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PC Games (Games) Real Time Strategy (Games) Entertainment Games

Blizzard North Co-Founders Leave Company 288

Posted by simoniker from the vivendi's-only-good-asset-going-byebye? dept.
Thanks to several readers for pointing out a Reuters/Yahoo story discussing the departure of four key employees from Warcraft and Diablo developers Blizzard Entertainment. The article elaborates: "In a statement, Blizzard Entertainment said Blizzard North co-founders Erich Schaefer, Max Schaefer and David Brevik, along with a fourth employee, Bill Roper, 'resigned from the company to pursue other opportunities.'" With Bill Roper often the public face of Blizzard, and the Blizzard North co-founders being the original Diablo developers, this is a big deal for Blizzard owners Vivendi, as well as gamers everywhere, especially as Blizzard "is widely seen in the games industry as one of the most attractive assets of VU Games, which has been languishing on the auction block for months."
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Blizzard North Co-Founders Leave Company More

Blizzard North Co-Founders Leave Company

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  • Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)

    by Scoria ( 264473 ) <slashmail&initialized,org> on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:38PM (#6335974) Homepage
    Blizzard may soon encounter the chill of insolvency. ;-)
    • of course not, blizzard is one of the most reputable game developers out there. Warcraft 3 is bringing in the bacon as we speak and Starcraft: Ghost will rock.

      • Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Gojira Shipi-Taro ( 465802 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:46PM (#6336027) Homepage
        ...And FOUR of their key game developers have now LEFT. Who cares what they've done before, they won't be repeating it.

        I sort of suspect this might have been motivated (at least in part) by Viviendi-forced actions Blizzard has taken in the last year. I wish those four guys all the best, and I hope they remain out of reach of the Big Evils of the industry.
        • Well lets recap a couple of things, the Vivendi owned Blizzard has gone after bnetd and freecraft. Would this have happened if they weren't owned by a corporate monster? We will never know. By the same token, did these 4 guys leave because they got tired of being ground under the corporate boot? Well we may never know that either.
          • In corporate doublespeak "resigned to pursue other opportunities" pretty much always means "was fired."

            If they were the ones who made the choice to leave, we would have heard a press statement from them about the new company they are moving to or forming, not a statement from Blizzard that they are "resigning."

        • Re:Obligatory (Score:4, Informative)

          by Gherald ( 682277 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:24PM (#6336205) Journal
          As far as I know, Blizzard "North" only developed Diablo I and II, so this will not affect *craft at all.

      • Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Informative)

        by Ty ( 15982 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:40PM (#6336278)
        Blizzard is NOT developing Starcraft:Ghost. Don't confuse this. They are simply the publisher. The good people at Nihilistic [nihilistic.com] are developing it as a third party. Though, given the quality of Nihilistic's last game, Vampire, I'm sure Starcraft:Ghost will rock.

  • Reasons? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by r84x ( 650348 ) <r84x&yahoo,com> on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:41PM (#6335986) Homepage Journal
    Could a reason for their leaving possibly be in reaction to Blizzard's handling of the battlenet controversy? Just a thought...

    • Freenet! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Marx_Mrvelous ( 532372 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:04PM (#6336125) Homepage
      I guess my e-mail to Blizzard about their actions against Freenet tore the company apart! I'm sure glad tech support forwarded it to the head developers...
      Er...

    • Re:Reasons? (Score:2, Informative)

      by DragonPup ( 302885 )
      Could a reason for their leaving possibly be in reaction to Blizzard's handling of the battlenet controversy? Just a thought...

      Um, no. The whole bnetd incident had nothing to do with this at all. Problems with VU seems so much more likely. :p

      -Henry

    • Re:Reasons? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by MMaestro ( 585010 )
      Not to cast your question aside, personally I don't think so, but what I want to know is ; whos going to replace them? They're just co-founders so its not as obvious as losing some programmers. To be more specific about my question, whos going to be the 'public face' of Blizzard now that Bill Roper is gone?

      The day companies begin to suffer for stamping out cheaters is the day Microsoft releases a Linux becomes mainstream and Mac's dominate the PC market.

