Think we are about to see another wave.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ItMe

Really?
I haven't heard about this and I can't google anything up about it.
Can you provide a link please?

---

Peruse the Twitter link:
https://twitter.com/JeffAHamilton/st...15702569472003

It's generally not a good sign when a company puts out an official statement and then an employee contests the same statement on social media. Then again, to my eyes there's some red flags in the profile in question so I'll be taking it with a pinch of salt personally.

Apoligies letter incoming.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pirana1

Peruse the Twitter link:
https://twitter.com/JeffAHamilton/st...15702569472003

---

I find it odd that someone can have a great experience in a community that is being sued for fostering "frat-boy culture" unless you are fine with men being subtly sexists on a daily basis. The guy is BS. He is actually denying that Blizard has a frat-boy culture but at the same time allegedly sides against them by saying "oh no I am so disappointed by their reaction"

The actual quote:
"I find Activision’s corporate response wholly unacceptable. I don't stand by it, any of it. It is evil to usurp a victim’s story into a rhetorical bludgeon, and it is abhorrent to reply to these accusations with anything other than a well-thought-out plan to correct these abuses."

He is saying nothing here. That's his attempt of trying to appear trustworthy. What he really wants to do is to hide the fact that he is a paid actor who is trying to deny the fact that Blizard is fostering "frat-boy culture" through social media.

EDIT:

To quote:

"OK. I’m still hopeful my team will make a statement, but Activision’s statement was terrible, so here's what I believe. I know many of my colleagues believe this as well:"
... (a couple of tweets later)
"I deeply love my team. I believe in my coworkers. I have recommended this place as a beacon to people I care deeply about, and in my personal experience, it has been that beacon. But it is DAMNINGLY OBVIOUS that that experience has not been universal. The people who were harmed by abuse - they deserved that experience too."

Blizard is a "beacon" just "not universal". This completely contradicts what the company is being sued for. Blizard is the place where women get paid less and are less likely to get a promotion aside from the many other misogynistic things they had to endure. Blizard has never been a beacon.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Roeshel

I find it odd that someone can have a great experience in a community that is being sued for fostering "frat-boy culture" unless you are fine with men being subtly sexists on a daily basis. The guy is BS. He is actually denying that Blizard has a frat-boy culture but at the same time allegedly sides against them by saying "oh no I am so disappointed by their reaction"

The actual quote:
"I find Activision’s corporate response wholly unacceptable. I don't stand by it, any of it. It is evil to usurp a victim’s story into a rhetorical bludgeon, and it is abhorrent to reply to these accusations with anything other than a well-thought-out plan to correct these abuses."

He is saying nothing here. That's his attempt of trying to appear trustworthy. What he really wants to do is to hide the fact that he is a paid actor who is trying to deny the fact that Blizard is fostering "frat-boy culture" through social media.

---

I don't understand how you got that out of what he said.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Roeshel

I find it odd that someone can have a great experience in a community that is being sued for fostering "frat-boy culture" unless you are fine with men being subtly sexists on a daily basis. The guy is BS. He is actually denying that Blizard has a frat-boy culture but at the same time allegedly sides against them by saying "oh no I am so disappointed by their reaction"

The actual quote:
"I find Activision’s corporate response wholly unacceptable. I don't stand by it, any of it. It is evil to usurp a victim’s story into a rhetorical bludgeon, and it is abhorrent to reply to these accusations with anything other than a well-thought-out plan to correct these abuses."

He is saying nothing here. That's his attempt of trying to appear trustworthy. What he really wants to do is to hide the fact that he is a paid actor who is trying to deny the fact that Blizard is fostering "frat-boy culture" through social media.

EDIT:

To quote:

"OK. I’m still hopeful my team will make a statement, but Activision’s statement was terrible, so here's what I believe. I know many of my colleagues believe this as well:"
... (a couple of tweets later)
"I deeply love my team. I believe in my coworkers. I have recommended this place as a beacon to people I care deeply about, and in my personal experience, it has been that beacon. But it is DAMNINGLY OBVIOUS that that experience has not been universal. The people who were harmed by abuse - they deserved that experience too."

