Dave Kosak leaves Blizz

[Kralljin]

North was dissolved BECAUSE everyone left. You're apparently trying to make out they were all bad at their jobs and were doomed anyway

No, but i think we should differentiate between Blizzard and Blizzard North, especially in the relation to WoW as no Blizzard North dev (at least ones that left during the exodus) have worked on WoW at all.

Without Blizzard North, the list would be a lot shorter.

[Shuttle]

so are people only leaving because blizzard dosent pay enough for irvine? eventually youd think maybe they can just pay people money and keep the talent

Blizzard pays like complete shit in comparison to other engineering firms in the area.

[Eurhetemec]

If this is a product of years of planing, do you understand what that implies about them?

That angry people on the forums hate literally every storyline that's ever been in WoW, with no exceptions, just different people hating them?

Literally the only storylines I haven't see people like you getting incredibly mad about, in the whole history of WoW, are ones literally from WC3 and before. And even some of those seem to inspired a lot of table-flipping rage in some people.

No, but i think we should differentiate between Blizzard and Blizzard North, especially in the relation to WoW as no Blizzard North dev (at least ones that left during the exodus) haven't worked on WoW at all.

Without Blizzard North, the list would be a lot shorter.

Yeah and even more of them would be failures or do-nothings. I'm just not sure what you think this distinction helps with. Either way, companies founded by people leaving Blizzard have a success rate that seems to be even lower than the industry standard.

[Lahis]

Bobby really pushing the talent away from the company.

[NoiseTank13]

Wasn't Afrasiabi responsible for the stroke inducing ramifications of WoD's timey-wimy bullshit "Legion is the same across all dimensions"?

[Kralljin]

Yeah and even more of them would be failures or do-nothings. I'm just not sure what you think this distinction helps with. Either way, companies founded by people leaving Blizzard have a success rate that seems to be even lower than the industry standard.

We basically have Red 5 (where Mark Kern was heavily involved), Carbine (where i'm rather curious considering the Wikipedia page for Wildstar says that said devs wanted to do anything but WoW, but ended up with some hardcore MMO).
The only of the newer studios where it's reasonable to expect a release would be Bonfire, the remaining ones are still pretty fresh.

I mean, i'll say it again, the only thing worth of value there is ArenaNet, which also involved people from WoW, a big chunk then comes from Blizzard North and then you Carbine & Red 5.
Once you remove the ones founded by Blizzard North, you end up with a rather small number of studios.

[Verdugo]

That angry people on the forums hate literally every storyline that's ever been in WoW, with no exceptions, just different people hating them?

People dont like garbage, it smells and doesnt look nice. Any other hot take?

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Afrasiabi is the Creative director; he is literally the loremaster in WoW along with Metzen . From the time when he moved from his EQ guild to WoW quest designer, and his amazing work on the quests in Elwynn Forest.

If Didier drew Wow as we see it, Metzen and Afrasiabi pretty much wrote the early storyline of the Orc vs Humans.

Now Golden is taking Wow story into a new direction destroying characters like Sylvanas in the process.

Golden isn’t the head writer at blizzard she has said this a ton of times she shes not the one directing the story and didn’t even work on the first half of Bfa other then doing one book.

[Verdugo]

Golden isn’t the head writer at blizzard she has said this a ton of times she shes not the one directing the story and didn’t even work on the first half of Bfa other then doing one book.

She is an "award winning" writer in an environment full of amateurs. Of course she has massive influence on Afrasiabi, even before she officialy joined Blizzard (them pushing Anduin is obvious result of that). Meanwhile Danuser only cares about Sylvanas being in expensive CGI cinematics so that he has wank material.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Isn't Kosak behind most of the comedy/lighthearted stories in WoW? If yes, I don't see a bad thing with him not being part of the WoW narrative team.

Considering what ended up replacing him, I'm almost nostalgic for him these days. Almost.



Yet another old hand bailing on Blizzard. How much longer till the Titanic splits in half?

[RoKPaNda]

Bobby really pushing the talent away from the company.

Alternatively 12 years is a long time to be with a gaming company. This industry has really high turnover. Blizzard has far better retention that most, and in some cases that probably hurts them.

[Shelly]

so are people only leaving because blizzard dosent pay enough for irvine? eventually youd think maybe they can just pay people money and keep the talent

Not exactly.

The high profile folks that are leaving are probably quite well compensated.

Where Blizz tends to get by with low balling folks is with entry to mid-level employees. Folks either starting their careers or wanting to move into the gaming sphere from prior software development experience.

So from the sound of things right up to middle-management you're hosed, then you get to upper management and they give you the key to the bathroom with the solid gold toilets and fancy european mints.

Until then it's food banking, three roomies and unable to start a family while most of them are doing jobs that could frankly be done remotely from areas with a far lower cost of living.

Hell, if they could just get past the need for the cache of being in Irvine they could move the entire operation to Reno and probably save almost a billion each year without impacting their ability to recruit talent.

[arkanon]

the eventual resurrection of Lei Shen

Spoiler ALERT!

[Lorgar Aurelian]

She is an "award winning" writer in an environment full of amateurs. Of course she has massive influence on Afrasiabi, even before she officialy joined Blizzard (them pushing Anduin is obvious result of that). Meanwhile Danuser only cares about Sylvanas being in expensive CGI cinematics so that he has wank material.

Ya no this has no basis in reality.

Golden wasn’t sitting outside blizzard while free lancing telling the actual story directors what to do with there world and telling them to promote anduin. She was literally hired to put to paper what they already wanted and to fill in some blanks.

She had no hands on the direction of the story before working at blizzard and she’s already said she doesn’t fill that roll while at blizzard and she didn’t work on the start of bfa at all.

[arkanon]

Golden isn’t the head writer at blizzard she has said this a ton of times she shes not the one directing the story and didn’t even work on the first half of Bfa other then doing one book.

Was that book well recurved? I don't follow the books at all.

[Verdugo]

Ya no this has no basis in reality.

Golden wasn’t sitting outside blizzard while free lancing telling the actual story directors what to do with there world and telling them to promote anduin. She was literally hired to put to paper what they already wanted and to fill in some blanks.

She had no hands on the direction of the story before working at blizzard and she’s already said she doesn’t fill that roll whole at blizzard.

Nah sorry, Afrasiabi asking Golden for advice is too real of a thought.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Was that book well recurved? I don't follow the books at all.

I really have no idea, I’ve only seen people on these forums not any actual reviews or any thing and people on the forums say every book is awful sooo.

It has some lore flubs like genn having a tail and other stuff but over all I thought it was an ok book if nothing great.

She’s done some other really good books though like wise of the lichking.

[Huzzaa]

Bobby really pushing the talent away from the company.

"But mah bonuses" - Kotik

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Nah sorry, Afrasiabi asking Golden for advice is too real of a thought.

That’s not how any thing works, you don’t Hire some one to put a story to paper in novel form and then go back and ask them how to direct said story past that novel.

Her job while freelancing was literally to copy some one else’s story down to paper and fill in the blanks not make up the story and where it should go and even while at blizzard proper she does none of that.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Was that book well recurved? I don't follow the books at all.

Before the Storm was...fine. Nothing really happened and it had no impact on BfA because Sylvanas was the one who attacked first. The only thing of note was the death and unlife of Calia. Also Sylvanas' inner monologue about her feelings on becoming warchief seem to match poorly with what we now know in Shadowlands. That aside, it was nicely written enough. Not one that I'd urge anyone to buy, but not one that I'd tell people to avoid either.