Even senior devs leaving blizzard

[RobertMugabe]

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

No it's not. Leaving a big company for another big company might be odd, not that lol.

You have no idea what you're talking about

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

i am so glad I am not playing and supporting blizzard anymore

So what exactly are you here for? What is it you're trying to get out of a community you want no part of?

[Azerate]

I read on Twitter he was responsible for a lot connected to WoW Classic. In that light it makes sense they let him go after Classic flopped.

[Echo of Soul]

That's odd. Just over a week ago you were making threads you playing Classic and preparing for Burning Crusade Classic.


Interesting. Sounds like you are just shitposting now.


We'll wait for your next great thread.

It's not really super strange. The classic/private server community hate Blizzard with all their being. I don't really understand why they want to play their games though.

[Thage]

Once you get past the "doom and gloom" towards Blizzard, it's really not that surprising. Those "old timers" started with essentially a startup company where they had the freedom to innovate, try out new ideas, and more direct control over the end product. But that's not what Blizzard is anymore. I think we are simply seeing the inevitable corporate "maturity" that any long term successful business transitions into, that is to say...Blizzard is more like the Ford/General Motors of gaming now and we are witnessing the internal acceptance of that fact after a decade of pretending it wouldn't happen. Meaning that anyone that wants to stay a classic game dev is going to want out.

I'm not even looking at it from a 'doom and gloom' aspect. I'm looking at it from a, "Dreamhaven has had an unusually-high number of Blizzard alumni who had a large footprint on the company's history joining up" standpoint. It's not unusual to see former big names at Blizzard end up elsewhere continuing to make a name for themselves, or for them to show up in a startup, but it is unusual to see them concentrated like this and so many of them being big names in the company.

That's why I'm interested and curious to see what they come up with; it will be interesting to see if Blizzard was lightning in a bottle or if these guys can manage to recreate the conditions that allowed Blizzard to explode and become an industry force like they did.

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It's not really super strange. The classic/private server community hate Blizzard with all their being. I don't really understand why they want to play their games though.

One can have issues with the company, warranted/justified or not, and still enjoy the product that company creates/created.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

I read on Twitter he was responsible for a lot connected to WoW Classic. In that light it makes sense they let him go after Classic flopped.

How did Classic flop?

[yomammyass]

No it's not. Leaving a big company for another big company might be odd, not that lol.

You have no idea what you're talking about

Odd? I think your opinions convey on how inexperienced you are in the real world. No I am not talking about the exp you gain in WoW

[Raven]

Blizzard as a company sucks now, even senior employees are leaving for a start up company, i am so glad I am not playing and supporting blizzard anymore

You do know thats its more common for senior employess to leave then new ones, since senior have been working at the same place for a long time and want to try new things or new places.

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I read on Twitter he was responsible for a lot connected to WoW Classic. In that light it makes sense they let him go after Classic flopped.

Was a server enginner at first and then worked on the ui and interface until he started working on Classic.

[yomammyass]

You do know thats its more common for senior employess to leave then new ones, since senior have been working at the same place for a long time and want to try new things or new places.

Oh yeah, I understand that, but he is an experienced senior developer, I would as many others join a well established game company, not a start up founded by Mike ex CEO of Blizzard.

Kinda seems like Mike is stealing ex blizzard employees, judging how many left to join Dreamhaven.

[Accendor]

Sometimes i wonder what people, who make this kind of threads, do in their real lives...
They might be employed, but definately not as anything important. Much less so within IT.

Senior devs leave companies; that's just the reality of things.
Younger ones leave for a bigger paycheck, older ones for a start-up.

I think the point here is not that Seniors are leaving, the point is that he is leaving and joining Dreamhaven.

[RobertMugabe]

Odd? I think your opinions convey on how inexperienced you are in the real world. No I am not talking about the exp you gain in WoW

Always great to see when the OP himself kills his own thread.

As someone who's worked for over a decade now as a software developer in a big company, departures like that are typical and normal.

[Lochton]

Blizzard as a company sucks now, even senior employees are leaving for a start up company, i am so glad I am not playing and supporting blizzard anymore

Maybe due to friends being in the Dreamhaven, or maybe just wishing to go a different direction? Maybe you could post this in the right section?

And seeing your previous content on MMO-champion, then you are playing and supporting the game as well.

[StillMcfuu]

In the hopes of salvaging some actual discussion out of this thread, it's interesting to see how many long runners at Blizzard ended up joining Dreamhaven and its two development studios. A lot of the people generally credited with putting Blizzard on the map, or enabling some of their more popular side projects like Classic, as well as some promising up-and-comers seem to be signing on with Dreamhaven. It's going to at least be interesting to see what comes out of their approach to game design and if they nail down an in-house visual aesthetic or if they'll change things up between franchises.

