Statement by former CM Nevalistis/Brandy/Dayntee

For me personally, I always appreciated the fact that she was confident enough to apologize when there was the realization that my math was right after all and the issue was their dataset and extrapolation.

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Actually, that kind of position was ā€œjust part of the job,ā€ and was no different from my job at one time or another. Itā€™s an age old problem where the ones in charge very often seek a sacrificial lamb to appease the ā€œgodsā€ theyā€™ve angered. I play D3 and used to play WoW, but Iā€™m certainly not a fan boy (not at 72). But after seeing and hearing how the head offices conduct themselves in their bubbles, Iā€™m pretty convinced, one on one, theyā€™re not fit to shine my armor.

Yep. I am old too, but not as well aged as you are :slight_smile:
The senior management seems to lose focus on what matters, on what right and wrong are, and even on what the customers want.

They wonā€™t listen to the lower level folks, and when the lower level folks were right, they hang them out to dry instead of learning from them. If for some reason they think you are ā€œlesserā€ (being a woman or minority or not in their friends group), you wonā€™t have the professional promotion and project chances.

Then there is the whole culture of drinking, flirting, sexual assault, etc.

Between the two, it is a long standing issue that needs fixing. Work that involves a lot of social entertaining (cons, parties, dinners) seems to be more prone to the drinking/flirting/sex culture too. Games is FULL of ā€œentertainment cultureā€. Dangerous mix when not well thought out.

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Thereā€™s a separate, yet related underlying issue to the misogyny at play here, and this is the best name I have for it: Developer Ego.

Iā€™ve known this all along. If you look at D3 and what a steaming pile of poo it has become, donā€™t blame corporate, or investors, or CMs. The Blizzard devs are the real problem. These are arrogant people whose egos canā€™t take feedback from fans and D4 will probably fail in the same way. Just look at Jay Wilson FFS. Total loser.

I decided after the Hong Kong incident to not buy D4. That decision stays after seeing all this.

What about D2R, D:I or any other Blizzard game?

D2R was supposed to be my last game, but now Iā€™m not even sure about that. DI I might play if itā€™s cracked by Fairlight and released for computers.

I hear rumors about new Windows having native emulation support or something? So maybe down the road no cracks or emulators will be required.

I donā€™t have a device to play DI on either.

Native support for running the game wont help with controls though. But would be interesting with good PC support.

HR isnā€™t there for the humans they are there for the corporation. Sadly the overpaid HR departments are responsible for this culture. I canā€™t imagine trying to stay at a job if I was being treated lie Brandy was.

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Just wanted to chime in here and say Nevalistis accomplishments and lasting impact she had on the Diablo franchise is forever important.

The Diablo franchise and community wouldnā€™t be here without her contributions. I unfortunately didnā€™t get a chance to work with her but can say that she set paved the way for the current community team to do so much. Iā€™m glad I can still keep in touch with her and Iā€™m glad she is thriving on D&D as the Wizards of the Coast crew are close friends and rockstars!

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Thank you MissCheetah for sharing the blogpost, itā€™s pretty eye-opening in terms of how people were treated, what the company culture was like, and just how toxic and mismanaged it has been.

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I will add I hope you donā€™t have to suffer this same frustrations as Nevalistis did, Pez.

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Sadly, thatā€™s going to be management dependent. Until things improve in those parts of Blizzard where the power is, heā€™ll be just as limited in scope as Brandy was, despite having to do a lot more than the job title alludes to.

Activision-Blizzard is morally bankrupt and utterly toxic, and I will not be purchasing any of their future games for as long as I live.

Blizzard is dead, money ruins everything.

These issues have existed in industry far and wide with, or without, money. Money did not make people behave that way nor did it make them devalue their coworkers.

It just lets them get away with it longer.

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I find it a little bit hard to believe that though.

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If it took having money to make people harass, abuse, discriminate, etc - we would never have any people in jail or up for charges who were poor.

Money did not make them do that. It just lets them get away with it longer - see powerful people in entertainment, media, politics, business.

You just get called out on it/caught faster when you donā€™t have the money or power to protect bad behavior.

Money and power just protect people from consequences of their actions.

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I have always enjoyed Nev/Brandy when she was on the forums and putting out videos and stuff.

I thought she was one of the best faces of the Diablo 3 community team they ever had.

After reading that post above, I am actually upset over what happened to her over her time there. That is all unthinkable!

I donā€™t blame her for leaving. I also never blamed her for the DI fiasco, though I knew she had to take a lot of heat over it, being the public face so to speak.

Man.

Iā€™m just really bothered by her having to have gone through all that. Ugh.

And Cheetah has known me for a long time, Iā€™m usually pretty hard to get that upset, but this hit me hard today.

Speaking of, one of these days we should chat and catch upā€¦ :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Game on respectfully.

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Wayy too self-centric, perhaps thatā€™s why itā€™s legit but still self-centric

There IS a sad truth in the world that we live in, not the ones that produce and care the most get the promotion, but the ones that manipulate things the most in order to get it. Also when things go wrong itā€™s the ā€œfreshest hiredā€ individual that gets either the axe or the blame

If I were like her Iā€™d have had to write 5 ā€œessaysā€ like these, but come on, thereā€™s ALWAYS another position/job/company, and your new effort will probably be better than the ones previously

Some people just think expectation for perfection and justice is a norm, it isnā€™t, the real issue is well-described in the first paragraph, ā€œmentally exhausting and low payā€ā€¦

Hereā€™s a simple example at my first job lol, the very first day I showed up I was given the screwdriver and a bunch of old PCs and the task I got was ā€œassemble something you can work on withā€, then the next half-year or whatever got a task to rework 9 reports and create a new one in 4 daysā€¦ Not only I did rework them but made the new one better (silly me :P), the result ?, you think I got a ā€œbravoā€ or a commendation or a reward or something ?, nope, what I got is the good olā€™ ā€œwhy didnā€™t you make the previous ones with the new changeā€ :smiley:

I mean, itā€™s part of the whole story, bosses, managers, e.t.c. are jerks, itā€™s simple as thatā€¦ Kudos to the exceptions and I mean for real, but it is what it is

IDK, I wonā€™t discredit articles on personal experience/s but kinda feels ā€œself-centricā€ when the whole tone of things goes like ā€œIā€™m highly qualified worker but didnā€™t get respectedā€ kind of thing

Heck this year alone in a team of 4 people we got the greatest praise/commendation from the company while simultaneously I got a warning and got placed under PIPā€¦ :P, sometimes think people take ā€œreviews and gradingā€ and all that stuff too seriously

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