J. Allen Brack steps down

[kodemonkee]

Starting today, J. Allen Brack will be stepping down as the leader of the studio, and Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will co-lead Blizzard moving forward

So they are "co-leading" but who is leading?

[Sunderella]

Heads starting to fall. We'll see if this ends into a better WoW or not.

It probably won't change much. It's the shareholders who call the shots here.

[Martymark]

He shoulda worn 2 pride pins.

That would REALLY signal how good a guy he is.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

Next up should be their tone-deaf CCO who did nothing but further fan the flames of a house which is already on fire.

[Relapses]

Literally nobody said that?

JAB's departure clearly has more to do with the sexual harassment and labor concerns within Blizzard than it does the development of WoW. The majority of replies in this thread seem to be completely incapable of discerning this difference which is exactly the hypocrisy the dude you quoted was pointing out.

[kaminaris]

What needs replacement is game director and people responsible for game direction, there is probably some sort of council there. Not necessarily fire them but have someone with a strong opinion and vision on a position of game director and people with non-zero foresight as a council.

[GreenJesus]

I love how half this thread is "fuck women being harassed and discriminated against, I want WoW's development to change".

Stay classy MMO-C.

Blizzards inner problems isn't our problem. As consumers we just want our product. I don't think any other industry coddles its employees with "they worked sooooo hard.. stop saying product bad!" than gaming. Its honesty pathetic.

[Kokolums]

The real issue with Ion is that he is obviously super introverted and its a bad call to make an introvert game director on an MMO which, by its nature, should be a very social experience. Raids are great but he probably has a blind spot as to the large number of antisocial systems he is allowing into the game.

[Schizoide]

JAB's departure clearly has more to do with the sexual harassment and labor concerns within Blizzard than it does the development of WoW. The majority of replies in this thread seem to be completely incapable of discerning this difference which is exactly the hypocrisy the dude you quoted was pointing out.

His departure doesn't have anything to do with WoW's success or lack thereof at all.

It's fine to complain about WoW sucking, it's just a little weird to do it in this thread. But, whatever.

[Relapses]

Blizzards inner problems isn't our problem. As consumers we just want our product. I don't think any other industry coddles its employees with "they worked sooooo hard.. stop saying product bad!" than gaming. Its honesty pathetic.

Brother, the issue is that there's a time and place for everything. There are plenty of places for you to whine about how WoW sucks (see: any other thread on this forum, for example). This particular topic (JAB stepping down), however, has more to do with something that has little (if any) bearing on the development of WoW.

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His departure doesn't have anything to do with WoW's success or lack thereof at all.

It's fine to complain about WoW sucking, it's just a little weird to do it in this thread. But, whatever.

That's essentially exactly what I'm saying. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

[Biglog]

I really don't think Blizzard has grasped the severity of the situation, at all. The nonchalant response has showed that the problems were very ingrained at the very top. There is a small but vocal clique of morally deficient bigots that are pro-sexual harassment defending them, but the vast majority of customers are distancing themselves from Blizzard as much as possible. I cannot imagine the dollar value that the Blizzard brand has lost in the past few weeks. It has to be in the many hundreds of millions of dollars.

It saddens me, but I truly don't think Blizzard comes back from this. I have no doubts they'll say hire a PR firm to say the right things in press releases. But the damage is done and the failed response was the nail in the coffin. Blizzard will try to brush it under the rug and continue on. But their games will *not* sell well from here on out. My guess is that they will eventually come to that hard realization when sales numbers fall off a cliff next quarter, and sooner or later this will probably end in a more major reorganization by Activision where Blizzard is rebranded with a new name. That is what typically what happens in cases like this where a brand is tarnished this badly. Quite a negative accomplishment for such a revered brand, but the employee's love of Blizzard and wanting to work there and/or move up in the org is also what enabled the abuse.

[korijenkins]

Heads starting to fall. We'll see if this ends into a better WoW or not.

It won't. Brack wasn't even in charge, he was just a puppet answering to investors and shareholders.

