its sad really but than again i say this every 5 years orso for the passed 30 orso years about some once great company the worlds going to hell kids and its greed thats doing it. but you wont listen because your still enthralled by big corporations untill you wise up in your mid 40's and than it will be to late
It's what happens when business finds a golden goose. If anything it releases gets a pretty positive reception and makes a lot of money, then you try to minimize expenses and maximize profits. The problem is that at some point you cross the line - in video games this is often seen through underpaid staff, selling crap or simply filling your game with anti consumer mechanics such as microtransactions. It works pretty well at first if the IP is beloved, but people tire of it sooner or later. The problem is the road there is often incredibly profitable and then you wake up to an absolute dumpster fire of a company which used to be a literal cash cow.
Oh man, wait 'till you see corrupt big goverments to fall under destruction caused by corruption , triggering massive resetting economic collapse. A possible change of regime, in worst case to globalism utopia , dollar and euro devaluation to not rigged value and previous metals( especially) with crypto currency stay high. Having no debt to afford those precious metals, crypto and after some self sustainable food ( right seeds and right planting condition) would be valuable in time everything falls.
its almost inevitable, once a company reaches a certain size this kind of thing is almost certain to happen. There is a sweet spot when a studio is of small or medium size and making good game but not TOO popular that they attract too much attention from the giants and then get bought and assimilated into the greed system.
Yup, loads of people cried out in horror when Activision 'merged' with Blizzard, predicting this happening. With the gradual take over by Activision personnel into key executive Blizzard positions it was a forgone conclusion that the B of yore was already a dead festered body shambling to the tune of a corpse maker.
True, however the revenue lost by having inexperienced staff doesn't show up on the quarterly earnings report, so it's a win-win for the C level employees who themselves are pressured to deliver fast, infinite growth by the shareholders. I love capitalism but this is a perverted, putrid, and backward system of incentives that grinds people to bring out the worst in them.
@ActionGenesis and the Publishers wonder why developers are contemplating unionizing, because it may be the only way to put a stop to the Publishers greed.
@@NerdishGeekish Well then the board is not doing it's fiduciary duties to the shareholders. There's a part of me that really just wants to see these AAA gaming companies to imploded and for newer companies to emerge. Get those money grubbing capitalist out of our engaging and lore-filled games.
@@mrheroprimes Or help it and now be blameless. Perhaps that's what they are trying to make happen the unions because that would really benefit Activision and Blizzard.
And we both lost. Blizz for starters needs to move out of fucking Cali.... It's one of the most ASS backward states in the union and is just completely antithetical to business growth. It isn't talked about as much other than by Right-wingers because of holywood etc fucking shields the garbage ass state from criticism by labeling anyone who speaks up as right-wing lol as if its some sort of insult or something... The state Bliz is in, is comparatively just as out of touch with reality as Bliz is with their customer base.
Thumbs up. Thank you for keeping us as up to date as you can. When a company refuses to pay a reasonable hourly wage dream job or not it would make living in a fairly big or possibly expensive place tricky, I would think so at least. I hope the company will make the change to support their employees more or something.
I remember when Activision first merged with blizz everyone was super upset saying that blizz would die as a result... Flashforward to current day, here we see that issue coming true...
I remember noone losing a word about it, when the merger happened (which was before WotLK launched). People only blamed Activision for things ActivisionBlizzard dies after things went bad years later.
@@CazaliEiben I called it as soon as the merger happened Bobby Kotick is rot and famine and death in one package. He is a horrible human being. "Horrible Human Being" That's the description of him. i have never met anyone like him, wonder how a timeline without him would look.
@@peteh460 probably salt about Eververse[which is bad] but its definitely not worse. they did say this years content wouldnt be too big until Season 11 anyway, guy just lacks information xD
Activision-Blizzard paid ZERO in US federal taxes in 2019. They're a Fortune 500 company. There is NO EXCUSE for the abuses they have perpetrated on their workforce.
The govt borrows 100% of their budget from the central bank. Then collects taxes to pay the loan interest. A perpetual circle of ever increasing debt, which has been growing since 1913. It's all rather pointless...
I remember when the word “Blizzard” used to inspire awe in its fans and fear in its competitors. Now the word is nothing but a speck of its former glory. So sad to see one of my favorite video game creators of all time fall so low from their lofty status. All i can hope for now is that Activision - Blizzard will see what really matters and create games for the fans by fans, but that seems far fetched
basically THIS is what we feared and saw coming when activision and blizzard merged. Blizzard lost it's focus on creating great gaming properties and are weighed down by corporate chasing profits. Business endeavors should be about sustaining relevance within ones field and in the process not losing money. If the metrics show that the profit isn't as great as last years, you seek improvements, you don't cut off people by their ankles to save money on shoes ffs. And no, i don't know anything about publicly traded companies but infinite growth is impossible. they gotta manage the highs and lows, like how a ship in a storm follows the waves it doesn't take flight into stormclouds. Them cutting community staff only proves that they don't want to work with that anymore or what it seems like in this case, they don't want to have high salaries for these positions AND seriously underestimate experience in these fields
You hit the proverbial nail on the head with that remark- "infinite growth is impossible." That's exactly why public corporations are unsustainable. Corporate law says that the company MUST act at all times in the best interest of their investors' profits. Which means that they must _always_ show profit, or else they can be literally sued. Companies grow a little, get scared they can't sustain themselves, go public, and wham. Suddenly, profit is the only thing they're _allowed_ to consider. Quality and consistency become irrelevant.
@@Kaotiqua Then every publicly traded company is doomed to collapse. It's just about how much money you can gain before that happens. If they aren't allowed to manage their business then every person working for a company like blizzard have very little job security. In my experience, there should be a correlation between amount of education necessary and job security. That's basically what companies can barter with. So things like game development which requires a lot of computer skills and programming should have better job security imo.
@@chainclaw07 To your point, nearly every large company does collapse. Today, the average lifespan of a Fortune 500 company is about 18 years, compared to about 60 back in the 1950's. FWIW, a large company has to chase a minimum standard for growth quarter over quarter to keep investors enticed into buying the company stocks. Anyone that can't maintain a baseline growth standard gets crucified at the stock market, constricting the flow capital needed to make new investments. As a company gets bigger, the more of its energy it takes to simply keep the ship afloat, let alone sailing in a productive future direction. If it wasn't for growth in the Chinese market Blizzard likely would already have hit the death spiral phase of the corporate lifecycle.
@@chainclaw07 Most publicly traded companies DO collapse, and job security is established with the employer, not the field. No amount of experience, willingness to take pay cuts, or training can protect you from a corporation that is worried about their next shareholder meeting.
Part of the issue is that until very recently, gaming consumers let them do whatever they wanted without repercussions. ActiBlizz saw 500% stock growth between 2013-2018. Why would they do anything differently? It's only since Battlefront2, Overwatch, and stuff like BLOPS4, NBA2K20, etc. that the honeymoon has ended and people have become wise to how much AAA devs will absolutely throw everyone under the bus for even $1 more money. Player and employee alike. It was great seeing Ghost Recon Breakpoint underperform by like 80% and Ubisoft's stock take like a 30% hit there - they're (claiming) to be revamping how they make games and doing an about face, but we'll see.
But it's unjust and unfair and antiproductiv to act like that...The companies should take example on Danmark where a company leadership decided to pay their workers 5 days a week for 4 days effective workdays!!! And the company made much more money after one year testing this project, cos' the workers were happier at work and less sick than before this decision was made!! So why aren't other companies doing the same everywhere?@?!? It has been proved before, that the more people are happy on their workplace the better they work and the less they get sick!! So it should be a regular thing today and everywhere in 2020, no?! A french interview from the early 70s shows that people thought we would be working less hours a week max 25 hours/w. Longer vacations between 6 and 8 weeks per year would be normal in the future people reponded And that we all will be pensioners around 55 years old! And the interview was over evolution and modernity and look what we are facing today 50 years later!!! We are going back on everything as here in Switzerland, where we are working between 43 and 45 hours a week and expected to work until 65 or 67!!!! In Switzerland!!! The "wealthiest" country in the world...but with over a million of poor people or working poors living under the social limit!!! And with only 8,2 millions habitants it's a lot no? And when you know it's only 1% of billionaires possessing the 80% of the swiss PIB (=the national/ internal total production) you could say that this 1% is gaining their billions thanks to / over the poors and the rest of the producers= we/the swiss people!! And it's the same in France under Macrons liberal politics, same in other countries all around the world, but what pleases me and gives me hope is that more and more people are getting aware of this situation and are starting to protest massively against the capitalists and liberals order who drives us right into the wall of a catastrophic climate warming issue that will kill us all...so we've got to stop them somehow! I was listening to "the Convocouch" a very good and free channel in the USA this morning and it was so interesting to here about all the politic charges against Trump and Hillary for instance and I think Americans will save our planet with their vote for Bernie Sanders or the other young woman with spanish or mexican origins!?(don't remember her name right now but I'm sure you know who I mean!) Anyway we all got to unite against the liberal capitalism around the world if we will save our civilisation...Time for changes has come even to little conservative Switzerland...Sending you my best regards and hope for a better, kinder and positive future for us all! 😉👍💞💛💚
He is full of shit. Bellular hitched his wagon to blizzard years ago and still does to this day. He is a hypocrite. If he felt so strongly, why not abandon making videos about blizzards news, games, and development? It puts food on his table thats why. And from what I can see, he hasnt missed a meal yet. He should be quiet.
@@navajo237 he has to make rent doesn't he? "why not stop making videos on a company that does dumb shit" cause it gets views and he needs to pay bills.
@@UniqueBreakfastTaco Anyone is free to re-evaluate anytime. If Blizzard wasnt as big of deal as he is stating, and they are practicing these terrible things he is saying, then he wouldnt be covering them, and their games on a daily basis. He makes money off of them. What does that make him?
'This is a UA-cam comment for the almighty algorithm. it contains words like, terrific, outstanding, incredible and brilliant to satiate its hunger for engagement.'
Management is like: oh our games are popular, we gonna make profit, and employees we can't exploit will be replaced by fresh interns who will agree on starting salary. Seeing this over and over everywhere.
At this point, whether I buy a game or not depends on whether I want to support their industry practices, and I'm having a lot of fun with Mega Man Zero 2 atm so I don't see that changing soon.
I remember when I worked for circuit city and they did this very thing. They fired everyone who made 16.00 or more and hour. There logic was why have one person for 16 when you can have 2 for 8.00 an hour. They essentially fired 60% of their senior staff. What bit them in the butt was these former employees had a huge loyal customer base and these loyal customers followed the employees to their new job as many went to circuit cities competitors. This was so bad for circuit city that they tried to re-hire many of those they fired and nearly all of them told circuit city to pound sand. The company went out of business like a year later.
I agree with you, Circuit City had forgotten that they were dealing with people and not just numbers on a spreadsheet. I mean sure, it looked like they were going to double their workforce and allow for a more productive business but like you pointed out. They forgot the human connection and it backfired on them big time. In short, they tried to to increase productivity which would would have meant more money and their greed destroyed them.
@@maelys8851 Blizzard has taken note. they look at time engagement by the player base as a major metric. If you are buying their game but not engaging with it over an extended period of time that shows its not enjoyable.
@@silencedmaxim5889 it's an example of why this logic is bad, portrayed from a more obviously stupid angle. I'm not a vegan, and if I were one I would advocate against meet industries instead of morally impune people for not being vegan.
I worked for Blizzard years ago as tech support (before they merged tech with account support) and after about a year or so I left. The pay was terrible for the work we had to do and no amount of free soda vending machines, arcade cabinets, and cool little parties at the office could make up for the fact that I was underpaid and not happy. It wasn't a developing position so I can't speak for that side of Blizzard, but I can say that the employees I worked along with mostly felt underpaid and that the general consensus was that we would easily be replaced by a swarm of people who would work there in a heartbeat just because it was "Blizzard". There was no reason for management to pay us a more fair compensation when the doors are lined with people trying to get in. Hell, I left a higher paying job just to be a part of a gaming company myself.
to be fair, as far as I know, the tech support is the largest branch of the company in terms of staff and employer's charges. Combined with a constant stream of applicants and relative low standard for job requirements, and the fact that this branch doesn't directly generate revenue, why would a company spend high amounts on salery in that division? I think it's comparable to call center work, which also is generally aimed towards young employees.
At the end of the day we all individually agree or disagree to our paycheques. If you feel you're not earning what you're worth LEAVE. For any job in any life. It's a fallacy of our inner fears to theorize on the what ifs when you do quit.
This makes me sad, I have seen this coming for years now. And Blizzard WAS my dream job. I had always looked up to them, now as of my last semester as an UX designer Bachelor student. I wouldnt waste a second to even make an attempt to apply for this greedy n immoral company.
This is what happens when the investors and shareholders put bean counters in charge. You got derivative garbage made for the lowest common denominator via focus groups, all while purging the people with actual passion trying to make the product good and ensuring the only employees that are left are simply milking paychecks. It really shows in the end product...
