Think of Ben Brode as like "President of the United States" He makes important decisions, can propose/veto anything, but chances are someone will easily be able to take over. Hamilton chu is kinda like a secretary of State, handling internal and external affairs(community things/flavor texts in game,business side). The US replaces these types of jobs in an even more stressful medium and keeps running so I wouldn't worry about it. Other people can be the face of Hearthstone, other people can lead a business conversation. Now if they start talking about replacing the whole lead design team, thats an issue.
Who gives a f about US?Get out of your bubble,your not the only ones to live on this planet.
no need to worry - they have perfect reasons to leave on a personal point of view, as written before - has nothing to do with the game - in fact hearthstone is one of blizzards biggest babies and will easily compensate (as much as i already miss ben)
You see, there is this magical thing, it is called anual/quarterly finances report. You can google it, it takes no time at all. If you can't read it, get someone to read it for you. There you will see that the game is doing better than ever and that Blizzard is bathing in money thanks to it. Also, there are over 70 million players playing this game. The amount of things that would have to go bad for this game to end is...well...pretty huge! No, the expansion is not lackluster in quality. You might think that it is so and that it sells poorly, but that is because you only see the statements made here on Hearthpwn and Reddit, which don't even make a fraction of the playerbase as a whole.
Hearthstone is nearing its end? Lol, yea, and Gwent is also a ''Hearthstone killer'' :P
I'm not discrediting the work Ben and Hamilton bought to the game, but everyone is replaceable. I feel like most of this board's community don't have the maturity nor the life experience to comprehend this.
In this case that is true because Ben Brode is not an exceptional man at his work and Blizzard has the money to hire almost anyone, but not everyone is replaceable always, that is not true and it seems you are the one who doesn't have the maturity nor the life experience to comprehend this. You will understand that after losing someone really special, someone that you love with all your heart. ;)
I suppose I could have worded it better, you're very right that certain personalities can never be replaced. I was sad when I read BB is going his own way, same as when Metzen left, same as when the big guys in Bioware left. But life goes on, and these aren't "someone really special". They make games for us to play to kill time. Let's not lose perspective.
Reveal seasons won't be the same without Ben (maybe they can invite him on as a guest?).
But all these "end of Hearthstone" Doomsayers...it's just so, so old. I've seen these drama queens so many times in various games, and it has never come to fruition. They are still thriving.
To anyone that believes that, come back to me and quote this very post when The End of Hearthstone (out in cinemas this summer) has come, I think you'll be waiting a while.
Remember when chris metzen left Blizzard and Wow kept going normally (and legion being a really popular expansion)? Or when when rob pardo left and wow is still a thing?
Well this is the same. Blizzard wants to sell games and trust me they will not hire random people. Specially if the people leaving were in the interview (like brode)
And this is nothing sudden. They probably knew they would leave blizzard some time ago and they are annoucing it right now.
I think just after year rotation and set launch Ian the right time for people to leave HS, mid year it would have been weird.
People change jobs all the time, I have my own businesses and I still look to change or to start something new, it’s just profesional life, there is not much to read into it, if anything I am exited for the position and what kind of ideas new people would bring.
Id love Kibler to join the team and even try to push a change to the Classic set, there is so many things that can’t be done for HS that new and fresh ideas won’t even hurt.
In IT industry big leaves before summer is something normal. I supose, that BB just got an oportunity to change something in his life... 10 years in one corp. is a lot :)
First off, who knows if these were sudden departures or not. Just because they seemed sudden to us doesn't mean they were sudden to Blizzard. These men are professionals and I hardly doubt they got to where they were in the business by blindsiding their employers in such a manner. It's likely Blizzard has known this was coming for weeks, if not months in advance and decided to wait until after the launch of the expansion to announce it for obvious reasons.
Secondly, working that high up for such a massive company, while certainly rewarding in many ways, can wear on a person. It can't be easy being the public face of such a large game. Also, Ben has been doing what he does since the beginning of Hearthstone and he's been with Blizzard, if I'm not mistaken, for the entirety of his time in the games business. It's completely natural for someone to want to go out and try doing their own thing. Being one's own boss is rewarding in ways that working for a company like Blizzard could never be.
So is this the beginning of the end of Hearthstone? Hardly. Hearthstone is a massively successful game and it's in no danger of going anywhere anytime soon. The thing is simply that projects this large have turnover in all areas. It's the nature of the industry. Hearthstone is probably going to be around for a long time and it will have more high profile departures in the years to come.
Don't forget, it's actually Activision that call the shots. I'm fairly sure the two left as result a of pay dispute, as is is often the case with them when devs leave out of nowhere. The 'new project' thing then comes out of neccessity.
No it's not the beginning of the end. I'm actually hoping it's the beginning of the revival! HS used to be SO much fun. Now here we are a little over a week into a new expansion and we are already bored with it.
Yes. 2 people left from the team behind this hugely profitable and colossally popular game published by one of the wealthiest publishers in gaming and therefore Hearthstone will be shut down within the week. What alarmist nonsense.
