What does dev Watercooler mean?

[Deleted]

Hi, I'm not a native speaker of English and I've been wondering what does the dev watercooler mean?

I know what a watercooler is (water dispenser, right?). I just don't see the metaphor behind it. Does it mean that..uh..blizzard's developers in some way 'dispense' information to the players or what?

Is this 'watercooler' thing in the sense of 'pieces of information' used only by blizzard or are some other companies calling it that way as well?

[Poysonivy]

Usually the space around the watercooler (the physical object) is a place in the office where people talk about all sort of things. They kinda want us to listen what they have to say about certain things in the game.

[Deleted]

Oh, I see. Thank you

[NightZero88]

As stated above the term watercooler typically means a location in the office where workers gossip about things. So in this instance they are saying this is what our devs are talking about.

[Tisane]

Is this 'watercooler' thing in the sense of 'pieces of information' used only by blizzard or are some other companies calling it that way as well?

Mainly Blizzard, though there might be a few other small examples, but none as big and literally as Blizzard.

[SlippyCheeze]

Mainly Blizzard, though there might be a few other small examples, but none as big and literally as Blizzard.

Actually, I run into it used "inside" companies quite often, and used to even more when I worked as a consultant. It is one of those English language shorthands that (as far as I can tell) came out of the US and into popular usage all over the English world.

Basically, "informal discussion from the people doing the work" as opposed to "marketing". Not that, uh, this isn't vetted by marketing or whatever.

[Calzaeth]

Can't remember seeing it lately, but the EU-version is called 'Coffee with the Devs'. Same reason, different culture.

[Prokne]

People not working congregate around the water cooler at work and talk about random stuff, tv shows or whatever. At Blizzard it is usually where they come up with the worst ideas.

[Deleted]

I've been wondering the same thing, thanks