Where is Ion ?

[Myth]

Yes and he has literly always been one of the members of blizzard to help with all legal issues.

He is most definately helping with what was his main career background. He is first and foremost a full fledge lawyer and with all the crap around blizzard they are going to use all they can . Including using Ion's skills.

No, just no. You just have zero clue how large corporations work and it shows.

[MoanaLisa]

Ummm, no. He is not doing legal stuff for Blizzard, they have a lawyer TEAM for that.

Officially, no. Unofficially, he's likely caught up with the relevant law if only to protect himself and his team. If someone asks him informally about a legal question it's not beyond the bounds of imagination that he might have a quick conversation to give them some options and then refer them to legal if required. I very much doubt if he's having legally privileged conversations with any of his team but if they come asking for advice it's possible that he's helping them where he can without getting himself into any problems or entanglements. People initially will come to someone they trust with a question. Most of that team has no reason to trust Blizzard legal or HR at the moment so it would be surprising if there weren't some very informal conversations being had. Whatever you think of Ion his team seems to like and trust him.

[Addiena]

Officially, no. Unofficially, he's likely caught up with the relevant law if only to protect himself and his team. If someone asks him informally about a legal question it's not beyond the bounds of imagination that he might have a quick conversation to give them some options and then refer them to legal if required. I very much doubt if he's having legally privileged conversations with any of his team but if they come asking for advice it's possible that he's helping them where he can without getting himself into any problems or entanglements.

Sounds like a conflict of interest right from the word go, being a lawyer he wouldn't give any advice that wasn't protected to begin with and since its a conflict first .. I bet the advice he gives is to go talk to legal about any and all matters pertaining to legal issues, imagined or otherwise.

IIRC for it to be protected you have to have at least hired the lawyer under a retainer or as council.

[DingDongKing]

Sounds like a conflict of interest right from the word go, being a lawyer he wouldn't give any advice that wasn't protected to begin with and since its a conflict first .. I bet the advice he gives is to go talk to legal about any and all matters pertaining to legal issues, imagined or otherwise.

IIRC for it to be protected you have to have at least hired the lawyer under a retainer or as council.

Bingo. People seem to think Actiblizz is some tiny startup where they have people working laterally across different functions 'just in case'.

And even in startups, they wouldn't drag their employees into legal conversations due to the ramifications of doing so.

[Gadzooks]

Ion technically is also a lawyer. He was one before he joined blizzard. Tbh he is probably one od the people helping get the microsoft shit dealt with and smoothed over aswell as helping woth all the legal issues as one of the only top end people who fully understands it.

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He is also a full fledged lawyer so they probably have him helping with all the legal issues. He is probably one of the only members of blizzard who has a full understanding of the legal issues and can help those who need it.

My actual response to this is actual, literal laughter.

I can confidently assure you Ion is not representing Blizzard in any legal capacity. He is also guaranteed to not be part of the Microsoft deal, as that's between ATVI and MS, not Blizzard.

I mean, thanks for the laugh, and all. But no. Just no. To everything you just posted.

[Bee76]

If you're the director, then yes you have the power to change the game so that your customers and satisfied and you would be proud being the face of WoW.

Why should he change the game in a new mayor direction ? The reality is:
wow generartes tons of $$$ and ppl will buy 10.0 and resub for 9.2.
Of course some ppl like me and (obviously you) are not satiesfied with wow right now, but as mentioned: wow still earns tons of cash. So the choice is play the game or quit it. The only reason to change the game direction might be earning way more money, but there will always be ppl that dislike the new direction and quit.

[Vilendor]

He's finalizing the ONLY way you'll be allowed to play 9.2 and fixing every possible deviation and fun players could find. Don't worry, if something slips trough the crack and the p(l)ayers get create he will hotfix it out of the game

[Edward Wu]

I really just think Ion needs a dude to team up with and be co-Game Directors. Someone who understands casuals better than he does, like Muffinus, for instance.

[Gaidax]

While I am not big on conspiracies, I'm sure he plans to leave after 10.0 ships and likely already announced so to the powers that be.

