 Guys so For those of you guys who don't know who aren't aware Yet the sins who is is now former community manager for wow at blizzard His department was let go was they were laid off yesterday during the during the cuts whenever they cut 800 jobs I Believe it was right before the earnings call yesterday, so Unfortunately, like a lot of people know you the sins he was very active in the classic community and Especially as far as like content creators and stuff go he was a big part of Kind of like our line of communication right For not just the community but for content creators and hey, can I do this? Can I not do this like what like what is this? What is that? so From like a you know more like professional right for Megalol professional level like that that's that's a pretty pretty big loss I think for fans of classic wow and Also for the content creators for me on a personal level on a personal level Whenever I got banned and I was trying to contact people whenever I got banned back, you know over a year ago now Band from streaming vanilla wow private servers on YouTube. That's what I was that's what I was known for I played a rep palette and my stream was growing to be a pretty decent size getting like five to six hundred viewers again like a year and a half ago on YouTube and At least over the last couple of weeks before my band of course the last couple weeks for a band and Basically, I Would email this guy emailed that guy discord Twitter like I was trying to get a hold of bunch of people and The one guy to actually like really respond and was willing to reach out and talk to me Was Yithy since right and Yithy since told me back then he's like yeah, man Like basically these are the rules is we can't do we can't do Despite the fact that I just got in trouble for a DMCA illegal private server criminal. I all that memory, right like that's They know right they understand these like you know, these are real people right and he told me he's like yeah You know, I watched a lot of your content like you're you're a really good content creator You know about the game and you're obviously very passionate and you definitely have like a future like your streams are entertaining It's a lot of fun. You definitely have a future doing this too. So like that's somebody who has been supportive of me And what I've been doing He was the one guy really who's been supportive of me personally Since I got banned as far as like Blizzard stuff goes So I really like I said earlier. I don't know if I would have I For all I know I could I could have been I could have done what a lot of people suggested I do is just like hop around and make a patreon and have a bunch of people Support me through that while I hop around different streaming platforms I was really hoping Yithy since was going to be on a classic cast soon Can't believe he's going to be on stream. Yeah, I would like it Yeah, thank you. Lucy. Thank you for the seven months, man I would love I would love to have you this is on a classic cast So that might be something that uh, that might be something that we talk about I think that would be a lot of fun. I've wanted to get this in on classic cast for a long time actually but uh, the the Timing and just like what he could do and with work and whatnot Uh, it wasn't quite right, but I would love to have you this is on the classic cast and codeman read Thank you for the three months man. I appreciate both you guys. Thank you guys So uh, change my title and game have I not changed am I still sitting in the the top top gear section or not top your Grand tour section, um Yeah, so anyway um But yeah, no, that's that's pretty much. Uh, that's pretty much the point Um, yeah, what a terrible person. I know right reggie. Yeah, what a terrible person. Yeah talking about me No, so so yeah, I think uh No, I'm not in hello kitty online section If piclases I'm gonna go ahead and call you at the since he said he's ready. So Yeah, we can just uh, we can just talk to him like See me answers Yeah, and and uh, this isn't gonna be something like super serious, right? I think we'll we'll just hang out a little bit. We'll chat and um I'd be down to play some games or whatever. We might play some apex, right apex legends Back rank. Thank you for the prime, dude. Appreciate that man. What's up, buddy? Hey, what's up, dude? How's it going? Uh, you know Yeah, it's just kind of you know one of those days Yeah, there he is. Yeah guys, by the way, uh, yethisons is sacchar on twitch s a k And do I pronounce that right? I've always called you sacchar. Okay. Okay s a k a a r If you guys want to give sacchar a follow um There you go. There that is uh twitch.tv slash sacchar Uh, give him a follow and uh, you stream occasionally you might you might have a little bit more time to stream Yeah, I suddenly come into some free time That might might pop up Yeah, yeah No, so so you're you're doing pretty good. I know today's today's probably been a really weird day for you I mean, I've actually been in a similar situation as you but yeah, go go ahead and kind of like let us know Yeah, it's it's been it's been really weird like I'm one of those people that's like a hardcore creature of habit So I I'm very comfortable and contempt doing like the same things constantly. I mean, I've played wow for over a decade Let's be real here. Uh, I'm happy clearing out raids and gearing up and doing the same thing over and over again uh and Yeah, even last night after we a bunch of us went out that you know a bunch of us that got laid off and some of our friends that didn't we went out to eat and uh When I got home typically what I do when I get home is I just look at the forums like Even though even though like I'm not on the clock or anything like it's I do it for Just because that's actually like a hobby of mine like I will do that anyway Uh, right. I'm sitting there just reading through trying to find stuff that I want to I want to chase tomorrow or work on I tweeted this out earlier today where I was like, this is this is weird Like this is what I normally do but I yeah, I can't chase this anymore. Like this isn't my job so it's like It's real strange and this morning, uh, I woke up and the entire time I was like I was like, yeah, it's about time I need to get ready for work and so I got up and it got ready And started looking for my badge because I lose my badge all the time like It's to the point where the guards Know that I probably forgot my badge if I pull up to to there with my window down and uh I couldn't find my badge and then about I think I have four or five minutes of looking and I remembered I was like, oh yesterday actually happened That was real. That wasn't that wasn't some nightmare. That was real I was like, oh, that's a row Yeah, I mean I was in like Saraya. Thank you for the eight months, man. Appreciate it I was I was very much like in the same situation like whenever I first started streaming actually a few months before I first started streaming I was working in college football and I thought I was gonna have like a full-time job whenever I graduated and Uh, basically for me, it was like, hey, I was graduating. I was there for two years They told me they were gonna take care of me and like oh, they see me being with them for a long time and all that and then Some some stuff fell through with administration. It was kind of out of their hands And it was just like overnight it was like boom all of a sudden like I'm not going to be there anymore and uh, so I can I can definitely uh I can I can definitely relate so yeah, I don't know just uh, I don't know that's like better or worse from what At least in my experience of this was you know, luckily the cool I wouldn't shouldn't say they're a cool thing but the uh The good thing was hearing from a bunch of people in the industry who unfortunately, this is common This is there's a lot of people in this industry who this They've been they know the routine like they've been laid off before and they know They know kind of how it goes. Yeah, and uh I forgot I forgot what I was talking about. Oh, yeah, um a lot of people they um, they have no warning they just like come in one day and uh They just all of a sudden it's just like this bomb is just dropped and they don't have a job anymore. Um For me like we had I mean you saw like the the articles and stuff like That mentioned that people would heard about this for a while like for me personally like I was hearing I think I was hearing rumors about this Since like the beginning of december like late november is when we were like something's gonna happen soon Yeah, the entire time. It's you know, the funny thing that happens at blizzard is employees are Blizzard employees are the worst with keeping secrets with each other. So Uh, we it's impossible to not know what goes on on that campus. Um So like we we were hearing, you know, the the kind of rumors going around and rumors and talks of like, you know What departments are gonna get hit? How many people? Uh, all of that. So like for a while I've been like I've been kind of knowing this was coming and I Didn't know if I was gonna make it or not. So at least it was You can't you kind of prepare yourself, but it's still like it didn't help. Uh It still did not help. It was it was awful sitting sitting in the room waiting to find out Like we we came into work yesterday. Just And we couldn't do anything. So we just like we just sat around like just waiting, uh to hear anything That's gotta be like, sorry go ahead. I'm gonna cut you off. Good. I was just gonna say like It's such an empty feeling right because like, you know, like, hey, something might go down today I don't know what it is. I don't know what what the deal is But it could be, you know, I could not be here tomorrow. I could see how that's like really hard to work Like I I thought of the reality of Being laid off, but I didn't think of the reality of not being a blizzard if that makes any sense So that's like the super sad thing Yeah Here one second I gotta turn off I gotta turn off a script somebody was playing sound effects. What was what you were talking? They heard they heard that last part though. Yeah, they heard that last part I always I always forget that I have that on too It's probably mcconnell It was it was not mcconnell. Actually Yeah, it was not mcconnell Yeah No, dude, like that's I mean that's one of the things like for us man speaking of mcconnell like mcconnell myself like asman like Dude, like when we all heard like that was the one thing like, you know, just for us because we we see like how much I mean the people who are like the most interactive with that stuff, right? Or a lot of times streamers are looking at the forums and uh, they're looking at stuff like that because Yeah, that's our content somewhere Right exactly. So like we see like how active you are with everybody and and specifically when it comes to classic like It's just you like that's that's what we feel like like we feel like it's literally like it's just you um So it was something that's like who? Now everybody's just kind of like, okay, like where like who do we like who are we gonna get information from like what's gonna happen? um And I don't know like if they if they have a plan for that to like all of a sudden like, okay We got rid of this many people And we want to package like four people's jobs into one person now like I I don't know how that's gonna go Yeah, there's so from what I've gathered so far it uh was uh Like there's they're they're still figuring it out. They like legit don't I don't want to say they just like straight up don't know but because of The way it was structured and the way everything has has shifted into what into way the way it's basically being restructured now They they don't know who's handling what so it's basically kind of like a reset button for them. So Uh, I have to figure out who is who's handling what like who who's handling uh influencers who's Who's uh posting on the forums, which I assume it's still going to be bornec Who I was working uh working with before So from my understanding he's still gonna be he's still gonna be blue posting. Um As for really like uh for kivax and lore I assume it's it's gonna be pretty much business as usual for those guys But I don't I don't know where their their responsibilities and roles are gonna shift. Um, that's why I I'm I you know I want to make sure to make the point between this set earlier, but uh for all the content creators Um, as soon as I figure out like who they're supposed to talk to Uh, I will like I will let you guys know if unless they already reach out to you Whoever this person reaches out to you like I just I literally don't know who's responsible now and it's kind of unfortunate because We we we work on building these relations to relationships with you guys So that you always know who to talk to and it is not it has not been like the most stable thing So it's this is another like bump in that road where it's like It's not it's it's unfortunate for you guys Mm-hmm. Yeah, I know for sure and like and I've uh, I I also feel bad for like I know I see a lot of people spamming lore stuff. I just like I just want to say that it's it's like there's a lot of there's a lot of things that you don't As a player, it's I mean it coming me coming from an employee knowing more on the inside It's uh as a player. It's easy to miss not to miss a lot of things but to not see a lot of things on the other end Uh, lore is actually an extremely nice person like he's He was really fun to work with um Like I I I get that people like to meme him and everything and I you know Uh, I don't want to just diminish diminish if anyone if he's ever like said anything in the past That's ever said anybody but uh my experience with him has been wonderful Like like legit, I would I would love I would love to work with him again It yeah, it was fun to to work with someone who'd been on that team for so many years and to learn so much Uh, that was that was it was really fun. Um I just wanted to make sure that I said that like I know people are still gonna do it anyway, but Well, I mean, yeah, it's not it's not fair to say that Yeah, it's just yeah, yeah, and you got the caps and everything so like They're gonna do Yeah, um, no, I think I think that's something that's that's rough like anytime and like I know like whenever something is out of Whenever something is out of the control of Other people right and they like let's say like you mean your co-workers, right? Like you have people that work with you like every day and then all of a sudden someone's not gone And it's like well why'd it happen to that guy? Why didn't it happen to me and then like those people like generally speaking will like feel guilty and they feel bad as well Dude survivors guilt is a real thing, especially in something like this Man, it was heartbreaking this morning I was getting messages from so to give you context half of my team was is gone um so the team that I am on that that department doesn't exist anymore and Half of us are gone and half of us stayed and so that half Is now on a different team Uh And they're having to figure out all of the roles again, but it was it's so heartbreaking because their desks aren't moved yet So they had the three of them had to walk in And go into the area where we all used to sit because they have to walk through our area to get to theirs So like they have to see all of our empty desks And sit down and realize that there is half the team that is not there anymore and it was It was there was like nothing that anyone could do It was nobody's fault like No one did anything wrong like that's the hard thing like it's I would love if I could if I would have been given a reason that That I was picked so I could at least take it as a learning to be like, okay