Blizzard hiring an Associate Game Director

[Ivarr]

Same with Islands where the idea likely was to reuse assets to create large amounts of procedurally generated content. The issue in that case being that the timer meant that there was no way of simply enjoying the content ar your own pace.

Yeah exactly, the timer turned the whole thing hardcore again.

[Tyrannica]

Associate Game Director! Sounds good and they are hiring someone new not one of the other WoW team members.... sure this is where that diversity comes in, it will likely be one woman or black woman becoming the Associate Game Director!

I got nothing against that but it's clear Blizzard trying to change their all-white male developer's teams! To look better to the outside world and in the upcoming court battle

Also: Maintain communication with the community via forum posts, press announcements, interviews, and public appearances... Finally, someone that talks to the player base!

If thats the case, that would backfire greatly as that particular women of colour would get roasted by the toxic wow community over issues with the game for sure.

[Polybius]

That still exists today the same as it did before. The problem is you don't exist the same as you did before so now you have to find all of these reasons to explain it rather then simply that your tastes and needs in a game has changed.

Yeah, the removal of glyphs is just one of many examples that doesn’t help this statement. At least they listened to concerns regarding character race cosmetics. But you can tell there isn’t much investment going into the game. Class sets are another example. My tastes and needs have definitely not changed.

[OrangeJuice]

I just feel like they're hiring because they're desperate. People see that and think the game is going to get "fixed" so they come back --> numbers go up again --> then they get laid off. I don't understand how people can fall for the same tactics over and over.

[Sondrelk]

Yeah exactly, the timer turned the whole thing hardcore again.

I wouldnt say hardcore. Outside the very beginning, and briefly when they were returned for 8.1 they were easy as shit. I would rather say the issue with them were that you did them both with a timer, and also with other players, which essentially forced a playstyle of constant Mass pulls and AoE.

In hindsight I think the ideal variant of them would have been daily quest hubs honestly. Each day you talk to Flynn and get teleported to one of the islands to do random quests, either alone or in a group. That way you get the essential elements of Islands, but without the timer and stress, and also allowing more in-depth quests instead of just having you kill hundreds of mobs.

[Soon-TM]

I just hope that all these new hires will be working on actual content instead of MOAR SYSTEMZ

[rhorle]

Yeah, the removal of glyphs is just one of many examples that doesn’t help this statement. At least they listened to concerns regarding character race cosmetics. But you can tell there isn’t much investment going into the game. Class sets are another example. My tastes and needs have definitely not changed.

How does the removal of glyphs show that the devs are no longer immersed in the game and have no creativity?

[Sluvs]

How does the removal of glyphs show that the devs are no longer immersed in the game and have no creativity?

While I disagree with the idea that the devs don't play or are not immersed in the game, the glyph system was pretty good, and its latter interations were underwhelming.

[Eosia]

https://careers.blizzard.com/global/...ld-of-Warcraft

I'm very curious as to why would Ion need someone to "partner with", according to the job description.

Edit: forgot to mention in the thread title that this Associate Game Director job is for WoW, of course.

Because the position has been vacant since Ion was promoted to Game Director when Tom Chilton left the Warcraft team. Blizzard has decided to back-fill it.

[NihilSustinet]

https://careers.blizzard.com/global/...ld-of-Warcraft

I'm very curious as to why would Ion need someone to "partner with", according to the job description.

Edit: forgot to mention in the thread title that this Associate Game Director job is for WoW, of course.

training his replacement, one can hope. though, being trained by Ion may poison the well a bit.

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I just feel like they're hiring because they're desperate. People see that and think the game is going to get "fixed" so they come back --> numbers go up again --> then they get laid off. I don't understand how people can fall for the same tactics over and over.

hiring 20 people wont fix wow.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Because it's dangerous to go alone.

Cause his last two expansion have been an outstanding success

´They most definitely have from a financial standpoint.

[Sentynel]

I think the only person in the entire world who covers these requirements:

Knowledgeable and enthusiastic about WoW

8+ years of design experience with multiple shipped AAA titles in a leadership role


is FFXIV's Yoshi-P. The position will be filled from within as many people have said, i would love to see new blood coming, with fresh ideas but i simply don't think that there are many people willing to come over (if there are any) unless they get paid really really really well.

Seriously, how delusional one can be to think that only a single person who happens to be from another MMO can fill this role.

I am legit not sure if some of you guys are trolling with all this FF14 bullshit lately or bloody serious.

[Garretdejiko]

´They most definitely have from a financial standpoint.

Because is the only thing that matter$

[Soon-TM]

Because is the only thing that matter$

From a corporate PoV, absolutely. Making a high quality product is way down the priority list.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Because is the only thing that matter$

Yes, from the standpoint of financial success and their shareholders, it is. No money, no more production. If nobody plays, they don't make money, and Legion, BfA and now SL have made absolute bank.

The people looking to make money from the game couldn't care less if Joe Schmoe (me) on MMO-C is unhappy with the class design, they'll start to worry if the game starts losing money/won't grow profits over time. Ion's time with the game hasn't exactly shown signs of disaster for the game financially.

[Tyrannica]

Ion was a great raid designer. the problem is: he dont raid design since a great while. he is game director.

I'll bet Ion is still a lead raid-designer despite beeing named "Game Director" if he is more of a manager now, what did he actually manage? Does he have every 5 minutes video conference meetings due to covid with his underlings? Does he plan new exciting stuff for the game and discuss those ideas with other devs? Does he play the game to see how its evolved?

Does he communicate much with the players to get some feedback of the state of the game from their perspective?


He seems like a smart guy, but with a huge tunnelvision to one thing. More an expert in his field. A game director is a little bit different than that and i bet not an easy job to do on a game as huge as WoW, i mean its huge even for mmorpg standards.

Didn't have TBC 3 game lead devs aka game directors?

[Thage]

https://careers.blizzard.com/global/...ld-of-Warcraft

I'm very curious as to why would Ion need someone to "partner with", according to the job description.

Edit: forgot to mention in the thread title that this Associate Game Director job is for WoW, of course.

Because while Ion is exceptional in the fields that hold his interest, namely raid design and the like, he's an abject failure in every other front and needs someone who cares about casual gameplay and can point out his needlessly-overcomplicated designs for what they are.

He is, in essence, the very model of a modern major-general. Great at everything except what his job requires.

[Relapses]

Because while Ion is exceptional in the fields that hold his interest, namely raid design and the like, he's an abject failure in every other front and needs someone who cares about casual gameplay and can point out his needlessly-overcomplicated designs for what they are.

He is, in essence, the very model of a modern major-general. Great at everything except what his job requires.

How many years did you go to school for that degree in Armchair Psychology?

[Eggroll]

Finally some checks and balances to the game director position. It's about damn time.

[Beefhammer]

It's one of those "sounds good on paper but it's terrible in reality" kinds of things. Just because someones good at something doesn't mean they aren't a garbage person otherwise. Hell, before being hired by Blizzard, Afrasiabi alone was known for his controversial hot takes and feedback of EQ, that should have been a red flag even then.

Same with Kaplan. His best bragging point was making MC in a week. Hardly something to brag about.