Monte Krol

Monte Krol is Lead Software Engineer at Blizzard Entertainment. He has worked as tool programmer, Lead Tools Programmer, and voice actor since Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos through World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.

He was born in Chicago. He is a lifelong video game player, he started playing on and learned to program pretty early on. He got a degree in computer engineering and went to work writing software but his life passion was video games; he worked in a company called Game Refuge but later on looked up a job at Blizzard because he liked the games Starcraft and Diablo.

He worked on Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion pack, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, then on Starcraft II and finally on World of Warcraft and has worked on all its expansions ever since.

He and his staff members build the programs that the rest of the team uses to build WoW, there are couple different kinds of programs but the one that has the most people dedicated full time to it is WowEdit. He and his staff also try to make things easier to the designers, so that they can be more efficient. Their principal downside, like in all software developments, are the bugs.

• Krol does some goblin voices; in World of Warcraft he voiced the goblin "that sounds really nuts", as well as lines such as "Time is money, friend!".
• Having been given a given name in World of Warcraft: Exploring Azeroth: Kalimdor, Monte Gazlowe may have been named after Monte Krol for his work on goblins.
• His most challenging task at work is taking over the tools team and being in charge of WowEdit.
• There is an epic weapon, a rare mogu and an ogre leader sharing his name.
• Krol enjoys 3D printing, and has printed a working six-speed transmission.
• Krol has played mostly night elves ever since the game launched.
• Krol is part of Team Alliance on Azeroth Choppers, along with Chris Metzen and Terran Gregory.
• For his 20th anniversary as a Blizzard employee, he received a model treasure chest that contained "my helm" within.

• "I started playing Alliance for a rather pedestrian reason: I liked how the characters looked better than the Horde races—although I still really love how the Tauren look. I have been playing mostly Night Elves since WoW launched. My obsession with look lasted about 15 minutes, and I got hooked on the "down but not out" feel of the Alliance in the original WoW story—the nearly destroyed World Tree Nordrassil slowly recovering, the ruins of Lordaeron, and even the name of Menethil Harbor were deep emotional connection points for me with the story of the Alliance. And, of course, the most visceral connection I made was walking through the Plaguelands and encountering Uther's Tomb for the first time—remembering Uther Lightbringer and his most infamous pupil, Arthas. I guess I have a strong connection to “heroes passed.”"