Right, this is why but we we were the fact that we were told multiple times that it You know, this was not performance based like it was literally just the jobs just don't exist anymore That was that's rough and so that's hard on everyone else who stayed because That could have happened to them and they feel guilty because they stayed and we didn't Like one of the guys that uh I don't want to get it too sappy or make anyone like, you know Angry at like the decisions stuff that went down But like there's a lot of people that got let go that have like families and kids Like for me through me. I it's just it's just me on my own. So um, it's not as bad if it happens to me and I would much rather happen have it happen to me than anyone who I work with who I know has a family so Yeah Yeah, and that's and that's the hard part right because it's like At that point like whenever, you know, you have 800 people that are getting cut and It's it's not 800 people's lives that you're affecting. It's potentially thousands And you know, you have people who have like they're married. You have people who are married with kids You have people who have multiple kids Like there there's so much of it going on that it gets it gets really really rough Yeah, and what and what's what's awful is you just at blizzard like it's I'm pretty sure it's it's easy to see from like the outside, but you're pretty close to leadership. Um, You never feel like Leadership is different from from you. You feel like you can talk to them about anything like if If when wowist when I'm sorry not when jab was still like, uh, sorry jail and brack was still the ep of wow I felt like if I had an issue I could bring it up to him Right, and it wouldn't be a problem whatsoever And that's pretty crazy to think that I am comfortable to go to an executive and And talk to him about what I think is a there's a problem that the gamut has um That's pretty incredible. Like I've never felt any sort of it was I've never felt any sort of Barrier between anything like that. So when you know that you Can be very human with people that are that high above you like you know that they did not They did not want to do that like and it wasn't a light decision like I guarantee you that Like jail and lost probably sleep over it like it. Yeah, like it it was something that was not easy for him Yeah, well, and it wasn't a blizzard thing. It was more of an activation thing Or like how does that work? So from and this could be you know, totally wrong, but from my understanding was This was something that was basically numbers dictated um, yeah So like It like the wow team didn't even know The wow team didn't know who was who was leaving at least on uh, or the wow team didn't know who was leaving on the publishing team I should say so like they had no idea until I posted that I was gone Mm-hmm. It was it was kept very secret until basically we were in the meetings and officially told Yeah, did they did they tell like how did they tell you guys like did they bring you in like One by one you get an email like so it's the the way it's kind of done and you'll see this is common I'm kind of curious. Yeah, just because like If I found out this is pretty common through the industry And the way it's usually done when they do layoffs is they pretty much try to keep it a secret as much as possible because It could you know, it could have you know, uh financial impacts of the company. I I get it Uh, I know a lot of people were mad that was there kind of kept it hidden It was going to be affected, but they have to it's they they literally have to um And the way it kind of works is you know, we sat around waiting. We knew it was going to happen on Tuesday We sat around waiting, uh all day um We kind of all brought in like donuts and just sat around and Kind of enjoyed each other's like company as a team for like the last day um And I think at about 11 I think it was about 11 we got Uh one-on-ones scheduled Uh, and of course everyone immediately immediately compares, you know, what time slot was yours? Um Where's yours at and trying to figure out if you know, these are group meetings if Trying to figure out if there's like some sort of time dictation of who who is getting like go When who's staying so we found out uh half of my team was in one in one meeting room and half of my team was in one in another And so we were like well Clearly one half is gone and one half is staying. We don't know which is which so it Yeah, it's it's rough. You're kind of like Your brain is awful to yourself because you have paranoia of figuring out who is who Trying to trying to figure out who you know You're just trying to see like which which one of us like who who's it going to be? It's just like it's kind of like a weird thing. Yeah Yeah, trying to figure out who who's the person that's that's Which you know, which group of people is going to be let go Uh, and this is like right before lunch So as everyone's you know, everyone who's affected by this is getting their meeting scheduled Um, we're all around like the courtyard and everyone's walking up to each other and asking, you know You know, what time slot do you have what time slot do you have and you know the crazy theories come out in speculation? Mm-hmm And What ended up happening was at least for us, you know when it came time It was me and two other me and two of my co-workers in in a meeting room with someone from someone from hr And uh our director who which was which was great We found out that our our director asked to be the person in there to be the person that was the one that was That was actually laying us off um Which he was the person we worked for um, and that was like a huge thing of like respect um That meant a lot to me because that person was the guy that he was the person hired me Right when I was a game master, he gave me the ta and then at the end of my ta He was like do you want to stay do you want to stay right and gave me the job? and uh It was it was kind of like a like a moment of closure almost Yeah, it really was because my entire time as a as a cm was under under him and at least under a cm for a while was under him Uh And it was it was good that meant a lot. I'm glad he got to do that because I know it meant something to him Yeah, and it's what's worse is the person from hr who's who's like, you know doing this is um Is a blizzard employee too So it's like uh in we know we're blizzards a big family. So it's that was rough Right, I felt worse for him than I did for myself of getting laid off because and he I mean he even cried with us Because it's you know, you have to lay off people that you work with. It's not it's not fun It's not a it's not a fun thing to go through and I felt so bad for him Yeah That's so rough and he's like one of the nicest people too uh I had I'd never like personally interacted with him in a lot, but um I would you know see him in hallways or like in the cafe and he was he's always like incredibly incredibly nice So it's like you you know that like that broke him Yeah Yeah, that's hard. I I'm thinking like Whenever like you're a guy who you You you basically worked your way up from the bottom to to the point where you were at Yeah You're a game master in austin, right? Or is that it's that after how did you start? So I was hired originally on a contract position like a temp. Okay master buy it. So the way it works is If you the way you become a game master is you go through like a contract company essentially And you are basically on a temp like work arrangement for a couple months And at the end of the couple months Sometimes they can keep people sometimes they can't it's just it depends on if they have if they have headcount to do that To do that and if uh game releases are coming up. They'll usually you know, they'll try to keep a bunch more on And so for me I was I was brought on during the uh overwatch rush right before overwatch was released so I I came through as a contract game master and made it to the end and they uh They basically take you into a room at the end of it and kind of the same thing and they tell you if you know You're making it or not And it was really funny because my contract was most of the overwatch launch and so um My first day as an actual full fledged blizzard employee was deletion launch So, uh Sounds pretty bad Sounds pretty rough. It was it was it was interesting. So, uh, his name is uh, his name is andy in the austin office who uh is Very dear to my heart because he was he was great to work for as well Um, he came in and said and just kind of like slapped his hands and went Congrats guys. You're uh, you're all blizzard employees. Uh Your first day's gonna be overtime because it's legion launch. Welcome to the family We're all kind of laughing with him because we were like, it's like, all right, let's do this Mm-hmm. Uh, and it was kind of was really it was so much fun And uh, I did that for a couple months Went to uh went to blizzcon as an employee for the first time And then I think I before I the day before I was getting on the plane Um, I applied for this program where you get to transfer from Uh, austin to irvine. Um, you can try there's a small cs team in irvine that you can actually transfer to if you have a if you're basically on a track to go into other departments and uh I had applied for it at the recommendation of my manager's you which was funny at the time He basically had said, um Hey kaden you um You're probably gonna do you're probably gonna do some cool stuff. Uh, you definitely should be doing more than being just a game master Uh, you're great at you're great at what you do now. So you'll transition to anything You just move to austin. You have no family. You have no kids You have nothing You should leave I was like, thank you And uh, I got told that uh, uh, because I was so new they had to actually have executive approval to send me out um So executives had to basically sign off on me transferring because I was so new to the Irvine Irvine office typically you're supposed to be there for you're supposed to be a full blizzard employee for a year Before you can do that. So I had to get special approval to do it which uh, the executive of cs had to sign off um Yeah That'll is you But uh, I you had to get executive approval approval to transfer out because you said, sorry by the way No, you're good. Um, uh and uh It was It was it was crazy because I didn't think I would get except I didn't think I would get accepted then um, uh, I found out literally the Couple of hours before I was going to get on a plane to go to blizzcon So it was it was it was really cool to know that I was going to literally come back and and live there That's crazy transferred out. And I think I was I was here for like four months applied for a um A community position actually on the heroes team got denied Because they wanted they didn't they didn't think had enough experience. Uh, which was which was they were right I needed to I needed to do more to especially to do what they wanted me to do Uh, uh, and then a month later. I applied to the wow spot and got ta Uh ended my ta and got hired on as a cm and there you go, dude ended up in the role Yeah, and it all that happened over I think a year I think I yeah, I think about a year. So I When I started my ta it was about a month after I started as a contract game master so in a year I went from contract to game out to uh contract to Associate game master agm. I think is what it was and then to full game master then to ta In like a year's time basically yeah in like a year What's it saying actually Well, the thing dude like nowadays who it seems like people people don't really get into Get into uh a job or like, you know a company or whatever and it doesn't seem like people Uh really work their way up through a company as much anymore. Um Am I wrong or like how how common was that or how rare was that that like that was your situation So it's rare to do it as fast as I put it It's very very common. It was like Okay, a lot of the a lot of the folks that you see that you're probably very familiar with at least Are that you associate with on the design teams they uh They came through cs or qa. They work their way into it a a lot of the design team actually came up through qa One of uh one of my like professional heroes. His name is uh his name is don adams He actually started as a game master like 10 years over 10 years ago and now is a uh a senior uh a senior Quest designer a senior game designer a senior quest designer He said he was a senior quest designer on wow, but now he's a senior designer on uh on team three Okay Yeah, so so it does happen. It's just not it usually doesn't happen that fast basically Yeah, it usually is over over a over a career instead of over a year Yeah, yeah, bro. It is an example worked qa night shifts and then you know being a game director for You know our Actually, I hope I'm I'm hope I'm remembering this correctly But so kevin jordan who we had on classic cast before uh kevin jordan for those of you guys who don't know is the original like vanilla wow Uh developer like of all the cloud like he was the dev that worked on all the class design right every single class Uh, I if I remember correctly, I think he said he actually started as like an it guy Yeah, I think he started as an it guy and then he worked his way up and next thing you know He's like designing every single class of our favorite game. Yeah There's a there's a great a great success story of I think I think is it kao I think it might be kao on the hero's team where he At one point was the janitor really at the at the very very beginning he uh He was either a janitor first or he worked on qa for warcraft 2 or 3 Yeah, one of the two. I don't know which one he did first but He's working. He's working on hots now. He oh, hold on. This is this is where this is where it gets crazy. Okay, okay he He at one point was either qa first and then a janitor or then janitor janitor qa um And when the when old blizzard used to basically be titled the title So it would work on a title launch title work on title launch a title done um He he didn't have a job because qa was over. There's nothing else to qa right and he stayed on as a janitor literally cleaning toilets and wow befriended chris metson at the time and chris metson basically turned him into his right hand man And he kind of worked his way up and then started working with like the starcraft team and then he ended up being a um uh camera what his title is on the hero's team But he was like I think he's like an assistant game director or like a game lead for heroes Really? He yeah, he it's crazy tearing his steering like us Well, they probably I mean they said he had experience like you know cleaning toilets. They probably that's why it probably moved into hot So no, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm not gonna put you in that situation. I'm not gonna put you in that situation No, but yeah, no, I think uh, no, that's great because like and this is what people like don't understand a lot of times whenever people like people who are like Blue collar like hard workers like people who are willing to like do anything and like get after it These are the people that I think are like the best workers no matter what role they're in right because Like obviously like a smart deal. He's like, you know what? I want to work at blizzard this is something I want to do and I want to work my way up and I think that's I don't know. I think that's really commendable to get a chance to like come back and stick with the company and end up being like a A big time guy in a in a big position Yeah, and it's that was the a super unfortunate thing about the whole thing that the whole layoff that happened was uh Man, there was there was people who You Like you had heard