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Rumor: Blizzard Lays Off Their Senior Level Designer On Titan [Up: Seemingly True]

SatelliteOfLove said:
A-fucking-men, dude. Booty Bay had class and soul, that's why the guy above said he loved it, and me as well.

BWL was very good, and the perfect amount and seriousness to the trash. Good times.

It really did the castle/fortress infiltration thing well. The way that trash does not re-spawn and the various defense mechanisms in place that escalate as you proceed. One of my favorites.
 

zlatko

Banned
I'm sure they had a good reason. Probably some personal issues with him as of late sprouted up.

I doubt Blizzard would let an asset go just at the wave of their hand, especially since the company presents itself like such a friendly and family like place to work at.
 

hyduK

Banned
Jangocube said:
Blackrock Mountain AND Booty Bay? How dare they get rid of that guy!

That said, both are terribly designed, as far is pathing is concerned. Still love em though.
BRM has an incredible design....probalby one of the best in Vanilla.
 

McNei1y

Member
Jangocube said:
Blackrock Mountain AND Booty Bay? How dare they get rid of that guy!

That said, both are terribly designed, as far is pathing is concerned. Still love em though.

Blasphemy!! Those are some of the coolest areas in the game. The vibe of Blackrock was perfect! I'd say the same with Booty Bay. I did get lost in it a few times and had trouble locating certain NPC's but it was still a place I'd picture as a port for pirates and such.


On another note, the instance designs weren't half bad either. Some good, some bad. BWL, SSC, and Firelands I'd say were top tier, IMO.

Anyways, I'd like to see what the reason was. I hope this doesn't affect anything. I'm sure he will get another job.
 
Freyjadour said:
Also, that sort of thinking leads to cookie cutter bland ass towns.

Maybe I'm just mad because I kept falling into the water while trying to ride an efficient line from the flightmaster to the docked ship to Ratchet. I would RAGE whenever that happened.
 
Freyjadour said:
It really did the castle/fortress infiltration thing well. The way that trash does not re-spawn and the various defense mechanisms in place that escalate as you proceed. One of my favorites.

The boss quality took a jump there too; you can really tell they really *clicked* as to what would be a Blizzard Boss with that raid, and ZG right after it. And what do you see when you zone in? No massive curving roads of trash, its a fucking boss. And a Guild Killer boss demanding thought and respect at that. And another, even nastier, crazier one in the next room. Loved that dungeon.

Notice that when those guys went over to Titan, WoW started turning shitty.

NO! DO NOT LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAIN DOROTHY! NO! DON'T DO IT!
 
SatelliteOfLove said:
BWL was very good, and the perfect amount and seriousness to the trash. Good times.
No kidding. Trash is about the most pointless thing in WoW. BWL did a great job of making the trash reasonable, and not a fucking chore.
 

Lesiroth

Member
Have to admit I'm a bit curious why someone who's been there for a long time would get fired/laid off, unless that didn't actually happen.
 
ape2man said:
Why would you fire some like him?

  • Stealing
  • Speaking your mind to your ass of a boss
  • Being a ass to your boss
  • Not comming to work
  • Thats it i'm out of ideas.
  • Wait. Speaking your mind to you asshole boss
smelling the ass of your boss
 

Cipherr

Member
This worries me a great deal, the WoW A team that left and went to work on titan were missed. Its was nearly immediately noticable that WoW wasnt getting the same quality attention when they stopped. A shame really.

SatelliteOfLove said:
The boss quality took a jump there too; you can really tell they really *clicked* as to what would be a Blizzard Boss with that raid, and ZG right after it. And what do you see when you zone in? No massive curving roads of trash, its a fucking boss. And a Guild Killer boss demanding thought and respect at that. And another, even nastier, crazier one in the next room. Loved that dungeon.


Talking about Razorgore and Vael. Such memories. We were a very well disciplined guild, ripped through MC faster than all but 1 other guild on our server. But those first two boss fights in BWL were really something else. We lost a few people and recruited a few during that period. Those fights really humbled the fuck out of us. I dont think I have ever been so happy to see a boss die as I was when Vael died. Alliance had some sort of skill (salvation I think) that IIRC Horde shaman didnt have early on, and we were jealous as shit, because threat was a bitch on Vael.
 
Cipherr said:
Talking about Razorgore and Vael. Such memories. We were a very well disciplined guild, ripped through MC faster than all but 1 other guild on our server. But those first two boss fights in BWL were really something else. We lost a few people and recruited a few during that period. Those fights really humbled the fuck out of us. I dont think I have ever been so happy to see a boss die as I was when Vael died. Alliance had some sort of skill (salvation I think) that IIRC Horde shaman didnt have early on, and we were jealous as shit, because threat was a bitch on Vael.

