23 ms·

Some Blizzard employees are dreading BlizzCon

374 points by partingshots 7y ago

backtoyoujim 7y ago
good and good. a lot of the blizzard developer interactions with players at blizzcon has been the developers acting like condescending, down-talking jerks to players during q&a. let's see those egos take what they like to dish out.
- loktarogar 7y ago
  there's thousands of devs/staff at blizzard, not just the handful that interact with the public.
  - jeffdavis 7y ago
    So why don't they walk out of work until Bizzard makes a change?
    - loktarogar 7y ago
      put yourself in their shoes. you're in the games industry, so your pay isn't fantastic but you're doing what you love. say this is the issue that makes you want to walk out. you'd have to accept that this might mean losing not only your dream job, but a job full-stop - games is a very competitive industry and you might have a long period of unemployment. this would have to be a "I would give up my career in the games industry for this" issue. it is for some. it's not for others.
      - jeffdavis 7y ago
        What's the alternative? It's not like Blizzard has given any meaningful apology or done anything to remedy the situation. All customers can do is boycott and protest. Nothing else will cause any change in behavior. Unfortunately, employees will be hurt in the process. Wouldn't it be better for employees to stage a big moment now, force Blizzard to backpedal, and resume being a game company sooner? A long, drawn out thing is worse for everyone.
        loktarogar 7y ago
        > What's the alternative? keep working, hope that blizzard reverses course. this is the first seriously backwards move in 30 years of the company afaik. quitting immediately isn't the answer to your average employee. and please reread what I wrote. I know many blizzard employees. as much as it hurts them to see what their company did, quitting simply can't be an option to them. not in a massive immediate show of support. not everyone can afford to be political.
        jeffdavis 7y ago
        A "walk out" is a form of protest that doesn't mean quitting. It does risk being fired, but the risk is pretty low in this case.
        loktarogar 7y ago
        A walk out when half their colleagues got let go earlier this year is pretty risky.
creaghpatr 7y ago
>“BlizzCon is sort of like the Christmas of Blizzard,” one staffer said. More like the Singles Day of Blizzard now.
w-j-w 7y ago
As someone who likes watching public events go horribly wrong, I have never been so excited for a videogame convention.
- jplayer01 7y ago
  Same here. I'm prepared to be sorely disappointed though. They're going to clamp down hard on people (although, this might even lead to a bigger storm).
  - diggan 7y ago
    > They're going to clamp down hard on people How hard can they clamp down really? Have a peaceful protest outside the venue in public and there is nothing they can do. (I'm assuming you have freedom of assembly and right to protest in the US)
    - save_ferris 7y ago
      Given their history of banning pro players for their speech, seeing more of these bans for high-profile members of the community who participate doesn't seem farfetched.
      - diggan 7y ago
        Guess we understand "clamp down hard on people" differently where not being able to participate in a tournament (private) seems very light, compared to what others can end up with when speaking out about something (see https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/03/spain-counter-terror-law-used-to-crush-satire-and-creative-expression-online/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/03/spain-counter... for example)
        jplayer01 7y ago
        You know, I vaguely remember HK protestors being glad that people were making the effort to make Blizzard accountable for punishing people for speaking out in support of HK. Is it suddenly a bad thing because the people trying to protest at a Blizzard event aren't being beaten?
gameswithgo 7y ago
Corporations being tone deaf is a regular thing, but the evoking of "Every Voice Matters" so often after shutting down, and punishing, champions of their tournaments (it has happened twice! remember) for supporting a good cause is of historic levels. Many people seem to think you can't be professional and allow things like this, but you absolutely can. You can let someone who wins a tournament have a few seconds to say something personal, we see this all the time in sports. Lance Armstrong was allowed to lie while disparaging all of the people who were correctly accusing him, Peter Sagan was allowed to make a wonderful political message. When sports bodies crack down on this in the name of 'professionalism', history does not judge them kindly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salu...
