We scrapped a couple raid dungeons after learning that remote locations could become an impediment to casual players. We produced far too much content for Karazhan it was riddled with crypts, cellars, and unfinished areas.
JS: There were tons of things that didn’t go into every game, but there were usually good reasons why. Is there anything you worked on and were happy with, but for whatever reason never made it to live servers? You also have a couple things in the game named after you, such as Staats’ Fishing Pole and worgen NPC John Staats. Working for a Madison Avenue ad agency (my day job) had a fairly low ceiling for waving a freak flag, so I entered the games industry when I had the chance.ĪIPT: You worked on 90% of original WoW‘s non-instanced caves, crypts, dens, mines and hive tunnels, including many instanced dungeons and raids such as Scholomance, Molten Core, UBRS and Blackwing Lair. WoW was so top-secret, the only thing they could tell me was that I would be designing and building dungeons, which is what I wanted to do. I held the company in such high regard that I accepted their offer without knowing which game I was working on. I wouldn’t want it to suffer poor network code, crummy art, or dubious game mechanics. I reasoned that if I were going to relocate and devote myself to a project, I wanted to be sure that it would be for a good game.
Blizzard had (and still has) an unbroken streak of releasing terrific products. John Staats: Blizzard makes quality games.
What made Blizzard such a special company? What has made them different from the other game publishers out there for so many years? John was kind enough to answer some of my questions, which you can read below.ĪIPT: In your book WoW Diary, you mentioned you immediately accepted a position at Blizzard despite their offer being lower than what you were making previously. His book is available on Amazon now, and you can read more about him on his website,. These days, he’s shifted his focus to tabletop games. Staats was World of Warcraft‘s first level designer, and responsible for some of the most beloved zones and instances in the game.
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