The team of World of Warcraft is growing. A hefty 41 new people are being sought. Will there be more content?
In recent days and weeks, at Blizzard everything has revolved around the big scandal regarding corporate culture. Nevertheless, the wheels in game development are not standing still. The team of World of Warcraft is massively seeking reinforcement and is looking for 41 new employees – 3 of them just for the “Combat Team.” (via blizzard.com)
What is being especially sought? Interestingly, of the nearly 40 job openings, 3 are exclusively supposed to deal with the combat system. The new employees are to focus primarily on the “underlying mathematics,” i.e., balancing. At the same time, one of the newcomers is supposed to deal primarily with PvP, which will likely please some PvP fans.
The team around the combat mechanics is currently led by Brian Holinka, who also shared a few words about the positions on Twitter.
Why are new people being sought? Many initially suspected that numerous staff had left the World of Warcraft team in the wake of the sexism and discrimination scandal at Blizzard.
However, that is not the case, as Holinka explained on Twitter. When asked if this was a replacement for potential departures, Holinka stated:
Good question. This is to make the team grow.
Thus, it apparently involves completely new positions, so the team around World of Warcraft is growing.
Is Game Director Ion Hazzikostas looking for a successor?
Another interesting point is the search for an “Associate Game Director.” This is one of the highest positions available in game development. Currently, the Game Director is Ion Hazzikostas. He has set the course in World of Warcraft in recent years and had the final word on major design decisions.
What is being speculated? In the World of Warcraft subreddit, players speculate that Ion Hazzikostas wants to step down from his position as Game Director of World of Warcraft in the coming years and is therefore looking for an “Associate Game Director” who can learn from him and later take over his role.
However, this is not confirmed, and it is also quite possible that the Associate Game Director is simply intended to take on a long-term supportive role in order to manage the ever-growing development team effectively.
What does this mean for players? For current players of World of Warcraft, all of this likely means more content, stronger revisions, and possibly more frequent balance patches to respond to issues more quickly.
However, even if all the open positions are filled, it may take months or even years for players to see the results – perhaps already in the next expansion after Shadowlands. That has been confirmed for a long time.
