If you guessed why PvP sucks

This is Ion’s shaman. He seems to be quite active player 420+ ilvl. Every BfA raid content cleared on mythic so far and… 5th honor level. No wonder that he cares so much for raiding if he has no interest in PvP at all.

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I understand that he plays and may enjoy the game, what i cant get is that all this implies he is really narrow minded and sees things under a very restricted point of view. But how then is he top developer in the game? Shouldnt be a rather more independent spirit in order to lead?

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5th honor level hey he farmed blood of the enemy. Have some respect.

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He’s got quite the neutral spirit, when confronted about the insane damage output lf healers he said " I play a healer and I believe healers need enough damage to do WQs on their own without changing specs". Totally neutral, and totally accounting for PvP that is half the endgame. And the reason is undiscutable too.

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5th level honor means he did some Legion PvP wq. Maybe they gave him some ap or gold :joy:

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incredible how he is even playing PvE and enjoying this game like what’s up with his mind?

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Perhaps Ion has to much respect to go into PvP and start lynching people with his lasso.

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Btw if anything I would op for wallirikz to be a lead designer since he is a top pvper and high end pver also.
There are very few players like him, and my opinion is that they should be the one designing the game and not some narrow minded retard like in the present

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Is he good at math? Statistics? Spreadsheets? Excel? Strong written and verbal communication? Able to lead a team? Able to work on a broad range of design topics? Creative and able to collaborate with others and work under tight deadlines? Is he able to relocate to Irvine, California? Does he have any prior experience in game development, preferable experience with successfully completing and shipping a game?
Or is he just a random dude who’s good at playing a video game? If so, maybe he’s better qualified as a game tester?

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Let’s see how much of these qualities does ion have
Even if ion has some experience in game design he fails at it so hard that it can’t even be described

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Well Ion managed the Elitist Jerks forum back in the day, and is one among few (Hamlet also – “Sigma” developer today) who basically laid the foundation for WoW’s theory crafting in its early days.
He is the guy you credit with the “C’thun is mathematically impossible.”-line.
The dude was an authority in the community back then. You went to Elitist Jerks and read his posts specifically if you wanted to learn how the game/class/dungeon/raid worked on a technical level.

But Ion wasn’t hired as a lead developer. If you watched his speech at Pax, then he’s basically worked his way up. Entry design position, Encounter design, Class design, Game Direction.
No one gets a lead position out of nowhere. You’ll need some sort of background for that beyond just being able to play a video game really well. That alone doesn’t count for very much, because you’re not being paid to sit around and play the game.

And Ion’s current job isn’t really to design the game in regards to the nitty-gritty stuff. That’s not what a Game Director does. Each individual department, which has its own Leads, does that. So for WoW and PvP specifically, then it’s the Game Systems Team that’s responsible for everything concerning gear, itemization, class design and balance, and so on. Ion used to be part of the Game Systems design team back when Ghostcrawler was the Lead designer on that team, mostly responsible for Rogue class design (iirc).
As a Game Director he doesn’t do that anymore. But he knows what happens on that team, because that’s his job as Game Director – to direct the development of the game and more specifically direct and coordinate the efforts of all the people working on the game. He probably spends 99% of his working hours in meetings with the various departments and leads.

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You’re wrong on this one. Might be like that at blizzard but in real life it simply does not work like that, sorry this burst you’re bubble. Ex. In my country, in hospitals physicians do not get a section leading position based on their skills they simply get it by being born in the right family, and I know for sure that it works like this even in more advanced countries in Europe.
And for the rest. How can someone be a lead game designer when he spits on one of their community in a live streets q and a

Okay…Well, that way doesn’t sound like a very smart way to approach job recruitment, so…
Regardless, it’s not the case here. Ion has basically worked in multiple departments and gone from a junior to a senior to a lead position. Makes sense.

Small correction: Ion is Game Director, not (Lead) Game Designer. He does not design per se, he directs those who do.
Disagree with the rest. But obviously, his job contract is between him and his employer, not him and you.

There was a typo live stream

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wow jito. are you ion irl? thats explains everthing

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Even on this you have something to say … HE destroyed your argument at once and you just flipped the conversation arguing again … What are you ??

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DO you really think adding this “detail” has something to do with rest argumentation? Are you addicted to scrutinize and buffling here and there all the time?

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So how this contributes to the discussion. We all know that. Is there any reason to say it? Not at all, but your feeding ego

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Eh?

He gave an example how his real-life experience is that nepotism is usually what dictates job recruitment. It is, sometimes. But it’s obviously not a good thing, because it means you are not hiring based on qualifications.

And in regards to Ion specifically, then he’s basically acquired his job through his past qualifications within Blizzard, working as Associate Game Director, Lead Encounter Designer, Senior Game Systems Designer, Game Systems Designer, and Associate Game Designer (if I’m not mistaken).
That’s a fairly by-the-books approach of working your way up, becoming more qualified as you get more experienced.

Yes. Because people blame Ion for the reason why PvP sucks. But Ion is not in the one who makes decisions on class balance changes, PvP vendors, PvE trinkets, or anything like that. The Game Systems Design team does that, and the Lead Systems Designer is responsible for that team. And he’s not one who’s outspoken on twitter or elsewhere, so that’s why you aren’t able to project your anger onto him as you’ve been with past developers (Holinka, Celestalon, Ghostcrawler, Kalgan, etc.). So you project your anger onto the next-best target you know of – Ion!

But Ion’s job is to coordinate the various WoW development teams so they’re all working toward the same goals, and able to meet various deadlines and so on (like releasing patch 8.2 with x, y and z features on June 25th, or making the next expansion within 2 years containing this and that). He’s not the one sits around at the desk tinkering with PvP design all day.

I guess if you want to blame Ion, then you can of course blame him for everything, since he’s the Game Director, and thus takes responsibility for his team and everything regarding WoW. But just to re-iterate: He’s not the “PvP developer” per se. That’s someone else. And it’s probably best if that name stays mostly unknown. :smirk:

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It didn’t sound like everyone understood it. You’re all basically questioning his qualifications at his job (without having much understanding or insight into his job at all). But those qualifications are not for you to judge as far as his employment is concerned – that’s between him and his employer.

You are of course free to criticize the game, and him as a developer. But mixing his job employment into it is undignified.

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