Rogue tanked Vael after all the tanks died on our first kill. One of my fondest memories of Vanilla.
 
Acullis said:
Obviously this isn't personal, but tell me that after reading this page you wouldn't like to work there: http://www.jeffhui.net/blizzard-entertainment-benefits

Theres always many facets to consider when making a career decision. Its not always just "lol its blizzard of course yes".

I was offered a position there myself as a programmer but ultimately turned it down for various reasons.

Im sure its not a bad place to work, but many other studios have similar perks
 
ape2man said:
Why would you fire some like him?

  • Stealing
  • Speaking your mind to your ass of a boss
  • Being a ass to your boss
  • Not comming to work
  • Thats it i'm out of ideas.
  • Wait. Speaking your mind to you asshole boss

Maybe he went "schools out! Muthafuckaz!" and smashed up every computer in the studio.
 

Cipherr

Member
Freyjadour said:
Rogue tanked Vael after all the tanks died on our first kill. One of my fondest memories of Vanilla.

Holy crap, would have loved to hear vent after that one. lol
 

Kai

Member
Haha - the comments here are hilarious. I worked there for 5 years - the one thing I will say is the amenities are amazing.

Everything else - is up to interpretation. IMO - it was a great place to work and my colleagues there have become lifelong friends. For me - I still bleed blue.
 

Cipherr

Member
Kai said:
Haha - the comments here are hilarious. I worked there for 5 years - the one thing I will say is the amenities are amazing.

Everything else - is up to interpretation. IMO - it was a great place to work and my colleagues there have become lifelong friends. For me - I still bleed blue.


Tell moar.



Moar.
 

Ultratech

Member
Damn, that makes me REALLY curious to know if he did something or something else caused Blizzard to let him go.

And those old WoW dungeons were something else. Never did much of Blackrock Mountain, but holy fuck was that confusing what with all the different instances.
 

FLEABttn

Banned
Freyjadour said:
Rogue tanked Vael after all the tanks died on our first kill. One of my fondest memories of Vanilla.

Dunemaul? I ask because the same thing happened to me, and I was the rogue.
 

Kai

Member
The Treechopper said:
Subscribing in the hopes that Kai will spill his guts about Blizzard....
Haha - sorry brah. But if you are interested in Blizzard IP and are able to - you should apply and find out yourself what the mystique is all about.

A common misconception industry wide is you have to be a senior artist or engineer - but every facet at Blizz has a great culture IMO - so if your curious you should see what it's about.

*edit - as an anecdote I remember convincing someone from GAF to apply about three years ago in one of the beta wow threads and he got hired in tech support. He found me like a year later and thanked me for it.
 
I'm not sure what to make of this. Blizzard is the last company that needs to lay ANYONE off. Sure, WoW subscriptions are down, but they still have a shit ton of subscribers, StarCraft II is going strong, Diablo III's launch is nearing with an auction house they're going to make a killing off, and Titan is in all likelihood going to be amazing. I mean really, do you know how much money Blizzard has? Doesn't seem like they need to lay anyone off unless A) The person was dishonest B) The person was unneeded or C) person wasn't doing their job.
 

J-Rzez

Member
strem said:
Notice that when those guys went over to Titan, WoW started turning shitty.

Oh man, if this were about 2 years ago here, people would have tore you apart, I know first hand. I mean, up to last year people were arguing with me that Blizzard didn't pull their A-team off of WoW for a while, and that Titan was a new team lol.

That said, I would have hated to be in this guy's shoes. I mean, imagine the pressure put on you designing the successor to one of the biggest, most respected (for it's time), most notorious, and most profitable games ever created. Blizzard is going to ride this game out for 10 years at least, a lot of pressure is probably an understatement.
 
ToyMachine228 said:
I'm not sure what to make of this. Blizzard is the last company that needs to lay ANYONE off. Sure, WoW subscriptions are down, but they still have a shit ton of subscribers, StarCraft II is going strong, Diablo III's launch is nearing with an auction house they're going to make a killing off, and Titan is in all likelihood going to be amazing. I mean really, do you know how much money Blizzard has? Doesn't seem like they need to lay anyone off unless A) The person was dishonest B) The person was unneeded or C) person wasn't doing their job.

Also, companies don't lay off one guy. "Sorry John, marching orders from above that we have to cut payroll by .003%"
 

Kalnos

Banned
J-Rzez said:
Oh man, if this were about 2 years ago here, people would have tore you apart, I know first hand. I mean, up to last year people were arguing with me that Blizzard didn't pull their A-team off of WoW for a while, and that Titan was a new team lol.

