Afrasiabi left Blizzard?

[Tiwack]

No wow player who was at all interested in shadowlands would not buy it because they removed someone. Even if he's been there forever.

They've been leaving like that in mass over the years. I'm not even sure anymore who we have left. Can't speak for the guy and will most likely never know how he feels about any of it.

Maybe, but they're not taking chances anymore nor underestimating the impact of losing him could have on fans/his fans.

[Sentynel]

Why do we care?

Guy spent 16 years in one company, it's only natural he moves on.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I am all for being tolerant but in today's world people have gotten far too easily offended about things that often do not even effect them personally. The whole reason people like Trump got big and democrats in the US still aren't doing better is because they cater to these PC snowflakes that can't stand a joke about anything.

I am of opinion that anything you can't laugh with or is of limits cannot be taken serious. People like Bill Hicks and George Carlin would not stand a chance today in getting a career of the ground and that should worry everybody.

Probably being sarcastic or not, too tired to tell but just putting this out there.

... Which is exactly the problem with people whinging that WoW is "woke" because it includes dark-skinned elves, or LGBTQ couples, or has female characters at the front of a loading screen...

I'm all for dark humour, joking about tough subjects (Ambulance personell do it all the time) and not driving social media outrage hunts, but come on...

And Trump doing well was in part a direct response to a black man in the Oval Office. I'd prefer to be among the PC snowflakes if the only other option, was the bigoted snowflakes. Luckily, there's a middle ground. And I'm just as fine with saucy jokes as I am with more varied representation in fictional worlds.

Either way, it's derailment and I'm assuming edging into forbidden topics, so that's all I'll say on the matter.

[aeuhe4yxzhds]

Great job bringing up something unrelated. Bad game design is bad game design.

There is 0 challenge anywhere to be found in current wow unless you do high level mythics or get to 2200+ later on in a pvp season.


But challenge isn't everything in game design. You have this beautiful world in shadowlands, you have semi interesting quests and story arcs that build and build.

Then at the end of it... You afk dps while npcs tank something and then you kick a giant 5 second cast that might hit for 20% hp.
Rinse and repeat.

I absolutely understand the amount of work a mmo takes. There will always be tons of repetition. But still not a excuse for bad design.

You walk up right click follow a icon floating on your screen and repeat for 10 lvls. You get 99% useless gear and then once you get better gear it's just plain stats. (Its okay tho you'll be able to google a guide later on to pick the best boring legendary perks. Can't balance fun stats so its not in the game.)

What about discovery? There is none. Everything has a icon, way point, ui, light beam, npcs and a insta group for it.

Oh but dusk turn those settings off! Play without the ui.

If you have to disable stuff or look for fun in a game it has terrible design. If you have to be spoon fed even the most simple task because a company believes the average player is to dumb to understand (Prolly true nowadays.) then something is wrong.

If you need a story or a big reward to convince a player to drudge through your game... then something is wrong.


Shadowlands is sadly a big 3/10 so far because it's basically a art and music team(and some writers) carrying a team of designers that are making the game solely based off metrics and converting players into $$$.


I know your upset because its fresh and exciting. But hit me up in 2 weeks when your already over it.

Players shouldn't let blizzard shovel shit at them. You can appreciate certain things but no need to give praise where it isn't needed.

(FYI classic is only fun while leveling or gearing melee. You can get some nostalgia from the raids but they are super dated.)

Sad reality is that the vast majority of games are going to be like this. Handholding, streamlining, removing any sort of thinking or problem-solving, adventuring etc is all gone.

[SirCowdog]

It's not too hard to speculate that the post-pandemic, post-Morhaime relationship between Activision and Blizzard may change.

For once I actually agree with almost everything you said.

But I do have deep concerns about Activision's future involvement with Blizzard. I know that's been a meme people have rolled out wrongly in the past, but I do wonder if it's going to become an actual reality with all the old-guard of Blizzard moving on to other things. I bitch a LOT about things Blizzard does, but they're not a candle to the flame of Activision's corporate philosophy.

As much as I agree with you about Afrasiabi leaving, do you think his replacement is really going to improve things? Change them, certainly. But not for the better, I think.

