Was Ghostcrawler fired/forced out?

[Deleted]

And who are the "guys up top" in this analogy, because it sure isn't the players or any random yahoo that can post on the internet.

The "guys at the top" are the players in his example, because they are the target of his efforts.


I just used the office thing as an example

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Idiots still using the "SUBS DECLINED UNDER HIM HURR" moronic sentence over and over should just shut the fuck up already.

He was in the same position he is NOW as he was in from mid-way to the end of TBC and the entirety of WOTLK, both of which had the HIGHEST peak subs.

Thus he was part of the same group that you say was the best times in WoW and the same group that you are saying is the worst time in WoW.

Fuck me people need to just stop spouting shit just to seem edgy on the internet.

Growth slowed when he joined and then a year later it started to go down, might have happened without him, but that facts are the facts.

[Deleted]

There is NO way changes as major as some that have occurred were not vetted by at least Chilton. To assume - as many are doing in this and other threads - that he had the power to put changes in place solo is just...I can't think of a nicer term than moronic!

There's also no way that some of the changes would happen without there being a ton of data behind them to justify putting them time and effort they must have taken, but hey this is the internet you don't expect people to think do you?

[edmorte]

The problem is why the hell GC is leaving and they just don't fire Kalgan! Get that disaster the hell out of there ASAP!

I know right. But Kalgan @ least knows some programming. GC just use tools.

But even not liking both, he prob just left, it just shows he have no heart in wow. Some ppl in blizz are there from the beginning, when they barely have money to pay their salaries. Any way, his loss, no other company has so much freedom in creation.

It was for the best, stop caring about it and play the xpac, it's prob the best one.

[Deleted]

Can't say with absolute certainty, but I don't think he was fired.

It is a bit odd that he was part of the Blizzcon panels and whatnot, and then left. Might be due to him being a known face in the company though.

[Deleted]

Can't say with absolute certainty, but I don't think he was fired.

It is a bit odd that he was part of the Blizzcon panels and whatnot, and then left. Might be due to him being a known face in the company though.

If he did infact quit, they would have known about it for a long time

[Ferocity]

It's pretty amazing how dissonant a lot of the thread is in that Tom Chilton, the actual game director, is rarely mentioned as important or anything. Of course, Chilton never really says anything outside of carefully vetted interviews. Draw your own conclusions.

Tom Chilton as game director doesn't work on game systems, doesn't make new character models, doesn't make story, he basically doesn't create anything in game per se. He has completely different responsibilities, and maximum what he can do with game is suggest some completely new ideas to work on. Just like land owner doesn't actually build any house, so Tom Chilton as game director doesn't actually make any in-game changes apart from strategic ones (like suggesting concepts of LFD/LFR, server infrastrucure (yet again, in general, like suggesting concept of Virtual Realms), and has nothing to do with game systems.

Meanwhile direct GC and his sub-ordinant team responsibilities were design of game systems. He had no responsibilities as promoter, accountant or manager. But he had direct responsibilities for slow destruction of game systems, which is everything starting from leveling and quest rewards and ending in professions, and everything which involves class mechanics and tuning in general.

He left on his own. Blizzard is not known for firing their employee because whiners don't like him/her. They value their employee greatly. Jay's case showed this.

There is difference between firing someone and gently asking someone to leave and even giving time to find other place of work. And this is quite common approach. And it doesn't have to be asked by actual employer, but by co-workers (or some specific strong individuals) in general.

[Super Kami Dende]

Growth slowed when he joined and then a year later it started to go down, might have happened without him, but that facts are the facts.

He joined when WoW was around 8.5-9 million players in TBC.

Subscriptions went up over 1 and a half years to 12 million before they started falling and the entire time they stayed at a constant increase.

They kept a pretty steady incline the entire time.

[Deleted]

He joined when WoW was around 8.5-9 million players in TBC.

Subscriptions went up over 1 and a half years to 12 million before they started falling and the entire time they stayed at a constant increase.

They kept a pretty steady incline the entire time.

At the start of 2008 WoW had 10 million subs, aka when he joined

[Deleted]

The "guys at the top" are the players in this example, because they are the target of his efforts.

I just used the office thing as an example

That just seems backwards, why would the players be the people in charge, the players don't know anything about how wow is being run and if even though they've lost around 40% of the subs if that makes any difference to how much money hits the bottom line.

Just because they pay their money to play doesn't mean they have a voice in how the company is run, you know like virtually every other company in the world.

Plus "the players" are the people who actually play the game and not the malcontent who post here.

