Blizzard has seen another pillar of the World of Warcraft team depart the studio: Technical Director Monte Krol announced his departure in a tweet this past weekend after 22 years and nine months working on the MMORPG.
“It’s impossible to sum up in a tweet; I’m grateful for an uncountable number of things,” reads Krol’s farewell. “To my Blizz family: stay awesome, and drink some great coffee. No Orc for me… Alliance forever.”
Krol’s name is likely familiar to fans of the MMORPG as the inspiration for the Krol Blade weapon and the voice behind the Goblin line “Time is money, friend,” but his work on the game specifically and the studio overall were vast and varied. Krol’s contribution to WoW is primarily related to creating and maintaining development tools such as WoWEdit, while he also helped to create the mobile title Arclight Rumble and put in time working on StarCraft, WarCraft III, and Diablo IV.
Krol’s plans for his future aren’t immediately clear, but it looks like he’s hanging up his game dev hat for good. If time is money, then ideally he’ll be one wealthy man.
Well, here's a crazy thing. After 22 years and 9 months, today was my last day at Blizzard.
It's impossible to sum up in a tweet; I'm grateful for an uncountable number of things.
To my Blizz family: stay awesome, and drink some great coffee.
No Orc for me… Alliance forever: pic.twitter.com/sev6u6cbUi
— Monte Krol (@krolco) July 22, 2023
