Omar Gonzalez Leaves Blizzard and Joins Dreamhaven, New Battle.Net Avatars

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I'm talking about the original Blizzard team, not a random studio. I don't think they rate the guy who has been in charge of modern WoW enough to hire him for whatever new game they want to make.

You do know that it would have been Mike and the like who hired Ion back In 2008 and would have been overseeing his rise to game lead right?

Of course they would hire him they already did it in the past and thought he was good enough to keep promoting up the ladder.

[Wangming]

You do know that it would have been Mike and the like who hired Ion back In 2008 and would have been overseeing his rise to game lead right?

Of course they would hire him they already did it in the past and thought he was good enough to keep promoting up the ladder.

And now they know how well he performs. Would they hire and promote him again?

[RobertMugabe]

Thanks! It's very much appreciated :3



No idea where you're getting that from. I know a number of people who have left jobs who were quite involved, but were fed up with decisions or the actions of their bosses, and so quit and found jobs elsewhere, doing basically the same thing just in different locations. And these were people who were quite high up in the chain, and had been working there for years. Rank or "involvement" doesn't preclude them from having to deal with "drama".

Also, saying they want a "normal" job makes absolutely no sense. What is a "normal" job?

Yeah calling it normal jobs was wrong. I was talking about entry level jobs, such as support engineers, business analysts, junior developers etc. (compared to project managers, product owners, senior devs)

[Lorgar Aurelian]

And now they know how well he performs. Would they hire and promote him again?

Given that lead designer isn’t the only role ya they likely would hire him again given how well he did at raid design.

[Azmoden]

If you REALLY want to piss off Blizzard fanboys, tell them that that same Kevin Jordan has been streaming FFXIV on Twitch recently and he's been having a blast and praising that game left and right.

Incoming Blizzard fanboy head explosion in 3, 2, 1...

[Varitok]

Does WoW really need a dev that wastes time on projects like Classic?

Classic accounted for half of all WoW subs at one point. So making them money? Yeah. I don't even like Classic personally but the amount of salt it generates is astounding.

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If you REALLY want to piss off Blizzard fanboys, tell them that that same Kevin Jordan has been streaming FFXIV on Twitch recently and he's been having a blast and praising that game left and right.

Incoming Blizzard fanboy head explosion in 3, 2, 1...

The dude hasn't worked at Blizz in a long time. Hell, most of the devs probably play FF. Thats the issue with MMO devs, I doubt they want to play their own game after working on it all week.

[Kralljin]

If you REALLY want to piss off Blizzard fanboys, tell them that that same Kevin Jordan has been streaming FFXIV on Twitch recently and he's been having a blast and praising that game left and right.

Incoming Blizzard fanboy head explosion in 3, 2, 1...

Considering that to a large portion Kevin Jordans input on game design is criticizing the current direction of WoW (and by that, i mean Wotlk / Cata and onwards), i don't think the "Blizzard fanboys" will have an issue with him on that front.

[Unholyground]

I can totally understand leaving. Blizzard is a huge triple-A company now. It's priorities has shifted to pleasing the shareholders. No doubt Blizzard has the same abuses towards video game developers all triple-A's have. As in, the absolutely ridiculous crunches, with shit pay. Some more creative and maybe more adventurous developers probably get tired of it. Dreamhaven is likely quite enticing, because of it. A change of scenery. A fresh start. With familiar people.

Considering Activision calls the shots in the end it makes sense, they don't have creative freedom anymore like in the pre Activision days.

[Depakote]

Blizzard has been owned by another company and publicly traded and beholden to shareholders since 1996.

The merger with Activision started in 2007 during TBC.

This idea that things are ‘different now’ is bizarre.

That's a lie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard

[Wangming]

Given that lead designer isn’t the only role ya they likely would hire him again given how well he did at raid design.

That's the thing. If they hired him, he would most likely stay at raid design, because that is what he is good at. Not at what he is doing now.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

That's a lie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard

um.
Background and formation (2007–2008)

Kotick proposed the merger to Activision's board, which agreed to it in December 2007. The new company was to be named Activision Blizzard and would retain its central headquarters in California. Bobby Kotick of Activision was announced as the new president and CEO, while René Penisson of Vivendi was appointed chairman.

and before that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivendi_Games

On February 21, 1996, CUC International announced its intention to acquire Davidson & Associates (including Blizzard Entertainment) and Sierra On-Line, two American video game companies, in a US$1.8 billion stock swap.[1] The deal closed on July 24, 1996

nothing seems to be a lie.