Blizard is a "beacon" just "not universal". This completely contradicts what the company is being sued for. Blizard is the place where women get paid less, are less likely to get a promotion aside from the many other misogynistic things they had to endure. Nope, Blizard has never been a beacon.

---

Don't know, don't care. I provided a link when a question was asked. I don't engage in forum drama. Ask the person in question, it's very simple.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kolsykol

I don't understand how you got that out of what he said.

---

When the company has seemingly decent people step forward like that guy did, Blizard can make the argument that they are not actually fostering a frat-boy culture which is the allegation they are being sued for.

It’s all over the wow forums that they may not get 9.2 and 9.3 is not going to happen at all.

Speculation is that one of two things will happen. They will come out with 10.0 in 2023 or the game will die and be repaid much like FF.

Well, WoW is a pretty old game at this point and it had a lengthy run. It's been steadily losing subscribers for a while now and after a certain point ceased revealing the number of active subscribers despite gleefully doing so in the past. For a while, it seems as though the game leaned on optional purchases to make a profit but that isn't likely to be enough after a string of very public controversies. I can't imagine the company wanting to burn down everything they own, so they may very well be prepared to discontinue World of Warcraft, lay off/fire a number of employees and focus on Call of Duty which is probably much more profitable and valuable.

Of course, not everybody playing WoW is going to come over to FFXIV. Some will, others may decide to make GW2 or ESO their new home instead. Or wait for one of the new, upcoming MMO's such as Pantheon, New World, Blue Protocol and Ashes of Creation.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Roeshel

When the company has seemingly decent people step forward like that guy did, Blizard can make the argument that they are not actually fostering a frat-boy culture which is the allegation they are being sued for.

---

He never said that they haven't, he said that he has been lucky to not experience it but that he feels bad that others haven't been so lucky.
Which is probably the case, not every team have had this problem based on what I've seen.

If anything I think he might just be trying to protect his friends on his team who are not bad people because some are harassing and going after just random Blizzard devs.
And he's trying to say that most people at Blizzard are good and don't deserve to get harassed which I'd imagine is true.
Blizzard is massive, not everyone is going to have the same experience.
I mean ultimately they wouldn't have been able to put games out if it was just a complete circus at the office.

Even if you may have heard about some things too it doesn't mean that you knew the details and just how bad it was.
Even with people in charge, Blizzard devs have mentioned that they tried to contact them but that HR intercepted them and then gaslit and scolded them over it.
A similar thing happened at Weta Workshop too, HR is like this wall inbetween the employees and the people up top and they go out of their way to silence things and shove it under the rug.
I think there's genuinely a lot of things that were just shoved under the rug without those not directly involved even finding out about the real extent of it and being under the impression that HR is/ has dealt with it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pirana1

Peruse the Twitter link:
https://twitter.com/JeffAHamilton/st...15702569472003

---

That doesn't sounds like an official stop to development. It sounds like employees unable to focus on work as they try to process what's happening right now, which can take a couple of weeks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Roeshel

When the company has seemingly decent people step forward like that guy did, Blizard can make the argument that they are not actually fostering a frat-boy culture which is the allegation they are being sued for.

---

They may or may not longer be fostering that culture now but that's not a defense against the suit. The suit is about what happened before and during the investigation. The company is still liable if found guilty regardless of what changes they've made since the investigation began.

Hopefully Blizzard gets this figured out and it doesn't impact development of Diablo4. I need that game.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jojoya

That doesn't sounds like an official stop to development. It sounds like employees unable to focus on work as they try to process what's happening right now, which can take a couple of weeks.

---

It would appear so.

My wow friends are being annoying with all the jokes about it, but I guess that is part of their charm also. If I hear one more, no wonder shadowland is bad, they had all the women work on it. Or, Blizzard needs to learn from raiders. Females and hardcore raiding don't mix. Men act stupid around women.


Either way, Blizzard response was so clueless, not only that they got the female leader who only been working at the place for four months to come out and say it is not true.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pirana1

Don't know, don't care. I provided a link when a question was asked. I don't engage in forum drama. Ask the person in question, it's very simple.

