Opinion on Tom Chilton?

[loras]

Everyone already knows Tom Chilton was the director for WoD, and no one is shy about giving him flak for that, but otherwise, what do people think? It's not like Kaplan or Hazzikostas are perfect either.

He has been working on something secret since 2016 and we still have no idea what it could be. I've only recently learned that J. Allen Brack, president after Morhaime left, is also working with Chilton on this project saying, "He and I started up a new project that was not something like Blizzard has ever done before." Personally, I am excited to see what his team has to offer this time around. My wild speculation would say it very well could be WoW 2 in some form but they did claim it is different so possibly even a Titan successor.

What do you think he is working on? Should he come back to WoW and give Ion some help?

Honestly while WoD is universally panned there were some very strong concepts behind it.
It really did put the "Warcraft" back to the forefront after Pandastan, and it handled boththe arakkoa and ogres really well in my opinion.
It provided the first iterationd of world quests and while people love to hate on garisons they did offer a meaningful variety of customization and game-relevant benefit.

Imo the main fault they made with garisons is that they didn't just integrate them seamlessly into the capital cities, as getting a personal plot for building stuff in there would still allow for a lot of stuff to be both meaningful and customizable while having the capital closeby enough so that there is no point in adding i.e. banking, a.h. or other services to this new garison, and that while being relevant both in the current expansion and beyond.

I did hate the initial removal of flying, it cheapened the world and has a deleterous effect on level design.

So yeah, cautiously curious what he's been up to and i would not be opposed to seeing him return to WoW.

Also dat intro and questing for early WoD, so smooth and almost cinematic (not talking about graphics quality obvs), it managed to give a WC3-y feel to a WoW questchain again.

[Eurhetemec]

Everyone already knows Tom Chilton was the director for WoD, and no one is shy about giving him flak for that, but otherwise, what do people think? It's not like Kaplan or Hazzikostas are perfect either.

He has been working on something secret since 2016 and we still have no idea what it could be. I've only recently learned that J. Allen Brack, president after Morhaime left, is also working with Chilton on this project saying, "He and I started up a new project that was not something like Blizzard has ever done before." Personally, I am excited to see what his team has to offer this time around. My wild speculation would say it very well could be WoW 2 in some form but they did claim it is different so possibly even a Titan successor.

What do you think he is working on? Should he come back to WoW and give Ion some help?

Tom Chilton's main area of expertise has always been PvP.

He was hired into WoW for PvP, and every major PvP system WoW has originates with Chilton's design-work. He's also responsible for the general idea of "WoW as esport", whether you like it or loathe it.

As for what he's working on since 2016, and given it's something "Blizzard has never done before", there are a few likely possibilities, given we've seen and heard nothing at all about it:

1) Something VR. The timing would be right - back in 2016 VR was seen as about to be huge by a number of companies, and whilst that hasn't really happened, Blizzard may well still be waiting for it to.

2) A Battle Royale-style game. Again, the timing would be right. Blizzard are often trend-chasers, and often arrive kind of late to the party, which can work out well or badly for them.

3) A side-based mass-PvP game of some kind. This could be an MMO, or it could just be a game involving a lot of people. Could be anything from a sort of take on Planetside, to a DAoC-type game, to just a larger-scale Overwatch.

Or some combination of the above. Whatever it is, it's probably PvP.

As for his competence level, I say "meh". He's competent. He's never shown any spectacular talent or spectacular stupidity. Some of the systems he designed had obvious flaws he failed to deal with (even when they were pointed out long before the systems went live), but he did deal with most eventually. I don't think WoW would benefit from him "coming back" or anything, but equally I doubt he'd do any damage.

Games are actually usually developed like that. Creative Director, Game Director, Producer or CEO or whatever have the final word in every feature.
Heck even the most successful companies of the world employ dictatorship practices.

This is absolute nonsense. That level of micromanagement is extremely uncommon in most industries, including gaming, because it's only helpful if you are very poor at communicating your ideas, or hire a lot of incompetent people to be your managers. It's a bad sign if a business does this routinely.