- ben_jones 7y ago
  I think society has shown that it only works sometimes. The biggest example in recent history was the kneeling movement in the NFL and the NFL's stance of blacklisting and penalizing prominent players won. Similarly with the NBA, player agents have indicated an overwhelming support by players to NOT speak out for fear of losing their endorsements from Nike, Adidas, Anta, and other firms deeply embedded in the Chinese industrial complex. Even with the Commissioner coming out in favor of voicing the issues, its the big stars the fans care about and without them there will be a significantly fewer repercussions.
  - dickeytk 7y ago
    > The biggest example in recent history was the kneeling movement in the NFL and the NFL's stance of blacklisting and penalizing prominent players won. Did it? I'm genuinely asking and seeing contradicting results trying to search. At least super bowl stats look like they've lost quite a bit. [anecdata] I know myself I quit watching football as a result of that and the injuries.
  - gamblor956 7y ago
    Citation needed, since all reporting has said the opposite. Players want to be able to speak freely. Many of them have started their support for the Hong Kong protests.
huffmsa 7y ago
I'm hoping id Software works a potshot into whatever they're doing for Doom
- foxX 7y ago
  Aaah, sweet, sweet Bethesda. I would look somewhere else, to be fair.
  - huffmsa 7y ago
    Wait got my wires crossed. I was thinking id was a subsidiary of Blizzard. They're actually Bethesda/Zenimax. Disregard the GP
    - rasz 7y ago
      At least with Zenimax there is no ambiguity about being evil.
duxup 7y ago
Ultimately this seems like a failure in leadership. It took four days for a response and then it was sort of half a response. Individual employees now go and suffer the consequences on the front lines.
- the_duke 7y ago
  This was a pretty standard corporate PR tactic. * make deleting accounts hard due to "technical difficulties" * Wait until late Friday night to put out a press release, so publications are less likely to pick it up. * Have the release contain a meaningless non-apology * wait for a bit until everyone moves on to the next thing The outcry was largely contained to a small Reddit and hardcore fan bubble. The stock didn't suffer at all. Blizzcon could be interesting though.
  - hrktb 7y ago
    > The outcry was largely contained to a small Reddit and hardcore fan bubble. Didn’t they cancel all their PR marketing for Overwatch coming to the switch ? Aside from existing fan outcry, it seems to me having them quiet their PR moves while entering holiday season would be the bigger consequences. I don’t know for the small bubble, or we should at least include tech sites and youtube gaming channels in the bubble.
- dorkinspace 7y ago
  Reminder that they responded on Weibo almost immediately, defending their actions and supporting the Chinese government. See: https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/10/verified-chinese-blizzard-account-doubles-down-on-political-policy https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/10/verified-chinese-bli...
berbec 7y ago
Blizzcon 2019: Nothing is more entertaining than a train wreck
skilled 7y ago
I expect quite a bit of drama during this event. The actions since last Blizzcon have left a sour taste in many people's mouths.
- GuB-42 7y ago
  And that includes last Blizzcon itself, when they announced Diablo Immortal.
eternalny1 7y ago
Blizzard has a problem. World of Warcraft is growing stale and they seem to not have a replacement (as far as zero leaks). Overwatch has been a big success and leaks suggest Overwatch 2 with more PVE. That's fine and all but that's not going to be the cash-cow that WoW was for them. I was a dedicated player since launch but left after Legion and won't be returning.
- piptastic 7y ago
  World of Warcraft just had a classic release, which I would hardly call stale. https://www.newsweek.com/world-warcraft-subscriptions-triple-classic-release-1461086 https://www.newsweek.com/world-warcraft-subscriptions-triple...
  - magashna 7y ago
    It might be making money, but I wouldn't say re-releasing an old version is progress.
  - LIV2 7y ago
    Digging a game out of the archives is pretty stale imo
    - sleepybrett 7y ago
      Let's not forget that their next big release is a WC3 remaster .. womp womp.
      - Fnoord 7y ago
        I agree, but there is one person who's not in the market for an out of date game but is for a remaster: youth who were too young to play the original. Case in point: my kid.
