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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. sirvincentiii's Avatar
    Doing a little research about him...he was part of the design team on titles I've enjoyed. Funny thing is, all the WoW expansions I cared little of -- he's not part of it. lol

    Says a lot about his creative contributions.

    Good luck Rob.
  1. markdall's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Infernix View Post
    He was straight up fired. He's not leaving for another job.
    Gotta say, saw it happen around where I work and when someone leaves at 17 years vs. 20 or 25, yeah they were either fired or told to leave or be fired and chose to leave. Sad.

    I don't hate any particular person at Blizzard. I don't like that one artist guy who always wears sunglasses much, and I've never seen a picture of anybody from Blizzard smiling where they were legitimately smiling which always goes Uncanny Valley, and I don't like most of their decisions WRT WoD, but outside of all that (LOL) I don't wish any of them ill. I'm sorry for Rob, in fact.
  1. -Zo-'s Avatar
    Not a big expert on Bliz employees, but it doesn't sound like he'd have trouble finding work.

    Like anything, a company evolves, and people change. I don't think there has to be a big scandal or anything. Just time to move on. Could be good for both parties.
  1. thabris's Avatar
    Why is that when most people say "THIS upcoming expansion is the worst ever, will be the death of WoW" there's no mention of current employee and wanting to replace them, but when an employee retires/leaves/fired it's suddenly NOW the death of WoW?

    What happened to all those people that hated every expansion and was sure WoW was going to die? Wouldn't they be happy someone is getting replaced?
  1. Donald Hellscream's Avatar
    I know alot of you are thinking that this is all a big conspiracy with devs leaving because WoD is shaping up to fail or that blizzard is a sinking ship, I however find it more likely that he may simply have gotten bored and wants a change of pace after having been at blizzard for 17 years ultimately i don't think this will impact WoD just like Ghostcrawler leaving haven't.
  1. McNeil's Avatar
    Leaving the ship while its sinking, just like Ghostcrawler did. I wonder if he goes to Riot aswell, GC seems to really like it.
  1. klebslol's Avatar
    Sad to see one of the best designers in the industry go. End of an era for Blizzard.
  1. WarpKnight's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by malletin View Post
    I know alot of you are thinking that this is all a big conspiracy with devs leaving because WoD is shaping up to fail or that blizzard is a sinking ship, I however find it more likely that he may simply have gotten bored and wants a change of pace after having been at blizzard for 17 years ultimately i don't think this will impact WoD just like Ghostcrawler leaving haven't.
    How dare you threaten our precious doom-mongering with your logic and common sense
  1. mmoc1376ef233f's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by malletin View Post
    I know alot of you are thinking that this is all a big conspiracy with devs leaving because WoD is shaping up to fail or that blizzard is a sinking ship, I however find it more likely that he may simply have gotten bored and wants a change of pace after having been at blizzard for 17 years ultimately i don't think this will impact WoD just like Ghostcrawler leaving haven't.
    Comparing him to Ghostcrawler tells alot about you I guess :P
  1. Bigbazz's Avatar
    Not to be all "doom n gloom" but that's the second core guy to leave Blizzard in just a few months. Shit is going to shit.
  1. Queen of Hamsters's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Infernix View Post
    Oh, so it was all inevitable and not due to stupid mistakes by the game developers. That's a great line.

    - - - Updated - - -



    Sure they did. They made a big deal about temporarily hitting 13 million right before the end of Wrath content. Maybe you weren't around for that. And I'm not Jesus Christ. I don't even have a beard.
    Yes, just because you can't face reality and facts, doesn't mean it's not real.

    WoW was NEVER going to stay at 12+ million players. Stop acting like a fool.