      • Programmers are not that hard to come by. People with vision are. Architects are. Good management is very hard to come by. Look how many solid but garbage games come out every day.

  • Does Blizzard hate Linux? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:42PM (#6335993)
    Playing Warcraft III's expansion set, Frozen Throne, I came across something in a snow-covered Undead campaign. When I killed a penguin (the symbol of Linux) I was granted a Ring of Superiority! Is this Blizzard's way of saying the path to superiority is by killing Linux?

    • Not quite...another penguin... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In FreeCraft, whilst using the FreeCraft Media Project, a farm can generate "Penguins" and you can control these livestock penguins to move around the map and spy; at the cost the penguin required one farm resource point. This said, I think they are trying to imply that by killing the Freecraft Penguin Spy, they may be king of the iceberg of gaming again.

      This means War! FreeWar(non-registered foreign TM) for you, Blizzard!

    • Re:Does Blizzard hate Linux? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Arker ( 91948 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:07PM (#6336134) Homepage

      Playing Warcraft III's expansion set, Frozen Throne, I came across something in a snow-covered Undead campaign. When I killed a penguin (the symbol of Linux) I was granted a Ring of Superiority! Is this Blizzard's way of saying the path to superiority is by killing Linux?

      Not exactly.

      In games like these, the best mobs pop the 'leetest loot, you see. So what they're really saying is that Linux r00lz0rz! P3|\|6|/\|z r0xx0rz! M|_|4h4h4h4h!

    • Re:Does Blizzard hate Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by parkanoid ( 573952 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @11:07PM (#6336768)
      On the other hand, the default tooltip for the penguin unit is "Call uopn the spirit of a penguin to save you". Interesting, yes? ;-)

  • I hope.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TedTschopp ( 244839 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:42PM (#6335994) Homepage
    I hope they keep their commitment to releasing solid good games. That's what they are known for.

    • Re:I hope.. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Liselle ( 684663 )
      I have a strong feeling they will. The things that make Blizzard great will allow them to be continually successful. Their attention to detail, knack of knowing what their audience wants, plus the fact that they more or less require their programmers actually be gamers (who would have thought?) will let them keep on trekkin'. The loss of such high-profile employees is a real blow, but I expect WoW and SC2 to follow suit and exceed our wildest expectations. I wish all of them well! Perhaps we'll be luck
      • So very odd. All the qualities you site are things put in place by management. They loose some *serious* management clout, and you think it does not matter?

        Diablo2 was down from Diablo1. WC3 I have not even bought. Though I applaud the effort. I do not see them going up hill with their next title, especially after this.

  • I wonder.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Yeah-or-something ( 680196 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:42PM (#6335996)
    How will this affect the development of Word of Warcraft? Were these guys a part of those teams?

    • Re:I wonder.. (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:48PM (#6336035)
      No, World of Warcraft is in development down at Blizzard South (In Orange County, CA). From the last time I've visited the office it looked good, but who knows what the buyer of VUG will do to destroy a franchise house. Expect to see more fallout soon.

    • Oh great (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anthracks ( 532185 )
      How will this affect the development of
      Word of Warcraft?
      As if enough people didn't already consider MS Word bloatware. Now it's going to incorporate a version of Warcraft? When will the madness end?

  • I found 'em (Score:3, Funny)

    by Call Me Black Cloud ( 616282 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:42PM (#6335997)
    They're over here drinking my beer. Can someone come claim them? Thanks.

  • The wrong questions being asked (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PierceLabs ( 549351 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:46PM (#6336021)
    Far more important that the fact that the left is the REASON that they left. Have they become dissatisfied with their corporate parent? Are they going to found a new studio (and with that number of key folks that sounds likely to me)? Are they being acquired/courted by someone else (the real challenge of companies these days is not to protect the brands, but to keep the people who make these brands)? And most importantly, does Vivendi consider their gaming assets so invaluable that they wouldn't fight to keep these folks under their wing?

    When high level folks like this leave, its usually because someone is giving them money to go off and do their own thing under a different banner/console.

  • My real fear is how important was Roper in WoW? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SmirkingRevenge ( 633503 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:47PM (#6336031)
    World of Warcraft is, in the words of babylon 5, the last, best hope for MMORPGs.

