Tom Chilton Switching Projects, Ion Hazzikostas now Game Director

Originally Posted by Clozer

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

WRONG.
Carbine's founders were 17 former members of Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft development team. Since then they have employed key personnel from games such as Diablo II, StarCraft, Metroid Prime, Fallout, EverQuest, City of Heroes, Half-Life 2 and many from other titles.
They left Blizz early i thing before 2007 but left us expacs including wotlk.
Ion comes to Blizz in 2008

Originally Posted by Taeldorian

Or they are changing their perspective? Giving someone new and experienced the leadership role. No point in arguing though, you'll stick to your belief that WoW is dead no matter what I or anyone else says.

I don't say it is dead. I say it is finished. Please get it right. There is a difference.

Fishes in pocket for an insult for Ion Hazzikostas... comes up empty.

Searches internet for ANY justification for WoW ending... nothing.

What will the MMO-C Doom and Gloom Naysayers have to talk about.

Originally Posted by Bumbac

I don't say it is dead. I say it is finished. Please get it right. There is a difference.

Except it isn't finished. Not nearly, plot doesn't say it either.

Do people seriously not understand that someone might be sick of doing the same job for 8-23 years straight, and it doesn't mean they were pushed out or "quit because the game is secretly finished"?

Originally Posted by frogger237

The new project he is moving to is Blizzard Adult aka World of Porncraft. Seeing how popular warcraft and overwatch porn is they decided to capitalize on the adult industry as well. Its the real reason they were trying to stop all that sfm porn.

This guy thinks he's funny.

Originally Posted by kojinshugi

Do people seriously not understand that someone might be sick of doing the same job for 8-23 years straight, and it doesn't mean they were pushed out or "quit because the game is secretly finished"?

Dude, you're on MMO-C. Did you seriously expect the tin foil hat wearing doomsayers to not visit this thread? This is what they live for mate.

Originally Posted by Aeluron Lightsong

Except it isn't finished. Not nearly, plot doesn't say it either.

The story is finished. Of course it is kept as secret before it will be present in the game itself. We just don't know the ending yet. Only this big figures in Blizzard do.

Originally Posted by kojinshugi

Do people seriously not understand that someone might be sick of doing the same job for 8-23 years straight, and it doesn't mean they were pushed out or "quit because the game is secretly finished"?

Hey man when you have over 10 million people giving you money for something you're creating, the best thing to do is to stop, said no company ever.

Everyone's abandoning ship. Just as legion's shine was starting to wear off for the general population.

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

SPOILERS BELOW


- players are more powerful than ever, we're all the leaders of our respective classes now, wielding the most powerful artifact weapons in the history of Azeroth

- it's the Legion, Sargeras has been the big looming bad guy for the entire game, and now he's here: virtually any follow-up expansion will pale by comparison, and the only possible exception would be The Dark Below (an Azjatar / N'zoth / Lovecraft expansion), but given that we're now in the Broken Isles - this is likely also going to be the N'zoth conclusion

- The Illidan arc will come to a close, and this expansion has been building him up immensely as some sort of Chosen One

- We're killing off gods left and right lately: Ysera dies in a zone intro quest, we kill Ursoc, Cenarius is corrupted/on death's door. Meanwhile the Shadowpriests are feeding all of Azeroth's old gods to a very hungry dagger-old-god. All the Naaru are dying. Azeroth is apparently some kind of titan. Elune (the only actual god in WoW lore) is now taking an active role in the affairs of mortals, something she's pretty much kept out of for 10,000 years since the last Legion invasion. The DKs are literally preparing for the end of all life. The DH's keep yammering on about the virtue of sacrificing everything.

- The Illidan history quests demonstrate that the key turning point in his life was when he recognized he would need to sacrifice his own soldiers to save the world, and that any amount of sacrifice was permissible if it resulted in him ultimately winning against the Legion - that seems like pretty obvious foreshadowing that in order to defeat Sargeras, Illidan is going to sacrifice our Raid Group (who are now all the most powerful heros in Azeroth) to empower himself to get on Sargeras' level

Meanwhile in RL:

- Ghostcrawler left WoW because of creative differences after Pandaland and prior to Draenor, and Draenor was obviously a stop-gap expansion hastily created when Project Titan fell through - he wanted to do something bigger/better, not oversee the shittiest expansion and wait around for years

- Project Titan was clearly something much, much bigger - and then got completely scrapped and became Overwatch with a team a fraction the size of the original (it was clearly a new MMO originally)

- 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)

- Ion's taking over WoW, because he's one of the only devs whose heart is still in WoW (I like Ion, I think this is a good move overall)

So to sum it all up:
- Legion final expansion
- New Blizzard MMO coming
- Ion might actually give a shit to fix stuff before 8.0 (because there may not be an 8.1)

Originally Posted by Bjoramier of Lordaeron

This is what interests me most, since they said "projects", i mean would he work on diablo or overwatch? idk

I think if he was moving to the Overwatch team he would've mentioned it, this seems like it's a new franchise, or at least a new title within an existing franchise that they don't want to announce just yet. Very exciting stuff none the less.

Considering that Ion Hazzikostas is the guy that "accidentally" slipped away there will be no flying in WoD, starting the rage that set WoW in a needed course correction, I would say that we are pretty safe.
I hope that Ion course correct the official forums to the way they were in WotLK, Ghostcrawler's golden age, when the WoW team wasn't gagged, and could freely discuss with theorycrafters about the game.

Originally Posted by Partysaurus Rex

Hey man when you have over 10 million people giving you money for something you're creating, the best thing to do is to stop, said no company ever.