---

And I appreciated it.
Thank you very much <3

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Theodric

Well, WoW is a pretty old game at this point and it had a lengthy run. It's been steadily losing subscribers for a while now and after a certain point ceased revealing the number of active subscribers despite gleefully doing so in the past. For a while, it seems as though the game leaned on optional purchases to make a profit but that isn't likely to be enough after a string of very public controversies. I can't imagine the company wanting to burn down everything they own, so they may very well be prepared to discontinue World of Warcraft, lay off/fire a number of employees and focus on Call of Duty which is probably much more profitable and valuable.

Of course, not everybody playing WoW is going to come over to FFXIV. Some will, others may decide to make GW2 or ESO their new home instead. Or wait for one of the new, upcoming MMO's such as Pantheon, New World, Blue Protocol and Ashes of Creation.

---

I highly doubt WoW is going offline after this controversy. I doubt it will even lose most of it's playerbase. This is just how things go. Already the controversial hype is dying down and people are forgiving and/or forgetting. Diablo 2 remake and Diablo 4 will probably sell like hotcakes, and WoW will continue to be a terrible MMO with a substantial playerbase.

...crap. Disregard my last post, as I just heard that WoW development has basically been suspended for the time being.
This being reported around the same time yet another big WoW YouTuber quitting the game.
idk, these are interesting times.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Puremallace

As an FF14 player in a game that has playboy bunny's holding up this example is not exactly a good idea.

---

It only becomes a problem if there is no alternative to it. A.k.a. playing a female character? Have this bikini armor. But that wasn't the point...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TeraRamis

Instead, they chortled, made jokes about 'magazines,' and visibly diminished her with a series of blow-off replies. THAT'S what makes it sexist... not that the content is in the game (because it is in almost all games), but that, when confronted about it, they couldn't treat her like a human being asking a legitimate question in front of a crowd that, in all likelihood, was hostile towards her interests (deep down, I doubt too many of those guys present really wanted the plate bikinis to vanish). She was brave, and they handled it like cowardly imbeciles.

---

Yes, exactly. I'm sure them bringing up the "cow race" there couldn't possibly have been taken the completely wrong way.


Also, so many cowardly men are now covering their tracks "I was too far away", "I had no idea", "I have a wife and daughters btw, I can't be bad". It's really pathetic...

Oh my God, this is getting so pathetic. This is from one of the developers:

https://twitter.com/azgaz/status/1419398240105996288

Geesh. GEEEEEESH. I mean, yes, I get that they need to get their house in order. But people are paying you for a product, and you're now using your own internal turmoil - stemming from an issue that no responsible corporation EVER sees at this level - to makes excuses on delays, and then turning around and calling players who had absolutely nothing to do with this disaster 'part of the problem' because they have the audacity to suggest that you need to do your job?

Bro, you accidentally got some face on that ugly.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TeraRamis

Oh my God, this is getting so pathetic. This is from one of the developers:

https://twitter.com/azgaz/status/1419398240105996288

Geesh. GEEEEEESH. I mean, yes, I get that they need to get their house in order. But people are paying you for a product, and you're now using your own internal turmoil - stemming from an issue that no responsible corporation EVER sees at this level - to makes excuses on delays, and then turning around and calling players who had absolutely nothing to do with this disaster 'part of the problem' because they have the audacity to suggest that you need to do your job?

Bro, you accidentally got some face on that ugly.

---

Just read that, deflection 101.

Laughable and pathetic.

It's a fairly common tactic, unfortunately. There's a relationship between a customer and a business as well as between a business and an investor where the expectation is for a service to be provided in exchange for financial transactions. If that obligation is being obstructed, especially by avoidable drama, then the criticism is entirely valid.

In other words, money is being exchanged with the expectation of results. Many businesses operating in the present day have forgotten that and actively sabotage the goodwill that exists between those willing to give them the time of day. I strongly suspect that the company in question has become a little too confident in being able to hide behind a rabid fanbase willing to defend their every move. However, that in itself is not a finite resource and such an attitude will risk backfiring with increasing frequency.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Theodric

It's a fairly common tactic, unfortunately. There's a relationship between a customer and a business as well as between a business and an investor where the expectation is for a service to be provided in exchange for financial transactions. If that obligation is being obstructed, especially by avoidable drama, then the criticism is entirely valid.

