Blizzard's Rob Pardo Selected for Time 100 List

kukyfrope writes "We all know World of Warcraft is insanely popular. In fact, it's reached the point where mainstream publications like Time Magazine have taken notice. Time has honored Blizzard's Rob Pardo by selecting him for the 2006 Time 100 List of 'men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world.'"

Comments

Pardo

[C.A. Nony Mouse]

But is he related to Don Pardo?

Don't hate the playa....

[east coast]

Ranking him right up along side of Will Smith and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Woohoo!

Not to downplay the man's efforts and effects but Time is just a rag that needs to make lists to keep people interested and normally the lists have very little merit. But than agan, what list does?

Re:Don't hate the playa....

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is Usama not on the list? He spiritually influenced a lot of people. Oh right, he's not working at a fucking toy-company. My fault.

Fucking gay Americans.

Re:Don't hate the playa....

[TopShelf]

What we need is a top 10 list of annoying tactics use to shill for magazines...

10. "Best of..." lists
9. "It's the End of..." headlines
8. "Year in Review"
7. "Hot New [stuff] for Next Year"
etc.
etc.
etc.

From TFS

[mikeisme77]

'men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world.'

Yes, but is it for the better? Changing the world is great and all, but if people (and I realize it's their own fault, not the game creators) become so obsessed with these games that they stop going to work and such then is this really something we want in the world? I think .Hack makes some very good points about the dangers of online gaming/gaming in general. That said, it's always nice to have another reality to go to once in awhile to escape the real world--just as you remember to keep the two properly seperated and focus more on the real world than the virtual one.

Re:From TFS

[east coast]

Yes, but is it for the better?

It's not really about for the better since the article also lists terrorists and showboaters. It's simply a list to sell Time magazine. Some cheap name dropping to keep people buying their crap.

Then again, if we blame the poor man for the abuse of his product where does that leave other fine minds of our times such as Albert Hoffman, Einstein or Benz?

Re:From TFS

[Joe the Lesser]

Warcraft wastes time, TV wastes time, scifi books wastes time, gardening wastes time, playing with dolls wastes time, canning beets wastes time...

We're doomed! Somebody think of the children! People would rather have fun then go to work! NOOOO! It's so wrong! Down with interesting hobbies! Bad person who enjoys life! Bad!

Re:From TFS

[F_Scentura]

"Yes, but is it for the better? Changing the world is great and all, but if people (and I realize it's their own fault, not the game creators) become so obsessed with these games that they stop going to work and such then is this really something we want in the world?"

Isn't that what has been stated about every form of escapist entertainment since the dawn of civilization? Besides, we'll be safe until the holodeck gets perfected.

Check out the list

[Proud like a god]

Gotta admire the man a bit, he's right under Reese Witherspoon ;)

Re:Check out the list

[Churla]

And what gaming geek WOULDN'T want to be there?

Re:Check out the list

[Anonymous Coward]

And right above someone named... Daddy Yankee?!?

Re:Check out the list

[argStyopa]

No, that just means I'm jealous of him.

Re:Check out the list

[ThousandStars]

And what straight man WOULDN'T want to be there?

There, fixed that for you.

As VP he gets the article in time

[kendoka]

but we shouldn't forget the developers he leads probably all deserve to be in there as well, plus all the guys who were in initial development who left to go make Guild Wars. It would've been nicer to have the WoW team in there.

You forgot about Slashdot.

[SloppyElvis]

Well said. Entertainment is not inherently evil; life would be pretty boring without it.

I know you were using some well-crafted hyperbole, but as I was reading your list, it occurred to me that many of these hobbies approximate activities that in some spheres are considered work...

As mindless humans, we continuously perform tasks to gain rewards, even in our leisure.

• Canning beets
  • Play: Sense of accomplishment
  • Work: Survive the cold winter
• Doll/Child Care
  • Play: Affection through responsibility
  • Work: The children take care of you
• Gardening
  • Play: A Tangible Yield
  • Work: Tangible cash or food
• Reading
  • Play: Mental Imagery
  • Work: Mental Anguish & a Degree
• Television
  • Play: Blissful Mindlessness
  • Work: Mindnumbingly boring (ever been a security guard?)
• Video Games
  • Play: Food pellet rewards
  • Work: 25 cents/day farming pellets for lazy gamers

So, it appears that if a thing is necessary for survival, it's work, and if it isn't, and you still do it, it's play.

I lived a good long while before Slashdot.

WoW Fanboyism Overdrive

[grumpygrodyguy]

I know most of the Slashdot editors from Malda on down are big WoW fanboys...and that's ok...but I'm not sure you guys are aware of how many people find WoW to be a huge letdown. The lvl 60 skill cap comes to mind...the taking a whole year to release an expansion also comes to mind...oh and the lack of an alternate advancement system...and...well the list goes on and on.

