Rob Pardo Leaving Blizzard Entertainment

[Heppu]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/mi...betray-players

"Blizzard's senior vice president of game design, Rob Pardo, has said players would feel "betrayed" if a micro-transaction system, of the sort common in free-to-play MMO games, was implemented in World of Warcraft."
Even the old dev's were against the cash-shop Actiblizzard decided to implement. No wonder he left. The only people left playing the game are the ones who think it's okay to have no content for a year and happily pay subscribtion fee for them to design more store mounts and pets (and patches that require you to pay another fee to get, except they call them "expansions")

[Deleted]

Ah yes. Another authoritative comment from the knucklehead gallery.

How about not trying to imply gay people are merely sexual entities. How about the mere mention of a wife is, in most cases, an explicit description of heterosexuality. Oh, no married couples in wow? No hetero consorts? Right.

It's pretty amazing how numb straight white kids are to the realities of the world abd just how much of your experience is explicitly tied to your way of life at the expense of others.

Honestly? Stereotyping/racism and boderline heterophobe.

[Durandro]

"Blizzard's senior vice president of game design, Rob Pardo, has said players would feel "betrayed" if a micro-transaction system, of the sort common in free-to-play MMO games, was implemented in World of Warcraft."
Even the old dev's were against the cash-shop Actiblizzard decided to implement. No wonder he left.

A bit late for that, considering it started directly over 5 years ago (and even sooner with the TCG and promo items).

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No one really cares about your sexuality, only you do. I'd play the fuck out of a game with a bunch of gay men or only gay men characters if it was fucking awesome. I wouldn't ask for there to be straight men. It wouldn't make sense, if the Universe was consistent to it's writing.

World of Warcraft is a fictional Universe. LGBT's don't have to exist in a fictional Universe, quit projecting your own struggles into a video game and is FICTIONAL Universe. Which is what Rob Pardo was saying.

But you know it'll never happen. Having some variety in character and more more inclusive is possible and easy to do. There's no excuse not to do it, unless you have a 'moral' reason.

[Pendragon]

lol at SJWs calling him sexist and homophobic. Get a grip.

[Jackedup]

So the guy that designed Vanilla and TBC, the MMOs that changed the history of MMOs and the most successful ones is leaving?

This is exactly what's happening. Pardo is irreplaceable, he was the "Miyamoto" of Blizzard games.

[Raven]

This is exactly what's happening. Pardo is irreplaceable, he was the "Miyamoto" of Blizzard games.

No one is irreplaceable, sure he have done alot of good things, but he can also in he´s thinking be stuck back in those days, and it can be a good thing to get a new one that have diffrent ideas and a diffrent way of thinking.

[Mosotti]

Blizz: - We will now try to make WoW like GW2. Like no flying and everyone run around like idiots for respawn grinding
Rob Pardo: - Excuse me, but this is not only dumb, but also fucking retarded. WoW is WoW
Blizz: - Then you have to go, bye bye
Rob Pardo: Fuck this shit, I'm going surfing...

[Deleted]

A bit late for that, considering it started directly over 5 years ago (and even sooner with the TCG and promo items).

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But you know it'll never happen. Having some variety in character and more more inclusive is possible and easy to do. There's no excuse not to do it, unless you have a 'moral' reason.

My proplem with this thinking is, that it seems to be out inclusion and variety - but its not that. Its about your goal to get attention for "your" minority - homosexuals. That in itself isn't even a bad thing, but please don't pretend to be it all about "inclusion".

We have way more other minoritys: Transgender, asexuels, religious minoritys or disabled people and more. I don't hear or see disabled people pushing for more "disabled characters" in video games. If its all about inclusion I think you should argue for the other minoritys to also get more representation in Wow.

At least be honest and say you want more homosexual represantation. Talking in general terms about inclusion and not including other minoritys seems strange - unless you don't want disabled represantation for a "moral" reason. Why should homosexuals get more attention from the gaming industry than other minoritys, which have a higher percentage compared to the population?

