Soo.. What about those Maw changes that were supposed to happen?

[Swnem]

Surely it's still gonna come in the next weeks.

But, yeah... i think the cyberpunk delay cut their december release window and they decided for november rather than delay to next year.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Even employees that were clearly, lifers? You really think employees with immense security leave to start a new company with mountains of risk involved because "people leave companies"? As a career professional, this statement is nonsense. They left because we can all see the writing on the wall. Blizzard of today is a mere shadow of its former self. WC3: Reforged would never have been released by the old Blizzard.

Or they are just want something different, its not uncommon in the industry and as for the OP.. they said they'd fix up the maw's rewards not revamp it itself.

[Logwyn]

Not why Mike Morhaime left. Read some of his interviews and it paints a picture that Blizzard treated their employees poorly.

I'll quote myself. "Generally its better pay and to be treated better."

I'm surprised that companies don't realize that a happy worker is a more productive, more creative, and better benefit to the company. Management should exists to make their employees successful. I know its a pipe dream by me.

[Mafic]

The maw is going to be a huge deal breaker for many players because it is funneled progression that you don't have any choice over.

Not talking about linear questing but literally you have to do your chores there.

Most people haven't paid attention to maw development but overall I have to say this will be a huge problem at launch. Maybe they fix it in first or second patch so the maw can actually be an interesting zone.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

I'm not one to comment usually on employees leaving... But I do find it kind of interesting that we got two big employees leaving, Metzen starting a new game company and saying he's "much happier" there, followed shortly thereafter by Shadowlands release date with big changes still missing.

Is it related? Probably not - Any Blizzard employee with morals probably left ages ago. But hey, wouldn't be MMO-Champion without throwing that out there.

No, its not related at all because metzen retired during the early months of Legion.
3+ years ago.

The other one being Kosak?
He hasn't worked on WoW since what, WoD?
He was the big dude for Overwatch and Hearthstone for a while.

No one on the actual wow development team has left the game in a long time, in fact they even brought back Brian Holinka to work on Shadowlands.

[Razorice]

Oh boy! Can't wait to spend some time in the Maw, I've heard they did some great things with that rework!
...in 9.1.

[MrLachyG]

I was under the impression they have made changes; are they not in the beta yet?

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Not why Mike Morhaime left. Read some of his interviews and it paints a picture that Blizzard treated their employees poorly.

Why was he as the president treating employees so poorly?

[God Save The King]

I'm not one to comment usually on employees leaving... But I do find it kind of interesting that we got two big employees leaving, Metzen starting a new game company and saying he's "much happier" there, followed shortly thereafter by Shadowlands release date with big changes still missing.

Is it related? Probably not - Any Blizzard employee with morals probably left ages ago. But hey, wouldn't be MMO-Champion without throwing that out there.

Metzen left blizzard 4 years ago. He 'retired'. He's pretty rich, having opted for early stock options in the company's infancy. He had some back issues, needed surgery, and also had a bit of a mental health breakdown. So he decided to just stop. Seems like he has recovered a bit and decided to take a stab at something more relaxed by doing his own thing. Specifically he's not even doing video games, he's working in making tabletop games

Kosak is definitely a much larger departure since he was an active contributor to Hearthstone.

[Belloc]

Even employees that were clearly, lifers? You really think employees with immense security leave to start a new company with mountains of risk involved because "people leave companies"? As a career professional, this statement is nonsense. They left because we can all see the writing on the wall. Blizzard of today is a mere shadow of its former self. WC3: Reforged would never have been released by the old Blizzard.

I don't think you realize that it takes quite a bit more motivation than "the writing is on the wall" to start your own company.

You should take a look at Id Software. All of their old "lifers" are long gone and they still managed to release Doom(2016) and Doom Eternal. Blizzard is doing fine.

[orsraunia]

Guess you missed that they maybe did 5% of what they announced, but okay.

