Greg Street

Last updated
Greg Street
Greg Street.png
Street from 2009 BlizzCon
Occupation Video Game Developer
EmployerFantastic Pixel Castle
TitleStudio Head & Game Director [1]
Website askghostcrawler.tumblr.com

Greg Street is an American video game designer and former Head of Creative Development for Riot Games. [2]

Contents

Street was previously employed by Blizzard Entertainment as Lead Systems Designer on the award-winning MMORPG World of Warcraft , and is also known by his screen name "Ghostcrawler" on the World of Warcraft forums and his own Twitter account. Prior to being employed by Blizzard, Street worked as a marine biologist, eventually moving into the game design field. He also worked with Ensemble Studios on the Age of Empires series of real-time strategy games, during which period he was also known by the screen name "Deathshrimp". [3]

In November 2013 he announced on his personal Facebook that he was leaving Blizzard Entertainment to pursue a "great opportunity for something new and exciting." [4] [5] In January 2014, it was announced that Greg Street had become the Lead Game Designer for Riot Games [6] [7] [8] and in August 2018, Street shared the news that he would become Head of Creative Development at Riot, through a tweet in which he stated he would not be working directly on League of Legends anymore. [9]

On 28 July 2021, Street's name came up in a photo-op in the infamous Cosby Room with Alex Afrasiabi, who was named in California State law suit against Activision-Blizzard for mistreating women at the company. [10]

Education and early career

Street graduated from McDaniel College in 1991 with Bachelor of Arts degrees in biology and philosophy, later earning a PhD in marine science. Between 1996 and 1998, Street worked as a research assistant professor at the University of South Carolina. [11] Street has said his work was only enjoyable to him "for the first several years or so...As I moved up the ranks, however, I was spending more and more of my time writing grant proposals, filling out paperwork and playing departmental politics." Street found that his profession involved "a lot of doing the same thing over and over again." [3]

Game design career

Ensemble Studios, the team behind the real-time strategy series Age of Empires, employed Street as a designer in 1998. [11] With no education or experience in the game industry, Street suspects he was accepted due to his "writing and teaching experience, historical breadth, personal hygiene, gudd speling [ sic ], creativity, [and] my talent at capturing live alligators", as well as the user-created scenario for Age of Empires he submitted with his application, which later appeared in Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome . Street helped develop every Age of Empires game from Rise of Rome on, until his departure from the company. At first he designed in-game scenarios and maps, and later graduated to being the team's lead designer. [12]

Street was hired by Blizzard Entertainment in February 2008, and was the lead systems designer on the MMORPG World of Warcraft until November 2013. [11] He described his role at Blizzard as, "Systems design specifically is everything that is not level, story, quest, PvP or encounter design. My team handles everything from mechanics to items to trade skills to achievements to UI design." On the World of Warcraft message boards, he is known by his user name "Ghostcrawler". Street worked in a similar capacity with Blizzard as he did with Ensemble as a designer. "Game designers are not artists or programmers, but we use the tools developed by the programmers and the assets created by the artists to get content into the game. Programmers make the game run, artists make it beautiful, but it is the designer's job to make it fun." [13] Street became well-known in the World of Warcraft community during the public beta test for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King , during which he was frequently communicating with beta testers on the message boards. He was often on the message boards announcing changes to the game or discussing them with players. [14] Because "game balance is one of the most controversial aspects of any multiplayer game... I benefit from being able to engage the community directly." [13] Apart from discussions on the Blizzard forums, Street also interacted with the World of Warcraft community regularly via his Twitter account.

He left Riot in March 2023, claiming a combination of both personal and professional aspects led him to his decision. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blizzard Entertainment</span> American video game publisher and developer

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded in February 1991 as Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduates of the University of California, Los Angeles: Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce and Allen Adham. The company originally concentrated on the creation of game ports for other studios' games before beginning development of their own software in 1993, with games like Rock n' Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings. In 1993, the company became Chaos Studios, Inc., and then Blizzard Entertainment soon after being acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates early in the following year. Shortly after, Blizzard released Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.