[Wangming]

Classic accounted for half of all WoW subs at one point. So making them money? Yeah. I don't even like Classic personally but the amount of salt it generates is astounding.

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The dude hasn't worked at Blizz in a long time. Hell, most of the devs probably play FF. Thats the issue with MMO devs, I doubt they want to play their own game after working on it all week.

Pretty sure they do. It goes both ways. Yoshie-P plays WoW. I think there is a picture of him at BlizzCon floating around.

[Kallisto]

Pretty sure they do. It goes both ways. Yoshie-P plays WoW. I think there is a picture of him at BlizzCon floating around.

It feels like Xbox vs Ps vs Nintendo. The fanboys and girls will scream at each other saying theirs is better and the others are shit. While those involved in the actual production of the systems (Or games when it comes to wow/FFXIV/ESO) are just sitting back enjoying theirs and each others work while at the same time likely behind the scenes talking to each other at times about the games/systems.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

That's the thing. If they hired him, he would most likely stay at raid design, because that is what he is good at. Not at what he is doing now.

Ya they likely would have him go back to encounter design but they would definitely want him if they could get him given that he worked on all of the post launch wrath raids.

[Belloc]

And now they know how well he performs. Would they hire and promote him again?

See, this is the difference between internal development and community attitudes: They do know how well he performs, but you don't. Like a lot of the community here, you attribute every single negative aspect of the game to this one person, but that's never how any game of this size is actually developed.

WoW is close to 17 years old. Considering its age, it is doing absolutely fantastic. No one with a single clue would ever consider Ion to be a bad hire, regardless of how toxic people on MMO-Champion love to shit on high-profile devs.

[shadowroguetbc]

Does WoW really need a dev that wastes time on projects like Classic?

The start of classic servers, and the ability to move into expansions like tbc and wotlk is the best move blizzard has made in a while. What they are doing on their ‘current wow’ is much much worse.

[Wangming]

See, this is the difference between internal development and community attitudes: They do know how well he performs, but you don't. Like a lot of the community here, you attribute every single negative aspect of the game to this one person, but that's never how any game of this size is actually developed.

WoW is close to 17 years old. Considering its age, it is doing absolutely fantastic. No one with a single clue would ever consider Ion to be a bad hire, regardless of how toxic people on MMO-Champion love to shit on high-profile devs.

This attitude is super cute. It is also laughably childish. Ion is the Game Director. Sure he isn't some Orwellian dictator with eyes everywhere, but if decisions are made without his approoval, I'll eat my cat. It's his job to give orders and see if things are done according to the plan.

[Belloc]

This attitude is super cute. It is also laughably childish. Ion is the Game Director. Sure he isn't some Orwellian dictator with eyes everywhere, but if decisions are made without his approoval, I'll eat my cat. It's his job to give orders and see if things are done according to the plan.

I love how everyone in the community is an expert on internal Blizzard development hierarchy.

Spoiler alert: Blizzard has specifically told us that it doesn't work the way you and everyone else seems to think it does. You'll forgive me for trusting the people who should know over the people who clearly don't know shit.

[kodemonkee]

It's funny to read this thread, looks like not many people here have a job or even worked in a media related job. I am working in advertising agencies for 14 years now and people leave and people come. Mostly people leave after 1 year max 2 years, but this guy was there for over a decade so this is something special. I bet when people start and build up a company there is some sort of magic but it fades away especially for him. This is nothing new.

[Wangming]

I love how everyone in the community is an expert on internal Blizzard development hierarchy.

Spoiler alert: Blizzard has specifically told us that it doesn't work the way you and everyone else seems to think it does. You'll forgive me for trusting the people who should know over the people who clearly don't know shit.

Do you have a sauce for that, or are you calling, in your own words, everyone else stupid. Maybe I'm wrong, it happens quite often, but I do believe that when I say something and everyone else says the opposite, by beliefs need to be reviewed.

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It's funny to read this thread, looks like not many people here have a job or even worked in a media related job. I am working in advertising agencies for 14 years now and people leave and people come. Mostly people leave after 1 year max 2 years, but this guy was there for over a decade so this is something special. I bet when people start and build up a company there is some sort of magic but it fades away especially for him. This is nothing new.

So which one is it? Nothing new or something special? Clearly you are trying to make a point, but for that you need to decide.