Jeff Kaplan

Kaplan became involved in the massively multiplayer online game (MMO) Everquest. Under his online handle "Tigole", he joined the "Legacy of Steel" guild, and became a well-recognized player for his accomplishments and his commentary about the game posted to the guild's website. He discussed some of his map making attempts which caught the attention of the guild's leader, Rob Pardo, who at the time was the lead designer at Blizzard for Warcraft III; Kaplan was aware that some of his guild members worked at Blizzard, but he had not recognized the importance of the company at that point. Around 2001, Pardo invited Kaplan to come visit Blizzard's offices in Los Angeles, during which he was introduced to several other Blizzard guild members, and they showed him the yet-unannounced MMO World of Warcraft (WoW) project they had been working on.