Watcher promoted to Assistant Game Director

[styil]

https://twitter.com/watcherdev

Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas has previously been promoted from Lead Encounter Designer to Lead Game Designer. He has now been promoted to Assistant Game Director (presumably this means second in charge to Tom Chilton).

Presumably this also means that Watcher now has much more creative control over the direction and vision of WoW. What are peoples' thoughts on this? Do you think that this fresh new blood at the top and new creative direction and leadership will revive WoW?

[xChurch]

Since Legion is mostly in polish/testing mode, we'll probably not see anything different until around first patch time.

[Baine]

Actually, I think he was assistant game director when Blizzcon happened. I like logical people and he seems to be quite logical. So I guess it makes me a fan of him.

[Wildmoon]

I think he understands the game at very high level of play since he was a hardcore raider himself. I also like the fact that he is quite honest too.

[katokal]

I think he understands the game at very high level of play since he was a hardcore raider himself. I also like the fact that he is quite honest too.

Still raids currently as well.

[Arteezy]

big fan of him and his thought process

[Kaldriss]

always been a fan of him and how he approaches things in his interviews and at blizzcon, hope for the best

[Lochton]

Well, congratulations to Watcher!

[Aori]

I don't like him, he is essentially a for the 1% kinda guy.

[styil]

I think he understands the game at very high level of play since he was a hardcore raider himself. I also like the fact that he is quite honest too.

Do you think that that could also be his weakness? Designing the game from the top 1% down?

[Wildmoon]

Do you think that that could also be his weakness? Designing the game from the top 1% down?

Yes, it could but Chilton is there too. I just hope that Ion will arrange progression and reward structures which make sense at least to me and he seems to be the man for the job. The other devs just seem out of touch with very in-depth issues.

[TheWindWalker]

Do you think that that could also be his weakness? Designing the game from the top 1% down?

Honestly, and I don't think I could ever regret saying this, you can't get much more "cater to the 1% and the rest of you take what's left" than WoD's philosophy. They'd have to straight-up remove Heroic/Normal and LFR and Max-Level Quests entirely. I mean, Mythic 30-man and no gear drops below it would be funny at least.

[Puzzony]

Ion Scumbagostas with more power in his hand? Priceless xD

[Mormolyce]

I don't know this person and neither do the vast majority of posters on this forum (despite how strong their opinions on the topic are), so I can't comment :P

[corebit]

Ion Hazzikostas is a true rags-to-riches story. He started as a passionate WoW player and theorycrafter. He got the attention and request of Blizzard to work for them, and now he is the right-hand man of the Game Director. Big congratulations to him!

It tells you that Blizzard really values passion for video games and they will hire you without a doubt, if you can turn that passion into something tangible.

[Thage]

At least they didn't promote Holinka even further above his competence level than he already is. Congrats to Watcher, let's see how this cookie crumbles.

[Baine]

Ion Scumbagostas with more power in his hand? Priceless xD

How was he a scumbag? Are you trying to not reason logically?

[Angel of Justice]

Honestly, and I don't think I could ever regret saying this, you can't get much more "cater to the 1% and the rest of you take what's left" than WoD's philosophy. They'd have to straight-up remove Heroic/Normal and LFR and Max-Level Quests entirely. I mean, Mythic 30-man and no gear drops below it would be funny at least.

Tbh the "1%" or Mythic Raiders or whatever you want to call that player base suffered alot in WoD aswell. The raids were great but we were still stuck in garrisons with no world content and shitty rep grinds like the rest of the playerbase. The only thing I'll give you is that they did nerf the LFR to not have trinkets/tiers,but thats about it.

OT - Grats to him,he did good while on Encounter designs so lets see how his new role goes. The reward structure really needs work,apexis crystals or gold aren't the answer tbh

[ablib]

I've always thought Ion was the epitome of dipshit (Goes to school for 8 years to be a lawyer, then quits that to get a job at a place that someone at McDonalds has the qualifications for). Then just today I find out he was the founder of Elitist Jerks (the website and the guild), and it all made sense.

But congrats to him. Every rung higher up the ladder, will hopefully make the pain feel a little less severe 10-20-30 years from now when he asks himself why he quit a promising career to play with video games.

[ComputerNerd]

Tbh the "1%" or Mythic Raiders or whatever you want to call that player base suffered alot in WoD aswell. The raids were great but we were still stuck in garrisons with no world content and shitty rep grinds like the rest of the playerbase. The only thing I'll give you is that they did nerf the LFR to not have trinkets/tiers,but thats about it.

OT - Grats to him,he did good while on Encounter designs so lets see how his new role goes. The reward structure really needs work,apexis crystals or gold aren't the answer tbh

Being stuck in garrisons is no different to how in previous expansions players would rarely venture outside of a major town like Stormwind or Orgrimmar.