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Blizzard Entertainment's chief creative officer Rob Pardo resigned yesterday after 17 years at the Californian studio. The decision came as a shock to the Blizzard fan community because it was both unexpected and unexplained - and because Pardo, though far from Blizzard's longest-serving employee, had become one of its most prominent statesmen. He was - still is - synonymous with the developer's justly celebrated game design ethos, which eschews dramatic innovations but favours a no less demanding mixture of depth and poise with ready accessibility and strong thematic flavours.The effect of his departure on Blizzard is incalculable - by which I mean it is both huge and difficult to quantify. This is because Blizzard has a gently contradictory culture when it comes to its star creative personnel. It venerates the likes of Pardo, writer Chris Metzen and artist Samwise Didier both inwardly and outwardly, trading on their reputation at events like its BlizzCon fan convention and in media interviews. But in its (and their) public language, it prefers to emphasise teamwork over the contribution of individuals, and rejects any notions of auteurism. As Pardo put it himself, announcing his resignation in a post on Blizzard's forums:
"The best aspect of designing games at Blizzard is that the entire company is passionate about the gameplay within each and every product. From the executive team to customer service to our global offices, every single person is a player and contributes to making the best possible games. It's for very good reason that the first credit on every Blizzard game is 'Game Design by Blizzard Entertainment.'"
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