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Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

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Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#181

Post by [deleted] »

postalrat wrote: post #130
0x500x79 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The video game company I worked at was a disaster of spaghetti code that was written by engine developers/jack-of-all-trade developers with no semblance of caring about maintainability. Every milestone was a new disaster of tech debt that was built upon the foundation of previous tech debt. It was difficult to hire new grades or less experienced developers because the cost to train them in the custom frameworks, infr…

If it's so had to train in new people it sounds like you already have a spaghetti code problem. You might want to get an outsider to take a look at your custom frameworks, infrastructure, and other technologies to see what can be done to straighten that out.

[deleted]

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#182

Post by andrewzah »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #158
madamelic wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is the DFEH out of line, or is the industry just that broken? No chance DEFH is out of line. The tech industry is strongly biased in the favor of white men in my opinion and video games even more so, considering women playing video games only became socially acceptable a few years ago. It's still common for men to talk down to women on video games, to the point where the overwhelming majority of women do not use vo…

> considering women playing video games only became socially acceptable a few years ago. ... In Saudi Arabia? > It's still common for men to talk down to women on video games, to the point where the overwhelming majority of women do not use voice comms or make their gender known. It's common for men to talk down to men on video games too ("talk down to" is a very mild phrasing). Turns out there are a lot of jerks who…

"it's common for men to talk down to men on video games too"

This is very tone deaf.

I have spent probably thousands of hours playing games (with a mic) and the % of times I've been "talked down to" is very small, and it was never because of a natural property about me (that I'm male, etc).

Literally every woman that I've played with who has used a mic or otherwise presented themselves as female has faced vitriolic harassment (and/or sexual harassment) for no reason other than that they were female. I've been in lobbies with them and suddenly see men becoming -far- more judgemental and critical about the female player's ability/skill than usual. This is why a lot of women don't use mics at all or otherwise identify themselves as female in online games.

The "talking down" (or just general random toxicity) that men sometimes face from other male players is not even remotely comparable.

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#183

Post by soverycool »

oceanghost wrote: post #168
madamelic wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is the DFEH out of line, or is the industry just that broken? No chance DEFH is out of line. The tech industry is strongly biased in the favor of white men in my opinion and video games even more so, considering women playing video games only became socially acceptable a few years ago. It's still common for men to talk down to women on video games, to the point where the overwhelming majority of women do not use vo…

Please don't conflate "white men" with these assholes. I'm so tired of being blamed for the behavior of folks with the same genitalia/skin color as me.

It's acceptable racism for this person to say something so abhorrent.

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#184

Post by himinlomax »

madamelic wrote: post #21
0x500x79 wrote: post #13

This seems to largely match a lot of the same things that happened with Riot Games over the last couple of years. I am hoping that these actions can help spread awareness of any issues that may be present at Blizzard and past, current, and future employees won't face the same issues. It is a long road to be traveled to get there. I hope that the current WFH situation doesn't detract from the walkout. A lot of the vis…

> is the DFEH out of line, or is the industry just that broken? No chance DEFH is out of line. The tech industry is strongly biased in the favor of white men in my opinion and video games even more so, considering women playing video games only became socially acceptable a few years ago. It's still common for men to talk down to women on video games, to the point where the overwhelming majority of women do not use vo…

> It's still common for men to talk down to women on video game

I only play games where you can't tell anyone's sex (Starcraft 2 for instance) and you get insulted all the time. You get insulted when you're playing badly, you get insulted when you're playing too well, you get insulted whether you're a man, a woman or a dog.

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#185

Post by Kiro »

postalrat wrote: post #130
0x500x79 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The video game company I worked at was a disaster of spaghetti code that was written by engine developers/jack-of-all-trade developers with no semblance of caring about maintainability. Every milestone was a new disaster of tech debt that was built upon the foundation of previous tech debt. It was difficult to hire new grades or less experienced developers because the cost to train them in the custom frameworks, infr…

If it's so had to train in new people it sounds like you already have a spaghetti code problem. You might want to get an outsider to take a look at your custom frameworks, infrastructure, and other technologies to see what can be done to straighten that out.

