Craig Amai, the quest designer and developer of the artifact weapons, is leaving the World of Warcraft team after more than 10 years at Blizzard.
The fans of World of Warcraft must be quite brave in recent days. Although the new expansion has been received very well by fans so far, there are some “terrible news” coming from Blizzard.
Lead Quest Designer Craig Amai Leaves Blizzard
After Chris Metzen has packed his bags, Craig Amai now follows. For those who may not know the name: Amai was primarily responsible for the development of the artifact weapons and had already held an important role before. He was responsible for numerous tasks in the game for several years, as he was the “Lead Quest Designer”.
Overall, Amai’s career is quite astonishing, as his first job at Blizzard was as a simple GameMaster before his rise to one of the key roles in the development of World of Warcraft began. In a long, quite emotional farewell letter, he talks about his departure and how difficult this decision has been for him. He is certain that he will regret this several times, as “it is naive to assume that there is a better company than Blizzard.” Nevertheless, he wouldn’t be Amai if he didn’t try.
“I gave World of Warcraft the 12 best years of my life. I believe I have left many footprints in Azeroth and on the players experiencing them. With such a large team, most players will never know my name – they only know Blizzard. That’s fine with me. I never did this for personal honor. I am satisfied with what I have given and what I received in return.”
The rumors that he would move to the newly founded “Bonfire” studio were denied by him. “Either I work for myself or for Blizzard” – he even considers a return to Blizzard quite likely.
“I couldn’t create a better company, and I would be an idiot if I tried. I suspect that I will come back one day after exploring some unknown paths.
But my time with WoW has come to an end, and I know how things go when you no longer see people every day… they are never the same again. No matter how much you love people, they slip away from you.
That is tenfold true for a social hermit like me.”
Mein-MMO says: It seems like Blizzard’s developers have really pushed themselves with World of Warcraft: Legion. Just like with Metzen, Amai is also a person who had a particularly large influence on Azeroth and is someone that will be hard to replace. I can only recommend that everyone read the “farewell letter” (in our sources) in the original English. It is not only quite moving but also clearly shows how much the developers care about their own work.
