AT THIS POINT in World of Warcraft

[caffe_macchiato]

Devs also have a life, there's also budget so it's understandable if sometimes they take the easy way to solve problems (like the current fix for PLD, not adding instanced housing but instead just copy paste wards, etc).

Fully agreed. It’s absurd that Square Enix is forcing Yoshida to work on both FF14 and FF16, their two biggest titles. This has never been done before in Square’s production cycle and is indicative of the increasingly abusive work culture in the Japanese gaming industry. They still prioritize crunch. No wonder Yoshida had a breakdown towards Endwalker’s launch. Who could blame him? Many salarymen throw themselves at trains for far less.

Needless to say, Square Enix is complicit in labor abuses and fostering a toxic workplace culture. It’s time we took a stand against this. We should not support this company. Do not but FF16, and unsubscribe from FF14 if you can handle it.

Despite the troubles that Blizzard has gone through, they’ve greatly improved their workplace culture and no longer have the terrible crunch cycles that Square Enix still has. Square needs to do better.

[Avoidy]

Despite the troubles that Blizzard has gone through, they’ve greatly improved their workplace culture and no longer have the terrible crunch cycles that Square Enix still has. Square needs to do better.

This. The Blizzard work cycle is quite enviable, I'd say. They even have kumbaya breaks at work where they sit in a big breakroom circle and sip stolen employee breastmilk together.

[R041]

This. The Blizzard work cycle is quite enviable, I'd say. They even have kumbaya breaks at work where they sit in a big breakroom circle and sip stolen employee breastmilk together.

Yeeaahh I'm pretty sure JP Square Enix employees have done some weird shit too. You just don't see it all published in NA.

[Avoidy]

Yeeaahh I'm pretty sure JP Square Enix employees have done some weird shit too. You just don't see it all published in NA.

There's weird shit in every company, so I don't doubt it. Mostly brought it up because seeing someone talk up Blizzard's work culture made me fall out of my chair laughing. Wasn't even an attempt to defend SE, who I have no problem criticizing.

[Shinkuno]

There's weird shit in every company, so I don't doubt it. Mostly brought it up because seeing someone talk up Blizzard's work culture made me fall out of my chair laughing. Wasn't even an attempt to defend SE, who I have no problem criticizing.

Why did it make you fall out of your chair when they fired the harassers (if they even worked in the company still, most of the lawsuit stuff was ex-employees) and people that actually work there saying there is a positive trend?

[Raven2014]

Why did it make you fall out of your chair when they fired the harassers (if they even worked in the company still, most of the lawsuit stuff was ex-employees) and people that actually work there saying there is a positive trend?

Well, for one, some of the examples people are citing in this thread came from those years when the shit was going on. For two, it's called "workplace culture issue", not "workplace incident". Workplace culture is formed because most people are ok with it, or don't care about it, often in plain sight. That's why it takes a long time to form, and a long time to fix. Seeing it was just last year that they had to cancel Blizzcon 2022 and paid a 18mil settlement due to the fallout, I can totally understand the reaction why someone would "fall off their chair laughing" seeing what people have been posting the last few page.

I'm not saying Acti/Blizz should be held to this stain forever but ... well, I can put it a more polite way if it helps - it seems at least imprudent to bring them up "now" as a "good" example of workplace culture.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Fully agreed. It’s absurd that Square Enix is forcing Yoshida to work on both FF14 and FF16, their two biggest titles. This has never been done before in Square’s production cycle and is indicative of the increasingly abusive work culture in the Japanese gaming industry. They still prioritize crunch. No wonder Yoshida had a breakdown towards Endwalker’s launch. Who could blame him? Many salarymen throw themselves at trains for far less.

Needless to say, Square Enix is complicit in labor abuses and fostering a toxic workplace culture. It’s time we took a stand against this. We should not support this company. Do not but FF16, and unsubscribe from FF14 if you can handle it.

Despite the troubles that Blizzard has gone through, they’ve greatly improved their workplace culture and no longer have the terrible crunch cycles that Square Enix still has. Square needs to do better.

You're forgetting the fact that Yoshida wanted to take the opportunity into making the next big mainline single player FF game. So good on him for achieving something he always wanted to do.

[caffe_macchiato]

You're forgetting the fact that Yoshida wanted to take the opportunity into making the next big mainline single player FF game. So good on him for achieving something he always wanted to do.

Now that's just wrong. The original poster said:

Devs also have a life, there's also budget so it's understandable if sometimes they take the easy way to solve problems (like the current fix for PLD, not adding instanced housing but instead just copy paste wards, etc).

Now you're telling us Yoshida chose to take on this workload, knowing that he'd have to "take the easy way" and cut corners with FFXIV? That's plain irresponsible. So which is it? You can't have it both ways.

So good on him for achieving something he always wanted to do.

What about us?

[Raven2014]

What about us?

Who is "us"?

[Atelier-Bagur]

Now that's just wrong. The original poster said:

Now you're telling us Yoshida chose to take on this workload, knowing that he'd have to "take the easy way" and cut corners with FFXIV? That's plain irresponsible. So which is it? You can't have it both ways.

What about us?

Im sorry to say but people do not you owe you anything. Just like game developers are not owed to stay in one project. These people most likely want to stretch their wings and gain experience working in multiple projects and it happens to a lot of developers in the field. What about us? In many of the interviews Yoshida has always expressed how he always wanted to be the producer to one of the main FF games. FFXIV was just handed to him and inherited a lot of its legacy and problems. It wasnt a project of his yet he stuck with it because he wanted to make this game good. Now that he has, he would like to take his crack on something he can create from scracth. FFXVI is his chance for that. And he also has gone on record that he would like to produce one more MMO before he dies (perhaps the 3rd mmo for the FF series?) so gaining experience in the field is always good for the developers, rather than staying stuck with one thing is usually not very good in the long run. You'd get burned out.

And even then you guys are acting as if he's just gone. He's still managing this game, despite people believing that its quality has deteriorated.