Originally Posted by
Quaade
Ion only became the game director after Legion. And while it did happen before it has never been as bad as it was in BfA, which had a new system every patch and then in SL
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Ion is the root of the problem as nothing gets into the game without his approval. The people above him only dictate, "make WoW successful." Anything else would be gross mismanagement as the people above Ion has the job of making macro-level decisions.
These are clearly micro-level decisions and given Ion's previous stance, and him outright saying that what has been done was impossible to do, this has to be the direct result of someone above him stepping in and making micro-level decisions as the macro-level one has failed badly as, short of life-altering events, no one can change their beliefs this fast.
And Ion was already on thin ice after the debacle that was BfA as his attitude shifted dramatically from the BfA beta to the SL one. This is a sign that he was chewed out since, again, short of life-altering events, no one changes their beliefs that fast and so completely without outside pressure. This current direction just showed that he's learned nothing from the experience.
I would in no way be surprised if we in a few months see a tweet from Ion announcing that the time has come for him to seek new opportunities and he, therefore, has made the decision to step down as WoW director and quit Blizzard. The Assistant Game Director is gonna get bumped to Game Director as it's obvious that AB is sidelining him because no fucking way they would ever hire an assistant game director to lessen his mental burdens. They would hire an Assistant Game Director who understands the game in order to keep Ion in line and protect their RoI.