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Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

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Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#181

Post by anoonmoose »

Phenomenit wrote: post #165
XMPPwocky wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to feel weird about watching old DVDs of the Cosby Show, for example. With the "benefit" of context, the vibes are sort of irrevocably off.

Yet Michael Jacksons music is still played on the radio and in other media contexts.

Better comparison would be R. Kelly who, like Cosby, was actually convicted of what he was accused of, and did end up having a lot of radio stations (and other media contexts) stop using his music. Not all, but a good number.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#182

Post by afavour »

dnzkw wrote: post #168
kelnos wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand this attitude, or line of reasoning, or whatever you want to call it. Sure, if a company does something that you find reprehensible, not giving them further money (or attention) is certainly a reasonable -- and honorable! -- thing to do. But if you've already purchased a standalone[0], non-subscription product from that company, and that company doesn't gain any benefit from your further use…

It's called virtue signalling. See how virtuous this guy is, giving up the precious entertainment he already paid for a decade ago for no reason other than internet points - it's not like these girls are going to be ungroped by this guy's actions, if the allegations are to be believed.

The thing that gets me about “virtue signalling” is this built-in assumption that no one does anything earnestly, and that every action is performed according to how it’ll be received.

I just don’t believe that’s how the vast majority of people live their lives. OP did what they did because the status quo made them uncomfortable. People don’t have to be soldiers in a mythical cultural war, sometimes they’re just people. Whenever anyone invokes “virtual signalling” I think they’re inadvertently explaining a lot more of their own world view than they are anyone else’s.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#183

Post by runawaybottle »

csydas wrote: post #109
biryani_chicken wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's dystopian to see Chinese people consume American products at the expense of American workers.

Can you explain why you chose «dystopian» here? Did you maybe mean to indicate a sick irony? I want to lead off with saying I don't want __anyone__ exploited, but this more or less is what US consumers have and continue to do world wide, and I'm not sure that dystopian is the most accurate word for it. I'm not fully convinced that the original comment that Blizzard wants to sell in China is entirely accurate (there i…

I can lend some color to that. Blizzard created a modestly successful MOBA to compete with League of Legends and it just couldn’t make a dent in LoL’s Asia numbers, so they slowly put the game into maintenance mode (effectively given up on it).

Diablo Immortal is them outsourcing development of a flagship franchise to a Chinese company Netease to develop a mobile version. Netease mobile games are really big overseas. That to me is similar to Facebook outsourcing to Bytedance to make a social network with China in mind first. There’s a world of difference between having an office China and literally handing over your IP to a Chinese company. It’s a big deal.

It’s not they don’t want American’s money, everything adds to the bottom line, but China is showing itself to be bigger markets for video games (just as Hollywood is seeing that they are becoming a bigger market for movies).

It’s a very real thing, and forward decisions are being heavily influenced with that market in mind first and foremost.

Edit:

To put a final stamp on my main point, if the Chinese people were to be offended by these allegations, I can promise you Blizzard would turn the world over and rectify it over night. The same way they got John Cena to apologize in Mandarin to not fuck with the Fast and Furious release in China.

We matter very little at this point to these industries.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#184

Post by __john »

cletus wrote: post #148

The Steve Jobs quote on why Xerox failed [1] strikes again. The finance people have taken over Acti-Blizzard and they've been coasting for 10+ years on their original franchises. All we have is annual CoD releases and Blizzrad coasting on their old properties where Blizzrd hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years. This effort seems like it's part of the ruthless approach to controlling costs that slowly…

> Blizzrd hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years

A quick search tells me that Overwatch has 6M players, which seems significant.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#185

Post by throwaway2048 »

golergka wrote: post #139
danaris wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really any more a monopoly than the business itself is. The business/management is a group of people acting under a common umbrella seeking (naïvely, and oversimplifiedly) to trade the least money possible for the most production possible. The employees/union are a group of people acting under a common umbrella seeking (naïvely, and oversimplifiedly) to trade the least production possible for the most money…

If I cannot work for a company without joining a union, it is a monopoly. What if I'm a junior worker on a labour market that is saturated by more experienced and skilled workers, and lowering my rate is the only chance to make it in the industry that I have? Existing union and it's members are my natural competitors.

you also cannot work for a company without working for said company (and their management)

Are they also a monopoly?

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#186

Post by [deleted] »

afavour wrote: post #182
dnzkw wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's called virtue signalling. See how virtuous this guy is, giving up the precious entertainment he already paid for a decade ago for no reason other than internet points - it's not like these girls are going to be ungroped by this guy's actions, if the allegations are to be believed.

The thing that gets me about “virtue signalling” is this built-in assumption that no one does anything earnestly, and that every action is performed according to how it’ll be received. I just don’t believe that’s how the vast majority of people live their lives. OP did what they did because the status quo made them uncomfortable. People don’t have to be soldiers in a mythical cultural war, sometimes they’re just peop…

[deleted]

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#187

Post by LeSaucy »

__john wrote: post #184
cletus wrote: post #148

The Steve Jobs quote on why Xerox failed [1] strikes again. The finance people have taken over Acti-Blizzard and they've been coasting for 10+ years on their original franchises. All we have is annual CoD releases and Blizzrad coasting on their old properties where Blizzrd hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years. This effort seems like it's part of the ruthless approach to controlling costs that slowly…

> Blizzrd hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years A quick search tells me that Overwatch has 6M players, which seems significant.

A note that Jeff Kaplan the director of the title resigned in May. He was heavily involved from its inception and throughout the development of Overwatch 2, and was a huge part of the community.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#188

Post by res0nat0r »

pteraspidomorph wrote: post #138
dimitrios1 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a great game, but if you are concerned about Freedom in Hong Kong, Grinding Gear Games is owned by Tencent, so you are still sending money to support an authoritarian regime that is still finishing up their latest installment of ethnic cleansing and re-education camps.

So is Funcom, Riot, Epic, Miniclip... They're harder to avoid than Nestle...

Tencent has its fingers in lots of companies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent#Foreign_gaming_investm...

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#189

Post by djanogo »

cs702 wrote: post #81

Clickbait title for a highly opinonated piece that would never see the light of day in a respectable publication like the Washington Post, WSJ, NYT, Economist, etc. WilmerHale is a well-known top-100 law firm with a long history -- it's definitely not a "notorious union-busting firm." I'm flagging this story because it doesn't belong on the front page of HN, IMHO.

"respectable publication like the Washington Post, WSJ, NYT, Economist, etc" I am not sure if you are being /s.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#190

Post by nemo44x »

biryani_chicken wrote: post #58
runawaybottle wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don’t really care that much about the American market anymore really. Something like 90% of League of Legends players are in China. The mobile gaming market is massive over there, hence Diablo Immortal. China does not care about the West’s uproar over most things. Blizzard does not care if you buy Diablo 4, they care if the East buys Diablo 4 and Diablo Immortal.

It's dystopian to see Chinese people consume American products at the expense of American workers.

It's amazing that they're actually paying for them.
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