"But one thing that’s making this decision easier is knowing the future of Heroes is in the right hands. "

Around noon today, it was revealed that Dustin Browder will be stepping down from his role as Game Director for Heroes of the Storm, passing the torch to Alan Dabiri, the former Lead Software engineer. I have interviewed and met with Dabiri before and I have no doubt that Dustin Browder chose the right person for the job. 

Anyone that follows Heroes knows who Dustin Browder is. As a game director, he was remarkably candid and accessible to his fans. Through twitter, even the lowliest Bronze player could voice a complaint, criticism, or suggestion and on the same day be in direct communication with most important member of the Heroes of the Storm team -- it was remarkable.

Extremely humble and always open to criticism, it is still a sad day for any Heroes fan. Dustin Browder was an invariable part of the games culture and responsible for some terrible, terrible memes.

You can read this full blog post here, however the bulk of the explanation is as follows:

“ Over the last few months, I have been transitioning my responsibilities to Alan Dabiri, a 20-year Blizzard veteran and a fellow Heroes of the Storm fanatic. In fact, since StarCraft entered the Nexus in September, the Heroes team has been releasing some of our best content to date all without my daily involvement and I’ve been thoroughly blown away with what they have delivered. For those who haven’t seen him on BlizzCon panels or doing interviews, Alan has had a hand in nearly every aspect of Heroes since the beginning, both in his role as our technical director and as part of the team’s collaborative development process. Alan is also a passionate member of the community, and he’s always in touch with what’s happening on Reddit, in our forums, and wherever you’re talking about Heroes. He’s been relentlessly working to make Heroes better for years, and I’m excited that he’ll be continuing to push the game forward as game director. ”

I know I'm not alone in welcoming Mr. Dabiri into his new position, and Browder has a good point about the quality of the content that has been produced since the Machines of War expansion. If that push truly was led largely by Dabiri, then the ship is in good hands for 2017.

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