[Deleted]

My proplem with this thinking is, that it seems to be out inclusion and variety - but its not that. Its about your goal to get attention for "your" minority - homosexuals. That in itself isn't even a bad thing, but please don't pretend to be it all about "inclusion".

We have way more other minoritys: Transgender, asexuels, religious minoritys or disabled people and more. I don't hear or see disabled people pushing for more "disabled characters" in video games. If its all about inclusion I think you should argue for the other minoritys to also get more representation in Wow.

At least be honest and say you want more homosexual represantation. Talking in general terms about inclusion and not including other minoritys seems strange - unless you don't want disabled represantation for a "moral" reason. Why should homosexuals get more attention from the gaming industry than other minoritys, which have a higher percentage compared to the population?

What kind of disability would we talk about? Mentally disabled people? I don't think it's appropriate to include such characters, it would only be seen as offensive and as if they were trying to make fun of them.

[Deleted]

Sarah Kerrigan isn't a strong female character?

I have no idea, as I don't play SC. But what I'm seeing in the WC franchise (undoubtedly their largest franchise) is female characters that are only "strong" in that they can kill dragons. But they're not well developed, they often fall into the same archetype of slightly unstable and overzealous, and are almost always satellite characters to the male characters. Then there's the way they dress, although seeing as WoW has it's fair share of topless men as well that's not so much an issue for me personally.

And of course (off-topic from the quoted post) LGBTQI characters have been excised completely. Now I understand the logic behind saying they don't want to politicise things - I accept that homosexuality is a social issue in the way that heterosexuality is not. But the logic just doesn't hold up under closer scrutiny. Because they've already politicised things by choosing not to include any such characters. When you don't include LGBT characters in your story that's making a statement whether you intended it or not. In a story with a smaller cast that statement was probably just "I'm straight, it just happened not to occur to me to write any gay or trans charcters.". And that's ok. But when you've got thousands of characters and they're all heteronormative, and you've specifically had this pointed out to you and yet you continue to excise LGBT characters - that's when I start to think that something more insidious is going on.

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My proplem with this thinking is, that it seems to be out inclusion and variety - but its not that. Its about your goal to get attention for "your" minority - homosexuals. That in itself isn't even a bad thing, but please don't pretend to be it all about "inclusion".

We have way more other minoritys: Transgender, asexuels, religious minoritys or disabled people and more. I don't hear or see disabled people pushing for more "disabled characters" in video games. If its all about inclusion I think you should argue for the other minoritys to also get more representation in Wow.

At least be honest and say you want more homosexual represantation. Talking in general terms about inclusion and not including other minoritys seems strange - unless you don't want disabled represantation for a "moral" reason. Why should homosexuals get more attention from the gaming industry than other minoritys, which have a higher percentage compared to the population?

I'd actually like more of those minorities represented as well. Obviously religious and racial minorities are an exception because no real world religions and races exist on Azeroth. If there were Christians in WoW but no other religions then people of other religions would have every right to complain.

I would like to see asexual and transgender characters. Asexual is more difficult because when a character is never a part of a relationship they are simply assumed to be straight. You kind of have to explicitly have that character go "I'm asexual" which could come across as clunky. But I'd love to see Blizzard work something out. Same with Transgender characters. There's actually a lot to explore here in a setting where changing your form is easy with a talented mage at your disposal. I'm disappointed that they didn't have Chromie be Trans or at least not confirm it either way.

As for disabled characters we do already have a few, most notably Drek'thar who kicks ass. Arguably Farseer Nobundo and the other Broken Draenei as well. But more would be good.

[Pacster]