      - krzyk 7y ago
        And earlier Starcraft Remastered :) Blizzard is as stale as it gets right now. It is very sad that Blizzard was: - the creator of Warcraft, which popularized RTS, - Starcraft which basically created esports (and popularized RTS even more) - Diablo which popularized hack-n-slash RPGs And now all they do is remaster after remaster (or "classic").
helpPeople 7y ago
How did Blizzard fail in PR where Apple succeeded? They both were anti Hong Kong, but few remember and care Apple's actions. Asking in case I ever F up and need to go damage control.
- emptyfile 7y ago
  Gamers like being outraged.
- Aperocky 7y ago
  This will blow over for blizzard as fast as it did for apple. After occupying essentially the top spot on many international new cycles for 20 weeks, people are getting tired and finding out abnormalities. Like how there are 0 verified direct deaths while other protest that are much more violent barely gets any coverage. Or that vandalism of subways and shops conducted by protesters never gets to news or are covered in a positive light.
- tosser197 7y ago
  'hardcore' gamers have a dispropotionally huge representation of young single adult males. Usually that means lot's of testosterone and time. Apple has more balanced customer base.
  - reportgunner 7y ago
    Sorry, what does testosterone have to do with this ?
    - dx87 7y ago
      It increases agressive behavior. Since "gamers" are primarily young males, being more agressive could lead to them "hurting" blizzard the only way they can; posting non-stop about it on social media, organizing protests, etc.
      - catalogia 7y ago
        You might be right, but I think it's interesting to note that the gender ratio of Blizzard consumers is more balanced than is typical in the gaming industry. Still not balanced, but more balanced. https://www.pcgamesn.com/overwatch/overwatch-female-player-count https://www.pcgamesn.com/overwatch/overwatch-female-player-c...
cryptofits 7y ago
I must say that because of Blizzard actions there was x50 more coverage for the people of HK, so in some strange way, I'm glad they did it
- kuroikyu 7y ago
  The Streisand effect strikes again!
- mytailorisrich 7y ago
  It's the other way round: Blizzard got huge coverage because it was related to Hongkong.
chronotis 7y ago
When I worked at Blizzard at the beginning of the decade, it was the first "corporation" I'd worked at where I sincerely felt and believed that the espoused values were authentically reflected in decisions and actions. The edges were starting to fray a little bit around 2012-13, as veterans of the original Blizzard slowly began moving on to other things (or retiring altogether). There followed a steady trickle of Activision staff into the holes left by the departed, which IMHO was also reflected in gradual shifts in recruiting practices. Morhaime's departure was the final farewell. I can't say what Blizzard's culture is today, but I'm confident that Every Voice Matters isn't what it used to be.
- dickeytk 7y ago
  As an outsider not following this too closely, it reminds me of what happened with Boeing and McDonnell Douglas[0] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/11/boeing-capitalism-deregulation https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/11/boeing...
- vvanders 7y ago
  Yeah, as an ex-gamedev as well there's a large divide between the values a devshop tends to hold and the publisher that finances your project. I've yet to see a studio acqui-hire that doesn't eventually head south as the publishing culture seeps into the previously independent company.
  - SeanBoocock 7y ago
    You say that as if that is always a top down transformation, and not the result of entrepreneurial founders losing motivation or leaving after a lockup period. Regardless of cultural differences or how the transition is handled, the fact that a studio is no longer an independent entity affects how you view your work and how much value you can extract from a commercial success. There are some high profile examples of studio acquisitions I’ve had insight into where the publisher has been blamed for perceived changes in a studio’s output post-acquisition. The reality on the ground was almost the inverse: the publisher gave the acquired studio a great amount of autonomy and runway, even more than than internal studios, and the acquired studio struggled in an environment where they had relatively more freedom than they did pre-acquisition. It let bad habits fester and poor managers calcify in roles they never could have survived in during scrappier times.
dr-detroit 7y ago
