Blizzard hiring an Associate Game Director

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I feel Asmongold would create absurdly grindy 24h instances turning the game into Pristontale.

Asmongold is a casual. He hates grind and while he likes challenging fights, he hates that the game has become raid or die to the exclusion of casuals. He'd bring WoW back to roots as a casual game aimed at everyone, not just hardcore raiders.

[Thage]

They're not bad decisions. They're decisions you dislike. So again, please stop dehumanizing the poor man because you have a hard time disassociating things you don't like from people you don't like.

"StOp DeHuMaNiZiNg HiM"

Dude, just stop. This is your new go-to, I get it. It's a fun word and it makes you seem like you're in a position of strength in your own head. I'm not dehumanizing him just because you don't like the things I say about his ability as a Game Director and how irrelevant his skillset as a talented raid designer has been to his role as Game Director. If it clenches your asshole that bad, put me on ignore. It's the internet, ignoring someone isn't a failure and being ignored won't bother me.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

8+ years of experience in AAA games needed for application.

Such requirements are hardly ever adhered to, or else you get a chicken and the egg catch 22 where you need years of experience to get a job but you can't get a job because you don't have years of experience. Real, seriously interested candidates will just submit their applications anyway and one of them will get hired. Anyone who already meets the requirements is already in a better position at another studio.

[Thage]

Such requirements are hardly ever adhered to, or else you get a chicken and the egg catch 22 where you need years of experience to get a job but you can't get a job because you don't have years of experience. Real, seriously interested candidates will just submit their applications anyway and one of them will get hired. Anyone who already meets the requirements is already in a better position at another studio.

This; in most companies the obviously-bullshit requirements are there to weed out the lowest common denominator. It's scummy and shitty, but it's much more common than people seem to think and few businesses actually, seriously adhere to it unless they strike gold and that unicorn that does match the requirements applies.

[Relapses]

"StOp DeHuMaNiZiNg HiM"

Dude, just stop. This is your new go-to, I get it. It's a fun word and it makes you seem like you're in a position of strength in your own head. I'm not dehumanizing him just because you don't like the things I say about his ability as a Game Director and how irrelevant his skillset as a talented raid designer has been to his role as Game Director. If it clenches your asshole that bad, put me on ignore. It's the internet, ignoring someone isn't a failure and being ignored won't bother me.

Hey dude, I'm not the one using a fucking job posting to leverage criticism against a person. It's painfully obvious you just wanted positive reinforcement of your super unique opinion that the game has moved in a direction you dislike. I'm sorry I didn't provide that to you and instead reminded you that Ion Hazzikostas is a human being instead of a collection of ideas that upset you for whatever reason.

[Thage]

Hey dude, I'm not the one using a fucking job posting to leverage criticism against a person. It's painfully obvious you just wanted positive reinforcement of your super unique opinion that the game has moved in a direction you dislike. I'm sorry I didn't provide that to you and instead reminded you that Ion Hazzikostas is a human being instead of a collection of ideas that upset you for whatever reason.

Again, if you'd not put words in my mouth that would be swell. Me saying things about Ion on a professional level (notice I have completely avoided commenting on his personal life, because it's not relevant to things and I don't know him as a person while I've seen the direct results of his professional endeavors as Game Director) isn't dehumanizing him no matter how hard you try to convince yourself it is. It's me commenting on his aptitude in his role as measured by the results of his work. Is it dehumanizing to say a plumber did a shitty job on fixing your leaky sink? Or that the last season of Game of Thrones was disappointing and it exposed writing flaws present in D&D's work?

Had you been an adult and said "Hey, Ion and his team are going through a rough time considering the environment they work in and that should be taken into account when discussing the results of their work, especially as the workers continue to push toward collectivization," you may have had a point in... whatever the hell you're on about. But you decided first to go with the Armchair Psychology cliche and then switched tacks to accusing me of "dehumanizing" Ion because I said mean things about his work and his ability as Game Director.

Do I get to accuse you of dehumanizing me for constantly putting words in my mouth so you can continue to grandstand and run roughshod over what I'm actually saying to you? Or are you the only one allowed to use words wrong and make baseless accusations?

