Even senior devs leaving blizzard

[Beuargh]

"even senior...."

what do you expect? if it was new people leaving it would be surprising, but for someone who's been there a long time, I can think of several legit reasons for him to go see elsewhere.
he's got a good line on his resume, "senior software engineers at blizzard"... it's easier to do for him than for a newbie. so I don't get the "even senior" thing, sounds like you think the longer you've been there, the less likely you are to leave. doesn't make sense to me.

[Soon-TM]

... Flopped?

Did Classic really flop?

Chances are that if Classic had flopped, they wouldn't be pouring more money into it and would stick to retail only. Furthermore, as of now there are more people raiding Naxx in Classic than in all four difficulties of CN put together, according to Warcraftlogs.

[FelPlague]

maybe i'm just very bias and refuse to see beyond black and white but i don't think there is a meaningful discussion here. the exact same thing (minus the devs going to a company owned by their former boss) happened with bioware during anthems development. this just screams that things are horrible at blizzard and the company is crashing. it's successful for now but they've lost ben brode, chris metzen, and numerous other senior devs.

as much as i wish it wasn't true, we are either close to the end of blizzard as a company or perhaps even a rebranding.

Except they didnt "lose chris" he retired because of mental issues and phsyical issues, did you not hear about him going to the hospital?
You really trying to blame blizz for that?
Dude needed spinal surgery. But yeah its blizzards fault his spine was fucked
He still works happily with blizz, just he needed to retire out of the spotlight, the communities love to shit on him and his want for constant perfection really fucked with his mental state.

[Couchpotato2013]

Chances are that if Classic had flopped, they wouldn't be pouring more money into it and would stick to retail only. Furthermore, as of now there are more people raiding Naxx in Classic than in all four difficulties of CN put together, according to Warcraftlogs.

The only form of progression in classic is raiding at this point in the game (like why grind for rank 14 for gear, with less quality than an AQ40/Naxx raid piece?).

Additionally you have to consider the sampling of the population. Classic players likely have a far greater inclination to turn on logs and upload to warcraftlogs (obviously for parsing/speed run meta aka the logical extension of the only form of content in the game atm) vs majority of people in retail. Which already has lessened raid participation because of the annoyances blizzard created with loot for week 2 of the raid (5 pieces down to 3) until they brought it up to 4 pieces (whenever that happened). Alot of people likely shifted over to pvp to get geared (or undoubtedly get boosted/piloted) to 1800/2100 for better quality loot vs what they could get from raid or m+ before the aforementioned loot increases in raid and valor system.

Loads of variables to include, and its laughable how the Warcraftlogs admins just throw out these stats without assessing looking at raider io or any of the variety of pvp metadata sites. Purposely telling an incomplete picture based upon incomparable circumstances.

[FelPlague]

I can't wait until people, once again, get a shower of reality after hyping yet another new game company up for years in their desperation to have something live up to their nostalgia-smothered memories of tHe GoOD OlD DaYs.

We dont even know what dreamhaven is making
you know what would be the funniest shit in the world?

Mobile game with loot crates, that would be the mst hilarious fucking thing ever for peple to get angry over.

[scelero]

What's your point to this, do validate your decision? What possible response do you expect? Actually, what is it you want to discuss specifically in this public forum?

[Queen of Hamsters]

Except they didnt "lose chris" he retired because of mental issues and phsyical issues, did you not hear about him going to the hospital?
You really trying to blame blizz for that?
Dude needed spinal surgery. But yeah its blizzards fault his spine was fucked
He still works happily with blizz, just he needed to retire out of the spotlight, the communities love to shit on him and his want for constant perfection really fucked with his mental state.

And who the hell can blame him when seeing "people" like the OP get a relentless, constant, round-the-clock access to them via social media? I'm glad he did what was best for him, even if it gave a lot of wind in the sails to the OP's crowd.

I had some creations and 1 Story Adventure in Spore featured back when Galactic Adventures had just released. That flash of "fame" in that community, which is generally so sweet, made me hate people. Can't even imagine what it must be like for creators of actual games. There were complete strangers demanding I make changes to existing creatures/create new Adventures for them to enjoy, and any new creature I made which didn't get featured, some of those strangers would give me hate over.

