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After 13 years, World of Warcraft game designer Chris Kaleiki has decided to move to greener pastures, leaving Blizzard for the great unknown. In a tweet accompanied by a 14-minute YouTube video, Kaleiki explains why he left, and his first-hand opinions on the state of the game's development over the years.
Comments
I wish Chris the best of luck in his future endeavors and hopefully we'll see some good stuff from him. Though just like Chris, I'll be playing WoW in the meantime. And the only reason we can both do that is because WoW has such mainstream appeal and consistently has the funds to keep churning out new content (even if it's not the content some of us dream of).
Fingers crossed on a new decent MMO!
To draw an example,Wow has more hand holding markers in one section of one zone than FFXi has in the entire game.Well FFXI has ZERO hand holding lol,so yeah my math has to be right.
Even the GROUPING experience within Wow is bad and i am not saying other games are doing it much better but slightly better..yes.
My stance on Wow is that the design is the ANTI mmo and ANTI rpg.
Then if you want the ANTI immersion with ideas like auto warping to the dungeon,automated gameplay FTW!!!
But yes your morals and ideas behind a BETTER mmorpg are correct,you simply used the wrong game lol.
I want to also add that guy does NOT know what a good mmorpg is because his focus,his ideals are based on pvp.
Gear scores the WORST,dumbest idea ever and i am pretty sure Blizzard started that.
SO we really don't know what ideas this guy mentioned to get his promotion and we don't know what made him leave all we know is that his love is for pvp.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
He also talks about something i DETEST in modern mmorpg's and that END GAME.He doesn't say he wants more from the guild throughout the ENTIRE game but talks about end game.
So after listening to him talk through his video i truly get a picture that he was used to getting his own way and recently had a falling out with a superior employee and it bummed him out.
Personally he does NOT share the same ideals behind a great mmorpg.He used a term "successful"I personally don't care how successful the business is i simply want a GREAT game to play.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I agree that's why i play SWG:L
If this is what we want, we'll always be left wanting and waiting and dreaming and hoping got so f'ing tired of that, instead of doing that i'm playing with what is available and well supported. Something comes along, then great, but until then... having fun... while waiting lol
I wish Chris the best of luck in his future endeavors and hopefully we'll see some good stuff from him. Though just like Chris, I'll be playing WoW in the meantime. And the only reason we can both do that is because WoW has such mainstream appeal and consistently has the funds to keep churning out new content (even if it's not the content some of us dream of).
Fingers crossed on a new decent MMO!
SWG is alive and well and better than before, been playing 3 years now, server been up for 7 or 8 years now, around there.
SO...
The water is fine... https://swglegends.com/
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
He actually sounds quite ignorant of the pre-WoW MMO landscape almost like he has never played any other MMO. And I laughed at his examples of guild drama as a good thing.
I like story, need it actually, in MMOs but I like it in ways that make sense in a massively multiplayer context. I want a story to set the stage and give purpose to the activities I'm about to do. But then those activities should be all about casual grouping in the game world without the traditional WoW dungeon and raid instances.
It's funny but this week I've been having a blast killing bosses in Icecrown as a way to gear up in preparation for Shadowlands. The story of why I'm there is set-up by several quests and cinematics but once you get there it's casual grouping where both, Alliance and Horde players go around together from boss to boss in large numbers, grouped or ungrouped, essentially just grinding away for gear drops or scourgestones you can trade for gear.
A good story got us there but once we got there it's massively multiplaying at its best.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
But yeah, there's not much you can do besides spend your money elsewhere. But in that case Blizzard will just sell character boosts, gold, store exclusives mounts and pets ...
Suramar was one of the best zones i've ever played in any MMO. It was hard, with a very well crafted story and characters.
It became easier in time, because the forums were full of QQ posts about how hard X or Y dungeon was, how grindy it was to max your weapon(s) ( which I love it ) and especially, how hard the Sarumar zone was.
And then BfA launched. Geezes. The disappointment, for me, was HUGE. Is like they said : Let's have another failed x-paxc, shall we?
For me, Shadowlands is the last x-pac I will buy, before waiting for the (serious) reviews. Oh. I did that with Legion and ..best decision ever.
So yea, be good Shadowlands. Pretty please.
PS: I don't usually write on this forum from my phone, but...WHAT UP with the ads banners and pop-ups?! Please show 1 banner every...few/several hours and not on any page I visit. Thanks!
PS2: Yea no! Tried to login from my phone. On my first try, captcha appear like .. I didn't even see it, but the error that I didn't completed the captcha. 2nd time my password was wrong, 3rd miss-clicked ( fingered ) an ad. DAMN THOSE ADS! Every page you load/reload/visit , there is an ad. I'm done visiting this website on mobile, and did I say it loads so ... heavy?!
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
I COMPLETELY agree with you. Unfortunately, refusing the fast track strategy minimizes the profit potential of any long running MMO. Ive heard of countless stories now of people that joined WoW in the last 4 years who probably would have dropped it without shortcuts and accessibility designs. I only played 5 minutes of WoW when it first released and felt annoyed by its art style, but it sounds like it has become what FFXIV:ARR was: a single player game requiring online connection that only made co-op and team building necessary for grinding and raids. It also uses the "front and center storyline", I would guess, as a way to get people invested from expansion to expansion. I think thats how WoW works now as I see so much chatter about the characters and plot speculation from the announcement trailer to after release before it dissipates from common discourse again.
The bureaucracy at many game companies is similar to authoritarian power structures. A bright shining star no matter how full of ideas may never be heard due to top tier geezers and their own interests.
He feel in love with WoW and it was a work of passion for him. The higher ups changed the game into something he did not like, something that was against what he viewed mmos were all about. And he was not high enough in the totem pole to actually make an impact on the games direction. Classic highlighted what happened to WoW. IT was a true mmo then it changed into whatever you want to call it now.
He gave his reason for leaving, which honestly sound alot like the reasons alot of players left the game. They just do not like the direction Blizz has taken the game. And to be honest to be a game developer of any level I feel you have to have passion for the project. All you hear is how much work it is to make a game, make an expansion, and so on. Imagine if you disagreed with what you were told to work on and was opposed to the direction it was going. The product quality you produce would fall, your quality of life at work would be reduced, and possibly your quality of life in total would drop because you dislike going to work. SO honestly him leaving was the right choice. Honestly he will probably get a job somewhere easily with his experience. Would not be surprised to see him picked up by Ashes of Creation honestly, considering that project seems to check all his boxes.
Personally I agree with him on his points. Why I hate most new AAA mmos that released in the last 7yrs. I feel Classic is better then BfA for basically his reasons in the video. Current WoW is just missing what makes a mmo a mmo. The other BIG mmo FFXIV I feel is the exact same way. Better story then WoW but when you remove the story it is a really mediocre game. No player driven anything, no guilds, no economy, world is pointless due to instanced everything, no depth, nothing has longevity, just minimal progression content and worthless fluff. All I can say is thank god it seems newer games in development seem to be going back to the roots of mmos. (not counting the mobile bs, which honestly is a joke to even call them mmos)
The game market has plenty of slash and hack games where "a player is a story" and their owners actually fight for the same pool of players, who after a few month just switch one for another.
WoW has a pool of dedicated fans who subscribed to the game in 2004 and are still there.
I perceived his video in exactly the same way.
I would give you a guest pass to SWOTR, but then I wouldn't be able to find a way to live with myself afterwards....