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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

#51

Post by mehlmao »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #14
monopolyofpain wrote: post #9

CEOs should realize that firing and paying a settlement to bad apples is cheaper than letting them pollute the atmosphere

Bad attitudes are way more contagious than a lot of people realize. Just having one person with a bad attitude and resentment to their employer can spread to 5-10 people if they're influential enough.

Maybe people wouldn't resent their employer if their employer did something about the people stealing breast milk, or if they actually took action against the managers sexually assaulting women in the "Cosby Suite".

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

#52

Post by rollcat »

streakfix wrote: post #41
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not necessarily. For instance rocket league was released in 2015 and hasn't gotten any such update since 2017. If the base is solid the players can spend their time mastering what they are given and over time it grows on you. Imagine chess buffing up the pawn and nerfing the bishop.

> For instance rocket league was released in 2015 and hasn't gotten any such update since 2017.

StarCraft 1 has had no balance updates in over 20 years, and the game is doing great.

StarCraft 2 has had no balance updates for like a year or two, and it was slowly killing the joy of the game for everyone who bothered to suffer through it.

StarCraft 2 was designed to be a game where the meta has to be shaken up occasionally; StarCraft 1 ended up more like chess: if you tweak a rule once in a century (or the Internet-equivalent of a century), it's big news.

Different games, different needs.

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

#53

Post by quadcore »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #40
quadcore wrote: post #28

It's to note that Michael Morhaime, one of the founder of the company who was CEO for decades isnt involved with the company anymore. He was one of the geniuses that made blizzard what blizzard was.

For good or ill. Morhaime was also head of the company when a lot of the harassment went down.

When this happened and it happened late in the history of the company, they were hoarded by Activision's people already. Morhaime kept the company from the usual bosos for as long as he could, but he had sold shares in the early days so it was only a matter of time before his dream haven would fall to evil.

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

#54

Post by justaman »

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.

Gabe Newell

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

#55

Post by RobotToaster »

fpesce wrote: post #13

Remarkable, isn't it? Blizzard's knack for consistently managing to misalign their PR strategy with big launch events like Diablo IV is almost as intricate as their game design. There's an unexpected plot twist even George R.R. Martin would be envious of. It's almost as if they've transposed their in-game narratives into their corporate affairs, with similar plot tension and dramatic arcs. One might argue that the co…

Putting my tinfoil hat on, maybe they know the game is terrible, so they do it on purpose so fewer people talk about how terrible it is?

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

#57

Post by Macha »

rollcat wrote: post #52
streakfix wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. For instance rocket league was released in 2015 and hasn't gotten any such update since 2017. If the base is solid the players can spend their time mastering what they are given and over time it grows on you. Imagine chess buffing up the pawn and nerfing the bishop.

> For instance rocket league was released in 2015 and hasn't gotten any such update since 2017. StarCraft 1 has had no balance updates in over 20 years, and the game is doing great. StarCraft 2 has had no balance updates for like a year or two, and it was slowly killing the joy of the game for everyone who bothered to suffer through it. StarCraft 2 was designed to be a game where the meta has to be shaken up occasion…

Nah, Starcraft 1 just ended up pushing balancing to the tournaments and map designers. If you tried playing it on the last Blizzard maps from the original run of Brood War, it's a questionably balanced game.

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

#58

Post by justrealist »

legosexmagic wrote: post #24
justrealist wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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"

I like young people a lot!

Which is why I think we should massively restrict the amount of digital poison corporations are allowed to pump into their veins.

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

#59

Post by streakfix »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #46
streakfix wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. For instance rocket league was released in 2015 and hasn't gotten any such update since 2017. If the base is solid the players can spend their time mastering what they are given and over time it grows on you. Imagine chess buffing up the pawn and nerfing the bishop.

Fair enough, though I'd suggest that rocket league has many fewer gauges to fiddle with than Overwatch. It's always symmetrical fields and 5 different car types, right?

There is steering sensitivity, car speed, ball speed, car mass, car power, boost strength, shooting power, jump height. All those variables have been finalized. What I'm saying is that balance patches are a band aid over the core problem.
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