Blizzard’s Rob Pardo: entertaining the WoW gamer

In an interview with Next-Gen.biz, StarCraft, Diablo Series”>Blizzard Entertainment’s VP of game design Rob Pardo revealed that the development of new World of Warcraft content isn’t for adding to World of Warcraft‘s survivability in the age where World of Warcraft-killers lurk in every corner. Instead, he believes that they are creating content to keep the World of Warcraft gamer entertained.

We’re not sure if nerfs, hotfixes, hybridization and shutting out players who sweat blood, money, and time on PvP qualifications are part of Blizzard’s definition of “entertaining,” so we’ll leave it at that for now.

Blizzard has just delivered their next set of major content in World of Warcraft through the v2.1.0 patch, but who knows how long it will continue to keep players occupied until they all get bored eventually. But interestingly enough, Blizzard won’t be hiring more developers unless they are “top-level.”

They believe that despite their resource shortage on creativity, they still plan on creating great content. Pardo also commented, “Someone might say ‘hey Blizzard why don’t you just hire 500 developers and do expansions every three months?’ Well, great developers donÂ’t grow on trees.”

That’s funny because, for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, money does grow on trees. So Blizzard hires people who are not only creative, but also up to the challenge of creating better and better content. But somehow, the World of Warcraft Forums don’t reflect that. Pardo defended his answer, stating:

ItÂ’s also [an internal] content challenge for us. As a creative person, how long can you make WoW content when youÂ’re ready for something else? So not only do we have to find a lot of people who are really talented and who are willing to do this, we have to take some time to think about the team so that theyÂ’re always challenged.

And it looks like we know exactly what causes all the delays in content changes, expansions and new PC titles: it’s because Blizzard’s brainstorming often eats up more hours than what was provided for in their timetable. They take time throwing their ideas on a white board, picking out the ones best suited for a game. Pardo explains:

By the time we kind of get through that process we’re behind schedule. It’s really hard to schedule that iteration. Sometimes it takes longer than we plan. So I tell the producers ‘hey, we need a little bit more time’, they’re like ‘What?!’ But I try to be good. I try to do my best and be the producers’ friend.

So that’s what happened to Starcraft: Ghost and Starcraft 2! Okay, we get it now.

In an interview with Next-Gen.biz, StarCraft, Diablo Series”>Blizzard Entertainment’s VP of game design Rob Pardo revealed that the development of new World of Warcraft content isn’t for adding to World of Warcraft‘s survivability in the age where World of Warcraft-killers lurk in every corner. Instead, he believes that they are creating content to keep the World of Warcraft gamer entertained.

We’re not sure if nerfs, hotfixes, hybridization and shutting out players who sweat blood, money, and time on PvP qualifications are part of Blizzard’s definition of “entertaining,” so we’ll leave it at that for now.

Blizzard has just delivered their next set of major content in World of Warcraft through the v2.1.0 patch, but who knows how long it will continue to keep players occupied until they all get bored eventually. But interestingly enough, Blizzard won’t be hiring more developers unless they are “top-level.”

They believe that despite their resource shortage on creativity, they still plan on creating great content. Pardo also commented, “Someone might say ‘hey Blizzard why don’t you just hire 500 developers and do expansions every three months?’ Well, great developers donÂ’t grow on trees.”

That’s funny because, for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, money does grow on trees. So Blizzard hires people who are not only creative, but also up to the challenge of creating better and better content. But somehow, the World of Warcraft Forums don’t reflect that. Pardo defended his answer, stating:

ItÂ’s also [an internal] content challenge for us. As a creative person, how long can you make WoW content when youÂ’re ready for something else? So not only do we have to find a lot of people who are really talented and who are willing to do this, we have to take some time to think about the team so that theyÂ’re always challenged.

And it looks like we know exactly what causes all the delays in content changes, expansions and new PC titles: it’s because Blizzard’s brainstorming often eats up more hours than what was provided for in their timetable. They take time throwing their ideas on a white board, picking out the ones best suited for a game. Pardo explains:

By the time we kind of get through that process we’re behind schedule. It’s really hard to schedule that iteration. Sometimes it takes longer than we plan. So I tell the producers ‘hey, we need a little bit more time’, they’re like ‘What?!’ But I try to be good. I try to do my best and be the producers’ friend.

So that’s what happened to Starcraft: Ghost and Starcraft 2! Okay, we get it now.