But... but... Wrath was going to be the last expansion because Tigole moved on to work on a different project
I mean Cataclysm was going to be the last expansion because Titan was going to come out.
I mean Pandaria was going to be the last expansion because they ran out of room on the world map.
I mean WoD was going to be the last expansion because 100 is a round number.
Legion is definitely the last expansion because Tom Chilton moved on to work on a different project.

Just try to argue with this logic! You can't!

We're fucked

Originally Posted by Yvaelle

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

SPOILERS BELOW


- players are more powerful than ever, we're all the leaders of our respective classes now, wielding the most powerful artifact weapons in the history of Azeroth

- it's the Legion, Sargeras has been the big looming bad guy for the entire game, and now he's here: virtually any follow-up expansion will pale by comparison, and the only possible exception would be The Dark Below (an Azjatar / N'zoth / Lovecraft expansion), but given that we're now in the Broken Isles - this is likely also going to be the N'zoth conclusion

- The Illidan arc will come to a close, and this expansion has been building him up immensely as some sort of Chosen One

- We're killing off gods left and right lately: Ysera dies in a zone intro quest, we kill Ursoc, Cenarius is corrupted/on death's door. Meanwhile the Shadowpriests are feeding all of Azeroth's old gods to a very hungry dagger-old-god. All the Naaru are dying. Azeroth is apparently some kind of titan. Elune (the only actual god in WoW lore) is now taking an active role in the affairs of mortals, something she's pretty much kept out of for 10,000 years since the last Legion invasion. The DKs are literally preparing for the end of all life. The DH's keep yammering on about the virtue of sacrificing everything.

- The Illidan history quests demonstrate that the key turning point in his life was when he recognized he would need to sacrifice his own soldiers to save the world, and that any amount of sacrifice was permissible if it resulted in him ultimately winning against the Legion - that seems like pretty obvious foreshadowing that in order to defeat Sargeras, Illidan is going to sacrifice our Raid Group (who are now all the most powerful heros in Azeroth) to empower himself to get on Sargeras' level

Meanwhile in RL:

- Ghostcrawler left WoW because of creative differences after Pandaland and prior to Draenor, and Draenor was obviously a stop-gap expansion hastily created when Project Titan fell through - he wanted to do something bigger/better, not oversee the shittiest expansion and wait around for years

- Project Titan was clearly something much, much bigger - and then got completely scrapped and became Overwatch with a team a fraction the size of the original (it was clearly a new MMO originally)

- 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)

- Ion's taking over WoW, because he's one of the only devs whose heart is still in WoW (I like Ion, I think this is a good move overall)

So to sum it all up:
- Legion final expansion
- New Blizzard MMO coming
- Ion might actually give a shit to fix stuff before 8.0 (because there may not be an 8.1)

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

Grats to both Ion and Tom! I am excited to see what vision Ion has for the future of WoW as Game Director as well as the new unannounced project Tom is working on! This is an exciting change TBH - change is (usually) a good thing as it typically brings in a new era of ideas and creativity.

Originally Posted by kojinshugi

But... but... Wrath was going to be the last expansion because Tigole moved on to work on a different project
I mean Cataclysm was going to be the last expansion because Titan was going to come out.
I mean Pandaria was going to be the last expansion because they ran out of room on the world map.
I mean WoD was going to be the last expansion because 100 is a round number.
Legion is definitely the last expansion because Tom Chilton moved on to work on a different project.

Just try to argue with this logic! You can't!

When profits turn into losses... Warcraft will end. (probably... maybe)

Originally Posted by Yvaelle

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

SPOILERS BELOW


- players are more powerful than ever, we're all the leaders of our respective classes now, wielding the most powerful artifact weapons in the history of Azeroth

- it's the Legion, Sargeras has been the big looming bad guy for the entire game, and now he's here: virtually any follow-up expansion will pale by comparison, and the only possible exception would be The Dark Below (an Azjatar / N'zoth / Lovecraft expansion), but given that we're now in the Broken Isles - this is likely also going to be the N'zoth conclusion

- The Illidan arc will come to a close, and this expansion has been building him up immensely as some sort of Chosen One

- We're killing off gods left and right lately: Ysera dies in a zone intro quest, we kill Ursoc, Cenarius is corrupted/on death's door. Meanwhile the Shadowpriests are feeding all of Azeroth's old gods to a very hungry dagger-old-god. All the Naaru are dying. Azeroth is apparently some kind of titan. Elune (the only actual god in WoW lore) is now taking an active role in the affairs of mortals, something she's pretty much kept out of for 10,000 years since the last Legion invasion. The DKs are literally preparing for the end of all life. The DH's keep yammering on about the virtue of sacrificing everything.

- The Illidan history quests demonstrate that the key turning point in his life was when he recognized he would need to sacrifice his own soldiers to save the world, and that any amount of sacrifice was permissible if it resulted in him ultimately winning against the Legion - that seems like pretty obvious foreshadowing that in order to defeat Sargeras, Illidan is going to sacrifice our Raid Group (who are now all the most powerful heros in Azeroth) to empower himself to get on Sargeras' level

Meanwhile in RL:

- Ghostcrawler left WoW because of creative differences after Pandaland and prior to Draenor, and Draenor was obviously a stop-gap expansion hastily created when Project Titan fell through - he wanted to do something bigger/better, not oversee the shittiest expansion and wait around for years

- Project Titan was clearly something much, much bigger - and then got completely scrapped and became Overwatch with a team a fraction the size of the original (it was clearly a new MMO originally)

- 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)

- Ion's taking over WoW, because he's one of the only devs whose heart is still in WoW (I like Ion, I think this is a good move overall)

So to sum it all up:
- Legion final expansion
- New Blizzard MMO coming
- Ion might actually give a shit to fix stuff before 8.0 (because there may not be an 8.1)

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.

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