Jay Wilson moving away from Diablo 3, Woo Ooo

[Abelian75]

I guess maybe the difference in our thinking is that I'm thinking of D3 as being more similar to a normal game than an ongoing project like an MMO.  Arguably this is the core conflict going on with D3, I guess.

In answer to your question, I would say "Because the game is released and the immediate post-launch support period is over, so it was time for a new project since the current one is finished."

Certainly that new project could have been the D3 expansion, of course.

I guess it says something about Blizzard's post-launch support that such a question is even being asked.  Admittedly their goddamn always-online bullshit is probably part of it, too. Presumably, though, if any other ARPG had a director leave the project 8 months after launch, it would hardly be considered worthy of mention.  Cuz, you know, they presumably want to keep making more games.

[Paelos]

Ok so if PoE's game designer leaves 8 months after release we'd assume it was for bigger and better things, regardless of press/user/critical reception?

[Abelian75]

Well, I'm actually not arguing Jay is leaving for bigger and better things, just that we have no idea either way. 

I'm not that familiar with PoE, so maybe they've laid out huge post-launch content plans, but knowing nothing about it... why would it be weird to start another project after they finish that one?  I am seriously baffled now.  Are people just supposed to make one game and support it forever?

[Yegolev]

It's entirely possible that Blizzard doesn't work like normal companies, but that's a mark against them.  It's not normal behavior because it's generally detrimental to the project to lop off its head for an unspecified period of time.  Who's going to be taking up Wilson's some-say-well-done-job now that he's going elsewhere to work his magic?  Did someone kinda forget to backfill?  Was he not actually doing anything?  I'm open for any ideas as to why anyone might think this vacancy is a great idea.

[Paelos]

There's a large gap between 8 months and forever. There's also the matter of not even finishing the entire feature set Wilson intended at release. Jay announced on March 9, 2012 in a blog release that PvP wasn't up to standards. He promised in that same post that the pvp patch would offer multiple Arena maps with themed locations and layouts, PvP-centric achievements, amatchmaking system, and a personal progression system that will reward you.

He came out again on December 27th and said, "Hey team Deathmatch still isn't ready, sorry guys. We have to go back to the drawing board." Then he said that he was really excited about posting more information on dueling in the coming days.

Within 3 weeks, he announced he was leaving.

[Abelian75]

Dude, I'm sure they have an interim guy in charge of making sure shit doesn't fall apart while they spin up their expansion team or whatever.  It seems like everyone is forgetting that the game is released.  Not every game works like an MMO that is constantly in active development.

Re: PVP, I actually mentioned "punting on PvP" earlier.  This is kind of what I mean by it looking like they are basically done until expansion time, save for smaller patches.  

I'm gonna shut up for now though and leave you in peace.

[Yegolev]

No, you had a good point.  It's possible that his day-to-day was surfing the net and being a dickbag, so he's moving on.  A possible answer is "The project no longer requires dedicated leadership", but then I'd expect improvements to slow.  Who knows?

[apocrypha]

Maybe this is him being fired for the "Fuck that loser" thing and this length of time was the minimum they could leave to plausibly say that it wasn't a firing?

 

[Ingmar]

D3 isn't an MMO so I don't really see why it would require a Big Name Director indefinitely. If they've decided to punt PVP, which seems clear, and any expansion is already underway with presumably a different director (I would assume that it was underway before D3 even released and would thus have required a separate director given Wilson was busy with the core game), and you figure the lesser guy who is running the expansion would transition into the maintenance mode patch director guy for the game, then it seems utterly normal to me that you'd take your more experienced project lead and put them on something else that's ramping up.

[Yegolev]

All I'm sure of is that this subforum needs to be sent to the Graveyard.

[Ingmar]

Probably months ago, yeah.

[LK]

Agreed.

[Trippy]

Fine fine

[Setanta]

Grimiku (Community Manager) has a much better way of saying "no you're not playing our game properly":

This post is a good read with a lot of great feedback and I appreciate you putting it together. Thanks! While there are other points in the original post, I wanted to briefly talk about items since it’s the big one.

We know that (for many players) it’s much more rewarding to gear up from items that you find while playing normally than it is to necessarily go through Auction House, and we’re working to make improvements in that area. There are a lot of ways we could attempt to reach that goal, and choosing the best one(s) to go with is not always a fast process. I want to encourage you all to continue to post your thoughts on the subject and I promise we will keep reading and relaying them.                               

in response to:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7709861367?page=1

(Wall of text but really well thought out and written.

I thought I'd put my money where my mouth is and do an Act 1 inferno run on my monk (because the other 60s don't have the gear/resists to solo).

I had EXACTLY ONE level 63 yellow drop the entire run - a DH chest with int/str on it WTF? Tons of 59s (because yeah I need to downgrade), no 62s, a smattering of magic 61s and nothing of use plus no legendaries. I maintained my 5 stacks of Nepthalim Valor, am only a level 1 paragon and had no MF admittedly but "fuck that guy", this game still sucks endgame.