stories of Like you just kind of heard stories of and then you finally meet and you're like, oh, that's the person who's been here for so long who did all that Like a friend of mine who was over he was the the cm a cm over on the um a hardstone team He had been a blizzard for over 13 years He was I think a number if number I have to number correctly. He was the 127th employee That blizzard hired Yeah, and he was he was let go yesterday. He was the first blue poster ever Really? He was the first blue poster if any of like I know you have a lot of uh classic like fans in here Like if anyone remembers fang tooth From back in the day that fang tooth fang tooth. Yeah Yeah, thank you. Let me load this up the first blue poster and he was one of the ones that was laid off yesterday Which that was the one that like broke my heart because He'd been there for over 13 years He was uh, what was his uh, what was his icon? I actually think he's been over there for 15 been from there for more than 15 years actually. I might be wrong Fang tooth was uh, what was this icon like a it was a murloc. Was it a murloc? It was a murloc. There it is. Yeah Yeah, there it is Yeah, that was a that was a tough one Wow Yep That's crazy I dude, I remember when They they did you ever see like those old uh like meme videos where they would go and they would take like a foreign film And then they would They'd like they wouldn't dub it over but they would put subtitles on for like the cms and whoever else was like involved I remember there being one about fang tooth and paladins and ghost crawler. That was super funny That's crazy. So that was fang tooth. Yeah, he was one of the ones uh if you went through the um, uh Uh the kind of list of people who were tweeting now, uh No, I won't say his name because I don't know if he's he's comfortable with me saying his name Right, right. But uh, yeah, he was one of the ones that was that was like, oh and then the long the The one that uh, so far that is the longest tenured one that I've heard of was uh, 19 years 19 years 19 years there's a uh A incredibly sweet person that we worked with who was a part of the retail team That is responsible for the relationship with uh, like activation and kind of making sure that all of our agreements with um Uh retailers are kind of upheld So say if you know blizzard has like an end cap at a store like a target or a walmart or something like that He's the one that make sure that those are all that so those are all correct Those are all being done correctly And we're getting the correct numbers from those retailers as far as like what's being sold through What how much they're buying and lets us know how well we're doing and they're in the retail front and yeah, he That was that was a hard one. He's because he's incredibly nice And yeah 19 years Uh, yeah, there's a person in uh in the shipping department who'd been there for over 13 years He was he was let go too Which he good god He he made my life so much easier when uh, the previous person who was running the influencer manager spot for wow When uh, he left, uh, I had to kind of take over a lot of that and I know it's it's it's funny to me about shipping how how hard could shipping be but man when you're shipping out, you know 100 something boxes that you have to get all done in like, you know a couple of days to get them all mailed out All over the all over the world That's a that's a tall feat to ask for for just one person and Carlos helped me out a lot of getting all that done and I I feel real bad about that one. He started off in the billing department as a og game master And worked his way up and and worked his way up into I want to say he was in charge of like shipping He I mean he always seemed like he was I I don't know his what is actually He helped me out either way And worked miracles Yeah But yeah, yeah, I felt real bad about that one. What do you what do you think? Oh, sorry. I go ahead. I know good good Well, I was just gonna ask like What do you think is is the thing that you're gonna miss the most like day to day and just overall like about Being there. Oh man day to day is probably gonna be that That feeling that I can walk on to the the dev floor that feeling that I can just walk into the into the wow air And go talk to whatever does whoever designer. I wanted to go talk to Yeah Community aspect of it basically that was yeah, that was really cool. Uh once I finally got comfortable doing that and Feeling like I could go up and talk to anybody like that That was that was a pretty cool thing to know that You know, I could walk up to any of these guys who've been involved with all these all these parts of wow over all these years That you know, I've I've spent my whole life playing like That's really cool. Like That's it's a such a cool feeling like I'm gonna I'm gonna miss that I'm gonna miss being a stakeholder which It's it's pretty cool when you know, something's going on and you know, they are concerned about the community impact Like it'll be an actual conversation in a in a in a meeting where we're discussing of stuff that we're gonna do and People will turn to me and and ask like Is there any concerns of how this is going to impact community? What do you think these are? And that's where I get to basically shine profession and do that Yeah Yeah, it's funny like how like To me just from my perspective and like we talk about like community and all this stuff in like classic wow and Uh, just like everybody involved like, you know People who people were excited for classic people were excited for the game to come whether it's the community that's Exists right now out of game or uh, just playing the game itself and like You know feeling like you're a part of something you're on your server. There's people that you know And and you kind of feel at home there I think it's funny how how well that actually relates like where it just seems like you you guys had like a very like Easy going isn't the right word, but maybe like It's a very comfortable environment to where like you felt like you go and have like genuine conversation with people and talk to people It was definitely one of those things where it's like your Your ability as a professional is kind of like expected and understood And it was never it's never a question at blizzard. So every it's it's hard to get at Uh, it's hard to get into to blizzard and just being there and just earning that's earning that spot at that company Everyone already knows, you know, what you know what you're doing Uh, the question from there is like it's it's pretty much like culture fits and And just, you know, making friends with everyone Uh And it's it's it's really cool. Like I've made so many friends on that On on team two that I I followed for years And never thought they would ever know who I was who, you know, I have their I have their phone numbers. Like that's That's crazy. Like that's I never expected that to happen. And so that's that's a hard thing to leave because It's you actually you're accepted very very quickly at blizzard. Um, yeah At least for that was my experience, you know When I got there it was it was immediate acceptance Um, especially when you know, I I started working on the community team And I would introduce myself was like, oh, I was a game master and Almost everyone at blizzard at this point at some point has worked either qa or cs so they They immediately have this thing. I have this bond with you Right Like all the people who came up through cs like just know each other. Uh, It's it sounds like almost like a brotherhood. Yeah, I was someone's an instant credit It really is it's instant credit. Uh I've befriended people immediately just being like, oh you used to work in cs and they're like, yeah And then you start sharing war stories of what it's like working in customer service Yeah Yeah, man, that's awesome. Yeah, and like I mean the situation is like I mean, obviously it's pretty rough and and this is something that a lot of people are upset about and Uh, a lot of people really like I said, they they feel for you to resonate with you because like that like you were the connection to so many people, right? Um, as far as like the connection to wow the the line of communication in terms of like again, especially with like classic news Uh, I know like you were basically like the only guy in my eyes that was Actively like hey, like, you know, even if even if nothing was being said Even if there wasn't a dev water cooler because obviously we know like when a dev water cooler is being done Like the devs actually have to like stop working and then they have to work on the dev water cooler, right? Yeah, so those take a lot of work, which I've I said before like I I don't understand how Ghost crawler managed to do so many of those Because yeah, they take they take a while they take quite a bit of work. Uh, To get done like it's it's an ordeal. Right. And so yeah It's kind of unfortunate that it feels like I was the The point of like the point of contact at least for the classic team because uh, I mean just sharing what Like the the classic teams hard as they They are always wanting to to talk to everybody they It's it's unfortunate because when you when you work in when you work on a product and you're trying to figure out how you basically are launching it and You have to kind of figure out how do you create a communication strategy around it? So like you don't you can't talk about it too early because anything could change and you don't want to kind of Shoot yourself in the foot with something you've basically already already said I mean you guys know how it is like there's have been so many things over the years that Blizzard said Oh, we'll do this and it That it's just doesn't happen Uh, and so at least with classic coming up with a you know, it's a strategy for classic You know, we're it's a kind of a constant evolving process ever since we announced it where we were like Uh, trying to figure out what did we what do we want to do exactly? uh and The and there's a ton of ideas like the the class the team specifically that's working on classic has A bunch of ideas and wants to basically be super involved, but it's figuring out What's the right timing to do all that kind of stuff? um Yeah, and that's always the hard part that's like the hard part of our job is figuring out when is the best time to do this uh But I mean there's gonna be so I hope there's someone else that comes up and and uh At least of the of the folks that are still left doing community work I I hope there's someone else that starts talking about classic the fill in that kind of void where I'll be honest I didn't have a lot to share. Uh, I was just kind of trying to update as much as I could because I just wanted to It was never like an official thing of We need to keep doing this. It was just because I was like, ah, it's been a while I should at least let them know that I know they're not they that that you know that we're not dead Right right now like they're still alive Well, and and dude it goes a long way. It really does because They uh, I know we talk about all the time whether it's you know myself stay safe and tips or you know Whether we're talking to mcconnell or asman or whoever right nyxium all these guys right crumb Everybody kind of like anytime that there's at least something like just like we're like goldfish, dude You put you put a little flake in the water and we all rush to it, you know So it's like hitting Yeah, I mean we'll take anything we'll run with it, dude So like any any like any little bit counts right and uh I know in a in a time where seemingly Right, it seems that a lot of times people don't want to give out a lot of information They don't want to say anything because they're more worried about the the repercussions of saying anything at all They end up not saying anything and I think having you there to kind of just be like, hey guys We're still alive like you said Like even even something like that does does matter, you know, like you you had that post like a couple weeks ago where we looked at this We actually talked about it on classic cast where you were saying like hey Like we've been working on a number of things to hopefully get out to you guys soon Nothing to share on it specifically right now But work is happening every day both on classic as well as things we want to communicate with you guys to you guys Without about classic I myself look forward to sharing more details And so on right so something as little as that to know like hey like something is coming in the future And at least like it makes the classic community and makes us feel like we're not Uh, we're not an afterthought, you know, and I think that's a big deal Uh, I do think that's a big deal. So yeah, it trust me when I say at least with working with the the classic guys They you guys are not an afterthought Uh pretty much every time I went over there into the classic pit to kind of to talk with you know Brian and Omar and everybody Who I'm pretty sure are watching this right now. Hey guys, I miss you I know a couple of I know at least two of them that are watching. Uh, I uh, you know They are incredibly enthusiastic Yeah, they no joke every time I walked in they were uh, they would mention a video that you know One of you guys had done or a topic you guys had talked about and they're like Oh, it's a really good point and they would kind of go through and discuss like philosophies on you know What you guys talked about um They like they are very much in tune with the classic community to the point where I was kind of a little shocked Uh, where I was like I I kept trying to explain who some of you guys were and then uh, at least so they know Who it was when I was talking about you guys and they would already know they would be filling in the blanks before I could say anything Uh, yeah, they are very very very in tune Like they see stuff that you guys make they see the conversations that you have like uh They like I promise you guys they are They're seeing everything that you say they're seeing everything you say seeing everything you're creating everything you're doing Uh, and you know, well that that might be a bad thing Sometimes sometimes No, that's that's awesome. I mean that that's really uh, that feels really good to know like You know, whenever we do a classic cast or whenever we talk about something that like our our voices are being heard Right, and it's not I'm sure it's not just us, but I'm sure it's just like the community in general too And you know, like you said you go and you read the forms every night. That's what you're used to doing and relaying all that information everybody um So I think that uh Yeah, I that that to me like that makes me feel really good about like, you know Am I am I there's times whenever I bring up a topic or I talk about something And I'm like I have talked about this for like the hundredth time like does anybody hear this, you know But but to know that like there's there's people who have influence out there listening Uh, really really does mean a lot for sure. Yeah, like I mean I could seriously just go down a list and start naming all you guys that I've had conversations about like Uh, it's it's crazy. I didn't expect the I didn't expect them to get in tune with that community as fast as they did Uh, maybe to the point where they were even in tune with you guys before the project ever existed But uh That was another thing They're they're a bunch of good dudes. Uh, they uh They were they were great. Um I I'm gonna I'm gonna I miss the I miss the enthusiasm already Uh Because I could go over or send a message to one of them Uh about something I noticed and we could We could seriously have a conversation about Whatever it was the philosophy of is this right? Is this wrong? How do