In other words, money is being exchanged with the expectation of results. Many businesses operating in the present day have forgotten that and actively sabotage the goodwill that exists between those willing to give them the time of day. I strongly suspect that the company in question has become a little too confident in being able to hide behind a rabid fanbase willing to defend their every move. However, that in itself is not a finite resource and such an attitude will risk backfiring with increasing frequency.

---

At a normal company, were I to make a tweet like that - even in the midst of some kind of crisis like this - I would expect to be fired. Not given a talking to by HR - fired. Like terminated the next day. The very fact that he feels comfortable blame-shifting like this tells me that the situation at Blizzard is complete pants-on-head-on-fire-hey-a-donut crazy right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcKWGJlhtxY

This statement by that Blizz employees completely unacceptable. This is why many of these western gaming company's need a come to Jesus moment. The disrespect shown to it's player base is unacceptable. How is any of this BS that has gone on at Blizzard the fault of it's customers? They ( meaning upper management at Blizzard) all knew and if they didn't they suspected. Anyone I mean anyone who works in Corp. America has seen what goes on in many company's across different businesses. But the feint ignorance and blame shifting needs to stop a woman killed herself and many left because of this fostered environment. It's disgusting.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Snorky

This statement by that Blizz employees completely unacceptable. This is why many of these western gaming company's need a come to Jesus moment. The disrespect shown to it's player base is unacceptable. How is any of this BS that has gone on at Blizzard the fault of it's customers? They ( meaning upper management at Blizzard) all knew and if they didn't they suspected. Anyone I mean anyone who works in Corp. America has seen what goes on in many company's across different businesses. But the feint ignorance and blame shifting needs to stop a woman killed herself and many left because of this fostered environment. It's disgusting.

---

Blizzard seems to be a particularly special case. For some reason, even dating back to the time when they were still 'Blizzard' (IE, before the Activision buyout), they believed that they were above the vast majority of interactions with normal players. It got worse after the merger, of course - when they started dropping the class leads and such, and went completely dark except for scripted interviews - but they were never a company that was particularly open or engaging when it came to the playerbase. Most people were fine with that, so long as staffers were making good decisions on the whole. The problem is, nowadays, almost every design they roll out is bungled, and nobody ever takes their lumps and answers for it. In fact, higher-ups act like their bad ideas were a complete success, and most of the subscribers didn't like what they put out there because people are just stupid.

Honestly, this reckoning has been a long time coming. Clearly, there were demons in their closet that none of us knew about. But I have certainly been aware for years that Blizzard was run by assholes... and, frankly, karma being what it is, they're paying for it now.

Yay

I spent 24 minutes in a q with a full pre-formed party, trying to get into E4S (sepulture savage) because a streamer was on, and tons of players were too.
I'm not against the new players at all, I just look forward to the server sizes getting increased to lessen the Queue's

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Snorky

This statement by that Blizz employees completely unacceptable. This is why many of these western gaming company's need a come to Jesus moment. The disrespect shown to it's player base is unacceptable. How is any of this BS that has gone on at Blizzard the fault of it's customers? They ( meaning upper management at Blizzard) all knew and if they didn't they suspected. Anyone I mean anyone who works in Corp. America has seen what goes on in many company's across different businesses. But the feint ignorance and blame shifting needs to stop a woman killed herself and many left because of this fostered environment. It's disgusting.

---

I can all but guarantee you they knew. I was in the corporate world roughly ten years ago for an extensive amount of time. Anything that went on in our offices, most of us knew about. We were on the Forbes 500 list, we were a big corporation, but we still monitored our employees. During my tenure there, we probably went through ten different personnel changes in the office, for varying reasons. We dealt with obstacles and nefarious activities swiftly. Whatever is going on with Activision/Blizz is a leadership issue, or lack thereof.

If all the allegations come to fruition, this won't end well for this company. Although, they could probably lose seventy five percent of their customer base and still net a sizeable profit. The knucklehead who tweeted that message out though, if he's not terminated after his message, speaks volumes regarding this company.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TeraRamis

Oh my God, this is getting so pathetic. This is from one of the developers:

https://twitter.com/azgaz/status/1419398240105996288

Geesh. GEEEEEESH. I mean, yes, I get that they need to get their house in order. But people are paying you for a product, and you're now using your own internal turmoil - stemming from an issue that no responsible corporation EVER sees at this level - to makes excuses on delays, and then turning around and calling players who had absolutely nothing to do with this disaster 'part of the problem' because they have the audacity to suggest that you need to do your job?

