Chief Creative Officer, Rob Pardo, Leaves Blizzard

[A Void]

Chief Creative Officer, Rob Pardo, Leaves Blizzard

Message from Rob Pardo

Every ending is a beginning and today marks a new beginning for me.

After 17 years at Blizzard, with long and careful contemplation, I have made a difficult and bittersweet but ultimately exciting decision to pursue the next chapter in my life and career.

Before I even joined Blizzard, I was already a huge fan of the company and its games. In particular, I was extremely passionate about the emerging genre of real-time strategy games. It was a dream come true when I was given the opportunity to work on StarCraft, which at the time was being created by a very small team by today’s standards. It was tremendously fulfilling to get to know everyone on the team personally and to contribute our energies toward a shared goal in such a creative and engaging environment.

Blizzard Entertainment has been simply the best place in the world to be a game designer. The best aspect of designing games at Blizzard is that the entire company is passionate about the gameplay within each and every product. From the executive team to customer service to our global offices, every single person is a player and contributes to making the best possible games. It’s for very good reason that the first credit on every Blizzard game is “Game Design by Blizzard Entertainment.”

I’m really proud of the contributions I was able to make to Blizzard’s accomplishments. From building lasting games, to supporting the growth of eSports, to extending the Warcraft world into a feature film, and of course to being able to celebrate our shared passions with the Blizzard community online and at BlizzCon.

The Blizzard community is ultimately the reason why we come to work every day and pour our souls into every world and experience we create. Blizzard’s players are the most passionate in the world and your commitment and dedication are truly awesome to behold. Creating entertainment for you has been an incredible opportunity, and I know that you will continue to grow and become even stronger as a community over the years to come. It has been so meaningful on a personal level to help create joy for all of you.

I’m looking forward to new challenges in my career, but I will always cherish the time I spent with you all and the amazing and collaborative teams at Blizzard. It was both satisfying and humbling, and it made me a better developer and a better person. I look forward to playing Blizzard games as a player for many years to come. Most important, now I have plenty of time to learn how to build a competitive Hearthstone deck.

As to what I will be doing next, I don’t have an answer for you yet . . . but I will “when it’s ready.” My priorities are to enjoy the summer with my family, play plenty of games, and think about what’s next. The game industry is such an exciting place right now with PC gaming thriving, the new consoles, mobile games, and virtual reality becoming an actual reality. It’s like having an empty quest log and going into a new zone for the first time.

In the past, I haven’t been the most avid Twitter user, but I’ll strive to do better and keep you updated there—@Rob_Pardo. Please stay in touch!

Rob

Rob Pardo was the Chief Creative Officer at Blizzard Entertainment, resigning on July 3, 2014. Previously he was the Executive Vice President of Game Design at Blizzard Entertainment, and prior to that the lead designer of World of Warcraft. In 2006, he was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Rob Pardo has been credited on the following games:

Lead Designer:
- World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
- World of Warcraft
- Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
- Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
- StarCraft: Brood War

Designer:
- World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor
- Diablo II
- Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition
- StarCraft
- Diablo III

Producer:
- Mortal Kombat Trilogy
- Tempest X3
- Whiplash

Executive producer:
- Diablo III

Reference

World of Warcraft, Forums, General Discussion - 7/18/2014 6:42 PM PDT. Link.
Wikipedia, Rob Pardo. Link.

 

[Chaosy]

He got some nice achievements

 

[Ralle]

They've lost a big one. I wonder what projects he will now pursue.

 

[Heinvers]

That's a blow to Blizz.

'hope he'll do just fine now.

 

[A Void]

All those classic Blizzard best-known games from 1998 - 2007 had been either designed or "influenced" by Rob Pardo. It was an honor to give him a tribute. Still.. Blizzard is moving on-wards, I guess..

 

[Zeatherann]

I wonder what's left of the original dev team for WoW.

 

[Yrk]

Oh, So sad. ;(
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was an honor to give him a tribute.

Rob Pardo, Is a Legend, For me.

