Brian Holinka
Brian Holinka is Lead Combat Designer on World of Warcraft at Blizzard Entertainment. He is involved in all combat related systems including class design and PvP content.
Career
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Holinka joined Blizzard and the WoW team in August 2012.[2] His background before this was as a first-person shooter (FPS) designer,[2] including working on the multiplayer components of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Homefront, and Frontlines: Fuel of War.[3] He was previously a member of High Moon Studios[4] and Trauma Studios,[5] and was brought into Kaos Studios when it was formed from the latter group's core members.[6] Holinka got his start in the game industry moonlighting on the “Desert Combat” mod for Battlefield 1942 while serving as a Captain in the United States Air Force.[3]
On June 15th, 2017, he announced that he was moving to another project at Blizzard.[7] In October 2018, he returned to World of Warcraft as Lead Combat Designer, heading up the team responsible for all combat related systems including class design and player versus player content.[8][9]
Quotes
- "We've tried very hard to make PvP a bigger part of the game, and more accessible to more people, because in the end, we all want more people to kill."[2]
- "One of the main reasons I became more active on things like Twitter was I really wanted PvP players to know that there was someone at Blizzard focused on PvP"[2]
- "I think one of the misconceptions though is that I'm like the only one who cares about this stuff … the whole team cares about PvP."[10]
About Brian:
- "We're always consulting closely with Brian, like "If we make this change is it going to make them overpowered there?" - "No, it'll be fine, you can do it" or "Oh my god, don't do that!" We scare him a lot - "Oh no, no, don't do that!" is frequently the response we get from Brian." - Kris Zierhut, Lead Class Designer[10]
Notes and trivia
- As of March 2014, Holinka does rated battlegrounds and arenas most days of the week, as well as some arenas at lunch almost every day[11]
- Holinka played 6 characters and 8 specs during PvP season 14[11]
- Holinka has played World of Warcraft "on and off since launch".[12]
- Participated in WoW Source: Warlords of Draenor PvP and Class Updates
- In early 2014, an image of Brian Holinka sporting a large afro wig became a popular meme template. In April 2014, a link to the "Holinka meme generator" was tweeted by Community Manager Lore, along with several of Lore's own versions of the meme.[13]
- The NPCs Armsmaster Holinka, Roo Desvin, and Brian Holinka are references to Holinka. The latter can be found in eastern Ashran standing on a mushroom with NPC Chris Kaleiki, named after game designer Chris Kaleiki, and their pets in Ashran. Holinka and Kaleiki were both involved in the design of the Ashran battleground.
References
- ^ Jeremy Feasel 2014-04-23. Twitter / Muffinus.
- ^ a b c d Joystiq.com - Senior PvP Designer Brian Holinka interviewed in Korea (2014-02-21)
- ^ a b Arena Junkies - PvP Interview with Greg Street & New PvP Game Designer Brian Holinka (2013-03-06)
- ^ Brian Holinka on Twitter (2015-01-15).
- ^ Brian Holinka on Twitter (2014-10-04).
- ^ Brian Holinka on Twitter (2014-10-04).
- ^ On to my Next Adventure at Blizzard
- ^ Brian Holinka on Twitter - "Is this true? Have you returned to bring balance to WoW PvP?"
"Yes, I am once again a part of the WoW team. The team has done tremendous work during the past year and I’m very excited to help them in anyway I can. An amazing team makes World of Warcraft. Proud to work alongside them." - ^ Brian Holinka on LinkedIn
- ^ a b WoW Source Episode 3 - Warlords of Draenor PvP and Class Changes. Blizzard Entertainment (2014-04-22).
- ^ a b MMO-Champion - WoD Dev Interviews, Blizzard at PAX East, Blue Tweets, War Crimes Preview, DLC #432 (2014-03-18)
- ^ Brian Holinka on Twitter (2015-01-15).
- ^ Lore on Twitter (2014-04-25).