But it's unjust and unfair and antiproductiv to act like that...The companies should take example on Danmark where a company leadership decided to pay their workers 5 days a week for 4 days effective workdays!!! And the company made much more money after one year testing this project, cos' the workers were happier at work and less sick than before this decision was made!! So why aren't other companies doing the same everywhere?@?!? It has been proved before, that the more people are happy on their workplace the better they work and the less they get sick!! So it should be a regular thing today and everywhere in 2020, no?! A french interview from the early 70s shows that people thought we would be working less hours a week max 25 hours/w. Longer vacations between 6 and 8 weeks per year would be normal in the future people reponded And that we all will be pensioners around 55 years old! And the interview was over evolution and modernity and look what we are facing today 50 years later!!! We are going back on everything as here in Switzerland, where we are working between 43 and 45 hours a week and expected to work until 65 or 67!!!! In Switzerland!!! The "wealthiest" country in the world...but with over a million of poor people or working poors living under the social limit!!! And with only 8,2 millions habitants it's a lot no? And when you know it's only 1% of billionaires possessing the 80% of the swiss PIB (=the national/ internal total production) you could say that this 1% is gaining their billions thanks to / over the poors and the rest of the producers= we/the swiss people!! And it's the same in France under Macrons liberal politics, same in other countries all around the world, but what pleases me and gives me hope is that more and more people are getting aware of this situation and are starting to protest massively against the capitalists and liberals order who drives us right into the wall of a catastrophic climate warming issue that will kill us all...so we've got to stop them somehow! I was listening to "the Convocouch" a very good and free channel in the USA this morning and it was so interesting to here about all the politic charges against Trump and Hillary for instance and I think Americans will save our planet with their vote for Bernie Sanders or the other young woman with spanish or mexican origins!?(don't remember her name right now but I'm sure you know who I mean!) Anyway we all got to unite against the liberal capitalism around the world if we will save our civilisation...Time for changes has come even to little conservative Switzerland...Sending you my best regards and hope for a better, kinder and positive future for us all! 😉👍💞💛💚
That's corporate America for you. To use video game terminology, these aren't bugs, these are features. There's no hope for these big companies anymore, all they produce is trash at this point. Put your faith in the indies
To give a bit more insight: It's about numbers, individual impact doesn't play a role, it's completely dehumanized. This is pretty common when business side takes over. You hire someone and their is clear definition what he is able to do which has nothing to do what the person actually is capable of. In Blizzney case: We need to save money, so we fire CM and divide the work across the rest. On paper it seems it works, but it completely ignores what the person actually contributes
"when the investors and shareholders put bean counters in charge" Unless you are a huge whale, your opinion as a investor counts for jack shit. The management does what the management wants, if you don't like it you sell your shares and move on.
@@Fankas2000 most investors are average working class folks who have retirement accounts. Some huge whale? Wut? Where do you people come up with this bullshit?
This is happening all over the tech industry not just with gaming. Experienced people are getting fired then the positions are listed again with more resp. added for a lower pay. Also outsourcing to much cheaper locations is also a thing. Having worked for a major it and software company (one of the behemoths) I can confirm my entire location getting fired due to what they claimed over staffing. In short they did not have a use for us. Even though we were drowning in the work they kept forcing on us. The very next day a rumor goes out about a new location being opened (confirmed one week later) where they hired 5 times more people for the exact same thing. We were all stunned. Until, through sources in the company that were pissed to no end by this move, we found out the wages were literally 10 times lower and more importantly this company had previously received all of our internal documentation and procedures. (we had developed them internally never anything official but they helped us do a better job and make our lives easier in many situations.) Our locations internal procedures were never considered official and were never mentioned anywhere because they were internal and based off of the workflow that we did. It seems the behemoth all of a sudden decided that our own work separate of anything official was very good and just took it and applied it wherever they wanted. Needless to say when we find out where our jobs were going we started laughing our asses off and about 2 months later the first holes started to appear. Quality went down hill faster than you can blink. Satisfaction with the work from the company is great since they reduced their costs over 10 times. As for the products and the customers...well they have a pretty large disclaimer (larger than before) where it says that pretty much anything and everything is sort of beta version now and you may or may not be able to use the products and features. But since most of them are beta version or proof of concept (never saw that while I was working there) you do not get any refunds and are not allowed to complain that much. Also tech support for the products is not a bonus feature. But hey the money keeps rolling so who cares. I also blame in a small part the customers for being brain dead sheep and agreeing to this. Since you have to agree to all of this. Literally you have to check a box that say so.
@@Krelian89 Except each NA developer does the work of at least 3 devs in India, not counting the extra time spent in meetings with them and debugging their code. Cheating and cert farms are too much a part of the culture over there to expect anything better. If they were actually good, they almost always move to the US where the pay is far better.
@@micheletaylor6341 welcome to globalism lad! where the western 1st world nations and their people must BURN to make atonement for their forefathers sins while also ensuring the surviving lineage of the true criminal's endures LONG past our peoples and our cultures and our countries have been ground to dust and erased from the history books, aren't you glad you joined this?
@@chrisjackson1215 That's also not correct. It wasn't a sale or a takeover, it was a merger. Why do people think of Blizzard as some indie gaming company? When they merged, Activision and Blizzard were the second and third largest game companies in the world by revenue, and combined to become the first ever since. Neither took over the other, they merged. If someone was an Activision fan (That doesn't exist, but IF), they could say the same thing in the other direction.
@Josef Nagy it isn't a merger by choice. When another Company buys up copious amounts if your shares and says "lets merge". Thats called a hostile takeover; something Activision does on a regular basis.
@@Voldrim359 that doesen't matter either. if you done your research..blizzard usually only hires new people as its easy to exploit them. it's a tactic a lot gaming companies now use.
yet some chum will accept that horrible salary. People need to, collectively, start having principles and force blizz to actually pay their staff what they're worth.
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Last year i asked my boss for a higher salary, his answer was like: if you only work here for money you are at the wrong place, people should work to improve themselves. Then he offered me more money if i could do the work of 5 days in 3 and work the remaining 2 days in another division of our company.
@@Messametti why would anyone not work for money? That's like saying a business shouldn't be in it for the profit. But that is literally the only reason a business exists. Seriously, you need to start looking for a new job at a higher salary.
I love when Blizzard gets in trouble and everyone acts like their mother and uses their full name. "Blizzard did what!? ACTIVISION-BLIZZARD get down here!"
@Weghweh Hwewehwhe My comment was a joke about how people only mention Activision when something bad happens. As for your comment.. I honestly have no insider knowledge on how Blizzard makes decisions, or how involved Activision is on those decisions, so I really can't respond.
@@leeallen5132 It's all Activision now. I only call it Activision when discussing anything related to the company, positive or negative. Blizzard is nothing but a zombie name at this point.
@@drb4074 I dont know what you mean by any of that.. Activision is a publisher they have no power over hiring, and they dont have input in the creative process beyond setting deadlines and finances
@@leeallen5132 You don't know anything at all about how companies work then, do you? After you educate yourself, then you can make statements about them.
@@leeallen5132 Here, I dug this up as an example for you since you seem to be an ignoramus: techcrunch.com/2019/01/10/bungie-takes-back-its-destiny-and-departs-from-activision/ From the story "Pressure from Activision meant Bungie had to focus on meeting deadlines rather than pursue the “it’s ready when it’s ready” philosophy" You see, Bungie needed cash to do what they wanted to do, so they 'partnered' up with Activision. Because Activision is so big nowadays they like to venture capitalize with other gaming companies. But guess what? They also exert pressure for you to produce profits, and more profits, and MORE profits. Sure, they let you keep the company 'intact' and by name allow you to make the decisions. But are you really? Bungie got fed up with Activision pushing them to turn their games into microtransaction milking stations to be profitable (or, greedy as Activision really operates) even though they left Bungie to their own devices for working on Destiny franchise. So they bought their way out. Blizzard is essentially incapable of that at this point, since the pressure from Activision basically has chased all the core minds from Blizzard that created the company. It's become a shell of itself, and is now doing the work of Activision by proxy.
Ever since mike stepped down, you knew what was happening. The founder was booted out and replaced by his friend, who probably stabbed him in the back for a bit of silver.
It's too common in workplace: "We fired/refused to hire people, put the workload on the underpaid/understaffed employees along with work that was above their paygrade because we can."
But it's unjust and unfair and antiproductiv to act like that...The companies should take example on Danmark where a company leadership decided to pay their workers 5 days a week for 4 days effective workdays!!! And the company made much more money after one year testing this project, cos' the workers were happier at work and less sick than before this decision was made!! So why aren't other companies doing the same everywhere?@?!? It has been proved before, that the more people are happy on their workplace the better they work and the less they get sick!! So it should be a regular thing today and everywhere in 2020, no?! A french interview from the early 70s shows that people thought we would be working less hours a week max 25 hours/w. Longer vacations between 6 and 8 weeks per year would be normal in the future people reponded And that we all will be pensioners around 55 years old! And the interview was over evolution and modernity and look what we are facing today 50 years later!!! We are going back on everything as here in Switzerland, where we are working between 43 and 45 hours a week and expected to work until 65 or 67!!!! In Switzerland!!! The "wealthiest" country in the world...but with over a million of poor people or working poors living under the social limit!!! And with only 8,2 millions habitants it's a lot no? And when you know it's only 1% of billionaires possessing the 80% of the swiss PIB (=the national/ internal total production) you could say that this 1% is gaining their billions thanks to / over the poors and the rest of the producers= we/the swiss people!! And it's the same in France under Macrons liberal politics, same in other countries all around the world, but what pleases me and gives me hope is that more and more people are getting aware of this situation and are starting to protest massively against the capitalists and liberals order who drives us right into the wall of a catastrophic climate warming issue that will kill us all...so we've got to stop them somehow! I was listening to "the Convocouch" a very good and free channel in the USA this morning and it was so interesting to here about all the politic charges against Trump and Hillary for instance and I think Americans will save our planet with their vote for Bernie Sanders or the other young woman with spanish or mexican origins!?(don't remember her name right now but I'm sure you know who I mean!) Anyway we all got to unite against the liberal capitalism around the world if we will save our civilisation...Time for changes has come even to little conservative Switzerland...Sending you my best regards and hope for a better, kinder and positive future for us all! 😉👍💞💛💚
So many companies do this now. They fire people to "cut costs" and push their work loads on other people who are already too busy to keep up with their own. Meanwhile there are managers everywhere doing absolutely nothing and getting raises every year.
@@tinealiaswalkie7376 I'm not American, but from what I understand, Bernie Sanders would tax business owners to the extent that they would leave America altogether, meaning less work for Americans, less businesses in America and all in all, a bad outcome for all Americans. You can't give free handouts without someone having to pay for them. And the Mexican woman you're talking about is Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and she appears to be an insane bartender with no political experience to speak of. Not sure how you were thinking all of that would work out for the best.
@@Jarredlol Bernie's part of the entitlement problem. Everything should be free for everyone according to him. Free govt handouts are great until you're the one paying everyone else's bills.
@@Jarredlol ok! You seem to own a business but I wasn't talking about small companies or family business but big multinationals and they don't even pay taxes or very little, that why here in the UE and in Switzerland we're trying to sign up a very large petition to push our politics and govs to make the multinational companies more responible and for that we have to put up rules and they also have to contribute no?! Why shouldn't they?! That's not fair! They are massively dedtroying our planet and does not respect the people often poor people who work for them! They are mostly underpaid you know that too and it's just unacceptable in 2020!!! Somone said "the wealth of the rich is made out of the poors work!"! We must show these big multinational that we don't need them too by bying and consuming less and repair recycle everything that can be and we will succeed by creating small quality and ethic companies thst are close to the community that will also help saving the planet every company should be able to act a more civilian and ethic way that what I'm saying so people like Bernie who cares for others more than himself are the future for our planet and I think the right to decide and vote new rules should be accessible to the people not only one president or minister or even just a few?! It should be like in my country direct democracy look it works quite well even if some of our leaders are still directed by some lobbies...that should not be possible in the future...that's my personal point of view!
This was all foreshadowed by all the senior people, including co-founders, leaving. I've been through a number of corporate lay-offs, restructures and "new directions" in my career. Some of them required based on the financial health and viability of the organization, some on changes to the vertical and some, like this one, where new management thinks they know better than the folks running things in a healthy, successful company. Where the latter is concerned, the process is usually stalled by the people who understand the business and its customers for some amount of time before the people at the top either wear them down and they leave, move them to an irrelevant position (the one company I worked for called them "special projects" where division heads and SVP's were concerned) or they buy them out with a package. In Blizzard's case, I'm guessing it was the first one. That said, ever since the merger with Activision was announced, I've been waiting for this to occur.
@Shi Yu Meng The unending desire for continuous growth, beholden to an individual or group of individuals that have supplied you with funds in the past. Lending money, at interest, and investing differ, and are not inherently wrong. However, the system that results from their abuse, described above, is similar. And this system is the engine behind the greedy decisions made; if these companies don't find a way to continually grow, their value (via stocks) will be destroyed.
I'm just pointing out that the violation of fiduciary contracts by an entity so greedy and beholden to even more greedy investors that it would violate the law (which constitutes a breach of fiduciary responsibility) is not a reflection on capitalism as a whole, but rather certain immoral business practices. I would completely blame capitalism for the objectification of the workers, and the divorce of profit sharing from investing, which is what made this mess in the first place.
