Jeffrey Kaplan, lead designer for World of Warcraft has posted a message on the Wow forums informing players that he is no longer working on World of Warcaft, and has moved on to work on Blizzard's as of yet unannounced MMO project.

I wanted to take a moment to let the community know that I’ve switched roles here at Blizzard to work on our upcoming, unannounced MMO. World of Warcraft has been such a central part of my life these past six and a half years, and it’s success would not have been possible without the tremendous community around it, so I wanted to say thank you to all our players who’ve shared this amazing experience with us so far. Also, while I have served as the spokesperson and Game Director for World of Warcraft on Wrath of the Lich King, by no means would WoW be where it is today without the dedicated team that we have in place. The WoW development team is comprised of some of the most talented and experienced game developers in the world, and it was an absolute honor to serve amongst them, and they will continue to make WoW better than ever. I still plan to be very involved with the future course of World of Warcraft, but will leave the day to day operations of World of Warcraft to my partners in crime, Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brack.

When all is said and done, WoW is still my favorite game. I play it every day. None of that passion is gone. If anything, it fuels the challenge of making our next MMO even better. We know we have some big shoes to fill. So thank you to everyone who has been so supportive over the years, and likewise, thanks to those who have given us pointed feedback on all areas of the game. Without all of the feedback and participation, WoW would not be the game that it has grown to be. Azeroth truly belongs to you and we’re lucky to have shared in your journey. And as always, I’ll still be lurking on the forums and in the game.
Mostly, I just wanted to say thanks. It has been an absolute honor.

Jeffrey Kaplan

Read more here.

umm...ok then

so he went from project A in Company A to project B in Company A...and made a post on the official forums stating this....

sounds like someone is trying to generate more hype about Project B

Hmm.  Meh.

Hopefully he doesn't hold them back from making a "new" game.  They've polished the hell out of WoW.  Now I want to see them try to step outside of their boundaries a bit.

Wonder who is gonna design the dungeons now....-worries-

He must certainly enjoy his job.  Going from being a raider in an Everquest guild to designing the very type of game you enjoy to play.

That'd be an awesome job for any gamer, I'd think.  :)

Blizzard will be a behemoth for the next decade at the very least.  Three extremely recognizeable IPs and a seemingly endless supply of financial support.

Holy crap....

This guy is golden, i have no doubt in my mind that blizzards new MMO is going to be atleast on par with WoWs success now.

Im a big sandbox fan but even that guys dungeons and raid content held me to Wow for like 3+ years.

Can blizzard have two MMOs that are in the 10+ million sub area? or will this new game With kaplan take a good chunk of WoWs subs?

Originally posted by metalhead980

Can blizzard have two MMOs that are in the 10+ million sub area? or will this new game With kaplan take a good chunk of WoWs subs?

It's a hard call, I think.  They could make a completely different game to try and draw a new crowd or they could capitalize on the success of WoW and make an easy transitioning game.

I'm quite interested to hear more of this new game.   Hell, I'd really like to see a new IP.  They've got three extremely well known IPs already.  Adding a fourth couldn't hurt.

Oh, son of a bitch... this doesn't help my enthusiasm for Blizz's U/A MMO at all.

He's not the worst of the bunch, but as a previous poster said, he went from playing Everquest to designing dungeons for WoW in the strain of Everquest.

Hopefully he doesn't screw the pooch with the new project. I enjoyed WoW while I played, but the Raids and PvP just became repetitive to the point that they were either hammering-balls hard or simple enough that a trained monkey could do them. You either had .001% of the population progressing or 95% progressing.

Different is good Mr. Kaplan, think outside the box!

Originally posted by uohaloran

Originally posted by metalhead980

Can blizzard have two MMOs that are in the 10+ million sub area? or will this new game With kaplan take a good chunk of WoWs subs?

It's a hard call, I think.  They could make a completely different game to try and draw a new crowd or they could capitalize on the success of WoW and make an easy transitioning game.

I'm quite interested to hear more of this new game.   Hell, I'd really like to see a new IP.  They've got three extremely well known IPs already.  Adding a fourth couldn't hurt.

Either way it's a win, win for blizzard.

It's going to be interesting that's for sure.

Yeah a New IP would be nice but I still think they would make more Cash with a Starcraft or Diablo MMO.

I can see them doing a Starcraft MMO, for sure.  It'd give them options to step further outside of the fantasy genre as well.  Not to mention a three way faction war.

It will be a brand new IP, that much we know ... and that's about all we know.

I like Kaplan, he seems like a genuine gamer and not some clueless corporate monkey. His past as GM of one of EQ's biggest guilds has a big part to play in this I guess. I just hope they don't go too crazy moving people onto the new project to the detriment of WoW.

Originally posted by Egamst3k

Oh, son of a bitch... this doesn't help my enthusiasm for Blizz's U/A MMO at all.

He's not the worst of the bunch, but as a previous poster said, he went from playing Everquest to designing dungeons for WoW in the strain of Everquest.

Hopefully he doesn't screw the pooch with the new project. I enjoyed WoW while I played, but the Raids and PvP just became repetitive to the point that they were either hammering-balls hard or simple enough that a trained monkey could do them. You either had .001% of the population progressing or 95% progressing.

Different is good Mr. Kaplan, think outside the box!

Yes, he should really start thinking outside the box if he doesn't want to repeat all his catastophic errors that contributed directly to the monumental failure of WoW....

