Diablo 3 director steps down, moving on to next Blizzard project

It's been seven years of Hell for Diablo 3 Game Director Jay Wilson, and he has had enough. The designer has decided to step down from the position at Blizzard and move on to another project within the company.

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It's been seven years of Hell for Diablo 3 Game Director Jay Wilson, and he has had enough. The designer has decided to step down from the position at Blizzard and move on to another project within the company.

In a blog post to fans, Wilson said the period of time working on the game has been "both challenging and rewarding," but he felt that he needed to do something else. "I've reached a point creatively where I'm looking forward to working on something new. The powers that be at Blizzard have been gracious enough to give me that opportunity. Over the course of the next several weeks, I will be moving off of the Diablo III project and transitioning elsewhere within Blizzard. This decision was not an easy one for me, and not one I made quickly, but ultimately it's what I feel is right."

He acknowledged creative differences with the community, probably some of the most vocal fans in the game industry, and said while the game wasn't perfect, "I'm proud of Diablo 3." He said he will miss the passion and dedication of the fans. "I feel I have made many mistakes in managing that relationship, but my intent was always to provide a great gaming experience, and be as open and receptive as possible, while still sticking true to the vision the Diablo team has for the game."

He said his departure should not have a negative effect on the game, and that a job posting for his position should be appearing on the Blizzard site. The company will be looking for "the best possible leadership" to continue to evolve the game and make it better, he said. The latest 1.0.7 patch is already on the public test realm and is bringing a ton of changes to the game.

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  • reply
    January 17, 2013 2:00 PM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Diablo 3 director steps down, moving on to next Blizzard project.

    It's been seven years of Hell for Diablo 3 Game Director Jay Wilson, and he has had enough. The designer has decided to step down from the position at Blizzard and move on to another project within the company.

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      January 17, 2013 2:07 PM

      the man does have patience. i endured 3 months of hell with diablo 3 and had enough.

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        January 18, 2013 2:59 AM

        [deleted]

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        January 18, 2013 5:55 AM

        From the coming 1.07 patch notes:
        "One of the most common requests we get from players is that they'd like to find more items (through drops or crafting) that are as awesome as those that they can get from the Auction House. The Auction House has its advantages: you get to pick the exact stats that you want, it can be thrilling to find a bargain"

        Rearry?

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      January 17, 2013 2:27 PM

      Every community bitching on the internet just happens to be "the most vocal fans in the game industry"

      Maybe we should just all accept that video game fans on the internet all suck ? (Including myself ont his as I've bitched about more than a few things)

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        January 17, 2013 3:07 PM

        I've often said the problem with games is gamers!

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        January 17, 2013 4:13 PM

        It's proportional to the level and duration of marketing, the size and tenacity of the following, and the difference between critical expectations and post-release critical response.

        I don't want to have to completely ignore gaming news, or only chase after games I've never heard of, but I've accepted that I shouldn't preorder anything ever, and consider that there's a huge shift between pre-release hype and post-release gameplay. But every now and then, I should take a chance, as long as I'm willing to completely lose all the value of the money spent. I took a chance on Persona 4 Arena, and HOLY CRAP did it pay off.

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        January 17, 2013 10:35 PM

        By the standards set forth in all of gamingdom, I have yet to play the perfect game.

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          January 17, 2013 10:50 PM

          [deleted]

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            January 18, 2013 3:03 AM

            Probably MDK aswell...

            Although, the perfect game doesn't exist. If it did there would be no point in making any other games.

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        January 18, 2013 6:08 AM

        I'll tell you what though, the D3 'fans' were a special breed. I was amazed at the rivers of tears and the sheer amount of spanktards spewing their hateful, venemous bile. Full on RSG shit 24/7 in those forums.

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      January 17, 2013 2:29 PM

      Maybe once they get a new director I'll get a drop I can actually use.

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      January 17, 2013 3:22 PM

      . . . and move on to another project victim

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      January 17, 2013 8:48 PM

      Maybe a new director will come in and fix the game properly. I truly believe that Blizzard didn't fire Jay Wilson because it would basically be admitting failure. They rode the bus and quietly got him off the project . I mean cmon, The guy couldn't even put pvp flagging in a co-op Diablo game. so stupid.

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      January 17, 2013 10:54 PM

      This is not exactly surprising. Basically they should just stop with D3, great single player experience for a limited time then that's that, no multiplayer no anything else, it is what it is. Focus on something that will be amazing, here's hoping that will be Titan.

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        January 18, 2013 3:06 AM

        Even in singleplayer it was boring... Played it once in normal but i can't see how it would be any more interesting on higher difficulties. The entire setup of the game was annoying as hell aswell, with it trying to copy Diablo 2 but failing spectacularly at it.

        Just compare the act 2's......

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          January 18, 2013 4:15 AM

          "limited time" meaning it gets boring after completing it once. The fact that you have to go through the exact same content and story again repeatedly to level up was a rather fail design choice. Its 2013, games have evolved and people require more to maintain their enjoyment. They're fools for thinking this would hold up today. Might have worked 15 years ago.

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          January 18, 2013 4:24 AM

          Act 2/3 of both games is goddamn annoying, but I prefer Diablo 3's Act 3 to D2's. Fuck the desert though, in both games.

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          January 18, 2013 4:34 AM

          [deleted]

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            January 18, 2013 6:00 AM

            I'm mostly with you. I definitely had some fun getting to inferno, but I thought that they didn't d a good job of scaling content. I felt like D3 was too easy for most of my time playing, and then in Inferno, it was impossibly difficult, because it was a gear check instead of a skill check. That is what ultimately turned me off from the experience. That being said, I never wanted to beat D2 on its hardest difficulty.

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          January 18, 2013 5:30 AM

          Single player was enjoyable enough to play through once. It started getting a bit tiresome in Nightmare and lost me part-way through Inferno... multiplayer was OK but it was the same thing over and over and over, and I kept dying in the exact same manner because I wasn't tooling my build properly.

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          January 18, 2013 5:36 AM

          "normal" is the tutorial for that game....it doesn't start until lvl 60 inferno.

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          January 18, 2013 6:14 AM

          I played it once, didn't regret it, really liked the power design, too easy though and I shouldn't have to play a game through more than once to get a decent challenge.

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          January 18, 2013 11:42 AM

          The problem with D3 is that they tried to infuse to much story into it . Which isn't a bad thing, but forcing you to repeat it was. D2 never forced you into a quest. They had locks on how far you could go without completing certain ones, but never forced you into the quests. You can't just "enter" a D3 game. You have to choose what quest to enter the game.

          They also needed to let you skip between acts IN game. Nothing kills the pace or enjoyment of a game more than having to leave the game.

          The game did get boring. I feel that's because the pace of the game was too slow. It's an Action RPG, not a Drama RPG. If they sped up the games "speed" overall, it would be an incredible boost to it.

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      January 18, 2013 8:11 AM

      [deleted]

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