This was a political non-issue until someone said "No" to a gamer boi.
- MS90 7y ago
  The HK situation left "political non-issue" territory long before Blizzard did anything.
- birracerveza 7y ago
  What are you even trying to say? It absolutely was a political issue even before this happened, and the fact that it involves videogames does not detract from the issue.
elisto 7y ago
Major lesson: Don't put non-trained employees to do PR/client-facing soon after they were mentally drained by an action you took.
variable11 7y ago
privlocked antifirefox link, remove
ineedasername 7y ago
They should be dreading it. For an American company, or really any non-Chinese company to bow down to China's censorship regime is unacceptable. I hope Congress doesn't let the issue die. It's an increasing trend that will be harder to curtail the longer it persists.
- Mirioron 7y ago
  What's Congress going to do? The reason China has so much influence is because Chinese companies are willing to invest in (western) video game companies (or at least Tencent is). Most game developers aren't exactly swimming in money and if a Chinese company offers them more resources then many of them are going to take it even if it comes with strings attached. Another reason is access to the Chinese market. Congress can't really do anything to stop companies from complying with the Chinese government so that they can publish their games in the Chinese market.
  - ineedasername 7y ago
    There are already regulations that dictate how companies must regard and comply with laws and regulations of other non-US jurisdictions. This could be a similar thing. Or maybe not, maybe there is a better way. The point is, this is a long term issue of national security. US companies bolstering a foreign authoritarian regime by facilitating it's propaganda and censorship gives aid an comfort to a regime incompatible with our values.
  - bcrosby95 7y ago
    The latter is the reason why China has so much influence. Tencent only owns 5% of Blizzard. Heck, Blizzard only gets around 6-8% of their revenue from China. But they're looking at it as an avenue of future growth. Just like every other international corporation.
    - Mirioron 7y ago
      >The latter is the reason why China has so much influence. When specifically talking about Blizzard, yes, but not when you think of companies like Riot.
ddevault 7y ago
Paywall workaround?
- errantspark 7y ago
  disable JS it's in the Dev Tool options (F1) in Chrome
  - ddevault 7y ago
    Cheers, thanks!
    - Sohcahtoa82 7y ago
      Alternatively, for Firefox users, switch to Reader mode.
liquidify 7y ago
I keep seeing job postings from Blizzard for software engineers. I hope people are ignoring them, just as I am.
RaiseProfits 7y ago
Grow a spine and quit. Otherwise you’re literally endorsing the censorship of the ccp.
jimbob45 7y ago
I wonder how different this might have been if he'd instead shouted, "MAGA!". I imagine the next election will present some similar situations for companies to traverse.
wnevets 7y ago
Unfortunately it probably won't be too bad, most blizzard fans have already moved on and are back to giving blizzard/activision money.
EpicEng 7y ago
And Blizz just can't stop stepping in it. https://www.invenglobal.com/articles/9488/wow-community-feels-toyed-with-amid-blizzcon-prize-pools https://www.invenglobal.com/articles/9488/wow-community-feel... Before people chime in with "but they technically didn't say that they would add the toy revenue on top", that is exactly how it is typically done by other companies in the same situation. They made a ton of money and didn't have to put up a dime of their own. Who exactly is working PR over there?
mikenew 7y ago
I'm at the convention center now. So far I havent seen anything unusual. Not even a Hong Kong t-shirt. Tickets were sold out long before the controversy hit. Obviously there are a lot of us die-hard fans that are upset, but I dont think there's many people here with the intention of causing trouble.
Asooka 7y ago
It all returns to nothing. It all comes tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down... Blizzard had a good run. I don't doubt the company name itself will go on as a branding on a whole slew of rehashes and remakes, like a little label to be stuck on a reskin of an original idea from 15 years ago that's been crunched, mashed and reinterpreted as a mishmash of whatever individual elements are deemed popular and "the reason X was a success". But for me, it's over. Blizzard is no more. I would go so far as to say that the company should lose the Blizzard trademark given how far off they are from what that name originally stood for.