A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Activision</span> American video game publisher

Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016.

<i>Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos</i> 2002 video game

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a high fantasy real-time strategy computer video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment released in July 2002. It is the second sequel to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, after Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the third game set in the Warcraft fictional universe, and the first to be rendered in three dimensions. An expansion pack, The Frozen Throne, was released in July 2003. Warcraft III is set several years after the events of Warcraft II, and tells the story of the Burning Legion's attempt to conquer the fictional world of Azeroth with the help of an army of the Undead, led by fallen paladin Arthas Menethil. It chronicles the combined efforts of the Human Alliance, Orcish Horde, and Night Elves to stop them before they can corrupt the World Tree.

<i>World of Warcraft</i> 2004 video game

World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the Warcraft fantasy universe, World of Warcraft takes place within the world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events of the previous game in the series, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. The game was announced in 2001, and was released for the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise on November 23, 2004. Since launch, World of Warcraft has had nine major expansion packs: The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of the Lich King (2008), Cataclysm (2010), Mists of Pandaria (2012), Warlords of Draenor (2014), Legion (2016), Battle for Azeroth (2018), Shadowlands (2020), and Dragonflight (2022). Three further expansions, The War Within, Midnight, and The Last Titan, were announced in 2023.

Warcraft is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of six core games: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Warcraft Rumble. The first three of these core games are in the real-time strategy genre, where opposing players command virtual armies in battle against each other or a computer-controlled enemy. The fourth and best-selling title of the franchise is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), where players control their character and interact with each other in a virtual world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Morhaime</span> American video game developer and entrepreneur

Michael Morhaime is an American video game developer and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of Dreamhaven, located in Irvine, California. Morhaime is best known as the co-founder and the former president of Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc., that was founded in 1991 as Silicon & Synapse. He served on the Vivendi Games executive committee since January 1999, when Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. became a subsidiary of Vivendi Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samwise Didier</span> Blizzard art director

Sam "Samwise" Didier is an American artist. He served as senior art director at Blizzard Entertainment, having been with the company since 1991. As the art director for the flagship games of the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises, the producer of several games, and an artistic contributor to almost every game released under the name Blizzard Entertainment, Didier has created a distinctive Blizzard house style. Edge described Didier's style as "a striking, pulp sensibility that may be an acquired taste, but one acquirable on either side of the Pacific, side-stepping polarisation of appeal to either eastern or western audiences." His other contributions to Blizzard projects include writing, voice acting, music, sculpture, the Pandaren species, and the name "Warcraft". Leonardo Marcato calls him "one of the game designers that can be legitimately called authors thanks to the imprint they gave to projects they directed."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Uelmen</span> Musical artist

Matt Uelmen is an American video game music composer and sound designer. He is best known for his work in Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo series, which was recognized with the inaugural Excellence in Audio award by the IGDA in 2001. He also worked as a sound designer for the real-time strategy game StarCraft, and worked on World of Warcraft's expansion The Burning Crusade in 2007. From 2009 until the studio's closure in 2017, Matt Uelmen worked as a member of the Runic Games team, as a composer and sound designer for the Torchlight games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Pardo</span>

Rob Pardo is an American video game designer. He is the former Chief Creative Officer at Blizzard Entertainment, resigning on July 3, 2014. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Kaplan</span> American video game designer (born 1972)

Jeffrey Kaplan is an American video game designer and former vice president of Blizzard Entertainment, a position he held until he left the company in 2021. He designed elements of World of Warcraft and is the former lead director of Overwatch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genie Engine</span> Game engine developed by Ensemble Studios

The Genie Engine is a game engine developed by Ensemble Studios and used in several computer games, such as Age of Empires, Age of Empires II and its expansions and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. Some of those games have been ported to the Apple Mac.