we uh, how do we feel about it and kind of figuring out um It it was cool to also hear that they were interested in what I thought philosophy What I thought the philosophy philosophy would be they were they were curious of what I I even thought was What classic is Uh, so it was it's really really cool to have that I have those conversations and I'm hoping that The communication in in the future somehow Hand me some of those conversations because They are by far the coolest conversations I've had. Uh, I was what I was referring to in my post of They I mean they're even talking about things where it's Uh, I'm trying to think of a really good example right now, but uh, how about um Sorry, we're turning this into a classic cast basically, but uh, I know Hey, which probably should happen at some point. We could probably have you on classic cast. That might be another discussion Yeah, I'll I'll table that one if I ever do it I'll table that one in case I ever do a classic cast and I'll use that as an example to Whenever I'm talking about this. There we go. Yeah I know you guys have asked me to do it for a long time and I've I've always wanted to but it's just like you were talking about earlier It's the timing. It's always been the timing and there's a lot of free time now Yeah, yeah I don't know. Hopefully not too long. I don't know if you've heard the I have a quite a bit Yeah, yeah quite a bit of free time now. Yeah. No, I uh, yeah, I I might have heard a thing or two about that But no, I think I mean Honestly, dude, I think with all the support that you're getting and everything I I think that you might not have too much free time for long. So we better we better get you on classic cast sooner than later Yeah, um, I gotta I gotta figure out what I'm I'm gonna do next It's it's just hard because uh I never thought I would not I would not work on wow. I would never thought I would not work at blizzard So it's I'm still working up the courage to still work on my resume and stuff, but I had a it's kind of weird updating your resume, right? Like you don't expect to have to update it Yeah, I thought I was never gonna have to uh, yeah I And this is this is really I do want to mention this because this this made my day of uh um, I sent I sent emails to um To uh, uh the game director ian As well as to our ep john height or the ep john height. I can't say our ep Um Um, I said I sent emails to him basically, you know You know thanking thanking them for all the all the experience and uh Uh, I think john height emailed me back almost immediately And just it was just asking me if I was okay Yeah, that was that was a lot that that was that was cool I know that relationship with them Yeah, I think uh, and I got to talk to john actually for a little bit at blizzcon and Oh, yeah, I remember that. Yeah, we got him from the interview with uh, that we got you guys in, right? Yeah, him and him and brian, uh brian had to leave because he's getting ready for the classic panel and uh Ian answered guys. It's not me me Ian answered me too He answered a message I sent earlier, but I I made sure to follow it up with an email Yeah, yeah, I think uh, I I got a really good vibe from from brian omar and john Like all those guys seem to be really passionate about classic and uh about the community and and just like you know Him just hanging out and talking with us for you know, as long as he did I mean, I think we we sat there and talked for like 30 minutes just Kind of talking about classic and just whatever and uh, I I could really get that from him That he was somebody who genuinely cares Like you can you can tell when you talk to those guys about that project You can tell it is a Pure passion project for them That any everyone involved wants to be on there. They want to be the people that are they're pulling this off they You know, they want they want to do that They understand that players want it and they also have the passion that they wanted themselves Yeah, and that goes that goes a long way on the project that really really does Yeah, and and you have I mean speaking of them being supportive of and kind of looking out for you I know there's uh, it looks like there's some people in the austin office I don't know if you saw in the chat But they said they're also wishing you the best and and hope you bounce back and stuff People that used to work with like over a year ago. Yeah Yeah, I missed the I missed all you people in the austin office whoever's watching. I miss you guys Mm-hmm. That's uh Yeah, that it's really cool. You having the experience of working in two offices and Kind of having the relationship with those people like austin's really really cool because it's At least with uh in like cs it's very um You're kind of in cubicles next to each other It's not like a it looks more like an office space than you think but it actually doesn't at the same time because there's like statues all over people's desk and all sorts of stuff on the walls like it's It's heavily decorated and themed to whatever you want your desk to be So it's it's it feels pretty collaborative more than you'd think even though it's a call center And you get really close relationships with the people on your team Uh to the point where my uh senior that I used to work for still checks in on me Like every couple of every couple of weeks like he still messages me and like Asking me what uh what i'm up to and how everything's going Yeah, that's awesome. I I love those guys a lot That was heavy. That's really heavy. You thought about the possibility of I mean they posted a bunch of jobs And this is something that they're trying to like I guess they they cut a bunch of people and they posted a bunch of jobs for like new development positions Right developer positions. Have you thought about the possibility of of reapplying to blizzard? To to go back as a dev so uh, yeah, I mean at the end of the day I People at blizzard did not want me to leave and I did not want to leave blizzard Mm-hmm. So there will never ever be hard feelings I will never hold it against anyone that you know a bunch of us got laid off because no one wanted to do it No one wanted to be there. No one wanted to do it. No one wanted to be involved uh, yeah, so I don't I thought I was before when I knew this was coming. I thought I would be angry and that I would never want to come back Because you know, how could you come back to the place that just broke your heart? Like that's that's hard uh But now that I've been through it And I experienced that I'm kind of I don't feel ill will so it's like if if if an opportunity rolls up And there's something that I want, uh I would I would go back in heartbeat like I said, you know, I did like a big Tweet rant earlier where I basically kind of Hated a bunch of points of things I wanted to say and uh, the first thing I pointed out was I would work for jay I'll and brak again in a heartbeat uh, so if If there's something cool that comes up that I want to do um I would I would happily do it, uh I've mentioned to I mentioned to a couple people some friends of mine who are you know, are still there that you know spots that I'm interested in If they ever see pop up. I was like, please that's like I I'll gladly apply for it and go for it and um, even when we were we were talking to hr and doing the whole layoff process They made it very clear that we were always welcome back. Um they're giving us like A list of basically jobs That if you know, we want to apply for we we kind of get We kind of get a A bit a better chance. I guess I would stay Yeah, it wasn't me. They just laid you off. So if you apply for a spot and they have to turn you down again, that's uh They're kind of They exploit the emotions a little bit there but uh I mean, there's nothing there's nothing right now at least uh The downside for me at least because I've never been in a specific dev role is I kind of like I look for something a little entry So if something pops up, uh, there's a bunch of there's a bunch of projects and teams that I I definitely want to work on Uh, I I absolutely want to go back. Uh, yeah I even said that um I hope that you know, I I I said it to you and I was like, I hope my path somehow leads me back to You know working for you again Yeah, I think that would that would be pretty cool Yeah You know, whether it's coming back and you know working on the wow team if you know Something opens up or coming back and working on you know another team I would I would come back to blizzard like absolutely yeah, uh and then You know, it's it's it's a cool opportunity as well to You know, if something doesn't come up with blizzard now, uh to go to another company because a thing that happens in this industry is People stay at a single single company for too long and they don't get a lot of experience There's people who I know that have been at blizzard for over a decade who asked the question You know when we have when we when we kind of have like a real chat like a real talk they they always talk about how Should I have gone somewhere else at least for a little bit? And it's they they kind of feel like they might have made a career mistake by not going somewhere else Which they shouldn't feel they shouldn't feel that but It's kind of that. What if that's just yeah kind of people feel like that a little bit like not not necessarily like Remorse regret but those aren't the right words. Um Yeah, I pointed out earlier that like it sucks that I can't feel rage I was like I woke up this morning. I was like I want to break something Yeah, but I I'm not mad You just like didn't have it in you. Oh, it's not I didn't have it in me. It's like I There's no one I can be mad at Yeah, there's there's This was just a thing that I think that we knew was gonna happen knew it had to happen like it. It's unfortunate. It's it's awful and uh it's I'm kind of wondering it's I'm still over that feeling. I'm like, what do I do now? It's What now right I legitimately did not think I would ever not be blizzard Yeah, well, I think whatever happens I think I think whether whether you reapply for like a different job at blizzard and You can get something like that Which I think I don't know. I don't want to speak for everybody But I think that as a fan of wow a fan of classic and You know being where I'm at I I I know that I would love to see you with blizzard still, you know, I like I mean I think everybody I think everybody sees How much Work and effort that you put in and how much you you really care And I think if you can take that and put that in another role even I think it's going to be the same thing You're you're gonna do a really good job at it. So I mean if that were to happen I I think a lot of people would would love to see that Or I mean if you end up going to a different company, I would really uh, I would be hard pressed To see you have have much difficulty getting another job, especially I mean like you were trending on twitter in the entire state of california yesterday Yeah, that was That was probably a little bit of a surprise man. This is weird because uh A chat's gonna get a kick out of this um So Okay, I'll tell you the story of the of the tweet and what happened and I'll get to the point where Where chat will probably kind of laugh at this and read it. We'll have a fun time with this um So after after we got laid off And we were outside. There was like a group of a group of people like standing by the door And you know, there's a bunch of people crying and uh It was this was like a real real hard spot and I knew I needed to tweet something just to get it done just to kind of say it and Kind of rip the band-aid off because I didn't want to sit on it. Didn't want to didn't want to not Say anything because if I didn't say anything, it was good. I think it was going to make it worse for me personally Right because I'm someone who has a problem with like bottling things up Right and if I did that for this I would have probably would have snapped and I knew I knew I needed to at least fill that out So, uh, I literally made that tweet closed my phone and put it in my pocket and didn't look at it Uh, and you know was you know saying goodbyes to people and figuring you know figuring out who else was gone and you know All the tears being shed and all that yeah a friend of mine who works on the uh There's a team called the biz ops team uh business operations for world of warcraft Who I love that team dearly. Um, they're some of the best mentors. I I've had at least that I didn't work with that's that's the that's the cool thing is I didn't specifically work for them Even though I worked for them organizationally. I didn't work with them on like projects, uh, because it's Kind of it's kind of weird to describe org chart how everything works, uh, but There's a reason there was a there was a layoff this org chart wouldn't make sense if I explained it and it's going to get fixed I hope Uh, right And they were they were great. They were always giving me advice and mentoring and one of them came down and and uh, just kind of sat and just cried with me for a little bit and She told me that I needed to look at twitter, uh, and this had been like an hour. I think after I made that tweet and I Didn't want to uh And she said no no you you really need to look at it. You really need to look at it and I opened it up and I I could my phone wouldn't stop um, I kept getting so many message messages And so many messages and I just I could not keep up I it was it was too much and it was it was very touching because And I said this I said this before it's like you you you forget If you get that the numbers that you deal with on a day-to-day place Day-to-day basis is is is human that you you're involved with something that touches them and to see all the players And and like the the blizzard community Kind of rally around you a little bit kind of rally rally around like the worst moment of my life uh, that That felt so good like that I I did not I did not even I never thought that that would happen never thought that it would be that big and uh I just kind of sat there and read through a bunch of them and just kind of kept crying and then She said you need to look at reddit too To which I responded with I don't want to look at reddit It's probably a shit show right now. I don't I don't want to do that reddit. I know how reddit I know how reddit can be And I pulled up I pulled it up on reddit and it was already the top post on our subreddit and it was It was full of people saying such nice things about me and then the classic wow was the same thing Yeah, I I'd never imagined that I'd never imagined that at all Um, and to the point where I actually cried over redditors saying nice things about me Yeah, like who cries over reddit? In a good way Other than redditors In a good way I I was touched and it was it was awesome And then uh Someone on the dev team actually sent me a screenshot and showed me that the uh r slash wow post was number four on r slash all On the front page of reddit was my tweet Like and it was just full of people just supporting me Yeah, and saying nice things like that was it was wonderful Yeah, I think I think the support has been has been really really awesome to see um Because a lot of times like it's it seems like a thankless job, right? And I mean it kind of is a thankless job, right? You know, you don't realize like how how many people Appreciate what you do and a lot of times on the flip side of things people don't like know what they have till it's gone, right? Like I mean I pulled up like this is one of the highest upvoted things on the subreddit. I think on the classic subreddit Like overall I'm pretty sure but like this week for sure it was the top highest upvoted thing and You know people people were talking. They were saying a lot of really nice