Sure, if the game director absolutely hates a feature, they will probably have it taken out, but the idea that they "check" on every single feature (let alone every quest or the like), and love every feature (rather than having mixed feelings on many) is just absolute nonsense.

- - - Updated - - -

People have been shitting on anyone who is the face of anything Blizzard or WoW related.

However since I mostly enjoyed their games, especially WoW and Diablo, I feel they did a good job as a team.

It never is one person. I thought Diablo was pretty much Bill Roper and he would pwn the world with his next game after he left Blizzard. Hellgate did look promising, too...but alas.

I guess you can continue the list with many (Ex) Blizzard employees. To the point where ppl considered them infallible for making the best WoW between 2004 and 2008, yet those ppl failed with Titan.

Yeah it's kind of staggering how ignorant about 90% of people who post about WoW are re: who actually makes their games. I've heard people listed as "original WoW creators" who weren't even employed at Blizzard at the time, or who were incredibly junior. And the focus always seems to be entirely on a few highly-visible personalities, not on the actual lead devs and directors a lot of the time. People obsess about certain figures but not others too. It's just bizarre bullshit.

[Asrialol]

I have no opinion of him, or any other dev for that matter. I don't know them, I'm not able to build a persona of someone based off of the little they say to the public; nor will I forget the fact that there is in fact a whole team of devs, not one guy deciding 100% of everything.

To the peeps above stating that there is in fact a director or even a CEO (???????) who decides every feature. Stop.

[Luxeley]

Chilton always struck me as a really nice guy, a great team player. But, he never struck me as a leader or someone innovative.

[Relapses]

My opinion is that {insert favorite lead developer} was the best thing to happen to the game and I personally hope they bring him back because {insert favorite expansion} is indisputably the best the game has ever been.

[Kallisto]

I think Legion is more Ion's child than Tom. Ion was present in every interview leading to Legion where he explained every system, Chilton in none (or almost none). Legion is far more similar to BfA and Shadowlands than WoD and older expansions. And that includes Legion mistakes, that were ignored during Legion (when we were hyped that WoW is finally full of stuff to do), but hit hard during BfA.

Also it's not like Ion took Chilton's job after Legion. He got Assistant Game Director job right after Legion reveal, position that was made up for him. At that point it was clear WoD is total disaster where only raids and dungeons were great - and it was Ion's responsibility.

Imo Chilton just stay until Legion launch to help and advice Ion, but Legion was Ion's vision. And I think it was clear for everyone during Legion Alpha/Beta, but now you just check wowpedia and see that Chilton was game director until Legion launch.

The development of systems in a game is one of the first things, also narrative. Bfa was already in development before legion was launched. Metzen even pointed out in one of his interviews being shown cinematic set for bfa when WoD was still the expansion that was current. If anything shadowlands is the first expansion with in which Chilton did nothing on.

[lolmmofuture]

With the mobile market being MASSIVE, what is there to rethink? Because ppl lost their shit that the IP also branches out to mobile despite getting D4 on PC as well?

Jesus...how pathetic are "fans" and how pathetic would Blizzard be to pass on this?

i dont think u understand what has happened here.

the moment u change ur plans to start making money first before making a game fun first then u have already lost (im talking about the company) ofcourse the money is there, but is that whatt game devs were orginally out to do? or was it to make a fun game? i think gave developemnt is tricky when it comes to this.

[Dracullus]

The development of systems in a game is one of the first things, also narrative. Bfa was already in development before legion was launched. Metzen even pointed out in one of his interviews being shown cinematic set for bfa when WoD was still the expansion that was current. If anything shadowlands is the first expansion with in which Chilton did nothing on.

Story, art and some outline for new feature like Torghast sure, but rest? Hell no. Many times system are responses for problem in previous expansions. In Legion world quests, mythic+, legendary and titanforging were direct responses for "nothing to do outside raids" problem during WoD.

Also Legion approach was so fresh and different (especially patch structure and often Q&A) it was clear sign of new management that has something to prove. In BfA it all got stale and they just tried to copy Legion. But it's extremally unfair that some people try to give credit for Legion to Chilton and blame BfA on Ion (not to mention BfA is not some catastrophe like WoD, it just mediocre expansion without fresh ideas).