Maybe you guys could hire an independant consultant to keep you in touch with the millions of gamers who find WoW to be one big wasted opportunity. Because trust me, they're out there and they read SD too.

Re:WoW Fanboyism Overdrive

[drinkypoo]

Isn't this a list of influential people? I'd say Blizzard qualifies just for the thousands of hours people have spent waiting in server queues. Nothing since the etch-a-sketch has successfully sapped so many hours for such uselessness.

Re:WoW Fanboyism Overdrive

[Dachannien]

The lvl 60 skill cap comes to mind...the taking a whole year to release an expansion also comes to mind...oh and the lack of an alternate advancement system...and...well the list goes on and on.

I detect some serious EQ/SOE fanboyism in that statement. The truly sad part is that, apparently, Sony has brainwashed you into enjoying forking out an extra $35 every six months for another unnecessary mudflating expansion pack - twice that if you play both EQ and EQ2.

Re:WoW Fanboyism Overdrive

[brkello]

Level 60 skill cap? You mean level cap? Yeah, it will be raised. The expansion did come out fast enough for you, though. Which, I can understand. Once you hit 60 there isn't many options other than PvP and end game raids. That's why you can make an alt and try all the other classes. But maybe that isn't your cup of tea. You already got so far, what fun is to do it all again? What can you do? Oh yeah, you can MOVE ON and STOP PLAYING THE GAME. This game is the biggest success of its genre and you are so arrogant as to suggest they hire and independant consultant to keep in touch with people like you. Well, guess what? There is no perfect game that is going to meet everyone's list of things they want. They do make efforts to appeal to more casual gamers (e.g. the last patch and the new tier 0.5 sets). If you want to get the best stuff in the game, yeah, you have to be hard core. But they don't force you to play that part so just quit and come back with the expansion. Stop thinking that your opinion is the most important. Tons of people love the game and it has massive improvements over the ones that came before. They do make efforts to appeal to people who "cry" like you and are let down. But I am sure you can find some other game that you can enjoy. That's the nice thing about choice.

Re:WoW Fanboyism Overdrive

[grumpygrodyguy]

I detect some serious EQ/SOE fanboyism in that statement.

I loath SOE just as much as you sound like you do. But I love Verant, I love the game they made. It's my belief that games...just like technology...should improve over time. While WoW made many improvements over EQ it dropped the ball huge on some major gameplay issues...such as alternate advancement points allowing players to still have something to spend XP on even if they reach an artificial level cap.

The last thing I want to see any MMOG ever do again is pump out mandatory expansions every 4-6 months, what I was hoping for was that Blizzard would fix some of the glaring gameplay holes in the next expansion...I've been waiting over a year now for that to happen and it looks like it won't.

Re:WoW Fanboyism Overdrive

[Dachannien]

Well, it sounds like most of your complaints would be solved if WoW were simply a harder game for right now until hero classes finally get implemented. It's too late now, of course, since zillions of people already have multiple level 60 characters. When it comes right down to it, WoW is a much easier game than most other MMOGs, which is probably part of the reason why it has been so popular with casual gamers. But that same comparative lack of difficulty makes a lot of people who are used to the EQ model get bored once they run out of content.

EQ is a much harder game - and ironically, it'd be even harder if SOE *hadn't* released so many more expansions. Every time they release an expansion, it invariably has one or two zones accessible by people who haven't done a lot of endgame content from the older expansions, and those zones cough up copious amounts of loot that ultimately trivializes older content. I played EQ on and off for five years, and ultimately got sick of paying over and over for expansions that made the older expansions obsolete. On the other hand, I quit playing WoW after soloing up two characters to level 60, because I'd done the raid thing in EQ and I'd already done most of the non-raid quests on both Horde and Alliance sides.

Re:WoW Fanboyism Overdrive

[Avatar8]

Maybe you guys could hire an independant consultant to keep you in touch with the millions of gamers who find WoW to be one big wasted opportunity.

I'd equate this to someone complaining that a 200 item Chinese buffet does not have quiche on it.

NOTHING could ever possibly be perfect enough to please every gamer out there. The key thing is, they're pleasing most of the online gamers right now. THAT is the major accomplishment for which Pardo is being recognized.

Like the PvPers in UO, I sense you and your disgruntled few are in the minority. "Millions?" I think not.

The funny thing is

[ludomancer]

This guy is a *total* asshole. Worked with him for years at Interplay. Just a cock and a half. Very bitter about this PR announcement.

Thanks a lot Time magazine! Nice guys finish last after all I guess.

Placeholder icon man

[CrazyJim1]

Anyone who was in Warcraft3 beta knows his face for lots of placeholder art.

Would a direct link have killed any one?

[REBloomfield]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1 187331,00.html