I really don’t understand why people hate on one person as if he is making all the decisions.
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He’s the figure head. The one trotted out to give interviews and previews. We see him the most, so he’s an easy target to hate.
Like how a coach takes all the blame for a loss, but none of the credit for a wine.
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He may not be the sole decision maker, but he’s the face that represents the company. I am sure that everyone has their reasons for why they like or dislike him, I won’t bore you with mine, but it honestly boils down to just coming with the territory of being the face of the company. If it was anyone else, that person would be the one getting the hate.
People really cling to the person who represents their game for the developers. When Jeff left OW people were immediately calling the new guy “Papa” whatever-his-name-is while they rejoiced or mourned Jeff leaving the company. The face gets the attention no matter who it is.
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He is: The Game Director.
Are you even aware of that?
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He’s in charge and people don’t like things that are happening.
Since he’s in charge, the buck stops with him. Thus he gets all the blame and none of the glory.
Welcome to public leadership, where any praise for you is shouted down until after you retire/die of old age.
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Yes i am aware he is game director but usually it is the team making the decisions and higher ups.
What do you think the Game Director does?
He is the face of the game. The highest of the higher ups when it comes to WoW.
Whatever his superiors tell him to do, he is 100% responsible for whatever he allows to be put in to WoW. That’s what a Game Director is accountable for everytime.
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My “hatred” for Ion. As in, the reason why I don’t like him.
He implicitly tells me what to play and what not to play.
E.G. Nerfing Demonology to the Ground because he flat out said that “he’d rather us not play Demonology” and then reworking the spec again and again and again and again
… and ever since, I lost most forms of respects for him. I respect him as a Game Director at a bare minimum but everything he does just makes the game more formulaic imo.
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Could it possibly have something to do with game design choices the past few years, while he was “the boss”? Hmmmmm 
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Who else are people going to target?
So, as much as Ion really, really irritates me…
What’s John Hight’s(sp?) role in this?
The higher ups more than likely dont tell him what to do.
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How dare you not feel bad and organize a rally supporting the man who’s laughing his way to the bank?
He is the head game director and he makes the overall decisions.
Also, his comments on feedback from players is against the player.
For example, when people were showing him the data that the item level is exponentially increase as you go up and they provided logs of it, his reply was “I do not believe these are correct. The players just need to get better skilled.”
So, he is refusing to at least checkup with what the players are saying or at least being nice and saying “We will look into it to see what is really going on.”
He just comes off as a person who refuses to take feedback and learn what the players really want and just pushes he own view on to others.
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Source?
He’s simply out of touch. He couldn’t care less about players who don’t fit into his narrow raiding/mythic view of the game.
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I ACTUALLY quit from the game from this along with burnout.
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Cause they don’t understand how companies work and they want a scapegoat. It probably doesn’t help that Ion can come across as arrogant and that his sense of humor is pretty subtle and some people probably don’t get it, and that his guild is called Elitist Jerks.
But yea, personally I think it gets ridiculous when people take things to a personal level. Disagreeing with the game’s directions - fine. Disagreeing with Ion’s decisions and opinions - fine. Just making another thread about how he needs to be fired filled with insults of his person - not so fine and pretty childish.
if you play the game and watch his interview you will know
I don’t agree with the “fire threads” but that’s how a company works when it comes to higher leadership positions.
If Ion is so soft that he can’t take negative PR for being the Game Director then perhaps he shouldn’t have it in the first place. There are no scapegoats when it comes to leadership.
He’s 100% accountable and 100% responsible for whatever goes into the game because he signs off on them.
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