things about you Um, you know you going on tour with rise against and there's nothing more vanilla-y than rise against No, I think uh, I think the support just just seeing how many people have been supportive of you and I mean, you're like even your like twitter following has like over doubled Yeah, I mean if you guys want Yeah, that that is wild if you guys want to follow uh, yethisons on twitter. It's at kaden house here. I'll go and link it I think I gained something like 2800 followers and under 10 hours That's insane. Yeah So, yeah, if you guys want to go give uh, if you guys want to go, uh, ride the train You can uh, you can go follow him there twitter.com slash kaden house and even your dude your twitch even I honestly haven't looked at that. Uh, yeah, how many how many followers do you think you're at? I'm gonna hide it. How many followers do you think you're at? Uh Last I checked I was at like 120 or something because I think I'm not super active on it. It's It's something I'm I'm terrible at because I just I've not consistent enough, but it's like I was like 120 ish Yeah, there's 1,300 Jesus 1,300. Yeah, there you go 1,300 follows on twitter or on twitch, excuse me I know that's like nothing nothing for your 83k, but well, that's pretty good for that's a lot of growth per stream Whenever you haven't streamed at all You've got up 1200 follows Yeah, guys shoot shoot sakara follow right there. It's in chat right now link it again shoot give this into follow Uh, I'm telling you dude, you should you should stream like here here in the meantime while you're looking have some fun with it and Good. Thanks mcconnell. Um Yeah, uh, I think you should I think you should stream. I think I think that'd be good Yeah, I mean I've done a couple a couple of streams with you and It's yeah. I mean I probably will it's just I just gotta work up the motivation to do something Uh, at least with this this is kind of like therapeutic for me because Uh, I was talking to you. I mean I was talking to you this morning about it And yeah a little bit I was talking. I was like, I think I was like, I just need to talk I just need to to talk about it And I think it's gonna make me feel better Yeah Yeah, I think I think a lot of times and and it's it's easy to And I've done this too, right where like a lot of times like oh like be like the tough guy and like you don't want to say anything Um, but it's it's nice to just like get to like air things out and just get to talk about it and Uh, yeah in a sense like Because I mean it's not like you can go and like you just sit there and like talk to the wall Like just to have people like, you know people are out there like listening to you and uh, You feel like your your voice is being heard. It kind of helps a lot, you know, not just to hear your own voice but to um But to know that other people are like, yeah, like, you know, I see what you're saying and like I feel you, you know Oh that that was loud Oh, I think I have my OBS open. That's why Oh Oh, oh, oh you're getting notifications. Yeah, I had my OBS open that notification just like scared the hell out of me Oh the the twitch prime that you got from uh catastrophe Hey, there you go. There's a there's a uh, there's a uh, twitch prime right there any primers Yeah, no, so um So, yeah, I think uh Wait, what is this? That's what mcconnell says if you ever since plays apex with sfand, I'll play too Oh mcconnell, you want to play like we can totally play apex. I've never played a game with you. I don't think We've chatted a bunch of times. I don't think we've ever actually played anything Yeah, I think uh, I think that'd be a good idea Yeah, pog you it's happening. There you go There it is dude. Look at all the pogs. Look at that, dude We could totally do it here in a little bit. Absolutely mcconnell. Here it is, dude Hopefully you're better than I am. I'm awful at shooters I've played I've played a bunch of games of like blackout and pubg with with you uh off stream and I'm bad I'm so bad Well, I mean, I think it's just because we've been playing wow so long You know, it's funny that I I do whenever I play shooters I I tip my Crosshair down and I think it's because whenever I play wow I I I have the camera tilted down. You know what I mean? Yeah, I think the camera is something. Yeah. Yeah, so so I point my crosshair down like this when it should be up Like pointing to their heads I think I think my mentality when I do that is I'm think I'm trying to look for feet and if I look for the feet I'll hear the feet It's probably like the most backwards thing ever but for some reason that makes sense in my brain when I'm playing it Because that's what I do Basically, I play shooters like a ret paladin. That's that's what I'm trying to say here. I'm awful. Yeah, that's pretty much how it goes Dude, that's pretty much how it goes So what mcconnell, what's it gonna be? We gotta we gotta have three ret palins playing apex. I think that'd be good Look at his twitch Dude cheese puff with five gifted subs. Yeah, this ends five. Look at this dude. Damn Yeah, I would keep your obs closed if I were you because uh, if I mean you might not be able to hear a thing While we're playing Thanks guys, that's seriously. It's awesome Wait mcconnell's you baited everybody? Dude 20 gifted subs from mcconnell Dude There you go, dude. It's one bam mcconnell for chat spam McConnell spamming dude, what the heck? Dude mcconnell mcconnell gift the cheese puff before cheese puff had a chance to sub on his own, dude Look at that, man. That's cool. Thanks guys. That's like Seriously, like the reaction to everything has been incredible like I It's kind of it's it's kind of cool. You spend your You spend your whole life Investing into like this community just as an individual like Because that's all I ever did is play this game And to get to get this kind of love back is from from players that's The players who who are me like that's the cool thing is that You know if you know wow keeps going for you know Decades more to come like there are people in this chat that could do what I did like that's That's like the coolest thing to me is that Someone might someone might do like do the same thing because I mean why I've been going for this so long already Like why not keep going like Like I could see that happening Like I even had an I had an interaction with with with uh chris metson. That was really cool where I had said that uh I think I tweeted at him. I was like it's people like you that That that inspired me to come to blizzard And to kind of chase this weird this weird industry that Is the most rewarding what can be the most brutal, but you still keep doing it anyway because The highs are way better than the lows Yeah Yeah, that was really cool. I got I got the chance to meet chris metson at blizzcon this past year Um when we we brought him on to the q&a Uh, I was kind of his bodyguard, which is funny enough. You've seen me. I was basically a bodyguard for chris metson I'm not intimidating whatsoever and uh, uh, I was guarding him and hiding him from people in the uh In that we're sitting down watching the q&a Yeah, and he he he had saw me and know and know that he knew that he didn't know me Uh, and he's introduced himself. Hey, I'm gonna. I got a load of a picture of you by the way Yeah, a picture of me. Look how skinny I am. So they so they have context but uh He know he knew that he didn't recognize me and so he actually had introduced himself to me Uh He's like hey, man. I'm chris like uh, uh, here's here's the bodyguard. Yeah Uh Well, hopefully yeah, hopefully there's not too many uh, uh, it's not it's not too big of a threat at uh at blizzcon, hopefully Yeah, there you go It is me and there's a stand-in chris metson. Uh, there it is uh Relevant picture look at that. Yeah but uh, uh It was really cool. He uh He introduced himself and Asked what all I did and you know was excited when I told him that I was I was you know helping out the the wow team He was like, you know proceeded to talk, you know, so highly of them and was you know Had so many nice things to say and was so encouraging Uh And that was like a good experience. I've had that with all of like the old school blizzard folk Yeah, all these old school like blizzard legend that you run into that You kind of hope would be like a we are cool in real life, but turns out they are Extremely cool in real life and you're kind of like I don't know if this is actually a human being like you this how are you actually this person Yeah, I had that with like samwise samwise gave me a drunken pep talk at the first blizzcon or first blizzcon ever went to as a game at Yeah Like what'd he say? He can you say can you say what he said? Yeah, I can say what he said He basically said that uh He's like it's good on you man that you're uh, you you made it as a game master and you're coming out here He's like someone who's able to accomplish that is going to do big things for us There's this company and he's like and it makes me happy that one day I'll retire and there's going to be people like you that are building the foundation to come after me uh and He just said keep your head up Keep working hard that you're like you're already doing He's like and you're probably going to be my be a boss of someone like me someday And he told me that his boss actually was a game master at one point. Yeah, there you go He told me that his boss literally started in customer service Which is crazy that you know someone like samwise would have Would have a boss that was in CS like you just you kind of don't think because you just associate him as this larger than a life person Yeah, that's awesome But man, that's I do a cool thing though. I do want to share is the My one thing that I got to do a lot was when I found out about certain things that I wanted to get The layout team to work on or fix Say if like something was broken or someone was having an issue with something uh When I found out about those things I got to kind of Kind of chase those to get to get fixed I didn't do the manual work of course because you know, I'm not I'm not a programmer not not a designer I don't know how to fix those problem But I I make sure that the problem gets to them so that it can be fixed uh the The last thing that I got to chase to get fixed was uh, you'll see it in the hot fix notes. I think where There was a play there was a player In my guilt and then another player who messaged me about this Uh that mentioned that There's a mechanic on jade fire masters where it's called seven sided strike And it's hard it's hard to see if you're colorblind Uh, and I didn't I never realized that it's hard. It's very very hard to see when you're colorblind All right, so I I have some color blindness myself just a little bit Yeah, and so I I mentioned it to I sent it straight over to the lead encounter designer and said hey Here's a situation Here's what it here's what it's doing. Here's what it looks like um This is what someone in my guild noticed and this is also someone someone else said like Here's what here's what this is actually causing like this. This mechanic is making it very hard for people to do if they're if they're even slightly colorblind To which, you know, the wild team is great about this if you come up to them with an accessibility thing They jump on it as fast as possible because you know, it's it's a legitimate concern that some player is unable to play the game And it's not their fault It is something entirely due to something that's not like an accessibility issue. Yeah, it's it's like an accessibility issue and it's not It's it's unfortunate. So it's like you want to get those fixed asap because More players could run into that and you don't want that to happen and uh That was the the last thing I got to see get hot fixed before my email was turned off When they deactivated your the deactivate your email you your password reset and So the last email you got was you you knew that the thing that you like the last thing that you requested got hot fixed Basically the the the last thing that I sent along. I saw the hot fix that it was implemented into the into the live build And so i'm pretty proud that The last thing that I got to get fixed was It was something that was gonna help out a lot of people something that was gonna help out Not necessarily a lot of people because it's I mean colorblind is that specific type is pretty rare But I mean to those players it it it means the world Right because the two people who I pushed for that to get fixed for sent me like the nicest messages Uh with a link to the hot fix snip like that there you go dude that I felt good like that's Even though I even though I know it's it's I didn't do the work for it specifically I I just made sure the people who do do the work or I do the work for it, you know that they could do it Like that that's awesome Yeah Yeah So I'm gonna miss that I I'm gonna really miss that Yeah, I I think I think doing something I think Being able to do something and knowing that your work whatever that you're that you're trying to accomplish makes a direct impact Uh either whether it's on the game or whether it's for the people playing the game I think that's something that's really really rewarding And uh, I think I think you should know that a lot of people feel that you did make a really big impact um Whether whether it was in the community or uh, even if it's stuff that like, you know, it's behind the scenes But I know for me personally like I mean, I'll I'll tell I'll tell you guys in chat like And you know Kaden, you know If I was at blizzcon and I saw like the smallest thing wrong with the classic demo. I'm like, Kaden What's going on? Like Why is there sharding? What's happening? Freaking out no, I literally like you remember this I took off my headphones I got off the thing and I was like what is like why is there sharding? I was like, yeah I was having a meltdown And you're like, hey, it's just like a temporary thing. They just did it for this build Like it's you know, they haven't come up with a final solution the look on your face of panic was great Yeah, oh Man, that was that was funny. That was really really funny And even afterwards like the second year you to shut your stream off you were like Let's we need to talk we need to talk right now. It's like dude. It's a temporary thing Like it was just for that demo Yeah, we had to do it. We had to do it for that Yeah Yeah, no, it was a it was a good time Blizzcon was a really good time and and I and I know like I I appreciate like Because because I take like a lot of like what I think and and I've told you this before like I think this it seems like the majority of people feel this way Um and and like this is what you guys are doing now. So like I uh I really do appreciate you and and uh just like whenever I had like a concern or something that I like I wanted to like Hey, like this is how some like this is how people feel about classic This is how I feel about classic, you know, whether it was like The the four stages of content release and it's like who knows like what's actually going to happen at the end of the day but like Knowing that those concerns are being heard like means a lot to me and a lot of people in the classic community And in the wild community in general too. So Yeah, pepe laugh guys. I know pepe laugh Yeah No, I think uh, do you do you have do you have stream labels, uh installed right now? Uh, I think so Okay I don't have it up, but I can pull it up. Oh, yeah, I think you should wait. I stream stream labs. OBS I don't think I've where's I'm bad. I'm bad this. Yeah. I mean don't worry about it. Maybe you should just you should probably just I do have stream labels. I do have stream labels I can open this But yeah yeah No, I think uh I think mcconnell need to download apex