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**Dox** · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 12:20 PM

Quote:

The recent spate of MMO industry layoffs isn't discriminating in terms of company size if the latest rumors are true. We've just been informed that one of Blizzard's golden boys has been served his walking papers, joining hundreds of devs from the likes of NCsoft, GamersFirst, GameForge, and CCP in recent weeks.

John Staats, the senior level designer on Blizzard's secretive Titan project, has been let go, according to our tipster. Staats has been with the company for over a decade and is responsible for some of World of Warcraft's most celebrated content including all the raid dungeons, Blackrock Mountain and Booty Bay, and numerous other instanced dungeons.

Staats was also described by Jeff Kaplan as the "hero of the WoW dev team."

Source: Joystiq

**rezyn8** · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 12:22 PM

Interesting - his ideas must have been stale or he left on his own accord.

**Maynarde** · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 12:22 PM

Whoah ... If a guy like that gets laid off, no one is safe T_T

**Dox** · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 12:42 PM

It's hard to say. For all we know he sexually assaulted a co-worker. May not have been project related.

**Maynarde** · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 12:46 PM

Yeah but a guy of that stature would SURELY get away with the occasional ass grab!

Quick Comments

	Synizta:
	ZergGirl:	fkn lol

cruxBsK · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 12:54 PM

hopefully he leaks some of the content lol

dazaris · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 1:11 PM

Looks like this might have been a whole bunch of employees laid off:
http://daeity.blogspot.com/2011/11/m...-troubles.html

**inFeZa** · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 1:12 PM

oh ouch - wonder how much this will effect the design of the game.

SuperHero · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 1:50 PM

I would say that someone of that level it was a voluntary redundancy, he probably got a decent severance package as well.

Blizzard would be very healthy in terms of finances, their products are doing very well. Even WoW is going strong after all these years.

**syfChadMann** · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 2:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rezyn8

Interesting - his ideas must have been stale or he left on his own accord.

Top level creatives demand top level pay checks and are usually the first to get flicked.

zeffrin · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 5:24 PM

You dont just fire the guy who developed such large and significant portions of a game which is pretty much supporting your whole business because they want a bit more money.

The problem with true genius is that, no matter how many qualified ordinary people you put together you don't get genius.

This is something many, if not all companies, learn the hard way, over and over again... maybe I should say, this is something managers learn over and over again the hard way in skilled industries.

However, now the format of levels in WoW is pretty much set... people expect instances/quests and the world map to look and be a certain way so now they can have the juniors continue creating content by style guide.

One thing though, Blizzard probably has no shortage of creative genius, so maybe for them it won't matter... guess we'll see if they do more expansions for WoW

TADivinity · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 6:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SQLTt.inFeZa

oh ouch - wonder how much this will effect the design of the game.

When theyre digging for ideas and coming up with "Mists of Pandaria".. I dont think it can get much worse :P

**Nemo** · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 6:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maynarde

Yeah but a guy of that stature would SURELY get away with the occasional ass grab!

Maynarde,
"ass grab" is forbiden in the street or in the office. I sure would punch someone would do that to my wife or my mother. "Ass grab" may also hide some more serious assaults or "sexual promotion" propositions.

People have to respect women and their body.

On the main subject we don't really know if he did that or not btw. It could be some excuse to fire him for internal political problems or something else.

**Maynarde** · Tue, 8th-Nov-2011, 8:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemo

Maynarde,
"ass grab" is forbiden in the street or in the office. I sure would punch someone would do that to my wife or my mother. "Ass grab" may also hide some more serious assaults or "sexual promotion" propositions.

People have to respect women and their body.

On the main subject we don't really know if he did that or not btw. It could be some excuse to fire him for internal political problems or something else.

I wasn't being serious dude. Hard to display sarcasm in a text based media I guess :P

Quick Comments

Nemo:

Fair enough mate :)