Ion hazzikostas leaving in 10.0 (leak)

[Cosmic Janitor]

wouldnt surprise me if he got promotion for fully cashing in on microtrascations in wow and for turnign this game into toxic pile of....

i mean new main dev is a booster in game - nuff said.

He is not a dev, he is the person co-leading the company (Blizzard).

[Gratlim]

How can you seriously ask for SOLO content? Play a different game.

I agree with the guy. Fact is raiding and M+ is the only thing the game is still good for. Now you need to do more than just that to call yourself a good MMORPG imo.
The best MMO out there gives you freedom and content outside of the "raid or die" mindset.

It worked before in WoW because pvp was great fun, world content was somewhat meaningful/ relevant and the game was not a boosting simulator for boosters / boostees fuelled by cashgrab tokens.

Just my 2 cents.

[MORGATH99]

sounds like clickbait to me from accolon

[exsanguinate]

I agree with the guy. Fact is raiding and M+ is the only thing the game is still good for. Now you need to do more than just that to call yourself a good MMORPG imo.
Thre best MMO out there gives you freedom and content outside of the "raid or die" mindset.

It workwd before in WoW because pvp was great fun, world content was somewhat meaningful/ relevant and the game was not a boosting simulator for boosters / boostees fuelled buy cashgrab tokens.

Just my 2 cents.

Classic to Wrath is a perfect mix of solo and group content. I like the idea of having a solid quest chain and at the end a group quest, but those things don't exist anymore.

[Paperfox]

Does anyone know how many people are working on WoW? And how many teams there are?

Also, how much influence does Ion actually have? I'm pretty sure we're crediting him with a lot more power than he actually has.

It is those above him who are responsible for the direction the game is going, not Ion.

[Azxza]

Does anyone know how many people are working on WoW? And how many teams there are?

Also, how much influence does Ion actually have? I'm pretty sure we're crediting him with a lot more power than he actually has.

It is those above him who are responsible for the direction the game is going, not Ion.

What are you basing this on?

[Cosmic Janitor]

Does anyone know how many people are working on WoW? And how many teams there are?

Also, how much influence does Ion actually have? I'm pretty sure we're crediting him with a lot more power than he actually has.

It is those above him who are responsible for the direction the game is going, not Ion.

Sadly we don't know the actual numbers. My personal guess is they have dwindled quite alot, because otherwise everyone on this supposedly massive team is so utterly incompetent, as that would be the only answer to the current state of the drought and overall quality.

Mike Ybarra literally tweeted that Ion runs WoW and he defers to him in WoW questions. It's also in his job description as game director. So generally we attribute him with what he is responsible for. It is his job to coordinate and sanction the direction of the individual design leaders. If they run off into a wall, it's his job to tell them to stop. He doesn't make every new system in WoW by hand, but he certainly didn't stop them being made that way either, which he could have.

[Lahis]

How that guy is employed in the first place is well beyond my understanding.

Being a good Bro at the right time in the Cosby Suite?

[MoanaLisa]

Does anyone know how many people are working on WoW? And how many teams there are?

Also, how much influence does Ion actually have? I'm pretty sure we're crediting him with a lot more power than he actually has.

It is those above him who are responsible for the direction the game is going, not Ion.

Game Director is for the most part a management position: lots of meetings, co-ordinating schedules with producers and team leads and getting the game done. He's not designing systems as such: He's got a systems design team for that with a lead system designer. There are story teams, music teams, art teams, all kinds of teams really and they need to be kept on the same page which is what the game director is supposed to do along with the executive producer. In fact, if I recall correctly the Game Director reports to the Executive Producer (Used to be J. Allen Brack...don't know who it is now). As such the Game Director isn't heavy on designing anything.

As a manager he's important to resolving conflicts when they arise and approving delays, budget overruns, etc. then coordinating that new information into everyone's planners. He has a lot of influence when the team can't come to a consensus on something. People seem to be wanting to credit him with designing everything they don't like. That is bullshit and is mainly an effect of him being the communication person for WoW who reveals and explains things to the players.

Since Warlords when practically everyone ran out of things to do the main design push has been to keep people busy. I'm not a fan of the way they've done this but MMO's with infrequent patches and updates only have so many ways to do this and repetitive gameplay is something that nearly all MMO's do.

[DarkAmbient]

I would like this to be true, but having seen all the recent dev tweets I'm not confident that there's anyone left to replace him who has any sense of what's actually important as far as fixing the game is concerned.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Does anyone know how many people are working on WoW? And how many teams there are?

Also, how much influence does Ion actually have? I'm pretty sure we're crediting him with a lot more power than he actually has.

