Tom Chilton Switching Projects, Ion Hazzikostas now Game Director

[Dug]

Secret project huh? Overwatch is pretty amazing so whatever else they have in store must be awesome as well, bring on new Blizz IPs!

[kojinshugi]

- Ghostcrawler left WoW because of creative differences

No, GC left Blizzard because he was offered Lead Designer at Riot.

There's this thing called "a career", and if you work as a department head at one company and a different one offers you the lead position, it's considered sensible to take the offer, unless your current employer wants to offer you the same position.

Considering Kalgan didn't step down until about 5 years later, GC made the right career choice.

[Riistov]

This confirms something my guild has been talking about this whole expansion - that this may be the last major WoW expansion:

I've been hearing this crap since Burning Crusade. Never gets old, thanks for the laugh!

[MoanaLisa]

This was inevitable and likely why for the first time ever they created a position of Assistant Game Director.

[Kaneiac]

No, GC left Blizzard because he was offered Lead Designer at Riot.

There's this thing called "a career", and if you work as a department head at one company and a different one offers you the lead position, it's considered sensible to take the offer, unless your current employer wants to offer you the same position.

Considering Kalgan didn't step down until about 5 years later, GC made the right career choice.

Fucking right on. Does noone work in a corporate or professional environment? This stuff is incredibly common.

Wanna know why we hear about it with Blizzard so often?

Because they're much more transparent and persistent. Do you guys know how many people leave other gaming companies and shift around?

[Riistov]

But why would Blizzard give up on WoW for a new MMO? WoW still makes them a lot of money.

They won't. WoW is going to be around for many years to come.

[Yvaelle]

But why would Blizzard give up on WoW for a new MMO? WoW still makes them a lot of money.

They'll cannibalize WoW with WoW 2 IMO

The only MMO that will kill WoW, is WoW itself!

You have a very skewed perception of what is happening in the WoW universe. The things we've seen in Legion thus far has not closed any story hooks, rather, it has opened up a dozen new ones. As for the IRL side of it, we had two guys who had worked 10-22 years on the warcraft franchise. One guy who switched positions within the company. As someone who works in a company with a similar structure as Blizzard, this shit happens often. In fact I am surprised it didn't happen MORE often for Blizzard. Doomsayers here like to play the experts without having any actual clue how a business works and that is quite frankly laughable. If you took five minutes to research something before you opened your mouth people might take you mroe seriously. But then again, I am wasting my breath on the MMO champion forums, this is the cesspool in which you thrive and thrive in your own filth you should. Just please don't come over to Reddit.

Ah yes Reddit, that shining city on the hill where there is no echo chamber and everyone is an expert on every topic

(And I'm saying that as a Redditer, but your sense of bizarre forum elitism is hilarious)

[Deleted]

And just like that, Warriors are never ever be good

[Animalhouse]

Quite the contrary. WoW was taking a bad turn, seems like Blizzard realized that and is changing their perspectives.
There's also the possibility that it's a huge coincidence (or no at all) that all the guys who are forever on the same job are on the move, just like what usually happens to people who are forever on the same job. Happens to everything from game companies to music bands, people are always on the move.

I agree with Bumbac on this.
Most of the top guys that were there from the beginning have left recently and fairly close to one another in a staggered fashion. For Metzen to leave and not move to another project within Blizzard signals that the ENTIRE closing story of WoW is now complete, he has nothing to prove and has made plenty of $$$. Not only that but his sabbatical will allow him to enjoy his family and then move to a whole new direction and write his own check without causing any hard feelings with the community and others at Blizzard. I have a feeling he probably did not want to wrap up the story and is not 100% happy with the teams decision.

I think a bold move is on the horizon and Blizz is hoping to transition a major part of the player base into something with more room for growth and leave something behind for those who do not want to move on and for those who have invested so much of their time and effort. I have a very good idea what that would entail but I am not going to expound on it here...I have been met with quite a bit of resistance in other threads for being 100% on board with something similar.