[Relapses]

Again, if you'd not put words in my mouth that would be swell. Me saying things about Ion on a professional level (notice I have completely avoided commenting on his personal life, because it's not relevant to things and I don't know him as a person while I've seen the direct results of his professional endeavors as Game Director) isn't dehumanizing him no matter how hard you try to convince yourself it is. It's me commenting on his aptitude in his role as measured by the results of his work. Is it dehumanizing to say a plumber did a shitty job on fixing your leaky sink? Or that the last season of Game of Thrones was disappointing and it exposed writing flaws present in D&D's work?

Had you been an adult and said "Hey, Ion and his team are going through a rough time considering the environment they work in and that should be taken into account when discussing the results of their work, especially as the workers continue to push toward collectivization," you may have had a point in... whatever the hell you're on about. But you decided first to go with the Armchair Psychology cliche and then switched tacks to accusing me of "dehumanizing" Ion because I said mean things about his work and his ability as Game Director.

Do I get to accuse you of dehumanizing me for constantly putting words in my mouth so you can continue to grandstand and run roughshod over what I'm actually saying to you? Or are you the only one allowed to use words wrong and make baseless accusations?

This exchange started with you saying this:

Because while Ion is exceptional in the fields that hold his interest, namely raid design and the like, he's an abject failure in every other front and needs someone who cares about casual gameplay and can point out his needlessly-overcomplicated designs for what they are.

This is your opinion my dude. You keep speaking as if it's some kind of undeniable fact that Ion has failed at his job and that this job posting is somehow proof of it. That's a bullshit way to present an opinion and yes, I do find it incredibly dehumanizing because you aren't addressing Ion the human being, you're addressing Ion the guy who made changes to WoW that you disliked.

[rhorle]

Again, if you'd not put words in my mouth that would be swell.

Because while Ion is exceptional in the fields that hold his interest, namely raid design and the like, he's an abject failure in every other front and needs someone who cares about casual gameplay and can point out his needlessly-overcomplicated designs for what they are.

Words are not really being put into your mouth. You put all the blame on one person when it is an entire team. Just because he is the game director and "signs off on everything" doesn't mean he can get better out of the team if it isn't there. That is part of the problem when everything is put on to one person as the cause for blame. The results of his work show that he is good at far more then just raiding. Exceptional? No. But it is far from the bad you ascribed in your original comment.

He is great at what his job requires otherwise he wouldn't still have it after 5 years. The problem is you just dislike the decisions made. Which is fine but don't try to fool anyone that it is actually the fault of one person. You can fool yourself if you want to though.

[Gadzooks]

Such requirements are hardly ever adhered to, or else you get a chicken and the egg catch 22 where you need years of experience to get a job but you can't get a job because you don't have years of experience. Real, seriously interested candidates will just submit their applications anyway and one of them will get hired. Anyone who already meets the requirements is already in a better position at another studio.

It's a filter, for sure. I've been in a hiring position, where very specific technical abilities (and other skills) were needed, but you'd be shocked at the submissions we got - we got everything from 'I've never done it, but I could read a couple manuals as I go" to 'I'm applying because it sounds like fun, and I've worked in a. completely different field with an irrelevant skills set." The wide eyed ignorance from people applying to a very skilled and very not entry level job was eye opening. I'd bet even with those requirements, Blizzard will get thousands of applicants with no experience who think they can do the job because they got Keymaster.

[Thage]

This exchange started with you saying this:

This is your opinion my dude. You keep speaking as if it's some kind of undeniable fact that Ion has failed at his job and that this job posting is somehow proof of it. That's a bullshit way to present an opinion and yes, I do find it incredibly dehumanizing because you aren't addressing Ion the human being, you're addressing Ion the guy who made changes to WoW that you disliked.

