Why ion hazzikostas is the best Game Director

[RangerDaz]

i'm not a fan of Ion, especially the way he talks and how he exposes things. He clearly has a very high opinion of himself.

I actually preffered Ghostcrawler as the company's spokesman to be honest.

I even think Josh Allen / Lore does a better PR job than Ion in the interviews.

[CaptainV]

Honestly I dislike Ion, I think the problem is he comes across as too snarky and arrogant and the fact hes turned WoW into a giant game of lootbox is definatley not on my *fun* list.

His responses to player feedback and requests are pretty bad too, I dislike how he just generally keeps telling people to F-off if they want something fixed badly enough, like how the leveling atm is god aweful since the change in scaling.

Ion is clearly of the generation of player that came from vanillia and he was a player once so I can tell, its evident in his design style hes probably gonna move into full time classic wow development when it finally comes out and let someone else take over since hes the kinda dev that seems very focused on trying to retain the "hardcore" feel of wow which has long been dead since TBC.

I would have frankly *LOVED* Ben Brodie to take over but thats not gonna happen so... yeah sad times.

[Darkguyver2020]

He's an Elitist Jerk

I see what you did there.

[RangerDaz]

He's an Elitist Jerk

Probably in all ways possible... haha

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To be fair, Ion saved WoW from the catastrophe that is Warlords of Draenor.

Legion is very well received at least by me.

Why do you think it is Ion the solo responsible for this? It is usually a team effort and a group decision. One Director alone doesn't decide the fate of a big franchise such as WoW.

He is fucking asshole.

Well, that is one rough way to say what i really think of him

[Alvito]

I dont know how people could like him based solely on the Q & A's. He often uses dozens of words to say nothing or makes completely generic open ended statements pivoting to something else as quickly as he can. It is like watching a politician speak.

[Newlyn]

I honestly love reading these comments. Definitely mixed reviews here regarding Ion, I personally don’t care for some decisions made but
especially pruning. I loved having 50 fucking buttons to press whenever I felt like it. Even if that ability had no use anymore or however they justified it, I like to see those bitches on my bars. Can Ion be blamed for all that? After all, he got stuffed with a bunch of dick-donkeys from D3 for devs. I think he’s doing a good job for what bullshit he got dealt. They gave it a shot in Legion with the 4 button fuck fest and now you can see some minor changes regarding how empty the game felt with abilities and choices. Content and raiding they hit the nail on the head, if I was into that shit I would actually care but I’ll acknowledge the fact. I play the game solely for PvP, no other game comes close to WoW in my opinion and the game has HUGE potiential. I miss playing a class and not a spec, one second you can be the lord of fire and the next you couldn’t cast a single fire spell if your life depended on it but boy, you could sure fuck the shit out of arcane! Bring back the class utility Ion, if you’re going to do something great that would be it.

[LionSinMaikeru]

And last thing, his has a good sense of humor :-)

Well this part is true. Because during every Q&A I laugh.

[Kynario]

Hideo Kojima is pretty highly regarded :-/

Never ever heard of him, but great, that's good to hear.

[IceMan1763]

The fact that he's raid leader of a successful mythic guild everyone knows about, makes him quite an appropriate person to lead game development. He knows the game well! While I think that there were few huge mistakes in game design (OP items like legendaries and racanocrystal, stupid grind like early AP grind with thousands of MoW runs), he seems to be fixing them all in BfA, so I like him so far. .

Your bar for successful design is INCREDIBLY LOW. Ion fucking loves customers like you....

[vsb]

Your bar for successful design is INCREDIBLY LOW. Ion fucking loves customers like you....

Actually it's incredibly high. So far WoW was below my bar since wotlk (it was good in some aspects in Cata and in Draenor). BfA seems to be the first addon I might actually enjoy. But we will see, Blizzard have strange tendency to ruin nice things.

[Thestuff1992]

I have a lot of respect for the guy. In the last QA the first 5-10 minutes he spent apologizing for the bad pre patch. I can’t remember any game director manning up like that and apologizing to the community. That’s very good PR.

I also like that he plays the game at a relatively high level. Either way though, I think he knows what he’s doing. I disagree with quite a few changes he’s proposed for the game and I also disagree with azerite armor and systems relative to that but I think he in general does a good job.

It’s pretty obvious something happened with the azerite armor and their intentions with it. Whether the release date was too early or whatever, it didn’t turn out how it was presented at blizzcon. Ion specifically said it’d fill the gaps like AW, but shortly after that clearly wasn’t the case and they made several class changes very fast.

Either way, I disagree with a few things he’s proposed but I like him as a game director especially compared to others.

[Heladys]

He's open, he's honest, he admits faults, he tries to see and address player viewpoints even when they've chosen another direction. He's great. He's done far more to enhance dev communication than anyone prior. Ghostcrawler tried but never on this kind of persistent scale.

[Kithelle]

I actually like Ion, he is smart and passionate, its a director we probs never going to have again for wow if he decided to step down.

Smart and passionate? Funny! Joke of the year I think!

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I have just watched the Q&A and i must say, i am so happy that Ion Hazzikostas is the game director of my favorite game. Here is some reasons why:

He is passionate about the Warcraft universe.

He plays the game so he knows our struggle if something is broken or unfair.

He is not hiding behind pre-made words, he actualy says what he feels.

He is not afraid of talking about misstakes they,him, the team made/makes.

And last thing, his has a good sense of humor :-)

Do you guys agree with me? What else does do good? Does he piss you off?

