Who are you talking about specifically?
Most of the head-honchos have left, and the main name (Afrasiabi) has been let go a couple of years ago. Some of the 'enablers' from random pics revealed are also long gone. The few remaining i'm not even sure they work at WoW, which is Ion's team, as you put it?
while Alex Afrasiabi was the only named person in the suit, they did have a further 10 'john does' to be named at a later date who were/are high level management etc as part of the suit, and obviously we don't know who they are but in time we might, so who's to say he didn't get a bit handsy earlier on in his career.
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Adham left and came back so wasn't around for a long time and probably isn't an issue in the suit, tom chilton was seen in many of the old photo's and in the different chatrooms, so it's fair to say he is involved somewhere, as for samwise, i haven't seen/heard about him for a long time now, while he may still be at the company he hasn't made much in the way of public appearances in a few years (that i can recall at least), and my impression of him is that he was a bit more of a reserved figure and wasn't that big on being the front and center of things.
To be fair, there wasn't much communication before the news broke, anyway.
Gotta be real, you learn nowadays more over the game by browsing the twitter feed of some developers than from "official" sources, which tells you something about how much of chaos it must be behind the scenes when virtually no one can take a stance on anything but their pet issues in the team.
Obviously but that's an issue not directly related to this issue.
Ion keeps his mouth shut currently because the game's issues currently take a backseat at Blizzard and due to what's in front he surely knows better than to say anything.
Haven't heard much from much anybody in a leading position at Blizzard, either.
"...money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it."
They'll vanish quietly and all the others that could be problematic. Brack just has to go to show that something is changing, the others are going when it looks less obvious what is going on and in a manner that doesn't allow them to sue blizzard for defamation or something along those lines. Essentially like Afrasiabi.
You are welcome, Metzen. I hope you won't fuck up my underground expansion idea.
The WoW Game Director is a bit like the Defense Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwarts. Players want to hate that person. Players want to hate someone - and the game director is the most vocal, visible person players feel they can aim their pitchforks towards.
The most amusing part, imo, is that if Ion was replaced - any new person who came in would only enjoy a short honeymoon period - because pitchforks would inevitably soonafter come out for them, too.
Counter-Argument: Chilton was game director all the time GC was doing his thing. Chilton never said much of anything and people left him alone for the most part.
I don't think the position matters. It's "shoot the messenger" logic writ large. I'll hasten to add you're not wrong but I think I have a slightly different perspective on it.
And look at all the abuse that CM's took when they were communicative with WoW's players.
"...money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it."
Ion talks like a boring robot... SL plays like a boring robot...
I would be shocked if he did not have a huge influence in the current direction of the game. I seriously doubt he is sitting there thinking to himself "man, if only I had the power I would make this game way less grindy and way more about fun!".
Brack going is a good thing, but nothing even begins to change until Ion is gone imo as far as game direction goes.
Some of these "offenses" are pretty minor, too. Samwise reportedly had a pap smear poster up in his office, like from a gyno office. OK, yes, that's inappropriate. The proper response is to tell him to take that shit down. Should he be publicly shamed for it? Should he be fired? Or blackballed from the industry forever? The dogpiling is a problem.
Mike Ybarra, one of the new "co-leaders" are actually playing the game. He got full 20s Mythic plus cleared in time and he posted his achievements on Reddit 6months ago - long before this shitstorm. And he is actually more dedicated than the average player.
THAT for me is a major turn on - good direction or not. More of that.
https://twitter.com/Qwik/status/1411...635684867?s=19
Last edited by HansOlo; 2021-08-03 at 09:52 PM.
Overall I agree with your gist though imo JAB without a doubt either knew of or was just willfully ignorant of the problems(s) within the company and how hr was doing nothing about them. It's his job as president(more so as someone who'd been with the company for like 10-12 years) to know about it and to make sure each part of the company is doing its job. That comes with the responsibility of being president and why he definitely had to be fired/forced to resign. Many more people who enabled the problem for so long should also get the axe.
CEO is different. President is different. Mike Morhaime was CEO with much more company influence. Bobby ruled Mike out of this influence.
President means - in this case - you will obey Bobby K and you will pick up the crap left from the former CEO. You will most likely report in numbers(maybe that's why JAB wasn't suited for the job - he was just a programmer and not some MBA type). Mike should also get blamed more than JAB - but JAB really wasn't capable of showing the required leadership during this scandale.
"Co-leaders" is less prestigious than the president(the two new people who are in charge now). OR - we can turn it around and say - they are supposed to be much more hands on, than just looking at charts/graphs. Meanwhile Bobby will take care of the numbers.
Things will for sure change.
Last edited by HansOlo; 2021-08-03 at 09:48 PM.
I guess there will be a story on this soon but it appears as if the Global Head of Human Resources for Activision/Blizzard, Jesse Meschuk, is also no longer with the company.
Icy Veins has a story about it.
Also Jason Schreier on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/st...53540774907907
Last edited by MoanaLisa; 2021-08-03 at 09:50 PM.
"...money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it."