Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday • Hacker News Board

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

#431

Post by void_mint » Tue, Jul 27, 2021, 9:57 PM UTC

TameAntelope wrote: post #327

dleslie wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like I said, I work in the industry. I've worked on several projects with teams on more than one continent. The much-repeated "it'll slow down collaboration" is only a factor of how terrible your company's communication strategy was at the outset. If your company worked entirely verbally and contained little to no digital communication or memory, then you'll have a terrible time. 100% remote work makes intercontinent…

I cannot be more direct about this, it is not seamless, or even close to seamless, in general, to work across continents such as you describe. Maybe you've cracked a nut here, and we'd all benefit from your wisdom, experience, and stories, but that is not the experience most folks have working across continents or cultures.

I think this person is mostly just being self congratulatory. It's not seemless, they're a subcontractor, without being too directly disrespectful, their view is heavily skewed towards singing the praises of cheap outsourced labor.

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

#432

Post by Aeolun » Tue, Jul 27, 2021, 9:59 PM UTC

nineplay wrote: post #367

bennysomething wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if I'm hiring someone at what point am I allowed to use my own personal discretion? Am I allowed to dislike someone? Am I allowed to say I don't like them so please don't hire them?

Why don't you like them _and_ which of those reasons will affect their job performance? Do they dismiss any approaches besides their own? Do they think mentoring is a waste of time? Do they think that their code is so obvious that there's no point in documenting? Do they think their code is so perfect that unit tests are unnecessary? These are good reasons to dislike someone and not hire them. Do you dislike them bec…

> Do you dislike them because they seem kind of boring? Get over yourself.

Why’d I care about that? I only need them to write great code 8 hours a day. What they do outside of that is (mostly) irrelevant.

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

#433

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 27, 2021, 9:59 PM UTC

sangnoir wrote: post #425

yarg wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Culture fit doesn't have to stretch that far - it does not need to be pervasive and it does not need to be toxic. We had a guy from Gaza in our office - he complained about informal emails sent to invite people for drinks because it was sinful, he complained about a manikin that got dressed up at special occasions because it was immodest. I don't know what lines to draw here - but be careful when playing with double-…

He should have insinuated being a recovered alcoholic instead, that works for me when I feel I'm being unduly pressured. As someone who doesn't care for drinks, the quickest way to shut-down all that drinks-are-vital-to-our-culture talk is to declare that I used to have a problem with the drink, but I'm sober now, and watch them stammer something about the event being optional.

[deleted]

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

#434

Post by ChuckMcM » Tue, Jul 27, 2021, 10:00 PM UTC

cletus wrote: post #233

If you haven't read the state of California's claims here you should. It's the result of a two year investigation and the claims are.. shocking. I want to make a point about "culture fit". "Culture fit" in a company typically comes down to "we like you" and the reason why people like other people is that they are like them. Similar age, background, whatever. It's why Stanford grads probably like other Stanford grads.…

I agree with 98% of this :-). And it absolutely flows from the top. What is more, good leadership knows this and understands that no matter how something happened, they are responsible for it. The entire games industry however has a reputation for being "bad" at empowering good leadership.

But let's talk about 'culture' for a moment.

In my experience, the tech workers in the US make their "work" their "life" way too frequently to be healthy. What I mean by that is that they do not choose to separate their "work" life from their "non-work" life in any meaningful way. As a result the parts that would nominally be "non-work" like friendships where you travel together, or date, or share political affiliations, or other causes, are not kept separate from your "work" life.

It isn't easy. People interact on social media and at work and so if you're angrily criticizing the plight of the Palestinians on social media, your pro-Israel co-worker may bring that conflict into work with them, which make it harder to get things done. And even when you support the notion that employees are their own people and what they do in their own time is their own business, and not to bring it to work, it shows up anyway.

For a long time people have advocated to "not bring your work home." That helps you maintain family relationships because at home that is your priority. We now also have to "not bring home to work."

I am aware of the situation of an excellent engineer who lost their job because at "home" they were a supporter of the policies of an administration that many of their co-workers despised. I can assure you from my experience with this person that their technical capabilities were in no way diminished by their political preferences, and yet their company saw the "disruption" as a bigger threat than the loss of talent.

So ActiBliz really needs to be corrected here, and firmly, because they allowed a non-professional culture to emerge and flourish within their company at the expense of many of their employees. But it isn't just "bro" culture, it is any non-business culture.

It is one of the under appreciated complexities of what a good manager can overcome.

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

#435

Post by somehnacct3757 » Tue, Jul 27, 2021, 10:00 PM UTC

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…

The industry is broken. Self-identifying gamers are one of the most toxic online communities long preyed on by groups like pick-up artists and men's rights activists. The games targeting this group of self-identifying gamers have overindexed on machismo for decades. Every problem can be solved with violence and the reward is fame, money, and women. Why is there Overwatch porn and not Candy Crush porn? For marketers these gamers are fish in a barrel.

Game companies who make games for this audience rely on this audience as their talent pool because no one else will build these games on absurd timelines at great cost to every other aspect of their life. They are in effect paid in 'cool points' which matter only to those already hazed or yet-to-be-hazed.