[HitRefresh]

I have mentioned in the past that he wasn't in the credits for Shadowlands as creative director, I also pointed out that he has been completely absent from BlizzCon or any interviews in a long time.

Chris Robinson as well, for the art side of things. They have had a different person doing interviews about art direction, and he is not listed as art director in the credits.

I would guess they silently left, not fired, I don't see any reason they would be fired.

[Eurhetemec]

As much as I agree with you about Afrasiabi leaving, do you think his replacement is really going to improve things? Change them, certainly. But not for the better, I think.

Why not?

Afrasiabi never showed any particular talent. He only got promoted whilst his buddy Pardo was in charge. All he fucking ever did, AFAICT, was take a potentially unnecessary management position, seem like he didn't know much and wasn't very nice in interviews (and as others have pointed out, has been absent from Blizzcon and interviews for a long time, which is wicked bizarre for a "Creative Director", normally they'd be front and centre), and slap his name all over everything? Unfair? Maybe, but I'd love to see what good stuff he supposedly did, because I ain't never heard about it.

So why would you think the replacement would be worse? I'd genuinely like to hear what you think he's going to do, given you apparently think Afrasiabi was somehow doing something good, not "doing shit all", which is what I'm pretty sure he's been doing for quite a while now.

If they fired him, they should really fire Golden next.

What the fuck?

Why?

Golden isn't some useless old-guard dude who got hired with zero experience and zero talent.

Golden got hired because she's hard-working and highly experienced at what she does. She's not even a decision-maker. If you've got problems with WoW's story, maybe take it up with Danuser, who is a decision-maker about it, or I dunno, the ex-creative-director, Alex Afrasiabi, who is in charge of that and subject of this thread. Shitting on a random writer, who you probably only know the name of because she's female, seems pretty fucking weird mate. Asking to fire an actual worker for the boss' decision is a lot of what's wrong with the world today, frankly. All we actually know about her is that she's a bit better at writing than some of the people who write for Blizzard.

[Traveler Voltin]

goldens writing is not that great and she rectoned forsaken lore so she could understand them better.

[TheRevenantHero]

Why not?

Afrasiabi never showed any particular talent. He only got promoted whilst his buddy Pardo was in charge. All he fucking ever did, AFAICT, was take a potentially unnecessary management position, seem like he didn't know much and wasn't very nice in interviews (and as others have pointed out, has been absent from Blizzcon and interviews for a long time, which is wicked bizarre for a "Creative Director", normally they'd be front and centre), and slap his name all over everything? Unfair? Maybe, but I'd love to see what good stuff he supposedly did, because I ain't never heard about it.

So why would you think the replacement would be worse? I'd genuinely like to hear what you think he's going to do, given you apparently think Afrasiabi was somehow doing something good, not "doing shit all", which is what I'm pretty sure he's been doing for quite a while now.





What the fuck?

Why?

Golden isn't some useless old-guard dude who got hired with zero experience and zero talent.

Golden got hired because she's hard-working and highly experienced at what she does. She's not even a decision-maker. If you've got problems with WoW's story, maybe take it up with Danuser, who is a decision-maker about it, or I dunno, the ex-creative-director, Alex Afrasiabi, who is in charge of that and subject of this thread. Shitting on a random writer, who you probably only know the name of because she's female, seems pretty fucking weird mate. Asking to fire an actual worker for the boss' decision is a lot of what's wrong with the world today, frankly. All we actually know about her is that she's a bit better at writing than some of the people who write for Blizzard.

lmfao WHAT?! I don't even know where to begin. All the lore she's written has been utter trash and further pushes the tired idea of "horde bad Alliance good". She also gave worgen TAILS for no god damned reason. I'm not "shitting on a random writer" and it has nothing to do with her gender. Not sure why you had to make it about gender. She's a SENIOR writer at Blizzard. Which means she actually has a good amount of pull. She's really not better at writing than some of the people at Blizzard. I actually think her writing is atrocious and her butchering of lore makes me hate her more. Notice how the lore went incredibly downhill after she was hired...hmmmmmm....

