Rob Pardo Defends Jay Wilson

Written by: QuintLyn Bowers (@QuintLyn) | January 21, 2013 6:36 am

67 Comments

Diablo III Chief Creative Officer Rob Pardo defends Jay Wilson in a battle.net thread about his departure from the team.

Recently we reported that Diablo 3 director Jay Wilson had stepped down from his position with the D3 team and was moving on to other projects within Blizzard. The announcement was received with a certain amount of anger an bitterness not only on gaming news sites, but on the battle.net forums.

Chief Creative Officer Rob Pardo weighed in on the thread, both in defense of Wilson and saying that while he is proud of what the team has been able to accomplish with Diablo III, the PC game will continue to be worked on.

Pardo comments briefly on his feelings about such a thread existing before taking responsibility for the state of the game thus far, while praising the work Wilson has done on the game.

I’m the only person in this thread who has actually worked with Jay. I hired Jay to head up the Diablo project and had the pleasure of getting to work with him, both in building the team and designing the game. He has great design instincts and has added so much to the franchise with his feel for visceral combat, boss battles, and an 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. 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.

Pardo responds to people’s overall feelings about the game by stating that the team has “no intention of stopping work on Diablo III until it is the best game in the franchise.” He ask players to continue to let them know what they feel needs to be done to make the game better. He also has a request of players who are still angry about the game.

Pardo defends Jay Wilson further by saying:

If you still feel the need to dish out blame, then I would prefer you direct it at me. 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.

Reponse to Pardo’s post seems positive overall, but I’m curious to see what you guys think. Have players been right or wrong in directing their anger at Jay Wilson? And, do you believe continued player feedback will have any real affect on the PC game in the future?

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http://twitter.com/Butterednuts Azer Gosu

I think the game has gotten such a bad rap that it’s easy for players that are angry with the development team for ruining their gaming experience. A lot of the community blamed Jay Wilson for the reason Diablo 3 wasn’t as great of a success as it’s other installments. I can see why people would react so angrily, as if he abandoned a sinking ship.

On the other hand, it’s not entirely Jay’s fault. There was so much hype – so much pent up excitement about the game, that it could not possibly meet the incredibly high expectations of Diablo’s fanbase. While I would agree that there were some issues (generally about being 1 shotted in Inferno difficulty and forcing players to use the auction house to gear up), I don’t think they were major enough to put all the blame on the development team.

As far as continued feedback, they have been listening to the community a moderate amount and have been trying to implement things to increase the justification to play the game (monster difficulties, para-levels) but there are still major feedback items (dueling, arena-styled PvP) that the community has been whining about since launch that would definitely enhance the game but has been put as low priority for the Diablo development team. It seems to be more of an argument of efficiency versus effectiveness. It would be inefficient to work on PvP as it is a large-scale improvement to the game that wouldn’t have much ROI until it has been fully developed. Monster levels and Para-levels, which take considerably less development (and balance) time have a much better ROI and therefore are prioritized much higher.
- http://twitter.com/QuietNine Quiet
  
  hype? are you serious? it has nothing to do with not living up to hype.
  
  they launched a diablo game with no offline mode. they launched a diablo game with no intention of adding pvp. they launched a diablo game where you were incentivised (through low item level caps, through no offline mode, through difficulty that scales faster than gear drops) to buy and sell items for real money so that blizzard could get their cut of the transaction. without endgame pvp, the *only* point of playing is to max out a character in a hell-capable magic find set so you can be blizzards chinese gamer slave farming gear to sell to other people trying to be the next chinese slave.
  
  conspiracy bonus: no way to tell if its a player or blizzard selling you stuff on the RMAH.
  gamers hate this game because they gutted one of the best IP’s in the world in order to make a cash cow, and did so at the cost of gameplay.
  
  Fuck that loser, and fuck Activision for probably being the ones who made this happen.
  - http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm
    
    Blame Vivendi to they prbly had something to do with it aswell
    - InvaderMig
      
      Shit, I’d blame Obama if that would get me my money back.
- David Knapp
  
  Aren’t you guys complaining about gear grind as end game forgetting that both Diablos before this one has(d) the same end game?
- http://twitter.com/Akame79 Bostjan
  
  The thing is that blizz went from ” when its ready” to “lets exploit our fan-base as we have achieved almost a cult like status in the gaming community”
http://www.facebook.com/jason.hightower.374 Jason Hightower

Now if only EA/Bioware’s executives would own up like that.
- Michael Connor
  
  You mean lying to cover one of their director’s asses? No thanks, EA is a horrible company, but at least they are blunt about how horrible they are.
- http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm
  