    SW:G overpromised, underdelivered. AC2 was crap. Shadowsbane was buggy trash. WoW sounds and looks great and I have yet to read a bad slant on it from anyone's whos played it.

    MMORPG Game developers are allowed to release complete shit and promise that it'll be fixed on the backs of the monthly fees people are forced to pay to fund the game to a fun/playable state if it ever gets there.

    I hope and pray that WoW can be the game that all of us old school players have been waiting for since this drought of lousy 2nd generation games. I want WoW to be the game I can point to and say "See, that's the way you do it" and blizzard is the one company I know of that has never failed to deliver a great, fun game.

    I know Roper was a lead on the management of WoW. I hope he's not leaving because of an imminent M$ buyout or something along those lines that might totally corrupt Blizzard.

    Here's hoping.
    • SW:G overpromised, underdelivered.

      incorrect. you just haven't the skill to take advantage of the game. i know a LOT of people who say this and they all say it for one reason: SWG isn't Everquest in space.

      It was never promised as such, yet everyone felt it would be this.

      I say its a great game, I play it often and I love it.
    • Shameless OT plug of my personal favorite MMORPG in development: Horizons [istaria.com]

      There are lots of MMORPGs that will be able to compete with WoW, even though they lack its clout.

    • Re:My real fear is how important was Roper in WoW? (Score:4, Informative)

      by LauraW ( 662560 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @11:05PM (#6336751)
      > World of Warcraft is, in the words of babylon 5, the last, best hope for MMORPGs

      <pedantic>
      Er, that was Lincoln, in the Emancipation Proclamation. JMS did a bit of borrowing in some of those speeches.
      </pedantic>

    • Huh. I've been enjoying Dark Age of Camelot [darkageofcamelot.com] quite a bit. You might want to give it a shot if you are consistently being disappointed.
    • MMORPG Game developers are allowed to release complete shit and promise that it'll be fixed on the backs of the monthly fees people are forced to pay to fund the game to a fun/playable state if it ever gets there.

      Most MMORPGs I know come with a month (or so) of free gaming time. During this month you have plenty of time to decide whether or not you like the game. I didn't like DAoC and eventually decided I don't really like EverCrack, either. If it's not fun, who, exactly, is forcing you to play it?
      • "Most MMORPGs I know come with a month (or so) of free gaming time. During this month you have plenty of time to decide whether or not you like the game."

        Personally, I'd rather pay for the first month but not have to pay the retail box fee unless I wind up sticking with the game. $50 is a lot to shell out for what can easily turn out to be a month of buggy servers and slow patch downloads. I don't mind that they're doing the "have their cake and eat it, too" pricing model (and I understand why it's som

  • NCAs? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:48PM (#6336038)
    resigned from the company to pursue other opportunities

    Then either it's not in the gaming industry, or they never signed NCA's(Non Competition Agreement)...

    • They started the company! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Entropius ( 188861 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:58PM (#6336089)
      ... who's to make them sign NCA's?

    • Re:NCAs? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by hibiki_r ( 649814 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:02PM (#6336114)

      I don't know of anyone in the gaming industry that has ever signed a non-competition agreement. Imagine, let's say, a 3D engine programmer, that has been doing that for the last 5 years. His skills would not be that useful for a CAD/Rendering company, since outside of the basic math behind it, he'd have to learn plenty of new skills. Thus, the only major options are another gaming company and NVIDIA/ATI. Who'd be crazy enough to sign an agreement that said that you can only work for less than a handful of companies if you ever quit? Certainly no game programmer I know.

      • Well, any time someone with a highly specialized skill like this is going to sign a non-compete agreement, they'd be fools if they didn't write in a clause where the company would continue to pay them their normal wages for the entire time they're "non-competeing".

        N.

    • Re:NCAs? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Dark Nexus ( 172808 )
      I'm no expert on this, but every NCA I've ever seen has been limited to a 6-month period immediately after employment.