and I think all three of us should play some apex together Yeah, absolutely man. I I am totally down like I've I've enjoyed very like there's a couple of people who you know, I I of course enjoy and And like value a lot of people that I got to talk to and got to know Uh, and there's a couple that really really stand out and It's it's folks like you like mcconnell even though It's mcconnell sometimes That was you know, there's a lot of folks. It's really really cool like I mean even quissy like quissy was Was awesome to get to know and to have her out at blizzcon like it was fun Like it's so cool to know That a lot of the people that You know, because i'm a big wow fan like I've always been a wow fan boy and so all the people who make content for a while like to The fact that I professionally worked with them is the coolest thing in the world to me like The first time I ever got like an email from bajira Or I talked to bajira through like an email. I was like, what? That's that's pretty cool That's pretty cool. And then uh Especially because you guys take the time to you know It's it is kind of like a professional work relationship But you guys take the time to actually like the talk and get to know us Like it's because you guys want to work with us. You want to know us like the it's it feels good like And even with like, uh with jinny like Workraft gen like that was That was cool that anytime we went somewhere She would always she would always if she saw me come up and say hi and ask how everything's going and It's it's wonderful Yeah There's so many people like that that I can't believe that I got to work with like that's And I hope that you know if You know it come I come back to blizzard. I get to do that again like Even working with wowhead like wowhead was incredible like To be to be a kid growing up playing wow and using thought bot And then going to wowhead all the time Same with like mmo champ like going to all these fan sites and then getting to meet the people that make these fan sites run And who put on these events that you know at blizzcon like it That's it's priceless. It's it's seriously priceless Yeah, and it's like god like it's really When that that means a lot to me too, man, like I mean just like to know like like I said it kind of goes back to earlier like Just knowing that you know, whether it's you or like Omar Brian or whoever like they they see our content and You know, whether it's through you or some other means like knowing that like our voice is heard and It's not like because sometimes like I said sometimes it feels like people feel like they're out in the dark But knowing that like our voice is heard knowing that like hey whenever we're talking about something We're concerned about something that people are like genuinely Genuinely supportive of us and and they they're like oh, they want to see us do do content and be like, okay Well, like let's take this into consideration Um, yeah, and that's that's the big thing. I think I think you being there was uh Was a big part of that. Yeah, exactly like mcconnell said and yeah I always wanted to make sure that no matter what it was even if it was something that couldn't be done It whatever you guys were saying was validated Like and if I couldn't if if you know if I could say anything at all I would try to give you honest answers like mm-hmm as much as I could a lot of times you can't Yeah, and that's just part of it, right? Yeah, it's the unfortunate part of it But like I always wanted to make sure that anyone who is coming to me or tagging me with something felt validated because I I remember I remember being that player. I still am that player um My different, you know working at the company my different validation was being able to talk to Uh, the people who make whatever it is that you know, I want to talk to about like if I had write, you know A class question like I would I could I would make sure that I would go to the class team and The cool thing is is they That team is so excited to get feedback like I I wish people and players Like could grasp how excited they are to get actionable real feedback Uh Not to say that my feedback is is better But if I could take stuff that you guys said and then Turn it into something I could actually tell them It They get so excited like because that's that's something real that they can work with Uh And there was so much of that like if you know say the monk discord Yeah, those guys are insane the the the The detail that they have that class mapped out And the math like the the math behind it all it's incredible Uh, if they point something out I could take it over to the person who works on wind walkers and Get it looked at If it was a tear set like I can go right to the person who Manages the tears are in charge of the like the tear sets when we're still in legion like I could get it resolved quickly any sort of bugs with azurite like Like they were so excited to hear me Need To hear me bring stuff Because it's very hard sometimes for them to For them to hear stuff from you guys because it's there's just so much noise Uh, uh That's the coolest that's the coolest like validation of that job is There's so much noise all the time. It's very very hard for them to Know what is Valuable and what isn't Because it's just they're just flooded Uh, I'm sorry. I'm getting like real emotional on that one because that's like what I got That's my favorite part of my job was yeah That that Yeah, that's what I wanted to do Yeah, to to find as much as I could from you guys and Get it to the right people who could who could handle that and you know, it's gonna happen. That's still gonna happen Uh, you may not see someone be as Vocal about it That's still going to happen. There's still cms there that are gonna be trying to you know handle everything like Uh, it's still it's still gonna keep going on Mm-hmm It's just I'm gonna miss being the one that did yeah, I mean we're gonna miss you too, man like Uh, like I said, I mean, I think you're you're You're a big part of it to us too. I mean and you're still gonna be a big part of it I mean like the the whole everything that's happened from now From the classic news to I mean pretty much this point that we're at now where you know, we might be on the cusp of a beta alpha whatever who knows Um, I mean, that's you you've still been a huge part of it to us and You're gonna continue to be a huge part of it. So Yeah, like I I mean Oh, shit Like I said, like I was a part of the community before I was a Before I worked at blizzard. I mean still be a part of it afterwards. I mean it might take me a while to To be able to play any of the games because it's It's a little heartbreaking like I haven't I haven't launched the launcher since or opened the launcher since I got since I got home Yeah, can't do it I'll eventually get back into it and I'll be a regular player again, but Uh, I I was a player. I was a you know a community member before I'm gonna be a community community member again And so I still want to be involved with everything so Like I'll still be around and I luckily I have I still have tons of friends on like the dev team and if I find anything or Like I I know that if I find anything that's like You know extremely critical I can get it to the right people to make sure that they They know something needs to something needs to be done or they need to be aware of something Mm-hmm Yeah, that's yeah And yeah, and that like I said before like I mean that's that's what's so like that's so valuable to to us like as part of the community I mean, that's that's what means so much to us Yeah, I'll say jay the bar jay the bard mentioned that uh, you know, he he was uh, he's hoping for the best for you too I don't know if you got a chance to talk to him, but yeah, he said he was hoping for the best for you and yeah, I I feel like I kept Ike he always run into jay at blizzcon. Uh, yeah every all over the place Jay's great He's wonderful Uh, this sucks Yeah, but I mean, you know like You know just whether or not it's part of your title whether or not it's you being there or you being elsewhere like Like I said before like you're you're still a part of the community to so many people and and I think that A lot of people are gonna have your back Yeah, and actually, you know what I think uh I think you should go go up to your uh, you should go check out that uh your stream labels You should probably check your notifications or maybe look at your twitch dashboard That's probably what you should look at Let me see if I can find it Holy shit What is what is that number? What is that sub count the sub points? Uh, it's at 204 204 subs. There you go, dude. Pretty good for not streaming Good god, pretty good, dude. Pretty good for not streaming Yeah, uh, there's you this is a switch channel. I don't feel like cry dude Like oh my god Yeah, I haven't refreshed the page in a while. Let's see. What are you man? Okay, 1600 followers. There you go I'm literally gonna fucking cry like I feel I man, it's I feel bad that not It's really cool like Really, it's really awesome but like I feel bad for all of the there's a lot of people that got, you know, their hearts broken that Are not getting the reception that I got like Just because you know, I happen to talk to players more Yeah, you just have any more involved in the community or more public. Yeah It's uh, that's a hard one Oh shit I was watering up. I thought I was done crying. God Yeah Well, dude, you I mean like I said before like you mean a lot to the community and and even for me like personally like I like I mean who knows like I might have just been like Kind of dicking around and like just keep getting banned over and over again and Open up a patreon and just try and like hide, you know, like if it wasn't for you reaching out to me Like, uh, I would be in a I could be in a totally different situation for all and I I'm not sure, right? No, you're no seriously you're The way you handled everything and the way that The way everything went down at least for you know, how we got to know each other and how Receptive you were and how successful you were after like, you know us Kind of just laying out like, you know This is if this is, you know, this is the rules is kind of how this works. I'm like You made my job a lot easier Uh, I'm not even kidding when it comes to streamers and influencers because and in and all the content creators because for anyone that ever was viewed in a light that was Like if they had a preconceived notion kind of, you know, of you know, a past experience, you know, if someone was, you know Uh had been suspended a bunch of times or you know happened to have one bad encounter with a dev and you know, uh, you know Your example you were literally were an example that made mine and rob's job a lot easier That helped us do a lot of stuff that we wanted to do Uh, the way you handled it was great. Not a lot of I can't literally can't think of any other content creators who Legitimately got striked and pretty much banned And came and and and learned from it and came back and are so successful now like that's That's a rare one. That's That doesn't happen very often and especially that you will be worked with us on it that made it's that made it very easy And that it made our lives very very easy So like whenever, you know, something like blizzcon rolls around and Uh, we want to you know die on the hill to say, you know, we want to represent the people that we want to represent this year Because it's always a hard that's a hard process uh To decide who or to try and figure out who who streams at blizzcon because there's you know, It's so hard to get the slots and they're so They're so coveted And say if we want to plan our flag and be like, you know, you deserve one uh When you do stuff like that that That makes it easy for easy for, you know higher ups at a company to be like let's work with them So when we pitch it they're like and we give the backstory they'll be like, let's let's give them a shot Like that's that's a big one. Yeah Yeah, I mean that that really means a lot to me. It really does I mean a guy I always had a I had a football coach in high school who he He always said Good things happen to people who work hard and do things right and I think that That's something that that I try and uphold You know being a paladin a righteous paladin, of course, I'm going to try and uphold that but I think I think for sure that uh Uh, I think I think you're a really really great example of that too And I think that like I said whether whether it's back at blizzard applying for one of these other jobs or Whether it's another company that comes in, uh, I think I think for sure Uh, good things are gonna happen Thank you seriously that means That means that means a lot not Not a lot of people get this kind of response and I I'm very I'm seriously extremely humbled like it's It's it's touching Hey make me cry again He's doing good. I thought I recovered. Yeah Yeah, it's good, dude. It's good. It's good time like It definitely doesn't feel like the end, but it definitely feels like a big pause button on You know blizzard. Yeah And you know like I As unfortunate as the whole thing is, you know, I want to I want to at least like make sure that I know it's super negative like a lot of people a lot of people lost their job There's no diminishing that you know 800 something people Should have mentally lost their job. Hmm. And that is something you cannot You cannot undersell ever but I genuinely believe that this was something blizzard needed to go through Hmm I firmly believe that it it was gonna happen. It needed to happen And it's a chance for blizzard to do better No one wanted to do it. No one wanted to make that decision and I I wholeheartedly believe that It's a chance for things to things to kind of fix themselves I don't want to like go down a rabbit hole of like things that Things that uh You know that we think were problems, but it's a chance for a reset button to fit to fix it And I genuinely hope I genuinely hope that happens like I I told all the people that are still there That yeah, it's pretty much as I was leaving. I told him I was like you You're still here You have an opportunity to fix this thing that we love Uh, and I hope anyone at blizzard still is is is hearing this like you have an out. You're still there You have an opportunity to make That company is great as we all want it to It needed to happen And it there was nothing there was nothing we could do to stop it Hmm Please take the opportunity to make blizzard as Fantastic as we want it to be as we all like have it in our minds that it is Because a lot of us do want to come back Yeah, there's a I don't mean I I don't blame people who if they don't want to come back But there's quite a few of us that You know, they would love to return to the blizzard that they love Like yeah, I think I think a lot of people would like to see that Yeah I know people at leadership heard that too. I believe I'd still believe in them I legitimately do Mm-hmm Even when even when jab was Promoted to president I told everyone is like this is a good thing Because he's one of us And if you're a wow fan you have to You have to love that fact because He's been at wow for so he's been on my for so long Like he's a wow player. He gay. He's he's one of us We you know, a lot of people unfortunately don't have that personal relationship, but he's one of us Uh, I would challenge people to find a truly negative experience a truly negative experience from a blizzard employee about about him Jab is a extremely nice person and he cares about was he really cares about blizzard employees But I mean I just I I just hope I just hope it was for It's for the it's it's for the best like a good a good stuff comes out of it. Otherwise, this was all for