Ben Brode leaving Blizzard

[Divinexve]

Its been a long day...without you my friend

[Deleted]

He got fired because of Shudderwock.

jk

[Deleted]

Not a fan, really got a creeper vibe of the guy.

[Fenzha]

I like to think he saw how bad of an expansion The Witchwood was and wanted nothing to do with it.

[Jwowwxoxo]

To be fair,

While I disagree with the philosophy of hearthstone business model, I think he is one of the most creative people in Blizzard.

If I ever wanted a wing man, he would be the one to take.

I know he unfairly takes most of the blame as the face of the game, but if developing cards that allow for "random effect" and "do random damage/healing" are creative, then I don't really know what to say to that. That along with some of the most broken decks/cards that go months without being nerfed. I have no idea how these developers actually sat down and thought some of these cards and interactions are actually good for a game, let alone the competitive "e-sports" aspect to it.

[Tenris]

Sad day that he is leaving, he is so good at getting excited about expansions and his streams with the players are so good. His laugh is just fantastic, be interesting to see who replaces him.

[Armakus]

Such a shame. Such an energetic guy who really became the "face" of hearthstone. Can't believe the extreme negativity I'm seeing in this thread and elsewhere - people are stupid enough to believe he's the one in charge of the hearthstone business model or has final say in card designs.

[ryjkur]

Feeling really scammed now. I bought 50+ packs and NOW he is leaving? Gotta milk those pack moneys and THEN leaving... ppl not gonna buy packs anymore if the game is dying.

[lockybalboa]

How are people absolving him of blame for the recent bad card designs and poor class balance? He's the team leader FFS.

[AeneasBK]

I know he unfairly takes most of the blame as the face of the game, but if developing cards that allow for "random effect" and "do random damage/healing" are creative, then I don't really know what to say to that. That along with some of the most broken decks/cards that go months without being nerfed. I have no idea how these developers actually sat down and thought some of these cards and interactions are actually good for a game, let alone the competitive "e-sports" aspect to it.

THe problem with Hearthstone is the WAAC players not the cards.

[Twoddle]

THe problem with Hearthstone is the WAAC players not the cards.

Didn't know Hearthstone was so popular with them.

[Deleted]

THe problem with Hearthstone is the WAAC players not the cards.

define waac in hearthstone.

[Deleted]

Hearthstone wouldn't be where it is today without him.

It would be exactly where it is. He is a replaceable (and annoying) cog in a well oiled machine.

[Suluhu]

I'll bet he is on the phone with Metzen and Ghostcrawler right now.

Metzen will be doing all the voice acting
Brode will think of stuff that doesn't work great when it goes live
Ghostcrawler will nerf the stuff that Brode thinks of

Dreamteam!

[Kralljin]

people are stupid enough to believe he's the one in charge of the hearthstone business model or has final say in card designs.

The business model of Hearthstone hasn't been the center of criticism for a long time.
I don't play other card games, so i have to go on hearsay but other card games seem to be friendlier for F2P players and newbies.

However, the central issue of Hearthstone in my opinion is balance / card interaction.

Issue in my opinion is that Blizzard previously shrugged off certain issues with the standard cycle, on cards like Tunnel Trogg they've stated they don't want to nerf that card because it'll be rotating soon (that was in Summer 2016, nearly 6 months before the card rotated, which was like 1/3 of the card being part of standard in total)

Other is Power creep, both Knights of the Frozen Throne and Kobolds and cataboms have raised the powerlevel to such an insane level.
I mean compare a C'thun deck to your average "Death Knight" (Be it Mage,Warlock, Priest or whatever).
C'thun was a playable card when it was released, the Death Knight cards beat any C'thun deck so black and blue that's not even funny, C'thun as "game finisher" is a joke compared to the DK's, the Battlecries of certain DK cards is pretty much better than a 16/16 C'thun+Battlecry, even if you don't hit like full value on the DK's battlecry.

Then, the time it takes to fix certain decks, after 1-2 months people are done with the meta, yet Blizzard only releases Balance patches every 3 months at best.

I have to be honest, unless the rare occassion of a deck arising that i enjoy playing, Hearthstone has been on a downward trend since Whispers of the Old Gods, Journey to Un'goro was good as well, but the remaining expansion released such bonkers / game breaking stuff that it should've been nerfed a long time ago.

I could go on with the issues of HS, but i'll leave at that, Brode may have not be the guy that single handedly made these decisions but as Game director it's folly to exonorate him from any involvement in the current state of Hearthstone.

[breadisfunny]

good riddance.