So, uhh, we’ve got sort of a doozy this time. I’ll be surprised if this thread doesn’t get “misplaced.”
My opinions on this won’t be a surprise to anyone who visits these forums regularly, but I will be interested to know Blizzard’s response. It will definitely not be “suddenly compensate everyone fairly;” but I guess we’ll get to see how good their PR team is now.
Also, to the minimum-wage moderator who will inevitably be reading this: you deserve a living wage and to be fairly compensated for your work. Get with your coworkers to discuss unionizing or other collective bargaining options.
Not too terribly surprising. Blizzard’s underwhelming pay has been pretty pretty openly talked about for a while now, and they’ve mostly survived coasting on prestige. Good to see their workers getting more proactive about getting word out.
Yes, really. I know it seems like half the posters here (and most of the kids in the poetry club at any local HS) could do it, but the reality is it would cost them a lot to do properly.
It’s so much more than ideas or plot or even dressing up game mechanics. Most game stories are bad imo.
Then you have to take into account the ill effects of their mid and senior managers, the greedy CEO, the corporate culture etc.
The worst part? I got excited by this thread title because I thought we were all going to be adding to a spreadsheet
Honestly, Bobby Kotick makes way too much money a year. It’s disgusting they laid off 800 employees when he gets paid that much.
I hope the Devs and other employees unionize. There needs to be a game industry union. Crunch, sexual harassment, underpaying, etc… it’s all disgusting and needs to stop.
I’d love to see a strike, even if it meant Shadowlands was pushed out a year or more.
Bobby don’t care none about games or gamers - Activision-Blizzard is his personal piggy bank that exists for no other reason than to shut down studios in order to provide him a lifestyle of excess and a recession-proof retirement fund. Basically they buy studios, squeeze the money out of 'em (more games, less quality), and when they bleed 'em dry they lay everyone off, shutter the studio, and then write the whole thing off as a loss on their taxes.
It’s basically what Mitt Romney did at Bain Capital, but it wasn’t gaming so nobody paid attention.
This is totally unrelated, but it’s funny that you mention that, since I was thinking the other day about how someone making a survey to semi-reasonably figure out the numbers and demography of WoW roleplayers would be a good use of quarantine time.
Given how skittish everyone (rightly) is over privacy, though, the whole project would have to have very careful optics.
Just an investment company that gets companies they invest in to take out huge loans so shareholders can make some money and then the company fails because the debt is crippling. It’s a pretty solid strategy- colleges, gaming companies, heck even I might give it a shot.
I thought she needed help with a spreadsheet and it was finally my time to shine.
On topic: The unfortunate reality is that a lot of these passion careers are exactly like this because there will always be a thousand young squidlings eager to get into making video games because video games are the sole crux of their identity and who wouldn’t want to make games for Blizzard, they made my entire childhood!
At the risk of being terribly cynical this is why all of the “Oh god, why did that happen and no one say anything?” things tend to fall flat. Someone is always willing to value their time, self-respect, self-esteem, or even in some instances their body less if it means finally getting into what the “big leagues” of their life is.
So, suffice to say there are journalists keen to write stories about this and are seeking sources. Not suggesting mods should reach out, just sharing an example for The Discourse.
It’s almost like billion dollar companies have literally no excuse not to pay their employees fairly.
That it’s the pure unadulterated greed of blood sucking evil parasites like Bobby Kotick that insure workers are poorly treated and poorly paid while he hordes wealth like a fatter uglier Smaug.
Also friendly reminder that while Activision Blizzard employees frequently skip meals, eat the bare minimum to not die, or often cant afford the food in their own damn cafeteria, leeches like Bobby Kotick are taking home upwards of $40 Million a year and boasting of record breaking financial success all the while having their tax refunds subsidized by the taxpayers due to a legal tax loophole it’s been exploiting for years.
There is a reason people photoshop devil horns onto Bobby Kotick, and it’s because he’s #^ing evil.
This is also why socialism is no longer a dirty word. There’s a whole generation that’s grown only to find that capitalism has failed them, and they’re out to find an alternative.
