WoW designer quits after 13 years, says he's 'unhappy with the state of the game'

[Arinitty]

did you even read my post? The numbers are irrelevant. The gameplay is utter trash. The soul of the game is gone. The people who made the game the masterpiece that it was are gone. The people remaining are amateurs who have no passion reminiscent to kosak, morhaime, or metzen. The game was their baby. It was made with delicate design and true desire to create something people wanted to explore. That is the hallmark of any piece of art that is alive, with soul. Wow in 2020 lacks all of that. It is now purely a monetization scheme that relies on psychologically manipulative mechanics in order to maximize “player engagement”. Modern wow is not art, like games should be.

Therefore, it is dead.

i don't like the game therefore it is dead! Reeeee

[Big Thanks]

yes the most played mmo is surely dead just because YOU dont like it.... yet u still creep around on a wow fan forum for a game u clearly hate....

Watch videos of the current Hearthstone Battlepass situation and you will see the truth.

The truth is:
Blizzard players are addicts like i was once who will eat anything Blizzard throws their way.

Is really eye opening.
Take a look

Good videos out there

[Kilpi]

I am often labeled a Blizzard apologist but are you actually so cynical that you think a dude would invent reasons for leaving a company after 13 years just for the attention? It does seem a bit petty but if they are his genuine feelings who the fuck are we to judge him over it?

Well he sure seems to like attention.

[Arinitty]

Watch videos of the current Hearthstone Battlepass situation and you will see the truth.

The truth is:
Blizzard players are addicts like i was once who will eat anything Blizzard throws their way.

Is really eye opening.
Take a look

Good videos out there

Battlepass is actually much better for any casual that plays.

So smart move blizzard, helping out the majority of your audience. Good job

[Orwell7]

Are we really arguing about wether the Rotschilds, Soros and the like have souls?

You can be a soulles dead person, and be rich and have millions of "fans" - just like WoW.
Btw, if we rank games based on how many are playing, then f2p mobile games are the most beautifully designed art ever.

[Big Thanks]

Battlepass is actually much better for any casual that plays.

So smart move blizzard, helping out the majority of your audience. Good job

5 hours to earn half a level is casual friendly?

[Arinitty]

5 hours to earn half a level is casual friendly?

If you are grinding xp for levels you are not a casual. A casual that plays a couple games and a daily quest will benefit more. So again, good job blizzard. More people will be happy and the sweaties grinding 60 games a day will get less gold.

[Big Thanks]

If you are grinding xp for levels you are not a casual. A casual that plays a couple games and a daily quest will benefit more. So again, good job blizzard. More people will be happy and the sweaties grinding 60 games a day will get less gold.

I think ill rest my case here thanks for proving my point

[Accendor]

"I think in a virtual world, in an MMO, really the players are the story."

This stands true for EvE online and to an extend that no other MMO can reach. But look at the number of EvE's subs... And I am not just talking about absolute numbers, but also about the fact that they have been declining during the past years. Additionally, WoW is not a sandbox kind of game, so you can't really put the above into practice. Not really. It's just something that sounds nice, but it's abstract in reality.

My opinion is what he implies is something that sounds good in theory (to some) but would have an overall negative impact to nowadays WoW. It's something that could work in a niche MMO, but not in a mainstream one. Imposing content restrictions or other gimmicks in order to "force" people into guilds... can it bring an overall positive outcome? No, it can't. Giving small, sensible incentives is enough and we have this. It's wrong to take it further and make people who enjoy playing casually or solo or just unguilded feel that WoW is not a game for them. That's a mistake nowadays.

Guilds (and communities) still matter, they are still beneficial enough and they are better off without members that feel forced to join... Forcing people into guilds with the prospect that they will bond with each other and thank you in the end for "forcing" them is a silly and naive thought. This could work for a small percentage of players, but in overall it would have a strong negative impact.

Just a quick comment, I have no interest in elaborating any further. Those who get it, that the year is not 2004 nor 2005 nor 2006 and that the average WoW player's mentality has changed irreversibly, get it. Those who don't, well, they never will. They are free to play classic. TBC is around the corner and that was the expansion I had the most fun in. But that was many years ago. Would I play it again? No. I'd rather play Shadowlands.