Welcome to the conversation. I started with an opinion, based on the results of his work, and I remained focused on the results of his work because that's what was relevant to the topic at hand (being that Blizzard is hiring for an associate game director, a position that has nothing to do with Ion the person but is relevant to Ion the Game Director's professional work and interest). What I said, and again, I'm baffled that you can't figure this out but you've got some 5D chess shit going on about how I'm apparently trying to relegate Ion as some inhuman collection of ideas when nothing I said amounts to such, was speculating that his tenure as Game Director and the issues arising within the game from his time as Director are related to this new position.

It isn't dehumanizing to discuss someone's professional work and the results thereof without stopping every other sentence to recognize that person is a human, that's intellectually dishonest and I know fucking well you're smart enough to know that, or at least I mistakenly assumed so. And it doesn't change the fact that you tried and failed to come out with some bullshit about it being armchair psychology only to accuse me of something completely unrelated because I called bullshit on it, like I'm calling bullshit on this and have been for the entire fucking conversation.

[Gadzooks]

This exchange started with you saying this:



This is your opinion my dude. You keep speaking as if it's some kind of undeniable fact that Ion has failed at his job and that this job posting is somehow proof of it. That's a bullshit way to present an opinion and yes, I do find it incredibly dehumanizing because you aren't addressing Ion the human being, you're addressing Ion the guy who made changes to WoW that you disliked.

I know I shouldn't poke the bear, but what the heck, its past quitting time, and I have some spare time.

You're being very determined and insistent at getting the pound of flesh you think you deserve, and have made it personal. Other posters are now telling you "Bro, go outside, touch some grass, feel the sun on your face", but you keep bouncing back demanding you are the moral and ethical arbiter for the thread.

In blunt words, and apologies to the mods...nah, you're not worth a ban. Just grow up, and let it go. Your crusade here is pointless and childish. Ignore him, and try to move on with your life. If you're capable of that.

You may now respond outraged and sputtering because I called you out. It's fine. I'll live. I got spare time. But seriously, dude - back off and take a couple deep breathes already. Is being a bully on MMO-C a life goal worth pursuing?

For a good time, try to differentiate a majority of serious posts here from posts on /r/wowcirclejerk

Ironic. Whoops. I poked again.

Okay, back to talking about Blizzard, and unfounded speculation!

- - - Updated - - -

Ion was Assistant Game Direction, not Associate.

You're right - and a big oof from me, and I'm gonna do something unheard of on MMO-C and admit I was wrong.

I'm still not picking up the "WHOO HOO ION IS FIRED" flag. I tend to think if he was, they'd have done it - and throwing bodies at the game is an indirect way of showing they're aware the game is not in a good place.

We'll see.

[|Dexter|]

If thats the case, that would backfire greatly as that particular women of colour would get roasted by the toxic wow community over issues with the game for sure.

If it happened it will be a woman that dealt with these man-children for years in other games! The kind that will make short work of all that toxic part of our community and put streamers in their place, making sure they know who is making the real content they milking money off for years. Anyway, things gonna change one way or another... things have to change!

[Th3Scourge]

yeah and thats the point: their product dont suffer. they make lots and lots money with it. its just not that good, thats all. and this is a problem for you. but not for them, because they make lots and lots money with it.

Wow was only propped up in the last year-on-year cycle by the release of TBC classic, as mentioned in the earnings call. So it would seem that they're not really making 'lots and lots' of money with the current product, which is being propped up by a 15 year old re-release

[Soon-TM]

Wow was only propped up in the last year-on-year cycle by the release of TBC classic, as mentioned in the earnings call. So it would seem that they're not really making 'lots and lots' of money with the current product, which is being propped up by a 15 year old re-release

Well, in that regard they can still slack during 3 years (second half of Classic BC + Classic WotLK). This means that 10.0 will probably be some half baked $#@% much like SL has been so far - after all, they will still have Classic to cover their asses.

[MoanaLisa]

Ion was Assistant Game Direction, not Associate.

That's true. Ion was essentially training with Chilton as an assistant. Associate and Assistant may be just splitting hairs on job titles but Associate feels more solid and permanent to me; more of a commitment. It makes sense to do this given the promised expansion to the team that was more or less interrupted by the pandemic. Kotick was promising that across Activision they wanted to hire another 2000 developers before the end of this year. That schedule may be changed but I'm assuming that it's still something they want to do.

