World of Warcraft is undeniably still the hottest MMORPG ever since its initial release way back in 2004 to date. One of the most iconic and notable names behind the game is Tom Chilton, which is now, the former game director of WoW.
Chilton has been an integral part of World of Warcraft ever since its Alpha test and has worked on various roles including game designing. He started out as a senior game designer and worked primarily on talent systems, classes, items, combat, PvP and much more before rising in the ladder and becoming its game director.
Now, after 12 years of being part of WoW's long-run, Chilton is now finally saying his goodbyes for the entire Warcraft team and community. In his official blogpost, he implied that although he'll be bidding his farewell to the Warcraft community, it doesn't mean that he'll be leaving Blizzard entirely as he'll just be moving on to "another" Blizzard game, which he nor the execs of Blizzard has yet to reveal.
The New World of Warcraft Game Director
Before officially leaving the World of Warcraft team, Clinton has proudly announced his successor, Ion Hazzikostas, famously known for his alias "Watcher" which was also the game's lead designer before being promoted to be the current game director of the WoW franchise.
Hazzikostas joined Blizzard in 2008, right before Wrath of the Lich King was launched and since then, has focused on designing and balancing of raids, classes and maintenance of WoW achievement system. Most notable works of Hazzikostas is encounter creation in Trial of the Crusader and scripting Thorim's and Sindragosa's lines.
The Future of World of Warcraft
In Chilton's blogpost, he said: "I know that WoW will be in great hands with Ion at the helm. He's been an integral part of the team for more than eight years and has contributed to so many aspects of the game's development-from class design to encounter design and nearly everything in between. He also has an amazing team at his side-the same epic crew that brought you all the content you're enjoying in Legion.
As a member of the WoW team, I can assure you that the future for World of Warcraft continues to be bright-and as a player, I'm excited to discover what's in store next alongside all of you. World of Warcraft is the product of the passion of both the team and all of its players, so I'd also like to thank each of you for the wonderful journey that working on the WoW development team has been."
It would seem that although Chilton is leaving the World of Warcraft team, he'd still be passing by every now and then, both as a player and as a part of the ever growing WoW community.
Polygon has contacted Blizzard regarding if Chilton will be moving on an existing or entirely new game for the corporation but one of the representatives have said: "Everything we're ready to share is in [Chilton's] post itself,"
If Chilton will ever move to a new project, we hope that it'll be on Warcraft 4 or Diablo 3; as a lot of fans are eagerly seeking for any news and developments on those elusive titles.
What do you think will be the future of WoW under Ion Hazzikostas' hands? Will we be expecting a shift in momentum or will the progress and hype of Legion will continue? Leave your thoughts in the comments section down below!
