BlizzCon 2009 Interviews

Justin

Soylentgreen: What do you think is the most exiting announcement about the new expansion for World of Warcraft?

Justin: For me it’s always the newest thing that were doing, I love announcing it and more than that, unveiling the artwork that we have done. I love the response and the emotion that people have when they see the art because the art is kind of the visual language that inspires the imagination. When we work on the exterior zones were trying to give people an emotional experience.

Gary Platner

Soylentgreen: Which do you like better, The worgens or the goblins?

Gary: I actually do the exterior zones, but I really like the worgen zone. I love the Lost Isles as well but to tell you the truth and be honest, I think the worgen zone is better. I am a horde guy, but if I had to pick, I say the worgen zone.

Soylentgreen: What are you looking forward to most about the WoW expansion?

Gary: Well were doing a lot of new technology stuff, so were just introducing the new water. I’m really looking forward to exploring the water and experimenting the different water types.

Soylentgreen: Are you going to have a cameo in the WoW movie?

Gary: I desperately want to be in the WoW movie. I will try as hard as I can to be in the WoW movie. If I don’t get, ten years I’ve been working on this game so they better put me in that movie.

Soylentgreen: What do you think about the bind on pickup items on WoW? Like for example if you have an engineer and make guns but your not a hunter, there’s no way for it to be account bound so you can share with your other characters?

Gary: I guess that would be nice. I guess they just do that so you can keep going in dungeons and trying to get the things you want. It is frustrating but it’s part of the game. I wish they didn’t have that at all but I’m an artist and I just make things look pretty.

Soylentgreen: I hear some flying mounts can be mountable by multiple toons on the new expansion, is there a druid flight form that can be mountable by multiple toons?

Gary: I’m not sure but I really doubt it. I’m always surprised about what designers are doing. I doubt it but you never know.

Helen Li

Soylentgreen: Do you like the worgens or the goblins better?

Helen Li: Well I’m an alliance person, so I would say the Alliance

Soylentgreen: What are you looking forward to most about the new WoW expansion?

Helen Li: The new races, battleground ranking, and the new quests

BlizzCon 2008 Interviews

Chris Rock

What do you enjoy most about your job?
The people I work with. Everyone I work with is really nice, it's a great pleasure to work with them everyday. When I wake up, I like going to work. I've had other jobs where sometimes you don't want to go in, but I've never had a day where I didn't want to go into work here.
What would you suggest for a young person to do in order to prepare themselves for a job at Blizzard?
It depends on what type of job they want. If it's programming, it takes a programming course of course. If it's art oriented, then take a lot of art class and art appreciation courses, just paint, draw, anything, everthing you see, just keep experimenting things, keep practicing. Overall a good knowledge base, be good at math and social studies. Be well rounded, it really helps.
What is your favorite blizzard game?                                                         World of Warcraft, I'm kind of an addict.
Is there a blizzard employ guild in WoW?
We do have a guild, I can say it's horde, but I can't say where.
Do you prefer horde over alliance?
Actually, I like alliance better. I have seven level 70s now. I told you I was an addict, and they are all actually alliance. I have a 60 horde but that's it, and it's actually in the company guild, which I don't play with anymore.
How long have you been working for blizzard?
A little bit over 2 years now

Jesse Blomberg

What do you do for blizzard?
I'm actually on a new team now for an unannounced project, so I'm an engineer there.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
Just working with all those great people there because we have so many talented people working on great games
What do you suggest for a young person in school to do to prepare themselves for a job at Blizzard?
It depends on what you want to get into. If you're going for programming or something, you want to have good macro ground under programming, obviously play a lot of games. Artist, you need to take art class, spend a lot of time drawing, getting good at art. If you're a designer, play a ton of games, not just video games. Play board games , everthing you can, understand why people make the decisions they do to design their games, learn math, learn other subjects, economics, evething else that can help you to get to that. Those are the big things. If you're going for other stuff, just lots of action, like if you always want that, then thats what you'll get.
What's your favorite Blizzard game?
Diablo II is my favorite.
Do you play World of Warcraft?
I don't anymore. I worked on the game for so long, that I just eventually just wanted to move on, so I just stopped playing it, just too much of a time commitment to work and play on it, like if I work on it for 8 hours a day, I don't want to just go play it at night.
What side, horde or alliance, do you prefer on wow?
Horde
How long have you been working for Blizzard?
About 6 1/2 years
 

BlizzCon 2007 Interviews

Chris Rock is a Senior Cinematic Technical Artist for Blizzard Entertainment. His favorite ice cream is Strawberry Cheesecake. He believes that the game, WoW, was made for everyone of all ages and wasn't surprised that so many younger kids were starting to play. He believes WoW has a safe environment, with filter and complaint systems. "It's a good, nice game for anyone, whether they be 5 or maybe 60". Before getting into Blizzard, Rock worked at Pixar for 4 years, and taught himself with everything he needed to do and know. He started his Technical Artist dream 14 years ago, and is now a part of the Blizzard staff.

John Lagrave is a senior Producer for Blizzard Entertainment. His favorite ice cream is Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey. He believes the the game, WoW, was made mainly for kids ages 13 through adults up to 35, and wasn't the least bit surprised when younger kids started to play. Lagrave spent 10 years starting out as a game tester in quality insurance, before he started working for Blizzard.

Jesse Blomberg is a programmer for WOW with Blizzard Entertainment. His favorite ice cream is Coffee with Reese's Pieces. He believes that the game, WOW, was mainly for people who love video or Blizzard games, and wasn't really that surprised at all when younger kids started playing. To start out, Blomberg took computer science in college, got an interview with Blizzard, and now is a part of the Blizzard staff as well. In Jesse's words. "Takes a lot of hard work, and knowing what you want."

Don Grey is a programmer in Core Technologies for Blizzard Entertainment. His favorite ice cream is Chocolate. Grey believes that the game, WOW, was made mainly for everyone and was not at all surprised when younger kids started playing WOW. Starting out, Grey worked as Technical Support, moved around a bit, became a designer 4 years ago, and finally settled at Blizzcon.

Pat Nagle is a Designer for Blizzard Entertainment. His favorite ice cream is Rocky Road. Nagle believes that WoW was mainly for teens and up and anyone between there. He was a bit surprised to find younger kids playing the game. He started out studying computer programming, and working for Dell. Then later, he got a phone call from Blizzard and happily took the job.

Jay Baxter is a part of the tools team for Blizzard Entertainment, working with downloaders, keeping devs working, etc... His favorite ice cream is Mint Chocolate Chip. Baxter also believes that WoW was originally made for anyone, and wasn't surprised either by how many younger kids started playing WoW. Jay Baxter's words, "It takes a lot of hard work, and love for what you do. Studying, and enjoyment of making games. Working for Blizzcon, you have to have enthusiasm."

Rob Bridenbecker runs a team for armory, systems for servers, and infrastructure. His favorite ice cream is Chocolate. He believes WoW was originally made for kids from 15 to adults up to 32. Bridenbeckor got where he is with Blizzard today by hunting through the website.

And my final interview was especially exciting. I got to interview a female part of the Blizzard staff. Janet Garcia says, "It takes a lot of confidence as a female, and you have to be into gaming."

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