 

[Selaya]

Blizz` been but a shadow of its former glory for quite some time now already, so this was to be expected.

 

[PurgeandFire]

This happened a couple of months ago, but better late than never I suppose. After all, he likely played a big role behind wc3.

And yeah, it is always interesting to see where they head off. Ghostcrawler went off to LoL (Riot), where will Pardo end up?

 

[Rao Dao Zao]

He looks a bit like Dominic West in that picture.

 

[iamxaxas]

It's so sad... I'll miss you Rob, it's been an honor playing your games.
I wonder where Blizzard's going...

 

[Chaosy]

Blizz` been but a shadow of its former glory for quite some time now already, so this was to be expected.

ikr they only get 10 000 000 0€ each month from WoW subscriptions alone they are sooo small. They also got more games that are actively played then ever before. Shadow of the past is just bullshit.

 

[Deathcom3s]

ikr they only get 10 000 000 00€ each month from WoW subscriptions alone they are sooo small. They also got more games that are actively played then ever before. Shadow of the past is just bullshit.

WoW may be back up to 10 million subscribers, but it's still 5 million short of its peak. Diablo 3 was released to lukewarm reviews, and albeit RoS rectified many of the flaws in the base game, Diablo 3 is fading away. It doesn't appear to have the staying power that D2 had. Starcraft 2 is still an unknown factor, seeing as we're still awaiting the final entry in the trilogy. LotV may revitalize it, or it may alienate the community (I doubt it will, but it's still a possibility). Starcraft 2's staying power is rooted firmly in its relevance within esports, and that's a relatively volatile area right now. It's still evolving and looking to more firmly establish an identity and reputation. Overwatch looks good, and it may be great, but it's not even in beta yet. Hearthstone is doing quite well, but it is aimed at more of a casual crowd (though it does have the depth for more hardcore play).

Blizzard is shifting focus, and it is a far cry from the studio they used to be. In that sense, they are a shadow of their former selves. Now, that does not directly mean they're less successful, it simply means they're succeeding in a different way. Some are happy with that, others are not. That's what happens when change occurs. You lose some fans, and gain others. You can't please everyone.

 

[Chaosy]

WoW may be back up to 10 million subscribers, but it's still 5 million short of its peak.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/4526-WoW-Up-to-10-Million-Subscribers

Not really true. But close enough (12m was the peak).
Either way, maintaining that number of players in a game that is among the more expensive ones existing while being 10 years old is insane. Most other MMO's don't even get a 1m player base while being "f2p".

For the other games I think people are being harsh. I've played every game Blizzard has released since year 2000 (and warcraft 2). Not a single one has been disappointing, sure it might not be the game of the year because personal taste but they have yet to produce a bad game, I am not a Starcraft fan but I enjoyed the heck out of playing though the campaign. Same with HotS, I prefer LoL but heck Heroes of the Storm is better in some aspects and it's definitely not bad.

But I guess I have to agree that they've changed for better or worse. I just don't think they are being useless as Selaya seemed to think.

 

[Selaya]

quality != quantity

SC2 modding system is a failure
d3 is a failure compared to d2
all the recent wow expansions are a failure
hearthstone, .. lol, its a mtg for idiots

ie, all of their more recent games are a failure compared to their elder ones, why`d we writing in a forum for war3 if there was a worthy successor to it?

 

[MasterHaosis]

For the other games I think people are being harsh.

Its their right to be harsh if they like as its your right to defend Blizzard.
I personally do not care for whats going on with blizzard for long time ago, I am even not following whats going on with their recent or upcoming games, but I understand if people are disappointed with their decision.
Its like C&C, every late game has been worse than previous until you had C&C4 where company claimed that it is failure and fired off almost every people whose worked on game. And yet, they did not learn lesson. Generals 2 was closed before final game was released, but people played beta. Wasted money.
So I understand if fans are upset but recent Blizzard actions. Nobody asks fans about anything, just making money for any cost, games are hardly moddable etc etc.... now their design leader is gone...

