World Of Warcraft: GameSpy's Interview with Bill Roper

Noted developer Bill Roper talks about his career at Blizzard North, his problems with management, and the reasons for his team's departure from the company.

Recently, gamers were startled by the news that Bill Roper, Blizzard North's vice president and longtime public "voice" of the company, was departing along with three other co-founders. Roper and the other three, David Brevik and Erich and Max Schaefer, all held key management positions within the organization and together worked on some of Blizzard's biggest hits including several Warcraft and StarCraft games. The team's primary claim to fame, though, was the Diablo franchise, a hack-and-slash RPG that has sold millions of copies worldwide.

Recently, however, there have been problems at Blizzard -- mostly stemming from the financial issues of its corporate parent, Vivendi Universal. VU is currently trying to find a buyer for its games division. Blizzard, as Vivendi Universal Games' crown jewel, is considered by many analysts to provide the bulk of the division's value and many fear that the departure of key personnel may in fact hurt sales prospects. GameSpy recently had an opportunity to sit down with Bill to discuss this, along with his career at Blizzard, what prompted his team's walkout, and where they're going from here.

The interview can be read HERE!