374 points by partingshots 7y ago

good and good. a lot of the blizzard developer interactions with players at blizzcon has been the developers acting like condescending, down-talking jerks to players during q&a. let's see those egos take what they like to dish out.

loktarogar 7y ago
there's thousands of devs/staff at blizzard, not just the handful that interact with the public.
- jeffdavis 7y ago
  So why don't they walk out of work until Bizzard makes a change?
  - loktarogar 7y ago
    put yourself in their shoes. you're in the games industry, so your pay isn't fantastic but you're doing what you love. say this is the issue that makes you want to walk out. you'd have to accept that this might mean losing not only your dream job, but a job full-stop - games is a very competitive industry and you might have a long period of unemployment. this would have to be a "I would give up my career in the games industry for this" issue. it is for some. it's not for others.
    - jeffdavis 7y ago
      What's the alternative? It's not like Blizzard has given any meaningful apology or done anything to remedy the situation. All customers can do is boycott and protest. Nothing else will cause any change in behavior. Unfortunately, employees will be hurt in the process. Wouldn't it be better for employees to stage a big moment now, force Blizzard to backpedal, and resume being a game company sooner? A long, drawn out thing is worse for everyone.
      - loktarogar 7y ago
        > What's the alternative? keep working, hope that blizzard reverses course. this is the first seriously backwards move in 30 years of the company afaik. quitting immediately isn't the answer to your average employee. and please reread what I wrote. I know many blizzard employees. as much as it hurts them to see what their company did, quitting simply can't be an option to them. not in a massive immediate show of support. not everyone can afford to be political.
        jeffdavis 7y ago
        A "walk out" is a form of protest that doesn't mean quitting. It does risk being fired, but the risk is pretty low in this case.
        loktarogar 7y ago
        A walk out when half their colleagues got let go earlier this year is pretty risky.

creaghpatr 7y ago

>“BlizzCon is sort of like the Christmas of Blizzard,” one staffer said. More like the Singles Day of Blizzard now.

w-j-w 7y ago

As someone who likes watching public events go horribly wrong, I have never been so excited for a videogame convention.

jplayer01 7y ago
Same here. I'm prepared to be sorely disappointed though. They're going to clamp down hard on people (although, this might even lead to a bigger storm).
- diggan 7y ago
  > They're going to clamp down hard on people How hard can they clamp down really? Have a peaceful protest outside the venue in public and there is nothing they can do. (I'm assuming you have freedom of assembly and right to protest in the US)
  - save_ferris 7y ago
    Given their history of banning pro players for their speech, seeing more of these bans for high-profile members of the community who participate doesn't seem farfetched.
    - diggan 7y ago
      Guess we understand "clamp down hard on people" differently where not being able to participate in a tournament (private) seems very light, compared to what others can end up with when speaking out about something (see https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/03/spain-counter-terror-law-used-to-crush-satire-and-creative-expression-online/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/03/spain-counter... for example)
      - jplayer01 7y ago
        You know, I vaguely remember HK protestors being glad that people were making the effort to make Blizzard accountable for punishing people for speaking out in support of HK. Is it suddenly a bad thing because the people trying to protest at a Blizzard event aren't being beaten?

gameswithgo 7y ago

Corporations being tone deaf is a regular thing, but the evoking of "Every Voice Matters" so often after shutting down, and punishing, champions of their tournaments (it has happened twice! remember) for supporting a good cause is of historic levels. Many people seem to think you can't be professional and allow things like this, but you absolutely can. You can let someone who wins a tournament have a few seconds to say something personal, we see this all the time in sports. Lance Armstrong was allowed to lie while disparaging all of the people who were correctly accusing him, Peter Sagan was allowed to make a wonderful political message. When sports bodies crack down on this in the name of 'professionalism', history does not judge them kindly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salu...