Patrick Wyatt is a game programmer and one of the three co-founders of ArenaNet. He was the leader of the Network and Technology teams and a programmer for Guild Wars. Before the founding of ArenaNet, he was working in Blizzard Entertainment where he was the Vice President of Research and Development and a senior programmer. Wyatt was the leader of Battle.net gaming network's programming and a major contributor on the multiplayer parts of Blizzard's popular games including StarCraft, Diablo and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. Having been in Blizzard for more than eight years, his work also includes earlier Blizzard games like Lost Vikings and Rock N' Roll Racing.

Jeff Strain is an American entrepreneur, CEO, and founder of three independent video game studios, most recently Possibility Space.

The history of massively multiplayer online games spans over thirty years and hundreds of massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) titles. The origin and influence on MMO games stems from MUDs, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and earlier social games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Brevik</span> American video game developer

David Brevik is an American video game designer, producer and programmer who served as the co-founder and president of Blizzard North. He is best known for the critically acclaimed Diablo franchise. Currently he serves as game designer and founder of his independent studio, Graybeard Games.

<i>World of Warcraft: Cataclysm</i> 2010 expansion set for World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is the third expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Wrath of the Lich King. It was officially announced at BlizzCon on August 21, 2009, although dataminers and researchers discovered details before it was announced by Blizzard. The expansion was released on December 7, 2010.

Titan was the project name for a cancelled Blizzard Entertainment massively multiplayer online game. With speculation regarding the game beginning in 2007, Blizzard revealed little information besides that it would be completely new and not be based on the company's then-current three main franchises.

<i>California Department of Fair Employment and Housing v. Activision Blizzard</i> Ongoing anti-discrimination lawsuit

California Department of Fair Employment and Housing v. Activision Blizzard is a current lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), now the Civil Rights Department (CRD) against video game developer Activision Blizzard in July 2021. The lawsuit asserts that management of Activision Blizzard allowed and at times encouraged sexual misconduct towards female employees, that the company maintained a "frat boy" culture, and that the company's hiring and employment practices were discriminatory against women.

References

  1. ↑ "Fantastic Pixel Castle official site". fantasticpixelcastle.com.
  2. ↑ "Greg 'Ghostcrawler' Street Jumps from Blizzard to Riot Games". Forbes .
  3. 1 2 Omnivac, Angel (1998-12-09). "Greg "Deathshrimp" Ghostcrawler". Age of Kings Heaven. Archived from the original on 2019-01-20. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
  4. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-08-05. Retrieved 2013-11-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ↑ "Ghostcrawler to leave Blizzard Entertainment - MMO-Champion".
  6. ↑ http://www.linkedin.com/pub/greg-street/7/644/b35 [ dead link ]
  7. ↑ "Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street now Lead Game Designer at Riot Games". 14 January 2014.
  8. ↑ "Ghostcrawler is Now Lead Game Designer at Riot Games - MMO-Champion".
  9. ↑ @Ghostcrawler (August 10, 2018). "Friends, I am excited to share with you that several weeks ago I took on an expanded role as head of creative devel…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  10. ↑ "Inside the Cosby Suite from the Activision Blizzard Lawsuit". 28 July 2021.
  11. 1 2 3 "Greg Street". LinkedIn . Retrieved 2009-10-12.
  12. ↑ Phillips, Michael (2006-12-20). "Interview: Ensemble's Greg Street". Inside Mac Games. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
  13. 1 2 Street, Greg (2009-01-14). "Re: GC, please stop posting here". Blizzard Entertainment . Retrieved 2009-10-12.
  14. ↑ Holisky, Adam (2009-01-12). "The Ghostcrawler Experiment". WoW.com. Archived from the original on 2011-01-27. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
  15. ↑ Bradford, Joseph (8 March 2023). "Greg Street Steps Down From Executive Producer Role On Riot Game's Upcoming MMORPG". MMORPG.com. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.