  One could only wish
ZackForester

Blizzard can’t afford to work on Diablo 3 until it’s better than Diablo 2. It would bankrupt them.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Grimm/1290540679 David Grimm
  
  It would basically take them reworking the game from the ground up. The game is so far from Diablo quality. It’s not AAA quality. Torchlight is better, sadly. Hell, I’ve been playing Inquisitor lately, and THAT, Czech Indie game is more fun than D3
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joseph-Spears/100000045054762 Joseph Spears

First off Blizz is by farrrr the richest gaming company in the world hands donw, not even EA can touch them and Activision. Secondly the game can be easily fixed by adding patchs with gear, pvp broke or not, and an XPAC that adds more than an act ASAP. Lets not forget that Blizzard owes no one $$ so how can they go bankrupt?
- http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Alvino/1094406295 John Alvino
  
  Ummmmm…. you do know that Activision OWNS Blizzard right?
  - http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm
    
    “not even EA can touch them and Activision.”
    
    John, Blizzard is not owed by Activision there partnered, They’re both owned by Vivendi Games, the same company who scrapped the original D3 and dispanded Blizzard North. Activision doesn’t own a dime of Blizzard there just merged into one big company that happens to be run by Kotick. An with Kotick being CEO he gets told by Vivendi games to tell Blizzard what they expect from them .
    - http://twitter.com/Akame79 Bostjan
      
      Yes yes yes & now we have seen the result of it; gg.
      - http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm
        
        Sadly yes
artillicous

Anyone notice Bashiok jumped ship right before this happened and went back to WOW. Not a conspiracy theorists but that writings on the wall.
- http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm
  
  Bashiok does both WoW & Diablo 3
http://twitter.com/Cpt_Badger Cpt.Badger

Is that turd of a game still being patched ? Too bad it’s fubar’d.
- http://twitter.com/MiZTiiX MiZTiiX
  
  yeah! one would think it would be logicall to patch a “turd game” to make it a non-”turd game”
Paul Allen

Fuck that loser.
7BitBrian

I only have one comment…..

“Fuck the loser!”

Nothing can ever redeem him from those words. Nothing. While one developer was respectful and gave honest opinions, another instead went 4year old and was beyond disrespectful. Yet we’re supposed to forget that and just praise this guy?

I think not. He has no respect for the gaming community, developers or players, therefore he will get none from me. Fuck that loser.
- http://twitter.com/MiZTiiX MiZTiiX
  
  The only thing that shows is that he is only human…we all are. the fact that we are blaming him for a mistake is ludacris…so much flack and hate wilson has recieved and you would expect him to say much more than those 3 words, yet he holds it in. Its not fair we all deserve second chances and i know everyone’s been in desperate situations for forgiveness so we should all learn to empathise with him.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Alvino/1094406295 John Alvino
    
    Get out of here Jay, no body likes you! >:(
  - http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm
    
    Well MiZ, its the internet and people will find anything and use against them, just like people are doing to the WarZ Devs. When people have a grudge they always points fingers and try to find anythng to use against them even if they don’t like the company or game they just jump on the hatewagon. Its the internet its full of immature people hiding behind a screen.
    
    I agree, everyone deserves a second chances, but from all the dirt that has been brought up its better off he moves on to another game.
  - Michael Connor
    
    Error 37
    - http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm
      
      Thats what happens when Millions of people flood a server, Don’t know how many servers Diablo 3 has.
    - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
      
      Error 37 was not a game design failure, it was a Blizzard infrastructure failure on a massive scale.
      - http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Grimm/1290540679 David Grimm
        
        Indeed. Due to the success and popularity of Diablo 2, and the misinformation about Diablo 3 released by Blizzard, Diablo 3 sold far more copies than anyone imagined possible. They were not prepared.
  - InvaderMig
    
    Sorry that is complete BS. I’m not a huge fan of the Diablo series in general, but it’s a franchise that inspires zealotry. The game was released in a piss poor condition, had, and has many glaring issues, PvP has all been all but scrapped until Diablo knows when, and then he, the man responsible for letting these decisions make it into the final products says “Fuck that loser” about the man at the helm of creating the franchise that inspired such loyalty. (Yeah, run on sentencing like a boss)
    
    This man will burn for his poor game design choices, and his disrespect of a man who is beloved by the community he was designing his freaking game for. No remorse, let him stew in the brew of his own making.
- http://www.facebook.com/chad.klusman Chad M Klusman
  
  Not to sound like a fan boy (I actually don’t play any blizzard games atm) but with the type of light the are in constantly, and seeing as how him and his group “thought” they were being attacked, you can’t expect them to act all high and mighty on something like facebook with eachother.
  