ben_jones 7y ago
I think society has shown that it only works sometimes. The biggest example in recent history was the kneeling movement in the NFL and the NFL's stance of blacklisting and penalizing prominent players won. Similarly with the NBA, player agents have indicated an overwhelming support by players to NOT speak out for fear of losing their endorsements from Nike, Adidas, Anta, and other firms deeply embedded in the Chinese industrial complex. Even with the Commissioner coming out in favor of voicing the issues, its the big stars the fans care about and without them there will be a significantly fewer repercussions.
- dickeytk 7y ago
  > The biggest example in recent history was the kneeling movement in the NFL and the NFL's stance of blacklisting and penalizing prominent players won. Did it? I'm genuinely asking and seeing contradicting results trying to search. At least super bowl stats look like they've lost quite a bit. [anecdata] I know myself I quit watching football as a result of that and the injuries.
- gamblor956 7y ago
  Citation needed, since all reporting has said the opposite. Players want to be able to speak freely. Many of them have started their support for the Hong Kong protests.

huffmsa 7y ago

I'm hoping id Software works a potshot into whatever they're doing for Doom

foxX 7y ago
Aaah, sweet, sweet Bethesda. I would look somewhere else, to be fair.
- huffmsa 7y ago
  Wait got my wires crossed. I was thinking id was a subsidiary of Blizzard. They're actually Bethesda/Zenimax. Disregard the GP
  - rasz 7y ago
    At least with Zenimax there is no ambiguity about being evil.

duxup 7y ago

Ultimately this seems like a failure in leadership. It took four days for a response and then it was sort of half a response. Individual employees now go and suffer the consequences on the front lines.

the_duke 7y ago
This was a pretty standard corporate PR tactic. * make deleting accounts hard due to "technical difficulties" * Wait until late Friday night to put out a press release, so publications are less likely to pick it up. * Have the release contain a meaningless non-apology * wait for a bit until everyone moves on to the next thing The outcry was largely contained to a small Reddit and hardcore fan bubble. The stock didn't suffer at all. Blizzcon could be interesting though.
- hrktb 7y ago
  > The outcry was largely contained to a small Reddit and hardcore fan bubble. Didn’t they cancel all their PR marketing for Overwatch coming to the switch ? Aside from existing fan outcry, it seems to me having them quiet their PR moves while entering holiday season would be the bigger consequences. I don’t know for the small bubble, or we should at least include tech sites and youtube gaming channels in the bubble.
dorkinspace 7y ago
Reminder that they responded on Weibo almost immediately, defending their actions and supporting the Chinese government. See: https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/10/verified-chinese-blizzard-account-doubles-down-on-political-policy https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/10/verified-chinese-bli...

berbec 7y ago

Blizzcon 2019: Nothing is more entertaining than a train wreck

skilled 7y ago

I expect quite a bit of drama during this event. The actions since last Blizzcon have left a sour taste in many people's mouths.

GuB-42 7y ago
And that includes last Blizzcon itself, when they announced Diablo Immortal.

eternalny1 7y ago

Blizzard has a problem. World of Warcraft is growing stale and they seem to not have a replacement (as far as zero leaks). Overwatch has been a big success and leaks suggest Overwatch 2 with more PVE. That's fine and all but that's not going to be the cash-cow that WoW was for them. I was a dedicated player since launch but left after Legion and won't be returning.

piptastic 7y ago
World of Warcraft just had a classic release, which I would hardly call stale. https://www.newsweek.com/world-warcraft-subscriptions-triple-classic-release-1461086 https://www.newsweek.com/world-warcraft-subscriptions-triple...
- magashna 7y ago
  It might be making money, but I wouldn't say re-releasing an old version is progress.
- LIV2 7y ago
  Digging a game out of the archives is pretty stale imo
  - sleepybrett 7y ago
    Let's not forget that their next big release is a WC3 remaster .. womp womp.
    - Fnoord 7y ago
      I agree, but there is one person who's not in the market for an out of date game but is for a remaster: youth who were too young to play the original. Case in point: my kid.
    - krzyk 7y ago
      And earlier Starcraft Remastered :) Blizzard is as stale as it gets right now. It is very sad that Blizzard was: - the creator of Warcraft, which popularized RTS, - Starcraft which basically created esports (and popularized RTS even more) - Diablo which popularized hack-n-slash RPGs And now all they do is remaster after remaster (or "classic").