 

[VeljkoM]

Maybe we are just getting old and grumpy and not capable of enjoying the new generation of games... though I guess Blizz moving to new projects is definitely a good thing.

And I am not sad for this guy, I am happy he will now go and have new and better experience with his career.

 

[Selaya]

Hm, its more like the games going for the authoritarian way, if I could say so.

Lets take Sc2, for instance
Its got an incredibly powerful engine designed for modding, but Blizzard`s authoritarian (closed) 'Bnet 2.0' pretty much killed it (can`t play your favorite version, unable to find pugs for less popular maps, no lan option, et cetera), or we wouldn`t have stuck with war3, with it liberal vanilla BNet and what not, even tho the engine`s much more limited.

That`s just one example what exactly`s wrong with the recent B games.

<3, Sela

 

[deepstrasz]

The news has been there for a while now, methinks.

 

[A Void]

The news has been there for a while now, methinks.

It's obvious, but nobody tried to add them in this site. I only found out about Rob Pardo's departure yesterday. :/

 

[Vel (Tien-Yun) Wu]

My very subjective but honest thoughts: Too much capitalization.

Warcraft 3 in comparison to StarCraft 2 has a much more humble World Editor but people are having way more fun with it. Because they do not have to stay linked to the internet and verify accounts all the time to have fun with it.
The best modders are in no way found in SC2. They are either in WC3 or Skyrim.

In comparison to World of Warcraft, Warcraft 1-3's universe is actually MUCH smaller, but the stories pre-WoW, imo, is superior in every aspect. Why? Because they did not have to advance stories for the sake of market.
In World of Warcraft, beginning from late Wrath of the Lich King, so many deaths are retconed for bringing fan population. Muradin's awkward revival is just one of the horrendous examples.

I could go on and on....but it seems the Blizzard that once sought to make good games and enpower its players is not there. The direction they take in Overwatch is not assuring at all, either...

...it is a good thing that the community of WC3 still exists to this day. I dare not claim that this is "the true Warcraft fans" but we certainly remember why Warcraft is fun more than some of the new developers that the company has hired in

 

[nhs325]

Well guys, our hopes for Warcraft IV has gone.

 

[redsew]

Well guys, our hopes for Warcraft IV has gone.

What if he was the cause for WarCraft IV to not be released / created?
What if this causes us to have it!??!
I hope it will be a lot like StarCraft 2 towards the mechanics and have a WarCraft theme to it. That way it will be a fast paced RTS which I always enjoy.

 

[A Void]

What if he was the cause for WarCraft IV to not be released / created?
What if this causes us to have it!??!
I hope it will be a lot like StarCraft 2 towards the mechanics and have a WarCraft theme to it. That way it will be a fast paced RTS which I always enjoy.

Rob pardo designed older games warcraft 3, starcraft 1. without him in the company war4 will be a huge dissapointment just like wow mop or wod. dont get your hopes high.

 

[redsew]

Rob pardo designed older games warcraft 3, starcraft 1. without him in the company war4 will be a huge dissapointment just like wow mop or wod. dont get your hopes high.

I guess.....
I wonder what their next approach would be these days.. Keeping up with the game industry.
And hold up... Is Activision-Blizzard still a thing?
I believe Activision ruins video games, and maybe thats why the newer titles were all just... worse than they were back then?

 

[A Void]

I guess.....
I wonder what their next approach would be these days.. Keeping up with the game industry.
And hold up... Is Activision-Blizzard still a thing?
I believe Activision ruins video games, and maybe thats why the newer titles were all just... worse than they were back then?

yes Activision-Blizzard is still functional.

Activision Blizzard, Inc. is the American holding company for Activision, Blizzard Entertainment and Sierra Entertainment. In 2009, Activision Blizzard was the world's second-largest gaming company by revenue after Nintendo.

 

[redsew]

yes Activision-Blizzard is still functional.