      • Re:NCAs? (Score:2, Informative)

        by Delphix ( 571159 ) *
        Actually I was offered a job at Sprint (Networking division) in 1999. They wanted a 2 year no-compete. One of the reasons I didn't take the job.

    • Re:NCAs? (Score:5, Informative)

      by rossz ( 67331 ) <<ogre> <at> <geekbiker.net>> on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:25PM (#6336210) Journal
      Blizzard is in California. Noncompetes are not enforceable in this jurisdiction.

    • Re:NCAs? (Score:5, Informative)

      by mark_space2001 ( 570644 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:47PM (#6336320)
      Ditto on the no compete thing is illegal in California. California is a "right to work" state and no way could an employer get a no-compete clause enforced. How do you think all that job hopping in Silicon Valley happens anyway?

      I had a no-compete clause in a contract some years ago that specified "no similar industry within 50 miles" (aimed at their competitors across town). A lawyer later told me that even that limited NCA wasn't legal in California.

      Toodles!

  • FreeCraft (Score:3, Funny)

    by Jack Comics ( 631233 ) * <jack_comics.postxs@org> on Monday June 30, 2003 @08:48PM (#6336039) Homepage
    Rumor is that they've just joined the FreeCraft project. :P

    Yes, I'm joking. :)

  • I'm interested... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by thgreatoz ( 623808 )
    I'm interested to see how their standards of quality hold out. Certainly, Blizzard and Blizzard North are two seperate entities, but I wonder if any titles currently under development with Blizzard North get transferred to Blizzard?

  • Who do I boycot now?? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ben Jackson ( 30284 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:01PM (#6336109) Homepage
    I am eagerly awaiting commands from Slashdot telling me whether I should be mad at the old Blizzard or the Blizzard founders.

  • The conversation went as follows... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Eberlin ( 570874 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:06PM (#6336131) Homepage
    1st Guy: "Aye matey?"
    3rd Guy: "Come on! Follow me!"
    2nd/4th Guy: "We're ready, master...I'm not ready!"

    Vivendi Universal: "Help Me!"
    4th Guy: "Time to Die!!!"

    Vivendi Universal: "uh...oops! Forgive me!"
    All 4 Guys: "Die!"

  • Blizzard -- an empty shell of a company (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:07PM (#6336136)
    Many of blizzard's key employees left to start Arena.net. Now with Arena.net using innovative techniques to make online gaming better, Blizzard is languishing with World of Warcraft, a "me too" MMORPG. Their last few core members are now gone. Now it's just a bunch of interns and code monkeys with the rights to Blizzard's brand name.

    I'm interested in seeing where these folks go. Will they join their brethren at arena.net? Will they found their own company? Will they walk off with their massive paychecks from Warcraft3 and sit in Hawaii sipping drinks with 3 digit proofs all day? Only time will tell.
    • So far all Arena.net (I remember they used to be TriForge) has made is something called Guild Wars [guildwars.com] that won best of show at E3, which means it's not done yet, they left Blizzard over 3 years ago, since that time they've been bought by a company called NCsoft Corporation of Seoul, Korea.

      So saying all that, what innovative techniques are they using to make online gaming better? They haven't made anything yet, Daikatana was also promised to be some great good thing and was started by people in a similiar situ

  • Great! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Snaller ( 147050 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:07PM (#6336137) Journal
    Perhaps now we can hate Blizzard in peace and the guys will created another company which remains cool for a while (before it gets eaten by corporate greed)

  • What about the 1.10 patch? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by IgD ( 232964 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:15PM (#6336168)
    The question I think everyone is concerned about is what is going to happen to the Diablo II Lord of Destruction patch V1.10? I heard some speculation that some hire-ups ordered this promised patch cancelled and those mention resigned rather than do this!

  • Not a huge deal (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ImperfectTommy ( 137724 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:42PM (#6336291)
    Actually, this is not a huge deal for Vivendi. When Blizzard was initially bought it was bought for its franchises, which companies can own. Though game companies act like they own employees, they know the employees can leave. Likely, when Blizzard was bought, key figures signed multi-year contracts to stay and ensure the franchise succeeded under the new ownership. Likely, the contracts are up and the key people feel they can do it again on their own, only better.

