Rob Pardo

Rob Pardo
Pardo speaking at Game Developers Conference 2010
Born	(1970-06-09) June 9, 1970 (age 54) United States
Occupation	Game designer

Rob Pardo (born June 9, 1970) is an American video game designer. He is the former chief creative officer at Blizzard Entertainment,^[1] resigning on July 3, 2014.^[2] Previously he was the Executive Vice President of game design at Blizzard Entertainment, and prior to that the lead designer of World of Warcraft. In 2006, he was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.^[3]

Pardo founded Bonfire Studios in 2016.^[4] He raised $25 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Riot Games.^[5]

Games

Rob Pardo has been credited on the following games:^[6]

Lead Designer

• World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
• World of Warcraft
• Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
• StarCraft: Brood War

Designer

• World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor^[7]
• Diablo II
• Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition
• StarCraft
• Diablo III

Producer

• Mortal Kombat Trilogy
• Tempest X3
• Whiplash

Executive producer

• Diablo III

Investor

• Ember Sword^[8]

EverQuest

Pardo played a Wood Elf Warrior named Ariel. He was Guild master of the EverQuest guild Legacy of Steel, which accomplished many world-firsts. He met friend and former coworker Tigole (Jeffrey Kaplan) during his time in Legacy of Steel. Tigole would go on to replace him as guild leader and was eventually offered a position as designer alongside Pardo.^[9]

References

1. Peterson, Steve (October 3, 2012). "Game Industry Legends: Rob Pardo". GamesIndustry International. Retrieved December 11, 2012.
2. "Message from Rob Pardo". World of Warcraft Forums. July 3, 2014. Archived from the original on July 3, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
3. Grossman, Lev (April 30, 2006). "Rob Pardo - Architect of Virtual Worlds". Time. Archived from the original on May 13, 2006. Retrieved May 2, 2006.
4. Wingfield, Nick (September 11, 2016). "A New Phase for World of Warcraft's Lead Designer: His Own Start-Up". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
5. Takahashi, Dean (October 14, 2017). "Game boss interview: Rob Pardo says playtesting is critical to game design". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
6. "Rob Pardo". MobyGames. Retrieved May 2, 2006.
7. Rob Pardo [@Rob_Pardo] (October 26, 2012). "Its been pretty fun getting deeply involving with WOW again. The next expansion is going to be awesome :)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
8. Kaser, Rachel (December 6, 2021). "Bright Star Studios attracts new investors following in-game land sale". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on December 3, 2022. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
9. Tack, Daniel (March 30, 2016). "From Guild Leader to Game Director Part 1: Landing A Job At Blizzard". Game Informer. Archived from the original on April 1, 2016. Retrieved May 24, 2017.

External links

• GameSpy interview