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WOW Designer Leaves Due To State Of The Game

WOW-Designer-Leaves-Due-To-State-Of-The-Game

WOW, Designer of 13 years, Chris Kaleikiof has left Blizzard due to the “state of the game”.

Chris Kaleiki has worked as a designer on World Of Warcraft for 13 years but has recently made the decision to leave Blizzard. He recently posted a video detailing his reasons for leaving and what is in his opinion the “state of the game”.

In the video, he talks about how he has been playing WOW since its early Beta, and how he was a designer of the “Monk Class” and “Mistweaver spec”, because of his love of healing.

He also explained how he worked on the “Shadowlands” in various capacities. He then starts to explain why exactly he left citing that it was a “complicated” decision and that he was not happy with the “state of the game”.  He quotes that “the vision of the modern game is a little muddled”.  

He mentions the guilds and how the players have to rely on others in their guild to be successful and that this can feel “restrictive” as a lot of players just want to play in a solo capacity.

WOW Designer Leaves Due To State Of The Game

He also feels that the story has taken up too much of the game as he feels the human element should be more important and that is missing from the modern game.

He said that they were focusing too much on the extrinsic rather than the intrinsic gameplay and that there was too much focus on progression systems and engagement. He personally felt that they should’ve focused more on the core features of the game such as the guild system.

So basically, He feels that the vision of the game has become confused and even some of the  other designers are starting to share this sentiment.

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is set to release next week on the 23rd of November and this new installment in the franchise will mark some upcoming changes to the way the MMORPG will be experienced. Among these proposed changes is the vaunted level squish that will make character progression more immediately satisfying and cohesive with each level gained.

WOW has changed drastically since its inception in 2004, so much so that it is barely recognizable now. To combat this Blizzard released WOW Classic on the 26th of August 2019 which gives players the original base game without any big changes, preserving gameplay design, aesthetic, and even bugs to deliver as close to the original experience as possible.

WOW Designer Leaves Due To State Of The Game

WOW, Classic was a huge success and allowed players to see the virtual world of WOW as it was originally designed, but this also made Chris Kaleiki identify what he was dissatisfied with when it comes to retail WoW. He mentioned that he had been dissatisfied with the state of the game for “too long” and hence his reason for leaving Blizzard after 13 years with them.

He hasn’t quite decided down which path his life is heading but promises to keep us all in the loop when he has made this major life decision.