Rob Pardo leaves Blizzard

[MoanaLisa]

he is by far candidate number one to illuminate a number of old debates with actual insider info, particulary given his obvious opposition to a number of changes in the game since the merger. How long to nda's on internal company issues tend to last for?

He has personal relationships with everyone at the top going back for decades. He doesn't strike me as the sort of guy who will burn bridges or hang out the family dirty laundry. And make no mistake, at his level, that's a family. I wouldn't hold my breath on a tell-all from him since he doesn't need the money or the notoriety. And I don't think his exit was the sort of thing where he feels betrayed by anyone.

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I'm personally not talking about Pardo but about Blizzard as a whole. I realize Pardo had a major, MAJOR hand in the development processes of all 3 of their big IPs if not in Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm as well but I'm going to assume his departure from the company was very much in his self-interest and had little to do with the company's going on.

As to how the company as a whole will fair in his absence/what his leaving indicates, I'm not going to assume anything. All I see is what's before and what's before me is products lacking the quality that not only I, but Blizzard themselves expect from their products for the past few years. That said, Reaper of Souls seems to be an indicator that things are going back to normal; I personally found Starcraft II and it's expansion to be exceptional, the places where they lack are vanilla D3 and Cataclysm/MoP. Titan is just another SC Ghost and if history's to repeat itself, this signifies nothing but a good thing since when SC Ghost was scrapped (and apparently SC II was put on a back burner according to what Pardo recently mentioned), we got Vanilla WoW/tBC.

Good post. Agree pretty much completely. Hearthstone, whether you play it or not, has been very nearly perfect from the very first and from what I've seen of Heroes of the Storm there's not too much to worry about there either.

[Deficineiron]

He has personal relationships with everyone at the top going back for decades. He doesn't strike me as the sort of guy who will burn bridges. I wouldn't hold my breath on a tell-all from him. He doesn't need the money or the notoriety. And I don't think his exit was the sort of thing where he feels betrayed by anyone.

it is certainly possible, particularly within blizzard itself. It is also possible his feelings dont extend towards kotick& team and his views on activision may, in his opinion, actually reflect and support the positions of his friends at blizzard.

[Polarthief]

Oh god... GC Leaving did not worry me, I was not a fan of his ideology when it came to WoW... But Rob Pardo leaving? That scares the everliving shit out of me! I ain't going to do any doomsaying, but this is seriously a huge hit to Blizzard, a lot bigger than I feel a lot of people will think it is.

Here is hoping his next venture is fruitful though, I hope nothing but the best for him.



Its a slippery slope and a double edged sword... New blood can create some innovative changes just as much as it could *$&@ up whats already good.

This is how I feel.

With how terrible the console gaming industry is w/ AAA people atm, I'm really scared to see who replaces him. Could be someone to give a new take on WoW, and I'd welcome that, but I'm scared it could become even more monotonous and worse than Cataclysm and MoP's bad parts combined.

Not to mention how Activision is still a sister company of Blizzard, which terrifies me. Bring over ONE of those "CoD Executives", and incoming massive drop in both subscriptions and community attitude. The last thing we need is even more pre-teens screaming obscenities into microphones/chat boxes.

[Deleted]

I feel like your statement assumes two things: one, that if the West is more successful it is through sheer talent, then those who are from developing areas like parts of Eastern Europe, Africa, etc are poverty-stricken because they aren't as "talented" (smart, ambitious, physically gifted, whatever) as the West. Also, two, you seem to be inherently implying that everyone can rise from poverty through their talent, that opportunity always exists where talent is.

Not everyone is equal.

Some people are simply more talented than others. Maybe they were born with that talent or maybe they developed it on their own but the fact remains that Blizzard losing talent is not a good thing. Men in suits think that they can simply buy talent but it's not always true. If that were true then EA would own everyone and buy people like cattle.

In the case of Rob Pardo you can tell that he's a genuinely nice person as well, which is also rare.

So yes, he will be missed.

IMO, the WoW devs lost most of their creative control a long time ago. Not everyone is going to accept that. They weren't even going to make Mists of Pandaria until orders came from the men in suits who control the purse strings.

[Polarthief]

IMO, the WoW devs lost most of their creative control a long time ago. Not everyone is going to accept that. They weren't even going to make Mists of Pandaria until orders came from the men in suits who control the purse strings.