    It's fairly common for key figures to leave the nest after experiencing some success; this is why exclusive contracts exist. Though usually only founders are placed under such deals. It's almost as common, however, for key game developers to start again elsewhere and flop in a large way.

    Note that EA, perhaps the most successful games publisher, has been successfully buying franchises for years (Sims, C&C, etc).

  • trivia (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mraymer ( 516227 ) <mraymer@centuryt ... minus herbivore> on Monday June 30, 2003 @09:43PM (#6336298) Homepage Journal
    Bill Roper was indeed not only one of the figure heads at Blizzard, but he voiced Hadriel in Diablo II. (Hadriel is the archangel that tells you to go smash the soulstone before heading into the Chaos Sanctuary.)

    On the subject of these employees leaving... Well, I'll just quote Cain.... "This does not bode well..."

    Heh... at least, not for Blizzard... But I'm sure their talents will be put to just as much use wherever they end up.

    • Bill Roper is also the voice of the infamous "Zug zug" Orc Peon from the original WarCraft.
    • He was also the voice the majority of humans and Orcs in both WarCraft 1 and 2. It's him narrating the intro movies as well.

      "Yes, my lord." That's Bill Roper doing a British accent for you. All the now-famous Orc phrases are also him..."Tagu!"

      Because of his role in the creation of the first two WarCraft games, I consider Bill Roper sort of the heart of Blizzard. To me, his leaving means the company isn't really Blizzard anymore.

  • I'm floored (Score:5, Funny)

    by Torgo's Pizza ( 547926 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @10:02PM (#6336415) Homepage Journal
    People leaving a game company? Wow, that's something you don't see every day. Oops. Sorry, my browser was stuck in /sarcasm mode. I expect to see a press release in the next few days that follows this format:

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    Developers of the critically acclaimed DIABLO franchise announced today that they have formed [Insert name here], a new development studio located in [city, state]. The studio, which will focus on state-of-the-art multiplayer content for PC and next generation console platforms, was formed by four veteran Blizzard developers, who played various roles in the creation of DIABLO.

    "[New company name] is an all-star team whose members have a solid history and reputation for developing groundbreaking titles," said [insert developer], [insert new job title] and co-founder. "With the establishment of this company, we renew our commitment to the development of fresh concepts in the online gaming arena, and we look forward to pushing the industry in new and exciting directions."

    Like the template? This same one has been sucessfully used to launch every new game company and is available for use under the GPL license.

  • Blizzard isn't the sacred cow of gaming anymore (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheHubris ( 685784 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @10:48PM (#6336653)
    Hasn't been for a long time. My guess is that Blizzard North didn't wanna do a third Diablo, or at least these gentlemen didn't want to, and VU told them that it was one of their few franchises in the black, and that they had to. Anyhow, Blizzard has yet to produce a quality in a long time. Warcraft 3 as much as people rave about it, it moved 800,000 copies, not the "millions" quoted elsewhere. To put that number in perspective GTA: VC has moved 8.5 MILLION. And to be fair to the PC market which over the last several years has floundered behind the PS2, the Sims has moved 20 million. Prior to the announcement of the frozen throne there were more people online playing Starcraft at a given time than there were playing Warcraft 3. Yes, Starcraft, several years old and covered in hackers (though the best RTS of all time) had more people playing than the six month old "brilliant" War3. As for World of Warcraft, all hype, they have yet to show anything besides a nice art style. Technically its very sub-par, and on a gameplay level at E3 they showed they do a damn fine impersonation of Everquest.
    • The main reasons I hear for hating WarCraft 3 is that the only strategy to win now is by rushing. Everyone thought the Upkeep would get rid of rushing because of the inability to create massive armies, but because of the squad-based nature of the game, that is actually all you do--create a hero, give him a squad as quickly as you can, run around levelling him up, then rush the enemy. It's just a smaller scale of units now.

      As far as I can tell, the only variations in strategy allowed in the game are such
    • Naturally. a 3rd Diablo would tarnish Blizzards name, but not VUs. So VU will ride the Blizzard name into the ground, using the name alone to extract sales. When finished, discard the company.