nothing Right Yeah, and I think I think that's what we all hope to Uh, I think that's what we all hope to because and this is like what I what I've said before I mean, there's there's been people who Like they they play wow. They used to play wow and we've talked about this before Where like, you know, somebody will come up to you and oh, I work for blizzard. I work on the wow team I'm like, oh, yeah, that used to be a good game And you're like, okay, dude, you're like, I still work there Like for me like yeah, I sometimes people are saying it to the people who are responsible for the certain features that they thought were better than Yeah, and like that's just like, okay, like seriously But I think I think to for people to like wants like wow or blizzard or any any company or anything that they're a fan of to Be bad is just kind of Not kind of it's completely misguided, right? You shouldn't want anything to be bad I think anytime people have criticism or People are concerned or upset about something it I mean, there's a difference right the difference between hating and there's a difference between it coming from a place of love and a place of caring, right? Like you legitimately want wow to be good and uh I think I think that's big time, you know Yeah, like I like I've always told everyone I've even you know I've said this to me, you know McConnell up so many times where it's I have said that no matter what you lace your feedback in No matter like what other word like verbiage you use or stuff that you say like at the core of it You are expressing your What you feel is a problem to you And at the end of the day you care about wow as much as the next person and you want to see it be better Mm-hmm that is at the core of it all no matter what if no matter what toxic forum posts you read of how they are, you know Incredibly ripping it apart at the core. They want wow to be as good as they believe it can be Uh And yeah that's that's uh That's like the big point of it all is Everyone who's ever said everyone who's ever said any sort of feedback about wow Has played the game loves the game and wants to play the game again if they're not playing it Because why would they waste their time to tell you? mm-hmm Why why would they bother? For sure, they wouldn't get they just wouldn't care anymore. They would go on to something else But the fact of taking the time to tell you Uh the game means something to them. I've had so many conversations with people like that where They've they've sent me something horribly horribly horribly negative Uh, and they think that I won't read it or respond to them And I start talking to them I'll respond back And try to be like what is the actual thing you're trying to say here? I was like I'm you you have my attention like I'm reading this What is it you are actually saying? like It's every single time it's I used to play this game like I used to love this game and I'm like well Tell us exactly what it is that you have a problem with like tell us exactly what it is mm-hmm Because like if someone says that I can if I run into Ian and I have a conversation with Ian I can mention that And I guarantee you he understands Like I told I told asmengold this and uh He talked about on stream a couple of times Uh when asmengold has made his big state of bfa His big state of bfa video, um I had like I actually went over to lord to talk to him about that video and as we were talking about it Ian strolled in to talk to us about it mm-hmm Oh, I say us but he was probably coming and I talked to lord, but I just happened to be there too and uh we had a barely long conversation about it and Even though that is an hour and I think it's a 45 minute long video of Of pretty hard criticism about the game like every bit of it is is someone pouring their heart out about yeah, what the game meant to them and They want someone else to experience that they want to experience that again and they want someone else to have that same feeling to Yeah, I think and I think that's the big thing, right? I think that's the big thing is uh Like when it comes from a place of passion, you know, and whether whether it's has man or um, so many people, right? I think uh I think it does come from a place of passion and I know it comes from a place of passion and it's it's uh It's cool to see When like the the really the target audience like sure like there's a lot of people who view it Like the the criticism or the the suggestions or whatever it resonates with a lot of people But in reality the target audience is is blizzard right and it's cool to see that it's actually reaching the the audience that it's intended for I yeah, I mean The a thing that people should realize is when it comes to game design is the people who are working on it and designing games They're designing stuff that they think is fun that they that they are incredibly motivated to create so At the core of it all at the core of it. They're designing it for For themselves and on top of it People who are also playing the game Like they're working their hearts are in what they think is fun and what they think players will think is fun sometimes those don't line up, but and things need to be adjusted like That's happened every expansion. Sometimes it just it's just one of those things But at the core it's always to say it's always that center philosophy of They 100% believe that it's it's fun. It's not It's not being done just to try and throw something in the game. It's because It's a dev's heart is being poured into that Like yeah, I think uh You know, I think we should pour our heart into right now is uh, I think playing a little bit apex would be good What do you think? Yeah, get mcconnell involved. Yeah, we can do that. It's uh, do we want to do like, uh, do you have like any like I know it's like that's just kind of chatting. Do you have like any like questions or anything? Or I don't I kind of don't know what else to talk about about it because it's it's just me kind of Yeah, I mean, I think Yeah, I mean like like I said like it's just I think it's I think it's clear, right? I think it's been made clear at this point like how much people really appreciate you and everything you've done and Like how how big a part of this you are to Pretty much anybody, right? um Here's a quote. Here's something good. People want to know what's what's your funniest or best gm story that you have Oh, I okay I got two Uh two that have stuck with me forever. I think I told you the story of one that tell you the dalaran story I don't think so okay Uh, so I've all right. I've got two gm stories because You're in when you're a game master. You see a lot of funny stuff a lot of funny stuff with the game um so I think it was the legion pre patch It might have been the legion pre patch where a cadgar servant was following people around, right? Okay, and when you completed the quest line, he wouldn't he wouldn't stop following you He just like wouldn't he wouldn't keep but he would he would stay with you. He wouldn't go away And right the the bug was for some reason they just couldn't get him to stop chasing you. Uh And we were trying to figure out what was causing it We were trying to figure out like what the like we were playing with flagging to see if maybe we could point something out to like the qa guys to narrow it down to to get this thing thick And I was going through the quests like flagging some stuff as I was talking to I had the dialogue open with cadgar and As I was using the gm commands to flag through the quest This was when dalaran was over the broken shore And if you flagged to the quest you hit when you hit a certain quest While you had the dialogue open with cadgar It triggers what's known as a world state and wow, which what world states are is what we call phasing World state is like the the tech term for it. That's essentially And when it tripped the world state the server Thinks that that dalaran is not supposed to be where it is anymore Okay, dalaran does not exist in broken shore anymore. Dalaran's back over carazan Uh, oh and when the server like realized And I'm probably technically explaining this wrong. So if anyone on the dev team like is Making fun of me. I'm sorry. I was a game master and I don't know what happened And from what I take it you also don't know what happened either From the people that I've talked to about this. We still don't know how this happened um Dalaran disappeared and everyone who was standing on the legion dalaran felt of their death Just everybody at the same time everybody at the same time Felt of their death and died in fatigue water That's insane actually and so I'm on I'm on a character flag with gm like flag So I fly I'm floating and so I look down and I see all the all the bodies just falling And uh when that happened I I stood up and I looked at my uh my senior at the time Which is a supervisor for game masters. Um, I looked at him and I was like It's like hey, man, um Uh I have to tell you something, but I don't want to tell you it To which his response was that's the worst thing you could ever say to a boss ever The worst thing you ever say to a supervisor is I'm afraid to tell you what I did So Yeah, he's like I talked he's like what did you do? Explain it now And I ran through what I ran through what happened and then his follow-up which still tickles me to this day was Here's what we're gonna do We're gonna sit back down And we're gonna pretend this never happened because neither of us know how to fix this Surely it's not actually gone and it will go back because we thought that's what would happen And about um two or three minutes later players started ticketing in On this on this server players are ticketing in and so When you're a game master there's this global chat where uh What's called a slc? Service level coordinators They're basically watching all the incoming tickets to try to notice trends to try and help game masters with the queue Uh, yeah, because when something big happens they they're there to kind of help stabilize it So the game masters don't get flooded. Okay So when that they started seeing that happen, we get an update in this channel basically saying Hey guys, uh Dalaran is gone on I think it was hell scream hell scream or Dalaran or Garona one of those three servers. I don't remember Um, they basically said hey guys Dalaran is gone We don't know where it went and we don't know how to get it back Yeah, and then about a minute later there was another follow-up of yes, we're serious Because people started messaging them go messaging them going you're joking right and they're like yes, we're serious and uh They it ended up happening was uh, they they somehow managed to fix it and Dalaran came back Yeah, but we still don't know how what caused it at the time. We didn't know what caused it Uh, and so another ticket came up Mm-hmm where this was the same thing again another cadgar server and so I was going through again And I was like I don't know I don't know uh How I did this but I need to make sure I can I know what how caused this so I can tell other game masters Not to trip this so we don't we aren't killing all the Dalarans Uh, and I accidentally tripped it again When I accidentally did the second time I stood up and it looked at my senior and I was like I figured it out. I know what caused it Yeah, and he was like you did not please tell me you did not I was like I'm sorry so uh When I introduced myself to a couple people that I met on team two who had heard of this happening Oh, no, okay, I've reached myself as I'm the most murderous game master and I guess now community manager that's ever existed for And they're like you're the Dalaran guys I'm the guy who deleted Dalaran Oh, dude, that's great. That's so freaking funny. Like yeah, I can't even imagine how that happens You just get like ported out in the middle of nowhere and just get killed. Yeah Like imagine you're standing in Dalaran. Imagine you're looking at like a second monitor And all of a sudden Dalaran just falls and you're falling and you look up and Dalaran's not there Oh, that's great. And to this to this day. I we I haven't figured out what caused that I have not figured out what exactly caused that. Yeah, at least it's fixed, right? Yeah, it's fixed it won't happen again, but I still don't really exactly know how I tripped that And it was so funny to see the scramble of cs and I was like, oh, no I did this Wait, this is so this was in august 2016, right? Uh, I think so. I think it would have been august. There is a video with 180 views on it You're kidding. There is a video On it right now here. Let me let me let me get rid of some stuff. So people can see this. Is this real? Oh, I've been looking for videos of this. This is so good. I was wondering if someone ever recorded this I can't believe you found this Let's see. Who found this somebody linked this in chat. Who was it? Let me scroll up It was a ot cosmic ot cosmic found this Oh my god I did this two years ago Okay, let's see. How did you find this? All right, I'm gonna play it So I guess Dalaran just oh there it is dude Oh my god, I can't believe this is just falling This is everybody. I guess people are logging in or zoning in and they're just falling to their deaths. They are I can't believe this is this exist dude. This is so funny There's like people randomly like imagine logging off in Dalaran And you log on the next day. You're like getting ready to do some rena as you're getting ready to go raid You got your consumes. You got buffs. You got your stuff ready. You log in and you just fall to your death immediately I cannot believe someone actually found footage of this This is incredible Well, uh I wanted to come to Blizzard to leave a mark on wow history and someone actually recorded That's amazing dismounted the guy randomly got dismounted I cannot believe this is real. I I'm so shocked right now So I said I had two stories So that was that was one. Yeah, the other one was um I was at a report of the of a bot once uh, and uh I was I was you know following this character around basically doing this bot report Because I you know, I was about to to spend this account because clearly it was botting and uh What I didn't remember is so the way game master characters work and the game master accounts is you always want to log out on The place that doesn't exist Right You always want to log out in a certain place where game masters live Okay, that's an island. Maybe I don't know what you're talking about. Okay. It sounds like a place that's textures that haven't been updated in years Oh, okay Oh, if it's not updated so it's not gm resort. It's uh, it's another place. It's an old place Uh, well anyway this place, uh, it's important because it it resets your flags Whenever you log in and log out it it turns off it turns on everything So if you have to turn it off you don't forget to turn it back on And uh I forgot to log out on one of the servers because on a game master account You basically you have gm tunes on like every server that you just leave left you create them So if you work on one server and you don't come back to it for like a month You forgot what you did or where you're at and uh I came back to one that I forgotten that I had to disable all the flags Well, I was working on something and something in an instance. I can't remember and uh When uh When I was going to find to to have basically, you know stock this bot because I was about to I was gonna take care of it And I was making sure that at least it was a bot um I was following him around and I didn't know that it was using it was in a battleground And I didn't know that those flags were off because I didn't think they would be off And players were following me They were following me around on my game master character and it's it's under the name yithcans So if