Ion Hazzikostas: Why do you like or dislike him as a game designer?

[Charge me Doctor]

IMO Ion is an arrogant POS. I changed my opinion of him when I watched an interview and he blew off all the complaints about legion being alt unfriendly and rather than acknowledge the obvious issues, he actually said "I think Legion is the MOST alt-friendly expansions". He lost all credibility and I hated him from this moment on.

Legion is the most alt-friendly expansion in whole history of wow, you can roll an alt and get it raid ready in a matter of weeks, not months like it used to be

[xanzul]

It literally has nothing to do with needing a scapegoat. He says things and then the team doesn't deliver on them. Most recent example most World Quests on Argus were supposed to be account wide. https://youtu.be/BiLkgp1ImUs?t=4m58s

No they weren't. Stop fucking lying. This tactic NEVER works. If people aren't going to engage in honest discussion with Blizzard devs, the devs will simply check out on the issue and move on.

[Felarion]

I'd say he's doing good job, at least he's not telling bullshit like Chilton #6.1bigpatchneverforget. Also let's not forget he became director after legion launch, so this comming expac will be truly "his" vision for the game. Give him chance, Legion with all its flaws/rng leggos etc... it's not rly that bad, i just think for most of us, old players, it's just mmo theme park formula that is dated.

[Schattenlied]

People have whined about class design for as long as Wow has had classes. I'm not sure why people act like this is remotely new.

every class has it's issues, but when you go in and dismantle half of them and turn them into something that only barely resembles what they used to be, it tends to piss off the people who were already playing it... Most people's issues with class design in previous expansions boiled down to "I don't do enough damage" or "I feel too squishy", that's not what I'm talking about here... That stuff can be fixed with tweaking numbers, that's not what they did with Legion.

They fucked up the fantasy of every class I used to like in the name of improving fantasy. I don't know how anyone could think pruning iconic abilities and taking away important utility could ever be considered "improving" fantasy... It just diminishes it.

[xanzul]

Dislike Ion, He is extremely selective in what he actually answers and not, and is always taking the one sided PoV.

Because the players posting in this thread are oh so opened minded. It is a Q&A. In order for it to be cohesive they have to be selective in answering questions. Not everything deserves an answer or even acknowledgment especially when it is things they have repeatedly commented on. Answering those concerns again results in other concerns that other players have not being addressed. So who exactly is it that is selfish again?

[Eurhetemec]

Mike Morhaime

He's never been a lead designer or developer on WoW, but rather Blizzard's CEO, so doesn't qualify, but let's do him anyway.

He was an electrical engineering student with basically no software skills whatsoever (again, by his own admission), when he started Blizzard (with two other people who I can find little info on).

So even the guy who started Blizzard knew basically jack-all about software before he got there. Yet you're deeply upset that Ion was the same way. Well guess what? Most senior designers/developers in Blizzard are like that. Hell, a lot are industry-wide.

[Charge me Doctor]

I'm actually a little surprised they haven't started selling loot boxes in WoW. Seems like that's the way it's going. Although I guess the WoW token sort of fills that niche?

I'm convinced that players are to blame for that bullshit in game industry. Loot boxes exist only because players keep buying shitty games riddled with DLC bullshit and publishers expect (make) devs to add more shit like that into their games, because people eat this shit and complain. But complaining doesn't matter, because a player who bought a DLC (or the game) and keeps buying (or playing) is still a paying customer, regardless of him complaining or not. A player who doesn't pay money is the problem for them, and the best way to get your message to developers (and by extension to publishers) is to not use their service if you don't like it (like any sensible human being would do)

[xanzul]

Grats on assuming things you don't know jack shit about. FYI my ex had "art tablets" years ago when she worked in her photo hobby, on expensive Macs with fancy printers and the like. Been there, done that.

Nowhere have I seen the other assumption you're making, that Ion and his cohorts are plugged into a desktop screen. They may well do so on occasion but the general idea of top personnel in a MMO playing their product on such a format is comical, and says a lot about where they've taken the game.