Activision Blizzard, Inc. is the American holding company for Activision, Blizzard Entertainment and Sierra Entertainment. In 2009, Activision Blizzard was the world's second-largest gaming company by revenue after Nintendo.

Yea but its too bad that Activision is complete utter... poop.

 

[Deathcom3s]

I honestly would not be surprised if Activision had at least some part in some of the ridiculous crap they've done. Such as the RMAH that was in D3 at launch. That had Activision's grubby hands all over it.

 

[redsew]

I honestly would not be surprised if Activision had at least some part in some of the ridiculous crap they've done. Such as the RMAH that was in D3 at launch. That had Activision's grubby hands all over it.

Can I ask what an RMAH is?
But yea, Activision has destroyed many other gaming industries in the past. The franchises had so much opportunity, but they got sold out to the wrong company, if Valve got their hands on them, it would have been so much better. Actually, I wish it was Valve-Blizzard instead of Activion-Blizzard. Valve will do the funding that Blizzard required back then that got them to be partially sold out to Activision..
My argument can be supported by the recent development they did on the campaigns of Battlefield 4, lots of bugs and glitches. Horrible gaming experience for the Single player environment.
And Origin... Copying Steam, just horrible, it lacks a lot and I hate how its region locked. I live in Korea, so the only way I can access and make an account is through the Korean site, and Korean sites require Korean Social Security Numbers, I had to access it via VPN and then register, and have to deal with Korean even when I'm logged on with an American account. Even from there there are more problems and issues I have with the service...

Sorry, I'm taking this way off topic...
I just don't have respect for how Blizzard decided to get partially owned by Activision, which may have resulted in the company's poor performance compared to those years before WarCraft 3 and how couple key employees of the company are departing.

 

[Deathcom3s]

RMAH stands for Real Money Auction House. Also, Battlefield 4 and Origin is EA, not Activision. Activision is behind Call of Duty.

 

[redsew]

Oh yes, that was horrible.

And, yea... My bad... Either way, both EA and Activision have bad reputations.
I mean, between Call of Duty and Battlefield 4, I would say Battlefield 4 is better since its a lot more realistic and has more capabilities.

Anyways, point being made..
TO ME, it seems the gaming industry is going down hill and it's common for key employees to leave since either their ideas are no longer being agreed with or the ideas of others are being weighted over those that have been in the business longer.
Either that, or the developers are just being too lazy and just reusing the same content in different graphics and settings... *Cough*Call of Duty*cough*

 

[A Void]

Oh yes, that was horrible.

And, yea... My bad... Either way, both EA and Activision have bad reputations.
I mean, between Call of Duty and Battlefield 4, I would say Battlefield 4 is better since its a lot more realistic and has more capabilities.

Anyways, point being made..
TO ME, it seems the gaming industry is going down hill and it's common for key employees to leave since either their ideas are no longer being agreed with or the ideas of others are being weighted over those that have been in the business longer.
Either that, or the developers are just being too lazy and just reusing the same content in different graphics and settings... *Cough*Call of Duty*cough*

Blizzard is made from people, the people that long worked on these games : War1, War2, War3, Rock n' Roll Racing, The Lost Vikings, Blackthorne, Diablo 1, Diablo 2, Starcraft 1, Starcraft: Ghost, Warcraft Adventures: Lord of The Clans and World of Warcraft (Original).

Those people that were involved into games mentioned above are long gone from Blizzard Entertainment. Rob Pardo was possibly the last legacy worker at Blizzard.

The Blizzard North exodus continued on with around 30 employees leaving the company in total:
Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, David Brevik and Bill Roper left Blizzard and moved to Flagship Studios.

The resignations were partly due to a conflict with Blizzard Entertainment's owner, Vivendi, and partly due to employees wishing to start something new. Back at Blizzard North, however, the resignations had a common effect; of the two unannounced games that were in production, one was canceled. Blizzard Entertainment has since said the canceled game was a "Blizzard North kind of game."

The companies formed by former Blizzard employees are: Runic Games, Flagship Studios, Cryptic Studios and Castaway Entertainment.