Only dared return to the damned Sporepedia under a different name, 13 years later. I hope Chris is doing well.

- - - Updated - - -

We dont even know what dreamhaven is making
you know what would be the funniest shit in the world?

Mobile game with loot crates, that would be the mst hilarious fucking thing ever for peple to get angry over.

LOL!!

... If they did that, I would support them by purchasing exactly 1 loot crate. It'd create entertainment for months, and I ain't talking about the hypothetical game.

[hulkgor]

I love how posters here take every single news about Blizzard\WoW and make a derogatory post about it.

People leave companies, people move on, people get older, people have new goals. That's life.

[Barzotti]

I'm still waiting eagerly for Bonfire games. Oh who am I kidding

I love how posters here take every single news about Blizzard\WoW and make a derogatory post about it.

People leave companies, people move on, people get older, people have new goals. That's life.

That's what baffles me the most. There are a lot of people on this site ready to jump at Blizzard's throat for every conceivable motive, even the most ridiculous ones. Yet they login on a site dedicated to a Blizzard's game even though they admit they hate the game, like the OP. Why don't they move on and make a better use of their time? It's a mental illness at this point.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I love how posters here take every single news about Blizzard\WoW and make a derogatory post about it.

People leave companies, people move on, people get older, people have new goals. That's life.

Employye at Blizzard: * Stubs his toe against his own sofa while at home *

MMO-C: - Now they are even forcing hazardous furniture on their employees!!!????+++

[Kralljin]

Classic players likely have a far greater inclination to turn on logs and upload to warcraftlogs (obviously for parsing/speed run meta aka the logical extension of the only form of content in the game atm) vs majority of people in retail.

This is a bullshit theory - there exists a plethora of dadguilds in Classic as well that just want to have their weekly raid once a week and have a good time.

[aceperson]

Except they didnt "lose chris" he retired because of mental issues and phsyical issues, did you not hear about him going to the hospital?
You really trying to blame blizz for that?
Dude needed spinal surgery. But yeah its blizzards fault his spine was fucked
He still works happily with blizz, just he needed to retire out of the spotlight, the communities love to shit on him and his want for constant perfection really fucked with his mental state.

i knew about the surgery but I actually hadn't heard a thing about his work habits or the mental strain he was under. news to me.

[pfbe]

I don't get what's so odd about someone moving to a smaller company. Are you assuming that because a company is smaller, it will not pay as well or better than a larger company?

[Ielenia]

Blizzard as a company sucks now,

Because there are absolutely no other reason for people leaving their current job to pursue different interests than "company sucks/is dying".

Absolutely no other reason, whatsoever.

Right? Right!?

[Kathranis]

Guys, your "people leave companies all the time" & "he was there x amount of years" would made sense if he left for another big company, but nope he left for a start up. Major difference

That's extremely common for senior staff. They want new experiences and freedom that working under the thumb of a big publisher can't provide.

More to the point, Dreamhaven already recruited a bunch of veteran Blizzard staff, AKA the guys that he's been working with for a decade.

I can all but guarantee you that if you asked him why he left, you'd get back some sort of, "at Dreamhaven I'll be able to build something new from the ground up" response.

[huth]

If Dreamhavens first game isn't a smashing success, people will either A) ignore it and continue to spout Blizz bad, or B) jump down their throats.

You forgot "and continue to spout Blizz bad" for the cases where they produce a smashing success or get jumped down their throats.

[Kathranis]

We dont even know what dreamhaven is making
you know what would be the funniest shit in the world?

Mobile game with loot crates, that would be the mst hilarious fucking thing ever for peple to get angry over.

At a glance, Secret Door is developing in Unity with multiplatform (PC/console/mobile) aspirations. Gut instinct is that their first project will probably be some sort of digital tabletop strategy / RPG / card game.

Secret Door and Moonshot both have fewer than 20 employees at the moment, so whatever the case, they're both very much in the indie realm at the moment.


As an aside, Bonfire Studios was founded about five years ago, currently appears to have fewer than 50 employees, and has yet to announce a project. They are also developing their flagship project in Unity, and it'll have online functionality. Despite still being small studio, they do seem to have AAA aspirations.

[Splenda]

This isn't a constructive thread, like at all. Also we don't allow "wow is dead/I quit" threads.