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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

#481

Post by muffinman26 »

UnpossibleJim wrote: post #354
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking from experience, the “culture” at Microsoft and Google (at least) definitely varies more between teams and divisions than between those two companies on-the-whole.

Fair enough. Nadella's hard push for the return is curious to me (I'm in the Seattle area, and close-ish to the campus with quite a few friends who work in a single team, so I'm a bit myopic, I suppose). They all seem to do well remotely, and I do also. I probably do work less hours, on the whole, but I produce more... so I dunno how that factors in. I can't speak to their quality of work, though.

I'd be curious to see how the productivity data working remotely scales out for people at different levels. As a new college hire I found that both working in the office and open offices improved my productivity, often explicitly at the expense of productivity for more experienced developers (because they were spending time answering my questions).

In the short term, it would be better for the more experienced developers to be more productive, because their time was worth more, but eventually the experienced developers will leave. If new people aren't trained to replace them fast enough, the system becomes unsustainable.

There are several other areas where eliminating certain activities provides short-term productivity gains at the expense of long-term cohesion. All hands meetings about company direction can be delayed for a month with no negative impact, but if I skip all large company meetings for a year I'd have a much harder time prioritizing tasks (it's unclear which contribute directly to the company's long-term plans and which are busy work) and no idea how to route serious issue only tangentially related to my team.

It's entirely possible there's a looming but currently well-hidden pipeline issue companies are anticipating and trying to avoid.

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

#482

Post by ttyS1 »

0x500x79 wrote: post #325
ttyS1 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2K, Disney, Niantic, Unity, WB, Roblox, Marvel are some others that are CA based that I can name off the top of my head. The parent post does make a decent job of pointing out that it's pretty rotten, from the top to the bottom. The players at the bottom are terribly toxic, the C-levels are allegedly just as bad. I am curious if this is more about culture - I would imagine EA and Niantic for example to have a relativ…

I think Roblox is as big based on revenue, Unity has a very different development model, but the others seem a lot smaller than Riot/Activision-Blizzard. My point about the C-Levels is that it is primarily 1 C-level who is being spoken about: The COO. While there was an allegation against the CEO earlier this year, it was found to be unsubstantiated and thrown out because the claimant was proved to have stolen money/…

I can't find anything about "thrown out because the claimant was proved to have stolen money/scammed Riot and falsified the claim"; the closest was Wired in March ('The three-person special committee, a part of Riot’s board of directors, is made up of Youngme Moon, a professor at Harvard Business School and the only publicly-named member of Riot Games’s board. She is joined by two male C-Level executives at the Chinese tech giant Tencent, which owns Riot Games. The company declined to name these members of the special committee.', which seems really one-sided)

I'll agree on Unity, apples to oranges, but 2K/T2 as a company is 3b revenue. EA is 5.5b revenue. Nexon is ~3b revenue. FrontOfficeSports and several other sites says League of Legends property was 1.75b for 2020 - both Niantic and Roblox exceed that as single games. Disney and Lucasgames are massive. Why aren't these lined up for DFEH suits or repeatedly being complained about by ex employees?

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

#483

Post by devwastaken »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #241
devwastaken wrote: post #37

A 50 man raid group forming outside Blizzard to take on the final boss, blizzard management. No king rules forever, my son.

Remember the line that follows: "Control must be maintained. There must always be a Lich King."

Sylvanas straight up removed the lich king from existence, so that one was a lie lol.

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

#484

Post by tolbish »

borodi wrote: post #388
Beached wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure, the numbers on twitch don't even scratch the number of unique individuals who own consoles / buy games.

Atleast inside the mmo community streamers are very relevant. On the start of july a famous streamer started playing FFXIV and look at google trends https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%2Fm%2F064ln09

Are people within the streaming community considered "average gamers"? Would the average gamer even care anout streamers?

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

#485

Post by nineplay »

dougmwne wrote: post #477
nineplay wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You bring up the really interesting question - is discrimination justified? If it makes the team better, if it makes the product better, if it makes the company better, then maybe the right thing to do is hire the fun white guy instead of the boring brown girl. If people believe that, then I'll only ask that they acknowledge it. Next time someone talks about gender disparity or race disparity, stand up and say "Yep,…

I think there is a much more valid reason if people were being absolutely honest. Powerful and privileged people have spent generations spilling blood and other less violent measures to get on top and stay on top. Being on top only happens through threat of force and excercise of power. The people at the bottom will replace the people at the top if presented with the opportunity. Even if most people are content to li…

You make very good points - sometimes the best discussions are well down in the comments.

Currently, while men hold the majority of the economic and political power in the US. From a purely Machiavellian viewpoint, why should they hire anyone besides other white men? They only stand to lose if business and politics become more egalitarian.