[Ivarr]

So where is the poll where i can choose how long time i think it will take before players start to blame everything wrong with Wow on the new ones ?

I already am.

[Kallisto]

Blizzard's internal bullshit shouldn't be my concern as an active paying subscriber. Part of the transaction wasn't "we're not working on the game you pay a monthly subscription for until we fix our shit"

I'm all for them fixing their shit, but if it means that the customer is sidelined then make subs free while no development is being done.

You make 2 transactions

A) For the expansion which you have (You pretty much only pay for the .0 stuff)
B) Access to the servers.

You got what you pay for.

[Relapses]

But it's not hypocrisy to have personal priorities and it most definitely not that just because people care about the state of the game they are also, and equally, saying ''fuck women who are victims of sexual abuse/harassment". I mean my God for real?

It is beyond absurd to try and connect the two sentiments as such and it says more about the person trying to equate the two than it does anybody else here.

You know what, you're right. They care so much about the development of the game that they've completely missed the reason why JAB stepped down in the first place!

[cuafpr]

Was expected to have JAB step down (or be forced to).

Bit dumbfounded with all the requests for Ion's head on this thread, since he has nothing to do with the big scandals and is probably one of the guys holding WoW together, and apart from some minor issues, Shadowlands has been great. 9.1 is great as far as end game goes. So yea, stop asking for his head, i'd say.

my opinion of SL aside (which the exact opposite of yours), the WoW team and people on it were named, Ion is the leader of WoW so thus its called for and to me expected that he will follow JAB out the door by the end of this.

[hulkgor]

Ion is the leader of WoW so thus its called for and to me expected that he will follow JAB out the door by the end of this.

Why exactly? He's not involved in the lawsuit, he is not named in any malpractice by anyone? He's not implicated in any chat, image or comment by anyone.

So your reason is.... you dislike the expansion? Got it. Makes *perfect* sense. /s

[Graeham]

I love how half this thread is "fuck women being harassed and discriminated against, I want WoW's development to change".

Stay classy MMO-C.

Women aren't the only victims, nor is the most recent scandal the only controversy for the company.

Nobody should be surprised by the revelation that women were being discriminated against given how the company in question decided to behave when it came to the issues surrounding Hong Kong or when Madeline Roux's sexist and racist rants were exposed on Twitter.

The entire company is a mess and it isn't likely to recover anytime soon, if ever. If anything, it'll double down on misguided attempts to 'improve' instead of dealing with the deeply rooted issues that exist across the board.

[Schizoide]

the WoW team and people on it were named, Ion is the leader of WoW so thus its called for and to me expected that he will follow JAB out the door by the end of this.

Ion isn't specifically named anywhere. He certainly has direct and indirect reports and is in a position of responsibility, so then the question becomes just how far down you go. Should every male manager, every man in a position of responsibility at the company be shitcanned, because they must have been at least peripherally aware of misconduct and didn't speak up loudly, even if they didn't encourage it or harass anyone themselves? I have no doubt some people would answer that question with "yes, absolutely". I'm personally not so sure.

[cuafpr]

Ion isn't specifically named anywhere. He certainly has direct and indirect reports and is in a position of responsibility, so then the question becomes just how far down you go. Should every male manager, every male in a position of responsibility at the company be shitcanned, because they must have been aware of misconduct and didn't speak up loudly, even if they didn't harass anyone themselves? I have no doubt some people would answer that question with "yes, absolutely". I'm personally not so sure.

i know he isn't be the WoW team being named and him being charge of said team will result in people calling for it and likely him going out rather the right call or not is up to peoples opinions on the matter.

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Why exactly? He's not involved in the lawsuit, he is not named in any malpractice by anyone? He's not implicated in any chat, image or comment by anyone.

So your reason is.... you dislike the expansion? Got it. Makes *perfect* sense. /s

uhm if you read my post I said my opinions on SL aside.... he leads a team that was named... thus he is a target as leader