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Blizzard CEO denies culture of harassment and blames unions for company problems

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Re: Blizzard CEO denies culture of harassment and blames unions for company problems

#21

Post by Thaxll »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #17
braymundo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diablo IV is shaping up to be very successful, though.

It'll probably be successful but not still-played-in-25-years successful.

Well all of their game are being played 15+ years later on, there is no reason why it won't be the case with d4.

Re: Blizzard CEO denies culture of harassment and blames unions for company problems

#22

Post by politician »

rqtwteye wrote: post #15

Seems he is setting himself up for a 100 million dollar severance package to spend more time with family

He's been at the helm for years, but yes, I agree. When the Microsoft-Activision deal was on the skids with the EU, Blizzard was quiet about this problem. However, both when the deal was announced and now that the EU has agreed to allow the sale, the harassment topic is back in the news.

I think it's deliberate.

Re: Blizzard CEO denies culture of harassment and blames unions for company problems

#23

Post by nrb »

justrealist wrote: post #6
darth_avocado wrote: post #3

I was a huge Overwatch fan. Seeing them stop development on it and announcing Overwatch 2 as a whole new game was what made me leave the game. The promise of Overwatch 2 was a story mode, a skills system, more maps and more heroes. Now after years of development and selling the game with future promises to millions of fans, all they have is cancelling PvE and skills system, and one or two heroes and maps. This is not…

> but is run by Harvard MBA types who aren’t gamers This is going to piss people off, but that's because people who sink huge portions of their spare time and energy into video games do not become CEOs. "Getting high on your own supply" doesn't set you up for professional exceptionalism.

I’ll be charitable and grant that you’re likely talking about a very specific type of CEO who ends up at a very specific type of game studio; usually one that stopped caring about the quality of the games that it produces and instead envisions the studio as a financial engineering play.

Elsewhere, there are plenty of game studios that have product-focused CEOs who are gamers and care deeply about creating memorable experiences, with the playtime to prove it.

Re: Blizzard CEO denies culture of harassment and blames unions for company problems

#24

Post by legosexmagic »

justrealist wrote: post #6
darth_avocado wrote: post #3

I was a huge Overwatch fan. Seeing them stop development on it and announcing Overwatch 2 as a whole new game was what made me leave the game. The promise of Overwatch 2 was a story mode, a skills system, more maps and more heroes. Now after years of development and selling the game with future promises to millions of fans, all they have is cancelling PvE and skills system, and one or two heroes and maps. This is not…

> but is run by Harvard MBA types who aren’t gamers This is going to piss people off, but that's because people who sink huge portions of their spare time and energy into video games do not become CEOs. "Getting high on your own supply" doesn't set you up for professional exceptionalism.

thats a very complicated way to say "i dont like young people"

Re: Blizzard CEO denies culture of harassment and blames unions for company problems

#25

Post by tracerbulletx »

darth_avocado wrote: post #3

I was a huge Overwatch fan. Seeing them stop development on it and announcing Overwatch 2 as a whole new game was what made me leave the game. The promise of Overwatch 2 was a story mode, a skills system, more maps and more heroes. Now after years of development and selling the game with future promises to millions of fans, all they have is cancelling PvE and skills system, and one or two heroes and maps. This is not…

I believe in business when it's defined as a large group of people coordinating incentives to achieve huge things that can't be achieved by small groups, I understand that aligning these incentives, and fund raising, and leadership are real and important jobs. I'm in awe that we can pull off the global shipping infrastructure, and that we can build power plants, and offshore oil wells, and these AAA games with so much art and technical innovation that the mind spins. But it is inarguable that there is a ubiquitous layer of parasitical filth lying and manipulating and strategizing how to capture value out of this system while systematically destroying the health of many of these organizations and pretending they are actually making them better.

Re: Blizzard CEO denies culture of harassment and blames unions for company problems

#26

Post by interlinked »

tmpz22 wrote: post #8
darth_avocado wrote: post #3

I was a huge Overwatch fan. Seeing them stop development on it and announcing Overwatch 2 as a whole new game was what made me leave the game. The promise of Overwatch 2 was a story mode, a skills system, more maps and more heroes. Now after years of development and selling the game with future promises to millions of fans, all they have is cancelling PvE and skills system, and one or two heroes and maps. This is not…

* Announce Overwatch 2 * Stop all updates for 3 years - including balance updates * Announce this is necessary for PvE rewrite * Release Overwatch 2 without PvE with f2p Battlepass monetization model - change to 5v5 instead of 6v6 * Shut down all Overwatch 1 servers with the release of OW2 * Announce PvE is cancelled

What even is the point of balance updates?

Re: Blizzard CEO denies culture of harassment and blames unions for company problems

#27

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

interlinked wrote: post #26
tmpz22 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Announce Overwatch 2 * Stop all updates for 3 years - including balance updates * Announce this is necessary for PvE rewrite * Release Overwatch 2 without PvE with f2p Battlepass monetization model - change to 5v5 instead of 6v6 * Shut down all Overwatch 1 servers with the release of OW2 * Announce PvE is cancelled

What even is the point of balance updates?

Keeps the game fresh. If the game changes it gives people a reason to want to play again to figure out new combinations. Otherwise the meta gets set and it never changes and that gets old quickly.

Re: Blizzard CEO denies culture of harassment and blames unions for company problems

#29

Post by LaundroMat »

ortusdux wrote: post #12
darth_avocado wrote: post #3

I was a huge Overwatch fan. Seeing them stop development on it and announcing Overwatch 2 as a whole new game was what made me leave the game. The promise of Overwatch 2 was a story mode, a skills system, more maps and more heroes. Now after years of development and selling the game with future promises to millions of fans, all they have is cancelling PvE and skills system, and one or two heroes and maps. This is not…

> Harvard MBA Types Steve Jobs: "It turns out the same thing can happen in technology companies that get monopolies, like IBM or Xerox. If you were a product person at IBM or Xerox, so you make a better copier or computer. So what? When you have monopoly market share, the company's not any more successful. So the people that can make the company more successful are sales and marketing people, and they end up running…

That last line is what a true marketeer should want, and by extension, good marketeers are good product people because they understand what the market needs and wants.

Re: Blizzard CEO denies culture of harassment and blames unions for company problems

#30

Post by karmakaze »

djbusby wrote: post #5

Frustrating when a CEO blames a nebulous "bogeyman" for their problems. What a low-effort deflection. Do you even root-cause analysis bro? gitgud

After reading the title a couple times, I was able to parse it to mean that the blame is placed such, because the company problem is seen as the exposure of, rather than actual happenings. If so, they are the problem.
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