Jeff Kaplan leaves WOW for next MMO

By Oli Welsh Published 13 February, 2009

Lead designer moves on after 6 years.

Jeff Kaplan, one of World of Warcraft's two lead designers and one of the game's most enthusiastic and visible spokesmen, has confirmed that he's leaving the WOW's development team. He'll work on Blizzard's next MMO instead.

Kaplan made the announcement on the WOW forums. "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," he said, noting that he'd been working on WOW for six and a half years.

"I still plan to be very involved with the future course of WOW, but will leave the day to day operations of WOW to my partners in crime, Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brack," Kaplan said.

The move isn't quite a surprise - Kaplan said he was "definitely involved" in the new game last year. He has hinted that it might have a non-traditional setting, and might be available on consoles. He was also listed in this year's Game Developers Conference programme as an "associate designer".

Although Kaplan was quick to praise the work of his colleagues, he will leave big shoes to fill on the WOW development team. He had particular responsibility for the design of quests, dungeons and world zones, all of which were of exceptional quality in recent expansion Wrath of the Lich King.

Kaplan, known as Tigole on forums and in-game, was famously recruited by Blizzard's design chief Rob Pardo after they met online in Kaplan's EverQuest guild.

"When all is said and done, WOW is still my favorite game. I play it every day. None of that passion is gone. If anything, it fuels the challenge of making our next MMO even better," Kaplan said. "Mostly, I just wanted to say thanks. It has been an absolute honour."

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Dizzy #1 3 years ago

    Ha yes.. the idiot that thought 40 man raids would be a good idea.

  • Evolution #2 3 years ago

    Honestly, how do you play this game for 4 years?

    Edit: 4 years not 6, but with all the design and testing he must of done how is he not sick of it?
    Edited by 1 at 13/02/09 @ 09:40

  • shamblemonkee #3 3 years ago

    *click*click**clickety*

  • levitate #4 3 years ago

    Thank the Lord!

  • the_inchworm #5 3 years ago

    Well I guess that shows personal tastes. I *much* preferred 40 man raids to the system that is now in place. I loved the fact that it was a truly epic achievement to clear a dungeon, and life was not so brazenly focused on min/maxing everything in sight.

    As time has gone by, I found WoW required more of a grind to even bring your gear up to speed for raid encounters and these 'heal check', 'dps check' bosses are not my bag at all. And that's why I stopped playing. It became more of a chore than a game you could have fun within.

  • Benno #6 3 years ago

    40 man raids were a good idea...

  • MrChuckles #7 3 years ago

    'Evolution: Honestly, how do you play this game for 4 years?'

    i have to admit, i agree with your sentiments. I love playing MMOs, but i have never made it past the mid-game as in the end i just get bored of grinding.

    I think i've managed:

    Level 39 in WOW
    Level 27 in CoH
    Level 24 in Everquest
    Level 22 in LOTR
    Currently Level 20 in WAR.

    When it becomes 'Kill 7 wolves with more health AGAIN', i tend to turn off.

  • Krelle #8 3 years ago

    I miss 40man raids. Bring em back.

  • Drpwnage #9 3 years ago

    'Honestly, how do you play this game for 4 years?'

    Errrr it is his job. 6 years in one job that has evolved enormously is not that long.

  • riz23 #10 3 years ago

    So is it a Starcraft MMO he has moved onto? Oh please let it be so

  • Canyarion #11 3 years ago

    @Dizzy

    I also miss the days of 40-man raids. :-( Some of my best gaming moments.

  • Dizzy #12 3 years ago

    >I also miss the days of 40-man raids. :-( Some of my best gaming moments.

    Yea... 25 people playing in MC and 15 other just being on /follow.

    Or maybe waiting 3 hours for all the 40 raiders to show up. Great stuff!

    Or playing with 40 for 4 hours and getting NO drops because your class has 10 others to roll on gear.

    /sarcasm

    That idiot should have stayed in EQ.

  • mkreku #13 3 years ago

    I wonder if he had anything to do with the Burning Crusade expansion..? Because I hate it. Really, really hate it. I can't play World of Warcraft because of it.

    Would be fun to see Wrath of the Lich King, but.. naah.

  • Gharnish #14 3 years ago

    I sort of enjoyed the 40 mans, more for a social perspective than raid achievement perspective. But then the best we did was killing Nef in BWL, so we were very much a social rather than progress guild.

    I remember hearing his nickname was based on a reversal of "bigole titties" - "Tigole Bitties". Which is a mildly dickhead move imo.

  • cornishflipper #15 3 years ago

    @mkreku

    yeah, what were they thinking with Burning Crusade? Nagrand was the highlight until it became kill 60 animals quest... oh and you can do it twice just for fun :S

  • Evolution #16 3 years ago

    @MrChuckles

    Exactly.

    @Drpwnage

    How has it evolved enormously exactly? It's always had raids, PvE, PvP, the only big change there was the introdution of battlegrounds. Granted, I haven't played it for a good while now because when I did (for a good period of time) there was no significant changes beyond the introduction of BGs. From the article it implies that he plays it for fun all the time.

  • HolyJebus #17 3 years ago

    I wonder how wealthy he is.

  • paulf #18 3 years ago

    i've played wow for a long time now, and it has evolved and is a much better game than it was when I first started playing it. Wotlk has some great quest chains, interesting story and humour that the other mmo's i've played severely lack. There is a reason wow has so many subscribers and thats because its a damn good game. And I for one cant wait for world of starcraft or whatever Kaplan has gone off to work on :)

  • Sycopat #19 3 years ago

    Would world of starcraft not be unnecessarily limiting for a setting with far more than a single world to play with?

  • sonicgoo #20 3 years ago

    "a non-traditional setting"

    This suggests it's something different from the old fantasy or scifi cliches. No World of Starcraft, then.

  • Valupeh #21 3 years ago

    So then what could it be? Somethin TOTALY new or what?