Looks like we've got a smoking gun

General Discussion
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Or at least a whistleblower.

I just want to say right now that I’ve personally focused a lot of attacks toward Blizzard, and I just want any of the original or based Blizz folk to know that the attacks have only been meant toward the corruption. It’s pretty clear to me that Blizzard was taken over when they struck gold with WoW, the kind of platform that corrupt corporations would actively takeover for the intent of strangling all wallets with whatever attracts the most people.

I commend the bravery of David Brevik for speaking out and all Blizzard employees that have tried to fight back or hold their ground. It’s been clear to me for a long time now that we’ve been dealing with some dark forces as community members of Blizzard’s games, and we’ve had a lot of tactics sent our way to poison our discourse and have been given structure for establishing scapegoats.

I’m still here because I support the work the gamers and game developers have done in terms of games and communities prior to Vivendi and Activision’s takeover. And I’m still here to try and fight for what’s right. I’m glad we have a voice out there now to help shine some light on the situation. I hope more step forward.

Thank you.

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You mean to tell me that a Multi Billion dollar company isn’t all rainbows and sunshine that they want you to think they are?

The horror.

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Is that an excuse for them?

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ya the initial appeal of blizzard was that they were games made by gamers for gamers, what it has turned into is more like games by emplyees for investors… just the sad world we live in, they are far from the only ones to adopt this approach.

look at the fiasco EA went through last year or the year before.

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The forum NPCs don’t care or don’t understand I guess.

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Sadly people still buy ea products. After the fiasco P2W battlefront 2 ill never buy again from EA.

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The initial appeal of Blizzard to me was they made good games with interesting settings, but now… they don’t. They’ve gone the way of Activision (since they are controlled by them) and EA in milking money out of IPs until they shrivel up after losing all of their soul, and fit on your phone.

#YouGuysHavePhonesRight

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Poetic. :writing_hand:

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There’s nothing quite so annoying as disingenuous concern.

Not to mention, Brevik was never a founder of Blizzard. He led Blizzard NORTH - which was originally a company named Condor that Blizzard purchased and hasn’t actually worked for Blizzard in, what, 20 years now?

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He has friends in Blizzard that’s how he can be so certain. You on the other hand say he is 100% FAKE. The irony in not seeing your own nature.

Anyway on topic, it just shows that now is the time to jump ship. All the cool Blizzard people should join Ben Brode and Rob Pardo. Now is the time, you can get in early, be part of those companies before they get big. There isn’t much left at Blizzard, if high level employees can’t keep their jobs there isn’t going to be anyone left to protect you all soon.

I bet there will be a big exodus later, then it is going to even be harder to get into something big, you’ll have all these blue employees clinging onto whatever they can get.

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You’re not fooling anyone.

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That is all you got to say?

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That’s also when they joined Activision. What a coincidence.

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Coincidence? That was my point.

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Yeah, the company that made Diablo.

#Phones

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The guy that in the video excerpt (the grey headed guy talking about pay scales) sounds like he’s just leaving part of the story out. He mentioned that the bonus structure was going away, but did not mention at all (that I heard) anything about the “adding it into the base salary” thing. He didn’t say they were doing it, he didn’t say that they weren’t…he just didn’t mention it at all.

He also sounded drunk, not passionate.

I mean, if the company does get rid of the profit sharing program and does nothing to compensate then yeah, it’s pretty crappy to do that. But this guy really doesn’t sound like he knows what he’s talking about to be honest.

I also heard nothing in there that would lead me to believe that Morheim was “forced” out or that the entirety of the company believes anything. Some drunk guy saying “you don’t like this then leave” says nothing. He could be making that part up entirely. All I heard was a drunk sounding guy saying a some stuff and ignoring other stuff. Even the lady didn’t seem to really be paying much attention to him. She just sounds like she’s agreeing hoping he’ll shut up.

The reality is that profit sharing is not as big as it used to be; many companies are either rolling those funds into a 401k (sometimes in a single payment, sometimes in quarterly payments) and some are doing away with them all together in favor of increased base salaries simply because it’s a lower cost to the company to do this (spread across a longer period of time and/or no taxes to be paid which is a huge cost savings in its self).

This isn’t a Blizzard exclusive thing. It happens at a lot of companies. It generally (in my experience, anyway) has much less to do with profits and much more to do with cost flow and not wanting to do singular large payouts.

As far as Activision “taking over”, that may be true, but it may not be…we can’t really know and no one’s going to tell us. Speculation and rumor doesn’t make things true.

Also, Metzen didn’t leave due to pay issues or anything having to do with this. He left because of stress and wanting to be with his family more. Additionally, Activision and Blizzard have been merged since 2007. Trying to claim that all of a sudden Activision is “taking control” and making sweeping changes is a bit of an “out there” claim for anyone.

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Maybe he’s leaving part of the story out because those are exerts taken for the purpose of the Youtuber’s video.

The woman is playing a game and women generally don’t care about politics.

Just because other gaming companies are doing the same thing doesn’t mean they’re screwing all their employees over. What side are you on?

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I won’t be surprised if Blizzard locks this post and stops anyone else from seeing.
But he really is a trooper risking his job and livelihood to stand with his workers like this.

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Yet another drunken Brevik rant thread where he talks about a company that dumpstered him. What a trustworthy and unbiased opinion I’m sure he has.

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whistle blower would be someone already on the inside calling outwards, esp particular to legal and ethical concerns. Brevic may have sources inside from which he’s using, or he may be speculating from his experience in the industry, but neither would ‘whistleblower’ in the shown context.