  I’m sure if they had talked about it on the D3 forums or on any other site they would have been more refined in the way they spoke. But when chatting with friends, don’t you get carried away sometimes?
  
  But either way…fuck that loser. D3 sucked balls.
  - InvaderMig
    
    “Facebook” is not a private chat with friends. And if you look at all the other comments in that conversation, while harsh, no one went to the extremes that he did with his comment.
- http://twitter.com/Akame79 Bostjan
  
  Totally agree with you D1, D2 , D2 exp = incredible games; He made Diablo an epic journey from the moment you instal the game. “Fuck the loser!”- je je great respect, for an artist of the vitrual word, but in the end it has came & bite you back…pff loser.
http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Alvino/1094406295 John Alvino

“Jay has great design instincts and has added so much to the franchise with his feel for visceral combat, boss battles, and an unparalleled knack for making it fun to smash bad guys.”
Best joke I’ve heard all day!

Seems to me like this guy is being little more than a decoy.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Grimm/1290540679 David Grimm
  
  ….but Diablo 3 has the least fun and challenging bosses in the series?
  - Kagitaar
    
    Duriel was more fun than Azmodan?
http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm

Its the internet people will hold grudges until the end.
http://twitter.com/Professor_Tjc Travis Christensen

I personally don’t like the game myself but I know plenty of friends who still play the game and enjoy it. I wouldn’t say the game was a total flop it’s just needs a little more steering in the right direction.
- http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm
  
  Yes I agree, To start will be an offline mode for sure.
  - http://twitter.com/aussiedran Belyand AussieDran
    
    I agree. They really shafted a lot of player’s when they made it purely online, especially by not putting servers for SEA players when they already had the infrastructure in Singapore because of SC2
    - David Knapp
      
      There is a reasonable reason why there was no offline mode, they wanted to control item hacking/duping. That was a thing done all the time in earlier diablo games. The only way to 100% stop that is to move the item drop system off the client or it’s open to hacking.
      - Iwerks
        
        While true, there’s no reason they couldn’t do exactly what they did with D2: offline and online modes as two independent entities. The upsides of having no game dupes / hacks for offline games is a hard sell against the multiple downsides only offering an online entity.
      - http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Grimm/1290540679 David Grimm
        
        Also, there’s the problem of an auction house. The game was designed around the Auction house. Drops in D3 are much much rarer than previous incarnations. This means that most of the time you will be getting gear useless to you. So the Auction house becomes manditory. You cant have offline mode and have those toons able to access an online AH. Cause it would be folly to have duped items on the AH. In the end, online only is mandatory because they built Diablo3 around the RMAH. They should rename D3 into ‘Real Money Auction House: The Game!’
      - 7BitBrian
        
        Yet somehow that still continues in D3, to this day!
        
        So what exactly did Always Online DRM accomplish then?
http://twitter.com/Fursnake Andrew Witt

Sorry Mr. Pardo, your attempt at damage control is lame at best.
http://twitter.com/crocodilius ryan phillips

People had a harder time trashing Pardo because he wasn’t the public face for this project; Wilson was. Either way, Diablo3 needs ALOT of attention and hopefully, maybe, kinda, sorta an expansion can fix its issues.
- http://twitter.com/Deadalon Deadalon
  
  This is exactly the thing. Why was Pardo not ready to step up and talk about the big controversial calls about D3? Why was Jay Wilson the person out at BLizzcon to talk how “great” RMAH was ?
http://www.facebook.com/thelethrface Steven Opie Wallace

This is a major test in the testicular fortitude of the gaming community. People complain and hurl insults but once they are confronted, nothing but positive feedback. What in the world caused people to be angry that someone was moving on from this game to another? They didn’t say the whole team was moving on! Come on people!
- InvaderMig
  
  People were just spewing the same crap that they’ve felt about him. He’s leaving and the general tone is, good riddance and Fuck that loser. It’s easy to see what I did there.
http://twitter.com/greencactaur green cactaur

Have 0 Respect for Jay Willson, and after this post, I’ve only come to disrespect this man as well. Granted that doesn’t mean we can’t have a civil conversation if the three of us were in a room together, but I’m very disappointed in the both of them.
BBarrikade

I don’t see the point of attacking Jay Wilson now. I was almost completely disappointed by Diablo 3, but that’s why I think Diablo fans should be happy to see him move off of the project. On the other hand, I think it’s a great idea to remind Blizzard of our displeasure with the direction of their game design.
- http://twitter.com/Deadalon Deadalon
  
  Any D3 developer that writes “Fuck that looser” about former key designer of the franchise deserves all the stick forever.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Grimm/1290540679 David Grimm
    
    Even more so when the the “Loser” he is speaking to made a better game, a decade ago. Diablo 2 is STILL more fun than Diablo 3.
  - BBarrikade
    
    Oh I’m not saying Jay Wilson doesn’t deserve criticism. That Facebook comment was indicative of where his head has been for all 7 years of his working on D3, and certainly I’m no fan of his.
    
