Was Ghostcrawler fired/forced out?

[Pozix]

Follow Ghostcrawler's twitter and see where he ends up. If he truly took another job opportunity, we will find out where eventually, whether it be in game design or as a marine biologist. Someone will eventually tell us that they hired him, if he doesnt tell us where he went himself. If we dont hear anything within like a month as to his new employment, then i would say he was forced out. Reading his words, it doesnt seem like he was forced out at all but I could be wrong about this.

[lockedout]

He left because there is no flying in WoD.

[Galaddriel]

Jay Wilson took his jerb.



My theory is he bailed because the stat squish is going to be a disaster and he doesn't want to take the heat for it.

[Haywire5714]

Sub Numbers go to an all time high = Ghostcrawler did jack and had nothing to do with this.

Sub Numbers go down (through age) = Ghostcrawler is to blame for this all.

...logic?

People keep mentioning age as the "SOLE" reason that WoW has lost so many subs; and I don't entirely agree. There's no denying that it had an effect on the sub drop, but I think it's a little foolish to rub Cataclysm out of the picture; I believe that most of the design decisions during that expansion were poorly thought out.

And of course there's the Lore.

[Togarox]

No way he was fired. In the past when Blizz employee's are fired, they don't get to type a goodbye message on the forums. A CM usually just drops in and says "Person X will no longer be working with the company." I also doubt he was forced out. Even though people blamed him for everything, he wasn't doing that bad. I think he left for the reason stated. He got a better offer elsewhere.

[Belloc]

well the sub numbers have been getting incredibly low under his reign

He's been around since BC, so that excuse doesn't work.

[Jankage]

He's going to League

[Togarox]

And of course there's the Lore.

Lore is Kosak and Metzen's area. It's always funny though when people blame GC for "panda-land". Ooooh the ignorance. But you are right. There isn't a single factor for why people have left.

[MoanaLisa]

I don't think for a minute that he was forced out. I know for a fact that people project on forums though. I'm hoping that at some point someone gets an interview with him because I suspect a little bit that he had done quite a bit to improve the game systems and had reached a point of diminishing returns. I view him as a very driven guy who wants and needs a new challenge every so often. If he was playing it safe with his life he wouldn't have abandoned his PhD in marine biology for game design.

WoD systems are going to look quite a bit like systems for MoP so I'm wondering if there wasn't an element of him having brought things to what he views as a good place and wanted to do another game for a bit.

For those wondering, he did leave a tweet yesterday that as much as said he's not leaving the industry. I think he's a builder not a maintainer.

[stgeorge78]

I think he was asked to take a different job at Blizzard (possibly outside of WoW), so he probably saw the writing on the wall and took one of the many offers he probably gets in his inbox every week.

[Glormon]

Don't really see any purpose in speculating whether or not he left to preemptively before he was gonna be fired or because he felt it really was a good business move on his own part since we'll never actually know unless he tells us.

[Littleraven]

you do know it was a team effort, hes not the sole voice.

^this. people need to remove their tin foil hats.

also, people are assuming he took another job in the game industry. the man has his PhD in marine science. who is to say he didnt go back into his actual field of study? he said new and exciting. part of me doesnt believe that its another video game company.

[ElmoMcBeastly]

According to rumours he left, and took a new career opportunity, before he was about to be fired for the nitty gritty of WoD development.

What rumors? From where? From who?

Not buyin' it. Nobody in the game industry nests in one place for a whole career. Quite frankly, the longevity of these Blizzard folks is really out of the norm.

[purebalance]

you do know it was a team effort, hes not the sole voice.

NO GC WAS A TYRANT WHO RULED THIS LAND WITH AN IRON CLAW!!

He 100% got an offer on something big. No doubt in my mind.

[Suikoden]

The window for a new opportunity opened and he went for it.

Nothing more, nothing less.

[re1gn1te]

Of course he was, You can't run off 60% of the casual player base with a system far too complicated for the average player without some type of ramifications.

- - - Updated - - -



Yes it is low it's 60% lower than it was before him.

Uhm what? There where 10.7mil when he started 7.7 / 10.7 ~~ 71.96% so. I don't know what kind of full-retard math you're using but it's clearly wrong. Game's always have their peaks, it's only natural that the sub count is declining.

[Aquamonkey]

Greg was fired because:

1. He hit on Debra.
2. Got rejected.
3. Called a sex line from work.
4. Got a harassment lawsuit.
5. Drank vodka at work.
6. Shit on Debra's desk.
7. Puked on Debra's desk.

Infracted: Please post constructively if you're going to bother to respond. Thanks. [ML]

[Radio]

What rumors? From where? From who?

Not buyin' it. Nobody in the game industry nests in one place for a whole career. Quite frankly, the longevity of these Blizzard folks is really out of the norm.

This, this, this, this. People in game/software design are generally challenge hungry and jump ships constantly so they get more chances to work on new projects. I'd be willing to wager that GC got an offer to work on an up-and-coming product where he'll get to design from the ground up, rather than working within the space of expansions and maintaining/improving an existing product.

EDIT: Also, in most cases where people are fired/forced to resign, they don't get to leave with a forum post and free reign to go crazy with QnA on twitter. Businesses almost always handle forced removals with subtlety, especially with prominent employees.

[Xayl1]

Greg was fired because:

1. He hit on Debra.
2. Got rejected.
3. Called a sex line from work.
4. Got a harassment lawsuit.
5. Drank vodka at work.
6. Shit on Debra's desk.
7. Puked on Debra's desk.

I agree one hundred percent with this post and it is now the only explanation I will accept for him being fired.

[re1gn1te]

Greg was fired because:

1. He hit on Debra.
2. Got rejected.
3. Called a sex line from work.
4. Got a harassment lawsuit.
5. Drank vodka at work.
6. Shit on Debra's desk.
7. Puked on Debra's desk.

Like a boss.