I started skimming by the time I got about half way through (it's late, and I've read enough articles of this tone before...) but it sounds to me that the only thing he's guilty of is complacency, not sexism or homophobia. The article kind of smells of "he's not with us, so he's against us".
I feel fairly neutral, that is to say neither negative nor positive, about the view he expressed. They make stuff they like, and by extent cater to people who also like those things, all while avoiding the potential circus show that "social commentary" can be. It's not "helping the cause", but I can't really fault him for it either. The devs are making stuff they themselves like, and that's actually usually considered a really good thing that results in great, inspired games.
The article writer isn't wrong, you can indeed "have both", but Pardo isn't wrong either, his approach makes sense too.
Not to mention how frail I find the "over sexualized female characters" argument. When I see fangirls squealing over pretty boy/hot Fire Emblem characters on boards, hear female friends talk about "getting moist" over Garen's or Jarvan's (League of Legends) biceps, have my girlfriend telling me how cute the characters/outfits are, or see a game like Tera, look at the lingerie-armor clad female characters and think "wow.. er, well damn that's pretty bad", but then see the band-boy faced, perfectly sculpted muscles of various kinds(dependent on race, some bulging, some toned, some slim but fit, etc), open chested leather armor clad male characters and think "wow.. er, well damn, that not a whole lot better", it really weakens that argument.
That said, the higher ups at Blizz have plenty of bad things floating around about them, bigotry would fit the list just fine. If there are some particular incriminating quotes from him about it though, I'd be nice to see them (if such quotes are in that article/video[I didn't watch it, only read the article] and I simply over looked them, then I'm an idiot and sorry for wasting your time).

Wether you like it or not, there are topics out there where being "neutral" unfortunately means that you support one side(usually the side that is in charge and that has established their rules and view for all). Nobody changes anything by being "neutral". If you face homophobia on a daily level then obviously everyone that claims to be neutral is on the other side...cause how can you be neutral when people are being cursed, beaten and spit on just for what they do in their bedroom? How can you say "I got no opinion about that"? Is it neutrality...or is it plain "I don't care as long as it ain't hurting me"-ignorance?
Fact is that the LGBT-movement has just one goal and that is to change our mindset so they can live just like everyone else of us wants to live(and actually does live). Nothing more, nothing less. But you only get to that point if you expose people to the reality that homosexuals etc. are just as normal as all of us(and seriously, we all still grew up with the idea of gays being weak crybabies that dress in skirts and like dirty sex with children. Being called gay is still an insult to most of us.)...and you do that via mass media. WoW is mass media.

To me to say "it's our game and we just do what we like to play" is pretty narrow minded and ignorant...especially given the huge world of WoW and that it would be a rather minor task. To "create" a new world and then keep homosexuality out of it, is at least questionable...

[Xetenor]

Well looks like shit is going down. This will hurt blizzard. Let's hope they don't completely ruin this next expansion. Still have my high hopes....of my last straw.

[shadycharacter1]

Maybe blizzard wants to scare off their older players and only keep these "collector" types, to milk them with cash shop garbage.

[Pacster]

Maybe blizzard wants to scare off their older players and only keep these "collector" types, to milk them with cash shop garbage.

The thing is that the goal of a collector is to have all or at least as many as possible....but if Blizz is spilling them out like during MoP then more and more collectors will skip it too cause it feels like throwing money into a black hole.

[Unholyground]

A lot of negative fucks on this site lmao. Doing a job for 5 years gets damn boring I can't imagine 17 years of essentially the same thing. He is probably going to retire and smoke weed all day, I know I would.

[Zephre]

Blizz: - We will now try to make WoW like GW2. Like no flying and everyone run around like idiots for respawn grinding
Rob Pardo: - Excuse me, but this is not only dumb, but also fucking retarded. WoW is WoW
Blizz: - Then you have to go, bye bye
Rob Pardo: Fuck this shit, I'm going surfing...

Dumb comment is dumb.

He worked on Vanilla WoW and TBC he would probably be open to removing flying. Trying to use this to justify your own little complaints is just silly.

[Raven]

Maybe GC and him left cause not satisfied with philosophy of selling Iconic Blizzard Mounts such as Fey Dragon, Bat Mount etc. in the Store? One can only hope

Yeah more likely they where the ones that started the hole thing with the shop then was against it.

[Deleted]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

lets just hope they fill the now open position, rather than thinking they can carry on without someone in that role

[Nikatara]

You know, when GC left, tons of Blizzard employees were burning up Twitter with how much they'd miss him. The Blizzard twitter tracker that I use doesn't show a single moment of regret.

Not conclusive, but a shred of evidence on the 'he was fired and they're not going to miss him' side of the scale.

[tss]

Holy shit.