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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

#61

Post by BowBun »

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.

I think the comparison doesn't work because the composition of the teams doesn't change based on character choice. The interplay of the characters, and inherent strengths and weaknesses of each one create a dynamic metagame that games like MOBAs and Overwatch change to keep things fresh.

For games like Rocket League, CSGO, Overwatch, Apex, etc. The teams are even no matter what (skill aside). Meta still exists however, as anyone who has played multiple years of any of these games sees. Expected attacks, combos, and preferred approaches change over time as people discover weaknesses to the existing metagame and exploit them.

Not to say Rocket League has vastly changed in the last 8 years (I've played for 5 of them), but it's definitely different and a little updated.

Edit: Not to mention Rocket League rotates special game modes regularly for this purpose as well.

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

#62

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#63

Post by morelisp »

orwin wrote: post #37
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.

I'm pretty sure the Gullemot brothers still play their own games, heard that Yves played some rainbow 6 siege or something, and while I hate Ubisoft games quality and only ever bought one, he seems way more professional than whoever the Blizzard CEO is.

Yves covered for Maxime Béland's and Serge Hascoët's sexual abuses for decades.

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

#64

Post by BlueTemplar »

RobotToaster wrote: post #55
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?

It isn't though. And we are verrrry far away from Diablo 3's state on release. (Even if servers have trouble today and in 4 days.)

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

#65

Post by bee_rider »

RobotToaster wrote: post #55
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?

I only skimmed a couple reviews but the impression I got it that it is a fun, mechanically solid game, with a pretty good antagonist but a lackluster overall world/plot.

This is 2023 Activision/Blizzard, nobody expects them to revolutionize anything. They’ve got fans already and they/we (I like their games but am not a fan of their corporate culture, so, not sure if I count as a fan anymore—was really hoping they’d managed to root out the shitty behavior) know what the idea of a Diablo game is. A well mechanically decent Diablo is the bar, and it sounds like they’ve probably passed it.

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

#66

Post by aqme28 »

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…

> This is a company that has excellent game dev talent

I'm inclined to believe that the incredible talent that used to be at Blizzard is long gone by now. Most of the original devs have their own studios or work at other companies by now.

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

#67

Post by [deleted] »

Macha wrote: post #36
Thaxll wrote: post #20

The title should be changed, it's Activision Blizzard not Blizzard CEO.

This is not just a pedantic argument, Blizzard CEO on its own will lead to a significant number of people assuming a different person, Mike Ybarra, Blizzard's President.

[deleted]

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

#68

Post by stickfigure »

meibo wrote: post #42
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…

> It's almost as if they've transposed their in-game narratives into their corporate affairs, with similar plot tension and dramatic arcs. Funny you say that, a writer at Blizzard just got fired for writing a satirical "greedy CEO" character, after a high-level executive played that part of the game: https://twitter.com/covingtown/status/1663998815458951168

That seems hard to believe at face value. Maybe there's another side to this story?

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

#69

Post by [deleted] »

streakfix wrote: post #59
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#70

Post by vkou »

Macha wrote: post #57
rollcat wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

You are correct. Map design has a dramatic impact on the balance of BW - and as the game develops, and certain matchups become more or less one-sided, tournaments adjust their map pools.
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