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

#436

Post by jimmygrapes » Tue, Jul 27, 2021, 10:02 PM UTC

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #265

cletus wrote: post #233

If you haven't read the state of California's claims here you should. It's the result of a two year investigation and the claims are.. shocking. I want to make a point about "culture fit". "Culture fit" in a company typically comes down to "we like you" and the reason why people like other people is that they are like them. Similar age, background, whatever. It's why Stanford grads probably like other Stanford grads.…

I want to make a point about "culture fit". "Culture fit" in a company typically comes down to "we like you" and the reason why people like other people is that they are like them. Similar age, background, whatever. There are plenty of people who like each other that have nothing in common. The idea that the reason people like people is because they are like them just feels ridiculous to me, but maybe I am an outlier…

I have always viewed personalities as essentially waveforms, which when combined may exaggerate certain aspects, negate others, or complement them in other ways that make the resulting form more... well, pleasurable, for lack of a better word. I visualize it this way not for woowoo^1 purposes but just to make sense in my mind why some personality traits and quirks in others seem to boost parts of my own, or adjust spikes of my own personality that I view as too strong (i.e. I am generally very introverted when alone I'm a group, but a close friend who "evens out" that aspect of me can lead me to being more gregarious).

^1: it is, however, curious that similar visualizations can be found in woowoo circles

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

#437

Post by dleslie » Tue, Jul 27, 2021, 10:03 PM UTC

908B64B197 wrote: post #330

dleslie wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most folks are unaware, really. What's more, here in BC the NDP (left-leaning labour party) stripped Tech Workers of the majority of their labour rights. Not even meal breaks were saved. https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/employment-standards-a...

Interestingly, that party and the people in charge of the "tech policy" are all Indians aren't they? [0][1] It makes sense they would pitch offshoring and low cost for programming since they saw it working for their country. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagmeet_Singh [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navdeep_Bains

I doubt it has anything to do with the ethnicity of MLAs _now_ because the change happened _twenty years ago_.

That said, British Columbia has had a sizeable, and growing, Indian population since roughly around the time of joining Canada. The Komagata Maru incident[0] was the precursor to an influx of immigration from the punjab.

After English, the three most spoken languages in BC are Cantonese, Mandarin, and Punjabi[1]. The ethnic chinese population arrived in basically two waves: as early settlers during the western expansion, they were pivotal in the creation of the railways and as foundational members of small towns[2]. And then the transfer of HK to CN brought an influx.

0: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/komagata-m...

1: https://www.welcomebc.ca/Choose-B-C/Explore-British-Columbia...

2: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chinese-ca...

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

#438

Post by dleslie » Tue, Jul 27, 2021, 10:04 PM UTC

void_mint wrote: post #431

TameAntelope wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot be more direct about this, it is not seamless, or even close to seamless, in general, to work across continents such as you describe. Maybe you've cracked a nut here, and we'd all benefit from your wisdom, experience, and stories, but that is not the experience most folks have working across continents or cultures.

I think this person is mostly just being self congratulatory. It's not seemless, they're a subcontractor, without being too directly disrespectful, their view is heavily skewed towards singing the praises of cheap outsourced labor.

I haven't been a subcontractor for 7y.

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

#439

Post by jimmygrapes » Tue, Jul 27, 2021, 10:04 PM UTC

vsareto wrote: post #347

nineplay wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want to make a point about "culture fit" "culture fit" is one of the biggest causes of workplace discrimination and I still see it pushed in 'hiring training' as perfectly valid criteria. Things I've seen teams consider "culture" - will the candidate go to our weekly study session at the micro-brewery? - will the candidate stay after work to play multi-player games with us? - is the candidate entertained by all t…

What companies do those things? That actually sounds like fun. The Star Wars lingo probably gets old though. It should really be Expanse lingo if they want to stay cool.

I really doubt that listening to people try to emulate the belter language and lingo is any better than listening to jar jar impressions (or klingon...), but it's hard to be say until it happens, so... bring it on

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

#440

Post by GuB-42 » Tue, Jul 27, 2021, 10:06 PM UTC

nineplay wrote: post #310

cletus wrote: post #233

If you haven't read the state of California's claims here you should. It's the result of a two year investigation and the claims are.. shocking. I want to make a point about "culture fit". "Culture fit" in a company typically comes down to "we like you" and the reason why people like other people is that they are like them. Similar age, background, whatever. It's why Stanford grads probably like other Stanford grads.…

> I want to make a point about "culture fit" "culture fit" is one of the biggest causes of workplace discrimination and I still see it pushed in 'hiring training' as perfectly valid criteria. Things I've seen teams consider "culture" - will the candidate go to our weekly study session at the micro-brewery? - will the candidate stay after work to play multi-player games with us? - is the candidate entertained by all t…

It reminds me of an article about MDMA and fascist groups and how one leads to the other. I don't have a link, the article was terrible anyways, but the base idea, supported by scientific studies was interesting.

I don't know if a friend of yours took MDMA, but my friend told me that it is pretty much impossible to be aggressive under its influence, you can't help but love everyone. So, how can it lead to hate?

The explanation was that MDMA strengthens the bounds between people, and the closest people are within that group, the more the outside of the group is seen as a threat, a threat you have to protect your group against. Think of an aggressive mother protecting her baby.

So yes, I see how "culture fit", can lead to harmful discrimination, even when centered around positive values and topics as harmless as Star Wars and craft beer.