[Shadowferal]

As a person who loves his fiction, warcraft had all the elements to make great films, tv series etc- but crappy game lore and disregard for investing it ruined that - they don't know what a rare gem they had, or if it was luck, how rare it was, and how worth it was developing for the bigger score.

Yea right there with you.
I was surprised to see a live action movie when we all know they make amazing cinematics and could just as well make a full length feature film with just that. That it fairly flopped with most of us should have told Blizz something.

That's your opinion, i didn't find vanilla anything special compared to other MMO's out at the time.

The big name back then was EverQuest. And apparently you didn't play that because WoW was a breath of fresh air when it came out.

[Soilx3]

Too many people get caught up in the idea that Warcraft exists within the minds of a few adult men like Metzen and Didier and any outside force is a disruption in story. WoWs storyline gets checked, crafted and approved by an entire team of people. Metzen didn't just walk up to a bunch of dorks behind computers and ramble off his storyline, it was always a collaborative process

This. Afrasiabi was mainly in a creative role anyway. In my opinion, there has to be a shake-up every now and then with something of the magnitude of the Warcraft series and especially in creative roles. You can only contribute so much and eventually fresh ideas will be needed.

[Shadowferal]

Fresh ideas shouldn't mean fresh shit

[Claymore]

The original Warcraft was thought up by the older people, the newer people are responsible for the woke Warcraft. It's a collaborative process indeed, but you'd have to be retarded to think the newer Blizzard has the same mindset as before. They have totally different goals and storylines in mind.

I honestly have to agree. Blizzard seems like it’s more focused on “progressive representation” than hitting cool, meaningful story beats anymore.

I honestly miss Metzen, his passion for the Lore was infectious. I never got the impression Samwise Didier was that into the Lore, but there’s no doubt his art style shaped the franchise in a big way (even if it’s not as clean or pleasant looking as Raneman’s).

In any case, given HOW many old folks are leaving Blizzard, I think there is a lot of reason for long time fans to be concerned. By all accounts, it definitely seems like Activision has been taking more direct control of the company, and frankly I don’t know what of “Blizzard” really still exists, beyond the name and legal ownership of its IP’s. Certainly doesn’t seem to have the same work culture, for better or worse.

[Soon-TM]

I don't really care about whether Afrasiabi left on his own or was given the boot. Now kick Danuser and Golden too, and maybe the abysmal story of the last three xpacs will improve somewhat.

[SirCowdog]

Apparently think Afrasiabi was somehow doing something good, not "doing shit all", which is what I'm pretty sure he's been doing for quite a while now.

You may want to read the entire thread history before leaping tp conclusions. Specifically this post.

Not to mention that I'm pretty sure Afriasabi was one of the biggest people behind the push for WoW without flying back in WoD, in case you needed even more reason for me to dislike him.

So it's not that he's good. He's actually pretty bad from most accounts. I just believe there's a high likelihood of his replacement being worse.

[Relapses]

>Ion Hazzikostas changes his status on Facebook from 'Single' to 'It's complicated'

>MMO-C: Ion fired???????

[Drench]

Maybe, but they're not taking chances anymore nor underestimating the impact of losing him could have on fans/his fans.

Well if you ask half the people here they talk like they live inside blizzardHQ. Blizzard isnt even remotely open about anything. The best they get is a canned message everytime someone leaves after 20 years lol.

[Relapses]

Well if you ask half the people here they talk like they live inside blizzardHQ. Blizzard isnt even remotely open about anything. The best they get is a canned message everytime someone leaves after 20 years lol.

Yeah well xXx_SylvaniCuck69420_xXx on Bellular's Patreon-only Discord confirmed that his dad's uncle's best friend's poodle personally handed Afrasiabi his walking papers. Everybody also laughed at him for having a difficult to pronounce last name.

[Doffen]

Cool. Blizzard needs as much fresh blood as they can get

This 100%.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

If they fired him, they should really fire Golden next.

Any particular reason why? Are people still on the “she’s ruining the story” kick even though she has stated multiple times she doesn’t direct the story and mainly just does cutscenes and some story’s/books?