The truth is that people who worked at Blizzard during the legacy years are no longer working for/at blizzard. Blizzard is not even a shadow of it's former glory. There is not even a shadow! Ever since Activision-Blizzard banded the old Blizzard assimilated with Activision and Sierra Entertainment.

The only last people working at Blizzard from the very beginning (1991) are Michael Morhaime and Frank Pearce. These people developed the very first games and stopped from that point however. Those games include: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Rock n' Roll Racing, The Lost Vikings and Blackthorne.

Michael Morhaime is the president and a co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment.

Frank Pearce is the executive vice president of product development.

Allen Adham being the last three of co-founders no longer works at Blizzard.
In 2004, Adham left Blizzard to found Tenfold Capital Partners, a quantitative hedge fund, but he remains a consultant to Blizzard.

People who still think that Blizzard will one day redeem itself are wrong. Those good games are the past, the developers are no longer there. If developers ever decided to return to Blizzard Entertainment, it would be a miracle come true. If you don't like the new Blizzard just move on. Don't support them if you don't like, because it is not possible for them to return to as they were. They are moving on.. the fans and audience changes into the future. I personally don't care for Blizzard anymore, they are no longer the same. The franchises and games were a direct representation of the older developers, Warcraft is not the same as it was since developers left. The same goes for Diablo and Starcraft.

It was also never intended by the original game developers for Warcraft to be a MMORPG, Diablo III was supposed to be released as 2D game by Blizzard North until it was disbanded. Looking at alpha images for Diablo III shows that Diablo III was very similar to Diablo II. Starcraft II was not supposed to be released before Starcraft: Ghost.

Blizzard added all sorts of nonsense and **** to Warcraft franchise. Time portals? Time travel? So if there are time travel why not use that as a way for Archimonde to complete the invasion in Warcraft III. Dreadlords could use time travel to save Archimonde. It sounds.. too silly. Why are dreadlords immortal? Why didn't Lich King know that when he told Arthas to kill Mal'Ganis? (In War3) Because originally it was way different. WoW just messed things up. I don't consider anything above original WoW cannon. TBC, WoTLK, Cataclysm, MoP, WoD.

Also, why didn't anyone ever saw or documented pandaria or pandas in Warcraft franchise? They just made that bull**** to create a new expansion. Why did they just found out about pandaria in some random ship wreckage? Also? Why did pandas stay all those ages cooped up in some island? Were they magically imprisoned? There is also the thing that nobody ever dies in WoW, it somehow get's revived or returns from the dead. Why can't Uther or Lothar return then? Why can't Arthas return? What kind of bull**** is this? There are also more silly aspects on why Warcraft franchise was never meant to be a MMORPG.

Diablo III Alpha

75% of the developers that worked on legacy games either left or no longer work at Blizzard.
25% are those who are still working with Blizzard. Most of them however don't develop games, they just do paper-work, designing and managing.

If you had completed reading the entire post, congratulations to you. This was by far my longest comment.

The sources are mainly Wikipedia.

 

[Amarnra]

Also, why didn't anyone ever saw or documented pandaria or pandas in Warcraft franchise? They just made that bull**** to create a new expansion. Why did they just found out about pandaria in some random ship wreckage? Also? Why did pandas stay all those ages cooped up in some island? Were they magically imprisoned? There is also the thing that nobody ever dies in WoW, it somehow get's revived or returns from the dead. Why can't Uther or Lothar return then? Why can't Arthas return? What kind of bull**** is this? There are also more silly aspects on why Warcraft franchise was never meant to be a MMORPG.

I don't know anything about the rest of your post, so I'll trust your word on that unless someone else makes a better counter-argument, but for these points you made here. Are you discluding the Pandarians from the original warcraft 3 campaign? (OR was it Frozen Throne?) either way, that predates the expansion by a decade or so at least. There was only a single pandarian in the campaign from memory, so they did exist but perhaps they did have a legitimate reason for not leaving their own lands.

