Treasure Goblins began as a Diablo thing, but appeared in World of Warcraft at the 2017 Diablo 20th Anniversary World Event and several times as "loot specialists" added in the Dragonflight patch earlier this year They have also appeared several times as "loot specialists. Loot Specialists drop treasure when defeated, but must be caught before they can escape through a magical portal. What makes the loot specialists different is that they have exactly the right reasons for their video game-like behavior, and they have been used to parody corporate cheating since the early days of World of Warcraft, when the goblin trade cartel, Venture Co.'s acquisitions division members.

When Eric Covington of the "World of Warcraft" quest team wrote Loot Specialists, he didn't think too much of it, "Another record quarter for earnings!" No profit sharing!" he said to them with lines such as, "We're going to have a record quarter! Despite having worked for Blizzard for nearly nine years, until he was abruptly laid off.

Covington claimed on Twitter that he was fired because "someone saw an innocent joke and saw a reflection." It is tempting to reread the dialogue and wonder if one particular phrase might have gotten him into trouble. Time to get back to the office!" And. Or, "I'm going to have to take care of the yacht again!" Or ......." Covington continues, "They rushed to get rid of me before the end of the month, knowing full well that my benefits would run out the next day."

Particularly odd is the fact that while Covington claims that no one in upper management was a fan enough to get him fired, the marketing team definitely was. They were the ones that the Booty Specialist would say, "I saw it first!" Let's call this a cost-of-living adjustment!" and other stereotypically greedy things, and continued to use the footage in promotional tweets even after he was fired.

Covington says that if asked, he would have "gladly and understandably" helped replace any of the lines that caused the problem, but was never given that opportunity." In an email correspondence following the termination, he writes, "I appealed to them to reconsider their actions in light of the list of evidence I provided, including the fact that content must be reviewed and approved for posting on social media accounts and no problems were found."

Meanwhile, Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, stated that in fact everything is fine at Blizzard and that claims to the contrary were made up by an "aggressive labor movement" seeking to "destabilize" the company.

Reports that Kotick was last seen jumping off an escape portal with a bag over his shoulder have yet to be confirmed.