MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Diablo III director Jay Wilson’s goodbye message on the Blizzard forum has turned sour after a wave of forum users posted angry messages in the wake of his decision to step down
Wilson announced his decision to leave his role on Diablo III last week after seven years working on the title to take on a new challenge, and also revealed he would be staying on at Blizzard in an as yet undetermined role.
The forum thread in which Wilson announced the move however sparked more than 100 pages of abuse from users expressing their apparent disappointment with the game, with no uncertainty amongst many on who to blame.
Blizzard chief creative officer Rob Pardo has now taken to the thread to defend Wilson for his work on the game and called him one of the best designers he had worked with, and one who had a great career ahead of him.
He added that despite disagreeing with many users’ views, the Diablo community “deserves an even better game from Blizzard” and the team was hard at work on improving the title.
“This thread saddens me greatly,” said Pardo.
“I know that the Battle.net forums have earned a reputation for rough justice, but I do not believe justice is being served by how people are speaking about Jay’s departure from Diablo III.
“I am very proud of the Diablo franchise and what the team was able to accomplish with Diablo III. As a gamer I have enjoyed the game and played for many, many nights with friends and family. I’m not, however, going to use that as an excuse. The Diablo community deserves an even better game from Blizzard and we are committed to improving it. We have a talented team in place and have no intention of stopping work on Diablo III until it is the best game in the franchise.”
Pardo went on to say that if any forum users still felt the need to blame someone for their disappointment of Diablo III, then they should direct it as him as he was ultimately responsible for the game that was released.
“If you love Diablo as much as we do, then please continue to let us know how you feel we can improve the game. If you still feel the need to dish out blame, then I would prefer you direct it at me,” he said.
“I was the executive producer on the project; I hired Jay and I gave him advice and direction throughout the development process. I was ultimately responsible for the game we released and take full responsibility for the quality of the result.”
Since Pardo’s message, there are now 186 pages of fans and critics of the game debating Diablo III’s success and failures.