[Tesshin83]

I mean, Tom Chilton was the game director that led the development of Wrath, MoP and Legion, which are widely seen as the 3 most successful expansions the game has had. Yes, Cata and WoD were misfires, but he at least came back from every misfire with a top tier expansion. Meanwhile, Ion's first expansion as director was BfA which is almost universally panned as a disaster of an expansion, and proceeded to lead development on Shadowlands, which has been such a disaster they actually had to pull back on an announced release date. Also, Ion responded to the train wreck of BfA with an even bigger trainwreck and black eye with Shadowlands.

The results would suggest that Chilton is a far more competent game director than Ion, and they should probably fire Ion, make him walk the plank for the BfA/Shadowlands clown fiestas, and put Chilton back in charge.

I don't understand why you would consider your own subjective opinions as universal opinions. I see people do this all the time on these forums and its getting tiresome.

The only objective standard we have to determine an expansions failure or success, is the amount of money it brought in. By those metrics BFA was a success and so was most other expansions in more or less degree.

Saying BFA was a disaster, is just you projection your own opinions and is completely worthless.

For the majority of the playerbase, BFA was a good expansion.

[DingDongKing]

The dude works at a video game company. He makes video games. I really don't have an opinion on him. The game is made by many many people, and he is but a cog in the machine. I'd have more to say if you asked me about the general direction Blizzard as a whole is taking.

[Eurhetemec]

My opinion is that {insert favorite lead developer} was the best thing to happen to the game and I personally hope they bring him back because {insert favorite expansion} is indisputably the best the game has ever been.

Yeah this. Bonus points if the developer wasn't involved in that expansion in any significant role or was in a vastly less important role than the person is implying. Extra turbo bonus points if the developer didn't even work at Blizzard at that time (as with several developers who people here have claimed were the "original WoW team" who weren't hired until 2008 or later).

[Tiberria]

I don't understand why you would consider your own subjective opinions as universal opinions. I see people do this all the time on these forums and its getting tiresome.

The only objective standard we have to determine an expansions failure or success, is the amount of money it brought in. By those metrics BFA was a success and so was most other expansions in more or less degree.

Saying BFA was a disaster, is just you projection your own opinions and is completely worthless.

For the majority of the playerbase, BFA was a good expansion.

I am not only considering my own subjective opinions - I am also considering the thousands of things I have read on forums, social media, etc. The general consensus is that BfA, WoD and to a lesser extent Cata are "bad expansions", and WoTLK, MoP, and Legion are better received. If you wanted my personal opinion, Cata was definitely worse than BfA and WoD arguably was. However, they seem to be following the pattern of the old Star Trek movies, where even numbered movies were good and odd numbered movies were bad with expansions. What they can't afford is for Shadowlands to be a second straight "bad expansion".

[Nubpwn]

I don't understand why you would consider your own subjective opinions as universal opinions. I see people do this all the time on these forums and its getting tiresome.

The only objective standard we have to determine an expansions failure or success, is the amount of money it brought in. By those metrics BFA was a success and so was most other expansions in more or less degree.

Saying BFA was a disaster, is just you projection your own opinions and is completely worthless.

For the majority of the playerbase, BFA was a good expansion.

The point is for any art medium the subjective standard is much more important than the objective standard, the Mona Lisa isn't popular because of an objective monetary value. Subjectively, BFA and WoD are generally considered the worst two expansions, even if BFA was the fastest selling WoW expansion of all time. This is most relevant in reference to Cataclysm where the initial sales were boosted by the success of WOTLK but the subsequent failure of the expansion tanked public opinion.

A company who makes fun games first and doesn't care about money has ofc a high risk of just failing. We tend to look at the cases when it worked...like Witcher or Red Dead Redemption. But even those companies then seem to be so surprised by the success that they rather produce sequels.

And who says Diablo Immortal won't be fun? People jumped on the fact that they felt betrayed by a port to a mobile device, which to me sounds pathetic. I bet the same would happen if WoW went console. It is such a ridiculous attitude of us vs them and ownership.

