the players, for letting me be a part of this game's community. I consider it a great privilege.
    Bye Felicia
  1. relaxok's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dizzeeyooo View Post
    because classes are boring as fuck to play

    which is nothing to do with Holinka
    If that's boring, what do you call counterstrike and LOL which have even less things you can do? At least there's a bunch of abilities.
  1. Dizzeeyooo's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by relaxok View Post
    If that's boring, what do you call counterstrike and LOL which have even less things you can do? At least there's a bunch of abilities.
    I call them fps and moba games, both of which have literally nothing to do with wow pvp?
  1. nekobaka's Avatar
    Class design falls more on Celestalon who took over GC's role as class and systems team lead dev.
  1. gutnbrg's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by KevinD View Post
    Well the order shouldn't matter, the fact you pick up on it means you feel it sounds weird, meaning there is still work to do for us woman out there.
    "kevinD" mans name, pretending to be a woman for reasons....
  1. Niwes's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Torais View Post
    Very well said.

    A leader is ALWAYS responsible for the actions of his team, for good or ill. As the Lead Developer for PvP, leadership was his very role on the PvP team. As a result we have one of two scenarios; 1) Either he was fully aware of the negative impact on many of his team's actions during his time in the position (Ashran, anyone?) and signed off on them anyway making him arrogant and seeing the feedback of the player base beneath him. 2) Or he failed to manage his team properly and was not fully aware of the problems and badwill among the PvP they were causing meaning he was an inept and/or a weak leader.

    You can pick which scenario you think took place but it really matters little because the end result is still the same. Personally, I found him egotistical and amazingly unhelpful with his dealings with the PvP community but I am far more interested in labours of the PvP team. Or in the case of the last few expansions, the near utter lack of them.

    Whatever you think of Holinka though, the fact remains that this whole "one person is not responsible for what happens" bit that Blizzard has spouted and lapped up by countless fan-drones is complete and utter BS. As the leader of a team, he is at least partially responsible for EVERYTHING that comes out of that team. I dare anyone to name any real industry in the workplace where this does not hold true. You simply cannot be a leader while at the same time not be held accountable for the results of your team.
    thats all right and i dont disagree. but:

    i have worked in such a company structure for 15 years and one of the biggest problems is, that the management dont give team leaders enough time/money or freedom to do things right. its almost everytime "your resources are now decreased another 25% but make it right anyway". this goes to a degree a team leader can do whatever he want, he will not get it right.

    i dont know how blizzards management work and how much resources holinka got for what he should done. but there is a realitve real chance that what you see as the outcome from him and his team, is the best that was possible, with very low resources. if you live always in compromises, it may look from a players perspective as garbage, whats in real the "best compromise" with that low resouces, because players dont see HOW much more garbage it could be with that low resources.

    maybe. in reality that happens damn too often in big companies. on the other side its also possible that he got as much resources as he needs with as much time as he needs, and he is just horrible at his job. we dont know for real.

    and as a side note: i agree STRONGLY to the point that most players have not the SLIGHTEST clue whats going on in companies like Blizz and how they act there. 80% of players comments about stuff like that are so absurd pathetic and a proof of how less of any insight this ppl have. its a shame. bc most players, when it comes down to "how a company like blizzard works" have ABSOLUTELLY not the SLIGHTEST clue, but are totally convinced about what they talk and talk that much BS that its a shame.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by MoanaLisa View Post
    I'm relying way too much on memory here but I think you're right. WoW still earns them a lot of revenue but I don't think it pulls in as much as everything else added together.
    totally false. look at the revenue from 2015/2016 where wow was heavily overtaken by hearthstone, in terms of net profit.
  1. mmocfc58e02ec4's Avatar
    HAHAHA BEST NEWS I read in awhile.
    They even removed the official thread on Us forums hahahha.
    Time to return to wow now that this brainless f*g left
  1. Pua's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by MoanaLisa View Post
    I'm relying way too much on memory here but I think you're right. WoW still earns them a lot of revenue but I don't think it pulls in as much as everything else added together.
    That's my understanding.

    Quote Originally Posted by nekobaka View Post
    Class design falls more on Celestalon who took over GC's role as class and systems team lead dev.
    Lead class designer is Chris Zierhut.
  1. Razorice's Avatar
    Okey, so Holinka left. They will find a replacement and when the next Expansion rolls out you will blame the new guy, for X and Z. Everyone was shitting on GC, now everyone shat on Holinka and everyone will shit on the new guy.
  1. nekobaka's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aviemore View Post

    Lead class designer is Chris Zierhut.
    Thanks. Seems he has been with the team at least from 2005 and possibly earlier. Wondering if Celestion has a side role or the info is just outdated. In either case it is not Holinka like many think.
  1. RelaZ's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vzz View Post
    Pvp is just an addition to the game, deal with it. There are zillions of better pvp games than this one.
    There is no other game which provides third person PvP which controls like WoW with a large amount of abilities giving sofisticated CC (and DR system) in a team deathmatch (first to kill all enemies win) setting. Thus this is the best PvP game of its kind, it's obviously been better than now but it's still the best of its kind by a long shot.

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