Ion is getting praise from above for making Activision profit, and thats ALL they care about at the moment, but what the high ups don’t realise and certainly don’t understand is he is destroying their product in the process, eventually the truth will come out, it always does…the end is nigh 
You can only get so much milk from a cow…and then you have to give it some love and care in return, otherwise it will die.
Nobody deserves the forum slaughter he’s getting lately. In the end if you’re that miserable with the game, you’re free to unsub.
Realistically speaking he is the main responsible for any changes in the game. Nobody takes a decision without his approval.
Now I’ve never worked in a company like Blizzard and I think most of you are just as clueless as I am.
What we know for certain is that Ion is well aware of the issues we’re facing in game and has repeatedly ignored valuable feedback.
We’ve been screaming at Blizzard about the covenants since beta and not only they decided to release them this way, they also stuck with it even though we’ve been mostly unhappy about it. Ion comes out in public and straight up refuses to accept that his (and implicitly his team’s) design isn’t working.
So while we don’t really know who pulls the strings, we know he is very stubborn and disconnected at times.
are you actually so tone-deaf to how companies work that you think Directors literally control every aspect of the game to a minutia?
You people have zero idea how these things work, sheesh.
People need to seperate the man from the role. He as a human does not deserve any ill will, abuse or some of the nasty things being said. The role he occupies does deserve some criticism (not abuse or attacks) but (hopefully) constructive criticism
There is a saying on some forums I frequent - “play the ball, not the man” . It means reply to the content of the post, not the user who has made it.
Same applies when talking about Ion (or any other Blizzard employee or any other human really) It is hard at times though, they doing frustrating things on a frequent basis in recent times.
In general we are all guilty of going for ‘the man’ at times. It would be a nicer place if we could learn to take a breath.
My thoughts exactly. I, too, criticize some of his decisions but we need to be civil and constructive.
Hes an operational director as opposed to a registered director seen on the likes of companies house documentation (for the UK registered companies).
If he isnt seeing an overview of everything under him he is grossly incompetent.
Operational directors the likes of Ion are there to oversee the teams and or projects underneath him, keep them on track, to a budget and basically ensure the product is delivered to his boss (the CEO/board’s) deadlines. Sure he might not get the nitty gritty details of everything but, generally, for big changes it should get upper management ok’d before going ahead.
Your telling me a director as high up in the company as Ion is, is letting the people under him in the company hierarchy run a multi-billion $$ enterprise without any of his overview or input? Do you think the higher ups in any company dont have or want a say in major changes to their product?
What people need to understand, while Ion is the lead he is not the “fuhrer” to give commands and everyone will execute them with no question.
There is a board, there are many opinions but only one is visible and only one is taking the blame of many.
TLDR from a WoW review from Patrick J. Colliano:
Ion Hazzikostas, the current Game Director of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, is, simply put, the worst thing that ever happened to World of Warcraft.
During his disastrous tenure, he has overseen the worst changes of all, and the game has changed from an enjoyable pastime to something like a disagreeable job.
I don’t know what motivates his decisions — perhaps the team he oversees is a mere skeleton crew compared to the team of developers of Warcraft’s heyday during Wrath of the Lich King expansion — but what characterizes his tenure as Game Director is transparent attempts to make progress as time-consuming as possible. The more speed bumps he can place in the way of the players, the more time they spend on it. Consequently, the less content his team needs to create.
*And once you realize his motivations, the stumbling blocks become obvious, running from the relatively trivial details to the major aspects of the game. His favorite tactic appears to be making travel a much more demanding task. Compare the exploration of Arathi Highlands, for instance, to trying to navigate Argus.
These aspects of the game, which can only be described as being sabotaged under Ion’s inept direction, simply work to make the minor aspects of the game more time-consuming. The more time players spending on farming materials and traveling, the less time the players have to quest, do dungeons, battlegrounds and raids. Therefore, the less content Ion’s team has to create to keep the players entertained.
Paradoxically, it seems that Ion works hardest to avoid working. Inflicting stalling tactics on the players seems to be the MO.
thats some good read right there
If they had their way we would only be slow walking vanilla pace till the cows come home. Trouble with that is people would quit these days.
The market is filled with games and blizzard cannot afford to lose the instant gratification needy young people who have no loyalty to anything due to no flying.
Also the overall age of players is going up meaning they cant spend all day playing now as well.
*abruptly stops sharpening his pitchfork *
Civil and what now?!
But ye jokes asides.
I doubt anyone is even remotely serious when they shout bloody murder.
And of course no one should get hated on for just doing a job.
But it comes with the position tbh.
Should maybe try for a position with less responsibility if you want a care free career.
He might be a nice guy n all but every decision he makes affects literally all of us players.
Ion stole my car! GET HIM!
(JK, just in case)
On a serious note: I do disagree with Ion on certain topics, but I do not hate him.
I don’t agree any level of attack on personal level and most WoW player we don’t know Ion from a personal level.
But a few things he is definitely responsible peronsally by abusing his position that brought into WoW for the rest of the community
I don’t agree with the personal attack if any but I also don’t feel sorry for him
Don’t compare the first one to the other two. Mage Tower was fun and rewarding.
ION DOESN’T DESERVE THE HATE
Hate? No.
Kick in a butt for not understanding the RPG/MMORPG genre and its players? Absolutely YES.
Activision/Kotic care about profits and there are stupendous profits to be made from properly designed RPG-MMORPG games so nothing stops Ion from leading the team to design deep and meaningful RPG and yet instead of adding depth to the game and enriching the game with RPG elements he constantly does the opposite.
Under Ion’s lead game lost most of its RPG components 
You are always responsable for you own actions! If its a game company or a tech company sending children in to mines.
This argument was used so often in history to justify crimes. So no not a valid argument to exvuse him for bad design and cartot on a stick. The game is brilliant and I know they can do better and that is what bugs me the most about it, it’s not some small indicompany trying something out, they know exactly what there doing.
lon and his crew really need to move on at this stage mop was probably the last decent expansion lon has has had one slightly better than average expansion with legion and shadow lands if you don’t raid or push high keys there is nothing for you here! i think this expansion has been made for about 10% of the player base and it shows! he needs to go already hes done enough damage to wow.
their not even listing to everyone just the 1 % as always this is the least casual friendly expansion yet
Plays more like a arpg tough, and it’s a road they are determined to take it seems, witch a very low % of the playerbase wants, selfdestructive behaviour.
He isn’t in charge of the money-grab things. But he’s in charge of gameplay otherwise and it’s sh*te.