Who are the founders of wow?

Community General Discussion
1

Also, are they still around or have they moved on?

2

I dunno, that’s something I would have to Google, but I’m pretty sure Metzen is one of them and he’s still around.

I’m guessing the others have moved on but I’m not 100% on that.

Edit: this is what Google’s AI says:

The original creative leadership for World of Warcraft included Rob Pardo, Tom Chilton, and Jeff Kaplan, but they have since moved on to other projects or left Blizzard.

3

They haven’t been found yet.

4

Most of the “old guard” is gone. Probably for the best. A few of them were insanely horrible people.

2 Likes
5

Sadly moved on.

3 Likes
6

this tbh. i cant even imagine how much stuff festered behind the scenes that we may never know about. from what we did hear… it’s what made me go on a year-long hiatus.

7

“Never meet your heroes” was the most accurate statement when all of that mess came to light. It probably was worse than we will ever know, yeah.

1 Like
8

bro culture at it’s finest fr.

1 Like
9

Though, not a traditional old guard, I think Samwise is still around(ish)… despite being “retired”, can tell with Undermine either he has helped out a bit or his art style has heavily influenced this patch.

10

Unfortunately the old guard is gone.

And that’s why WoW has been a shadow of itself for awhile.

But that’s the fate of a live service game I suppose, sad.

11

Some of the original team and what they did. Most have gone on to do other projects or companies. This happened around the time of the Activision merger. Metzen is the only one off the top of my head that is still there in some capacity.

  • Allen Adham: Founder of Blizzard, his direction and vision guided the original game’s development from 2000 to 2004.
  • Chris Metzen: Original creative director, responsible for the lore, stories, and locations of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms.
  • John Cash: Original lead programmer, whose expertise in the technical field made WoW’s creation possible.
  • Samwise Didier: Original art director, whose vision shaped the game’s unique and recognizable visuals.
  • Rob Pardo: Game designer, played a key role in the early design of WoW.
  • Jeff Kaplan: Game designer, later became Game Director in WotLK, and then Tom Chilton became Game Director in Cataclysm.
  • Tom Chilton: Lead Game Designer, later became Game Director in Cataclysm.
  • Johnathan Staats: First Level Designer, notably built famous instances like Molten Core, Ahn’Qiraj, and Scholomance.
  • David Ray: Senior Tool & Database Programmer, worked on databases, server-side quest system, and tools like Wowedit.
  • Kevin Jordan: One of the three original Game Designers who laid the foundation for game systems, focused on character classes, talents, spells, and abilities.
  • Mike Kern: Team Lead, the closest role to a Game Director in the early days of WoW.
2 Likes
12

Oddly nobody has mentioned Mike Morheim, CEO of Blizzard. When he gave the keys to Kotick, everything started going downhill.

13

Who are the founders of wow?

The First Ones

14

mike enabled the baby milk to be stolen. he jumped ship when they started doing the investigations i bet.

1 Like