Bro, you accidentally got some face on that ugly.

---

I can’t even read that because apparently they blocked me?

I don't think the "nothing will change" comments apply in the same way anymore, the company won't die but it's certainly going to be impacted badly.

FF14 is actually a good example in this case. We've heard MMO's are a dying genre, games have a limited lifespan and that people will always take abuse from big developers. But this game is an MMO, that's getting on in years, with developers who have a passion for their game ...and we're having a massive spike in subscribers while the larger game with arrogant developers is crashing.

There are limits. People nowadays are more and more aware of cash grabs, monetization and how that functions. It's a key thing we look for when considering new games now. More and more have had enough.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vipes

I can’t even read that because apparently they blocked me?

---

They blocked everyone. I'll bet the backlash was worse than they expected. Then again, I don't know what else they were expecting. Seriously, if my company was being sued for something like this, I would know to keep my opinions about it off of social media if I wanted to keep my job. It's common sense for anyone who has been working in the corporate world for longer than a couple of years.

Blizzard were the rock stars of gaming world for years. Their behavior was normalized and or tolerated cause blizzard was a cool place in the eyes of normies and within the industry it opened up many doors. So people in the past tolerated to advance their own social status or personal/ career status.

In the end I do agree with Jim Sterling every company within the industry needs to be investigated to such a degree it will never happen but yeah.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Liam_Harper

FF14 is actually a good example in this case. We've heard MMO's are a dying genre, games have a limited lifespan and that people will always take abuse from big developers. But this game is an MMO, that's getting on in years, with developers who have a passion for their game ...and we're having a massive spike in subscribers while the larger game with arrogant developers is crashing.

---

That's because this game's developers respect their players, and we respond to that. When there are delays, we don't get long silences followed by lame excuses. We get ongoing updates with credible explanations and realistic projections. When there are complaints, we're not gaslighted with laughable explanations like, "It's mostly a skill issue." We're given an explanation of the intent behind the current design along with plans to try and address areas where the intent has fallen flat. Given the scorn that Blizzard has publicly shown their players, it's no surprise that they disrespect each other behind closed doors as well.

Here is a good explanation why many content creators and players quit the game:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ6w--GhpaM


Cheers

Response from Bobby (CEO of Activision Blizzard):

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bobby Kotick

This has been a difficult and upsetting week.

I want to recognize and thank all those who have come forward in the past and in recent days. I so appreciate your courage. Every voice matters - and we will do a better job of listening now, and in the future.

Our initial responses to the issues we face together, and to your concerns, were, quite frankly, tone deaf.

It is imperative that we acknowledge all perspectives and experiences and respect the feelings of those who have been mistreated in any way. I am sorry that we did not provide the right empathy and understanding.
Many of you have told us that active outreach comes from caring so deeply for the Company. That so many people have reached out and shared thoughts, suggestions, and highlighted opportunities for improvement is a powerful reflection of how you care for our communities of colleagues and players – and for each other. Ensuring that we have a safe and welcoming work environment is my highest priority. The leadership team has heard you loud and clear.

We are taking swift action to be the compassionate, caring company you came to work for and to ensure a safe environment. There is no place anywhere at our Company for discrimination, harassment, or unequal treatment of any kind.

We will do everything possible to make sure that together, we improve and build the kind of inclusive workplace that is essential to foster creativity and inspiration.

I have asked the law firm WilmerHale to conduct a review of our policies and procedures to ensure that we have and maintain best practices to promote a respectful and inclusive workplace. This work will begin immediately. The WilmerHale team will be led by Stephanie Avakian, who is a member of the management team at WilmerHale and was most recently the Director of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement.

We encourage anyone with an experience you believe violates our policies or in any way made you uncomfortable in the workplace to use any of our many existing channels for reporting or to reach out to Stephanie. She and her team at WilmerHale will be available to speak with you on a confidential basis and can be reached at ATVI@wilmerhale.com or 202-247-2725. Your outreach will be kept confidential. Of course, NO retaliation will be tolerated.