    I just think that everything’s been said that needed to be said about how most of us feel about him/the game. Now that he’s off the project, what does further complaining about him do for us? I mean, I’m not stopping anyone from saying anything, but he’s gone. Goal accomplished. We should be happy for that!
http://twitter.com/Deadalon Deadalon

What’s wrong with D3 is exactly the same thing that is now wrong with every BLizzard game. Player choices have been removed. There is only one way to play BLizz games.

I can understand features like online gameplay. But what I can not understand is to not give players real options of playing in a game world where real money does not make or break the game. BLizzard already have normal and hardcore servers so adding servers that have no RMAH and limited trading would not kill the game.

Compare D3 and Path of Exile when it comes to player choices. One game is made for gamers -the other is not. How ironic that once Blizzard claimed they were a company of gamers making games for gamers.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Grimm/1290540679 David Grimm
  
  Exactly. As Sid Meier has said, “A game is a series of interesting decisions’.
  You can only make interesting decisions if you are given interesting choices. Few choices with no real drawbacks or repercussions equals a game that is not interesting and only fun for a short while. I put several thousand hours into diablo 2. I kept thinking… “Well, what if I put points here, and put points into Dex instead of strength, and pick up some IAS…” etc etc
  
  Choices, non linear gameplay, replay value, personalization, customization, and adventure. Diablo was these things at its core, way back in the 90′s. In the origional Diablo, You didn’t get the same quests every time you played. What happened to that? What happened to being able to put points where YOU wanted them to go?
  
  Streamlining is the enemy of fun, blizzard.
http://www.facebook.com/tudor.simu.9 Tudor Simu

A ton of childish complaints. While D3 may not be the revolutionary game of its genre, it’s still a game worth playing, and in many ways wort playing more than D2. Nostalgia has a way with people though.
And i like it how everyone complains about how developers make bad games because they don’t listen to the gamers. Look back 3-5-7-10 years and what do you see? That’s right, developers not listening to gamers. And you know what? People still bought them and still enjoyed them simply because they had SOMETHING to play. If anything, it’s the gamers dragging down the games harder than the developers ever will.
- Andres Blanco
  
  I know most people seem childish when complaining, but the concerns about this game are valid, the problem is not the game itslef, the problem is, it was called Diablo 3 and the reason for it finnacial success were the fans of the series, if you go buy a hamburger and they serve you a sandwich you are going to complain its only natural.
  
  Not taking in account the annoying drm practices and many other problems such as building the game arround the RMAH… the game is ok for an ARPG but it shouldn’t be called Diablo, I’m sure it would have failed without the name though.
  
  Jay Wilson should have been fired the minute he posted the “F… that looser” comment, I don’t hate the guy by any means but it is clear he didn’t do a good job when the fans seem to hate him, and on top of it he behaves so unprofessionaly. Instead he is rewarded with PR protection and new projects.
  - http://www.facebook.com/tudor.simu.9 Tudor Simu
    
    That is why we now have a metric crap-ton of shooters out there right now, with yearly releases selling like pie. You’re complaining about a game because its not a 10/10 when there are Joe, Joe 2, Joe and Joey, Joey returns and Joey 2013 being acclaimed by people like they’re the next best thing. Yet here we are once more screaming “change, improvement , more and more” only to end up with people going back to their Battlefield 20 and Black Ops 2020. Developers are to blame sure. Publishers are to blame as well for being moneygrubbing, but at the end of the day it’s the gamers screaming mediocrity with their wallets.
    Do i want Diablo 3 to be better? Sure. That’s why i bought it and supporting the team with whatever it is i can, whether its patience, devotion, commitment, suggestions, ideas or money.
    Do i want games in general to be better? Yes, that’s why I’m working on learning more about them and trying to make a difference by joining this environment.
    It’s like people screaming at the TV because some guy did something. Don’t like it, change it yourself. But until people figure out what they truly want we’ll probably end up with Joey 2050 or something. It’s the reason companies like Vigil Games are going down while companies like Crytek don’t.
    
