Senior quest designer quits

[Rdord-frostmourne (Rdord)]

How has the fresh talent they brought on for BFA and SL worked out so far?

[Audreeana-hydraxis]

Low post count - check.
Alt account - check.
Posters name - check.
Game is going to fail line at the end - check.

Another troll post imagine that. Someone decided to move on to another job. Big deal.

[Beautifulblu-herod]

Gremlins. Nothing but gremlins. I hear the IT guys are breaking out the fire hoses.

Cackles and wiggles toes

[Sernius-garrosh]

@Nibble-turalyon

Turned out upper management was somehow even more toxic than the worker team.

That’s with a lot of places, though. I’ve noticed this more often with people who inherited a business from a parent. For example, there’s a printing company I audit called Quad/Graphics. It’s a fairly large company, but now they are starting to shut down plants around the country & this started before COVID happened. From talking with the workers who’ve been there for 25+ years, the moment the company & more so management started being less about the employees was when one of the sons inherited the company & it went public. I guess the turnover rate is extremely high & most of the people I’ve met(in management positions), including the CEO, are some of the most unprofessional butt kissers I’ve ever met. But, I will give it to them since I’ve never had to warn them about potential environmental issues, which is kind of rare. I usually have to mention something when I audit manufacturing plants.

[Lagaidh-khaz-modan]

@Revlol-misha

Just to be clear, it is very common for people to not spend their entire careers at the same place when it comes to game developing

That’s true of almost any career these days.

We can also detect when departures become so common that there’s a trend.

This is exactly what it looks like at a software company. Those who can leave, do. Those whose prospects are not as bright, remain.

The morale in that building HAS to be crap right now.

I’ve left sweet programming gigs for that exact reason. It just felt bad to be at the job anymore, regardless of my duties.

[Altiere-area-52]

@Hellmendye-stormrage

Nothing against the quest designer but the quests this expansion where horrible, so i agree with your statement

I mean quest design as general in this game is SAME thing with different coat of paint.

[Galabris-alexstrasza (Galabris)]

Why do you people assume a quest dev has the autonomy to impact lore or even has much of a say on the direction of a game? They take their directives from the actual game director and lore managers.

Fresh blood is definitely needed…but at the leadership table. People who aren’t going to bend the knee to tryhard mythic raiders and streamers and design a game that overly rewards and prioritizes them over solo/casuals

[Lagaidh-khaz-modan]

Actually, I don’t think anyone at the developer level has clout.

Never have in any job I ever had in the industry.

Project managers and up have that say so. A lot of time it’s even higher than that…

[Talbyy-azuremyst]

@Hippeaux-shadowsong

They’re still working from home, and going back to the office probably has a hand in some of the departures. Many companies are now finding that employees that enjoyed working from home are taking new opportunities that allow them to keep working from home when asked to return to the office. There are now loads of job recruitment ads that have “fully work-from-home position” in all caps at the top, because the recruiters know how many folks want to keep working remotely.

Without him saying so, it’s all speculation why he moved on, but it is important to remember that people leave jobs all the time for reasons that have everything to do with their lives and families, and nothing at all to do with the companies they’re leaving. Don’t read too much into it.

The company I’m with now had a data breach right as Covid was starting and the challenges with going remote and going for compliance in cyber security with all the things that needed to happen resulted in a huge number of open positions.

Then of course consumer spending was through the roof so the income was worth the payroll increase. Now we’ve got a team that doubled in size to over 500+ in just security (I have no idea for other software dev / business departments) and plans to go back to the office but… where is everyone supposed to sit.

[Sairadoka-bonechewer (Sairadoka)]

Don’t forget you can get this quest to TWENTY Anima!

All you need is Rank 3 of all your Sanctum features!

Spend 48 000 to get 20.

[Sunzsu-alexstrasza]

Turnover happens.

[Galabris-alexstrasza (Galabris)]

I’d wager they have idea-level clout. Like brainstorming/fishing for ideas. Problem is though there is very little in the way of ideas that anyone can come up with that already hasn’t been a topic no doubt discussed and beaten to death (likely by the community as well as Blizzard).

The core problem is absolutely at the top of the tower here. The shareholders/board of directors are your typical soul sucking leeches who get their hooks in a company and demand absurd amounts of profits/returns and usually do get an overly high say in high level decision making. It’s likely here we see the major political shifts to have more visible LGBT relationships, female-driven/female enpowered major plotlines, time-centric gamestyle metrics, and whatever other “controversial” topic you can think of.

Then it comes down to the game director and their leadership team to take these higher objectives and translate it into actual decisions and projects. This is where the decisions get made to have a 80 part covenant campaign that only unlocks in 3 pieces a week, the conduit system and the slow upgrade process, great vault, story arcs, etc

Then it gets pushed down to code monkeys/devs to actually build and implement. This might be where they have some freedom and where their creativity can shine, but nowhere near the level most people take issue with the game.

[Smartdeath-lightbringer]

i get that you’re trying to be as edgy as possible

but BFA story and quest was fire. you’re missing your mark on this.

[Divium-archimonde (Divium)]

BFA was decent I wish they stuck with Alliance vs Horde instead of going straight into Old Gods I felt a lot of the old god stuff caught me off guard becaue it should have been it’s own expansion.

[Raedwald-duskwood]

@Hippeaux-shadowsong

departures

Well, NPR had that one article about post pandemic issues:

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/24/1007914455/as-the-pandemic-recedes-millions-of-workers-are-saying-i-quit

[Megatee-chromaggus]

I am hungover but this made me giggle.

Also the Lovecraft got old. It’s World of Lovecraft at this point with the N Zoth and Black Empire and BFA’s entire storyline revolving around it. C’thun was one thing but it’s been happening always now.

[Raedwald-duskwood]

I think I’ve done enough side quests and I have world quest AOTCs to probably write for the next two patches.

No one reads the quests anyhow.

[Thequixote-staghelm (Thequixote)]

Think I saw PTR update pop up around midnight last night ( friday )

Feel for the devs. Most likely not given the resources and leadership to get the job done right and end up having to pay for that in stress and crunch.

And then they have to listen to likes of us complain about issues with the game.

[Mslulz-bigglesworth]

New blood in an organization can be good but people severely discount the value of tribal knowledge. Old timers get flak for being seemingly anti change but they serve as a safety net to challenge new ideas ensuring that the deviations from what worked are the right decisions. It really sucks when you lose those long term people, go through large changes and then watch what you have put your soul into for decades burn to the ground.

[Raedwald-duskwood]

Maybe he wasn’t woke enough? I mean this is a new generation.

Blizzard has to appeal to the modern audience