For the most part, the kind of longevity Blizzard has seen for devs is unusual for the industry. In tech turnover is usually high, it's how you move up, you go somewhere else, get paid more and then move on again usually every 2 years or so. I get the feeling that most of the devs just like working with eachother, and when Dreamhaven was set up thats where they wanted to go. Will likely be more people leaving as their current contracts end at Blizzard.

[RobertMugabe]

I'm not even looking at it from a 'doom and gloom' aspect. I'm looking at it from a, "Dreamhaven has had an unusually-high number of Blizzard alumni who had a large footprint on the company's history joining up" standpoint. It's not unusual to see former big names at Blizzard end up elsewhere continuing to make a name for themselves, or for them to show up in a startup, but it is unusual to see them concentrated like this and so many of them being big names in the company.

That's why I'm interested and curious to see what they come up with; it will be interesting to see if Blizzard was lightning in a bottle or if these guys can manage to recreate the conditions that allowed Blizzard to explode and become an industry force like they did.

Honestly, the only thing that feels unusual to me is that Dreamhaven kinda appears as a possible future competitor to Blizzard. Usually (or at least where I am from) you are not allowed to join a "competitor" for an X amount of time when you quit the company. For example, at my company I build customs software for large companies and if I were to quit I am not allowed to join another company that also builds customs software for 1 year or so.

But other than that, I remember that when all that insider info about Blizzard was leaked 1 or 2 years ago (can't remember), it said that a lot of employees were burned out from working on huge projects like WoW and wanted to work on small projects. I guess besides Hearthstone and Diablo Immortal, no other smaller projects were planned and thus some of these employees left and joined Dreamhaven (possibly a reason why Dreamhaven was founded too).

[Kralljin]

Honestly, the only thing that feels unusual to me is that Dreamhaven kinda appears as a possible future competitor to Blizzard.

No idea how the situation is in the US (or California for that matter) but a non compete clause isn't just something one can put into a contract, if you work in a specific niche and you can't work in any other branch without suffering a major loss of income, a non compete clause would basically be a deterrent from anyone ever quitting in that niche.

In some countries, the employer also has to compensate to (former) employee for that duration of the non compete clause.

I am by no means a lawyer, but i don't think a non compete clause can be just put into any contract (or more specifically, hold up in front of a court when push comes to shove) unless said job involves trade secrets that would give a competitor a massive edge.
I've heard Morhaime had a non compete clause in its contract, altough makes a bit more sense as he as CEO of Blizzard had a lot of insight into the business plan of Activision Blizzard and thus could reveal to the competition what Activision Blizzards immediate strategy is for the next 2-3 years.

[Viikkis]

Dreamhaven is looking more interesting each day.

[keelr]

Why are you taking the bait? \sigh

[StillMcfuu]

Honestly, the only thing that feels unusual to me is that Dreamhaven kinda appears as a possible future competitor to Blizzard. Usually (or at least where I am from) you are not allowed to join a "competitor" for an X amount of time when you quit the company. For example, at my company I build customs software for large companies and if I were to quit I am not allowed to join another company that also builds customs software for 1 year or so.

But other than that, I remember that when all that insider info about Blizzard was leaked 1 or 2 years ago (can't remember), it said that a lot of employees were burned out from working on huge projects like WoW and wanted to work on small projects. I guess besides Hearthstone and Diablo Immortal, no other smaller projects were planned and thus some of these employees left and joined Dreamhaven (possibly a reason why Dreamhaven was founded too).

This isn't exactly what a non-compete is meant to stop, but in California non-compete clauses in contracts are illegal.
Generally speaking a dev going from company A to company B, even though both are in the same industry isn't a breach of "non-compete". What they try to stop is you taking knowledge specific to job 1 to job 2, IE you fix Sony thingamajigs and you take a job with a company that fixes thingamajigs from every company and they hired you specifically to fix Sony thingamajigs, which now takes business from Sony either through customer manipulation or other kind of practices that can create an actual financial impact.

[MoanaLisa]

Sometimes you've gone as far as you can go with a large company. At that time you have a choice: Settle in and get comfortable with the idea that the rest of your career at the company will be lateral movement or it's time to look and see if there are opportunities elsewhere.

That's how life works. It's so interesting that so many here seem to think that Blizzard can only be OK if they essentially imprison their employees.

Technology sector people move all the time especially if there's a chance to work on fresh challenges.

Personally if I were a Blizzard developer and was stuck on the track of cleaning up and re-releasing old content I might look elsewhere as well.

[shoc]

In this day and age if you work in game dev or tech or anything similar your best bet for paycheck advancement is to leave your job and negotiate a new salary at a new job every 2-3 years. You're just fucking yourself over if you stay at a job for useless reasons like 'loyalty' when it doesn't translate into anything tangible.