I feel especially horrible for Chris Metzen. As much as us players poked fun at him and "Green Jesus" back in the day, he really did care about the game. He poured so much of himself into telling this story, even to the point of risking his own health. And now when he's finally left to put himself and his family first, he has to watch as the kingdom he helped to build crumbles.
Dude... I remember back in wotlk/cata how HATED Chris metzen was. Do people actually forget the 100's post in the Blizzard forum about how much Chris metzen was killing Blizzard? I don't. Now everyone and i mean everyone talks wonder about Chris. Thanks to metzen, Blizzard in 2020 suck. It was him who Made posible the Activision-blizzard merging.
as one of those countries with that law I can tell you. There is a way around it, you can re-enlist the job by deleting and remaking it within a few months.
I hate Kotick, but that doesn't mean shit. Epstein was a billionaire. He had contacts throughout the entire financial, and celebrity, worlds. I seriously doubt that many of them knew what was going on on Epstein's island. The more people exposed to his dirty secrets, the greater the chance he'd be taken down. Having someone's contact info does not mean shit.
"Trimming the fat" as a company is a worthwhile endeavour and should be undertaken by competent staff. The problem is they keep cutting and cutting to seemingly justify their own jobs and are then surprised and apparently not held accountable when all the undersized, half cooked steaks are being sent back to the kitchen.
Not sure if anyone will hear this, but my gaming in general suffers from lack of community. My fondest memories of gaming is linked directly to the community I was in. Now its just eroded away, and just a shell of a game.
That's the sad thing about this all. By now, it feels like the community's the only thing tying a lot of people to WoW, and it's just wearing away. Worst part is how some people realize this and get so defensive of the game for it - with some people, voicing your discontent with the game risks burning bridges. It's understandable but frustrating.
Social Media kind of ruined the old days of forums and chat rooms etc. I really do miss it cause social media is anything but social. Its anti social and creates a mob mentality in people.
World of Warcraft used to have more community than it does now. Now, Blizzard has turned WoW into a single-player game with instancing. They are adopting the Chinese gaming model and just because Blizzard thinks it will make them lots of money doesn't mean it's a good model for the culture of the gamers that aren't into the way things are done over there.
Besides just straight up not playing/buying any Blizzard products, is there anything else we can do to make the company understand we're pissed as players and consumers?
Get as many people as you know to stop giving them money too. Money is the only language these corporations speak. I mean.... if you could get the word out to their shareholder somehow, and make them realizing the execs are slowly killing the company, that would also be a good way to hurt the guys at the top.
“Can’t put a price on prestige” can certainly put in the upper management though. CEOs and the like are all vastly overpaid. Should be a limit to how much higher a CEO can be paid over the least paid positions.
^ THIS!!! This right here is what will solve inflation. Not just the Base Bay, but things like Expense Accounts, Bonuses, Stock Options, etc. Cover ALL of that and tie it into the lowest paid Employees & Contractors and such. It's the ONLY way to keep Capitalism in check. FUck the Republicans should be all for this, since they are "Christian" and The Bible has a LOT of bad things to say about Rich People in the New Testament. So do what Jesus would do, and fuck over the heartless capitalist pigs. Save them from their Nature of Eternal Damnation, by FORCING them to drain their coffers to give to the less fortunate employees.
@@TheAyanamiRei lol...popular opinion of those with nothing, to forcibly take that which others worked so hard for and give it to those that haven't. Although I find most change this opinion with age, as at that point, you'll be the one footing the bill presuming you're employable. Sorry, pay for you own shit.
@@UniqueBreakfastTaco that's not realistic in this economy, the rich take such a large portion of the economic growth of both the US and the world that there isn't enough for everyone else to keep up. The working and middle classes pay proportionally more in taxes than upper classes, and most major corporations pay little to nothing in taxes. If billionaires payed the same percentage in taxes I do as a contract web developer we could pay for everyone's Healthcare and college, and have plenty to spare. Heck if we stood the military down a little we could do even more. And I would much rather my taxes went to feeding the poor, healing the sick, and cleaning up the environment than all the give aways to already profitable companies. Everyone tells me that I am going to get more conservative as I get older, yet every year I move further and further left. I was a conservative republican when I joined the AF straight out of high school, now I am looking at Bernie Sanders as too conservative for my tastes, but he'll do for now.
So incredibly happy that I’m not living in the US. In Scandinavia (Sweden in particular) you can’t just get fired like that, it’s more rare that people need to work double shifts to get by. In this case I would say: Less capitalism = more equal society. Seriously, the US should look at other countries that managed to find a way to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor (Sweden is faaar from perfect but it’s still far more equal and fair than the US.)
I'll be honest this kind of story just reaffirms my decision to leave Activision/Blizzard behind forever. Too many good people lost. Too much damage done to their games and community. I used to love WoW but I have been infinitely happier since finding my new home on FFXIV.
RIP to every employee laid off just to hire a replacement for cheaper. Not just at Blizz but everywhere. We can't keep allowing corporations to lower the wages more and more.
@@halofreak1990 and we should continue encouraging other countries to follow. If anyone from such layoffs is reading this, I truly feel for you. Your life wasn't treated like it was valued but it very much is.
It's not just that, but they make their employees even POORER by driving up inflation. Rich people do very little to produce more wealth. Poor & Middle class people produce FAR more wealth, because a $100 from them goes into a lot more pockets on the way up. $100 from a rich person goes into very few pockets, since they're already at the top.
Never knew this channel existed up until now but I very much appreciate and like the work behind it. Definitely gonna watch more of those videos from now on!
So what's the lesson here, people? DO NOT BUY GAMES FROM THESE COMPANIES! Hop on a boat and do your thing if needed, but do not give them your money! I'm proud to say I haven't bought anything from Blizzard or Activision in a very long time.
If Activision owned the New England Patriots…. Activision: “We don’t care if we are winning Super Bowls… Fire Bill Bilichick and Tom Brady and get someone cheaper”.
My message to the higher-ups in Acti-Bliz AND EA: "You know, in certain older civilized cultures when men failed as entirely as you have, they would throw themselves on their swords." - The Operative, Serenity
Japanese businessmen would prostrate themselves and ask for forgiveness for bringing shame to everyone, almost always resigning their position at the slightest sign of a screwup. You're not gonna find a western businessman doing that. A roman officer ceremoniously killing themselves as a result of failure was a result of having your status and name mean everything to you; if you lost that, you lost everything. The only thing you could do is achieve a final ending to salvage the lives of your remaining family. In western culture you have contracts / lawyers to make sure you stay where you are at, or gain a huge payout on the way out. And then you just find a new job. How many times do we buy games / fanboi after game company founders that constantly botch their company / game and start over on a new one? Just follow the long sad trail of the Blizzard North guys ..and you'll see that you don't even need to be a billionaire CEO to act and survive like a cockroach.
Wow, you really laid it out there, telling like it is, and THAT’S why I subscribe to your channel. I appreciate how you don’t sugar coat your content. I appreciate what you do.
I know this sounds "cheesy".but, you can see and hear how blizzard started in the eyes and voices of path of exile creators. And you can clearly notice it is all gome if you compare it to blizzard staff talking in blizzcon. In a way i feel their passion have already been drained out of them. I mean you could in the past feel connected to them as a person and as a player. It was as if ppl working at blizzard enjoyed what they did vastly more than we players ejoyed the game although we enjoyed it so much. I think they were happy to show us what they created when we enjoyed it. And they would be feel proud about it, not taking it for granted as they do today. In path of exile even the company head comes down and explains his ideas with passion and even how he enjoys playing this content or that content. How he did not enjoy a specific content and shares his feedback and connects it to community. So if u want a reference to how blixxard were in the old days go watch some development manifestos or interviews with GGG. U will understand why the old blizzard created a master piece that they can't contain anymore.
Yes. GGG is a company that actually listens. A good example is the current Metamorph league. They changed how the league worked a week after release, because players didn't wanna pick up all the body parts that dropped from the monsters, 'cuz it was getting really time consuming. I also like how they won't moderate speech in general. That's one of my favorite things, really. I've actually gotten stuck just following the conversations people have had on global 1. If Blizzard was moderating that shit, they would be banning people just for wrong opinions. I mean sure there's a lot of stupid shit that people have talked about in there including a lot of hot potato topics like racism & sexism & politics & donald trump and the list is very LONG. It's all amusing for sure. And what I think this means is that GGG actually treats its player base like people. Blizzard doesn't. Blizzard treats its player base like they are idiots & children. What, you get a permanent voice ban on Overwatch for calling your teammate fucking garbage in competitive play? Even though it was completely justified as he was doing nothing to contribute to the team? He was playing as a Junkrat against Pharah, because shooting grenades at a flying target that shoots rockets is a great idea and helps your team win. So you get voicebanned for losing your shit in the comms. If you make an offensive nickname or even if your nickname is just perceived to be offensive you will be required to change it. My brother made a character whom he nicknamed "workaholic" in my native tongue and this word can mean another thing too, which is a "druggy". However most people use it to describe a workaholic. WHY? Why would he be required to change it? That's fucking dumb. People are different. People have different perspectives. People have different cultures also. This is compounded in Europe, where I live and when you go play a competitive game where you will have potentially five people from five different cultures that all have a radically different speech culture. So, just finding a common language to communicate with at the start of every game where you've solo queued is hard sometimes. I'd also like to mention accents.
Because before Activision destroyed it, Blizzard was a company BUILT by nerds just like you and me. Those nerds founded the company based on having a passion for games and wanting to make them. One of the key problems in 'entertainments and arts' industries is that you NEED that passion and creativity for the product. You NEED people that love the things they create for your market because they themselves are lovers of the products. Hooking them up with some people that have good heads for business and you get magic. But once these companies hit a certain dollar size, it starts to shift from the creative, passionate driving force... to one that is pushed solely by numbers. Those people you see that have their passion drained from them? Corporate did that to them. It's hard to remain passionate about doing what you do when you have corporate bean-counters standing over your shoulders watching every move and making decisions that are solely driven by numbers numbers numbers.
@@drb4074 as a working individual in such companies. I have to say that they are missing " that guy" who takes responsibility for the development team and takes all the shots and all the praises. I know it sounds stupid but if that guy does not exist to soak the pressure off and away from the developers? They are gonna feel it lol. Anyway maybe it is too late for them. They have already tranformed from nerd to bussiness men :p
@iClash it is not exactly free since u will have to pay for some crucial wuality of life things " stash tabs" but that comes late when u hit the end game only. Plz make sure to watch se beginner guide espwcially for loot filters and such shit
This is a UA-cam comment for the almighty algorithm. it contains words like, terrific, outstanding, incredible and brilliant to satiate its hunger for engagement.
"You can't put a price on prestige." I just... I can't. I can't even. This statement is such bullshit on so many different levels. I'm glad I quit Blizzard when I did. And by "Blizzard" I mean all their games.
@@CBRN-115 Yeah, I have the same feelings. On the other hand I'd miss the franchises of these companies. Franchises I grew up with and who were ruined because of simply succumbing to greed and idiocy. This happened with near all Blizzard franchises (hopefully they will never rape the Lost Vikings with making a 3rd game), this happened with BioWare when EA bought them out (not to mention Command & Conquer and more)...and it's not only AAA video game companies. It's also Disney and how they want to monopolize everything and as a result turn everything to ruin (how they changed Star Wars for the worse or how there will never be any Aliens, Predator or Aliens vs Predator because it's NOT FAMILY FRIENDLY for them). All I can do, and other like me, is watch as the stuff we grew up with is ruined, violated, and shat on because of the greed and stupidity of these companies.
Let them burn. Maybe something great will rise from the ashes. Please stop giving them money. Learn to pirate if you must play the garbage they release.
AAA companies are changing to sell their games to the 800 million Chinese who play games. It turns out most of them buy microtransactions way more than western markets too, so they're changing plenty. The change is to sell to China and bend to the Chinese government for their permission.
Corporations need to be severely limited and buyouts need to be more scrutinised. Corporate personhood is the worse thing to happen in the last 50 years.
Didn't mind the classes.. I actually enjoy the ones that have abilities straight to the point, but the grind.. the Artifact Power, the titanforged items, the constant increase in ilevel.. can't waste so many hours just to keep up..
@@maithaajk5449 yeah.. they never really improve, just find new ways to change one bad thing with another, because they want to keep people busy rather than entertained (sometimes to give an illusion of entertainment in all that work the player has, but the focus is clear on keeping them busy). They no longer focus on making a great game, believing that they will compensated by the player for the quality they provide, they want a game that makes a lot of money (with the least amount of effort).
Hey man, love your work streamlining major news points on all this sort or stuff. Been watching for a good while and don't miss many days. I appreciate the time you've put into these videos, so thank you! I will surely continue watching as long as you continue the series or until something in life may change to may it infeasible. 👍
Imagine the state of the gaming industry if the companies became worker co-ops, where the creators of the games were also the owners of the company, stuff like this would never happen again.