helpPeople 7y ago

How did Blizzard fail in PR where Apple succeeded? They both were anti Hong Kong, but few remember and care Apple's actions. Asking in case I ever F up and need to go damage control.

emptyfile 7y ago
Gamers like being outraged.
Aperocky 7y ago
This will blow over for blizzard as fast as it did for apple. After occupying essentially the top spot on many international new cycles for 20 weeks, people are getting tired and finding out abnormalities. Like how there are 0 verified direct deaths while other protest that are much more violent barely gets any coverage. Or that vandalism of subways and shops conducted by protesters never gets to news or are covered in a positive light.
tosser197 7y ago
'hardcore' gamers have a dispropotionally huge representation of young single adult males. Usually that means lot's of testosterone and time. Apple has more balanced customer base.
- reportgunner 7y ago
  Sorry, what does testosterone have to do with this ?
  - dx87 7y ago
    It increases agressive behavior. Since "gamers" are primarily young males, being more agressive could lead to them "hurting" blizzard the only way they can; posting non-stop about it on social media, organizing protests, etc.
    - catalogia 7y ago
      You might be right, but I think it's interesting to note that the gender ratio of Blizzard consumers is more balanced than is typical in the gaming industry. Still not balanced, but more balanced. https://www.pcgamesn.com/overwatch/overwatch-female-player-count https://www.pcgamesn.com/overwatch/overwatch-female-player-c...

cryptofits 7y ago

I must say that because of Blizzard actions there was x50 more coverage for the people of HK, so in some strange way, I'm glad they did it

kuroikyu 7y ago
The Streisand effect strikes again!
mytailorisrich 7y ago
It's the other way round: Blizzard got huge coverage because it was related to Hongkong.

chronotis 7y ago

When I worked at Blizzard at the beginning of the decade, it was the first "corporation" I'd worked at where I sincerely felt and believed that the espoused values were authentically reflected in decisions and actions. The edges were starting to fray a little bit around 2012-13, as veterans of the original Blizzard slowly began moving on to other things (or retiring altogether). There followed a steady trickle of Activision staff into the holes left by the departed, which IMHO was also reflected in gradual shifts in recruiting practices. Morhaime's departure was the final farewell. I can't say what Blizzard's culture is today, but I'm confident that Every Voice Matters isn't what it used to be.

dickeytk 7y ago
As an outsider not following this too closely, it reminds me of what happened with Boeing and McDonnell Douglas[0] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/11/boeing-capitalism-deregulation https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/11/boeing...
vvanders 7y ago
Yeah, as an ex-gamedev as well there's a large divide between the values a devshop tends to hold and the publisher that finances your project. I've yet to see a studio acqui-hire that doesn't eventually head south as the publishing culture seeps into the previously independent company.
- SeanBoocock 7y ago
  You say that as if that is always a top down transformation, and not the result of entrepreneurial founders losing motivation or leaving after a lockup period. Regardless of cultural differences or how the transition is handled, the fact that a studio is no longer an independent entity affects how you view your work and how much value you can extract from a commercial success. There are some high profile examples of studio acquisitions I’ve had insight into where the publisher has been blamed for perceived changes in a studio’s output post-acquisition. The reality on the ground was almost the inverse: the publisher gave the acquired studio a great amount of autonomy and runway, even more than than internal studios, and the acquired studio struggled in an environment where they had relatively more freedom than they did pre-acquisition. It let bad habits fester and poor managers calcify in roles they never could have survived in during scrappier times.

dr-detroit 7y ago

This was a political non-issue until someone said "No" to a gamer boi.

