Lex Fridman Podcast
#493 – Jeff Kaplan: World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Blizzard, and Future of Gaming
Conversations that explore technology, history, philosophy, physics, mathematics, biology, chemistry, engineering, AI, robotics, programming, music, film, art, sports, psychology, neuroscience, geopolitics, business, economics, religion, astronomy, and the human condition with people from all walks of life.
Show Notes
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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.
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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/
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OUTLINE:
() – Introduction
() – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections
() – Early games: Pac-Man, Zork, Doom, Quake
() – Writing career – 170 rejection letters
() – EverQuest obsession
() – Getting hired at Blizzard
() – Lowest point in Jeff’s life
() – One of Us
() – Early Blizzard culture
() – Building World of Warcraft
() – How WoW changed video games
() – Single-player vs Multi-player
() – How Blizzard made great video games
() – Online toxicity
() – Why Titan failed
() – Overwatch in six weeks
() – Best Overwatch heroes
() – The challenge of matchmaking
() – Rust
() – Why Jeff left Blizzard
() – Diablo IV
() – Getting back to making video games
() – The Legend of California
() – Greatest video game of all time
() – AI and future of video games
PODCAST LINKS:
– Podcast Website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
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– Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4
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