Rob padro returning as lead designer for expac 5? What will happen to GC?

[Deleted]

Go pick up some pom poms and become his cheerleader or something? :P

I personally think it's isn't too wise of him to tweet about stuff other departments do. Having to carry all the hatred aimed at him. People might say it's not a problem because he could just ignore it and shrug it off, but ... only this week we had the example of the developer of Fez going on a nerdrage and telling customers to go kill themselves because of criticism they gave his game.

I'm sure Ghostcrawler is happy you are concerned about his feelings and all but he's a big boy. And you unwittingly raise a good point about Ghostcrawler and his de facto position as WoW's spokesperson; Blizzard as a company are famous for recalcitrance at communicating with their playerbases. Their wasn't a Ghostcrawler equivalent in PR relations prior to his arrival, they aren't other heads of department being jostled out of the limelight by his attention hogging tweets. When it comes to PR about WoW or any insight to the dev process apart from the fluff pieces which they occasionally bring it is and always has been Ghostcrawler or nothing. There isn't another guy waiting in the shadows with a more silvered tongue better suited to dealing with WoW's diverse community; when he goes Blizzard will just go back to their uncommunicative ways which prior to GC they were famous for.

[leviathonlx]

He is the head of his team though. He has final say on what to present to Morhaime. You think Morhaime is going to go through all the data to make sure GC is doing his job? He takes what GC thinks is a good idea and discusses it with the other heads to see how it will affect the game in general in their weekly meetings. For all intents and purposes, GC is the one responsible for balance at the end of the day because what his team does, he presents to his boss and counter-parts in the other departments. I'm not saying everything is his fault, but his vision is the one that his department runs with.

GC wouldn't be the one talking to Morhaime. That'd be his boss, Tom Chilton, that does that.

[Amerrol]

No. It doesn't. Correlation by itself is not enough to determine causation. Sometimes a correlation can lead to a causation being determined, but that requires further investigation to weed out the confounding variables.

There is no way to determine it though because Blizzard doesn't release that information, and for good reason honestly. Doesn't change the fact that you can look at the situation and come to your own conclusions. I'm not writing a thesis paper that I have to provide evidence to every moron repeating this mantra. I am simply looking at the circumstances involved. Often times, the simplest explanation is correct. Even if I can't prove it, that doesn't change the very real possibility that this thing is in fact causing this other thing.

Regarding Blizzard sub-loss, it is not any one thing, but a combination of many. It is still perfectly reasonable to take a look at when GC started at Blizz, and when sub-loss started and form an educated guess that there is a very good chance he is partially responsible.

Mostly I'm just annoyed with people saying this over and over and over and over...

[fishface]

Can I ask what has Pardo been working on to prevent his input in World of Warcraft? It's just, looking at his wikipedia page, his latest work is on Diablo 3 and people bawed with the force of ten thousand oceans when that was released.

[MoanaLisa]

I guess you started playing during WotLK?

Blizzard was very communicative on the forums and held discussion about every aspect of the game even long before Ghostcrawler. Else Tseric wouldn't have been fired for his nerdraging against the playerbase either over the shaman class-design.

Tseric was a community manager, not a developer. Community managers communicate at times. Developers are not required to and when they do it's usually seen as a good thing. GC for better or worse probably sends out more information about what's going on with the game since he's been tweeting about it than the rest of the CM's combined.

[Dero]

ht tp: //i.imgur. com /xzohXU1. png

I saw this post on reddit. Also, many people seem to think Rob is coming back for expansion 5 but I have heard nothing about it till now.
Is this correct?

If Rob is indeed coming back and is being given the creative freedom, I think expansion 5 might be something very amazing. Let us not forget that most of the Titan team is now working on WoW too.

Rob Padro's team's last creation in WoW was Ulduar. However, if Rob is back, does this mean GC gets shunted to some other department? It does make sense, I mean GC has not been able to even stop the decline in subs and at some point the shareholders and consumers just want change of leadership to breath some fresh life into things.

Anyone knows more about this?

it was stated shortly after mop they were already working on 6.0 and he was back.

[Abysal]

My opinion: GC isn't going anywhere. Pardo will have a role, perhaps a major one but GC will be lead designer still. Doesn't really matter. GC isn't some irrational dictator who won't listen to anyone despite what many on the forums seem to want to believe. All evidence points to Blizzard trying to arrive at a general consensus on any major decision before making a move.

Pardo being a part of the equation, is of course, good news. He's talented. GC still being lead designer is also good news. It means Blizzard management isn't a bunch of reactionary idiots.

[Amerrol]

GC wouldn't be the one talking to Morhaime. That'd be his boss, Tom Chilton, that does that.

There's a lot more people above him than you think. He leads the developper group, but in any company it has to go past executives aswell.

My point was that there is a chain of command, and the person above cannot micro-manage what everyone below them is doing. That's why they have people below them. GC tells them this will work and why, and they trust him to do his job. I highly doubt Chilton is cross examining every desicion that is made in systems development. The higher up you go, the more priorites change, and those people won't give two shits if Mages are over-powered. That is GC's job, and when mistakes happen, it is his fault because of the responsibility he has for his team, as well as to his bosses. When people quit because Mages are over-powered, that is directly his fault, and his alone.

I agree with the other people here saying that GC is not solely responsible for every bad decision that is made, but he also doesn't do himself any favors when he talks about other departments as if he has final input in the overall direction they take. I do think that he has a lot of influence in the direction the game is taking overall, but it is silly to blame him for everything when some things are completely out of his control.

[SodiumChloride]

GC is doing the best he can ...

Who would you recommend as a better candidate for the role Lead System Designer?

[Deleted]

GC is doing the best he can ...

Who would you recommend as a better candidate for the role Lead System Designer?

Jay Wilson.

[Gimlix]

I think if Rob Padro would return and be leading again, and he manages to make the subscribers flowing again, that GC is in deep trouble, because Rob did something what GC couldn't do x)

But i like GC i don't mind him.
And i know it isnt his fault.