You seem to forget that Blizzard was just that until they sold their soul to Activision. Morhaime and Metzen were high ups in the company... They created the company and years later, after the merger they left... I wonder why
In Legion I almost played every class. In BfA I played through the story on my main. Never even bothered with raids. Played for only 2 months total (1 month at the beginning and 1 after 8.2.5). Doubt I'll come back this expansion. Maybe if prepatch is super good, but doubt it. Might never return to wow :'(
This is word for word how I feel. Played so many classes in Legion that I didn't know what I liked most! Now in BfA I struggle to find a single class I enjoy. :/
Same here. I haven't played a Blizzard games in months now. I used to play Blizzard games for 5-6 hours every day a few years back, now I don't even have one installed :'D
As someone who used to work at Blizzard this is all very true and disheartening. My first industry job was at Blizzard and I was extremely excited and proud to be working there even though I was making almost nothing. I'm a little more senior now, but I make nearly 3x of my Blizzard salary at a rival game studio. I get contacted occasionally by Blizzard for positions but the pay is so low and Irvine is so expensive it's not worth it.
Not in the good ol USA. especially in right to work states, which is most of not all of them, employer can let you go without reason, without reprocussion and they can say it's for any reason, finances, change in position, redefining the internal strategy or departments... all corporate sounding blah blah blah which means basically cuz we want to. When your salary gets too big and the company loses money they hire someone less money to do the same job even if they get a drop off in production cuz the bottom line is the dollar bill.
Not to defend big corporation's behavior but looking at the salaries people get in the US for jobs(which might seem silly seeing how owners are making billions) but as in her tweet, "$30k less than asked" . So she wanted a yearly salary of what? Maybe a $100k? Hard to say without all the facts laid out, I understand if they need to shave off employees all the time, especially in the gaming industry which seems like a bubble. Where the working people have insane differences in salary. Like sure, apprentice salaries are shit, understandably. But when someone with maybe 3 years of experience in coding gets let's say $30k/year and the team leader off the same group gets like $100-150k even though they do the same job but with different responsibilities. As an electrician, where a seasoned player might make 30-50% more than me If this veteran electrician, which have a few different licenses to unlock some special jobs, the experience and trust to be put as a team leader and need to put down an extra 20-30 minutes each day maybe to rearrange and fix workflows and double check orders and schematics. make 500% more than me how could the company possibly make a profit in 5 years when all the ones he had under his wings now also expect to have his salary. He talks about it in the video, "living like you're in your 20's" etc. The US many workplaces really seems to be 90% hierarchy, 10% what you actually do when it comes to salary. I just wonder, do any of these gaming companies have labor unions or whatever? Or are companies just allowed to refuse unions and stuff in the US? OFC, as an outsider. I only ever hear of the sensations or absolute dramas. But this is the picture drawn in general.
This new wave of corporate management just isn't able to sustain greatness. They can't quantify quality through the metrics they use. A jarring example is Jurassic World or all the recent Disney spinoffs. They are just empty shells without the substance of the originals.
There's something else that sucks about this. People have invested huge portions of their lives into Blizzard games like World of Warcraft and for some that means 10-15 years of time invested. Blizzard obviously has no respect for the time investment players have dedicated and for me that's worse than anything else because time is the most valuable thing everyone has. I won't playing any more games, certainly not World of Warcraft, from Blizzard because they have zero respect for the time investment their player base has devoted. In 5-years, I'd be talking about wasting 20-years of my life on Blizzard games. So, I'm just going to cut them out %100 now and find other developers and worlds that respect the time investment of their player base.
I do remember it being mentioned somewhere that when Activision takes control of a gaming company all goes to hell for that company and its games. Well, we know it is true and here is the proof.
please have some back bone, have some courage, have some self respect. and do no pay activision blizard any money for any product. tell your friends, your family, about their practices, do what you can to show them what they do isn't acceptable, do it the only way they will hear. With money.
Unmer I would absolutely love to be playing classic, I started during vanilla and had over 700 days /played time by the end of pandaclysm, but I cannot in good conscience give them a penny nowadays.
@@boulderbridges9515 They're suffering from American Capitalism. The focus isn't on sustained long term growth. It's about short term profits. It's about making every single dollar you can, so you can make more money. The issue is this kind of short term profits is NEVER sustainable. We're seeing it right now with the Lootbox Controversy. It's been outlawed in at least 1 country. Several others are looking into heavy regulations, including labeling them as Gambling. It's only a matter of time before Lootboxes incur heavy penalties in the US. They keep fucking up in court and it's obvious that they are losing. But they never cared about "Hey maybe if we push too hard, too fast, especially on a beloved franchise even normals care about...we might get fucked"
@@TheAyanamiRei you've posted in almost every thread, are you even old enough to work yet? It's obvious you've never held real job, cause it just doesn't work like you think it does. Do you even know what and who the investors are?
@@TheAyanamiRei American capitalism is not about short quick profits. Sit down. Look into Chinese capitalism, they work twice as hard to make the initial sale even if you get sick and die. Look into Asian business people owning and buying factories in small towns, for example.
I'm the Community Manager for the OVERWATCH Facebook group and Caden and I have known one another since before he worked at Blizzard. He started from the bottom in Austin at the GM level and worked his way up fairly quickly. It was awesome to see someone without a degree who previously worked at Best Buy get in the door and let his work stand for itself. It gave me hope that one day I could get in there and work with him. Even though he was on the Classic side, he still went out of his way to help set up a giveaway in our group for Overwatch, and even sent a kid that I tutor a PR package of free games to encourage him to do better in school. When I heard he got laid off, I ended my dream to work for Blizzard. Theres only so far that passion can go when you need to keep a roof over your head and food in your belly, especially somewhere as expensive as Irvine/SoCal in general. Sad to see him, and many other Blizzard friends, get the boot only to be replaced months later. :(
Welcome to "lean staffing," which came about in the 90's. It's why you can't find people to help you when you go to the store, because each department has gone to having several people covering it to one person covering 3 or more departments.
I would just say this. I live in the Irvine area. A couple of years ago, I was talking to one of my friends who works at Blizzard about a career change when a job in game design opened up. He talked with me and basically said: "You could do the job. You have the lore knowledge, you have the gameplay knowledge and we can teach you the skills you don't have with our software but the real question is: do you think you can live in Irvine on $60k a year?" I never applied to the job.
The reason they repost the positions they just cut is because the next guy will do it for cheaper. Once an employee gets to the point where they're being paid too much, they get axed and they bring in the new guy who will get a few years of raises until he, too, is making too much and they'll axe him as well.
You're thinking of Neversoft, Activision were the publisher. Same story with COD1 and COD2 with Infinity Ward. Activision have always been a brain-dead bank account riding the coat tails of good developers, slowly constricting them to death with zero fucks to give about the damage they do to the gaming industry.
Totally irrelevant but can someone explain why Anduin punching wrathion burned his face? Timestamp being 7:21 Out of all the ingame kill cinematics never having blood etc, that odd detail makes it weird
Y'know... when I first started in college, I wanted to work towards a job with Blizzard because I grew up playing their games, but at this point, I think I'd have better luck just sticking with my pizza delivery job here in Texas.
Never would I imagined 15 yrs ago that Blizzard would crumble. And here I am seeing it crumbling.
Aye they use to.be the Nintendo of pc
Still waiting for some Warcraft 2 love
its sad really
but than again i say this every 5 years orso for the passed 30 orso years about some once great company
the worlds going to hell kids and its greed thats doing it.
but you wont listen because your still enthralled by big corporations
untill you wise up in your mid 40's and than it will be to late
@@catnium mid 40s wtf, way to set.the bar on the floor
It's what happens when business finds a golden goose. If anything it releases gets a pretty positive reception and makes a lot of money, then you try to minimize expenses and maximize profits. The problem is that at some point you cross the line - in video games this is often seen through underpaid staff, selling crap or simply filling your game with anti consumer mechanics such as microtransactions. It works pretty well at first if the IP is beloved, but people tire of it sooner or later. The problem is the road there is often incredibly profitable and then you wake up to an absolute dumpster fire of a company which used to be a literal cash cow.
It was inevitable after the Activision merger, only a matter of time
this is sad story, how greed of corporation is destroying whole company and their legacy
Yeah man. I missed the old blizzard before they sold out to Activision.
Oh man, wait 'till you see corrupt big goverments to fall under destruction caused by corruption , triggering massive resetting economic collapse. A possible change of regime, in worst case to globalism utopia , dollar and euro devaluation to not rigged value and previous metals( especially) with crypto currency stay high. Having no debt to afford those precious metals, crypto and after some self sustainable food ( right seeds and right planting condition) would be valuable in time everything falls.
its almost inevitable, once a company reaches a certain size this kind of thing is almost certain to happen. There is a sweet spot when a studio is of small or medium size and making good game but not TOO popular that they attract too much attention from the giants and then get bought and assimilated into the greed system.
Yup, loads of people cried out in horror when Activision 'merged' with Blizzard, predicting this happening. With the gradual take over by Activision personnel into key executive Blizzard positions it was a forgone conclusion that the B of yore was already a dead festered body shambling to the tune of a corpse maker.
Loved the game since I was like 13, and now its dead to me.
Activision: Save a penny, spend a pound. It's infinitely cheaper to keep someone who is good at their jobs than it is to re-train someone
True, however the revenue lost by having inexperienced staff doesn't show up on the quarterly earnings report, so it's a win-win for the C level employees who themselves are pressured to deliver fast, infinite growth by the shareholders.
I love capitalism but this is a perverted, putrid, and backward system of incentives that grinds people to bring out the worst in them.
@ActionGenesis and the Publishers wonder why developers are contemplating unionizing, because it may be the only way to put a stop to the Publishers greed.
@@NerdishGeekish Well then the board is not doing it's fiduciary duties to the shareholders. There's a part of me that really just wants to see these AAA gaming companies to imploded and for newer companies to emerge. Get those money grubbing capitalist out of our engaging and lore-filled games.
@@mrheroprimes Or help it and now be blameless. Perhaps that's what they are trying to make happen the unions because that would really benefit Activision and Blizzard.
@ActionGenesis This happens Because regulations bail them out.
A: "So where did you work before applying for this position?"
B: "Blizzard Entertainment."
A: "Oh, sorry to hear that."
someone call FEMA this person if from a disaster zone
Rastm4N lol I know right!!
while cutting 5K off the salary offer......
Turns out the real Battle for Azeroth was the player base vs Blizzard.
Didn't you watch the video? It's more like the developers and us VS the higher-ups.
And we both lost. Blizz for starters needs to move out of fucking Cali.... It's one of the most ASS backward states in the union and is just completely antithetical to business growth. It isn't talked about as much other than by Right-wingers because of holywood etc fucking shields the garbage ass state from criticism by labeling anyone who speaks up as right-wing lol as if its some sort of insult or something... The state Bliz is in, is comparatively just as out of touch with reality as Bliz is with their customer base.
it's nothing to do with california... It's the greed at activision blizzard. So much bigotry these days.
Correct
Thumbs up. Thank you for keeping us as up to date as you can. When a company refuses to pay a reasonable hourly wage dream job or not it would make living in a fairly big or possibly expensive place tricky, I would think so at least. I hope the company will make the change to support their employees more or something.
Blizzard - Once was the king of all kingdoms, now is just a puppet to greed.
No king rules forever...
@Mobley House Video LOL Projekt Red and Obsidian are not beyond the laws of gravity...
Nah it's never the king of ALL kingdoms.
If only Arthas hadn't killed his dad, the world would be safe
The story of Blizzard is the story of Arthas.
I remember when Activision first merged with blizz everyone was super upset saying that blizz would die as a result... Flashforward to current day, here we see that issue coming true...
I remember noone losing a word about it, when the merger happened (which was before WotLK launched).
People only blamed Activision for things ActivisionBlizzard dies after things went bad years later.
Just read more about blizzard from anonymous employees on www.glassdoor.com/ and everything will become clear!
Lewtable they gave you the mount but you still had to buy the expensive flying license. It was a skin.
I screamed this from the fucking rooftops and was chastised for it. Fucking casuals and normies
@@CazaliEiben I called it as soon as the merger happened Bobby Kotick is rot and famine and death in one package. He is a horrible human being.
"Horrible Human Being"
That's the description of him. i have never met anyone like him, wonder how a timeline without him would look.
"WHEW... oh boy did WE dodge a bul- - nah not even a bullet... A NUKE"
- Someone at Bungie probably.
Nah, Activision isn't a bullet or a nuke. They're more like a vile parasite, bleeding the host dry.
Sky Altruism oh safe bet we can assume that they partied afterwards.
@Agent 005 How is it worse? I'd say it got significantly better since the split.
@@peteh460 probably salt about Eververse[which is bad] but its definitely not worse. they did say this years content wouldnt be too big until Season 11 anyway, guy just lacks information xD
@Agent 005 Copy and past how? Do explain.
Activision-Blizzard paid ZERO in US federal taxes in 2019. They're a Fortune 500 company. There is NO EXCUSE for the abuses they have perpetrated on their workforce.
I mean... there is never an excuse for abuses
Their excuse is, "You'd do it too if you could." Or "We're just doing what anyone else would do in our position."
The govt borrows 100% of their budget from the central bank. Then collects taxes to pay the loan interest. A perpetual circle of ever increasing debt, which has been growing since 1913. It's all rather pointless...
@@mmiller21157 The government actually sells borrows money through bonds...
I see not paying taxes as an absolute win.