What's changed in the past century or so is that it can no longer appear blatant - "we're better because we say so" isn't cutting it anymore. Still - maybe given a chance a lot of them will find a way to hire each other. "Team culture" is as good an excuse as any.

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

#486

Post by pmarreck »

brazzy wrote: post #104
pmarreck wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: Guys often "rib" each other, it's part of the culture among males. When you throw women into the mix and they get "ribbed" (perhaps for being "one of the guys," as it were) does this often become sexual harassment? Perhaps the culture of "ribbing" needs to go away for everyone, or at least from the workplace, but it has always been the case for me that a close friend or acquaintance typically only "r…

> That is why the definition of ribbing is "good-natured teasing". The problem is that there may not in fact be anything "good-natured" about it - on both sides - yet the culture forces the recipient to act like it is or they will be punished. In other words: the only way in which that kind of thing is not toxic is when a recipient can at any time say "that's not funny, stop it!", and the reaction will be a sincere a…

Literally my entire 80's high school experience is peppered with instances (at a constant rate) of being ribbed and being unable to say "that's not funny, stop it!" because it "wasn't cool".

Are you saying my entire generation grew up in toxicity?

I mean... It's entirely possible, even if it seemed more innocent at the time.

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

#487

Post by pmarreck »

arsome wrote: post #71
pmarreck wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: Guys often "rib" each other, it's part of the culture among males. When you throw women into the mix and they get "ribbed" (perhaps for being "one of the guys," as it were) does this often become sexual harassment? Perhaps the culture of "ribbing" needs to go away for everyone, or at least from the workplace, but it has always been the case for me that a close friend or acquaintance typically only "r…

Eh... take a look at some of the shit that was reported in the lawsuits, seems a lot worse than mis-interpreted "ribbing".

See the note at the end of my comment

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

#488

Post by pmarreck »

fleddr wrote: post #458
andrewzah wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, those are a bit more nuanced. As noted in the sibling comment, part of this is also coming across as someone who listens when people voice their concerns. For the dress issue, it really just depends on the context and your relationship with the person. If it's your -friend- who you actually know makes custom dresses as a hobby, why would they be upset at a (genuine) compliment? My friends who pay attention to cl…

"Idiots ruin things for everyone else." I think that sums it up nicely, and indeed was my main point. The female engineer we've worked with on a daily basis for years, in a very friendly, cooperative and relaxed team. So very far from a stranger to us. She's one of us, basically. I'd agree that it would be incredibly unlikely that if we did make that compliment, anything bad would happen. But the fact that all five o…

> They wanted it, they didn't want the muddied down overly protective version

At some point it becomes an exercise in futility to try to separate (in a way that 99% of everyone will accept) honest criticism of a woman's work by a man, from "mansplaining", and that to me is the problem

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

#489

Post by pmarreck »

mempko wrote: post #126
pmarreck wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: Guys often "rib" each other, it's part of the culture among males. When you throw women into the mix and they get "ribbed" (perhaps for being "one of the guys," as it were) does this often become sexual harassment? Perhaps the culture of "ribbing" needs to go away for everyone, or at least from the workplace, but it has always been the case for me that a close friend or acquaintance typically only "r…

Would you have preferred no ribbing? I think most people, including men, would.

I would have preferred some lighthearted ribbing. Again, it can be interpreted as a sign of intimacy. I don't know how else to explain it. One of my best friends actually ribs me a lot. And because I am self-confident and candid, I can take it.

Heck, my significant other and I rib each other plenty. We know each others' strengths and weaknesses. It is arguable that being fine with some ribbing is proof of comfortableness with oneself and a lack of insecurity.

But, yes, people like you exist. I once teased a former boss for his fear of puppies (yes, puppies. Not just "dogs"... Puppies) by playing a prank where some puppies barked from behind his desk. He jumped. It did not fly very well. Actually, in hindsight, perhaps don't tease your boss, even if you think you're on good terms with them...

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

#490

Post by pmarreck »

ben_w wrote: post #193
pmarreck wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: Guys often "rib" each other, it's part of the culture among males. When you throw women into the mix and they get "ribbed" (perhaps for being "one of the guys," as it were) does this often become sexual harassment? Perhaps the culture of "ribbing" needs to go away for everyone, or at least from the workplace, but it has always been the case for me that a close friend or acquaintance typically only "r…

What do you mean by “ribbing”? Especially in the context of your military culture (about which my entire knowledge comes from hoping the fiction I read was based on more than imagination)?

rib·bing /ˈribiNG/

noun: ribbing

    1.
    a riblike structure or pattern, especially a band of knitting in rib.
    "a fleecy sweatshirt with ribbing at neck, cuffs, and hem"
    2.
    informal
    good-natured teasing.
    "he took a good deal of ribbing with the utmost good humor"
I refer to the 2nd definition
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