    People grow tired, they move on, they grow bored, the game changes in ways that some like and others don't, people trying it out just to follow the hype leave since they're not all that invested into it. Thinking that WoW would still be at 12+ million players after 10 years if they had done things differently is just delusional and the usual "My views make up reality!" way of thinking so often seen in people on the internet. FACT is that nothing with a limited lifespan stays on top once it gets there.
  1. ForestWalker's Avatar
    Having been reading the forum now for a bit in regard to Rob leaving I am a bit sadden to see the focus being less on wish someone good luck and more about personal theories, tinfoil hatting, discussions of bigotry, and a need to try and be right. When a claim is made the person making the claim is given the burden of proof that it is fact and true, so to claim that his leaving is due to the loss of subs requires proof. Merely stating the same statistics without providing new information is futile and merely a stalling tactic. Homophobia is a stupid word because you aren't afraid of gay people, unless you fear them teaching you how to dress to attract women, introducing you to the mass quantities of females they know, or helping you with the inane things you probably don't care about in a bid to make you more appealing to the general public. If the man left under ill terms it isn't likely he would say so, but nothing posted so far screamed "I'm saying this because I'm being forced too." It is possible he was asked to leave and resigned with dignity, or maybe he decided he wanted a new career field. The world of what ifs is a futile place to live because it leads no where. What if a frog had wings? He wouldn't bump his ass when he hopped. I like the game, I enjoy it a lot and the current content doesn't bore me for the moment. I know it is a cycle and when the wheel turns we dive back in till we reach this point again. Blizzard adds, subtracts, divides and reworks to create an experience they hope we like, and when we don't we bid adieu for greener pastures. Some come back, some never do but like many things in life this is the way of it. So if you are unhappy why do you linger? If the game is terrible why are you here? Time invested isn't a good enough reason, but perhaps flame wars, trolling, or merely being negative helps you stay. Whatever it is if you continue to contribute your money to what you do not enjoy or believe in then you are a hypocrite and should be content with that knowledge.
  1. LanceDH's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by thabris View Post
    Why is that when most people say "THIS upcoming expansion is the worst ever, will be the death of WoW" there's no mention of current employee and wanting to replace them, but when an employee retires/leaves/fired it's suddenly NOW the death of WoW?

    What happened to all those people that hated every expansion and was sure WoW was going to die? Wouldn't they be happy someone is getting replaced?
    It's rule 1 of WoW news; When news comes out about WoW, WoW is dead
  1. Infernix's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rorcanna View Post
    Yes, just because you can't face reality and facts, doesn't mean it's not real.

    WoW was NEVER going to stay at 12+ million players. Stop acting like a fool.
    There's no need to get mad and start calling people names, dude. Just because the game has lost half its player base since Wrath ended is no reason to get upset. The developers are just straight up drool-cup retarded and their mistakes caused this. Making excuses for them like 'lol life span' is nice and all, but it doesn't get away from the fact that we didn't start seeing losses until Cata launched and they herped and derped away a couple million subs. It only got worse in MOP and I'm sure that WoD will continue that Retard Train to Fail Town. It's inevitable, considering how terrible this team is.
  1. Pua's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rorcanna View Post
    Yes, just because you can't face reality and facts, doesn't mean it's not real.

    WoW was NEVER going to stay at 12+ million players. Stop acting like a fool.
    While I don't necessarily agree with Infernix' commentary, he's not saying that.

    What he's saying is that the game took a very obvious shift in its core design philosophy going into Cataclysm, and the subscriptions have plummeted since then. Chalking that up purely to the life cycle of a product isn't being particularly fair to the design decisions that were made; they could easily have contributed to this downfall and, in fact, it's extremely likely that they did.
  1. Ayla's Avatar
    Wonder what it means for the wow movie. He was going up to vancouver often, for what I assumed was the wow movie. Sure they're done filming, but id think it still needs input
  1. The One Percent's Avatar
    Every ending is a new beginning, the most cliched start when you are making a bullshit exit speech.
  1. mmoce35ea8b457's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vaehatiel View Post
    *Sigh* Gotta be more precise next time, I see. One would expect people to know what I meant, especially when I said that I don't care if I get called a homophobe. I should've mentioned that I meant the homo stuff, else you'll see a bunch of smartasses just waiting for a post exactly like this. Go call me a bigot, see if I care.
    Oh I see. So when you said you didn't care if you were called a homophobe, what you actually meant was that you didn't care that you are a homophobe. Gotcha.
  1. Pua's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by UnifiedDivide View Post
    No. The game lost millions much before Cata went live. The only difference is the game was newer and not everyone with a passing interest had tried it so the losses were covered by the overall retention. Now there just aren't millions of people trying to the game to cover up the lost players.
    A valid enough thing to say, and certainly a contributing factor to the game's decline, but this isn't something we can say for certain. Correlation doesn't necessarily equal causation, we all know that, but it'd be a bit hard-nosed to suggest that the subscription loss is completely independent of design that deliberately marginalized the game's biggest percentage of players, after Wrath's design (with a different team) brought them all in.

    Quote Originally Posted by Protar View Post
    Oh I see. So when you said you didn't care if you were called a homophobe, what you actually meant was that you didn't care that you where a homophobe. Gotcha.
    Come on, Protar, you know better than that. It's not helpful, at all, to try and pigeonhole someone you've never met, and have likely misunderstood, over a paragraph written on a gaming forum.
  1. thabris's Avatar
    To tl;dr my previous post: If you hated cataclysm and MoP, and are sure that WoD is "shit" why aren't you happy some designer got replaced? I'd really like some answers to this.

    If the game is "getting worse because I feel it is", why are you against replacing employees?

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