I remember when the word “Blizzard” used to inspire awe in its fans and fear in its competitors. Now the word is nothing but a speck of its former glory. So sad to see one of my favorite video game creators of all time fall so low from their lofty status. All i can hope for now is that Activision - Blizzard will see what really matters and create games for the fans by fans, but that seems far fetched
I feel your pain I remember everything from the first Warcraft on up
It's too bad that most things really don't end with a happily ever after.. it's always a ... "sad :( very sad..."
I feel like RIOT is taking crown rn
No kings rule forever. Activision Blizzard as a company NEEDS to die.
At this point the best we can hope for is that when (not if, when) they go under, their IPs are acquired by people who will treat them with respect.
basically THIS is what we feared and saw coming when activision and blizzard merged. Blizzard lost it's focus on creating great gaming properties and are weighed down by corporate chasing profits. Business endeavors should be about sustaining relevance within ones field and in the process not losing money. If the metrics show that the profit isn't as great as last years, you seek improvements, you don't cut off people by their ankles to save money on shoes ffs.
And no, i don't know anything about publicly traded companies but infinite growth is impossible. they gotta manage the highs and lows, like how a ship in a storm follows the waves it doesn't take flight into stormclouds. Them cutting community staff only proves that they don't want to work with that anymore or what it seems like in this case, they don't want to have high salaries for these positions AND seriously underestimate experience in these fields
You hit the proverbial nail on the head with that remark- "infinite growth is impossible." That's exactly why public corporations are unsustainable. Corporate law says that the company MUST act at all times in the best interest of their investors' profits. Which means that they must _always_ show profit, or else they can be literally sued. Companies grow a little, get scared they can't sustain themselves, go public, and wham. Suddenly, profit is the only thing they're _allowed_ to consider. Quality and consistency become irrelevant.
@@Kaotiqua Then every publicly traded company is doomed to collapse. It's just about how much money you can gain before that happens. If they aren't allowed to manage their business then every person working for a company like blizzard have very little job security. In my experience, there should be a correlation between amount of education necessary and job security. That's basically what companies can barter with. So things like game development which requires a lot of computer skills and programming should have better job security imo.
@@chainclaw07 To your point, nearly every large company does collapse. Today, the average lifespan of a Fortune 500 company is about 18 years, compared to about 60 back in the 1950's. FWIW, a large company has to chase a minimum standard for growth quarter over quarter to keep investors enticed into buying the company stocks. Anyone that can't maintain a baseline growth standard gets crucified at the stock market, constricting the flow capital needed to make new investments.
As a company gets bigger, the more of its energy it takes to simply keep the ship afloat, let alone sailing in a productive future direction. If it wasn't for growth in the Chinese market Blizzard likely would already have hit the death spiral phase of the corporate lifecycle.
@@chainclaw07 Most publicly traded companies DO collapse, and job security is established with the employer, not the field. No amount of experience, willingness to take pay cuts, or training can protect you from a corporation that is worried about their next shareholder meeting.
Part of the issue is that until very recently, gaming consumers let them do whatever they wanted without repercussions. ActiBlizz saw 500% stock growth between 2013-2018. Why would they do anything differently? It's only since Battlefront2, Overwatch, and stuff like BLOPS4, NBA2K20, etc. that the honeymoon has ended and people have become wise to how much AAA devs will absolutely throw everyone under the bus for even $1 more money. Player and employee alike.
It was great seeing Ghost Recon Breakpoint underperform by like 80% and Ubisoft's stock take like a 30% hit there - they're (claiming) to be revamping how they make games and doing an about face, but we'll see.
5:03 classic corporate move, job description creep and pay someone new less money to do it.
You get two benefits for one low price. Less salary and replacing someone who's outlook might not fit the corporate model.
Came there to type this but I see you took care of it. 👍
This is totally a normal corporate move. Not just gaming.
But it's unjust and unfair and antiproductiv to act like that...The companies should take example on Danmark where a company leadership decided to pay their workers 5 days a week for 4 days effective workdays!!! And the company made much more money after one year testing this project, cos' the workers were happier at work and less sick than before this decision was made!! So why aren't other companies doing the same everywhere?@?!? It has been proved before, that the more people are happy on their workplace the better they work and the less they get sick!! So it should be a regular thing today and everywhere in 2020, no?! A french interview from the early 70s shows that people thought we would be working less hours a week max 25 hours/w. Longer vacations between 6 and 8 weeks per year would be normal in the future people reponded And that we all will be pensioners around 55 years old! And the interview was over evolution and modernity and look what we are facing today 50 years later!!! We are going back on everything as here in Switzerland, where we are working between 43 and 45 hours a week and expected to work until 65 or 67!!!! In Switzerland!!! The "wealthiest" country in the world...but with over a million of poor people or working poors living under the social limit!!! And with only 8,2 millions habitants it's a lot no? And when you know it's only 1% of billionaires possessing the 80% of the swiss PIB (=the national/ internal total production) you could say that this 1% is gaining their billions thanks to / over the poors and the rest of the producers= we/the swiss people!! And it's the same in France under Macrons liberal politics, same in other countries all around the world, but what pleases me and gives me hope is that more and more people are getting aware of this situation and are starting to protest massively against the capitalists and liberals order who drives us right into the wall of a catastrophic climate warming issue that will kill us all...so we've got to stop them somehow! I was listening to "the Convocouch" a very good and free channel in the USA this morning and it was so interesting to here about all the politic charges against Trump and Hillary for instance and I think Americans will save our planet with their vote for Bernie Sanders or the other young woman with spanish or mexican origins!?(don't remember her name right now but I'm sure you know who I mean!) Anyway we all got to unite against the liberal capitalism around the world if we will save our civilisation...Time for changes has come even to little conservative Switzerland...Sending you my best regards and hope for a better, kinder and positive future for us all! 😉👍💞💛💚
Just read more about blizzard from anonymous employees on www.glassdoor.com/ and everything will become clear!
@@vansserafim cogent
"Blizzard is not hot anymore."
Yeah, it is. It's hot garbage.
He is full of shit. Bellular hitched his wagon to blizzard years ago and still does to this day. He is a hypocrite. If he felt so strongly, why not abandon making videos about blizzards news, games, and development? It puts food on his table thats why. And from what I can see, he hasnt missed a meal yet. He should be quiet.
@@navajo237 so one is not allow to re-evaluate based on recent events? fairly close-minded of you...
@@navajo237 he has to make rent doesn't he? "why not stop making videos on a company that does dumb shit" cause it gets views and he needs to pay bills.
Got'em
@@UniqueBreakfastTaco Anyone is free to re-evaluate anytime. If Blizzard wasnt as big of deal as he is stating, and they are practicing these terrible things he is saying, then he wouldnt be covering them, and their games on a daily basis. He makes money off of them. What does that make him?
'This is a UA-cam comment for the almighty algorithm. it contains words like, terrific, outstanding, incredible and brilliant to satiate its hunger for engagement.'
Management is like: oh our games are popular, we gonna make profit, and employees we can't exploit will be replaced by fresh interns who will agree on starting salary. Seeing this over and over everywhere.
At this point, whether I buy a game or not depends on whether I want to support their industry practices, and I'm having a lot of fun with Mega Man Zero 2 atm so I don't see that changing soon.
@@sonicknuckleswomble8927 I tend to agree with that mindset. For me subnautica was not only a great game but sldk this
@@sonicknuckleswomble8927 i just unsubbed again cause the changes are more negative in general dont feel any guilt at all
I remember when I worked for circuit city and they did this very thing. They fired everyone who made 16.00 or more and hour. There logic was why have one person for 16 when you can have 2 for 8.00 an hour. They essentially fired 60% of their senior staff. What bit them in the butt was these former employees had a huge loyal customer base and these loyal customers followed the employees to their new job as many went to circuit cities competitors. This was so bad for circuit city that they tried to re-hire many of those they fired and nearly all of them told circuit city to pound sand. The company went out of business like a year later.
I agree with you, Circuit City had forgotten that they were dealing with people and not just numbers on a spreadsheet. I mean sure, it looked like they were going to double their workforce and allow for a more productive business but like you pointed out. They forgot the human connection and it backfired on them big time. In short, they tried to to increase productivity which would would have meant more money and their greed destroyed them.
Fuck, that's satisfying as hell to hear
@Ex Life maybe whoever worked at CC also came up with the same idea there? Or perhaps they copied the idea thinking it wouldn't happen to them. Lol
@@oprime Considering how suits bounce from company to company because of networking, and never suffer real consequences, it would not surprise me.
ActiBlizzard ; You now got annual pay of 70000 instead of 60000 here.
Employees : Really?! A raise of 10000 Dollars!?
ActiBlizzard : No, in Yuan.
😂👍
people keep buying, the vote that really matters.
@@maelys8851 Blizzard has taken note. they look at time engagement by the player base as a major metric. If you are buying their game but not engaging with it over an extended period of time that shows its not enjoyable.
@@maelys8851 Are you trying to say we should go vegan because you are vegan and you need everyone to know you're vegan? Or is this just as an example?
@@silencedmaxim5889 it's an example of why this logic is bad, portrayed from a more obviously stupid angle.
I'm not a vegan, and if I were one I would advocate against meet industries instead of morally impune people for not being vegan.
I worked for Blizzard years ago as tech support (before they merged tech with account support) and after about a year or so I left. The pay was terrible for the work we had to do and no amount of free soda vending machines, arcade cabinets, and cool little parties at the office could make up for the fact that I was underpaid and not happy. It wasn't a developing position so I can't speak for that side of Blizzard, but I can say that the employees I worked along with mostly felt underpaid and that the general consensus was that we would easily be replaced by a swarm of people who would work there in a heartbeat just because it was "Blizzard". There was no reason for management to pay us a more fair compensation when the doors are lined with people trying to get in. Hell, I left a higher paying job just to be a part of a gaming company myself.
uhh are you aware of any other tech positions at other companies that offer more than you were formerly given?
to be fair, as far as I know, the tech support is the largest branch of the company in terms of staff and
employer's charges. Combined with a constant stream of applicants and relative low standard for job requirements, and the fact that this branch doesn't directly generate revenue, why would a company spend high amounts on salery in that division? I think it's comparable to call center work, which also is generally aimed towards young employees.
At the end of the day we all individually agree or disagree to our paycheques. If you feel you're not earning what you're worth LEAVE. For any job in any life. It's a fallacy of our inner fears to theorize on the what ifs when you do quit.
This makes me sad, I have seen this coming for years now. And Blizzard WAS my dream job. I had always looked up to them, now as of my last semester as an UX designer Bachelor student. I wouldnt waste a second to even make an attempt to apply for this greedy n immoral company.
"No King Rules Forever My Son"
This is what happens when the investors and shareholders put bean counters in charge. You got derivative garbage made for the lowest common denominator via focus groups, all while purging the people with actual passion trying to make the product good and ensuring the only employees that are left are simply milking paychecks. It really shows in the end product...
But it's unjust and unfair and antiproductiv to act like that...The companies should take example on Danmark where a company leadership decided to pay their workers 5 days a week for 4 days effective workdays!!! And the company made much more money after one year testing this project, cos' the workers were happier at work and less sick than before this decision was made!! So why aren't other companies doing the same everywhere?@?!? It has been proved before, that the more people are happy on their workplace the better they work and the less they get sick!! So it should be a regular thing today and everywhere in 2020, no?! A french interview from the early 70s shows that people thought we would be working less hours a week max 25 hours/w. Longer vacations between 6 and 8 weeks per year would be normal in the future people reponded And that we all will be pensioners around 55 years old! And the interview was over evolution and modernity and look what we are facing today 50 years later!!! We are going back on everything as here in Switzerland, where we are working between 43 and 45 hours a week and expected to work until 65 or 67!!!! In Switzerland!!! The "wealthiest" country in the world...but with over a million of poor people or working poors living under the social limit!!! And with only 8,2 millions habitants it's a lot no? And when you know it's only 1% of billionaires possessing the 80% of the swiss PIB (=the national/ internal total production) you could say that this 1% is gaining their billions thanks to / over the poors and the rest of the producers= we/the swiss people!! And it's the same in France under Macrons liberal politics, same in other countries all around the world, but what pleases me and gives me hope is that more and more people are getting aware of this situation and are starting to protest massively against the capitalists and liberals order who drives us right into the wall of a catastrophic climate warming issue that will kill us all...so we've got to stop them somehow! I was listening to "the Convocouch" a very good and free channel in the USA this morning and it was so interesting to here about all the politic charges against Trump and Hillary for instance and I think Americans will save our planet with their vote for Bernie Sanders or the other young woman with spanish or mexican origins!?(don't remember her name right now but I'm sure you know who I mean!) Anyway we all got to unite against the liberal capitalism around the world if we will save our civilisation...Time for changes has come even to little conservative Switzerland...Sending you my best regards and hope for a better, kinder and positive future for us all! 😉👍💞💛💚
That's corporate America for you. To use video game terminology, these aren't bugs, these are features. There's no hope for these big companies anymore, all they produce is trash at this point. Put your faith in the indies
To give a bit more insight:
It's about numbers, individual impact doesn't play a role, it's completely dehumanized.
This is pretty common when business side takes over.
