Ghostcrawler to leave Blizzard Entertainment

[burnface]

He's the hero class Azeroth deserves, but not the one in needs right now. So we'll blame him for all the class imbalances because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian(horde) druid. A watchful protection paladin tank. A (pre 4.3? unkillable god mode where it took literally a 10 man raid with at least 3 healers 10+ minutes popping every offensive/(more so)defensive cd in the game oh wait aren't they still like that? I haven't really played since end of cata) blood death knight.

[Mormolyce]

My speculation based on a few facts.


WoW's population is in a severe decline from BC/WotLK numbers, this is fact. That's upwards of a hundred million $USD lost every month in revenues.


Would I be happy if I had 10,000,000 invested in Blizzard stock? I would not be happy.


I'm betting it was more along the lines of "We at Blizzard thank you for your service, but expect your resignation within 72 hours"


What I hope, is that we get someone to direct the game again, who was in love with Burning Crusade, kills LFG, LFR and makes the social aspect of the game priority #1 again. Millions will quit, many more millions will return.

Yeah okay lol.

If you bought $10 million in (Activision-)Blizzard stock at the start of this year it'd be up to about $17 million today, so let's totally fire the guy in the WoW team who talks to angry haters on twitter because that's clearly sinking the company!

http://www.google.com/finance?cid=353353

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Yes it does.

Well come on don't be shy, tell us how much?

[Torais]

Talked to a friend today who said that the rumor around the office was that the higher-ups didn't like the way he interacted with his class teams. The hunter team was supposedly ready to throw a coup a few months ago...

Yeah I have no way to prove what I'm saying, so take that as you will. Personally I'm sad he's leaving.

That gave me an honest to god good laugh. If that is only half true that made my day.

Part of me wishes they followed through on it (though I suspect some of the recent concessions to Hunters may have been fallout from that) but to be honest we really don't need another Xelnath-type situation where a dev has so much passion they throw themselves on barbed wire only in the end up making a sacrifice in vain. Blizzard needs more developers with passion and dedication to their class, not the few that do martyring themselves.

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Yeah okay lol.

If you bought $10 million in (Activision-)Blizzard stock at the start of this year it'd be up to about $17 million today, so let's totally fire the guy in the WoW team who talks to angry haters on twitter because that's clearly sinking the company!

http://www.google.com/finance?cid=353353

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Well come on don't be shy, tell us how much?

To be fair, the issue of stock is pretty much completely irrelevant when it comes to this topic. WoW is not Blizzard-Activision and even Blizzard itself is not Blizzard-Activision. Stock prices are a reflection of a company's worth as a whole, not just one game out of a line-up of many.

Also comparing stock prices during the lifetime of WoW is especially foolish. Activision and Blizzard didn't even merge until half way through the timeline of the game which made massive differences all around.

[Abysal]

My speculation based on a few facts.


I'm betting it was more along the lines of "We at Blizzard thank you for your service, but expect your resignation within 72 hours"

Well, your speculation is wrong. He's told us he's been hired to a new position within the gaming industry but not with Blizzard that he'll announce to us soon and that he'd already been offered the position before he even went to Blizzcon.

[Trassk]

It really remains to be seen on why he left. I don't buy this whole 'great new opportunity' fluff.

Its either because he got tired of all the bitching being swung his way on his decisions made in the game, or he became fed up with the direction the game is going in.

If wow keeps declining the way it had been, which it is, slowly, then perhaps he left because of this.

[xenogear3]

WoW lost 5 million subs because of him.
Now he jumps out of the ship.

Sinking fast.

[Defebwar]

My heart is heavy with this news...but I have hope for the future and wish Ghostcrawler all the best on his next adventure!! May the sand be always warm, and the water always clear, oh wise astral crab!!

*Doesn't hurt that I finally got to meet him this year!!*

[The Penguin]

Speaking from a business standpoint:

Xanzul's trolling finally caught up to him. Janefreedland, Meiyun, and many, many, others say hello along with all the others you wrongfully banned from the WoW forums for voicing honest complaints over CRZ and other design visions. See what being "Bullish" gets you now? Do you understand finally why we were so against it? Why we warned you that after the mess of Cataclysm only 1 more mistake would be tolerated by your employers? We weren't trolling you. We were trying to help you.


