Overwatch: Jeff Kaplan, the game’s former director, now avoids any contact with it
, by Thibaut
Jeff Kaplan went through a very difficult departure from Blizzard Entertainment in April 2021. He spent more than 20 years there and helped create several major games. One of them was, of course, Overwatch.
In an interview with GameSpot, Kaplan revealed that he has completely cut ties with Overwatch. He no longer plays it and avoids the topic entirely online.
« With Overwatch, I had a very almost clinical separation, knowing how the WoW thing had gone. I’ve literally not played the game since April 2021.
I don’t, for my own psyche, I don’t read the subreddits. After I said my goodbye to competitive Overwatch and the Overwatch subreddit, I never go back and read. I don’t watch YouTube videos. I don’t search for my name in Overwatch. I don’t search for Overwatch. I sort of just disconnect. I actually tell all the algorithms like, "Yeah, I’m not really interested in Overwatch anymore. I know you think I’m the Overwatch guy, but like, that’s just not for me anymore". »
Kaplan is referring to his departure from the World of Warcraft team in 2008. He had worked on the famous MMORPG for six years, and the split had been very painful.
« Oddly, leaving WoW was a training moment for me. When I left WoW to work on Titan [the game that would eventually become Overwatch], it was, I think, November or December of 2008. And WoW was who I was at that point. I worked every minute–every waking minute–on WoW. If I wasn’t working on WoW, I was playing WoW. And every time I played WoW, I had this notepad next to the desk that I’d be filling out to walk in the next morning and go, "These are all the things we need to change".
It was kind of shocking in a very negative emotional way to step away from WoW, because it was such a part of who I was and how I identified. It was who I was as a game developer. »
Source: gamespot.com