You hire someone and their is clear definition what he is able to do which has nothing to do what the person actually is capable of.
In Blizzney case:
We need to save money, so we fire CM and divide the work across the rest.
On paper it seems it works, but it completely ignores what the person actually contributes
"when the investors and shareholders put bean counters in charge" Unless you are a huge whale, your opinion as a investor counts for jack shit. The management does what the management wants, if you don't like it you sell your shares and move on.
@@Fankas2000 most investors are average working class folks who have retirement accounts. Some huge whale? Wut? Where do you people come up with this bullshit?
This is happening all over the tech industry not just with gaming. Experienced people are getting fired then the positions are listed again with more resp. added for a lower pay. Also outsourcing to much cheaper locations is also a thing. Having worked for a major it and software company (one of the behemoths) I can confirm my entire location getting fired due to what they claimed over staffing. In short they did not have a use for us. Even though we were drowning in the work they kept forcing on us. The very next day a rumor goes out about a new location being opened (confirmed one week later) where they hired 5 times more people for the exact same thing. We were all stunned. Until, through sources in the company that were pissed to no end by this move, we found out the wages were literally 10 times lower and more importantly this company had previously received all of our internal documentation and procedures. (we had developed them internally never anything official but they helped us do a better job and make our lives easier in many situations.) Our locations internal procedures were never considered official and were never mentioned anywhere because they were internal and based off of the workflow that we did. It seems the behemoth all of a sudden decided that our own work separate of anything official was very good and just took it and applied it wherever they wanted.
Needless to say when we find out where our jobs were going we started laughing our asses off and about 2 months later the first holes started to appear. Quality went down hill faster than you can blink. Satisfaction with the work from the company is great since they reduced their costs over 10 times. As for the products and the customers...well they have a pretty large disclaimer (larger than before) where it says that pretty much anything and everything is sort of beta version now and you may or may not be able to use the products and features. But since most of them are beta version or proof of concept (never saw that while I was working there) you do not get any refunds and are not allowed to complain that much. Also tech support for the products is not a bonus feature.
But hey the money keeps rolling so who cares.
I also blame in a small part the customers for being brain dead sheep and agreeing to this. Since you have to agree to all of this. Literally you have to check a box that say so.
I bet that new location was in india, i lost my developer job for that, but the quality of the software went shit after that.
@@Krelian89 Except each NA developer does the work of at least 3 devs in India, not counting the extra time spent in meetings with them and debugging their code. Cheating and cert farms are too much a part of the culture over there to expect anything better. If they were actually good, they almost always move to the US where the pay is far better.
The tech industry desperately needs to unionize
@@micheletaylor6341 welcome to globalism lad! where the western 1st world nations and their people must BURN to make atonement for their forefathers sins while also ensuring the surviving lineage of the true criminal's endures LONG past our peoples and our cultures and our countries have been ground to dust and erased from the history books, aren't you glad you joined this?
@@micheletaylor6341 hjkhk
The official “WoW Killer”; the 2011 sale to activision.
2008
And we all called it back then.
It wasn't a sale, it was a hostile takeover. People seem to forget that.
@@chrisjackson1215 That's also not correct. It wasn't a sale or a takeover, it was a merger. Why do people think of Blizzard as some indie gaming company? When they merged, Activision and Blizzard were the second and third largest game companies in the world by revenue, and combined to become the first ever since. Neither took over the other, they merged. If someone was an Activision fan (That doesn't exist, but IF), they could say the same thing in the other direction.
@Josef Nagy it isn't a merger by choice. When another Company buys up copious amounts if your shares and says "lets merge". Thats called a hostile takeover; something Activision does on a regular basis.
"You can't put a price on prestige"
Sure but I can put a price on my skill, knowledge, and experience.
If you can prove and certified it, you can
@@Voldrim359 that doesen't matter either. if you done your research..blizzard usually only hires new people as its easy to exploit them. it's a tactic a lot gaming companies now use.
yet some chum will accept that horrible salary. People need to, collectively, start having principles and force blizz to actually pay their staff what they're worth.
@@MystfireStudio unions are unfortunately not a thing in the vfx and gaming industry and it will take forever until that changes
@@TheLumberjack1987 I dont like unions generally, and wish they weren't necessary, but in this case, something should be done.
"You can't put a price on prestige?"
That's like "It'll be great exposure" levels of infuriating!
For my photography work I always recommend this to calculate "Great Exposure" and make sure you get paid: photographydomination.com/exposure-calculator/
Last year i asked my boss for a higher salary, his answer was like: if you only work here for money you are at the wrong place, people should work to improve themselves. Then he offered me more money if i could do the work of 5 days in 3 and work the remaining 2 days in another division of our company.
It's about as prestigious as working as slave labor. Everyone knows they don't pay a living wage.
@@Messametti why would anyone not work for money? That's like saying a business shouldn't be in it for the profit. But that is literally the only reason a business exists.
Seriously, you need to start looking for a new job at a higher salary.
Blizzard: "i need to lose some weight, lets chop my legs off at the knees, they're so heavy!"
I need to loose 20 more pounds! OR ILL NEVER BE PRETTY!!! *revs chainsaw*
With the way they're acting, I think they started in the opposite end.
Vanta Blue They probably cut their balls off first then chopped their heads off.
7
The story of Blizzard is the story of Arthas.
You mean ended more than 10 years ago?
They see only dark ess before them
So your saying we should raid icecrown citadel?
@Lawman more like, *"This entire department must be purged"*
*snaps QA*
so, when did they, or when will they burn stratholme to the ground in an epic purge? i'd say it was around cataclysm.
Thank you for speaking your mind. I've yet to find a UA-camr so professional AND genuine. Thank you for doing what you do.
I dunno, he advertised for Raid: Shadow Legends.
@@pewtersprite5178 I mean, the guy's gotta get money as well.
I love when Blizzard gets in trouble and everyone acts like their mother and uses their full name. "Blizzard did what!? ACTIVISION-BLIZZARD get down here!"
@Weghweh Hwewehwhe My comment was a joke about how people only mention Activision when something bad happens.
As for your comment.. I honestly have no insider knowledge on how Blizzard makes decisions, or how involved Activision is on those decisions, so I really can't respond.
@@leeallen5132 It's all Activision now. I only call it Activision when discussing anything related to the company, positive or negative. Blizzard is nothing but a zombie name at this point.
@@drb4074 I dont know what you mean by any of that.. Activision is a publisher they have no power over hiring, and they dont have input in the creative process beyond setting deadlines and finances
@@leeallen5132 You don't know anything at all about how companies work then, do you? After you educate yourself, then you can make statements about them.
@@leeallen5132 Here, I dug this up as an example for you since you seem to be an ignoramus: techcrunch.com/2019/01/10/bungie-takes-back-its-destiny-and-departs-from-activision/
From the story "Pressure from Activision meant Bungie had to focus on meeting deadlines rather than pursue the “it’s ready when it’s ready” philosophy"
You see, Bungie needed cash to do what they wanted to do, so they 'partnered' up with Activision. Because Activision is so big nowadays they like to venture capitalize with other gaming companies. But guess what? They also exert pressure for you to produce profits, and more profits, and MORE profits. Sure, they let you keep the company 'intact' and by name allow you to make the decisions. But are you really?
Bungie got fed up with Activision pushing them to turn their games into microtransaction milking stations to be profitable (or, greedy as Activision really operates) even though they left Bungie to their own devices for working on Destiny franchise. So they bought their way out.
Blizzard is essentially incapable of that at this point, since the pressure from Activision basically has chased all the core minds from Blizzard that created the company. It's become a shell of itself, and is now doing the work of Activision by proxy.
Sounds like Activision is getting ready to wrap this game up.
Remember last year when everyone was saying that Activision doesn't have any influence over Blizzard? I 'member.
Activision doesn't have much influence (if at all).
ActivisionBlizzard (which is a different entity) is the one to blame most.
Literally nobody with an ounce of understanding said that.
Ever since mike stepped down, you knew what was happening. The founder was booted out and replaced by his friend, who probably stabbed him in the back for a bit of silver.
BuzzedLightyear literally no one said that
This has been a topic since wrath.
It's too common in workplace:
"We fired/refused to hire people, put the workload on the underpaid/understaffed employees along with work that was above their paygrade because we can."
But it's unjust and unfair and antiproductiv to act like that...The companies should take example on Danmark where a company leadership decided to pay their workers 5 days a week for 4 days effective workdays!!! And the company made much more money after one year testing this project, cos' the workers were happier at work and less sick than before this decision was made!! So why aren't other companies doing the same everywhere?@?!? It has been proved before, that the more people are happy on their workplace the better they work and the less they get sick!! So it should be a regular thing today and everywhere in 2020, no?! A french interview from the early 70s shows that people thought we would be working less hours a week max 25 hours/w. Longer vacations between 6 and 8 weeks per year would be normal in the future people reponded And that we all will be pensioners around 55 years old! And the interview was over evolution and modernity and look what we are facing today 50 years later!!! We are going back on everything as here in Switzerland, where we are working between 43 and 45 hours a week and expected to work until 65 or 67!!!! In Switzerland!!! The "wealthiest" country in the world...but with over a million of poor people or working poors living under the social limit!!! And with only 8,2 millions habitants it's a lot no? And when you know it's only 1% of billionaires possessing the 80% of the swiss PIB (=the national/ internal total production) you could say that this 1% is gaining their billions thanks to / over the poors and the rest of the producers= we/the swiss people!! And it's the same in France under Macrons liberal politics, same in other countries all around the world, but what pleases me and gives me hope is that more and more people are getting aware of this situation and are starting to protest massively against the capitalists and liberals order who drives us right into the wall of a catastrophic climate warming issue that will kill us all...so we've got to stop them somehow! I was listening to "the Convocouch" a very good and free channel in the USA this morning and it was so interesting to here about all the politic charges against Trump and Hillary for instance and I think Americans will save our planet with their vote for Bernie Sanders or the other young woman with spanish or mexican origins!?(don't remember her name right now but I'm sure you know who I mean!) Anyway we all got to unite against the liberal capitalism around the world if we will save our civilisation...Time for changes has come even to little conservative Switzerland...Sending you my best regards and hope for a better, kinder and positive future for us all! 😉👍💞💛💚
So many companies do this now. They fire people to "cut costs" and push their work loads on other people who are already too busy to keep up with their own. Meanwhile there are managers everywhere doing absolutely nothing and getting raises every year.
@@tinealiaswalkie7376 I'm not American, but from what I understand, Bernie Sanders would tax business owners to the extent that they would leave America altogether, meaning less work for Americans, less businesses in America and all in all, a bad outcome for all Americans. You can't give free handouts without someone having to pay for them. And the Mexican woman you're talking about is Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and she appears to be an insane bartender with no political experience to speak of. Not sure how you were thinking all of that would work out for the best.
@@Jarredlol Bernie's part of the entitlement problem. Everything should be free for everyone according to him. Free govt handouts are great until you're the one paying everyone else's bills.
@@Jarredlol ok! You seem to own a business but I wasn't talking about small companies or family business but big multinationals and they don't even pay taxes or very little, that why here in the UE and in Switzerland we're trying to sign up a very large petition to push our politics and govs to make the multinational companies more responible and for that we have to put up rules and they also have to contribute no?! Why shouldn't they?! That's not fair! They are massively dedtroying our planet and does not respect the people often poor people who work for them! They are mostly underpaid you know that too and it's just unacceptable in 2020!!! Somone said "the wealth of the rich is made out of the poors work!"! We must show these big multinational that we don't need them too by bying and consuming less and repair recycle everything that can be and we will succeed by creating small quality and ethic companies thst are close to the community that will also help saving the planet every company should be able to act a more civilian and ethic way that what I'm saying so people like Bernie who cares for others more than himself are the future for our planet and I think the right to decide and vote new rules should be accessible to the people not only one president or minister or even just a few?! It should be like in my country direct democracy look it works quite well even if some of our leaders are still directed by some lobbies...that should not be possible in the future...that's my personal point of view!
Last time I was this early WoW was still fun
Lol
@@Alan.Redwood back to the drawing board with that one.
@@Alan.Redwood that makes no sense
@@Alan.Redwood I don't even get that.
@Agent 005 Where does the money come from?
This was all foreshadowed by all the senior people, including co-founders, leaving. I've been through a number of corporate lay-offs, restructures and "new directions" in my career. Some of them required based on the financial health and viability of the organization, some on changes to the vertical and some, like this one, where new management thinks they know better than the folks running things in a healthy, successful company.
Where the latter is concerned, the process is usually stalled by the people who understand the business and its customers for some amount of time before the people at the top either wear them down and they leave, move them to an irrelevant position (the one company I worked for called them "special projects" where division heads and SVP's were concerned) or they buy them out with a package. In Blizzard's case, I'm guessing it was the first one.
That said, ever since the merger with Activision was announced, I've been waiting for this to occur.
You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. T_T
Or sell you company to the villains
@Shi Yu Meng yeah right...
@Shi Yu Meng Or you know. We could stop the practice of investing that borders on usury.
@Shi Yu Meng The unending desire for continuous growth, beholden to an individual or group of individuals that have supplied you with funds in the past.