To the new Dev:

Can we have that polished turd called CRZ removed now?


From a personal standpoint:

Good luck in whatever you do. I disagreed with a lot of your design ideas, but that never meant once that I hated you for it. I just was hoping this would not happen to you by voicing my concerns, because there WAS much you did right also. :I

[Mazzic518]

GC did an amazing job and even went on Twitter and talked to people every day! I'm happy he left because now he can take a break from such a vile community such as World of Warcraft's.

Thanks for being there GC, I'm happy for yas.

Well said. This is how I feel also.

[Kaleredar]

Speaking from a business standpoint:

Xanzul's trolling finally caught up to him. Janefreedland, Meiyun, and many, many, others say hello along with all the others you wrongfully banned from the WoW forums for voicing honest complaints over CRZ and other design visions. See what being "Bullish" gets you now? Do you understand finally why we were so against it? Why we warned you that after the mess of Cataclysm only 1 more mistake would be tolerated by your employers? We weren't trolling you. We were trying to help you.

I highly doubt he was "fired" by Blizzard. There's really no evidence to support that.

It boils down to either taking him at his word or taking the word of random people on the internet saying "well of course he'd SAY that's what happened..."

I'm inclined to go with the first.

[The Penguin]

In Activision things rarely go that way. Firing someone is a complicated affair in California.

I suspect there was a acceptance that resignation would occur within X Hours however. Point remains though.
Remove CRZ now that Coalesced Realms exist and you will easily see a major uptick of subs.

[gamingmuscle]

Remove CRZ now that Coalesced Realms exist and you will easily see a major uptick of subs.

Yeah that is total bullshit. LOL

[MetroidHunter]

lol at all the hatred, you realize he was just a scapegoat for the decisions of a large design team, and will only be replaced by a new scapegoat and the game will see no major change for better or worse.

[Celista]

That gave me an honest to god good laugh. If that is only half true that made my day.

Part of me wishes they followed through on it (though I suspect some of the recent concessions to Hunters may have been fallout from that) but to be honest we really don't need another Xelnath-type situation where a dev has so much passion they throw themselves on barbed wire only in the end up making a sacrifice in vain. Blizzard needs more developers with passion and dedication to their class, not the few that do martyring themselves.

I absolutely agree. Honestly I didn't know what was happening w/hunters until I talked to this particular friend a few months back and it was mentioned. The situation with Xelnath was unfortunate

I was surprised at the mention of so much dissention between GC and his class teams, I assumed that he left Blizzard due being the fall guy for subscription losses, or that he decided to leave for greener pastures (although there are few positions within the industry that would be an upgrade from his current position, unless he was offered lead game designer somewhere).

Who knows what the real reason is, this is (as it was told to me) simply intra-company rumor among the class devs.

[zolok2.0]

YES. We used to imagine this day with a great yearning, and it is finally upon us. Oh sweet, sweet, victory

[Razorice]

You people make me sick.
GC was a pretty nice guy.

[Kaleredar]

In Activision things rarely go that way. Firing someone is a complicated affair in California.

I suspect there was a acceptance that resignation would occur within X Hours however.

Based on your intimate knowledge of the situation and Blizzard's inner workings. I'm so very sure...

Maybe GC found a job that paid more and didn't require him tweeting all day with vindictive pricks. I'd be more inclined to take that job too.

[blehmeh]

First of all, if you really believe he simply just "left" his position of lead game designer of literally the most popular and successful MMO of all time, you're an idiot. It may sound harsh, but you have to look at the reality of big business.

It's not good publicity for company's to outright fire big named employees. It's been shown over and over again with CEO's and other people in very high positions to suddenly "step down", and every single time its right after a huge financial hit or crisis. And were supposed to believe that crisis has nothing to do with that decision? You are simply not understanding the reality of how big business works to think that this isn't anything more then a straight up "fire them politely so we don't take bad press" situation. But seriously, when was the last time a huge financial hit was taken and the person in charge was publicly fired with a "he wasn't competent" for an explanation? NEVER. You need to understand just how much thought goes into public perception when so much money is on the line with every word.

