Opinion on Tom Chilton?

[Nubpwn]

Everyone already knows Tom Chilton was the director for WoD, and no one is shy about giving him flak for that, but otherwise, what do people think? It's not like Kaplan or Hazzikostas are perfect either.

He has been working on something secret since 2016 and we still have no idea what it could be. I've only recently learned that J. Allen Brack, president after Morhaime left, is also working with Chilton on this project saying, "He and I started up a new project that was not something like Blizzard has ever done before." Personally, I am excited to see what his team has to offer this time around. My wild speculation would say it very well could be WoW 2 in some form but they did claim it is different so possibly even a Titan successor.

What do you think he is working on? Should he come back to WoW and give Ion some help?

[Triceron]

So you're asking people for their opinions on him working on something no one knows about?

My answer is Activision will suck the life out of your hopes and dreams. Not even the return of all the classic devs would fix WoW today, we're way too far down the rabbit hole and the path this game has taken is already set in stone.

[Tiberria]

I mean, Tom Chilton was the game director that led the development of Wrath, MoP and Legion, which are widely seen as the 3 most successful expansions the game has had. Yes, Cata and WoD were misfires, but he at least came back from every misfire with a top tier expansion. Meanwhile, Ion's first expansion as director was BfA which is almost universally panned as a disaster of an expansion, and proceeded to lead development on Shadowlands, which has been such a disaster they actually had to pull back on an announced release date. Also, Ion responded to the train wreck of BfA with an even bigger trainwreck and black eye with Shadowlands.

The results would suggest that Chilton is a far more competent game director than Ion, and they should probably fire Ion, make him walk the plank for the BfA/Shadowlands clown fiestas, and put Chilton back in charge.

[Raven]

I mean, Tom Chilton was the game director that led the development of Wrath, MoP and Legion, which are widely seen as the 3 most successful expansions the game has had. Yes, Cata and WoD were misfires, but he at least came back from every misfire with a top tier expansion. Meanwhile, Ion's first expansion as director was BfA which is almost universally panned as a disaster of an expansion, and proceeded to lead development on Shadowlands, which has been such a disaster they actually had to pull back on an announced release date. Also, Ion responded to the train wreck of BfA with an even bigger trainwreck and black eye with Shadowlands.

The results would suggest that Chilton is a far more competent game director than Ion, and they should probably fire Ion, make him walk the plank for the BfA/Shadowlands clown fiestas, and put Chilton back in charge.

WoD succesful ? it had good raiding and nothing else, and 1 of the biggest features added was twitter integration.

[Soikona]

WoD succesful ? it had good raiding and nothing else, and 1 of the biggest features added was twitter integration.

Does what you quoted say anything about wod being successful?

[Declaron]

WoD succesful ? it had good raiding and nothing else, and 1 of the biggest features added was twitter integration.

I don’t believe you know your WoDs from your MoPs, read it again.

[Adam Jensen]

He's a man. And he did stuff related to Blizzard, and that stuff affected WoW, among other things.

[Unholyground]

You can't really blame it anyone except for Activision and the shareholders for exerting extreme pressure on blizzard to perform quarter after quarter an not giving them sufficient time to develop an MMO which requires way more time than they let it have.

There was Insider information back during the warlords development that suggested that they had only around 40 developers when that was being developed to begin with so there's part of the issue.

[TheLucky1]

I somehow doubt that the lead dev. has the influence some peeps here think he has.

I mean, some of you guys probably say "damn Ion!!" when you stub your toe.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Indifferent but people should stop acting like wow development is like a dictatorship.

[shoc]

Only one thing is for sure, Tom Chilton is a bald man.

[MoanaLisa]

The results would suggest that Chilton is a far more competent game director than Ion, and they should probably fire Ion, make him walk the plank for the BfA/Shadowlands clown fiestas, and put Chilton back in charge.

He very likely doesn't want the job. He could have kept it as long as he wished but indicated that he wanted to step down and work on something fresh. I don't blame him. Working around the same game for too long makes you stale. WoW is, for me anyway, very stale, not really very creative and over-engineered to the point of boredom.

That said, I'm not really a fan of Chilton although all of this abuse of Ion because he's game director is quite hilarious given that Chilton was game director during Greg Street's (Ghostcrawler) days as lead designer. The secret is that whoever is out in front is the one taking the abuse from players no matter his title. Chilton never got a tenth the criticism he likely deserved simply because he kept quiet. That's a knock more on us than him. Generally we line up to shoot the messenger and never really understand how it really works there.