We are committed to long-lasting change. Effective immediately, we will be taking the following actions:

Employee Support. We will continue to investigate each and every claim and will not hesitate to take decisive action. To strengthen our capabilities in this area we are adding additional senior staff and other resources to both the Compliance team and the Employee Relations team.

1. Listening Sessions. We know many of you have inspired ideas on how to improve our culture. We will be creating safe spaces, moderated by third parties, for you to speak out and share areas for improvement.

2. Personnel Changes. We are immediately evaluating managers and leaders across the Company. Anyone found to have impeded the integrity of our processes for evaluating claims and imposing appropriate consequences will be terminated.

3. Hiring Practices. Earlier this year I sent an email requiring all hiring managers to ensure they have diverse candidate slates for all open positions. We will be adding compliance resources to ensure that our hiring managers are in fact adhering to this directive.

4. In-game Changes. We have heard the input from employee and player communities that some of our in-game content is inappropriate. We are removing that content.

5. Your well-being remains my priority and I will spare no company resource ensuring that our company has the most welcoming, comfortable, and safe culture possible.

You have my unwavering commitment that we will improve our company together, and we will be the most inspiring, inclusive entertainment company in the world.

Yours sincerely,

Bobby

---

One may be pressing a firm "doubt", given how Activision operates normally (at least from an outside appearance, given some employee feedback, and a sense of 'money first and if the game was good that was a happy coincidence' vs 'we must make a good game, and as a consequence of that we're going to make money'), but it would be nice if Blizzard could turn this around (and maybe everything said above which sounds nice is exactly what is going to be done, cynicism is easy to have, so I hope all is done and meant well). After the required proper internal reflection, specifically emphasis on internal- seems like those obsessed with external reflection (stuff that is consistently akin to moral preaching) are the ones we should be avoid listening to because it is at this point seeming like a flare sign for a call for help rather than someone to lead an issue (other game companies, and companies in general, following this trend of shouting about an issue they're not practicing in even the vague slight essence- which isn't to say "don't reflect", far from that, more that leading by example is one of the most powerful ways to be a leader, and leading by shouting is just more of a nuisance and at this point a tell-tale sign of internal issues).

I don't think it's a good thing if Blizzard bites the dust, it would be nice for those employees that deserve to be there to have the work environment to thrive, and of course for gamers, in general such things can act as inspiration for other companies (like FFXIV might both be inspired by some of Blizzard's work, as Yoshida has said, and as FFXIV also inspire others, including probably Blizzard themselves).

In some ways it's like... yes... I hope FFXIV gobbles everything like a blackhole, muahaha, and then Yoshida and team (always important it's more than just one person lol) takes all that money to make more great games and particularly invest into bigger ideas / general employee comfort (not arguing for some top exec to make another mil on their mil), but it's not really that simple and overall only one thing in the sky is a relatively boring sky. It'd be better if we've more stars- successful happy stars (both player and employee) and not less.

Anyone know how the strike is going?
Last I heard Blizzard was forcing the strikers to use up paid time off while striking.

Also, any WoW content creators that have started making compelling FF14 content?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shougun

In some ways it's like... yes... I hope FFXIV gobbles everything hope like a blackhole, muahaha, and then Yoshida and team (always important it's more than just one person lol) takes all that money to make more great games and particularly invest into bigger ideas / general employee comfort (not arguing for some top exec to make another mil on their mil), but it's not really that simple and overall only one thing in the sky is a relatively boring sky. It'd be better if we've more stars- successful happy stars (both player and employee) and not less.

---

I think Blizzard is beyond saving - at least in a moral and creative sense - and has been for a while. They are simply bankrupt when it comes to spirit and soul.

I also don't think this will in any way be the end of either Actiblizzion or WoW - there are just too many people who can't seem to quit, despite the fact that the latter is an almost appallingly bad game at this point.

Either way, it's not keeping me up at night. I'm sorry the young woman took her own life - that is horrific. I'm sorry that the Blizzard that once was - from a creative standpoint only - is little but a desiccated corpse. I'm sorry that a number of MMORPGs that were probably better-designed than WoW - and certainly had much healthier work environments for their development teams - bit the dust for years while Blizzard wallowed in luxury and perversion. I'm sorry that a sinister snake like Bobby Kotick isn't rotting in some windowless cell. But, ultimately, I've washed my hands of the entire thing, and there's nothing else I can do but boycott... which is the exact same thing I'm doing with Coke, the NFL, the Olympics, and about a half dozen other prominent brands.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TeraRamis

I think Blizzard is beyond saving - at least in a moral and creative sense - and has been for a while. They are simply bankrupt when it comes to spirit and soul.