Only thing he is passionate about is trolling people

He plays the game? Yeah right if he played the game he'd fucking know how unbalanced shit is

He had hid behind premade words to the point where they aren't even valid anymore with retcons and yet still spews them

He is very afraid, they hide from their mistakes all the time and don't fess up. Just look at Legion Warlock, people been telling them how bad it was since Alpha...did they listen? No! Beta? No! Than after launch he doesn't say our bad or anything...basically just says fuck you and don't play it till we eventually get around to it in the next expansion.

He is a troll so that right their says he has a bad sense of humor.

[Morbownz]

He's the face of the company so he has to put an effort in to making you like him. I don't rate him highly, but then I don't really dislike him either.

[IceMan1763]

Actually it's incredibly high. So far WoW was below my bar since wotlk (it was good in some aspects in Cata and in Draenor). BfA seems to be the first addon I might actually enjoy. But we will see, Blizzard have strange tendency to ruin nice things.

I was specifically referring to the statement where you seem to accept bad design for an entire expansion as long as they fix it in the next one. That's a dangerous license to give to the dev team and Ion.

I agree on their tendency to ruin nice things... they did it with Legion. It could have been really a great xpac, but some of the systems decisions where so incredibly bad that a large portion of the player base (like me) just gave up hope that this dev team has a clue as to what enjoyable, long term gameplay looks like.

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he admits faults

"Random distribution of legendary items isn't a problem. There is something cool about not having the ability to choose a specific legendary from a list. Each person may have a different legendary, but those should be good in some different situations."

He's done far more to enhance dev communication than anyone prior. Ghostcrawler tried but never on this kind of persistent scale.

Just flat out false... GC did a lot of interacting and communicating with the community. He had Q&As for every single class to address issues which he actively participated in. He wrote detailed, honest, and thoughtful dev blogs (you may not agree with everything he said, but the intention was good and they were well written). In fact, GC's Q&As were actually useful, Ion has turned them into a useless PR stunt where he speaks legalese in order to avoid answering real, honest questions about poor decisions he and his team are ultimately responsible for. If you don't believe me, I suggest you read the above. He clearly thinks Legiondaries were a mistake because there are ZERO in BFA... has he admitted to the mistake publicly that I'm unaware of? Or do you think he admits mistakes when he apologizes for low quality patches like recently? Any game dev would HAVE TO do that, it's not a unique or special feature of Ion. He will only admit a mistake if he gets so backed into a corner that there's no other way out.

[Heladys]

Or do you think he admits mistakes when he apologizes for low quality patches like recently? Any game dev would HAVE TO do that, it's not a unique or special feature of Ion. He will only admit a mistake if he gets so backed into a corner that there's no other way out.

Nobody fucking said it was unique. I said he did it. As m uch as I loved Ghostcrawler, the fucking never-ending wailing bitchstorm from subhumans wore him down and he stopped communicating and ultimately left.

Pull your head out of your ass.

[Teaon]

Smart and passionate? Funny! Joke of the year I think!

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if a Harvard lawyer graduate is not smart to you, and elitist jerk who ran that famous passion site of wow that everyone used and still talk about is not passion.

then mate, you need to control your emotions and hate a bit.

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Only thing he is passionate about is trolling people

He plays the game? Yeah right if he played the game he'd fucking know how unbalanced shit is

He had hid behind premade words to the point where they aren't even valid anymore with retcons and yet still spews them.

do you know he plays a shaman at semi-hardcore level? you probably dont, let me help you

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/ch...anis/Gurgthock

thats your game director character

[discoslice]

I enjoy listening to him, he is super articulate and has a mastery of the English language to get his point across. And, he seems to know all aspects of the game deeply.

[Kithelle]

if a Harvard lawyer graduate is not smart to you, and elitist jerk who ran that famous passion site of wow that everyone used and still talk about is not passion.

then mate, you need to control your emotions and hate a bit.

He has a degree in social studies from harvard, not exactly the toughest degree you can earn. He obviously isn't very smart if most people can see through his lies...maybe that is why he isn't a big time lawyer, he can't lie like the good ones.

Haven't heard anyone talk about elitist jerks in years...so no...still isn't talked about.

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if a Harvard lawyer graduate is not smart to you, and elitist jerk who ran that famous passion site of wow that everyone used and still talk about is not passion.

then mate, you need to control your emotions and hate a bit.

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do you know he plays a shaman at semi-hardcore level? you probably dont, let me help you

https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/ch...anis/Gurgthock

thats your game director character

Yeah Resto...amazing how Resto is the only decent Shaman spec in BFA. Basically shows he doesn't give a fuck about anything but what he plays.

[Teaon]

He has a degree in social studies from harvard, not exactly the toughest degree you can earn. He obviously isn't very smart if most people can see through his lies...maybe that is why he isn't a big time lawyer, he can't lie like the good ones.

Haven't heard anyone talk about elitist jerks in years...so no...still isn't talked about.

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Yeah Resto...amazing how Resto is the only decent Shaman spec in BFA. Basically shows he doesn't give a fuck about anything but what he plays.

so because its social studies, he is not smart? lol... btw he still has his lawyer license active, and he had a history in it https://pview.findlaw.com/view/3726028_1

Harvard itself handpick people from all the globe, and only the top people in it, so if you think that a harvard graduate is not smart, well, i doubt anyone can convince you.

and whats with playing resto shaman? i mean him playing shaman doesn't increase his skills by 500% in mythic? he plays mythic actively, because there are people like you with all my respect wears a tinfoil hat and think that Ion is conspiring against other specs or against top raiders.

quit the hate, you will never have a game director like him.