Even though he was let go by Blizzard, he took with him a memory that no one can take away. A rare relic of the past.
Working at Blizzard was a long-held dream for a whole generation of developers and designers. Even though that dream has been significantly tarnished over the past decade due to major scandals and allegations of exploitation, there are still many people who feel inspired by the “big names” at Blizzard.
One who made it to Blizzard now recounts his memento that will forever remind and inspire him: The nameplate of a legendary Blizzard artist.
The trailer for the now “dead” Warcraft Rumble:
What was the developer working on? According to his own statements, Motatopotato worked on Warcraft Rumble in the WoW subreddit. It was the mobile game for Warcraft that was initially well-received, but its development was halted less than 2 years after release – a large part of the team was let go and only a few were reassigned to other positions.
How did he get the nameplate? He describes this in a comment under the picture. There he recounts:
At the end of the COVID pandemic, we were given the opportunity to test the hybrid work model that [Blizzard] wanted to implement. I lived within walking distance to the campus and volunteered. By chance, I got the same desk that Samwise [Didier] had. I found his name card in one of the drawers and have kept it ever since.
On the name card is the name of Sam Didier, along with one of his favorite sayings: “Always Be Creating.” That’s what Didier always tells all artists, and it’s also a motto he lives by: One should always be working on something, as it’s the only way to improve.
That Samwise Didier also has a special meaning for the new owner of the name card is also evident afterwards:
The art of Sam was what inspired me to try my hand at being an artist after I had previously worked in clinical sciences as a technologist for seven years.
After I was let go in 2024 (as was ultimately the entire team from Rumble), I didn’t have the strength to open the boxes – until today, where I came across this relic of personal history.
I just wanted to share this with the community because Sam basically defined the art style that so many around the world have fallen in love with.
How the community responds: They are pleased with this quite personal find and the beautiful memory. Didier is also quite popular in the Blizzard community. After all, his works have accompanied many since childhood, as some remember:
- “I remember painting people with stylized anatomy by looking at his art in the Warcraft III manual … Samwise is a legend.” – voodootroll
- “Sam is a really nice guy. I remember when TBC came out, I was about 15 and super excited because I thought Draenei looked so cool. Sam lived on the same street as me, so I took my TBC box to his house and asked him if he would sign it. He was more than happy about it and wrote ‘FOR THE HORDE’ across the face of the male Draenei on the cover, lol” – uiemad
- “One of the saints of what Warcraft used to be. His and Chris [Metzen]’s art is irreplaceable.” – PoshDiggory
- “Literally my favorite person at Blizzard. I still remember watching his livestream where he drew Samuro for the announcement of Heroes [of the Storm].” – Croakie89
Samwise Didier drew a large part of the original art at Blizzard, including many of the images for the StarCraft universe. We could see a new game related to that soon, as all signs point to BlizzCon 2026 revealing a new StarCraft game.