---

Minus the moral part, one might have said similar things about FFXIV on release.

Sometimes something wont get the energy it needs to revitalize, but it's not something I root for. Especially if some are willing to do the work, I'm sure many who work at Blizzard currently would love to continue working there but with an improved work environment. Part of what makes the FFXIV team so endearing is that legacy and way of going about it, FFXIV team generally sending a message of "I wont give up with you at my side" type of sentiment (which causes players not to want to give up on them and offer them good will, as long as it is reciprocated back and forth it's very heartwarming, one sided and spending good will of course turns it into a sad toxic relationship for either party). Moral issues for blizzard makes this a whole new type of issue to fix, than FFXIV's, but if they can do it then that's wonderful for the employees (and therefore for the players).

On boycott I've already the games and purchases I want from Blizzard at this moment (which is stuff Diablo 3 and previous), so .. there is no real boycott for me to have (and I don't subscribe to WoW), but I would follow and see how things are handled. It may impact Diablo 4 purchase depending. Their 5 step plan has the potential to make big changes, like I said in that post the internal reflection is key. Given the will of enough with power there seems to me to be a way. Again, sans moral problem, FFXIV had massive issues that one might just say "wow, that's unsave-able" but someone decided to give power to the will and found a way.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ItMe

Also, any WoW content creators that have started making compelling FF14 content?

---

*Asmongold is making some decent content on the youtube front and basically made a bet recently to complete one of the Ultimates before EW is released. Given that he isn't finished with ARR yet that essentially means that unless he skips ever cutscene he's going to be playing FFXIV almost constantly for the next month or two.
*Richwcampbell has basically turned full on FFXIV devotee and just reached SB yesterday before trying T9. He's genuinely worth watching because the story has fully hooked him and he seems to show a huge level of appreciation for the community. There's some iffy people in his chat like Asmon, but overall it's been a fairly positive experience watching him play.
*On a smaller scale, Jesse Cox has been here for over a year and has made compelling content for awhile now. He recently put out a comparison video contrasting the two MMO's and streams FFXIV almost daily.
*There's multiple smaller creators putting out youtube videos as well. In fact there's a HUGE boom in reaction content now for the game from WoW Refugees over on youtube. Many are documenting their journey day by day like Medieval Marty.

Not very many of them have hit endgame after seeing the kerfuffle with that Quin guy, and thus not many are in a position to actually talk about current content. If you're looking for the chance to watch people enjoy the story and old raids though there's plenty to find. I expect about a fourth of them will likely keep up that momentum till endgame and potentially make the switch to being FFXIV content creators instead.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ItMe

Anyone know how the strike is going?
Last I heard Blizzard was forcing the strikers to use up paid time off while striking.

---

Can I get a source for that? Because if that’s happening then blizzard can screw off even moreso.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vipes

Can I get a source for that? Because if that’s happening then blizzard can screw off even moreso.

---

I can't find too much confirmation as to whether or not this eats up their existing PTO or not. But yeah it's been seen as them taking PTO.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Enla

I can't find too much confirmation as to whether or not this eats up their existing PTO or not. But yeah it's been seen as them taking PTO.

---

Probably not there when you first read it but in that post there is now:

Quote:

---

Update: Blizzard senior software engineer Valentine Powell says the World of Warcraft leadership team will pay employees for the time they spend participating in Thursday's walkout.

"Our leadership on the WoW team has worked with us over the last week to respond and start taking action," Powell tweeted. "In addition to this message, crafted in large part by the non-men across our team, our leadership has also agreed to pay us for the time we are taking off for our walkout and committed to allowing leads and managers to participate in the strike without fear of recrimination. I see this as the first step toward them being willing to speak with their actions."

Additionally, Axios reports that Activision Blizzard as a whole will grant extended paid time off to employees participating in Thursday's walkout.

---