MS90 7y ago
The HK situation left "political non-issue" territory long before Blizzard did anything.
birracerveza 7y ago
What are you even trying to say? It absolutely was a political issue even before this happened, and the fact that it involves videogames does not detract from the issue.

elisto 7y ago

Major lesson: Don't put non-trained employees to do PR/client-facing soon after they were mentally drained by an action you took.

variable11 7y ago

privlocked antifirefox link, remove

ineedasername 7y ago

They should be dreading it. For an American company, or really any non-Chinese company to bow down to China's censorship regime is unacceptable. I hope Congress doesn't let the issue die. It's an increasing trend that will be harder to curtail the longer it persists.

Mirioron 7y ago
What's Congress going to do? The reason China has so much influence is because Chinese companies are willing to invest in (western) video game companies (or at least Tencent is). Most game developers aren't exactly swimming in money and if a Chinese company offers them more resources then many of them are going to take it even if it comes with strings attached. Another reason is access to the Chinese market. Congress can't really do anything to stop companies from complying with the Chinese government so that they can publish their games in the Chinese market.
- ineedasername 7y ago
  There are already regulations that dictate how companies must regard and comply with laws and regulations of other non-US jurisdictions. This could be a similar thing. Or maybe not, maybe there is a better way. The point is, this is a long term issue of national security. US companies bolstering a foreign authoritarian regime by facilitating it's propaganda and censorship gives aid an comfort to a regime incompatible with our values.
- bcrosby95 7y ago
  The latter is the reason why China has so much influence. Tencent only owns 5% of Blizzard. Heck, Blizzard only gets around 6-8% of their revenue from China. But they're looking at it as an avenue of future growth. Just like every other international corporation.
  - Mirioron 7y ago
    >The latter is the reason why China has so much influence. When specifically talking about Blizzard, yes, but not when you think of companies like Riot.

ddevault 7y ago

Paywall workaround?

errantspark 7y ago
disable JS it's in the Dev Tool options (F1) in Chrome
- ddevault 7y ago
  Cheers, thanks!
  - Sohcahtoa82 7y ago
    Alternatively, for Firefox users, switch to Reader mode.

liquidify 7y ago

I keep seeing job postings from Blizzard for software engineers. I hope people are ignoring them, just as I am.

RaiseProfits 7y ago

Grow a spine and quit. Otherwise you’re literally endorsing the censorship of the ccp.

jimbob45 7y ago

I wonder how different this might have been if he'd instead shouted, "MAGA!". I imagine the next election will present some similar situations for companies to traverse.

wnevets 7y ago

Unfortunately it probably won't be too bad, most blizzard fans have already moved on and are back to giving blizzard/activision money.

EpicEng 7y ago

And Blizz just can't stop stepping in it. https://www.invenglobal.com/articles/9488/wow-community-feels-toyed-with-amid-blizzcon-prize-pools https://www.invenglobal.com/articles/9488/wow-community-feel... Before people chime in with "but they technically didn't say that they would add the toy revenue on top", that is exactly how it is typically done by other companies in the same situation. They made a ton of money and didn't have to put up a dime of their own. Who exactly is working PR over there?

mikenew 7y ago

I'm at the convention center now. So far I havent seen anything unusual. Not even a Hong Kong t-shirt. Tickets were sold out long before the controversy hit. Obviously there are a lot of us die-hard fans that are upset, but I dont think there's many people here with the intention of causing trouble.

Asooka 7y ago

It all returns to nothing. It all comes tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down... Blizzard had a good run. I don't doubt the company name itself will go on as a branding on a whole slew of rehashes and remakes, like a little label to be stuck on a reskin of an original idea from 15 years ago that's been crunched, mashed and reinterpreted as a mishmash of whatever individual elements are deemed popular and "the reason X was a success". But for me, it's over. Blizzard is no more. I would go so far as to say that the company should lose the Blizzard trademark given how far off they are from what that name originally stood for.