Also: If a game is not fun, yet makes the company shit tons of money for years and years - I really blame players and buyers for being idiots. Don't consume their shit.

Diablo Immortals won't be fun because mobile games are not fun, it is that simple and not pathetic at all. The majority of Blizzard fans are PC gamers and specifically DO NOT WANT mobile games to get bigger and better. Any resources in the video game market going towards mobile are resources not going towards PC development. The backlash would have been similar if the announcement was to go to console. The implication is that their games will be dumbed down in order to be suited for mobile because, well, it would absolutely have to be. THAT is the issue, a reduction in quality simply to make a port to a platform no current fans even want.

[Tesshin83]

I am not only considering my own subjective opinions - I am also considering the thousands of things I have read on forums, social media, etc. The general consensus is that BfA, WoD and to a lesser extent Cata are "bad expansions", and WoTLK, MoP, and Legion are better received. If you wanted my personal opinion, Cata was definitely worse than BfA and WoD arguably was. However, they seem to be following the pattern of the old Star Trek movies, where even numbered movies were good and odd numbered movies were bad with expansions. What they can't afford is for Shadowlands to be a second straight "bad expansion".

What you read on forums etc is in no way even remotely representative what people think of anything. Extremely few people go to forums and write about how they like something.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

I am willing to say, as an opinion, that he is a man in an impossible situation that he either does or will grow to hate. On one hand he is pretty old school Blizzard so he understands what it was like before when games matter a whole lot more than they do now and also wanting to maintain his job so having to push and cut corners as much as necessary to make the bottom line happy. I wouldn't doubt within a few years he ends up leaving and joining up with one of these ex-blizzard studio camps that are popping up where you saw old cats that looked like they wanted to die working at Blizzard suddenly look renewed and alive again doing things they love while getting paid instead of making shit they hate to get the company paid so they can get a check.

[Kathranis]

The game was arguably at its peak when Chilton was at the helm. Before the days of borrowed power and systems on systems on systems. Before the dark times, before Ion

The game has always had systems and powers that went away after expansions. Tier sets, trinkets, weapons, talent tree overhauls, gems, glyphs, enchants, etc.

And they wanted to implement a max level progression system since Cataclysm. That's what Path of the Titans was. It would probably have happened eventually no matter who was at the helm.

[rrayy]

So you're asking people for their opinions on him working on something no one knows about?

My answer is Activision will suck the life out of your hopes and dreams. Not even the return of all the classic devs would fix WoW today, we're way too far down the rabbit hole and the path this game has taken is already set in stone.

Peop[le need to stop using Activision as a Boogeyman. As I have said, Activison is a separate company from Blizzard and both live under the roof of Activision-Blizzard. Activision has ZERO to do with the operation of Blizzard.

[willtron]

He was a decent driver, but his brother Max was better I thought.

[rrayy]

I mean, Tom Chilton was the game director that led the development of Wrath, MoP and Legion, which are widely seen as the 3 most successful expansions the game has had. Yes, Cata and WoD were misfires, but he at least came back from every misfire with a top tier expansion. Meanwhile, Ion's first expansion as director was BfA which is almost universally panned as a disaster of an expansion, and proceeded to lead development on Shadowlands, which has been such a disaster they actually had to pull back on an announced release date. Also, Ion responded to the train wreck of BfA with an even bigger trainwreck and black eye with Shadowlands.

Your opin. Not fact. And how do you know Shadowlans is a trainwreck? It hasn't released yet. Basicially what you are saying is "Ion made expansions I hatred, therefore he is incompetent" which is not how it works.

The results would suggest that Chilton is a far more competent game director than Ion, and they should probably fire Ion, make him walk the plank for the BfA/Shadowlands clown fiestas, and put Chilton back in charge.

Your opinion does not = results. Ion isn't going to get fired because you didn't like his expansions. The games are profitable, many still play it and love it, and it is still in operation which is the bottom line. He is very competent and isn't getting fired.

[SimithDAEN]

If you love MMORPGs and WoW his departure is cause for celebration