Game Director, despite what people think, is mostly a people management thing. Hazzikostas likely spends more time in meetings with his team leads than doing anything that looks like design. People blame him because they say he's the final sign-off on things but given their consensus style of design and management nothing much gets done until everyone has come to some sort of agreement. That makes a final sign-off somewhat moot.

To get back to the point with more developers and hopefully a more aggressive approach to the game there will be more to manage and putting someone else there as an associate makes a lot of sense. The many posts here speculating that Ion is out as game director is likely wishful thinking unless something pops up in the lawsuit.

Kotick on developer expansion:

“From the start of 2020 through the end of next year we intend to hire more than 2000 developers. We plan to triple the size of certain franchise teams compared to those team sizes in 2019, and we have aggressive hiring plans around the world including new studios or major expansion in Poland, China, Australia and Canada.”

LINK

[arkanon]

That's true. Ion was essentially training with Chilton as an assistant. Associate and Assistant may be just splitting hairs on job titles but Associate feels more solid and permanent to me; more of a commitment. It makes sense to do this given the promised expansion to the team that was more or less interrupted by the pandemic. Kotick was promising that across Activision they wanted to hire another 2000 developers before the end of this year. That schedule may be changed but I'm assuming that it's still something they want to do.

Game Director, despite what people think, is mostly a people management thing. Hazzikostas likely spends more time in meetings with his team leads than doing anything that looks like design. People blame him because they say he's the final sign-off on things but given their consensus style of design and management nothing much gets done until everyone has come to some sort of agreement. That makes a final sign-off somewhat moot.

To get back to the point with more developers and hopefully a more aggressive approach to the game there will be more to manage and putting someone else there as an associate makes a lot of sense. The many posts here speculating that Ion is out as game director is likely wishful thinking unless something pops up in the lawsuit.



LINK

Associate means somewhat equal, although not always 100%, assistant means subordinate to.

[MoanaLisa]

Associate means somewhat equal, although not always 100%, assistant means subordinate to.

I am assuming there will still be a game director as well as an associate game director. That implies a second management layer that works closely with and reports directly to the game director. That's how it works in media anyway. A movie has a director and a number of associate or assistant directors. They all report to the director. Same with producers: Executive Producers and Associate Producers. We don't really know how Blizzard will define reporting and chain of command but it seems logical that the new position will report to the old. I believe that both of them report to WoW's executive producer although I would guess that few here know who that is without looking it up (It's John Hight. Purest speculation: if the executive shuffle is severe enough due to the lawsuit this may be a fallback to move Hazzikostas into Executive Producer if need be. That assumes there's nothing about Hazzikostas with respect to the lawsuit).

[Quaade]

I'm very curious as to why would Ion need someone to "partner with", according to the job description.

Because Ian Kompetentoss is too incompetent to lead WoW design. Decides by spreadsheet instead of any narrative knowledge, which does make sense with his education. Ghostcrawler has an education in marine biology, and as such he would also need one in biology. Thus he knows how systems work. Ian Kompetentoss has an education in law, and as such he just needs to know enough on how to work the system.

The education people have massively influences their bias when it comes to interacting with reality. This can be seen in Guerilla Game's approach to game design where few things follow the Rule of Cool as they have a lot of people with an education in practical engineering since the game-based recruitment options in The Netherlands are rather sparse. This can be seen in the Killzone games and that ethos carried over into Horizon Zero Dawn even though they hired people from outside The Netherlands to cover the areas of missing knowledge they had in creating an open-world game.

That game is solid, the narrative is consistent all through playing, the side-quests make sense in the narrative of the setting, the various cultures of the game are rock-solid and consistent all the way through as their game-design started with, "how does the areas they live in look and how would that affect the culture and how would the culture affect their living areas?", the robot animals in a weird way also make sense even though they're fantastical creatures. SL has none of that and everything seems to be designed after The Rule of Cool with no real consistency or interconnectivity between the events.

