Alan Dabiri, the Game Director for Heroes of the Storm, announced on the official Blizzard forums that he is stepping down from his position. In the forum post, Dabiri explains that this change occurred months ago when he accepted a position on an unnamed Blizzard project.
During Dabiri’s watch, Heroes of the Storm saw many successful updates and changes, including the introduction of Alterac Pass and the recent shift to focusing on reworking older heroes and maps to make them more modern. We saw changes that simplified the game such as the removal of baseline armor from tanks, the normalization of how spell power works, and visual UI updates to better represent hero-specific abilities. We’ve seen the addition of many new heroes, the third ban in draft modes, and the recent Team League changes. Heroes of the Storm has become a far more polished game under the lead of Alan Dabiri and the team he worked with.
In the forum post, Dabiri contributes a lot of the recent updates to the Hereos of the Storm team. He mentions how he believes the game will continue to move forward without him due to the tenacity, passion, and drive exhibited by the team he is leaving behind.
As of yet, no replacement has been announced. However, the prospect of a new Game Director is exciting to some. While the game became more polished and easier to understand under Dabiri’s influence, it continues to be plagued by issues that have gone unanswered in recent years. It’s possible that the new Director will address these concerns with a different approach than Dabiri took.
Whatever the case, Alan Dabiri put his best foot forward and did his part in making Heroes of the Storm a more accessible and fleshed out game. Not every decision he made was unanimously loved, but it was always done in the spirit of pushing the game to be the best it can be, and for that we can all be grateful. Good luck on your new ventures, Alan, and thank you for putting your heart and soul into our beloved game!
