Jon Hight, the leader of Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft universe, announced this week on his personal X account that he is leaving the company for a "new quest."

I had the opportunity to interview Hight at length last fall at BlizzCon in Anaheim, CA. The conversation ranged from his 12 years of running Warcraft (especially World of Warcraft) in various forms, what he has seen, and what he thinks of his legacy in the company.

Hite has been in the industry for decades and is an old-school game executive. He came to Blizzard from Sony, where he helped launch God of War 3 and the PlayStation Network. Prior to that, he was an executive producer at Atari and Electronic Arts, managing a team at Westwood Studios that often competed directly with Blizzard's real-time strategy titles.

Looking back, he said last fall that he hopes his greatest legacy at Blizzard, and in a general sense, is the people he encouraged. 'I get to work with all these people, and these people are trying to do great things,' he said. My legacy is that they will remember me in some way." This goofball saw my potential and gave me a chance."

He cited three examples in particular, the first being Sinhan "Genoa" Chen, whom Chen met when Chen was a graduate student at the University of Southern California and Hite was an adjunct instructor. He had a sparkle in his eye, a desire, a really novel and somewhat bizarre approach to what he wanted to do with the game," Hight said. He said, "Boy, I saw that passion. I want to sign you. We're going to build something. Chen and his friend Kelly Santiago won $20,000 to develop "The Cloud," a story that focuses on the inner life of hospitalized patients. Hite saw the game at a student showcase at the Game Developers Conference. Chen and Santiago later co-founded Thatgamecompany, and their games "Flow," "Flower," and "Journey" debuted on the PlayStation Network under Hite's direction. games on the PSN in 2007.

"I didn't know that was possible. ......" . Hite said, shaking his head as he recalled. I can see it now."

The second story was that Chris Metzen, the narrative father of the Warcraft universe, wanted to return to World of Warcraft. Chris called me when he was contemplating a return to Blizzard: "Chris was thinking about coming back to Blizzard. He called me because he and I had played Warhammer together and he trusted me. I was like, "Oh my God, that's great."

Metzen's return was a huge success, and the trilogy's expanded storyline was announced at BlizzCon last fall and celebrated by fans. Said Hite, "I felt the team needed a spiritual leader like that, especially on the story side."

His last example was Holly Longdale, who joined the World of Warcraft team to lead WoW Classic. Hight said, "I had the pleasure of meeting Holly Longdale. She was interviewed by EverQuest and was a very big fan and very happy. I thought, okay, let's come over here and do the classics. And she was very successful.

Longdale eventually took Hite's old job as executive producer of WoW. Hite said this was a surprising move, since she was not traditionally next in line for the position. She said, "Should I apply for this, do I have a chance?" ' And I said, 'No.' 'And I said. You did well. Yes, you should apply. She won it."

Longdale may now be the person within Blizzard best positioned to take over Hight's job as general manager of Warcraft when Hight leaves.

At his last BlizzCon with the company in November, he had the opportunity to give an impromptu pep talk to some students and returning students. 'What I said was, don't seek permission from others to be confident. Find it within yourself. 'I can see the potential in people. I've had the privilege of working with some great people.'