It is those above him who are responsible for the direction the game is going, not Ion.

Going off of the ingame credits there were almost 6000 people who contributed to BFA in one way or another but you’d have to personally go through and sift out devs from other roles to get an actual team size and it’s undoubtably changed since bfa.

https://www.mobygames.com/game/windo...zeroth/credits

[DarkAmbient]

What are you basing this on?

It's funny when people behave like he's some remote figure with barely any influence when in fact he is literally the man with overall responsibility for the entire game.

[Garretdejiko]

Danuser moving up to Game Director

YES! CHAOS!
Imagine the shitstorm lel

[Argorwal]

I agree with the guy. Fact is raiding and M+ is the only thing the game is still good for. Now you need to do more than just that to call yourself a good MMORPG imo.
Thre best MMO out there gives you freedom and content outside of the "raid or die" mindset.

It workwd before in WoW because pvp was great fun, world content was somewhat meaningful/ relevant and the game was not a boosting simulator for boosters / boostees fuelled buy cashgrab tokens.

Just my 2 cents.

TBC classic has pretty clearly shown the raid logging model is absolute crap for most people except the handful that enjoy it as the quickly consolidate to a few servers after only 5 months.

Legion-SL have greatly amped up non-raid based progression and content for those not wanting to raid log and the forums hate that too.


Maybe people need to just move on from a 17 year old game.

- - - Updated - - -

Classic to Wrath is a perfect mix of solo and group content. I like the idea of having a solid quest chain and at the end a group quest, but those things don't exist anymore.

TBC classic is absolutely dead outside of raiding logging right now as players try to find the 3-4 servers left that have a population.

What is this mythical “perfect mix of solo and group content” that exists there?

[dope_danny]

Pretty much this. Was there any official statement from Ion in the last months? He just vanished from the public. Was there anything heard of him during the lawsuit became known? (Not as an offender or anything, but an official statement or something)

I looked it up and as far as i can see he has been totally radio silent since early April. The lead on the biggest name in the genre during its worst period ever has chosen to be completely quiet. That stink more than a little. I mean not every lead is gonna be a Yoshi P or whatever but at best thats a "dont say anything because you have nothing good to say" situation at the very best.

[Paperfox]

It's funny when people behave like he's some remote figure with barely any influence when in fact he is literally the man with overall responsibility for the entire game.

He has a great deal of influence on the game, however it is those above him who give him his (and/or Blizzard) goals and his job is to fulfill those goals.

My point is that people should be directing their ire to those who are giving him the goals.

Let's say you're a painter and you're really good at painting birds. So you get a job and you're told to paint clouds, so you paint clouds. If you keep putting birds in there, while they may be perfect, you have failed at your job.

[OrangeJuice]

Sounds to hold more speculation/wishes than a factual idea of it.

If he was getting promoted, that would mean he wouldn't be on the World of Warcraft team, as there is no higher position for him there at the current, unless he steps down or changes department.

Ion has been confirmed to be one of the issues within this drama, not of doing it himself, but not taking action as a leader when he should. If he climbs the ladder, either up or down, enjoy the adventure and hope to reach a better goal. Ion is not without skills, we know it, no matter how people whine about him having been a lawyer, etc.

I don't think Ion has any talent or skills. I've personally never seen it. Hes just a liar with seniority. I hope he just gets fired or at the very least is moved to a different game. Not sure what positions are currently above him that he can advance to, maybe he just thinks Blizzard is inferior to Activision so anything there is advancement.

[Lighthope]

Ion hazzikostas is leaving with 10.0 and moving up to a new position with Activation Blizzard.

What exactly has Ion done that rates a promotion?

[DarkAmbient]

He has a great deal of influence on the game, however it is those above him who give him his (and/or Blizzard) goals and his job is to fulfill those goals.

My point is that people should be directing their ire to those who are giving him the goals.

Let's say you're a painter and you're really good at painting birds. So you get a job and you're told to paint clouds, so you paint clouds. If you keep putting birds in there, while they may be perfect, you have failed at your job.

Who would have given Ion the goal of making Torghast suck? That's on him, no-one else.

[MoanaLisa]

I looked it up and as far as i can see he has been totally radio silent since early April. The lead on the biggest name in the genre during its worst period ever has chosen to be completely quiet. That stink more than a little. I mean not every lead is gonna be a Yoshi P or whatever but at best thats a "dont say anything because you have nothing good to say" situation at the very best.

Well, there's a new interview out today. I rather imagine he's been busy. It would be interesting to know how many people he's lost over the lawsuit. It doesn't take many to upset all of the apple carts.