Destiny 2 lost its raid lead Joe Blackburn in April 2019, who moved to Riot Games (LoL, Valorant). But now he is back at Bungie and has to face the light teasing from colleagues who are happy that the PvE specialist is back.
This is Joe Blackburn: Joe Blackburn specializes in boss and raid design. If you have fought a major raid boss in Destiny 2, there is a high chance you have faced a manifestation of Blackburn’s spirit.
He worked on the MMORPG ESO from 2011 to 2015, staging the toughest boss fights, such as the battle at the end of the single-player campaign against the Daedric Prince Molag’Bal.
From February 2015 to April 2019, he was first a raid designer and later lead raid designer for Destiny 1 and Destiny 2.
He has designed boss fights like “Vosik” in the Destiny 1 raid “Wrath of the Machine” or the fight against Riven in Destiny 2 – Forsaken.
During this time, Blackburn was a presence on Twitter, often sharing his thoughts and plans regarding the boss battles, explaining why boss fights in shooters can sometimes be challenging to design.
This was his departure: In April 2019, Joe Blackburn announced that he was leaving Bungie. He said there was nothing major behind it. He simply received a good offer to go to Santa Monica and work there. One must seize such opportunities.
Later it became known that he had joined Riot Games to work on new projects.
But that apparently didn’t last long.
Bungie head writes: “Unblocked”
How other developers are now reacting to his return: On June 10, Blackburn tweeted that he is back working on Destiny 2. He will explain his further plans later, but for now, he must first grind the new dungeon.
Blackburn’s tweet is commented on by the entire developer elite at Bungie:
- Luke Smith, the head of Destiny, welcomes him with a Star Wars meme
- The head of Bungie, Pete Parsons, states he has now “unblocked” him on Twitter
- The community managers Cozmo and dmg04 post memes to express their joy
- The visual design lead writes: “Hey, Dad is finally back from getting cigarettes”
- A producer asks how Blackburn became so popular that articles were written about his return – he wants to achieve that level too
“If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you…”
Uhhhhmmmm…
I don’t remember the rest. See you on vid conf soon.
— DeeJ (@DeeJ_BNG) June 10, 2020
- Communication chief DeeJ gets surprisingly emotional. He writes: “If you love something, let it go free, if it comes back… hm, I don’t remember how that goes. See you in a video conference.”
The tweets read like the “who’s who” of everyone who has something to say about Destiny 2. Also, PvP chief Lars Bakken and producer Scott Taylor join in with their comments.
The PvE experts of the community are pleased
How well-known players are reacting: Some of the most famous players of Destiny 2 are also speaking out.
The PvE specialist and Twitch streamer Gladd says: “GG, man. We welcome you back!”
The Redeem clan, who completed many raids first, which Blackburn designed, writes: “This is epic”
And also Twitch streamer Gigz is happy that Blackburn is back.
Things haven’t been going smoothly without Blackburn in Destiny 2 recently. Bungie introduced a new “ultimate PvE challenge” in April 2020 aimed at exciting Twitch streamers. However, the best PvE player refused to play the activity. Perhaps Blackburn will do better soon:
Destiny 2 builds PvE content for Twitch – But the best PvE streamer doesn’t want to play it