anyone ever finds it, you know, that's me Yeah They were following and it has the gm tag on your name. It has the gm tag I'm in the robes and everything and I'm level I'm level 100 But this is legion. So everyone else is 110 funny funny thing about game master clients is Since they're not it's not important for them to be level cap like it literally doesn't serve a purpose whatsoever Uh In the beginning of an expansion game masters are always 10 levels lower than players Just because they're the gm clients. Uh, that's not something they just update yet. It just it doesn't matter So they don't they don't mess with it right and uh I'm you know, I'm standing in a battleground on a I think I was on an alliance game master tune And I'm you know, I'm sitting there watching this what I'm thinking as a bot and A horde player. I think it was like an undead death Runs up and just one shot to me Just on a game master tune everyone knows because you're because you're not immune like I am I'm not immune I'm not invisible everyone can see me My my gm flag is on Dude, that is actually so funny They walk up and they hit me and so I died and I instantly was one shot And so my dead body is on there on the on the floor, but here's the thing I was writing the report of this bot For the ticket on another window. So I wasn't even looking at my main window because I didn't think this was happening and I was sitting there writing it up and at the corner of my eye. I see players have gathered around me and they're talking I turned back over and I was like, what what is that? That is so Funny and I'm dead. So I panicked and I alt f4'd because I was like I don't know what else to do I alt f4'd and so I've never I've been looking for footage of this and my my boss at the time wants footage of this too Because he doesn't believe me that this happened dude I I swear to you that went down and I was murdered by a player. I was one shot as a game master character the the Oh man, the ability to say that you killed a gm That would be so unbelievably legendary like imagine if like you were streaming or recording it or Oh, dude, dude, the conversation is so amazing. We're having was really funny too. Basically the person that killed me Uh was standing there looking down and another horde player ran up And so this was horde and alliance players standing around like standing around this dead body And the other horde player because on a game master character, you see all languages So I can see everything that they say And uh, he had said dude, you killed the gm. You're gonna get banned And he was like, oh no Man, that is so good, dude Like yeah, like what do you do? Like what are you doing that's like? I don't know like if I saw you if I said gm running around and you were targetable I wouldn't even thought about I would have killed you I would have killed you. I would have screen shot at it. I would have turned on obs like would have been great Yeah, you don't even you don't even think about it. You're just like, uh, okay. All right. Yeah And I just I literally alt f forward pretend it never pretended it never happened and then at the uh At the huddle at the end of the day, uh, I brought up that that happened because I just it was funny Yeah, and uh, my boss did not believe me But everyone else around everyone else on my team who I I guess I worked with definitely believed me because I don't know if it was a they would have be like, of course he would do that that would happen Right Keep in mind all this happened and I still somehow managed to get that approval to transfer out Because this was all in austin this all this happened while I was in austin often dude That's so freaking funny man Dude to be like I've I've I've mentioned a bunch of times but being a game master was Is the hands down the funnest role you will ever have in customer service if anyone ever does that job It is a blast because you get to you get to have those weird stories and you get to goof around with with players It's really fun. Mm-hmm Like how many how many other jobs do you can is there in the world where you get to role play and You will you will get cheered on Yeah Well, dude, it's always super cool I remember like if a gm would show up to fix a situation And they got their robes and they always have like the they always have their dual wielding the uh What's the sword? It's the arjun don quest the blue sword and then t-boos. What's the blue one called? Is it arjun defender? I think I think so. Yeah, so they're always dual wielding They got their two lightsabers and their blue hood on and it's like hello traveler Like I just think it's like the funniest thing in the world But it's like cool like everybody enjoys that So I even had like a full uh because one thing they tell you when you become a game master is they uh There's it's a really cool process and you get you're very empowered as someone even in customer service where uh They basically tell you We want you guys to find your own voice And it takes you a while to understand what that truly means Uh because they want you to be and they want you to be your own game master They want you to be incredibly incredibly unique to the point where that player got a one-of-a-kind experience with you And if they go if they get another game mastery, it would be different and so I I like went home after that after that day of like Orientation when they told us that of like the game master orientation when they told us that and uh I had basically wrote out a script of of what I wanted my uh what I wanted my Roleplay to be because I thought we were gonna be able to use like all the spill effects and everything I thought was like Yes, this is what I'm gonna do Yeah man Like I like I know like You know, I I may have had some experience, you know just messing around GM commands in some capacity And uh, there's definitely a lot of fun Definitely a lot of a lot of fun things that that GM's have the have the ability to do So I couldn't imagine like if it's real just like I mean there's like I I couldn't be a GM like let's be honest I couldn't be a GM for real because I would get fired immediately because I totally abused the power to go and mess with players So a funny thing that happens like I I swear to you this is real where when you're training to be a game master They give you about a cup They give you a couple of hours where they put you on a test server To play with all of the game all of the GM commands Basically, they're like this is your one time that you get the hat you get to do whatever you want summon Whatever you want mess with whatever you want This is the one time you get to do it. So make the most of it And so all of us are running around summoning bosses and also crazy nonsense like trying to see what all we can break and what all we could do Yeah, it's oh, it was so it's so so fun to basically sit around with You know a dozen other people and they're like, how can we break the server ago? Yeah, figure out what all you can summon and play with And uh, it's it's it's to get it out of your system It's to basically so when you're on the floor you don't get the itch to do that And you know that you got to have that experience at least Yeah, and you and you learn why that They that isn't really a thing anymore like you you learn very very quickly why It's it's really really hard to have those old school game master interactions where they pop up and they summon all sorts of crazy stuff and they roleplay it Uh, and there's a ton of there's a ton of stories of why that's not a thing anymore because you could You could break a lot of things Uh Like they don't they don't tell you that a lot of the old mobs Especially some of the like the old god style mobs like they're made up of multiple units So say for kathun, uh kathun's made up of like five body pieces or something like that So if you summon kathun the id actually that you think that you need to use to summon him Isn't him it's his it's his body It's his body that's in the ground and you actually can't target it and you can't attack it But the funny thing is Since you can't target it you can't despawn it. So the only way to get rid of the body of kathun is literally to reset the server Dude, it's so funny that you say that. Yeah, because I was talking to some private server devs and They told me like if like I was messing around with commands on like a local host This is you know back in the day They told me the same similar thing They said that not to spawn kathun because what happens it ends up breaking the server Like it'll crash like on on the private server like how because it's like it's like spaghetti code like jerry brick together, right? But that's very funny. It's not necessarily spaghetti of spaghetti code, but it was one of the private servers The private server is so it actually caused the server to crash is what I was told Yeah, at least for at least for wow, it was it was literally a case of how it was how it was made It was just yeah, it's literally just how it was made So it's made up of just multiple units because that's what they that's what they had to do at the time to make to make kathun Yeah Wow, oh god, there's and I don't know maybe they could have just been telling me that to make sure I don't do it But that's that's yeah, that's what they said about at least with the private server They said because they said it was like different dude the same thing happens when you summon like arthas So if you actually summon the lich king the actual icc lich king He's his programming is tied to his platform So if you summon him not in the in the frozen throne When you get to the spot where he does his intermission Since he can't figure out he's since he can't figure out where that center platform is He bugs out And he doesn't know what to do Yeah, he will break lich king because he doesn't know where he doesn't know where to run Yeah, man, that's so funny. Like whenever all this was scripted out and whatnot What is this? It was it got it. It was really fun be like to goof around with a bunch of game masters was really really fun Yeah and then to kind of To kind of go through all like the weird The weird crazy Things to fix things sometimes which that's just naturally in A lot of tech stuff. It's it's it's hilarious Like there was a This was a thing that happened for like a couple of hours where Players were getting God well, what happened? It was either they were getting banned or silenced on their wow accounts or their overwatch accounts one to two Because they had a Starter Starcraft license right For some reason it was it was really really weird It was like a starter starcraft license and if it existed It would somehow auto ban their account And so the way the way that you fixed it was to literally ban the starter starcraft license and unban it and it fixed it Wait Yeah, what? Yeah, that would fix it It's And then they figured out what was causing it and they they fixed it like it's it's Yeah, really really funny sometimes what what happens. It's really really entertaining. That's crazy And that's why we that's why we have things like ptrs to try and figure out all these weird things To break things before they get broken on the live server Exactly Yeah, there you go. Wow Look at this. This is a screenshot crochet. Just like to me I guess this is a gm who like he didn't have like his immunity flag or something turned off and he was he was invisible But he got stunned or something out of invisibility by guard. I guess this is a screenshot that he took So it's just kind of funny It's like a guy randomly shows up and he's just stunned out of the blue That's really funny. Yeah Or or like a rogue of stealth there and just to just like sapped him or something. I don't I don't know I don't know that's a crochet. Yeah, crochet. Just saying Mm-hmm Uh, I think those are the only game master questions I I have but like I wish I had some of the stories of other other gms. There's a bunch of really crazy ones There's a if you guys ever look up tickets of game masters. There's a um There's a really amazing game master in the awesome office who plays as hulk Cogan Yeah, he does all of his tickets as hulk hogan and he calls he calls players His little blizzard maniacs. I swear to you. It's real if you ever find these tickets Like if there's some of the funniest tickets I've ever read he yeah, he calls people brother. Like it's it's great That's so funny. It is really really funny That's awesome Yeah, dude, I I I would love and I know I know I'm sure everybody watching would love uh for you to come on I know I know tips and states that everybody would love to have you on classic cast at some point and uh I think I think you guys uh I'm sure the all craft guys rich. I think is still around here. I'm sure the all craft guys would love to have you on Yeah, I don't I've talked to rich a little bit Him and uh, hoted in him have been asking me for a while to go on it. So, uh, this is like a good opportunity. I will Figure something out. Hopefully that's hopefully that'll happen. That'll be real fun I always have fun like chatting with with those three guys Because every time I see them we we're always talking about stuff in the game. Like we're always talking about About the game like it it and it's always a good conversation. It's always fun Yeah, we were we were at um After blizzcon this past year we went to um We went to this korean barbecue place and Potted and rich and sours. We were all talking about like mythic plus and I think it was I think roger brown Was sitting across from me as well and we were talking about mythic plus And it was like such a good conversation that even uh jb from the other side of the room Turned his chair around as like you said mythic plus and like slid his chair over To like get in this conversation Jb's a good guy. I got to meet him for the first time actually and in london at the uh world first race Yeah, it was roger. It was roger. That's sitting across from us. Uh, uh jb's jb's great. Uh He's very he's so detailed about mythic plus that that guy has mythic plus down like It's always an interesting conversation with him because I feel like if we start getting into game details I have to bring my absolute a game because he might know more than me Probably will know more than me. Let's be real here Yeah, he's a he's a really really smart guy. He knows what he's talking about for sure. Oh, yeah He is I believe uh forbes quoted him as the Healing authority of mythic plus Oh, there you go. Yeah, you can't see this but I uh, I made a gesture with that as well to kind of To kind of make sure to sell that Oh, yeah Here I think uh, I think he actually did it by the way What's up? I think you actually did I think mcconnell actually installed apex You should be honored because uh asman and I have been trying to get him to play for It feels like weeks, but it's been days He actually installed apex So this is going to be a special time. Oh man. I feel I feel pretty good about myself then I got uh, hold on. Let me let me add you Uh, yes, it's just s-fant. Oh, okay Yeah, I can But uh, I mean while we're kind of getting started, I guess if uh If see any like cool questions from chat or whatever like I'm I'm happy to try to answer stuff if I can I know oh god, this is loud I know questions might get the stuff that I can't talk about but I think everyone will understand if I can't talk But uh, I'm cool with like Questions, I'm pretty sure we'll probably do it if I had two classic cast and stuff as well But oh, yeah for sure. I think I think uh If we do a class cast with you, I think we'll talk about some stuff And I think it'll be probably like a lot of q&a. I think that's what we would likely do Um, if we can if we can work out a class cast, I think that would be I think a lot of people would appreciate that