Its fascinating, I disagree with every word you wrote. I get you points, i just, from the bottom of my heart, think it's not true at all.

[conceptKitty]

Can't say I'm impressed with his work when it cos to PvP talents. Also I think he was responsible for PvP scaling which needs to remain a useless relic of the past.

I have no issues with him leaving.

[Deianeira]

I am often labeled a Blizzard apologist but are you actually so cynical that you think a dude would invent reasons for leaving a company after 13 years just for the attention? It does seem a bit petty but if they are his genuine feelings who the fuck are we to judge him over it?

I think its more that he just felt he HAD to write an essay on why he left, also i have never heard his name so why would i leave. Perhaps he wanted to write this "why he left" article to get some attention from others that have left and perhaps started new endeavours in the gamingworld.

- - - Updated - - -

Did you even read my post? The numbers are irrelevant. The gameplay is utter trash. The soul of the game is gone. The people who made the game the masterpiece that it was are gone. The people remaining are amateurs who have no passion reminiscent to Kosak, morhaime, or metzen. The game was their BABY. It was made with delicate design and true desire to create something people wanted to explore. That is the hallmark of ANY piece of art that is ALIVE, with SOUL. WoW in 2020 lacks ALL of that. It is now purely a monetization scheme that relies on psychologically manipulative mechanics in order to maximize “player engagement”. Modern WoW is NOT art, like games should be.

Therefore, it is dead.

You forgot to add IMO man. Because obviously others feel differently. :/

[Drusin]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Good for him?

[crusadernero]

Design philosophy has clearly changed over the years, no denying that. Classic/bc is a whole different game compared to how retail is today. Is it for the better or for the worse? Depends.

The new modern gamer might enjoy retail much more. Its much more convinient, you dont need to commit X amount of hours to get anything out of it, you dont need to rely on ANYONE from lvl 1 to last boss of current raid, proffessions is useless(no interaction with other players needed) except flasks maybe. You get hand holded to what you should do at max lvl, no need or reason to travel out in the world to explore - the game tells you what to do. If you decide to unsub and come back a few months later, it wont take long before you are up to speed and can atleast clear all content on LFR to see raid(s).

[Zephire]

Game designer Chris Kaleiki was an employee of Blizzard for 13 years, and in that time worked on World of Warcraft PvP, class design (in particular the monk), and its Ashran zone, among others. He's been there so long he's got two characters and an item named after him. But this year Kaleiki left Blizzard, and in a 15-minute video posted to YouTube he explains why.

"For a while now, probably too long, I've just been unhappy with the state of the game," Kaleiki says, noting that the addition of Classic highlighted the differences between its vision and that of the modern game, which he describes as "a little muddled". An example he gives is the changing importance of guilds.

"I think in Classic the guild's a big deal," he says. "To do anything at endgame you really need to be in a guild. What this does is it creates interdependence among players, where they really need each other in order to be successful. And I think this can feel really restrictive at times, but ultimately what it really does is it creates cohesion, it creates community."

Sounds resonable to leave if you feel things are going in the wrong direction, according to you. That only means you do not agree with it and not that it's a bad direction, just different from what you want.

What is this thread about?

[Monster Hunter]

Game designer Chris Kaleiki was an employee of Blizzard for 13 years, and in that time worked on World of Warcraft PvP, class design (in particular the monk), and its Ashran zone, among others. He's been there so long he's got two characters and an item named after him. But this year Kaleiki left Blizzard, and in a 15-minute video posted to YouTube he explains why.

"For a while now, probably too long, I've just been unhappy with the state of the game," Kaleiki says, noting that the addition of Classic highlighted the differences between its vision and that of the modern game, which he describes as "a little muddled". An example he gives is the changing importance of guilds.

"I think in Classic the guild's a big deal," he says. "To do anything at endgame you really need to be in a guild. What this does is it creates interdependence among players, where they really need each other in order to be successful. And I think this can feel really restrictive at times, but ultimately what it really does is it creates cohesion, it creates community."

What a load of tosh pardon my French.

Ive been on this earth long enough to know when artist and designers start throwing about the term "vision" in any other context than eye sight the next thing out of there mouths is probly about as deep as puddle.