I want to play, but this isn't my game :(

[Malakili]

Grimiku (Community Manager) has a much better way of saying "no you're not playing our game properly":

This post is a good read with a lot of great feedback and I appreciate you putting it together. Thanks! While there are other points in the original post, I wanted to briefly talk about items since it’s the big one.

We know that (for many players) it’s much more rewarding to gear up from items that you find while playing normally than it is to necessarily go through Auction House, and we’re working to make improvements in that area. There are a lot of ways we could attempt to reach that goal, and choosing the best one(s) to go with is not always a fast process. I want to encourage you all to continue to post your thoughts on the subject and I promise we will keep reading and relaying them.                               

in response to:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7709861367?page=1

(Wall of text but really well thought out and written.

I thought I'd put my money where my mouth is and do an Act 1 inferno run on my monk (because the other 60s don't have the gear/resists to solo).

I had EXACTLY ONE level 63 yellow drop the entire run - a DH chest with int/str on it WTF? Tons of 59s (because yeah I need to downgrade), no 62s, a smattering of magic 61s and nothing of use plus no legendaries. I maintained my 5 stacks of Nepthalim Valor, am only a level 1 paragon and had no MF admittedly but "fuck that guy", this game still sucks endgame.

I want to play, but this isn't my game :(

You need to turn on MP1 or move to Act 3.  Act 1 and 2 inferno on MP 0 are trash.

[Ingmar]

Yeah with MP1 the game is entirely different from a loot perspective, and there's really no reason not to turn it on. I'm not sure why they decided to hide it behind the options screen instead of having it right out front.

[waffel]

edit: all has been discussed.

[Ingmar]

I'm guessing you don't work in a "project" type workplace? When a project is done - and release D3 would seem to qualify - people get moved to other projects. The D3 expansion is likely to be a separate project with a separate PM, etc.

I'm not sure I take away from the statement that he's going to be completely uninvolved with whatever that expansion is, either.

[waffel]

I see your point. Regardless, I think everyone can agree a new face certainly can't hurt D3 at this point. I just get the feeling the entire team is being downsized and will enter life support mode soon.

[Yegolev]

It probably should have been downsized about when D3 went to retail, give or take some time for patching and support, and to get the AH working.  So the head of the project is leaving, isn't doing any KT or other handoff since there's no one, and someone else is being hired to lead D3... later.  To lead the expansion team?  Seems odd to me, but execs do weird things sometimes.

[tazelbain]

I am more inclined to believe Jay is seen favorably by the management for doing a good job monetizing the Diablo. The fact that D3 isn't a good game doesn't matter to these kinda people. I bet he is on to the next game with a pat on the back. That little public spat probably got him a bit of trouble but purely for PR reasons.

[Ironwood]

I'm not sure I understand that logic.  Monetizing a game that then loses the consumer base is retarded.

[Lantyssa]

Depends if the auction house made up for the lost sales or not.

[Reg]

I think it's more the future lost sales they have to be concerned about.  I used to just automatically buy any game from Blizzard but after the disappointments of SC2 and D3 those days are over for me.

[Merusk]

That's not something any company realizes until the next product or two release, though.  When they see the drop-off in numbers and do former consumer polling that tell them, "Oh we dun fucked up."

With Blizzard that means they won't realize it until 2015 at the earliest.

[Ironwood]

By which point that cunt Kotick will be elsewhere.

[Maledict]

You think it's Koticks fault they spent 7 years making a badly thought out cheap copy of Diablo 2?

Even ignoring the AH there are some pretty fundamental, unfixable problems with D3 as well as the worse storyline ever made and the laziest level design ever. Nothing to do with Koticks and everything to do with a company that has gotten lazy and whose thinking and design are too dominated by their succes with WoW.

[Ironwood]

No, not really what I meant.

But whatever.

[Reg]

It's probably not Kotick's fault directly.  I think it's just what happens when a good game company gets bought out by a huge publisher.  It dooms them.  We've all seen it happen over and over.

[Simond]

Can I mention Bioware again? 

[Yegolev]

Only if it's put in terms of corporate project management.

[Phred]

As far as being a success or not, I had people on my Facebook page who I didn't think even played games at all excited about D3 without knowing anything about it. "Diablo 3" was going to sell well, regardless of what it was, simply because it was Diablo 3

Oddly enough this puts me in mind of a few facebook friends who I knew hadn't played diablo 3 at all who delighted in linking the stupid Youtube error 13 video. It really seemed like the scent of blood was in the water over D3 and everyone had to jump into the feeding frenzy whether they played or like D3 or not. Much like some of the people here who delighted in the recent Bioware feeding frenzy.

[Phred]

That could be the case. However, I don't recall them doing anything similar a year after WoW released.

Tigole

[Yegolev]

I'd like to think that people do more checking on hires these days, but I know it's not true.

"So... your internet handle is Tigole?"
"Yes sir."
"Is that from a novel, or..."
"It's a nonsense word that has no meaning."
"You're hired."
 

[Trippy]

His full EQ name was Tigole Bitties and he was a raging douchebag back then too. He and Rob Pardo were Legacy of Steel buddies so Blizzard knew exactly what they were hiring (his EQ flames and assholepostery were all over the Internet by that point).