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Rob Pardo Leaving Blizzard Entertainment
Originally Posted by Rob Pardo (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Every ending is a beginning and today marks a new beginning for me.

After 17 years at Blizzard, with long and careful contemplation, I have made a difficult and bittersweet but ultimately exciting decision to pursue the next chapter in my life and career.

Before I even joined Blizzard, I was already a huge fan of the company and its games. In particular, I was extremely passionate about the emerging genre of real-time strategy games. It was a dream come true when I was given the opportunity to work on StarCraft, which at the time was being created by a very small team by today’s standards. It was tremendously fulfilling to get to know everyone on the team personally and to contribute our energies toward a shared goal in such a creative and engaging environment.

Blizzard Entertainment has been simply the best place in the world to be a game designer. The best aspect of designing games at Blizzard is that the entire company is passionate about the gameplay within each and every product. From the executive team to customer service to our global offices, every single person is a player and contributes to making the best possible games. It’s for very good reason that the first credit on every Blizzard game is “Game Design by Blizzard Entertainment.”

I’m really proud of the contributions I was able to make to Blizzard’s accomplishments. From building lasting games, to supporting the growth of eSports, to extending the Warcraft world into a feature film, and of course to being able to celebrate our shared passions with the Blizzard community online and at BlizzCon.

The Blizzard community is ultimately the reason why we come to work every day and pour our souls into every world and experience we create. Blizzard’s players are the most passionate in the world and your commitment and dedication are truly awesome to behold. Creating entertainment for you has been an incredible opportunity, and I know that you will continue to grow and become even stronger as a community over the years to come. It has been so meaningful on a personal level to help create joy for all of you.

I’m looking forward to new challenges in my career, but I will always cherish the time I spent with you all and the amazing and collaborative teams at Blizzard. It was both satisfying and humbling, and it made me a better developer and a better person. I look forward to playing Blizzard games as a player for many years to come. Most important, now I have plenty of time to learn how to build a competitive Hearthstone deck.

As to what I will be doing next, I don’t have an answer for you yet . . . but I will “when it’s ready.” My priorities are to enjoy the summer with my family, play plenty of games, and think about what’s next. The game industry is such an exciting place right now with PC gaming thriving, the new consoles, mobile games, and virtual reality becoming an actual reality. It’s like having an empty quest log and going into a new zone for the first time.

In the past, I haven’t been the most avid Twitter user, but I’ll strive to do better and keep you updated there—@Rob_Pardo. Please stay in touch!

Rob
This article was originally published in forum thread: Rob Pardo Leaving Blizzard Entertainment started by chaud View original post
Comments 591 Comments
  1. mmoce35ea8b457's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aeno View Post
    You forget misandry/misanthropy...unless you are sexist towards men?
    What does misandry have to do with this. Pardo hasn't said anything sexist against men that I'm aware of.
  1. Infernix's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pacster View Post
    That's how it goes. Make something big...milk it(and ruin it along the way)...and quit before you are being made responsible(and ruin your reputation) for the downfall. He knows that it's going downhill...
    Explains GC's jump, at least.
  1. mmoce35ea8b457's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vaehatiel View Post
    I really don't give a fuck about being called a homophobe, but I think sexuality should be left where it belongs, which is the bedroom. No need to put that in a game...
    Let's start with getting rid of all those straight relationships out of WoW then right? After all sexuality has no place in a video game.
  1. Kryos's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Infernix View Post
    He says it in the article itself. He has NO IDEA what he's doing next. That's called 'unemployment.'
    If you are rich as fuck you don't need to work - it's like a hobby at that point.
  1. Jokerfiend's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aeno View Post
    The guy doesn't realize that Ghostcrawler was hired at "Ensemble Studios, the team behind the real-time strategy series Age of Empires, employed Street as a designer in 1998. With no education or experience in the game industry".

    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Street


    "SOON™." fixed that for ya

    This happens all the time in every industry. A single success sets a standard? That's a joke, and GC was a voice and a face, he was actually in charge of the UI. Everyone knows how the standard UI looks. How many add-ons do you have for your UI? Exactly. The standard UI is a joke to say the least.

    Yes, I know it goes BEYOND just the buttons you press. Then we also have raid UI addons, UI for Heirlooms and bags, anything people produce is almost ALWAYS better then a billion dollar company is a farce.

    Heirloom and Tabard UI and storage was GC job, nice one on that. Not even going to make WoD release.
  1. Hyve's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Infernix View Post
    He was straight up fired. He's not leaving for another job.
    I quote myself;

    Quote Originally Posted by Hyve View Post
    If he got fired, they legally have to announce it as a termination. They're a public company, they're not allowed to lie about such things.

