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> Yeah I don't think Blizzard is going to be able to bring in scabs to replace software devs The game industry is overflowing with college educated, computer s

by Alupis 5y ago

> Yeah I don't think Blizzard is going to be able to bring in scabs to replace software devs The game industry is overflowing with college educated, computer science degree wielding, software developers eager to work on a big game project. Few will ever touch Engine code - the rest are easily replaceable. This is part of the reason companies like this are able to get away with things that other industries aren't able to. Everyone wants to work on the next AAA title - few want to toil away making ads more clickable... So yes, they'll replace the walk-outs with "scabs" in short time, and move on. Not to mention - this is a tiny percentage of Blizzard employees - and seems to have morphed into a beef with the binding arbitration agreement - not better employment treatment. "As of Tuesday, signatures surpassed 2,600 current and former employees" - and later on the article states "A group of roughly 300 employees across Activision Blizzard". That's out of 9,500 employees at Activision - you can find 3% of any workplace that's outraged by anything. My guess... wait it out a couple months and everyone forgets this ever happened.

0x500x79 5y ago
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, infrastructure, and other technologies was exceptionally high. It was terrible and there weren't a lot of excuses for it. My only point is that there are a lot of nuances to hiring from the talent pool.
- postalrat 5y ago
  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 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - Kiro 5y ago
    In what industry do you work where spaghetti code is not the norm?
  - 0x500x79 5y ago
    Absolutely, that is exactly what I was saying. However, When the leadership is not aligned with this goal of approachability or maintainability of the software then it is not possible for new engineers or people to bring change. The old guard needs to be influenced or removed, which is a challenge when they are the ones who created (and continue to promote) the crap that causes this.
reader_mode 5y ago
>The game industry is overflowing with college educated, computer science degree wielding, software developers eager to work on a big game project. Few will ever touch Engine code - the rest are easily replaceable. I was under the impression that junior devs aren't that hard to come by in any development category (a specific type of junior will be more likely to join a AAA team for sure). I suspect senior staff is harder to get just like any other industry - but I have no insight into this industry.

by Alupis 5y ago

0x500x79 5y ago

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, infrastructure, and other technologies was exceptionally high. It was terrible and there weren't a lot of excuses for it. My only point is that there are a lot of nuances to hiring from the talent pool.

postalrat 5y ago
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 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Kiro 5y ago
  In what industry do you work where spaghetti code is not the norm?
- 0x500x79 5y ago
  Absolutely, that is exactly what I was saying. However, When the leadership is not aligned with this goal of approachability or maintainability of the software then it is not possible for new engineers or people to bring change. The old guard needs to be influenced or removed, which is a challenge when they are the ones who created (and continue to promote) the crap that causes this.

reader_mode 5y ago

>The game industry is overflowing with college educated, computer science degree wielding, software developers eager to work on a big game project. Few will ever touch Engine code - the rest are easily replaceable. I was under the impression that junior devs aren't that hard to come by in any development category (a specific type of junior will be more likely to join a AAA team for sure). I suspect senior staff is harder to get just like any other industry - but I have no insight into this industry.