Shane Dabiri

Shahram "Shane" Dabiri is an American game producer who was the producer and project leader of World of Warcraft through its development and early years. He started at Blizzard Entertainment in customer service in the Warcraft: Orcs & Humans era, produced StarCraft: Brood War, and later became the company's chief of staff. In Classic he is best remembered through the [Blackblade of Shahram], the epic sword dropped by the last boss of Upper Blackrock Spire.

Early career

Dabiri got his job at Blizzard after taking part in beta testing for Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994) and sending in feedback, which led to an offer to work in customer service. In the small company of the 1990s he took on many jobs: he created and managed Blizzard's technical support, quality assurance, IT and sales departments, worked as a producer for third-party developers, and produced localized versions of Blizzard's games. He holds a degree from Saddleback College.

He was lead producer on StarCraft: Brood War (1998), the expansion designed by Rob Pardo, and afterward did localization work on it.

Work on World of Warcraft

In a Blizzard anniversary interview, Dabiri described how World of Warcraft began. After Brood War, he was part of a new team that started a secret internal project. After six months to a year, the team decided the game did not meet Blizzard's standards: it lacked a clear design focus and had no full-time artists, so it was cancelled. The team stayed together and talked about what to make next. Many of them were playing EverQuest, several had been in its beta, and Blizzard's games already had strong online play, so an online role-playing game set in the Warcraft world was a natural next step. The longer story is told in Development of World of Warcraft.

Dabiri led that project as producer. In a February 2002 interview with Computer and Video Games, when World of Warcraft had only just been announced, he was introduced as the game's producer and project leader and stressed Blizzard's focus on making the game easy to pick up, as with Warcraft I, II and III. He gave many interviews in the years after launch; in a 2005 interview with PlanetWarcraft he discussed battlegrounds and Blizzard's plans for both casual and high-end content. Other key figures on the launch team included team lead Mark Kern and lead designer Rob Pardo.

During development his face had an unusual job. In test versions of the game, objects that did not yet have their own 3D model appeared as a cube covered with a picture of Dabiri's face, a detail Blizzard developers shared at BlizzCon 2017's "Behind Blizzard's Worlds" panel.

Later career

After World of Warcraft, Dabiri was lead producer on another, unannounced Blizzard project, then production director for Blizzard's audio department. He later became Blizzard's chief of staff. In 2009 Blizzard published a written interview with him, as the game's former lead producer, as the first in its series marking World of Warcraft's fifth anniversary. His son, Alan Dabiri, also works at Blizzard and was game director of Heroes of the Storm.

In-game tributes

Dabiri's first name is on a well-known Classic weapon. The [Blackblade of Shahram] is a level 58 epic two-handed sword that drops rarely from General Drakkisath at the end of Upper Blackrock Spire. Its proc summons Shahram, a flamewaker spirit, who casts one random spell before vanishing. The possible effects range from a group haste or heal to slowing or stunning nearby enemies, or a large boost to the wielder's stats. Warcraft Wiki notes that both the sword and the flamewaker are named after Dabiri.

Dabiri's last name appears, respelled, in Arathi Highlands as Dabyrie's Farmstead, home of the Dabyrie family: Kenata Dabyrie and her children Fardel Dabyrie and Marcel Dabyrie, guarded by the Dabyrie Militia and worked by Dabyrie Laborers. Horde players are sent to attack the farm for the Forsaken Genavie Callow, who holds a grudge against the family.

Later expansions added more nods, including Wing Commander Dabir'ee and Professor Dabiri.

Sources

• Shahram Dabiri (Warcraft Wiki)
• Blackblade of Shahram (Warcraft Wiki)
• Shahram (Warcraft Wiki)
• Dabyrie's Farmstead (Warcraft Wiki)
• Shane Dabiri Interview (GameBanshee, February 2002)
• PlanetWarcraft Interview with Shane Dabiri (Blizzplanet, 2005)
• WoW Anniversary Interview: Former Lead Producer Shane Dabiri (Wowhead, 2009)
• Behind Blizzard's Worlds panel (BlizzPro, 2017)