Jumping ship

[Lochton]

So many people jumping ship at Blizzard, wonder why...

Always some stupid thread about jumping ship when people leave. I don't even know what Olivia did, had to google it to find out that she was on the eSport team and nothing more - hardly worth yelling out about. But I know Mr. Coffeebird was a veteran and that is more understandable to reach for something else in life, then to stay one place.

- - - Updated - - -

Like olivia grace is a big influence on WoW lol.
She prob got fired.

Nah, she left. I guess not enough eSport for her to handle, or too much changing.

[FelPlague]

its not like people
retire
get bored of working for the same company for 12 years
find something they rather do
find something that will pay more
want to follow their dream now that they have a nice nest pool of money to sit on
maybe get fired
or maybe quit, cause there is like a million reasons to quit a job, and not all of them are "this job sucks" maybe they dated a co-worker, and it whent super horrible, and cant stand seeing them anymore, things happen, people dont stasy in the same job for their whole life (well most of the time...)

[Pantalaimon]

Yeah, leave the biggest company in the business to seek an opportunity...

Ever hear of making a choice to seek an interest even if it sometimes comes with a pay reduction? Sure everyone needs money to live, but each new step in a person's professional life doesn't have be an ever increasing dollar sign.

[draynay]

Companies like to poach people from reputable companies like Blizzard? What a thing to happen...

[Mosotti]

So many people jumping ship at Blizzard, wonder why...

So many people? Name ten.

[Deleted]

Blizzard designs their Games for Kiddies and Console-Peasants nowadays, so thats why people don't want to work for that company anymore.

[Lochton]

Blizzard designs their Games for Kiddies and Console-Peasants nowadays, so thats why people don't want to work for that company anymore.

Yeah, I am happy you aren't speaking on their behalf.

[zorkuus]

Yeah, leave the biggest company in the business to seek an opportunity...

Most of the high positions at Blizzard are more or less permanently taken by the old school people. Your opportunities can only go so far at Blizz if you're not one of them.

[sixx]

So many people jumping ship at Blizzard, wonder why...

It actually happens quite often in the gaming industry or any other creative related industry. Basically when you reach a certain amount of veterancy within a company like Blizzard, you get really nice investment profits so you are more open to explore other opportunities and expand your career while not having that huge risk of damaging your financial stability.

[Alvito]

Like olivia grace is a big influence on WoW lol.
She prob got fired.

If you fire somebody you don't let them come back to work for a few more days. You cut ties and move on.

[Deleted]

Good Riddance. And don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

[Deleted]

People change jobs, what a shocker.
Once some of you people get to the age where you actually can start looking for jobs, you'll realize people come and go, for various reasons - sometimes it's new opporturnities, sometimes it's more personal reasons.

Blizzard has 5000 employees - we tend to see a handful of community names. It's not indication of anything at all.

[Raelbo]

People change jobs, what a shocker.
Once some of you people get to the age where you actually can start looking for jobs, you'll realize people come and go, for various reasons - sometimes it's new opporturnities, sometimes it's more personal reasons.

Blizzard has 5000 employees - we tend to see a handful of community names. It's not indication of anything at all.

Yup. If Blizzard was an average company they'd probably retain their staff for an average of 5 years. That would mean losing 1000 staff members per year, which is 2-3 per day.

If anything it seems that Blizzard lose a lot less staff than average.

[Eleccybubb]

Blizzard designs their Games for Kiddies and Console-Peasants nowadays, so thats why people don't want to work for that company anymore.

Literally 1 game in recent years has had an original release alongside console and that is Overwatch but ok. Diablo 3 came a while after the pc version.

[Taeldorian]

Its true that people evolve and seek better jobs which makes it true that in this case they probably jumped ship because if you are so worth as I believe they are and you leave it means a) the company is not challenging enough for you (extremely bad for people with potential) b) the company couldn't pay you enough to keep you (extremely bad sign for the future if they don't pay enough to keep competent people) c) you was actually bad and got fired (I don't think its the case) d) you had fundamental conflicts with where the game is going (also very serious).

Whichever of the 4 it is or even all 4 its big news and not a very good advertisement for blizzard. I mean I don't remember them saying "Hey look who we recruited, the Messi of game design or the Ronaldo of PvP evolution". It mostly looks like a ship with multiple captains giving orders and the sea crew worth its salt leaving.

Cant agree. CMs arent really important to Blizzard. Anyone who has somewhat thick skin and decent social skills can be a CM. Its a really low paying job as well, so seeing a few CMs leaving shouldnt come as a shocker to people. No CM is really worth his salt, since it takes minimal skills to be one, hence why the pay is one of the lowest among businesses like Blizzard and Riot. If a senior game developer left, or if someone like Muffinus left then I would be a bit worried. Nobody that has an influence on the game has left.


I mean, you could say the exact same thing about us as a community. CMs deal with people directly, and they get threats every day which is just normal in that kind of job, but the community has obviously become more toxic over the years, so maybe they are leaving because they dislike the way the community is going. If you watched any of the Q&As that Blizzard did, most of the chat is filled with Legacy! and Vanilla servers! along with the occassional Game is dead LUL! comments. Maybe it isnt blizzard, maybe they just dont like the community anymore.

Or maybe they just wanted to move on, Bashiok spent several years at Blizzard as a CM and never moved up. CMs never have much room to move up either, which is why theres plenty of turnover when you look at that kind of job, Blizzard just had a lot less turnover than any other business, so people feel that its weird when anyone leaves, but it isnt, thats normal.

[oqtopus]

people leaving in a almost 5000 man company ? *gasp*

[Eleccybubb]

people leaving in a almost 5000 man company ? *gasp*

When Mike the Janitor leaves I will make a thread about it don't worry.

[macdisciple]

Yeah, leave the biggest company in the business to seek an opportunity...

Working at smaller companies with fewer employees often allows greater autonomy and decision-making power -- which often leads to higher job satisfaction.

[Jaylock]

Listen. I work for a fortune 500 company, and the peasants in the Q&A department, and other non-essential community involved positions come and go all the time. I work with the top execs of the company, and we see turnover all the time in the lower job functions. Our HR department is constantly hiring because they know there will be turnover.

Blizzard is a large company so CMs leaving is inevitable. Just because they post on official company forums and you see blue text, don't for a second think that they are official spokesman / women for the company. They are just the peasants that pass that information on, nothing more.

This really isn't even noteworthy. If Watcher all of a sudden decided to bounce, maybe that would be worth talking about.

[Deleted]

But these are (mostly) just PR people that are leaving, arent they? Like that one blue guy (forgot his name, some tree avatar) that was always trolling people and the other (ghostly skull guy) that often lied about patch content (remember him claiming how amazing fireland dailies were for non raiders lmao).

I would say that only Ghostcralwers departure really made some level of impact.