Ghostcrawler to leave Blizzard [Updated]
Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street shocked the entire WoW community with his announcement today of his departure from Blizzard Entertainment. After six years with the company, he has decided to move on.
We will miss him. More than anything, to WoW fans, Greg was a bastion of community interaction, someone who worked tirelessly to improve the dialog between the developers and the community. His Twitter page has almost 70,000 followers, with whom he interacts on a daily basis, providing a direct line from community to devs. Regardless of the trolls, the criticism and the unpleasant behavior, Greg has kept at it, and done so with a pleasant demeanor and unerring focus on making the world's largest MMO the world's best. He's also been happy to admit when that has gone wrong, taking the often difficult role of messenger for the entire WoW dev team.
Even back in 2009, when he'd been with Blizzard just a couple of years, WoW Insider was posting about how he was providing a link between community and developers, and that this "Ghostcrawler Experiment" was something new and refreshing, and good. A glance at our Ghostcrawler tag here at WoW Insider will show anyone just how committed he's being to keeping us informed over the years.
Greg has been good for the health of the game, too, whether you like the latest set of changes to your class, to talents, to gear, to PvP, and to anything else where he's had an influence or not, his input as a designer should not be dismissed. But it's his accessibility and belief in the power of community that will be remembered. Now, who's going to get us that pony?
Updated Editor's Note: We've verified this information from multiple sources.
Hit the break for the official announcement post.
We just came off of a great BlizzCon. We had so many different games to talk about, and we were thrilled at the reception of Warlords of Draenor. It was great to meet or reconnect with so many of you. I love BlizzCon dearly, which makes it so hard to tell you that this will be my last one, or at least my last one up on stage. An opportunity has come my way, and I have made the very tough decision to move on from Blizzard.
I wanted to thank all of you for being a part of this grand quest. I have said a hundred times that having passionate gamers, including the angry ones, is a far better place to be than having a community that doesn't care. You all care. Like us, you want the game to be the best that it can be. So I ask you to keep on providing your feedback. I promise (and I rarely promise!) that the developers care very much about what you have to say.
I'll be out there, and I can't imagine it will be that hard to find me.
Hugs,
Ghostcrawler
P.S. No, you can't have a pony. Or a moose. Or a mantis shrimp. Or a tardigrade. Or a crab. Keep trying though.
P.P.S. I play a Holy Priest.