/sarcasm

Originally posted by Rohn

Originally posted by Egamst3k

Oh, son of a bitch... this doesn't help my enthusiasm for Blizz's U/A MMO at all.

He's not the worst of the bunch, but as a previous poster said, he went from playing Everquest to designing dungeons for WoW in the strain of Everquest.

Hopefully he doesn't screw the pooch with the new project. I enjoyed WoW while I played, but the Raids and PvP just became repetitive to the point that they were either hammering-balls hard or simple enough that a trained monkey could do them. You either had .001% of the population progressing or 95% progressing.

Different is good Mr. Kaplan, think outside the box!

 

Yes, he should really start thinking outside the box if he doesn't want to repeat all his catastophic errors that contributed directly to the monumental failure of WoW....

/sarcasm

^^^This made me LOL.

Originally posted by Rohn

Yes, he should really start thinking outside the box if he doesn't want to repeat all his catastophic errors that contributed directly to the monumental failure of WoW....

/sarcasm

I don't think he neccesarily meant that World of Warcraft was a complete failure.  I retain a similar opinion on the game getting repetitive towards the end - but I don't slight them for it.  They've got over 10 million people paying to do that, so it's obviously not a wrong move for them; it just doesn't float everyones boat.

Certainly good news and yes I would imagine they would have to go in a very different direction than what WoW is offering to draw in new customers, otherwise you will just end up taking your customers from WoW to feed the new MMO your making thus defeating the whole purpose of making a new MMO while still supporting your old one.

Will be exciting to see what the project is, ppl will be clamouring to find any titbit of info on this one for sure.

Would be interesting if they do pick-up Starcraft though as an MMO, I never played the game as I was never one for RTS games, but I like the idea of a Blizzard Sci/Fi MMO.

Ok so he is moving from one project to another. People do this on a daily basis.  /yawn

If it was a Starcraft MMO i would never play another MMO ever again..not even WOW lol..yes i love starcraft that much.

Anyways i believe i read they said it was gonna be a new IP...but maybe they are just messing with us on this hehe, and they said they didn't want the new MMO to cannabilize WOW so wonder what type of IP they would be going with.

Originally posted by uohaloran

Originally posted by Rohn

Yes, he should really start thinking outside the box if he doesn't want to repeat all his catastophic errors that contributed directly to the monumental failure of WoW....

/sarcasm

 

I don't think he neccesarily meant that World of Warcraft was a complete failure.  I retain a similar opinion on the game getting repetitive towards the end - but I don't slight them for it.  They've got over 10 million people paying to do that, so it's obviously not a wrong move for them; it just doesn't float everyones boat.

I think I understand the sentiment of his comment, but I stand by the spirit of my remark.

Just about anything, games included, will become repetitive if you do it long enough.  I haven't played an MMO that had major features that couldn't become repetitive.  The concepts and design of WoW have attracted more players than any other MMO in history, with no other game even coming close.  I'm guessing they did a few things right.

"Thinking outside the box" does not guarantee a fun game, or a profitable one.  Different does not always equate to good.  Change is not always positive.  There are gamers that fervently believe that they know exactly what a fun MMO should be like.  Oddly enough, I believe that if gamers like that were actually to design a game, using their strategy of "thinking outside the box", more often than not said game would become a ridiculously niche one that only the creator and his best friends would like.  Eventually, even the creator would tire of his own game.

I think it would still be very difficult for them not to step on the toes of WoW, ppl would still want to try the new Blizzard MMO even if it was for a month, course that means they still get the revenue one way or another, just not new revenue, but heck they got a fair bit stashed in the bank already no doubt to cover all bases =).

Originally posted by Rohn

Originally posted by uohaloran

Originally posted by Rohn

Yes, he should really start thinking outside the box if he doesn't want to repeat all his catastophic errors that contributed directly to the monumental failure of WoW....

/sarcasm

 

I don't think he neccesarily meant that World of Warcraft was a complete failure.  I retain a similar opinion on the game getting repetitive towards the end - but I don't slight them for it.  They've got over 10 million people paying to do that, so it's obviously not a wrong move for them; it just doesn't float everyones boat.

 

I think I understand the sentiment of his comment, but I stand by the spirit of my remark.

Just about anything, games included, will become repetitive if you do it long enough.  I haven't played an MMO that had major features that couldn't become repetitive.  The concepts and design of WoW have attracted more players than any other MMO in history, with no other game even coming close.  I'm guessing they did a few things right.

"Thinking outside the box" does not guarantee a fun game, or a profitable one.  Different does not always equate to good.  Change is not always positive.  There are gamers that fervently believe that they know exactly what a fun MMO should be like.  Oddly enough, I believe that if gamers like that were actually to design a game, using their strategy of "thinking outside the box", more often than not said game would become a ridiculously niche one that only the creator and his best friends would like.  Eventually, even the creator would tire of his own game.

Oh, I agree wholeheartedly with that.  Repetition is the near essence of MMOs no matter what type of MMO you like.  It's more about cleverly hiding that scar.

You're definitely right about change not always being a good thing.  I still have to say that I'd like to see Blizzard try to change things up a little bit.  They're in the position to be able to take risks and still have plenty of ground to still build on.  I'm pretty sure they're going to cater to the majority, though.  They've got the fish on the hook now, and I don't see a reason in the world why they'd stop.  :P

Blizzard is one of the few companies that I could pretty much see a game of theirs on the shelves and not think twice about buying, because no matter how long it lasts me I know I will enjoy it for it's full worth.  Then again, they don't have many games on the shelves.  :)