Jeff Kaplan leaving World of Warcraft

by Elizabeth Harper Feb 12th 2009 at 2:48PM

In a surprise announcement this afternoon, World of Warcraft's Game Director Jeff Kaplan (whom you may know from the forums as "Tigole," and whom those of you with a longer memory may remember as the guild leader of Legacy of Steel back in the EverQuest days) is leaving the WoW team to work on a their unannounced MMO. (What this means for how far along that project is it's hard to say -- are they perhaps bringing in a solid game designer because they're just now getting things started? Or to polish off the finishing touches?) Says Kaplan of his time with the World of Warcraft team:

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.

World of Warcraft isn't going anywhere, however, as the rest of the team is remaining in place, including Kaplan's "partners in crime" Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brack.

Mr. Kaplan, while we haven't always agreed with you, we'll certainly miss having you around. And, since you're going, we have to ask... can we have your stuff?

Tags: blizzard, blizzard-entertainment, breaking, j-allen-brack, jeff-kaplan, jeffrey-kaplan, kaplan, next-gen, next-gen-mmo, tigole, tom-chilton

Filed under: Blizzard, News items

Reader Comments (Page 4 of 6)

Mark Turpin Feb 13th 2009 3:07AM

Goodnight Sweet Prince

Fogel Feb 12th 2009 3:16PM

I planned to switch to next blizzard mmo once its out...

Now with this move im not sure i am interested lol

Plastic Rat Feb 13th 2009 2:27AM

If Kaplan is working on it, I'll buy my first month right now. It might actually have some balls.

Clay L Feb 12th 2009 3:16PM

You can only ever hope for better in the changes department - and I hope this MMO he's on is great!

Retron Feb 12th 2009 3:17PM

Not sure why people assume the next MMO is gonna be like WoW just because Kaplan is going to work on it. It's gonna be an MMO, will probably have character leveling, quests, gear, and a persistent world, and all the other things EQ and pretty much every MMO has ever had. But it could still have totally different combat focused on faster action, large scale battles, vehicles or what have you. Especially since it's likely that it's a Starcraft MMO, which would imply different gameplay style anyway (think of WCIII vs. SC-SCII)

That, plus Blizzard has publicly stated it "wouldn't be like WoW".

jtrain Feb 12th 2009 3:20PM

They've already stated it's a new IP. Not gonna be World of Starcraft.

Retron Feb 12th 2009 3:33PM

Um, no they didn't. Feel free to provide a link proving me wrong, but if you search around you'll just find lots of speculation that it is a Starcraft MMO, and a little that it's new IP.

dawnseven Feb 12th 2009 4:25PM

True. They haven't said.

Is this timeline about right though?

4/07 Blizz ramps up hiring for a "Next Gen MMO"
5/07 Starcraft 2 gets announced
8/07 Wrath of the Lich King gets announced
12/07 Blizzard agrees it is working on an unannounced MMO
4/08 Diablo III gets announced
7/08 Blizz confirms it is working on an "unannounced Next Gen MMO", also confirming that no, it isn't Diablo and no it isn't WoW related. They weren't asked about Starcraft that I could see.

That said, Starcraft isn't an "unannounced" game either. Activision has stated that it should be released in 2009 and Blizz stated at Blizzcon that they were planning on the game plus 2 expansions. Again, how is this unannounced game going to be Starcraft-related when Starcraft II hasn't been released yet, much less the 2 expansions? Personally, I don't think it's Starcraft-related any more than it was WoW-related when people said that, or Diablo-related when people said that. Just my two cents.

Retron Feb 12th 2009 5:14PM

Your timeline seems right to me.

But I think you're forgetting the earlier timelines, namely the fact that Blizz was already planning WoW during development of WCIII: The Frozen Throne. With that in mind, what better time is there to launch an MMO than relatively soon after an RTS of the same IP, while it's super hot worldwide?

I think it's silly to expect this MMO from even being announced anytime in the next couple of years, and probably released a couple of years after that. That fits in with the WCIII/WoW timeline, and so again a Starcraft MMO makes perfect sense.

Lemons Feb 12th 2009 3:18PM

@Naix

Jeff Kaplan was one of the guys who created WoW, so stfu. And what qualifications would you want for an MMO designer? Someone who's never played one? GG, retard.

So sorry Feb 12th 2009 4:02PM

Kaplan didn't help create wow you idiot. He wasn't even working for Blizzard until after the game went retail.

Lemons Feb 12th 2009 4:35PM

Umm, yes he did. He was in Legacy of Steel with Rob Pardo. Kaplan and Pardo would talk about what would make an MMO game better than the one they played. Pardo then went on to create WoW, and it's probably safe to say that his discussions with Kaplan had a profound effect on the WoW you play today regardless of when he was hired onto the team.

You may can educate yourself here:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42583.html

Nicholas Feb 12th 2009 3:30PM

I was shocked, then I saw it was for their next MMO. That's exciting to me.

Shkam Feb 12th 2009 3:33PM

Oh great, so instead of getting a new, fresh and exciting from Blizzard as their "next-gen" mmo, we're going to get yet another EQ clone.

Maybe i'll just buy a console.

Plastic Rat Feb 13th 2009 2:36AM

Yeah, please do that.

Netherscourge Feb 12th 2009 3:37PM

Is he the moron who came up with the FAILURE of a Arena system?

If so, his departure may be the new beginning that WoW finally needs.

Maybe we can refocus on World PvP instead of Pillar-Humping Esports...

Lemons Feb 12th 2009 3:58PM

Refocus on world whatnow?

WoW has never been a game with a strong focus on world pvp, ever. The biggest world pvp events are usually the ones engineered by players (i.e. Southshore tug o' war).

Every attempt blizz makes at world pvp is usually a horrible failure or at best a marginal success. I guess WG could be considered world pvp, but I usually think of it as a large battleground.

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