So we are presently up to two high-profile departures with no advance warning. It is not unreasonable at this point to discuss the future of the game. As has been pointed out, there are still a large number of people on the team, but it is not usual for people who have fought their way to the to top to suddenly exit on a whim. Considering the generally lackluster reception of the expansion, is there a problem? Perhaps it is much ado about nothing, but this is also how the end would begin. Please discuss.
Why would they need to give you warnings about leaving? You are aware that these people are under contracts right? They aren't allowed to say anything until employment has officially ended, because announcing it to the world could potentially create a pr disaster from an unhappy employee. When we see how you idiots reacted to two people leaving, it's not unreasonable to assume this is exactly why he didn't make a big deal about it until he was already gone and Blizzard had washed their hands of him.
Also as for being "high profile". Ben Brode's meme status was an unintended effect and nobody even knew who the other guy was. We do know that both of them were more focused on overseeing and managing operations from a business perspective and neither of them were active creators on the Hearthstone team. Brode even admitted that he didn't even know what Shudderwock was until the expansion was on it's way out the door. So why is it such a big deal? Both positions can be replaced with ease. It's the people who actually design the cards that matter.
I'm not discrediting the work Ben and Hamilton bought to the game, but everyone is replaceable. I feel like most of this board's community don't have the maturity nor the life experience to comprehend this.
Truth.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Just Another Legend Player#Kappa
no need to worry - they have perfect reasons to leave on a personal point of view, as written before - has nothing to do with the game - in fact hearthstone is one of blizzards biggest babies and will easily compensate (as much as i already miss ben)
# Invictus Maneo #
Current Standard Deck: Kolento's Big Shaman:
https://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1267569-big-shaman
Chakki joined the hs team and two senior members of HS decide to leave.. coincidence? Lol
You see, there is this magical thing, it is called anual/quarterly finances report. You can google it, it takes no time at all. If you can't read it, get someone to read it for you. There you will see that the game is doing better than ever and that Blizzard is bathing in money thanks to it. Also, there are over 70 million players playing this game. The amount of things that would have to go bad for this game to end is...well...pretty huge! No, the expansion is not lackluster in quality. You might think that it is so and that it sells poorly, but that is because you only see the statements made here on Hearthpwn and Reddit, which don't even make a fraction of the playerbase as a whole.
Hearthstone is nearing its end? Lol, yea, and Gwent is also a ''Hearthstone killer'' :P
Uhtoh...
Remember when chris metzen left Blizzard and Wow kept going normally (and legion being a really popular expansion)? Or when when rob pardo left and wow is still a thing?
Well this is the same. Blizzard wants to sell games and trust me they will not hire random people. Specially if the people leaving were in the interview (like brode)
And this is nothing sudden. They probably knew they would leave blizzard some time ago and they are annoucing it right now.
So yeah this isn't the end at all.
I think just after year rotation and set launch Ian the right time for people to leave HS, mid year it would have been weird.
People change jobs all the time, I have my own businesses and I still look to change or to start something new, it’s just profesional life, there is not much to read into it, if anything I am exited for the position and what kind of ideas new people would bring.
Id love Kibler to join the team and even try to push a change to the Classic set, there is so many things that can’t be done for HS that new and fresh ideas won’t even hurt.
In IT industry big leaves before summer is something normal. I supose, that BB just got an oportunity to change something in his life... 10 years in one corp. is a lot :)
First off, who knows if these were sudden departures or not. Just because they seemed sudden to us doesn't mean they were sudden to Blizzard. These men are professionals and I hardly doubt they got to where they were in the business by blindsiding their employers in such a manner. It's likely Blizzard has known this was coming for weeks, if not months in advance and decided to wait until after the launch of the expansion to announce it for obvious reasons.
Secondly, working that high up for such a massive company, while certainly rewarding in many ways, can wear on a person. It can't be easy being the public face of such a large game. Also, Ben has been doing what he does since the beginning of Hearthstone and he's been with Blizzard, if I'm not mistaken, for the entirety of his time in the games business. It's completely natural for someone to want to go out and try doing their own thing. Being one's own boss is rewarding in ways that working for a company like Blizzard could never be.
So is this the beginning of the end of Hearthstone? Hardly. Hearthstone is a massively successful game and it's in no danger of going anywhere anytime soon. The thing is simply that projects this large have turnover in all areas. It's the nature of the industry. Hearthstone is probably going to be around for a long time and it will have more high profile departures in the years to come.
BLOODY HELLFIRE
*bell tolls and lightning strikes*
Do or do not. There is no try.
Calm down... Hearthstone is still in good hands Kappa
Don't forget, it's actually Activision that call the shots. I'm fairly sure the two left as result a of pay dispute, as is is often the case with them when devs leave out of nowhere. The 'new project' thing then comes out of neccessity.
If Blizzard is smart they hire Ben Brode for card reveals and gameplay. Whatever the cost.
Dying... Sure LUL There are thousands of other games which can only dream of being so profitable as HS, yet they live on.
No it's not the beginning of the end. I'm actually hoping it's the beginning of the revival! HS used to be SO much fun. Now here we are a little over a week into a new expansion and we are already bored with it.
Yes. 2 people left from the team behind this hugely profitable and colossally popular game published by one of the wealthiest publishers in gaming and therefore Hearthstone will be shut down within the week. What alarmist nonsense.
its the end of hearthstone and santa claus is real