The guy wasnt even there during vanillas development, those that were there all say wows success was a happy accedent, lightning in a bottle, wows design goal was simply to be a more causal and accessable version of the mmos that came before and it capitalised on both its accesability and the pre social media world of that time to provide mass socialising that people get nowadays from sites like facebook.

The importance of the guild in vanilla and classic had as much thought put into it as i put into what underpants i wear in the morning, first one on top as long as the holes arnt to big, the only thing classic shows is that how wow was back in vanilla was down to the community and the times we lived in, not by any grand design, every mmo had the same damn guild structure and design back then, which is why its so vastly different and such a fucking cancer game now.

The reason the design is muddled is simply because Blizzard havent ever known what the hell they are actualy doing, they made freaking RTS and arcade games before wow, for wow they copy and pasted everquest and removed the hassle people didnt like, it became a hit same way fucking pokemon cards and crazy bones did, all your mates played it so you did too, and the whole life of wow as a game is characterised by that same design of accessability + throwing shit at the wall hoping it sticks, same design "philosophy" they had at the start, just because the wall is now caked in shit dosn't mean they "lost there way" there just doing the same as they always have its only now people realise what a mess you can get into throwing shit whilst high on your own farts from success you don't understand how you got.

Also to add on, he's responsible for alot of the "new" chsnges hes bitching about any way, pot kettle much

[ek0zu]

Only in gaming industry workers are some kind of super stars that have interviews on why they left a company. Blizzard is a huge soap opera nowadays, with all the drama that comes every once in a while with the people leaving. People leave from their jobs all the time, no big deal! Seriously how much of an ego those developers have? There are people who are hugely underpaid, with much more credentials and noone pays attention in their struggles.

[Nyel]

Employees leave big companies every day, and most don't make up a story to post on the internet.

Blizzard is facing a massive brain drain. Developers that worked a decade for a company and shaped the state of the game should voice their opinion why they left, especially when the reasons are exactly the criticism players have about the company / the game. Everything he said is said by the community for years now, yet nothing changes. Shadowlands will be the last expansion in this style because it simply doesn't work.

[Kralljin]

Thats his opinion, many of us enjoy the ease you can get into content in retail. I dont think blizzard need to design the game after people who play 12 hours a day, that playerbase is extremely small.

I find it rather odd when people twist "the game should be more social" to "You need to play more".

Those two things have barely anything to do with each other.
Especially when we have just left an expansion where the biggest criticism was (from those players that have enough time play a lot of WoW), that too much time investment is required to stay on par.

[kamuimac]

Game designer Chris Kaleiki was an employee of Blizzard for 13 years, and in that time worked on World of Warcraft PvP, class design (in particular the monk), and its Ashran zone, among others. He's been there so long he's got two characters and an item named after him. But this year Kaleiki left Blizzard, and in a 15-minute video posted to YouTube he explains why.

"For a while now, probably too long, I've just been unhappy with the state of the game," Kaleiki says, noting that the addition of Classic highlighted the differences between its vision and that of the modern game, which he describes as "a little muddled". An example he gives is the changing importance of guilds.

"I think in Classic the guild's a big deal," he says. "To do anything at endgame you really need to be in a guild. What this does is it creates interdependence among players, where they really need each other in order to be successful. And I think this can feel really restrictive at times, but ultimately what it really does is it creates cohesion, it creates community."

and how would he change it ? since he guilds themselves and their toxicity and elitism are the only reason why so many people openly refuse to play in guild nowadays.

[Gorsameth]

Blizzard is facing a massive brain drain. Developers that worked a decade for a company and shaped the state of the game should voice their opinion why they left, especially when the reasons are exactly the criticism players have about the company / the game. Everything he said is said by the community for years now, yet nothing changes. Shadowlands will be the last expansion in this style because it simply doesn't work.

Hasn't the community been yelling that the game is bad for over a decade now?
So if a decade old developer leaves they were the problem?

I love how this community can flip on a dime so long as it meets the narrative they want to paint.
No that he leaves he is a hero and pointing out all the is wrong with the game.
A day ago he would have been hated for being the guy who was responsible for the pile of shit that was Ashran, the broken design of the Monk and how shit PvP is.

For every 'brain' that leaves another fresh face with fresh idea's is hired. WoW hasn't been a game where 1 man drove the entire vision, not for a long time if ever.