It was an open secret in Hollywood. Blizzard employees aren’t really traveling in the same social circles as Hollywood celebrities, even if their main campus is physically close to Hollywood.
2 Likes
No he’s done. Had health issues from the job and what not. I’d say it’d be nice for Ion to leave but I doubt they’d pick someone better at this point. This team is kind of too far gone.
People cried about the game when he was in charge also. So what is the difference?
2 Likes
That guy was cool. I remember him leaving right at the beginning of Legion, before everything went south. Good call. I enjoyed listening to him tell stories from the WoW universe. You could tell he really loved it.
3 Likes
I’m curious what you think the lead game dev has in terms of power that would make WoW a vastly different game today than it would have developed into otherwise.
The reality is the game is the way it is because Activision, who took control sometime in Wrath/Cata but whose influence likely was felt in WoD as MoP would have been too deep into development to make huge sweeping changes was in full effect. The game director is beholden to the president of Blizzard who is beholden to the Activision board of directors who are the ones responsible for pushing the MMO-esport hybrid. The game director is to take the overall direction and translate it into actual game features that push and drive the game in the direction to board wants it to go.
If you want WoW to fundamentally change, you need to first start with ousting all of them at the top up to and including the president (who himself is a mythic raiding tryhard) and likely a new director who is either a current mythic raiding tryhard or is a a has been tryhard and has deep roots in those communities…but if you don’t have leadership who values and wants to see the game return back to a prior age/time, shuffling a butt in a seat isn’t going to have much of any effect.
1 Like
So it was Activision that told Blizzard to shift from a social, group-oriented focus, to a system of randomized interactions that destroyed community and encouraged others to treat each other as disposable cogs to be consumed and then tossed in the trash afterwards? To focus more on the “ME ME ME” of solo players, rather than the “let’s work together” of a group-focused game?
Interesting.
Since you’re curious, I think the lead game dev could change WoW from being a sweatlord competition that has bred a very toxic fanbase into something fun to play for all players, veterans and newcomers alike, but since said lead game dev is actually a sweatlord, I don’t see that happening, because a sweatlord is going to sweatlord.
5 Likes
Jesus you people are animals. Poor guy left cuz people builled him so hard he had panic attacks at work cuz people hated him and shat on him constantly now you want him back ? As they say Regret is greater then gratitude
7 Likes
Basically. its the mmorpg some skip the rpg. since yeah…kind of have to.
Still not sure why the hell my night elf did so much for the horde. My people are sill homeless in SW (even in beta DF)…guess the check is in the mail for rebuild money from the horde.
yeah we sent the money out last week night elves. guess the caravan got jumped. By murloks or something maybe. cough…
HOLD UP…
Where in any of the lawsuits did anyone at Blizz drug women and assault them in this hotel room???
7 Likes
I don’t know about that. I remember fans loving the guy, his energy was great. If people were treating him badly I suspect it was because of their jealousy. Metzen was awesome!
Also, I personally think he left because Legion was supposed to be the last WoW expansion. They put so much into it, and it shows. The expansions that followed really took a quality dive, imo. I don’t think he wanted to be part of the quality decline. Good call, I think.
You mean like you were unable to prove your own claim? No source, no links, nothing? oops.
I have, they looked up to him. The ACCUSATIONS were swirling around him for a long time before being ‘fully outed’ just like with Epstein.
You should probably read the ‘group chat’ texts from their facebook circle about that room that got plastered in articles!
1 Like
And I know (not think) you’re wrong. The game director takes direction from people higher up the chain than them. If the executives decide it is the best interest for the company to go from a casual-first game to one that caters even more to mythic raiding tryhards, an honestly smart move because there is no way WoW could ever hope to have stayed competitive in that arena against games/companies with newer engines and updated products and the WoW playerbase has always has this weird hyper-fixation on min maxing and/or adoring those that do, than it becomes the job of the game director on what specifically to do to meet those objectives.
The game director obviously has input and say, but not absolute authority and freedom to do whatever they want…at least not if they want to keep getting a paycheck. I think that is why you seen a lot of the OG folks moving on once Activision more and more took over. They were being expected to turn their game into something none of them wanted/agreed with (else they would have done it themselves back in the beginning) and the corporate pressure meant conform or be pushed out and likely without nice and hefty severance packages and the ability to spin a neutral/positive story to it.
1 Like
I don’t buy that. The same guy has been in charge since the decline. I think it’s ironic that they said this guy’s gift was for designing raids, and yet less and less people are actually raiding in WoW. So, if the raiding sucks, and everything else sucks, what is this guy doing? I feel like everyone is afraid to say anything, because he’s comparable to the Sith Emperor and will shock them to death with force lightning, or in his case lawsuits.
It’s like they asked, “is the dark side more powerful.” - “No, just more selective…” Yeah, as in they only select sweatlords to work on WoW.
2 Likes
Ion’s been crapping on raiders since the start of Legion.
What the hell does this even mean?
Uh huh.
This always seems to be the “go to” response for Cosby. However, his antics were one of those so called Hollywood “open secrets.”
People knew, but no one seriously acknowledged it.
As for the “before he was exposed” part, you do know that he had at least 11 claims against him that dated from the 1980s all the was up to 2005, right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cosby_sexual_assault_cases#1965%E2%80%931996_allegations
For what it’s worth, I’ve generally found many of the so called “MeToo” cases to be BS as they tend to come out when it would hurt someone the most, when someone has something to gain politically, etc. These sorts of accusations near universally are years after the fact with no evidence or police reports.
As far as Cosby goes however, all the stuff from before 2005 predates that MeToo crap and the first use of the phrase (2006 by Tarana Burke, then used sporadically before it exploded in the wake of Weinstein)
The problem with Cosby however was no one wanted to take it seriously. He was America’s Dad! However, this wasn’t a matter of a bunch of chicks suddenly dogpiling on the guy one after another in the span of less than a year. This was a stream of them every few years.
Bottom line:
Widely known among the public? I’d say no.
Widely known in the entertainment industry? You better believe it.
And since I know it’s coming: yes, I know Blizzard is a video game company and not directly involved with Hollywood. However, they always had that image of being the rock stars of the game industry for a number of years, and as I’m sure we all know, there are quite a few big names within the film and music industries that have either attended or performed at Blizzcon. Trust me when I say that if you get a few drinks into someone affiliated with Hollywood, they’ll start to tell you stories you wouldn’t believe.
TLDR: It’s extremely naive to think there was no way in hell that at least one of the folks involved with the scandal didn’t know what they were doing when they came up with that name.
2 Likes
Yeah… no. That’s not at all what caused his anxiety and panic attacks.
Please do your research and actually listen to Metzen’s interview before you make stuff up.
The interview I posted above gives the real reasons.
3 Likes
Yeah, I know what reasons he had since I read then when he retired, but I still stand by my post. Legion was supposed to be the end. After that quality took a nose dive. Of course, he’s not going to say that, but I read between the lines.
Quality took a nose dive way before Legion. Titan was what did it to him.
1 Like
It means they only hire people who agree with the Sith Emperor.