Lending money, at interest, and investing differ, and are not inherently wrong. However, the system that results from their abuse, described above, is similar. And this system is the engine behind the greedy decisions made; if these companies don't find a way to continually grow, their value (via stocks) will be destroyed.
I'm just pointing out that the violation of fiduciary contracts by an entity so greedy and beholden to even more greedy investors that it would violate the law (which constitutes a breach of fiduciary responsibility) is not a reflection on capitalism as a whole, but rather certain immoral business practices.
I would completely blame capitalism for the objectification of the workers, and the divorce of profit sharing from investing, which is what made this mess in the first place.
Blizzard started to die when Chris metzen and Michael Morhaime and other big profiles on Blizzard started leaving.
I wonder why.,... they didnt wanna be a part of the Bobby Kotick bullshit leadership.
I feel especially horrible for Chris Metzen. As much as us players poked fun at him and "Green Jesus" back in the day, he really did care about the game. He poured so much of himself into telling this story, even to the point of risking his own health.
And now when he's finally left to put himself and his family first, he has to watch as the kingdom he helped to build crumbles.
Dude... I remember back in wotlk/cata how HATED Chris metzen was. Do people actually forget the 100's post in the Blizzard forum about how much Chris metzen was killing Blizzard? I don't. Now everyone and i mean everyone talks wonder about Chris. Thanks to metzen, Blizzard in 2020 suck. It was him who Made posible the Activision-blizzard merging.
In some countries firing someone and then relisting their job at a lower wage is illegal.
as one of those countries with that law I can tell you.
There is a way around it, you can re-enlist the job by deleting and remaking it within a few months.
Easy to get around...3 people get fired, combine job functions into 2 positions, relist 2 positions at same salary.
Engineering companies, sadly, do this all the time.
Never forget that Bobby Kotick was in Jeffrey Epstein's little black book.
@Phry3 you can find it
Bellular decided this wasn't news
U got anny source to back that up?
@Nicholas Suharsono lmaoo.
Why arent they dead yet?
I hate Kotick, but that doesn't mean shit. Epstein was a billionaire. He had contacts throughout the entire financial, and celebrity, worlds. I seriously doubt that many of them knew what was going on on Epstein's island. The more people exposed to his dirty secrets, the greater the chance he'd be taken down. Having someone's contact info does not mean shit.
“Can’t put a price on prestige” wouldn't making a -$30k offer be exactly that? a $30k price tag on prestige.
No because the "prestige" is worth way more than 30k$ in their eyes, so their offer is far better than what she asked for.
ew 30k gross
"Trimming the fat" as a company is a worthwhile endeavour and should be undertaken by competent staff. The problem is they keep cutting and cutting to seemingly justify their own jobs and are then surprised and apparently not held accountable when all the undersized, half cooked steaks are being sent back to the kitchen.
Not sure if anyone will hear this, but my gaming in general suffers from lack of community. My fondest memories of gaming is linked directly to the community I was in. Now its just eroded away, and just a shell of a game.
That's the sad thing about this all. By now, it feels like the community's the only thing tying a lot of people to WoW, and it's just wearing away. Worst part is how some people realize this and get so defensive of the game for it - with some people, voicing your discontent with the game risks burning bridges. It's understandable but frustrating.
Social Media kind of ruined the old days of forums and chat rooms etc. I really do miss it cause social media is anything but social. Its anti social and creates a mob mentality in people.
World of Warcraft used to have more community than it does now. Now, Blizzard has turned WoW into a single-player game with instancing. They are adopting the Chinese gaming model and just because Blizzard thinks it will make them lots of money doesn't mean it's a good model for the culture of the gamers that aren't into the way things are done over there.
The highest quality reporting on the gaming industry, period. I know this, even though I just started the video. Keep up the good stuff.
You've got to be kidding. Lmao
Gaming Industry? Maybe just Blizzard... He hasn't fully expanded.
Let’s be honest any person not currently in Gaming Journalism is better at reporting on Gaming Industry than what we have now.
Besides just straight up not playing/buying any Blizzard products, is there anything else we can do to make the company understand we're pissed as players and consumers?
You can write to them or stage protests, but in a capitalist society the best arguments are those in your wallet
Well, there are, but better be sure to have a rock solid alibi first
Get as many people as you know to stop giving them money too. Money is the only language these corporations speak.
I mean.... if you could get the word out to their shareholder somehow, and make them realizing the execs are slowly killing the company, that would also be a good way to hurt the guys at the top.
I think if we could somehow communicate and convince their investors of our customer dissatisfaction, it could sway things.
@@NovaStarr but investors only invest for money, they dont care about discontent as long as their investment is paying off.
I went from being "meh" in BFA, to finding 8.3 completely uninteresting, to now debating if I even want to keep giving money to this company period.
“Can’t put a price on prestige” can certainly put in the upper management though. CEOs and the like are all vastly overpaid. Should be a limit to how much higher a CEO can be paid over the least paid positions.
This should get more likes.
^ THIS!!! This right here is what will solve inflation. Not just the Base Bay, but things like Expense Accounts, Bonuses, Stock Options, etc. Cover ALL of that and tie it into the lowest paid Employees & Contractors and such.
It's the ONLY way to keep Capitalism in check.
FUck the Republicans should be all for this, since they are "Christian" and The Bible has a LOT of bad things to say about Rich People in the New Testament. So do what Jesus would do, and fuck over the heartless capitalist pigs. Save them from their Nature of Eternal Damnation, by FORCING them to drain their coffers to give to the less fortunate employees.
@@TheAyanamiRei lol...popular opinion of those with nothing, to forcibly take that which others worked so hard for and give it to those that haven't. Although I find most change this opinion with age, as at that point, you'll be the one footing the bill presuming you're employable. Sorry, pay for you own shit.
@@UniqueBreakfastTaco that's not realistic in this economy, the rich take such a large portion of the economic growth of both the US and the world that there isn't enough for everyone else to keep up. The working and middle classes pay proportionally more in taxes than upper classes, and most major corporations pay little to nothing in taxes. If billionaires payed the same percentage in taxes I do as a contract web developer we could pay for everyone's Healthcare and college, and have plenty to spare. Heck if we stood the military down a little we could do even more. And I would much rather my taxes went to feeding the poor, healing the sick, and cleaning up the environment than all the give aways to already profitable companies. Everyone tells me that I am going to get more conservative as I get older, yet every year I move further and further left. I was a conservative republican when I joined the AF straight out of high school, now I am looking at Bernie Sanders as too conservative for my tastes, but he'll do for now.
So incredibly happy that I’m not living in the US. In Scandinavia (Sweden in particular) you can’t just get fired like that, it’s more rare that people need to work double shifts to get by.
In this case I would say:
Less capitalism = more equal society.
Seriously, the US should look at other countries that managed to find a way to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor (Sweden is faaar from perfect but it’s still far more equal and fair than the US.)
I'll be honest this kind of story just reaffirms my decision to leave Activision/Blizzard behind forever. Too many good people lost. Too much damage done to their games and community. I used to love WoW but I have been infinitely happier since finding my new home on FFXIV.
RIP to every employee laid off just to hire a replacement for cheaper. Not just at Blizz but everywhere. We can't keep allowing corporations to lower the wages more and more.
That's why this practice is already illegal in some countries
@@halofreak1990 and we should continue encouraging other countries to follow. If anyone from such layoffs is reading this, I truly feel for you. Your life wasn't treated like it was valued but it very much is.
@@halofreak1990 Where?
Theres two types of people in the world.
Those who work to make others rich, and those who work to make themselves rich.
It's not just that, but they make their employees even POORER by driving up inflation. Rich people do very little to produce more wealth. Poor & Middle class people produce FAR more wealth, because a $100 from them goes into a lot more pockets on the way up. $100 from a rich person goes into very few pockets, since they're already at the top.
Never knew this channel existed up until now but I very much appreciate and like the work behind it.
Definitely gonna watch more of those videos from now on!
He's awesome.
And well versed in game development and the business side. He even has a studio of his own.
So what's the lesson here, people? DO NOT BUY GAMES FROM THESE COMPANIES! Hop on a boat and do your thing if needed, but do not give them your money! I'm proud to say I haven't bought anything from Blizzard or Activision in a very long time.
If Activision owned the New England Patriots….
Activision: “We don’t care if we are winning Super Bowls…
Fire Bill Bilichick and Tom Brady and get someone cheaper”.
bi0lizard1 you mean jerry Jones and the cowboys after he took over? 😂😂😂 literally forced jimmy johnson out the door
My message to the higher-ups in Acti-Bliz AND EA: "You know, in certain older civilized cultures when men failed as entirely as you have, they would throw themselves on their swords." - The Operative, Serenity
Japanese businessmen would prostrate themselves and ask for forgiveness for bringing shame to everyone, almost always resigning their position at the slightest sign of a screwup.
You're not gonna find a western businessman doing that. A roman officer ceremoniously killing themselves as a result of failure was a result of having your status and name mean everything to you; if you lost that, you lost everything. The only thing you could do is achieve a final ending to salvage the lives of your remaining family. In western culture you have contracts / lawyers to make sure you stay where you are at, or gain a huge payout on the way out. And then you just find a new job.
How many times do we buy games / fanboi after game company founders that constantly botch their company / game and start over on a new one? Just follow the long sad trail of the Blizzard North guys ..and you'll see that you don't even need to be a billionaire CEO to act and survive like a cockroach.
What if employees at all companies instead forced them on their swords. Then actual change would happen, and that is an absolute.
thanks yt recommendations
Hah, thanks for the click!
Blizzard started to crumble when Activision joined in.
Exactly.
I've been telling people that for years, but I swear no one listens.
@@Spectacular_Insanity I do. I've felt the same for 13 years now. ❤🙂
Wow, you really laid it out there, telling like it is, and THAT’S why I subscribe to your channel. I appreciate how you don’t sugar coat your content. I appreciate what you do.
I know this sounds "cheesy".but, you can see and hear how blizzard started in the eyes and voices of path of exile creators. And you can clearly notice it is all gome if you compare it to blizzard staff talking in blizzcon. In a way i feel their passion have already been drained out of them. I mean you could in the past feel connected to them as a person and as a player. It was as if ppl working at blizzard enjoyed what they did vastly more than we players ejoyed the game although we enjoyed it so much. I think they were happy to show us what they created when we enjoyed it. And they would be feel proud about it, not taking it for granted as they do today.
In path of exile even the company head comes down and explains his ideas with passion and even how he enjoys playing this content or that content. How he did not enjoy a specific content and shares his feedback and connects it to community. So if u want a reference to how blixxard were in the old days go watch some development manifestos or interviews with GGG. U will understand why the old blizzard created a master piece that they can't contain anymore.
Yes. GGG is a company that actually listens. A good example is the current Metamorph league. They changed how the league worked a week after release, because players didn't wanna pick up all the body parts that dropped from the monsters, 'cuz it was getting really time consuming.
I also like how they won't moderate speech in general. That's one of my favorite things, really. I've actually gotten stuck just following the conversations people have had on global 1.
If Blizzard was moderating that shit, they would be banning people just for wrong opinions. I mean sure there's a lot of stupid shit that people have talked about in there including a lot of hot potato topics like racism & sexism & politics & donald trump and the list is very LONG. It's all amusing for sure. And what I think this means is that GGG actually treats its player base like people.
Blizzard doesn't. Blizzard treats its player base like they are idiots & children. What, you get a permanent voice ban on Overwatch for calling your teammate fucking garbage in competitive play? Even though it was completely justified as he was doing nothing to contribute to the team? He was playing as a Junkrat against Pharah, because shooting grenades at a flying target that shoots rockets is a great idea and helps your team win. So you get voicebanned for losing your shit in the comms.
If you make an offensive nickname or even if your nickname is just perceived to be offensive you will be required to change it. My brother made a character whom he nicknamed "workaholic" in my native tongue and this word can mean another thing too, which is a "druggy". However most people use it to describe a workaholic. WHY? Why would he be required to change it? That's fucking dumb.
People are different. People have different perspectives. People have different cultures also. This is compounded in Europe, where I live and when you go play a competitive game where you will have potentially five people from five different cultures that all have a radically different speech culture. So, just finding a common language to communicate with at the start of every game where you've solo queued is hard sometimes. I'd also like to mention accents.
Because before Activision destroyed it, Blizzard was a company BUILT by nerds just like you and me. Those nerds founded the company based on having a passion for games and wanting to make them.
One of the key problems in 'entertainments and arts' industries is that you NEED that passion and creativity for the product. You NEED people that love the things they create for your market because they themselves are lovers of the products. Hooking them up with some people that have good heads for business and you get magic. But once these companies hit a certain dollar size, it starts to shift from the creative, passionate driving force... to one that is pushed solely by numbers.
Those people you see that have their passion drained from them? Corporate did that to them. It's hard to remain passionate about doing what you do when you have corporate bean-counters standing over your shoulders watching every move and making decisions that are solely driven by numbers numbers numbers.
@@drb4074 as a working individual in such companies. I have to say that they are missing " that guy" who takes responsibility for the development team and takes all the shots and all the praises. I know it sounds stupid but if that guy does not exist to soak the pressure off and away from the developers? They are gonna feel it lol. Anyway maybe it is too late for them. They have already tranformed from nerd to bussiness men :p
"blizzcon" yeah well it is right there in the name. it is where costumers pay blizzard to con the shit out of them.
