Blizzard hires Hearthstone pro to help design the game
For Realz.
Blizzard has dipped into the competitive Hearthstone pool and plucked out one of the best players around to help it design the virtual card game.
Ryan "Realz" Masterson, considered one of the top Hearthstone players in the US, announced on Twitter that he had accepted an offer of associate game designer at the company.
Expanding in a post on the Hearthstone sub-Reddit, Masterson said he hoped to look out for the interests of players as part of his new role.
"This is a truly exciting opportunity for me, and (to rephrase the words of someone I have long admired, who once entered a similar position) I hope my association with the continuing development of Hearthstone will serve to comfort fellow ladder grinders, competitors, and players at large that 'one of us' is behind the scenes looking out for the interests of the player. I really can't wait to get started."
Masterson has a decade of high-level competitive experience in the likes of Magic: the Gathering, World of Warcraft, and now Hearthstone as part of the competitive gaming group ManaGrind.