Although Ythisens has been laid off, he finds many kind words for the employees of World of Warcraft. Many are kinder than players think.
A few days ago, there was great dismay when numerous employees of Blizzard were laid off. After all, many popular figures were affected, such as the community manager Ythisens. He was always particularly close to the players, understood their problems, and regularly responded to them. We reported here on his moving farewell tweet.
However, Ythisens had more to say and defends Blizzard. Because many people there are much more competent and friendly than it seems from the outside. In several additional tweets, he later took a stand on various issues.
Hazzikostas is a good game director: Especially for Ion Hazzikostas, the game director of World of Warcraft, Ythisens has warm words. It has been a pleasure to work with him, and he greatly appreciates the game and its community. He enjoyed every day he could work with him and his team. He is a good game director who cares.
No one wanted the layoffs: In another tweet, Ythisens explains that he does not believe anyone in the development studio or the management wanted the layoffs to happen. He “refuses to believe that anyone wanted to do this.” It was a cruel way to go about it, but that is the downside of being on the stock market. In this tweet, he also added that he would work again under J. Allen Brack, the current head of Blizzard, who is currently vilified by many.
The WoW team is not to blame: Ythisens believes that the WoW team is not to blame for what has happened. They likely had no say in the decisions regarding the nearly 800 layoffs, and we should not hold that against them. The developers working on World of Warcraft are passionate about their work and love what they do. He hopes that the community treats them kindly.
Emotional tweets continue: It seems that Ythisens has not yet fully processed his layoff. After he spoke for a long time in a very lengthy live stream with WoW players and fans about his work, he gained nearly 700 subscribers on Twitch and received a lot of support. However, after the stream, he seemed to only then be aware of the impact of his layoff and tweeted:
“After I finished the stream, the reality hit me that I am no longer your community manager, and I have been broken by it. I’m fine, it’s just… Our community is just a bit too much, and I love you all.”
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