No one is literally playing Wow on a wacom tablet. Get the fuck out of here. Do you people seriously not understand what an input device is?

[Eurhetemec]

You fail to even discuss anything I've posted and just cherry pick what you want to talk about.

Dude, all you've done is vaguely whinge about RNG and say shit like "game is not a game", which just gibberish, yet you're whinging about cherry picking? For god's sake. When you have an actual argument, presented in full sentences, with y'know, logic and evidence and stuff, shoot me a PM. Right now you're kicking out bizarre buzzphrases like you're broken Campaign Manager Robot or something.

The game is in sub retention mode now. Time played. Thats all there is.

For example... see above. No argument, no rationale, no logic, just some random sentence fragments making an unsupported assertion.

[WowIsDead64]

I've seen very polarizing views about Ion as a game designer, and this thread isn't to bash or aggrandize him as a person, but why do or don't you like him as a game designer? (speaking specifically about his work and his job, not about the person).

To me, he's done a very good job with the game and he was responsible for some very iconic raids like Ulduar, and Throne of Thunder.

Where are people not liking him? Is it just his confidence that people don't like? Am I missing something here? @Eleccybubb

He is lawyer, who don't respect his own promises - only documents, that have legal force.

Remember, that it was promised, that flying would be granted for doing content once? Yeah, Argus brakes this promise.

[Razion]

The only main encounter recorded on Wowpedia he's worked on says the Faction Champions fight in ToC.
I liked Faction Champions, so with only that much information, I guess he's okay?

Without more examples of what he's actually worked on (or what aspects he worked on) it's hard to say "as a Game Designer" what there is to like or dislike at all.

[xanzul]

He was Ion from Elitist Jerks. That's all I needed to know about where wow was going to go.

If anything it means he understand Wow's mechanics and gameplay on a level NONE of you have ever been able to or ever will. How in the fuck is that a bad quality for a developer? Or are you taking the name of that guild and website literally? If so, fuck off. I don't believe for a second you are that oblivious to what that site contributed to early theorycrafting in Wow. You are just using it as a cheap potshot.

[Eurhetemec]

Legion is the most alt-friendly expansion in whole history of wow, you can roll an alt and get it raid ready in a matter of weeks, not months like it used to be

I'd suggest Vanilla was more alt-friendly, but yes, unless we go back all the way to Vanilla, there hasn't really been anything. Late WotLK wasn't too bad either - it was pretty close to this - but you would have had to go to Ulduar I guess to gear up for TotC... well... maybe not. But certainly Legion is decent here - there are aspects that piss all over alts (Class Hall missions and your class hall dudes - no idea why they sell you armour tokens to go direct to 880 for 400 nethershards, but a measly 6000xp token is 2500 nethershards - should be more like 60k xp), but they're not central ones.

[khazmodan]

Legion is the most alt-friendly expansion in whole history of wow, you can roll an alt and get it raid ready in a matter of weeks, not months like it used to be

So you are going to have all the utility legendaries that others that have been playing for 1k plus hours already have? If you will not have them then you will be on the bench if skill level is the same or close. Yea you can be raid ready for some mediocre normal and half of heroic raid guild but mythic raiding is requiring a level of legendary options that will give them the edge and that takes a ton of play time.

[Lumineus]

Legion is the most alt-friendly expansion in whole history of wow, you can roll an alt and get it raid ready in a matter of weeks, not months like it used to be

You can get a decent pool of Legiondaries to work with in "a matter of weeks?" By doing what, taping your eyelids open and running Mythic+ until blood pours out of your irises?

[xanzul]

I don't dislike him, but he has a face of someone I could punch, if given the chance. Plus he looks sleazy as hell, makes sense seeing as he used to be a lawyer.

How is this remotely ok? That is essentially a threat of physical violence which is against the law just so you are aware. Be lucky the mods here don't give a flying fuck and aren't reporting you to the authorities.