[Kaleredar]

Tom Chilton as game director doesn't work on game systems, doesn't make new character models, doesn't make story, he basically doesn't create anything in game per se. He has completely different responsibilities, and maximum what he can do with game is suggest some completely new ideas to work on. Just like land owner doesn't actually build any house, so Tom Chilton as game director doesn't actually make any in-game changes apart from strategic ones (like suggesting concepts of LFD/LFR, server infrastrucure (yet again, in general, like suggesting concept of Virtual Realms), and has nothing to do with game systems.

Meanwhile direct GC and his sub-ordinant team responsibilities were design of game systems. He had no responsibilities as promoter, accountant or manager. But he had direct responsibilities for slow destruction of game systems, which is everything starting from leveling and quest rewards and ending in professions, and everything which involves class mechanics and tuning in general.

So you're blaming GC for implementing Chilton's supposedly crappy ideas, and then saying it was GC's fault for having them? What?

There is difference between firing someone and gently asking someone to leave and even giving time to find other place of work. And this is quite common approach. And it doesn't have to be asked by actual employer, but by co-workers (or some specific strong individuals) in general.

A complete assumption on your part.


Or maybe it's just amazing how many people on MMO champion are apparently veteran video game developers and have years of experience in the industry. Many on this thread certainly seem to act that way.

[Kisho]

If he was fired, it would imply that he did something to deserve it. Between Blizzcon and his departure, I cannot think of anything that caused his departure, and at Blizzcon he was on stage as usual, laughing and joking with Metzen, Chilton, et al. If he was to be fired, he would've been in the shit, and there is no way Blizzard would have risked him being live on stage while there was potential drama brewing in the background.

So no. It's completely illogical to say he was fired. He left of his own choice, and I'm pretty certain Blizzard tried everything to keep him.

[Deleted]

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

There wasn't any 'Reign'. He isn't the king of Blizzard, WoW or any of it. He wasn't a sole decision maker at all. He was head of a huge team who make join decisions. He was the public communicator however, which causes people like you to completely misunderstand his job.

[Aquamonkey]

There is difference between firing someone and gently asking someone to leave and even giving time to find other place of work. And this is quite common approach. And it doesn't have to be asked by actual employer, but by co-workers (or some specific strong individuals) in general.

If Blizzard was pushing GC out, I doubt they would have let him onstage at Blizzcon.

[Kaleredar]

There wasn't any 'Reign'. He isn't the king of Blizzard,

Exactly.

Morhaime is the king of Blizzard. He sits on his solid gold frozen throne, Frostmourne clutched in one hand, the black soulstone in the other, stoically watching the development team slave away.

[voidillusion]

Since everybody is making up stuff i have one also!

GC left because he was invited to work in the final development of Elder Scrolls Online.

No? Heck and i thought this was as good as GC WAS FIRED CUZ "insert random bshit reason"

[Mongoose19]

1000% he was fired. Cmon this dude ruined the game.

[Herecius]

One: He wasn't fired.

Two: It's not a sign of WoW's old devs leaving the team. Old devs from the vanilla and BC era who have been working on Titan have come BACK to work on WoD, that is a fact.

Three: The idea that Blizzard would have been so displeased with his performance that they would have fired him is completely absurd. He led half the talks at Blizzcon. He was still doing regular developer meetings basically all the time. Those are not the sorts of things that somebody about to get the boot does.

Game developers move on. They go to other companies. Many will go to other industries. Game development, as a whole, is a very incestuous industry in that it trades employees ALL over the place. Many of the industry's oldest names (barring the huge company heads, such as Miyamoto, Kojima, etc.) have been in oodles of different companies. That's just how it is. Greg Street worked at Blizzard for a very long time, but not always in the position he was in at the end.

[Nobleshield]

Since everybody is making up stuff i have one also!

GC left because he was invited to work in the final development of Elder Scrolls Online.

No? Heck and i thought this was as good as GC WAS FIRED CUZ "insert random bshit reason"

I actually think it would be great if in the coming days it's revealed that he's going to be working on one of: ESO, Wildstar, or EQ Next.

[Ratyrel]

I really don't see the need for conspiracy theories here, not everyone has to be lying about everything all the time. Why shouldn't someone who works in a creative industry such as game design be allowed to want a change of scenery after 5 years?

[Lemmiwink]

It's not like GC was to WoW what Steve Jobs was to Apple. I wouldn't completely rule out he was asked to leave since he was the public face after all, but I am 90% sure he just wanted a change.