The return from death thing is only for players, players are outside of the story in that respect. It would be a non-profitable game indeed if World of Warcraft became a rouge-like and when you died you died. In the story, when people die they die, the players just don't die in the story. They are just very successful heroes. Think of it like the warcraft 3 campaign, when you died as Arthas on a mission did that mean that Arthas was dead? No, of course not. You restart the mission and your death just never happened, because he was not supposed to die at that point. Neither are the players. They just get back up and respawn.

That's my take on it.

 

[Deathcom3s]

The problem is characters such as Muradin, who died in Warcraft 3, was awkwardly brought back from the dead in World of Warcraft for no real apparent reason.

The pandaren were an Easter egg, a joke that was never meant to have any real, meaningful presence in the game world. Instead, when desperately struggling for ideas, they decided to make an entire expansion about them. It just seemed silly and very forced and contrived.

 

[A Void]

I don't know anything about the rest of your post, so I'll trust your word on that unless someone else makes a better counter-argument, but for these points you made here. Are you discluding the Pandarians from the original warcraft 3 campaign? (OR was it Frozen Throne?) either way, that predates the expansion by a decade or so at least. There was only a single pandarian in the campaign from memory, so they did exist but perhaps they did have a legitimate reason for not leaving their own lands.

The return from death thing is only for players, players are outside of the story in that respect. It would be a non-profitable game indeed if World of Warcraft became a rouge-like and when you died you died. In the story, when people die they die, the players just don't die in the story. They are just very successful heroes. Think of it like the warcraft 3 campaign, when you died as Arthas on a mission did that mean that Arthas was dead? No, of course not. You restart the mission and your death just never happened, because he was not supposed to die at that point. Neither are the players. They just get back up and respawn.

That's my take on it.

I am discussing pandarians from WoW: Mists of Pandaria. War3 never had pandas, those pandas that were included in the game were spoofs related to the Easter eggs and textures by a Blizzard artist that liked to add pandas everywhere. In cannon lore, there never was any pandaria or pandarians.

The history of them was shortly created from scratch in the newest expansion pack of WoW: Mists of Pandaria.

In WoW - Muradin Bronzebeard returned from the dead, Mannaroth, Azgalor, Mal'Ganis, Illidan, Tichondrius. There are some other NPCs that died in War3 but returned in WoW. Basically War3 is no longer considered cannon in the character status, since Blizzard always will find a way to resurrect a dead NPC in WoW.

 

[Selaya]

The biggest problem with wow (and SC2 and stuff, too) lore are the idiotic Disney happyends.
TBC? Illidan, KJ dead.
WotLK? Arthas dead.
Cata? Deathwing dead.
MoP? Garrosh dead. (and resurrected)

WoL? Kerrigan turned to human.
HotS? Mengsk dead.

I haven`t paid attention to d3, but if I were to guess, it`ll match the pattern above.
Obviously the retcons are a pretty big issue as well (Blizz is literally spamming retcons nowadays), but from what I`ve seen pretty much everyone retcons now and then.
Even Tolkien did retcon his Hobbit for The Lord Of The Rings at some point.

And pretty much all of the recent lore`s been pulled out of Blizzards ass as of late (then again, they did kill off everything and everyone with their Disney-endings, so they kinda had to. Whoops)

 

[redsew]

Thats so true...
What happened to those dark endings..
StarCraft: BroodWar - Auir lost, Kerrigan infested.
WarCraft 3: The Frozen Throne - Arthas becomes an evil ice lord called the Lich King.
Diablo.. I forgot how it ended, its been so long.

 

[gorillabull]

holy shit this guy is the reason why blizzard's games stand out. his leave can only mean 1 and only 1 thing: blizzard has adopted a full scale corporate model for creating production line, think tank games and lost all of its former identity. there is simply no room for a creative genius who can be easily replaced by consumer data showing what kind of game would sell the most. well it had to happen sooner or later nothing lasts forever..

 

[Selaya]

> implying the past 5 years worth of Blizzard games aren`t shit.