Was Ghostcrawler fired/forced out?

[Deleted]

Why does it matter so much that Ghostcrawler is with or without the company.

As far as i've seen he was just a public face, the lead, the "manager". According to his own tweets he was only involved in features in UI. Who the hell knows what "features" is? He only mentioned transmog as an example as that's not exactly a game defining or gameplay feature.

Blizzard, like any company, is a collaboration - They'll have meetings, ideas will be shot about and ghostcrawler was most likely the guy to say yes or no to particular features. And most of all, he was warcrafts public face.

[XDurionX]

Of course not.

People like to project all their anger on one person, reality works different.

[Sturmbringe]

He left on his own after he was told that he had two choices:

1. Get fired

2. Leave on his own.

Greg chose to hit the road -being smart and all- but nobody (less fanboys ofc) are in any doubt of what really happened.

It's good that he left imo. Maybe WoW now can be Warcraft once again.

[Danifilth]

He was tired of the community negative attitude thats the impression im getting.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Of course not, no matter how much some bitter insignificant person WANTS to Think that. People blaming ONE person for whatever it is they are emo about when it comes to this game should really get a clue.

He was not fired, and I've got a feeling we'll hear what his new job is eventually. Maybe he got fed up with bitter, ungrateful basement dwellers and Went back to marine creatures. I know I'd rather work with Deep sea creatures than the playerbase of mmos at times...

[scvd]

No one here knows, but god they think they do.
When I was made redundant, I didn't go out claiming such, I told everyone I was moving on, does that mean same applies to GC? No, but it is a possibility.

[Queen of Hamsters]

He left on his own after he was told that he had two choices:

1. Get fired

2. Leave on his own.

Greg chose to hit the road -being smart and all- but nobody (less fanboys ofc) are in any doubt of what really happened.

It's good that he left imo. Maybe WoW now can be Warcraft once again.

Lol'd. If it makes you feel better thinking that, then go right ahead.

[Skulljin]

The fact that he loved/loves to claim how much he loved/loves the game makes feel uneasy about his leaving.
Like: Yeah, I like this game, I love it, but I am leaving it for something else now.

Maybe it is just me, but it has something from "Rats leaving the sinking ship" to me. Not trying to be the "WOW is going to die hurr" guy, but honestly. This just feels off every way I look at it.

[Deleted]

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

yes, because it's ALL down to him. lol

[tru]

something a complex as sub numbers is never about a single factor - like one employee.

when that one employing is a lead designer... we are not talking about joe blow in the basement level sorting mail.
he had power and control and under his direction and influence this game is what 4-6 million subs lower? but hey you got pandas and pokemon there is something to be happy about...

[Granyala]

He's a Marine Biologist next to Game Designer, maybe he was just missing the Marine Biologist life and was offered a position for that?

He stated that after 16 years w/o publishing it was very hard to get back into the scientific field.
He also stated that gaming industry is now his domain.

IF Blizzard wanted him to be gone, they would just have reassigned him to a position where he doesn't get to do PR, because you don't just fire talent and dedication like that.

I think someone must have made a once in a lifetime dream offer and he took it.
VERY curious to see what it is.

he had power and control

No he did not. The DEV team only implements change when a consensus has been reached. Aka ALL of them have to agree.
He also stated multiple times that his job was "1% idea man 99% getting stuff to work".

[Hulari]

My theory..

He was forced out of Blizzard. With WoD being announced and being shipped to launch soon'ish. Blizzard will be designing and working on the expansion after WoD. So what better time to get someone else in to change the game further and bring in some new and fresh ideas.

As said since GC join blizzard the wow sub numbers have been declining over time. He joined in Feb 2008 and WoWs peak was late 2008, since then the numbers have been dropping.

[Deleted]

He left on his own after he was told that he had two choices:

1. Get fired

2. Leave on his own.

Greg chose to hit the road -being smart and all- but nobody (less fanboys ofc) are in any doubt of what really happened.

What you don't know about this I can just about squeeze in the grand canyon, why you pretend to know more baffles me.

[theWocky]

Why on earth would he be fired? He was a likeable, engaging person.

He led WoW to it's greatest heights. Game is old. Game will lose more subs than it gains - Blizz have accepted and mentioned this. The hardcore mmo genre is not for everyone any longer - there are just too many other alternate offerings on the table.

[Blade Wolf]

I wish people could just accept and respect his decision of leaving instead of coming up with wild and false conclusions of their own.

[solvexx]

He wasn't fired... He did a lot of good for WoW.

[Baine]

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

Mature people have generally a more large scope to analyze things.

[Rylon]

Why on earth would he be fired? He was a likeable, engaging person.

He led WoW to it's greatest heights. Game is old. Game will lose more subs than it gains - Blizz have accepted and mentioned this. The hardcore mmo genre is not for everyone any longer - there are just too many other alternate offerings on the table.

This. I think the game is losing subs because the old guard that started during vanilla and tbc are now almost 10 years older and are moving on to either other games or have less time for gaming. That, along with the fact that there are more mmo and competitive gaming options out there now (that aren't ten years old), WoW isn't replacing the subs that they are losing. There are too many new, fresh options out there

[Varabently]

As if anyone could be 100% sure on this one way or the other.

[maxalyss]

Do you think that perhaps GC was fired or forced to 'resign'?

Nah. If he was fired they would have removed his capability to Blue Post.