Didn't they admit as much a long time ago?
 
Draft said:
Did he design Blackrock Depths? If so, that's a goddamn crime.

Fixed for the sake of your soul.

Oh man, if this were about 2 years ago here, people would have tore you apart, I know first hand. I mean, up to last year people were arguing with me that Blizzard didn't pull their A-team off of WoW for a while, and that Titan was a new team lol.

They'd argue water wasn't wet back during Wrath. Was fun pointing out stuff back then that people realize now.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
MRORANGE said:
valve will most likely hire this guy.

Somebody make a mental note to keep an eye out for his name when the credits roll on Valve's next SP game.
Half-Life 3.

Edit: I'm assuming there's no credits list for Valve's MP titles.
 

cuyahoga

Dudebro, My Shit is Fucked Up So I Got to Shoot/Slice You II: It's Straight-Up Dawg Time
As I understand it, Blizzard does not pay very well compared to the cost of living in OC, or other industry companies, and although Blizzard says they will make up for that with various bonuses and what not, the prolonged production periods don't make this financially feasible. Those prolonged production periods apparently cause Blizzard to habitually hire external candidates rather than provide opportunities for employees to step up the ladder because they don't feel that Blizz employees meet the experience qualifications.

Years ago, Blizzard sent out a mass email to every employee in Irvine whenever someone is fired—at least a few times a year—that identifies the fired employee and reminds of Blizzard's guest protocol. No idea if they still do this though. Also vaguely recall something about a good chunk of WoW team being laid off upon the game being shipped and that created some bad vibes around Blizz in the eyes of other industry folks.
 
cuyahoga said:
As I understand it, Blizzard does not pay very well compared to the cost of living in OC, or other industry companies, and although Blizzard says they will make up for that with various bonuses and what not, the prolonged production periods don't make this financially feasible. Those prolonged production periods apparently cause Blizzard to habitually hire external candidates rather than provide opportunities for employees to step up the ladder because they don't feel that Blizz employees meet the experience qualifications.

Years ago, Blizzard sent out a mass email to every employee in Irvine whenever someone is fired—at least a few times a year—that identifies the fired employee and reminds of Blizzard's guest protocol. No idea if they still do this though. Also vaguely recall something about a good chunk of WoW team being laid off upon the game being shipped and that created some bad vibes around Blizz in the eyes of other industry folks.

TBH, when I got an offer from Blizzard it was decent financially. Not great, but decent. More than what you would get from your average game company that doesn't make AAA titles, but less than you would expect for a company of their size. The biggest issues were

a) they did not offer any kind of equity (e.g. stock options, or preferably RSUs)
b) the offer I was given was for an hourly rate, even as a regular full time employee (not a contractor).
c) the bonus / profit sharing plan is very weak unless you are extremely senior / high up.

b is highly unusual in my experience. It's normal to get paid hourly if you're a contractor, but not if you're RFT. The deal was they pay you less than the equivalent salaried rate, but since you often work overtime it makes up for it. And in fact, it more than made up for it if you only looked at base pay, but when you compare with other companies that offer stock and/or a healthy bonus plan, it definitely lags behind. Furthermore, it means that if you DON'T work overtime, you will definitely be underpaid. People always imagine game programmers working 80-100 hours a week, which is definitely true sometimes, but sometimes is the key word. In this day and age, it's very possible to find a job working a straight 40 hour week 80% of the time, which crunches only before a major release.
 

Jira

Member
Squire Felix said:
Does Foror
Furor
still work there?

Is he still the lead WoW world designer?

He does indeed still work there, he's working on Titan now. All of the people who made WoW up till WoTLK all went to work on Titan.
 

Vilam

Maxis Redwood
Kai said:
Haha - sorry brah. But if you are interested in Blizzard IP and are able to - you should apply and find out yourself what the mystique is all about.

A common misconception industry wide is you have to be a senior artist or engineer - but every facet at Blizz has a great culture IMO - so if your curious you should see what it's about.

*edit - as an anecdote I remember convincing someone from GAF to apply about three years ago in one of the beta wow threads and he got hired in tech support. He found me like a year later and thanked me for it.

Blizzard doesn't hire Producers :( Why bother when engineers set the schedule!
 
Why are people talking like this isn't a rumor? If he really is gone, I highly doubt he got fired, but then I wouldn't see why he would leave on his own accord either. More reason why this is probably just a rumor. *shrugs*
 
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