I'm sure he's both tired of being a target dummy for pepegas AND knows he can get much more elsewhere with his massive management experience. I bet he wants to go the way of Ghostcrawler and he absolutely can.

He'd probably jump the ship already, but I bet he got convinced to stay and oversee 10.0 development for some extra $$ and perks.

[Kuntantee]

Probably busy with the next xpack. Too bad his team is full of incompetent designers.

[Eosia]

If you're the director, then yes you have the power to change the game so that your customers and satisfied and you would be proud being the face of WoW.

No, because WoW fanboys/girls go nuts over things they do not like even if everyone else, even the vast majority, are OK with it. Ghostcrawler was "the face" of WoW after Jeff Kaplan left until before WoD. He was simply a Lead Systems Designer, Tom Chilton sat above him as Game Director. The attacks he got were so bad that Blizzard offered to pay for private security of his home because of credible threats. When he departed and Ion, who was Lead Game/Encounter Designer, took over people cheered... all the while forgetting Tom Chilton was still there, still over his head as Game Director until after Legion's launch when he moved to another division and Ion was promoted to Game Director.

[Xires]

At home with his spread sheets trying to find the coefficient for fun.

LOL!!!! That was awesome.

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Why is there NO chance?

because it has been very long inbetween patches this time around and it is ALWAYS long after the final patch. We've had final patches last from 10-14 months.
So if you were to get a 9.2 in say...March. It is very likely you won't see 10.0 until 2023. End of 2022 at the earliest.

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Shadowlands alpha launched April and we had the expansion by December. Time will tell; this is all based on the undeniable fact that when 9.2 PTR dropped it was a lot more polished than usual PTR builds when they first drop

Every final patch for over the last decade has taken between 9-14 months before the next xpac actually drops. So if 9.2 drops in March...you can bet that you'll have that patch to play for the next 9+ months minimum. And the way Shadowlands has gone...I wouldn't expect the last patch to be one of the fastest until 10.0 drops. Right now your regular patches were less with less content and lasted months longer then normal.

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Why should he change the game in a new mayor direction ? The reality is:
wow generartes tons of $$$ and ppl will buy 10.0 and resub for 9.2.
Of course some ppl like me and (obviously you) are not satiesfied with wow right now, but as mentioned: wow still earns tons of cash. So the choice is play the game or quit it. The only reason to change the game direction might be earning way more money, but there will always be ppl that dislike the new direction and quit.

If you look at the yearly trends...WoW is bleeding their playerbase. The only reason why their profits are up while subs are at an all time low is because of people buying crap from their in-game store.

SL's is the worst the game has been and BfA was no picnic.
At this point I doubt anything other then a normal surge for 10.0 will happen and then followed by a big dive back down to pre-10.0 levels within 4-6 weeks.
Too much good competition these days. And Blizzard has shot themselves in the foot...and the ass this time around. A bad game with a tarnished name is hard to come back from. Even after Microsoft bought them.

[hecpercu]

Ion Will leave after Next xpac is launched,his vision Of the game just doesnt work for 90% Of people,thus all those who dont play the game 16h a day.

[Makabreska]

He did one thing when the scandal broke many current and past Blizz employees did not. Keep your head down and work.

[Valysar]

He is planning his retirement

[DarkAmbient]

He's a lawyer, he's done the smart thing and kept his mouth shut.

[Cracked]

I think he's clearly applying his lawyer training. If there's nothing you can gain from doing something, don't do it. What would he gain from appearing now? The content doesn't back up anything he could say.

[Tiwack]

Working very hard to keep his job after the acquisition.

[DingDongKing]

My actual response to this is actual, literal laughter.

I can confidently assure you Ion is not representing Blizzard in any legal capacity. He is also guaranteed to not be part of the Microsoft deal, as that's between ATVI and MS, not Blizzard.

I mean, thanks for the laugh, and all. But no. Just no. To everything you just posted.

So it wasn't just me who thought the entire post was dumb AF.

[Gadzooks]

So it wasn't just me who thought the entire post was dumb AF.

I can't quite decide if it's trolling or not. So I just laughed.