[Eurhetemec]

You ignored my last 5 posts. Scroll back a bit champ. To before you started cherry picking.

My posts about Garrisons. Shipyards. Double down.

RNG on RNG on RNG. Complaints abounds.

Come up with NLC. Overwhelming negative feedback on PTR. Implement anyway with zero changes.

NLC goes live. Ornyx forced to post Devs response to negativity over the feature.

"We hear your feedback, we aren't changing it. We are right, you are wrong".

I'm not retyping everything because you either lack reading comprehension or you're a cherry picking shill.

I read those posts. In none of them did you present an argument. You complained a great deal about how you didn't like it, and made unsupported assertions that it was "bad" and made WoW somehow "not a game".

As for "We hear your feedback, we aren't changing it. We are right, you are wrong". - are you literally kidding me? That's been the standard WoW dev team response since before you started playing WoW. Fucking Tom Chilton said that exact thing about his design for the honor grind in 2005.

But when Ion does it, it's a terrible crime, and when Tom does it, it's fine? Is that your argument?

- - - Updated - - -

So you are going to have all the utility legendaries that others that have been playing for 1k plus hours already have? If you will not have them then you will be on the bench if skill level is the same or close. Yea you can be raid ready for some mediocre normal and half of heroic raid guild but mythic raiding is requiring a level of legendary options that will give them the edge and that takes a ton of play time.

Expecting to be able to leap straight into Mythic raiding doesn't seem very reasonable.

[xanzul]

For trying to turn World of Warcraft into Diablo 3, a shitty game that has failed, hard.

For those of you posting this stupid bullshit: Jay Wilson who helped develop D3 was also one of the developers for TBC.

[kary]

Legion is the most alt-friendly expansion in whole history of wow, you can roll an alt and get it raid ready in a matter of weeks, not months like it used to be

You can get raid ready in a day, if you really tried. Raid ready in one sitting.

[digichi]

He's not talented or experienced enough to head WoW's development. Legion shows this.

Tom Chilton should not have left.

Every designer at one point seems to be hated at one point. Here's a post from 2013 about Ghostcrawler (Greg Street) and Tom Chilton (Kalgan):

"As divisive as the community is about GC (I like him, some people don't), if you played before Wrath of the Lich King, you'll remember a time when the community stood united against the Wrath...of the Kalgan and his legendary Nerf-bat. I post this not to incite more QQ amongst the GC haters (but it probably will, tbh), but as a reminder that as far as the game has gone in its tenure, some things change, some things don't, but we all deserve a laugh at how things turn out."

*Kalgan was known to be a bit of a spicelord in the early days on the forums, for more context.

-------------------- from the old paladin forums:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I logged on, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of Warcraft lore,
While I grinded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my class' door.
"'Tis the nerf bat," I muttered, tapping at my class' door —
Twas Kalgan laughing, "QQ more"

This crazy dev was beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
"Thy nerfs be hard and reckless, thou art no game making genius,
Cease nerfing classes and turn this game into a chore -
Working so hard just to be weak is such a bore!"
Quoth the Kalgan, "QQ more."

I posted on the forums, for this dev loves to see 'em,
Though he answers with little meaning — little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no sublunary being
Would call it a buff when it's worse than before —
Those stats are wrong down to the very core,
But Kalgan just said "QQ more."

Wondering at the stillness broken by blue post so rarely spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store"
Making podcasts for the masses who feast on empty promises
"Wait for next patch" — with that Hope he would adjure,
Stern Despair returned, instead of the sweet Hope he dared adjure
No buffs, just nerfs - QQ more

Now the Kalgan, sitting lonely on the dev chair, spoke only
That one phrase, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Us players, still undaunted, on this forum board exhasuted —
Our hearts, worried and haunted — tell us truly, I implore —
Is there hope in expansion? — tell us — tell us, I implore!"
That sad answer, "QQ more!"