In what industry do you work where spaghetti code is not the norm?

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#186

Post by joe-collins »

sandworm101 wrote: post #177

Appeal to public opinion is generally a great idea but there is a risk. Activision gets no sympathy from me, but I also don't think the answer will come from the masses. I'm not sure that most gamers really care about sexism in the gaming industry. Video games are synthetic, we don't really see the people behind them. At least in movies we see the actors. If push comes to shove, I think most gamers will still be lini…

I have been playing WoW since the first year, and the developers have my full support.

I know several current and former Team 2 (WoW) developers, from QA up to leads, and they are all unified in their rejection of their executives.

And I live nearby, so I'll be joining them on the pavement tomorrow.

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#187

Post by howaboutnope »

madamelic wrote: post #21
0x500x79 wrote: post #13

This seems to largely match a lot of the same things that happened with Riot Games over the last couple of years. I am hoping that these actions can help spread awareness of any issues that may be present at Blizzard and past, current, and future employees won't face the same issues. It is a long road to be traveled to get there. I hope that the current WFH situation doesn't detract from the walkout. A lot of the vis…

> is the DFEH out of line, or is the industry just that broken? No chance DEFH is out of line. The tech industry is strongly biased in the favor of white men in my opinion and video games even more so, considering women playing video games only became socially acceptable a few years ago. It's still common for men to talk down to women on video games, to the point where the overwhelming majority of women do not use vo…

When was it ever not "socially acceptable" for women to play video games, what society is that referring to?

edit: I'll assume this is about the US then. At any rate, my earliest memories of playing video games with female friends go back to the 1980s, and I don't recall a single moment where that wasn't "socially acceptable".

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#188

Post by dzonga »

across all industries, workers keep getting shafted n abused. reason, why worker protections are weak. it could be warehouse work at PepsiCo where they just 'won' to work 72 hours a week instead of '84'. it could be the game industry where females are driven to commit suicide.

because the corporation comes first. however, no actionable changes will come anytime soon, since corporations have politicians in their pockets. and the plebs are told behave and you'll join the owning class.

working at a fAAng doesn't mean you know have power over the senator like Zuckerburg does.

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#189

Post by leetcrew »

Daishiman wrote: post #68
908B64B197 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The tech industry is strongly biased in the favor of white men That's debatable. CS was overwhelmingly male and wasn't prestigious until recently. > video games even more so I wonder how much of that we can attribute to DOOM. The DOOM devs wanted to make an hyper-violent game centered around Demon and heavy metal, and that reflected in the culture at id (not the violence). And they made a bunch of money which spurr…

> That's debatable. CS was overwhelmingly male and wasn't prestigious until recently. We're talking about the same career that's been known as a money-printing machine for the past 25 years?

known by whom? I got halfway through my CS degree before I realized software paid significantly better than other STEM work, and I'm in my twenties. my parents weren't convinced it wasn't all a waste of time until I showed them my first offer letter.

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#190

Post by unsigner »

munk-a wrote: post #142
TameAntelope wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would, "Blizzard is done" look like? Are you suggesting that the IP (Overwatch, Warcraft, Starcraft) would be shut down, all employees laid off or incorporated into Activisions other departments? I could not imagine any business abandoning billions of dollars of IP like that.

We're almost guaranteed to see a shift to mobile games. HotS on mobile, Warcraft4 as a freemium mobile "strategy game" - ditto with SC3. They may occasionally sink cash into large PC primary titles but I think mobile is going to be the way they milk that cow from here on out.

But this is the sensible thing to do, talent leaving or not. A universe where Blizzard shifts to mobile because of business reasons is indistinguishable from a universe where Blizzard shifts to mobile because "everyone left", so your hypothesis isn't falsifiable.
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