Financialization ruins everything. Who'd've fucking thought...
Blizzard's reputation collapsed in just three years
101–110 of 230 posts
Re: Blizzard's reputation collapsed in just three years
#102I'm not under an illusion that it does any good, but I swore off all Blizzard products after the Blitzchung incident. It doesn't feel right giving money to a company that would side with the CCP over human rights in Hong Kong. I'd previously played Hearthstone and Overwatch, and I'd been a Blizzard fan since the original Warcraft. That happy company is dead, and something ugly is animating its corpse. I think company…
> Does anyone know why this happens? I think it's because of incentives. For-profit companies are incentivised to maximise profits. There might be resistance against doing so in unethical ways at the start but as the company grows it becomes harder to control until eventually it just does whatever is most profitable, limited only by laws (most of the time). Any CSR or ethical decision becomes a PR stunt to distract f…
It's almost like there might be some inherent problem with running everything through profit motives...
Re: Blizzard's reputation collapsed in just three years
#103I'm not under an illusion that it does any good, but I swore off all Blizzard products after the Blitzchung incident. It doesn't feel right giving money to a company that would side with the CCP over human rights in Hong Kong. I'd previously played Hearthstone and Overwatch, and I'd been a Blizzard fan since the original Warcraft. That happy company is dead, and something ugly is animating its corpse. I think company…
I think that's how you get to the top of an organization (besides creating it like a founder). You have to be a pretty cold individual, and it's not about making games or Coca Cola. It's about consolidating your power as you rise to the top of a large corporation and build people who are loyal to you. These guys have no vision about what a new game should be like. They want to get bigger, they WANT to make bigger deals and bigger markets. That's why they want to open up into China at all costs.
Re: Blizzard's reputation collapsed in just three years
#104Blizzards reputation has been going downhill since the merge with Activision. Some of my veteran WoW friends returned with the release of classic and TBC classic, but no one stayed for long. Blizzard has been destroying all of their franchises WoW - convoluted imbalanced hot mess Diablo - repetitive. Diablo immortal. Warcraft III - buggy and laggy steaming pile of undelivered promises Overwatch - imbalanced. Overwatc…
> Overwatch - imbalanced. Overwatch 2 with weird changes
As a counterpoint, IMO OW is in the most balanced place it ever has been now. A lot of it has to do with the making of OW2, which has meant no new heroes, but still I do think the OW team has done excellent work with competitive balance recently. This is reflected in the most diverse hero selections ever in Overwatch League (pretty much making hero bans there obsolete).
OW2 PvE and PvP 5v5 from what we know to me seem both to be good plans and can make the game huge again – or not. Depends on the execution.
Re: Blizzard's reputation collapsed in just three years
#105I'm not under an illusion that it does any good, but I swore off all Blizzard products after the Blitzchung incident. It doesn't feel right giving money to a company that would side with the CCP over human rights in Hong Kong. I'd previously played Hearthstone and Overwatch, and I'd been a Blizzard fan since the original Warcraft. That happy company is dead, and something ugly is animating its corpse. I think company…
> Does anyone know why this happens? I think it's because of incentives. For-profit companies are incentivised to maximise profits. There might be resistance against doing so in unethical ways at the start but as the company grows it becomes harder to control until eventually it just does whatever is most profitable, limited only by laws (most of the time). Any CSR or ethical decision becomes a PR stunt to distract f…
Apple is most certainly a for-profit company yet they are going strong.
Profit is what keeps the company going. No company lasts long without some focus on profit.
Re: Blizzard's reputation collapsed in just three years
#106I'm not under an illusion that it does any good, but I swore off all Blizzard products after the Blitzchung incident. It doesn't feel right giving money to a company that would side with the CCP over human rights in Hong Kong. I'd previously played Hearthstone and Overwatch, and I'd been a Blizzard fan since the original Warcraft. That happy company is dead, and something ugly is animating its corpse. I think company…
Agreed with all of this. I'm a big fan of Blizzard products, played the original Starcraft when I was younger and still play some of the more recent games. It's blatantly obvious for a long time Blizzard has been sitting on its' laurels and not innovating. The linked article does a great job of pointing out the major Blizzard mistakes, but I'll add one more: Blizzard's storywriting ability has fallen off a cliff. I l…
Blizzard writing and storytelling has always been crap. I think expectations were just lower back then.
Re: Blizzard's reputation collapsed in just three years
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple probably gets the biggest headline because, of the four companies you listed in total, they're the biggest company.
I'm like 99% sure my Nintendo is made In Japan, or at least thats what it says on the box.
Maybe you read "designed in Japan" on the box, similar to how Apple likes to print their neat "designed in Cupertino" line on the package.
I read somewhere that 40% of all (consumer) electronic devices worldwide go through Foxconn. Pretty much everyone uses them. Don't see a proud "made in USA" or something like that on the website? Foxconn, most likely.
Re: Blizzard's reputation collapsed in just three years
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Does anyone know why this happens? I think it's because of incentives. For-profit companies are incentivised to maximise profits. There might be resistance against doing so in unethical ways at the start but as the company grows it becomes harder to control until eventually it just does whatever is most profitable, limited only by laws (most of the time). Any CSR or ethical decision becomes a PR stunt to distract f…
It's almost like there might be some inherent problem with running everything through profit motives...
There definitely is. However, we must remember that we are enjoying a standard of living unimaginable only a few hundred years ago.
I think the system has some inherent flaws, but it has still served us extremely well.
Re: Blizzard's reputation collapsed in just three years
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Does anyone know why this happens? Oh it's easy to explain. Steve Jobs said it best [1]. He talks about innovation at Pepsi being a new bottle. That's what Activision Blizzard is. They have a "monopoly" with their key franchises, most notably CoD and WoW. They just release a new "bottle" every 1-2 years. Game studios are a bit like a large film studio. They don't like the creative process. It's too unpredictable. T…
I think you’re more explaining what happens than why it happens. Personally I know every project or initiative I’ve pushed for is because I have a vision of how things should be . When I give up the reigns to someone else, usually they’re just doing it because they have to. There’s no replacement for passion.
Once an organization has grown to multiple layers of management the people on top will eventually become those who are good at climbing the ladder.
How we choose our leaders is IMHO one of the most important problems we yet don’t really understand. It’s partly a function of how we structure our organizations.
Re: Blizzard's reputation collapsed in just three years
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also because almost every other tech company (Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, etc.) make their products at the exact same Foxconn factories. Apple just gets the biggest headline.
I don't see how that absolves Apple. Apple gets the bigger headline because of their claim to support environmentalism and human rights.
It doesn’t absolve Apple but it explains why the headlines don’t stick. There is nothing unique about Apple in this regard and they don’t claim to make the phones anywhere else. Who makes their products are made isn’t even part of their corporate messaging.