Dean "Iksar" Ayala - Game Director for Hearthstone - Leaves Blizzard
In a shocking turn of events, and less than 3 months after he officially announced his promotion to Game Director, Dean "Iksar" Ayala is announcing his farewell from Blizzard.
His current Twitter profile says "Unemployed" but it is reasonable to suspect we will hear from Dean in another capacity, and for another company, soon enough!
From us at HearthPwn, a heartfelt "Thank you for everything!" and a hope that Dean will use his great talents as a communicator to enrich some new gaming community!
After 11 years, I am leaving Blizzard.
— August Dean Ayala 💙 (@IksarHS) September 16, 2022
Hearthstone is an incredible game. To have played even a small part in its creation is an honor I'll never forget. Thank you to all the players, and a special thank you to my fellow game creators. I am proud of all we built together. pic.twitter.com/zhc0PBuOke
Dind't you get the memmo? Everyone is Playing Battlegrounds now cause it requires actuall skill and its way more fun ;)
Big Thanks, Dean Ayala!
You (etc) were fired for pleasing me... a fun player
I've liked the last six months of cards a lot. Kaz the dragon was a masterstroke, and there's so much more. Plenty fun cards. I haven't paid in forever; but the fun goes on and on. Truth is the competitive balance job gets logarithmically more difficut over time. Ben Brode pulled his parachute cord at the right time. HS is a fun game and is most reasonably approached as such. Of course Activision would greatly prefer to make big profits off those who like the competition, but that's increasingly difficult to make happen. Fun ain't overrated.
just git gud dude. Ben Brode was actually the best and the game had more value than these days where u get legendary every day (i got 25 legendaries out of 150 packs, this is a lot). So ppl complaining about legendary and predatory is bullshit, specially now where they launch a skin every week. Nonsense total.
Dude u can spend in the tavern pass such a small money and by the end of each expansion u can achieve at least 100 packs to the next one, if u're smart enough with basic financial math.
I will take a guess and say that u're bitter cause u can't get better in the game by the years or are just burned out of playing too much of it/ maybe both for sure.
ALSO - half FTP here since betastone - The only money that I spent on these years was with old expansions like witchwood (never more in my life i do that again) and now just with tavern pass.
The actual problem of this game is on balancing the shit they release and trick players into buy stuff and nerf it after.
You got an insane luck here, I opened like 100 packs I got 3 legs
All you have to do is consistently open 4 times as many legendaries as probability dictates and the game's quite affordable.
Also, whenever I get low on cash I just buy a few scratch cards.
Or a lottery ticket if I'm considering a big purchase
Just git gud, dude.
.
I'm gude - but iz hate the grind.
Wow, everything you wrote is so wrong and non-sensical that it's useless to even debunk it.
go play something else then
I think this is the Ship analogy.
If the ship is broken and you replace the planks of the ship.
You replace it as long that there is no original parts of the ship.
Is it still the same ship?
This is what i kinda feel like, when the original team leaves one after another.
ONLY BEN BRODE WAS THE BEST ONE. THE OTHER ONES WAS SHIT TO THE CORE, EVEN THIS ONE, THANK GOD LEFT THE COMPANY.
HOPE MICROSOFT HIRE SOMEONE WORTH THE POSITION, SOMEONE WITH EXPERIENCE AT LEAST.
And hopefully no more woke bull* into the game anymore
@principe: You should go ask BB out for a beer. I'm sure he's gonna pay for both.
Maybe you also spend the night together. It's ok to feel attracted to this fringe lumber-sexual style.
The guy have worked on hearthstone since before the game even had a name. He certainly witnessed when the game took its wrong turns and admitted those mistakes, followed by clear changes. Sadly I'm more worried that we will see the same mistakes repeated than the game being even less like Stormwind, Rastakhan & TGT. Luckily no single person is in charge of the game and the team is certainly less stubborn than it used to be :)
Ultimately, we will never know why this clown who let whales with waning interest in the game and Twitter be his only second opinions about constructed balances resigned. Best of luck in whatever endeavor comes next. But please don't return to a leadership position in Hearthstone.
Signed, not read:
a Wild Stranger.
Maybe he left because he hates runestones too!
So many known names have left Blizzard that they should just rename the company at this point. I don't think anyone from the original crew is still working there.
Fucking finally.
Even if he was a nice guy - i never agreed with Dean "OTK" Ayala when he talks about the design.
I'm honestly glad, that someone else is taking the job.
He's probably still a nice guy, he hasn't died.
Hearthstone got better when it comes to its pack protections and some useful features like spectator and whatnot. But, the ridiculous prices and no balances make me unhappy. It's the only card game I play on Mobile, and it helps pass the time. Those runestones are a bad sign.
log into pc and buy stuff than go back to mobile. In playstore the prices are really high