Example, Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb. He was fired for gamespot for a bad review, told he wasn't trusted, and had to sign a confidentially agreement which basically said that he HAD to say that he "left". There were conspiracy theory's galore and people were called crazy, but once he was rehired recently to CBS the truth came out and he could finally say that he was indeed fired directly as a result of the bad review. He would always say when people would ask him if he was fired and he would always reply "I'm legally not allowed to talk about it". This may not be how it works every single time, but it can and does happen, and to dismiss this as a possibility for ghostcrawler is just ridiculous.

The other thing that needs to be noted that since ghostcrawlers arrival, that the sub numbers have dropped 40% or so. That's an INCREDIBLE amount of money lost, that is indeed a crisis. The other thing that needs to be brought to attention is the idea that those numbers are simply from a game getting old. That's of course a factor but that's not the only factor. Online games have shown time and time again to gain players when players are enjoying themselves and lose players when they are not, and game systems WITHOUT QUESTION have an impact on peoples enjoyment levels. Look at any MMO that goes free to play, how about FF11 (that game is even older then wow and recently went through a huge sub increase) and FF14? team fortress 2 even. Player numbers go way up with good and friendly design, and when people become frustrated they leave. That is a huge factor and imo is a way bigger factor then just "the game is old", that excuse is thrown out WAY too often and is simply not enough to justify such a dramatic sub loss.

Now, considering you're still here reading this brings me to the next part: That things WILL change as a result of him "leaving". Look at Jay Wilson and Diablo 3. D3 was absolutely terrible at launch and has been making more and more steps to becoming at least better with every patch since his "leaving". It took a long time and many patches to undo the work/damage that was done by Wilson, and once the AH is finally put down and the expansion is implemented, the game will be able to move forward.

This is not to say that WoW will no doubt become better or anything like most people here are saying, but the game WILL change. To think otherwise you simply don't understand how much power a "lead systems designer" has over a games development.

[chris885]

If Blizzard is a sinking ship, then 99% of other game developers never left drydock.

The hate people leveled at him is ridiculous. He nerfed your class a few times? That's called game balance. Considering balance the latter half of WoW's lifetime has been consistantly pretty good (especially compared to Classic and much of TBC) I'd say he did a pretty damn good job.

And before anyone mentions PvP, all I can say is L2P. That's the sort of language people like that tend to understand, right?

I can not agree with you about the game balance. I say that game balance that he did is completely crap. Look at DPS DK's situation on PVE. All classes feel the same all can heal all can interrupt. PvE paid way so much to PvP and he or Blizzard can never balance it.

[Kaleredar]

This is not to say that WoW will no doubt become better or anything like most people here are saying, but the game WILL change. To think otherwise you simply don't understand how much power a "lead systems designer" has over a games development.

He was part of a team. He wasn't a guy sitting alone just switchin' buff/nerf levers around.

It would be very, very hollow for Blizzard to "fire" him because of the loss of sub numbers tied to whatever shallow reason you or others might think people left the game over. He was not the one who initiated the changes "all by himself," nor is he the only blue poster, high-ranking or otherwise, that discusses them or their implementation. Now, the "GC haters" might not know or want to acknowledge that as a fact, but I'm fairly certain Blizzard knows the situation.

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I can not agree with you about the game balance. I say that game balance that he did is completely crap. Look at DPS DK's situation on PVE. All classes feel the same all can heal all can interrupt. PvE paid way so much to PvP and he or Blizzard can never balance it.

Yeah and when was it "better balanced," exactly?

Vanilla? Don't even attempt to say that.
Burning Crusade... Hehe no...

The only instance people may have had to misconstrue those as "balanced" is that they could obtain gear that let them utterly demolish people who weren't geared in the exact same way. And of course people, believing themselves good, would just craterstomp anyone who tried to stand in their way and think it was "balanced."