I feel the same, that they haven't done much since they announced the delay. Where did that dev time go, what are we missing? Did balancing and bugs really take all their time? I am curious.

[Aggrophobic]

The Maw is shaping up to be the worst piece of content ever released. People are going to flood the forums when SL releases. The Maw is just that boring and awful to enter.

This, so much this.

[Pawpurr]

Maw definitely seems like something to be built on. Initially nobody will last long enough there to get "bored" of the content anyway, and achievement hunters and collectors will subject themselves to every corner of the content regardless.

My ideal would be expanding each patch alongside the story and/or acquiring certain items, achievements etc. I don't think we see that right now, but imagine that makes good .5 patch content to help bridge major updates.

[MrLachyG]

what kind of content were people expecting from the Maw though? it's meant to be desolate, very few or no buildings save the Tower and lots of enemies who want to kill you. you go in, do Torghast, run around collecting souls or stygia or whatever and then leave. am I missing something? what were people expecting?

[ClassicPeon]

This, so much this.

Ah the memer is still here

I'm still hoping they have something yet unseen to add to the maw pre release.

Its not like its unplayable its just... kinda boring. But its not like you are gonna spend hours there every day anyway

[Nadiru]

I'll quote myself. "Generally its better pay and to be treated better."

I'm surprised that companies don't realize that a happy worker is a more productive, more creative, and better benefit to the company. Management should exists to make their employees successful. I know its a pipe dream by me.

How do you make workers happy? If you can answer that, companies will pay you millions for that knowledge.

[Devilyaki]

Still staggering the lfr for.. reasons..

[exochaft]

Maw definitely seems like something to be built on. Initially nobody will last long enough there to get "bored" of the content anyway, and achievement hunters and collectors will subject themselves to every corner of the content regardless.

My ideal would be expanding each patch alongside the story and/or acquiring certain items, achievements etc. I don't think we see that right now, but imagine that makes good .5 patch content to help bridge major updates.

I had the assumption that the zone's development got set back after it was supposed to be about getting keys to access Torghast. Once they removed the key requirement, they had to revamp. Regardless, I think the original intent of iterating on the zone every major patch is likely there, culminating in the last patch of the expansion. I think some people were envisioning a Timeless Isle, and it may be that way towards the end of the expansion (just must larger).

I haven't been on the beta in a while, but last time I was on there was no reason to go outside the initial 1/3 of the zone for anything. To me, either there was content NYI, or it was going to be added later. I'll probably hop on later this week and see what's going on, however I don't think the zone needs to offer much right now.

[ClassicPeon]

Still staggering the lfr for.. reasons..

Story mode lagging behind the actual game mode makes sense. A lot of games do this.

[Deianeira]

I didn't say he left, but he was in the news recently along with two employees.

Or maybe it was just Kosak? I was trying to find the second, but I'm having trouble now - Could have sworn a second left...

My point with Metzen is purely that he was stressed constantly at Blizzard, and now he's "much happier" working elsewhere. Could be that he's doing tabletop which might just be less stress in general, or maybe suggests pressure from the top, again like I said it's probably not even related. But he came out of retirement to work elsewhere and is "much happier." That's all.

But I wasn't suggesting Metzen just left. Everyone knows he left awhile ago.

Well it would have been a bit wierd if Metzen had said "Just started this gamecompany but it sux and i wish i was at Blizz again so i could have fun" Im sure that would have made investors just brimming with excitement.

- - - Updated - - -

Even employees that were clearly, lifers? You really think employees with immense security leave to start a new company with mountains of risk involved because "people leave companies"? As a career professional, this statement is nonsense. They left because we can all see the writing on the wall. Blizzard of today is a mere shadow of its former self. WC3: Reforged would never have been released by the old Blizzard.

YES even lifers leave especially those that have made bank do. And They may even have disagreed how Blizz was run atm and that is why they left since they wanted to try to go back to a smaller studio setting again.