Alexander

“They even tried to fill the spots internally with candidates from quality assurance (QA), but that proved a fool’s quest because 3D level design skills took years to develop.”
― John Staats, The World of Warcraft Diary: A Journal of Computer Game Development

“Our guild features were recently implemented by Jeremy Wood, who tested his new code with interior level designers Cameron, Dana, Jose, and Aaron by making them officers and allowing them to invite and promote other players. It was a lackluster test because there wasn’t very much to do other than using guild-chat to chat about the guild-chat feature—which wasn’t a very exciting discussion—but that was the first WoW guild-chat conversation, nevertheless. And what was the first WoW guild christened? “Assmaster.” Jeremy reused the name Assmaster as the first team arena name, too. The moniker foreshadowed the level of sophistication the game would soon enjoy. Whenever fans are given a modicum of creative control in a computer game, they fill it with penises and profanity, and developers aren’t any better.”
― John Staats, The World of Warcraft Diary: A Journal of Computer Game Development

“These were the horror stories I’d heard from job candidates coming from other companies. I interviewed veterans who’d worked for eight years in top studios and never shipped a game because of cancellations and changes from marketing. Some publishers didn’t allow their developers to play games, even after-hours (this was especially strange to us, since Blizzard encouraged this, stocking its hallway game cabinets with free copies of games for people to check out on a first-come, first-served basis). Yet some studios considered familiarity with other games bad for morale and prevented their employees from hanging posters from other projects or properties (including movies) because they didn’t reinforce “team spirit.” Many studios were highly structured, politically driven machines where argument was frowned upon and decisions were made by a small number of people. But the most common flaw in the industry at the time was its shortsighted nature—treating employees as temporary or easily replaced assets. Dev teams were often rebooted between projects, wiped before they ever established a rhythm or voice of their own. It was no wonder Blizzard retained its employees longer than other companies.”
― John Staats, The World of Warcraft Diary: A Journal of Computer Game Development

“Mark and Shane, the team leads, were very conscious of not burning everyone out because of their experience on StarCraft. They had both been associate producers on the project and vowed to avoid pushing Team 2 as hard as the StarCraft devs were pushed. StarCraft’s dev cycle was nightmarish in that the goal posts were always moving. Whenever they crossed the finish line, Allen Adham found room for improvement, saying the game wasn’t polished enough, and asked everyone if they could hunker down for a few weeks longer. Whenever the next deadline was reached, another issue would arise and it was extended again, prolonging the crunch of late hours. The light at the end of the StarCraft tunnel always turned out to be a mirage. Each “final” sprint collided directly into another. And then another. Fans camped out in Blizzard’s parking lot and counted the cars, reporting on websites how many people were working at night. StarCraft’s drop-dead due dates were missed again and again until it was over a year later. Shane reminisced how people slept in sleeping bags on the floor. Showers and meals were skipped. To this day, few people who served on the StarCraft team play the game. Both Shane and Mark agreed that people weren’t as productive when exhausted and it just wasn’t worth it. Allen Adham’s nerves had been so worn out he left the company he founded until Blizzard convinced him to help out on WoW years later. In the wake of StarCraft’s quality-of-life costs, Shane and Mark vowed they’d never push a team like that, and their solution was to start the late nights early.”
― John Staats, The World of Warcraft Diary: A Journal of Computer Game Development