    Doesn't mean there aren't ways around that of course, but I doubt that's the case here.
  1. Durandro's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Arewn View Post
    I'm seeing some comments in here about him being "sexist" and "homophobic", what are these people talking about?
    Did he make a joke on twitter and people are butthurt? Or does he actually have a history of legitimately being a bigot?
    It was something he said at a conference last month regarding equality in video games. He pretty much stated that it wasn't something Blizzard should concern themselves with, and that all the devs he's worked with are guys who grew up with comic books and they wanted to make epic stories. He later stated that while he isn't against female devs there "aren't any applications landing on my desk" or some such, and that its "the industry, not Blizzard" that is the root of the issue.

    I honestly think that he was forced to resign now that I've had a little look around. This is abrupt, and happens only a month after a major PR disaster (which, oddly enough, was never really discussed on MMO Champion - guess you're all too busy complaining about minor things) and lacks any real plans for the future. I think he upset too many people and Blizzard wanted him to apologise and he refused - hense being given the handshake.

    As for my views on sexism in WoW - it exists. Its relatively minor for the most part, but its so common its become death by a thousand cuts. How many awesome female heroes are there? I know its Medival Fantasy, but Fantasy is supposed to be... Well, fantastical! I'd like to see more variety and better writing and spotlights for the feminine heroes we already have. Even this new Yrel character seems to be overshadowed by all the males around her!
  1. Count Zero's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hyve View Post
    I quote myself;
    Facts will change very few minds, unfortunately
  1. Rindrae's Avatar
    I don't think it'll have an negative effect on WoD but still I can't help feeling nervous about WoW's future.
  1. SoundOfGuns's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Grishnok View Post
    Good luck Rob.

    I see that a pattern is happening here. The same pattern that happened when Blizzard North had disagreements with how decisions were being made from the higher ups and a huge amount of extremely good developers left Blizzard. IE the developers of Diablo 1/2 and many of the vanilla starcraft and wow developers couldnt take it anymore. Greg street has bailed now as well as Rob. Things are getting worse and worse and less like a company that cares about their consumers and games and more about their profits. Im sure we can thank Bobby K for that.
    10 Bucks say you post this right before jumping into the next game by either Activision or EA. Not like im defending shady buisness practices of these guys, but rest assured Blizzard is probably the one to worry the least about.
  1. Paula Deen's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rindrae View Post
    I don't think it'll have an negative effect on WoD but still I can't help feeling nervous about WoW's future.
    Why might I ask? He didn't do any work on the last 2 expansions and Throne of Thunder, one of the raids in Pandaria, is right up there along side Ulduar for quite a few people, so I ask again, why be worried?
  1. Infernix's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hyve View Post
    I quote myself;
    We got all that sorted out above. They called it a mutual decision, but we all know the truth.
  1. Luko's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by daem View Post
    I agree! Let's not have men and women hook up in games, as well. No more hero getting the girl, no more sex or nudity! Get rid of it all!
    /endsarcam


    But seriously, back on topic...
    Sarcasm aside, I'm completely down for that.

    OT: Glad to see he's moving on somewhere that'll make him happier. Good luck.
  1. Infernix's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ryngo Blackratchet View Post
    Sarcasm aside, I'm completely down for that.

    OT: Glad to see he's moving on somewhere that'll make him happier. Good luck.
    Translation: Sitting at home playing video games; unemployed.
  1. Santti's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Infernix View Post
    We got all that sorted out above. They called it a mutual decision, but we all know the truth.
    Correction: You think you know the truth.
  1. Pua's Avatar
    Pardo was easily the most straight-thinking and charismatic of the guys at Blizzard, and his departure is going to leave the most almighty hole. I know 17 years is a long time, but I just can't shake the feeling that he just doesn't like the direction the company has gone (nickel and diming players) and actually meant what he said about WoW all those years ago:
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    "We chose to go with the subscription-based model instead of that [microtransaction] approach. We've taken the approach that we want players to feel like it's a level playing field once they're in WoW. Outside resources don't play into it -- no gold buying, etc. We take a hard line stance against it. What you get out of microtransactions is kind of the same thing and I think our player base would feel betrayed by it. I think that's something else you have to decide on up-front instead of implementing later".
    The last guy I liked listening to speak at BlizzCon is a goner. It strikes me that the Warcraft franchise has now pretty much been thrown to the dogs.
  1. Infernix's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Santti View Post
    Correction: You think you know the truth.
    Well, prove me wrong, then.
  1. Hyve's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Count Zero View Post
    Facts will change very few minds, unfortunately
    Sad, I know.

    Everyone loves to think the worst. Sure, he might be leaving for all manner of horrible reasons, but all we know is, he wasn't fired.
  1. Snes's Avatar
    Maybe WoD development has just been hell for him and wanted out of the stress. Who knows.
  1. Zervek's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Infernix View Post
    Well, prove me wrong, then.
    You have no evidence on your claim..it is all an assumption. Therefore, he does not need to prove you wrong. You aren't even in the position to be asking for it.

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