#493 – Jeff Kaplan: World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Blizzard, and Future of Gaming

Jeff Kaplan is a legendary Blizzard game designer of World of Warcraft and Overwatch, now preparing to launch a new game, The Legend of California, from his new studio Kintsugiyama – available to wishlist on Steam today, with alpha later in March. Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep493-sc See below for timestamps, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc. CONTACT LEX: Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact EPISODE LINKS: The Legend of California (Steam Page): https://store.steampowered.com/app/2550530/The_Legend_of_California Jeff’s Game Studio: https://www.kintsugiyama.com/ SPONSORS: To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts: Fin: AI agent for customer service. Go to https://fin.ai/lex Blitzy: AI agent for large enterprise codebases. Go to https://blitzy.com/lex BetterHelp: Online therapy and counseling. Go to https://betterhelp.com/lex Shopify: Sell stuff online. Go to https://shopify.com/lex CodeRabbit: AI-powered code reviews. Go to https://coderabbit.ai/lex Perplexity: AI-powered answer engine. Go to https://perplexity.ai/ OUTLINE: (00:00) – Introduction (02:24) – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections (10:47) – Early games: Pac-Man, Zork, Doom, Quake (25:12) – Writing career – 170 rejection letters (40:45) – EverQuest obsession (53:43) – Getting hired at Blizzard (1:09:11) – Lowest point in Jeff’s life (1:15:16) – One of Us (1:19:33) – Early Blizzard culture (1:39:15) – Building World of Warcraft (1:56:59) – How WoW changed video games (2:14:21) – Single-player vs Multi-player (2:35:15) – How Blizzard made great video games (3:01:04) – Online toxicity (3:08:38) – Why Titan failed (3:25:48) – Overwatch in six weeks (3:52:46) – Best Overwatch heroes (4:01:16) – The challenge of matchmaking (4:04:40) – Rust (4:15:01) – Why Jeff left Blizzard (4:37:14) – Diablo IV (4:38:42) – Getting back to making video games (4:47:38) – The Legend of California (5:01:23) – Greatest video game of all time (5:09:30) – AI and future of video games PODCAST LINKS: – Podcast Website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast – Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr – Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 – RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ – Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 – Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/lexclips