      Their objectives to not match. The only reason to allow the purchase is for the execs to make money, but essentially they sold out their employees in doing so. Now they will use the money from the purchase to start their own thing again.

      I expect many faithful employees to follow along. Its the right thing to do
    • Just because GTA:VC sold 8.5 million and Sims sold 20 million, does not mean they're good games. Personally, I hate GTA:VC and Sims....both are boring games IMHO. Most people are buying GTA:VC because it has "violence, sex, and language"--yeah right. Ever heard of "Soldier of Fortune"? That is truly a violent game.

      Anyways, Warcraft3 was 3d and tried to live up to it's successor. But no matter how hard you try, the "old skools" won't like sequels. So it has 800,000 games sold(don't know if that's reall
  • Blizzard so far has made very good games but there is a feeling I get like their position of making these good games is very tenuous... For example, Warcraft III and Starcraft are basically only affected by one cheat (maphack) due to the nature of the game, but instead of fixing it Blizzard basically does nothing about it...

    Tim

  • not anymore (Score:5, Funny)

    by Suppafly ( 179830 ) <slashdot AT suppafly DOT net> on Monday June 30, 2003 @11:23PM (#6336849)
    Blizzard "is widely seen in the games industry as one of the most attractive assets of VU Games,

    Not anymore.

  • This has happened before at Blizzard. (Score:5, Informative)

    by nobodyman ( 90587 ) on Monday June 30, 2003 @11:42PM (#6336930) Homepage
    Keep in mind that Blizzard experienced a similar defection about four years ago. Patrick Wyatt, Mike O'Brien, and Jeff Strain (One was a biz guy, the other two wrote battle.net and worked as leads on diablo and starcraft... if memory serves) took off to form a startup called TriForge. They then became Arena.net [arena.net] and finally were swallowed by NCSoft. They are now working on Guild Wars [guildwars.com].

    So, Blizzard has survived a previous walkout... they have since churned out Warcraft 3, Diablo 2, a few expansion packs, and are nearly done with WoW. Will they survive this? I believe so. I'm wondering if they will be able to come up with original content, or if it will be infected by suits who continue to pimp out the the Warcraft/Diablo franchise ad infinum.
  • ... the guys at Bungie would do the same thing.

    They could start developing what they wanted again, without an evil empire dictating to them.

  • Shaefer (Score:3, Funny)

    by IllogicalStudent ( 561279 ) <jsmythe79@NOspAm.hotmail.com> on Monday June 30, 2003 @11:59PM (#6337005)

    ...Blizzard North co-founders Erich Schaefer, Max Schaefer...

    Man, all I hope is that my Level 89 Barbarian with two Schaefer's Hammers [diabloii.net] (Shael'ed) doesn't get nerfed now when they finally release 1.10

  • Bill Roper Interview (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @12:57AM (#6337241)
    I guess Roper's immediate comments [gamespot.com] regarding his departure validate many of the anti-Vivendi theories floating around.

  • Footsteps in the sand (Score:3, Insightful)

    by skurken ( 58262 ) on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @01:01AM (#6337258)
    I once heard a metaphore that I think applies to this situation: If you stand with your feet in sand, there's going to be footsteps when you leave. However, it's not until you leave that your footsteps can be erased.

    For a company like Blizzard, this can mean two things:
    1) They have a working learning organization that is not dependant on star players or heros. In this case, younger talent will grow to take the place of the older and the company will evolve.

    2) They (like 90% of the software business) has never gotten around to create a real engineering process, and as such is dependant on specific persons. In this case, the success will follow the talent and Blizzard will be deminished by this loss.

    From what I can tell about Blizzard from playing their games, I think they are closer to alternative 1. One can see a steady refinement of their game ideas from the first War Craft up to WCIII. I believe they will be affected by the loss of talent, but it increases the chances of seeing new and innovative ideas in their future games.
  • It's been a long time since the groundbreaking days of Warcraft and Diablo, more than enough time for Blizzard to have lost its edge and gone on auto-pilot. The sad fact is that these talented guys won't be missed; the increasingly bland Blizzard line can be managed by anyone. Maybe they recognized as much...

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