The Original World of Warcraft Developers: Where Are They Now?

When World of Warcraft launched in November 2004, it was the culmination of years of work by a relatively small, passionate team at Blizzard Entertainment. That team built a game that would go on to define the MMORPG genre for decades. But two decades later, how many of those original developers are still working on WoW today?

The answer is: almost none. The current WoW Classic team is made up of a new generation of developers, many of whom grew up as players of the game rather than its creators. Still, the legacy of the original team continues to shape Azeroth.

The Original 2004 Team

The launch version of WoW was built by a group of designers, artists, and engineers who became legends in the MMO space. Some of the most notable names include:

Mark Kern – Team Lead
Rob Pardo – Lead Designer
Jeff Kaplan – Quest Designer
Alex Afrasiabi – Quest Designer
Kevin Jordan – Systems Designer (classes, talents)
John Staats – Level Designer (dungeons)
Eric Dodds – Game Designer (professions, systems)
Chris Metzen – Creative Director, lore architect
Samwise Didier – Art Director
Allen Adham – Blizzard co‑founder, early WoW direction

Departures and Returns

Over the years, most of these developers left Blizzard:

Mark Kern departed in 2005.
Rob Pardo left in 2014 to found Bonfire Studios.
Jeff Kaplan became Game Director of Overwatch before leaving Blizzard in 2021.
Alex Afrasiabi left in 2020.
Kevin Jordan, John Staats, and Eric Dodds all moved on years ago.
Samwise Didier, one of Blizzard’s longest‑serving artists, retired in 2023 after more than 30 years at the company.

A few have returned in limited ways:

Chris Metzen, who retired in 2016, came back in 2022 as a creative advisor for Warcraft storytelling.
Allen Adham, who left in 2004, rejoined Blizzard in 2016 in an incubation leadership role, though not directly on WoW.

The Current WoW Classic Team

Today, WoW Classic is led by Josh “Aggrend” Greenfield and a team of developers who were not part of the 2004 launch. They’ve been responsible for Classic Era, Hardcore, Season of Discovery, and the re‑releases of expansions like Burning Crusade Classic, Wrath Classic, and Cataclysm Classic. Their work represents a generational handoff: the custodians of WoW are now fans‑turned‑developers.

Why It Matters

The fact that almost none of the original 2004 developers remain on WoW highlights two things:

The longevity of the game – Few live service titles can sustain themselves across multiple generations of developers.
The importance of legacy – Even though the original team has moved on, their design philosophies and creative DNA still shape the game.

With Chris Metzen back in an advisory role, Blizzard has at least one original voice helping guide Warcraft’s future. But the day‑to‑day work of building Azeroth now rests firmly in the hands of a new generation.

Conclusion

The original World of Warcraft team of 2004 is gone, but their influence remains. Today’s WoW Classic developers are not the same people who built the game two decades ago — they are its inheritors. That generational shift is both a challenge and an opportunity: to preserve the spirit of the original while daring to experiment with new ideas, just as the first team did back in 2004.