I think we’ll be getting 9.3. 9.2 will obviously be taking place somewhere other than the Shadowlands and 9.3 can’t be talked about yet because that patch probably will too.
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One or both patches will have to eventually bring us back to Azeroth at the very least.
Which is why I’m Pro Dune
No AIs
Anywho the workers are pushing even more to unionization
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Jen Oneal left Blizzard (former head of Vicarious Visions, who are now integrated into Blizzard, and big proponent of diversity, mainly women, in tech)
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Another article about today’s topic.
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Ye her comments on the macro and micro dynamics make me Very Concerned.
edit: apparently it was announced at the shareholders meeting rather than forewarning the workers (maybe they were worried about a leak?)
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Well i’m back from my 3 day vacation. I think someone at blizzard has it against me. Nearly everything I post is deemed “inappropriate” to blizzard now.
When has Blizzard being coherent and consistent period?
I mean referring to the Jailer via a meme is inappropriate, but accusing someone of stalking is okay in their book.
Not to mention that appealing their decisions is pointless because they will double down on their decisions then tell you a lie about why they did it.
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Oh my, it gets spicier.
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It’d help if they said why they left.
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Apparently AWC people were asked to give feedback except
- No devs joined the discord
- A third party had to serve as intermediaries to not hurt dev feelings
- They were asked to not use the words imbalanced, overpowered, underpowered, and more
https://twitter.com/Ratapai_/status/1456208588565794819?t=H1ixNustXFg9Ccz6C7VUcA&s=19
https://twitter.com/Ratapai_/status/1456208947019456512?t=mYUHHRjo7OVU0Yl1SOvDrw&s=19
Relatedly the new Big Sword is an anagram of a current dev handle, which I’m hoping is an oversight and they’ll change it, because it runs contrary to the past month lol
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Update dude bro in question whistleblowing is cringe and racist and abusive and former devs have called him out with screenshots including from the discord of his abuse
But none are denying that what he said is true
And none are explaining why he was allowed in and tolerated to a point in the first place if this was known
And he apparently was invited back after being kicked out for abuse and racism, which is also not being denied
A mess.
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Disheartening is more like it.
I hope the devs realize these players should not be considered for WoW’s target market.
I noticed the other day that PVP Esports only had like 400 live views. Does anyone actually care about WoW esports anymore?
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Judging by the 400 views, no. Esports was always a niche market anyway
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Esports is also dependent on larger game health.
If the game has no cult following, the subgroups whither.
And cult following depends on good, stable, joy-inducing design
relatedly:
Contractors (which includes CS, QA, and even artists) are forced to take unpaid leave during holiday periods which puts them in financially unstable situations.
Earlier this week one of the main artists for WoW and Hearthstone mentioned that Blizzard cut him off without warning since last Christmas season which put him in a dire financial situation after 5 years of regular and constant work from Blizzard.
edit:
even more contractor work stories
Brief reductive summary:
- poverty level wages all around
- particularly abusive “crunch” dynamics
- team leads are not told by their superiors that these workers would be put under them, leading to both miscommunication, confusion, and lack of training as deadlines loom
- the typical sexist, racist, and homophobic type of abuse
- universal exclusion from company events
- being fed leftovers (like animals)
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There was quite a bit of admission of error on their part, which sounds like a good first step to fixing the problems - such as the rampant nepotism (all that “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” stuff). I’m all for equal opportunity.
Wish I could say the same about the cosmology part. Given what we’ve seen of Xe’ra’s story in Legion, N’Zoth’s plus the Naaru and AU Draenei’s in BfA and Elune’s and the Jailer’s in Shadowlands, they’re as unfit to do cosmic stories as they are to make a workplace culture.
You said in another thread you don’t want to see them make An’she evil. They might not, but An’she’s connection to the Light plus the Light Crusade/Yrel’s Holy Terror expansion they’re gunning for doesn’t fill me with confidence. I hope things get better.
The machine learning talk is troubling too. It sounds like they’ll use machines to search for keywords, and that sounds too much like Thought Police or keyword warrants.
FYI:
ATVI Demurrer in State case was filed. Hearing date of February 15th 2022 for that.
ATVI and EEOC responded to DFEH in the Federal Court; they think DFEH needs to buzz off. ATVI responded to the union filing saying they should go away too.
EEOC remains angry at DFEH.
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It’s actually even worse and makes Bobby’s attempts at dismissal and insisting no trial another level of evil
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This is why I commented on his previous apology the way I did : if he acknowledges things under his tenure were wrong, he should consider greater portions of his past earnings as ill gained. Sure, he is declining future bonuses and taking a minimum salary going forward - but he is happy to keep all the money he earned while he allowed all this to go on.
But now it seems much worse. It seems he didn’t just allow it because he was not paying enough attention. It seems he knew full well about it, knowingly allowed it to continue, and was more concerned with hiding it from investors than stopping it.
Wish I could say I was outraged or surprised. But it just seems par for the course.
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That does not surprise me tbh, because that’s how corporate culture works. Its gross as all get out, but when you build your society around capitalism, then money is always going to talk louder than people. Its really just the same sort of manifestation of raw greed we saw back in the Gilded Age, just under a slightly less blatantly abusive and corrupt wrapper so long as you don’t pay attention too closely.
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It turns out that “forced sexual intercourse,” actually did happen at Blizzard. I am not surprised, but the original lawsuit didn’t mention that.
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