@iClash it is not exactly free since u will have to pay for some crucial wuality of life things " stash tabs" but that comes late when u hit the end game only. Plz make sure to watch se beginner guide espwcially for loot filters and such shit
People really need to stop buying from Activision.
Been ActiBlizz free for 2 years, and I have never felt better.
People really need to stop confusing Activision (Publishing Inc) with ActivisionBlizzard.
This is exactly the kind of BS that unions exist to put an end to.
Kaotiqua scroll to far for this comment.
Waiting all of the video to this being pointed out.
@@maximilianomanzoni4092 Rofl SJW shilling here for Gamers Workers United :D
Nah the unions would have simply destroyed Blizzard just like the unions destroyed the American Auto industry.
@@deadbutmoving douche
This is a UA-cam comment for the almighty algorithm. it contains words like, terrific, outstanding, incredible and brilliant to satiate its hunger for engagement.
Splendid!
I'm very amazed!
Truly spectacular!
Sensational!
I loved it! Thank you! Blessing.
This came up in my feed today and I literally thought it was the current events
Well this aged well.
"You can't put a price on prestige."
I just... I can't. I can't even. This statement is such bullshit on so many different levels.
I'm glad I quit Blizzard when I did. And by "Blizzard" I mean all their games.
Nothing new. AAA companies must either change or burn. Preferably the latter.
I don't want them to change. I want them to just burn
@@CBRN-115 Yeah, I have the same feelings. On the other hand I'd miss the franchises of these companies. Franchises I grew up with and who were ruined because of simply succumbing to greed and idiocy. This happened with near all Blizzard franchises (hopefully they will never rape the Lost Vikings with making a 3rd game), this happened with BioWare when EA bought them out (not to mention Command & Conquer and more)...and it's not only AAA video game companies. It's also Disney and how they want to monopolize everything and as a result turn everything to ruin (how they changed Star Wars for the worse or how there will never be any Aliens, Predator or Aliens vs Predator because it's NOT FAMILY FRIENDLY for them). All I can do, and other like me, is watch as the stuff we grew up with is ruined, violated, and shat on because of the greed and stupidity of these companies.
Let them burn. Maybe something great will rise from the ashes.
Please stop giving them money. Learn to pirate if you must play the garbage they release.
AAA companies are changing to sell their games to the 800 million Chinese who play games. It turns out most of them buy microtransactions way more than western markets too, so they're changing plenty. The change is to sell to China and bend to the Chinese government for their permission.
@@sygos except china now has curfews and spending limits. If these companies don't start catering to western moral standards...they lose.
Corporations need to be severely limited and buyouts need to be more scrutinised.
Corporate personhood is the worse thing to happen in the last 50 years.
Small-medium-large(-ish) businesses > mega-business corporations.
Thank you for this video. These things need to come to light more often. Keep up the good work
18 months later… here we are.
I'm 1 of 800, thank you for this video :).
What position did you hold?
@@bezel95 A type of Project Manager (not in development but in a service dpt)
Didn't mind the classes.. I actually enjoy the ones that have abilities straight to the point, but the grind.. the Artifact Power, the titanforged items, the constant increase in ilevel.. can't waste so many hours just to keep up..
Sasuke Uchiha now they removed titan forge and warforge..... but they got us corruption gear instead and its worse
@@maithaajk5449 yeah.. they never really improve, just find new ways to change one bad thing with another, because they want to keep people busy rather than entertained (sometimes to give an illusion of entertainment in all that work the player has, but the focus is clear on keeping them busy). They no longer focus on making a great game, believing that they will compensated by the player for the quality they provide, they want a game that makes a lot of money (with the least amount of effort).
"Triple A" gaming companies care most about their shareholders. It's all about pleasing investors rather than the people who play their games.
Hey man, love your work streamlining major news points on all this sort or stuff. Been watching for a good while and don't miss many days. I appreciate the time you've put into these videos, so thank you! I will surely continue watching as long as you continue the series or until something in life may change to may it infeasible. 👍
Imagine the state of the gaming industry if the companies became worker co-ops, where the creators of the games were also the owners of the company, stuff like this would never happen again.
You seem to forget that Blizzard was just that until they sold their soul to Activision. Morhaime and Metzen were high ups in the company... They created the company and years later, after the merger they left... I wonder why
@@hnjahnjah metzen point blank blame the stress and low key the fans, just read his interview
In Legion I almost played every class. In BfA I played through the story on my main. Never even bothered with raids. Played for only 2 months total (1 month at the beginning and 1 after 8.2.5). Doubt I'll come back this expansion. Maybe if prepatch is super good, but doubt it. Might never return to wow :'(
This is word for word how I feel. Played so many classes in Legion that I didn't know what I liked most! Now in BfA I struggle to find a single class I enjoy. :/
Same here. I haven't played a Blizzard games in months now. I used to play Blizzard games for 5-6 hours every day a few years back, now I don't even have one installed :'D
Yeah Legion was amazing, and then they put out BFA...very disappointing.
Arms feels great tho
Holy crap, you made this video a year ago!
When the business is hot you can do no wrong. When the business is cold you can do no right.
As someone who used to work at Blizzard this is all very true and disheartening. My first industry job was at Blizzard and I was extremely excited and proud to be working there even though I was making almost nothing. I'm a little more senior now, but I make nearly 3x of my Blizzard salary at a rival game studio. I get contacted occasionally by Blizzard for positions but the pay is so low and Irvine is so expensive it's not worth it.
Blizzard has become a useless parasite to both customer and employee, where they offer no value to the former and no quality of lite to the latter.
Knowing that this is beyond illegal where Im from makes me happy that we have basic rights for workers.
Not in the good ol USA. especially in right to work states, which is most of not all of them, employer can let you go without reason, without reprocussion and they can say it's for any reason, finances, change in position, redefining the internal strategy or departments... all corporate sounding blah blah blah which means basically cuz we want to. When your salary gets too big and the company loses money they hire someone less money to do the same job even if they get a drop off in production cuz the bottom line is the dollar bill.
Not to defend big corporation's behavior but looking at the salaries people get in the US for jobs(which might seem silly seeing how owners are making billions) but as in her tweet, "$30k less than asked" . So she wanted a yearly salary of what? Maybe a $100k? Hard to say without all the facts laid out, I understand if they need to shave off employees all the time, especially in the gaming industry which seems like a bubble. Where the working people have insane differences in salary. Like sure, apprentice salaries are shit, understandably. But when someone with maybe 3 years of experience in coding gets let's say $30k/year and the team leader off the same group gets like $100-150k even though they do the same job but with different responsibilities.
As an electrician, where a seasoned player might make 30-50% more than me If this veteran electrician, which have a few different licenses to unlock some special jobs, the experience and trust to be put as a team leader and need to put down an extra 20-30 minutes each day maybe to rearrange and fix workflows and double check orders and schematics. make 500% more than me how could the company possibly make a profit in 5 years when all the ones he had under his wings now also expect to have his salary. He talks about it in the video, "living like you're in your 20's" etc. The US many workplaces really seems to be 90% hierarchy, 10% what you actually do when it comes to salary. I just wonder, do any of these gaming companies have labor unions or whatever? Or are companies just allowed to refuse unions and stuff in the US?
OFC, as an outsider. I only ever hear of the sensations or absolute dramas. But this is the picture drawn in general.
Might as well change "staff" to "slaves" at this point when it comes to Activision Blizzard.
What makes you think the higher ups don't think of them as slaves already?
This new wave of corporate management just isn't able to sustain greatness. They can't quantify quality through the metrics they use.
A jarring example is Jurassic World or all the recent Disney spinoffs. They are just empty shells without the substance of the originals.
There's something else that sucks about this. People have invested huge portions of their lives into Blizzard games like World of Warcraft and for some that means 10-15 years of time invested. Blizzard obviously has no respect for the time investment players have dedicated and for me that's worse than anything else because time is the most valuable thing everyone has. I won't playing any more games, certainly not World of Warcraft, from Blizzard because they have zero respect for the time investment their player base has devoted. In 5-years, I'd be talking about wasting 20-years of my life on Blizzard games. So, I'm just going to cut them out %100 now and find other developers and worlds that respect the time investment of their player base.
I do remember it being mentioned somewhere that when Activision takes control of a gaming company all goes to hell for that company and its games. Well, we know it is true and here is the proof.
Funnily this is now popping up 2 years later lmao well well well; Activistion
please have some back bone, have some courage, have some self respect. and do no pay activision blizard any money for any product. tell your friends, your family, about their practices, do what you can to show them what they do isn't acceptable, do it the only way they will hear. With money.
Unmer I would absolutely love to be playing classic, I started during vanilla and had over 700 days /played time by the end of pandaclysm, but I cannot in good conscience give them a penny nowadays.
How about with violence?
You're right Unmer. I am really enjoying classic, but I cannot continue to patronize this company money in good conscience. Subscription ended.
Blizzard : Makes hundreds of millions of profit every year.
Also Blizzard : "We need to reduce our employees salary!"
Sounds like they are suffering from a good management and good leadership problem.
@@boulderbridges9515 They're suffering from American Capitalism. The focus isn't on sustained long term growth. It's about short term profits. It's about making every single dollar you can, so you can make more money.
The issue is this kind of short term profits is NEVER sustainable. We're seeing it right now with the Lootbox Controversy. It's been outlawed in at least 1 country. Several others are looking into heavy regulations, including labeling them as Gambling. It's only a matter of time before Lootboxes incur heavy penalties in the US. They keep fucking up in court and it's obvious that they are losing.
But they never cared about "Hey maybe if we push too hard, too fast, especially on a beloved franchise even normals care about...we might get fucked"
@@TheAyanamiRei you've posted in almost every thread, are you even old enough to work yet? It's obvious you've never held real job, cause it just doesn't work like you think it does.
Do you even know what and who the investors are?
@@TheAyanamiRei American capitalism is not about short quick profits. Sit down. Look into Chinese capitalism, they work twice as hard to make the initial sale even if you get sick and die. Look into Asian business people owning and buying factories in small towns, for example.
@@the_OG1893 China is capitalist? WTF are you on? They are communists and the government has a say in almost everything.
Thank you for your work Bell&Co.
I'm the Community Manager for the OVERWATCH Facebook group and Caden and I have known one another since before he worked at Blizzard. He started from the bottom in Austin at the GM level and worked his way up fairly quickly. It was awesome to see someone without a degree who previously worked at Best Buy get in the door and let his work stand for itself. It gave me hope that one day I could get in there and work with him. Even though he was on the Classic side, he still went out of his way to help set up a giveaway in our group for Overwatch, and even sent a kid that I tutor a PR package of free games to encourage him to do better in school. When I heard he got laid off, I ended my dream to work for Blizzard. Theres only so far that passion can go when you need to keep a roof over your head and food in your belly, especially somewhere as expensive as Irvine/SoCal in general. Sad to see him, and many other Blizzard friends, get the boot only to be replaced months later. :(
This all started when Activision took over, and what we all feared.
Welcome to "lean staffing," which came about in the 90's. It's why you can't find people to help you when you go to the store, because each department has gone to having several people covering it to one person covering 3 or more departments.
Excellent video both well informed and well presented. This earnt my subscription.
I loved the video, Bellular. Lovely and great job. Bravo, much love.
Owh wow!, this is quite revealing isn't it? 🙄..
.
Another Ubisoft i see.
Disgusting how they treat people with passion and just tossing them out.
TL:DW blizzard is on its last legs.
Start booting up the private servers! Lol
I would just say this. I live in the Irvine area. A couple of years ago, I was talking to one of my friends who works at Blizzard about a career change when a job in game design opened up. He talked with me and basically said: "You could do the job. You have the lore knowledge, you have the gameplay knowledge and we can teach you the skills you don't have with our software but the real question is: do you think you can live in Irvine on $60k a year?" I never applied to the job.
The reason they repost the positions they just cut is because the next guy will do it for cheaper. Once an employee gets to the point where they're being paid too much, they get axed and they bring in the new guy who will get a few years of raises until he, too, is making too much and they'll axe him as well.
I thought that these mucky mucks knew the basic rule: you have to spend money to make money 🤦♂️
Tony Hawk is the pinnacle of Activisions accomplishments.
And that was what, 20 years ago?
Yay.
You're thinking of Neversoft, Activision were the publisher. Same story with COD1 and COD2 with Infinity Ward. Activision have always been a brain-dead bank account riding the coat tails of good developers, slowly constricting them to death with zero fucks to give about the damage they do to the gaming industry.
Blizzard: customer. is it over ?
Customer: at long last, no gamming company lasts forever blizzard
Blizzard: i see....only..refunds , before me.....
Totally irrelevant but can someone explain why Anduin punching wrathion burned his face? Timestamp being 7:21
Out of all the ingame kill cinematics never having blood etc, that odd detail makes it weird
Y'know... when I first started in college, I wanted to work towards a job with Blizzard because I grew up playing their games, but at this point, I think I'd have better luck just sticking with my pizza delivery job here in Texas.
ActiBlizz, and the hard-core fanboys, are getting exactly what they deserve. A nearly dead franchise that most players now despise.