This is what upsets me about the gaming industry as a whole, and so far, it's happening with EVERY, SINGLE, COMPANY that isn't indie. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft (their XBOne team at least), all AAA publishers (Ubisoft and EA to name a few); all the things that make most of the games suck in peoples eyes come from people who don't even play video games nor create them. They put these ideas in to either monetize microtransactions (especially in EA's case) or because it looks like something sellable, but not necessarily enjoyable. Nintendo continues to play it safe and silence the community because they now take all ad revenue from any videos of LPers, reviewers, etc. Microsoft has done some incredibly retarded things like the always-on DRM and constant checks (which they turned off but can turn on at any time), shoving Kinect down peoples' throats because they saw how well the Wii was doing, and made a more expensive PS4 that doesn't even run as good as a PS4. Ubisoft/EA I don't even want to touch because if you've been following with the companies' bullshit at this point, you know more than enough about EA, and also about Watch Dogs bullshit as well as AssCred Unity not having female protagonists because it would "take up too many resources".

Bottom line is that losing Rob Pardo is going to be a huge blow to Blizzard because he's such a nice, genuine, guy, who was involved in the making games AND played games. If they replace him with some corporate douchebag who doesn't even play games, god knows what we're going to get in WoD and the next expansions to come.

[Pann]

it is certainly possible, particularly within blizzard itself. It is also possible his feelings dont extend towards kotick& team and his views on activision may, in his opinion, actually reflect and support the positions of his friends at blizzard.

Interesting points but he clearly has not left bad terms and what incentive is there for him to spill the beans on ATVI? The audience that would be interested in hearing about behind the scenes at ATVI is likely to be quite small and those that are actually prepared to pay to read about it even smaller so I cannot see a financial incentive and certainly not one that is worth potential legal action from ATVI and throwing away any chance of finding a similar position in another company.

[Faroth]

This is what upsets me about the gaming industry as a whole, and so far, it's happening with EVERY, SINGLE, COMPANY that isn't indie. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft (their XBOne team at least), all AAA publishers (Ubisoft and EA to name a few); all the things that make most of the games suck in peoples eyes come from people who don't even play video games nor create them. They put these ideas in to either monetize microtransactions (especially in EA's case) or because it looks like something sellable, but not necessarily enjoyable. Nintendo continues to play it safe and silence the community because they now take all ad revenue from any videos of LPers, reviewers, etc. Microsoft has done some incredibly retarded things like the always-on DRM and constant checks (which they turned off but can turn on at any time), shoving Kinect down peoples' throats because they saw how well the Wii was doing, and made a more expensive PS4 that doesn't even run as good as a PS4.

Not entirely on topic of Pardo, but the monetization over creative control angle has been brought up, so I'm going to put this here.
http://kotaku.com/nintendo-investor-...mes-1599625657

Key quote from the article is from a Nintendo shareholder:

"I do not understand video games and I even feel angry because, at Nintendo's shareholders' meetings, the shareholders always discuss things relating to video games or such childish topics as "what the future of video games should be," while I, for one, was flabbergasted that Mr. Iwata continues to hold his position although he had said that he would resign if the company's performance were bad*.

I hope that Nintendo's shareholders' meeting will become an opportunity where the shareholders discuss the company's business operations from the viewpoints of capital gain and dividends."

Also:
http://kotaku.com/crazy-nintendo-inv...ghe-1531915823

"Just think of paying 99 cents just to get Mario to jump a little higher."

Ugh...

I hope Nintendo can continue to fight off these vultures and still find their footing.

[Deleted]

Good post. Agree pretty much completely. Hearthstone, whether you play it or not, has been very nearly perfect from the very first and from what I've seen of Heroes of the Storm there's not too much to worry about there either.

Except those titles are very genre specific and I, and millions more, have no interest in playing them. Some of us deeply love the Azeroth universe and sadly it has become a one dimensional, tragically lifeless place in last 5 years. So much potential, so many wrong decisions. They are not reaching out as they did in the game's inception. The patch notes for vanilla and exp 1 were extraordinary, now it's just constant rehash. The way the game has turned into such a mundane list of things to do then log off to me leaves me wishing they will bring out Wow Classic. I would happily play until end of TBC. And I am not alone and couldn't give a fuck about rose tinted whatever it is you freaks call it, the game was better then, I was enjoying it and preparing to enjoy it for a long time and I was robbed by people thinking they were making the game better but they were not. I'll plonk down 15 a month right now to go to classic. Men in Black mind/short-term history eraser waved before me or not.

