Robert Bowling, the creative strategist for Infinity Ward and the Call of Duty franchise, has stepped down from his position and is no longer an Activision employee, he recently announced on Twitter.
Bowling, otherwise known online as "FourZeroTwo," joined Activision as the community manager of the Call of Duty franchise in 2006, and has since served as one of the most prominent faces of the brand on Twitter and other major social networks.
In particular, Bowling become a notable voice for the Call of Duty series shortly after Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella left the company in 2010.
Activision has confirmed Bowling's departure to Gamasutra, and said, "We sincerely thank Robert for his many years of service. He's been a trusted and valued member of the Infinity Ward team. We wish him all the best on his decision to pursue future opportunities."
As of this writing, Bowling has not revealed his future plans, and Activision has not detailed the implications of his recent departure.
I really feel for Robert Bowling. Having to deal with such a confusing title of "creative strategist" really put him on the spot and attracted the ire of millions of kids screaming about the problems of the latest Infinity Ward games. So instead of him being shown as the community manager he was (hell, even that title is more pompous than what the job entails), people were led to believe that he had any influence on the development of the game.
I figure the pressure was immense and I wish him the best in future endeavors, some which hopefully will have his name attached to a less confusing title.
On the other hand, mr Curtis, you should fix the title since we are all professionals here and know what mr. Bowling actually did.
He was effectively a "community manager" though he tended to be a bit more tied into the development team than a typical community manager (i.e he was less about just being a filter between the community and the company and more about being sort of like a "connected" producer) as Dragos eluded to. In some ways he got the brunt of all the backlash but had more weight when translating the source of that backlash (bugs, unliked feature, etc.) into a bullet point on the next patch.
I figure the pressure was immense and I wish him the best in future endeavors, some which hopefully will have his name attached to a less confusing title.
On the other hand, mr Curtis, you should fix the title since we are all professionals here and know what mr. Bowling actually did.