Lastly, if he's been working on a secret project for four years and there's still nothing whatsoever to show for it, especially at a time when Blizzard could really use some new product, that's a problem. After the Titan debacle I don't expect Blizzard to show anything that isn't really ready to show but four years is a very long time to keep something a total secret with the entire planet in the dark. Given Blizzard's history of scrapping stuff entirely that doesn't work out he could be on his 2nd, 3rd, or 4th secret project at this point. We don't know and it's unlikely we ever will.

[Acelius]

"He and I started up a new project that was not something like Blizzard has ever done before."

Fingers crossed for a Warcraft VR title!

[Dracullus]

I mean, Tom Chilton was the game director that led the development of Wrath, MoP and Legion, which are widely seen as the 3 most successful expansions the game has had. Yes, Cata and WoD were misfires, but he at least came back from every misfire with a top tier expansion. Meanwhile, Ion's first expansion as director was BfA which is almost universally panned as a disaster of an expansion, and proceeded to lead development on Shadowlands, which has been such a disaster they actually had to pull back on an announced release date. Also, Ion responded to the train wreck of BfA with an even bigger trainwreck and black eye with Shadowlands.

The results would suggest that Chilton is a far more competent game director than Ion, and they should probably fire Ion, make him walk the plank for the BfA/Shadowlands clown fiestas, and put Chilton back in charge.

I think Legion is more Ion's child than Tom. Ion was present in every interview leading to Legion where he explained every system, Chilton in none (or almost none). Legion is far more similar to BfA and Shadowlands than WoD and older expansions. And that includes Legion mistakes, that were ignored during Legion (when we were hyped that WoW is finally full of stuff to do), but hit hard during BfA.

Also it's not like Ion took Chilton's job after Legion. He got Assistant Game Director job right after Legion reveal, position that was made up for him. At that point it was clear WoD is total disaster where only raids and dungeons were great - and it was Ion's responsibility.

Imo Chilton just stay until Legion launch to help and advice Ion, but Legion was Ion's vision. And I think it was clear for everyone during Legion Alpha/Beta, but now you just check wowpedia and see that Chilton was game director until Legion launch.

[Th3Scourge]

Everyone already knows Tom Chilton was the director for WoD, and no one is shy about giving him flak for that, but otherwise, what do people think? It's not like Kaplan or Hazzikostas are perfect either.

He has been working on something secret since 2016 and we still have no idea what it could be. I've only recently learned that J. Allen Brack, president after Morhaime left, is also working with Chilton on this project saying, "He and I started up a new project that was not something like Blizzard has ever done before." Personally, I am excited to see what his team has to offer this time around. My wild speculation would say it very well could be WoW 2 in some form but they did claim it is different so possibly even a Titan successor.

What do you think he is working on? Should he come back to WoW and give Ion some help?

The game was arguably at its peak when Chilton was at the helm. Before the days of borrowed power and systems on systems on systems. Before the dark times, before Ion

[Ethas]

Indifferent but people should stop acting like wow development is like a dictatorship.

Games are actually usually developed like that. Creative Director, Game Director, Producer or CEO or whatever have the final word in every feature.
Heck even the most successful companies of the world employ dictatorship practices.

[Cæli]

I think he's competent based on what he worked on (lead designer for tbc, wotlk, and start of cata). however I remember an interview he made many years ago, where he talked about the end of wow/server shutdowns. he didn't seemed really concerned about the impact, seems to me he sees his work as something really serious but not really caring about the creative/preservation part, or understanding the importance of what he's working on. it's okay.
I think blizz sees him as a fairly valuable asset which is why they removed him from wow and while risking investing his time to a new game or IP.

[Unlimited Power]

I always liked Tom. He's one of the more charismatic developers at Blizzcons, though he hasn't been part of presentations for a good while. I always confused him with Greg Street (Ghostcrawler).

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Games are actually usually developed like that. Creative Director, Game Director, Producer or CEO or whatever have the final word in every feature.
Heck even the most successful companies of the world employ dictatorship practices.

Right....ok @_@ I don't believe that. The Ceo having financial decisions? Sure I buy that(No pun intended).

[lolmmofuture]

im pretty sure its a mobile game lol, but after diablo immortal blizz is rethinking their shit