[Polarthief]

<snip>

Omg... my stomach feels like it's in knots after reading that. As things are already bleak, they continue to grow bleaker.

As a message to any investors, creators, and "publicisers": If you don't get video games, kindly FUCK OFF out of the industry because you're RUINING it with your greed and numbers.

[Metta World Peace]

Omg... my stomach feels like it's in knots after reading that. As things are already bleak, they continue to grow bleaker.

As a message to any investors, creators, and "publicisers": If you don't get video games, kindly FUCK OFF out of the industry because you're RUINING it with your greed and numbers.

That's not just in the gaming industry, it's quite common to see those types of remarks from some shareholders in other industries. Telecom and Sports teams are such examples. Without straying this too off topic, long story short, it's all about making money.

[SL1200]

Seems like they all want to gtfo before this failure of an expansion gets attached to their names.

[Deleted]

He not only has his daughter, but the rest of the entire real world also.

We are part of the "rest of the entire real world".

[finskee]

We are part of the "rest of the entire real world".

Well I cannot argue that. Well played.

PS I already said you win the thread so go wild. <3

[Deficineiron]

Interesting points but he clearly has not left bad terms and what incentive is there for him to spill the beans on ATVI? The audience that would be interested in hearing about behind the scenes at ATVI is likely to be quite small and those that are actually prepared to pay to read about it even smaller so I cannot see a financial incentive and certainly not one that is worth potential legal action from ATVI and throwing away any chance of finding a similar position in another company.

also possible, time will tell. my view is that when it does come out, it will show interference from kotick from the day the merger closed, first on aggressively broadening the target market of the game via tuning (I suspect wotlk had late-stage across-the-board instance and raid mob damage nerfs from what dev's had intended. I would think the metric this would be measured by would be expected participation/completion metrics), and developing the cash shop with ever-closer to game-impacting purchases. I could be wrong on some or all. I would be happy to be wrong and have a pretty definitive credible chronology of how the merger DID impact wow, my curiousity is considerably greater than any ego at play in terms of outcome.

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Omg... my stomach feels like it's in knots after reading that. As things are already bleak, they continue to grow bleaker.

As a message to any investors, creators, and "publicisers": If you don't get video games, kindly FUCK OFF out of the industry because you're RUINING it with your greed and numbers.

Well ruining it for some gamers (including me) is certainly a valid viewpoint. I wouldn't say Kotick doesn't get video games, though. He is a bit older than me but discusses some of the same early video game (coin-op) experiences I had. The difference is from an abnormally early age (college) he was focused on making money on the just-then-starting personal computer industry, and he got a very lucky break (meeting steve wynn).

[Pann]

also possible, time will tell. my view is that when it does come out, it will show interference from kotick from the day the merger closed, first on aggressively broadening the target market of the game via tuning (I suspect wotlk had late-stage across-the-board instance and raid mob damage nerfs from what dev's had intended. I would think the metric this would be measured by would be expected participation/completion metrics), and developing the cash shop with ever-closer to game-impacting purchases. I could be wrong on some or all. I would be happy to be wrong and have a pretty definitive credible chronology of how the merger DID impact wow, my curiousity is considerably greater than any ego at play in terms of outcome.

I am not sure that this was the case, server transfers, albeit with huge restrictions (but we both know Blizzard tend to play the long game when it comes to the cash shop), existed before the Activision merger. Whose to say that Activision's knowledge and experience with monetizing games franchises was not exactly what Blizzard was looking for?

Also I think that accessibility changes brought in with Wrath were a natural progression of WOW's development and a result of player numbers. Despite its phenomenal growth WOW has always had player retention problems and it is clear that the numbers leaving were beginning to catch up on those joining by the tail end of TBC and that growth had slowed considerably. When faced with poor player retention and massive amounts of content that remained untouched by the vast majority of players it makes sense, to me at least, to try to open up this content to widest possible audience in an effort to increase retention.

I am not sure we will ever get any sort information as to the high level inner working at ATVI but I do think who replaces Pardo could be telling, if it is someone from the Activision side of the business it would point ATVI taking a more hands on approach with Blizzard.

[reddevil]

good luck.....