An example would be Sylvanas at the same time being presented as super-smart, calculating, and cynical yet falling for the most obvious lie ever due to being dumb, hot-headed, and hopeful. There are many other elements like this. The best decision AB could take would be to fire Ian Koimpetentoss, if they for some reason are unable to do so they should sideline him completely. Nothing about the state of the game will ever get better when he alone has the deciding vote in the direction of anything implemented in the game.

[TyrianFC]

Because Ian Kompetentoss is too incompetent to lead WoW design. Decides by spreadsheet instead of any narrative knowledge, which does make sense with his education. Ghostcrawler has an education in marine biology, and as such he would also need one in biology. Thus he knows how systems work. Ian Kompetentoss has an education in law, and as such he just needs to know enough on how to work the system.

The education people have massively influences their bias when it comes to interacting with reality. This can be seen in Guerilla Game's approach to game design where few things follow the Rule of Cool as they have a lot of people with an education in practical engineering since the game-based recruitment options in The Netherlands are rather sparse. This can be seen in the Killzone games and that ethos carried over into Horizon Zero Dawn even though they hired people from outside The Netherlands to cover the areas of missing knowledge they had in creating an open-world game.

That game is solid, the narrative is consistent all through playing, the side-quests make sense in the narrative of the setting, the various cultures of the game are rock-solid and consistent all the way through as their game-design started with, "how does the areas they live in look and how would that affect the culture and how would the culture affect their living areas?", the robot animals in a weird way also make sense even though they're fantastical creatures. SL has none of that and everything seems to be designed after The Rule of Cool with no real consistency or interconnectivity between the events.

An example would be Sylvanas at the same time being presented as super-smart, calculating, and cynical yet falling for the most obvious lie ever due to being dumb, hot-headed, and hopeful. There are many other elements like this. The best decision AB could take would be to fire Ian Koimpetentoss, if they for some reason are unable to do so they should sideline him completely. Nothing about the state of the game will ever get better when he alone has the deciding vote in the direction of anything implemented in the game.

Do you think anyone is going to take you seriously, when you resort to pre-school like name calling such as 'ian kompetentoss'? It looks as petty and desperate as it sounds.

[Quaade]

Do you think anyone is going to take you seriously, when you resort to pre-school like name calling such as 'ian kompetentoss'? It looks as petty and desperate as it sounds.

You're absolutely right and if that's a dealbreaker for you then you're a part of the "civility brigade." And I'm only okay with being civil with people who deserve it, Ian has shown nothing, NOTHING, that deserves it.

1. The BfA beta was a disaster where he pretty much ensured that no one could give relevant feedback as they were cordoned off from the world. What they could give was ignored. Azeroth Armor was implemented as is despite huge feedback that was negative in nature. Then during 8.1, it was changed to fit closer to the feedback that was given during beta.

2.- During PTR testing the feedback of a lot of systems implemented was ignored. A lot of people asked for a Corruption vendor. That was only put into the game after pretty much everyone had thrown a fit over how random Corruptions were and that alone made it a bad system.

3. During the SL beta, which was better than the BfA beta, I guess Ian got a reprimand from the board, feedback was listened to, and a lot of salient feedback was utterly ignored. A lot of people gave feedback that the final amount of Anima they settled on was too punitive to be fun. This was only rectified after a lot of people complained. Nothing about narrative reasons, that would make sense. The blue post about it said that they had listened to the feedback from players. Excerpt it was mostly the same feedback they had gotten during beta. At most times you ignore the forum posts, a beta is an exception as there are no casual players.

4. He enabled sexual harassment on the team by shielding people who did the harassment or ignoring people complaining about it. And that's a whole lot worse than the above as the above is only about a game, this is about people. Sure, he might never have sexually harassed anyone himself, though I highly doubt that given the narcissistic traits he has displayed, and he still enabled it. That much is a given.

Give me one reason I should be civil toward him? I've been pretty disrespectful in this post by only referring to him by his first name instead of his last or his position. It's certainly rude and disrespectful, however, it also falls outside your judgment of it being "pre-school namecalling." I would rather be called names than only be referred by my first name instead of my last name or my title. Then again, I feel no need to virtue signal how much of a civility crusader I am.