The story of Jeff Kaplan at Blizzard is legendary: Originally a feared forum troll, Blizzard noticed the approximately 30-year-old Kaplan and gave him a job. Later, he was to shape WoW and Overwatch. Bungie follows similar paths and has recruited a weapon expert for Destiny 2 directly from the reddit forum.
What was it like back then at Blizzard?
- The story is now legendary: Kaplan played the original MMORPG Everquest around 2000 under the name “Tigole”: He was a hardcore player who achieved everything in the MMORPG with his guild but liked to post in forums about the weaknesses and problems of Everquest.
- One of his guild members was Rob Pardo, one of the founders of Blizzard, who noticed Kaplan and offered him a job at the then-young company.
- Kaplan became a celebrated game designer at Blizzard over the next 19 years, he worked on WoW and Overwatch and later left the company as one of the most popular employees of Blizzard.
Destiny recruits renowned weapon expert directly from the forum
This is how an expert found a job at Destiny: In the early times of Bungie, the content creator Mercules drew attention with long posts about weapons. He earned a reputation as the greatest expert in the fandom regarding weapons.
We have often quoted Mercules’ opinions on weapons on MeinMMO, especially around 2017, as we repeatedly referred to Mercules when it came to breaking down complex mechanics in the chronically under-explained Destiny, such as mobility.
In contrast to Kaplan, who also impressed with performance but was notable for his rough troll posts, Mercules maintained a much more moderate tone. As early as 2019, Bungie took notice of Mercules, and together with YouTuber Holtzmann Bungie hired him as a consultant and expert, but only for a limited time.
In March 2022, Mercules proudly announced that he had today landed his first job as an Associate Weapon Designer at Bungie. With the permanent position, a dream has come true.
Since then, he frequently speaks out on social media and in interviews when it comes to weapons topics, such as recently with the Necrochasm.
Born and raised in the Destiny subreddit
How did he get the job? Mercules says (via reddit), that a forum also played a big role in his case. He posted his weapon analyses on reddit and someone at Bungie noticed him and recommended him.
In hindsight, he says: He was born and shaped in the Destiny subreddit. He now hopes to make the fans proud.
In the past, in 2015, Bungie had utilized reddit (via gamerant): Community manager Cosmo originally founded the reddit. However, the currently difficult relations between Bungie and the community have not changed this.
At Bungie, the relationship with the community has been severely damaged since individual members of the player base have been offensive in tone and even issued death threats against individual employees and their families. Bungie has not accepted this and has severely restricted communication since then:
Destiny 2: Community manager resigns after death threat – Bungie: ‘Expect no more answers’