Ultimately they will follow the $$$ and the player base will vote with their wallet. Sub numbers over the next 4-6 years will determine what will happen in the end.
Even then, it won't be the end. I think many of us long for something new and the WoW engine can only go so far. I am looking forward to see what they have in store...I need a new journey.

Note: In my first paragraph I was talking about the rest of the story that will extend 2 more expansions. The only thing they will have left to do is follow the story line and concepts laid out and code it.
Oh and I meant to quote Bumbac's statement but only got Azahel's response to him...my bad.

[Yvaelle]

Fucking right on. Does noone work in a corporate or professional environment? This stuff is incredibly common.

I work in a corporate environment. Who said this was uncommon?

A better project is coming up, and Kalgan being who he is wants to go lead it - so he did. Kalgan's spent his entire life on MMO's (EverQuest, WoW), I take that as solid evidence that what's coming next is a new Blizzard MMO.

[Schmoyan89]

They'll cannibalize WoW with WoW 2 IMO

The only MMO that will kill WoW, is WoW itself!



Ah yes Reddit, that shining city on the hill where there is no echo chamber and everyone is an expert on every topic

(And I'm saying that as a Redditer, but your sense of bizarre forum elitism is hilarious)

"Bizarre forum elitism", that's a laugh and a half. No, what's truly bizarre is your outright ignorance towards a topic that is fairly easy to understand. You just wish to jump the bandwagon because you are too lazy/too unintelligent to achieve anything else. Stop trying to be witty.

[khazmodan]

this couldn't possibly go bad, after all Ion is a lawyer by education and has overseen most of the decline of WoW since he started at the end of WotLK.

[Cazmosis]

IN 4 kids regurgitating feeble Hazzikostas cliches.

[bonewax]

They won't. WoW is going to be around for many years to come.

ohh the fanboy is strong in this one.

wow wont be around if each expansion they lose 7m subs.

[Fojos]

- Kalgan was originally leading Titan before it got scrapped (when I suspect it was an MMO), and now he's leaving to run another new project (return of the next Blizzard MMO)

Kalgan wasn't involved with Project Titan at all. The lead on that project was Jeffrey Kaplan (Tigole).

[Deleted]

Fucking right on. Does noone work in a corporate or professional environment? This stuff is incredibly common.

Wanna know why we hear about it with Blizzard so often?

Because they're much more transparent and persistent. Do you guys know how many people leave other gaming companies and shift around?

Agreed. Unfortunately just by looking at the average post on these forums you can tell that most people here have never been even close to a real job. That's why they have so much time coming up with the most ridiculous conspiracy theories about Blizzard every time something changes within the company.

[Kaneiac]

this couldn't possibly go bad, after all Ion is a lawyer by education and has overseen most of the decline of WoW since he started at the end of WotLK.

He was hired a lead encounter designer, and given that raids have been pretty much the best they've ever been, this is a bold claim

- - - Updated - - -

Kalgan wasn't involved with Project Titan at all. The lead on that project was Jeffrey Kaplan (Tigole).

They have no idea what they're talking about and just want to push their stupid fanfic-esque guilds prediction out.

[khazmodan]

[QUOTE=Kaneiac;42787277]He was hired a lead encounter designer, and given that raids have been pretty much the best they've ever been, this is a bold claim

- - - Updated - - -


those bestest ever raids helped retain a whole 20% of the subscriber base in WoD so Ion should definitely run the whole game. Who needs people that went to college for programming and computer science when you can have a lawyer deciding on the direction of it.

[Edgekidxxx]

YES, ION is the guy who developped WOTLK raids and so forth right? YES, couldn't be someone better than him!

If this is in fact true, I am going to be so stoked. All of the WOTLK raids are the G.O.A.T, imo.

[Sheamus]

They'll cannibalize WoW with WoW 2 IMO

The only MMO that will kill WoW, is WoW itself!

I can't see that happening either, would be very risky.