Blizzard's Rob Pardo comes to Jay Wilson's defence as Diablo 3 forum turns sour
"He has a great career at Blizzard ahead of him."
Blizzard chief creative officer Rob Pardo has jumped to Jay Wilson's defence in a 184-page Diablo 3 forum thread that turned nasty.
The thread was Jay Wilson's goodbye letter to Diablo 3; he's moving onto a new project at Blizzard. His farewell elicited a vociferous response from those in the community who felt Diablo 3 didn't live up to its billing.
Rob Pardo had seen enough.
"This thread saddens me greatly," he wrote. "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 3."
Pardo is "very proud" of Diablo 3, but he's not blind: he knows there's work to do.
"The Diablo community deserves an even better game from Blizzard"
Rob Pardo
"The Diablo community deserves an even better game from Blizzard," he wrote, "and we are committed to improving it. We have a talented team in place and have no intention of stopping work on Diablo 3 until it is the best game in the franchise."
Rob Pardo hired Jay Wilson seven years ago to bring Diablo 3 to life. He credited Wilson's "great design instincts" and "unparalleled knack for making it fun to smash bad guys".
"I've worked with many, many designers at Blizzard and Jay is one of the best," Pardo wrote. "He has a great career at Blizzard ahead of him and I guarantee that you will enjoy Jay's game designs in future Blizzard games."
What Wilson is working on now, we don't know. But I doubt it's anything to do with World of Warcraft or StarCraft or Diablo. A return to Warcraft RTS? A new IP?
Concluding, Pardo put himself in the firing line and asked that the community blame him and not Jay Wilson for Diablo 3.
"If you still feel the need to dish out blame, then I would prefer you direct it at me," he wrote. "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."