    Disclaimer: I’m not against shooter games or the developers that make them by any means, nor am i against violence in games, but the fact that shooting games (but not only) sell significantly better than some other more complex games, just goes to show at what level of cognizance your average gamer is.
- InvaderMig
  
  To you it’s worth it, to many others it’s not. I feel cheated and robbed for spending my hard earned money on that sack of crap. I had that game installed on my PC for all of 3 weeks, and only played it regularly for the first week. It was released in a shitty state, and no PvP anywhere in sight. Itemization from what I understand is still in a piss poor state, so while you may like it others don’t feel the same.
  
  I’m not even a huge D2 fan, I’m speaking strictly from the perspective of Diablo 3 as a game period, not simply as a sequel. It was crap, at least to me it was and is not worth money at all imo. At best it should be free to play.
  - http://www.facebook.com/tudor.simu.9 Tudor Simu
    
    The fact you are even mentioning free to play in this circumstance screams ignorance and hypocrisy like nothing else. Let’s see… a movie ticket 8dollars, ~2hours of entertainment. Diablo 3 ~50$. Equivalent of roughly 6 movies in price or 12 hours of entertainment. Going out in town to drink? You can easily spend 20$. If you’re a wild party animal 50$ is nothing. I don’t really need to continue the list. In short if you got at least 20 hours of entertainment out of it and enjoyed it, at that point it’s pretty much worth the bang for buck. You can even play it later if you feel like it.
    I’d understand if you absolutely hated it, but at that point I’m wondering why you’d stick with it for 3 weeks with 1 week regularly.. You must’ve liked something…
    That being said, i can’t really blame you when there are so many more like you out there that prefer many but cheap and bad than few slightly more expensive and above average, or better yet expensive as hell bad quality then replace it for something else just as expensive and just as bad quality.
    
    Oh consumerism how i loathe thee.
    - InvaderMig
      
      See there is lies the problem with assumptions. You assumed I got enjoyment out of the product for some 20 hours. The game, in my opinion sucked, period. I gutted it out for that week because I was playing with a friend making the experience bearable. I was continually pestered by my friend to log back in and play with him which is why I did it on and off. I was assured it would get better and that I’d finally find some value in my purchase. I don’t like wasting money so I tried to like it because I was burned by Mass Effect 1 and that purchase pissed me off royally, and it was happening all over again.
      
      On you point of entertainment, if I watch a movie and don’t enjoy it I don’t consider that worth my money. Of course I can’t get a refund because I sat through the whole thing, but that doesn’t mean I got anything out of it. Same as with this game. My sale is tallied up in that stat charts and being touted as part of its success even though I think that game royally sucks ass. The amount of money I spend on a night out could be $200 or more, the point is, I actually enjoy myself, you see the difference.
      
      As far as the free to play thing, I just mentioned it because at least with that model you could as with other games like PlanetSide2, play it and if you like it spend money on it. I’ve put more money into Planetside2 than a box price would be worth, why, because the game is good. Diablo III was a gamble, and I lost bad, and there is nothing I can do about it besides revel in the fact that I supported a game and the company that created something that accomplished nothing more than parting me with my money.
Monstercloud

“Reponse to Pardo’s post seems positive overall”

We’re reading two different threads. Mixed would be more believable, leaning towards the negative/cynical side of things.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Gerrettie-Jr/1287578323 Bill Gerrettie Jr

I think it’s good to give negative feedback on a game, when it’s done constructively. I think blaming any one person for a game’s flaws is ridiculous though. Diablo III obviously had flaws that needed to be fixed, and as a consumer it is your right to complain when you feel you’re not getting what was promised, but try to keep it constructive and civil.
http://twitter.com/AisarGaming Aisar

That’s great, I don’t actually really care about exactly whose fault it is. When Blizzard switched from making games for gamers to making games designed to take advantage of as many people as people and make as much money as possible I lost faith in the company. It doesn’t matter who takes the blame, it comes down to exploitative business practices. I guess they got too big at some point or something, dunno. The Blizzard of Starcraft 1, Diablo 2 and early WoW was my favorite company. They lost their way somewhere.
http://twitter.com/Stone_LX9 Stone LX9

D3 sucked. I won’t be purchasing any expansions for the game.
I don’t know if Jay Wilson is responsible for the suckatude, but it sucked bad.
- http://www.facebook.com/brianoconnor27 Brian Ø’Connor
  
  I think you need a thesaurus bro….using the same word over and over again to describe a game that actually doesn’t ” suck ” is just showing your age.

Rob Pardo Defends Jay Wilson

Diablo III Chief Creative Officer Rob Pardo defends Jay Wilson in a battle.net thread about his departure from the team.

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