[Deficineiron]

I am not sure that this was the case, server transfers, albeit with huge restrictions (but we both know Blizzard tend to play the long game when it comes to the cash shop), existed before the Activision merger. Whose to say that Activision's knowledge and experience with monetizing games franchises was not exactly what Blizzard was looking for?

Also I think that accessibility changes brought in with Wrath were a natural progression of WOW's development and a result of player numbers. Despite its phenomenal growth WOW has always had player retention problems and it is clear that the numbers leaving were beginning to catch up on those joining by the tail end of TBC and that growth had slowed considerably. When faced with poor player retention and massive amounts of content that remained untouched by the vast majority of players it makes sense, to me at least, to try to open up this content to widest possible audience in an effort to increase retention.

I am not sure we will ever get any sort information as to the high level inner working at ATVI but I do think who replaces Pardo could be telling, if it is someone from the Activision side of the business it would point ATVI taking a more hands on approach with Blizzard.

indeed, activision/kotick were in fact exactly what vivendi was looking for to increase the value of their video game portfolio. Blizzard wasn't a voting party in this.

In the end the actual serious suggestions on what transpired as a result of the merger (yours mine others) are all probably containing some elements close to truth, in varying percentages...my starting point is I see wow 2.4.3 (which did have 'accessibility; changes but 150 badges for top 2.4 items was a totally different level of commitment and time/effort vs. what wotlk introduced), and add bobby kotick as ultimate company officer reporting to board, and i get 3.0.2.

it has, at least, been a somewhat entertaining 'what if' game for some number of years.

[Wilian]

Cataclysm was a serious misreading of what their customers wanted, Diablo III was unfinished. Titan was sent back to the drawing board if not scrapped altogether. That's some serious business for a company that usually comfortably--if slowly--coasts to both artistic and commercial success.

Bleh, I don't think Cataclysm was as much serious misreading of customers, more like mixed smash of bad design choices all around that backfired when none of them could be implemented properly in the end because of running out of time.

The base idea itself could've worked. Reworked world? Cool! Too bad lot of the zones were half-assed after running out of time. More challenging small-scale end game content? Cool! Too bad they removed about every other piece of end game content except heroic->raid from equation, leaving people fiddle thumbs if they didn't/couldn't raid with no alternatives to heroic dungeons at all (very much ruining the gearing curve). More involved storylines? Well Cataclysm quest writing took a deep notch down in quality but the quest design itself wasn't that bad. Just the linearity of it all killed it. Like the hell, locking out of entire zone if you didn't do one quest in straight line they were?

Just poor choices they couldn't live through with to the end

[BenBos]

He had nothing to do with the current direction of WoW. Stop commenting if you clearly know squat about the person. It's shameful to such a legend.

It is odd that Rob Pardo is now given the "God status" while actually HE introduced the RMAH into Diablo3 ....

Now ... I was all for these AH's into D3. Certainly the hardcore AH was a terrific game experience for me.

But it is very funny to see now all these ATVI theories showing up ... while THE man responsible for creating the RMAH into a Blizzard game is now suddenly the Holy Saint leaving to escape the "devil" Kotick.

I like Pardo too, but you DO have to know he promoted things like the RMAH, KISS, OVERPOWERED avatars and game play first over realism.

All things where a LOT of posters in this thread had some issues with in the past.

odd and very funny

The man behind the RMAH and strong support behind Hearthstone was perhaps considered no longer suited and on the same line as Morhaime who still is considered the founder of Blizzard.

A theory that actually makes more sense than these ridiculous "evil" theories of Kotick. Other reasons could be that Pardo was too ambitious as many saw him as a possible successor to Morhaime or a simple burn out. But these ATVI theories are the most unlikely in view of the recent years of Pardo at Blizzard really.

tldr....

If there was anyone promoting MORE real money into the latest Blizzard products, it was Rob Pardo ....

[MoanaLisa]

A lot of the nonsense about Kotick and Activision ignores the idea entirely that Blizzard would have never really gotten into the accessibility and monetization game on their own. That's nonsense pure and simple. With or without Activision it was going to happen. It's what for-profit companies do: extend their markets and use their opportunities to grow their business and profits. Pardo himself didn't do anything that wasn't approved by Morhaime. I'm not into big conspiracy theories about Activision and Blizzard because I have never believed that it would have made any difference either way. Top management at Blizzard is business-savvy enough to figure this stuff out without someone else leading them down the primrose path. It's just business. And video games are a very big business.