PC gamer interview: Blizzard 'has completely changed,'

[liberaet]

Just browsed the replies in this thread, why are people finding something irrelevant and sticking to it while ignoring the main idea? Like how many people usually change their jobs in 30 years, instead of focusing on the main idea that the values of Blizzard have changed.

It doesn't really matter if 99% of the employees have changed or 1%, what's important is that Blizzard is no longed just following upon their creative ideas and passion, they are now mired in all those corporate interests. And the 3 ex-Blizzard employees elaborate on that quite clearly.

[Relapses]

If you read the article Brevik isn't really dumping on Blizz, he says it's a natural thing for a company to change when it's that successful and thinks the situation with China was a no-win for Blizzard, they could either piss off fans with the ban or let it slide and open their events for all sorts of political statements.

I read the article. I was critiquing the first part of the article where he mentioned Blizzard being "completely different" as if his internal assessment is somehow necessary to come to such a conclusion. I'll give you that he doesn't seem as bitter as he does in other interviews; it just seems like this article is more looking to get some kind of "hot take" in the pursuit of the almighty click.

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It's almost like you didn't read the article...

Also, Brevik created one of the best game series ever, Blizzard just bastardized his creation and then sold 30m+ copies to people that were expecting Brevik's vision. Don't get me started on D:Immortal.

Is this where we pretend Brevik was somehow solely responsible for Diablo? I mean, sure, I guess.

[rhorle]

I honestly don't listen to anything Brevik has to say. He has been super critical of Blizzard and has tried to push his own stuff as superior when it hasn't done much of anything on its own. He just likes to whine and groan about Blizzard and how terrible they are.

[Sorshen]

Is this where we pretend Brevik was somehow solely responsible for Diablo? I mean, sure, I guess.

Sure, you can throw in the Schaefer brothers. But they're on board with Brevik to this day.

[rhorle]

It doesn't really matter if 99% of the employees have changed or 1%, what's important is that Blizzard is no longed just following upon their creative ideas and passion, they are now mired in all those corporate interests. And the 3 ex-Blizzard employees elaborate on that quite clearly.

But that is what Blizzard always did. Remember these 3 employees were from a studio that Blizzard's corporate overlords bought and eventually closed down after merging it into the main Blizzard. Of course they are going to be critical of losing their "special" place when it was merged into the main part of the company. What is important is to qualify their complaints with the context of what happened and with how certain individuals, like Brevik, have been critical of most of Blizzard even when he had limited success on his own.

[Darkscar7]

Breaking News: Multi-billion dollar global corporation with thousands of employees is different to small company with barely a couple of hundred.

Also: Water is wet!

And a Dog loves a bone

Also: the sky is blue

[Shakana]

The old Blizzard is gone," Max Schaefer added. "When we quit, there was like 180 employees total. There's thousands now. The whole empire is different, and Activision didn't have any influence. At that point it was just Blizzard and then some anonymous corporate owner, Vivendi or whoever. That was it. And so now [Blizzard is] a video game empire that has to appease shareholders and all that sort of stuff."
That change in the values and culture of Blizzard Entertainment isn't anything new. It's something that "happens with companies all the time," Brevik said, and is a natural part of any company growing into a massive corporation.

Brevik and the Schaefer brothers all stated that even during the development of Diablo 2, there was a constant battle over its gory, satanic aesthetic between Blizzard North and Blizzard Entertainment, the main branch of the company that was originally founded by Mike Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce. But as Blizzard continued to grow after the success of Diablo, Warcraft, and StarCraft, it became harder for the trio to focus on creative design and avoid corporate bureaucracy.

Activision didn't have influence. They just need both to appease shareholders.

This is something for people to read. When they say blizzard now is bad because of Activision, they had to merge. Blizzard is not bad because of Activision, if Blizzard is now bad is because the old Blizzard people is gone. It's like a new company with the same name for years.

But well, i already knew this. Doesn't mean that they don't try make the best they can - regardless of money - , but don't expect old values in Blizzard anymore.

[Sondrelk]

You can't compare a company like this with some pencil factory. Companies are different. People work in the video game industry out of passion and they go to Blizzard because they love Blizzard games. For many this is a dream job.

That seems like wild speculation to me.
Sure, there are probably a lot of people whose dream job it is to work in Blizzard, but some of those have dreams of making different games that appeal to them specifically, and so see working at Blizzard like getting trained by professionals.
Secondly not every employee at Blizzard cares deeply and heavily about the games being made there, loads of them probably work there because Blizzard offers a stable job where they can make use of the skills they learned, like translation, music design, graphic design and so on.

Not every worker at a major game company is a person with a vision and deep, deep passion for making the specific game the company produces, many of them probably just treat it like a job and make games that they enjoy on the side.

[Soon-TM]

Gotta love all the ad hominems against Brevik and the Schaefer brothers. Looks like the Blizzard Defense Force can't think of anything else lol.

[Nosgoth]

That seems like wild speculation to me.

What? That working at Blizzard was a dream job to many people?

[Jotaux]

I don't even think they said anything negative about blizzard. They said it a lot bigger company now and has to deal with different challenges, like worrying about having to punish a guy or not for being political, or having to worry about shareholders.

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That seems like wild speculation to me.
Sure, there are probably a lot of people whose dream job it is to work in Blizzard, but some of those have dreams of making different games that appeal to them specifically, and so see working at Blizzard like getting trained by professionals.
Secondly not every employee at Blizzard cares deeply and heavily about the games being made there, loads of them probably work there because Blizzard offers a stable job where they can make use of the skills they learned, like translation, music design, graphic design and so on.

Not every worker at a major game company is a person with a vision and deep, deep passion for making the specific game the company produces, many of them probably just treat it like a job and make games that they enjoy on the side.

I would be down to work for blizzard in a heart beat. Granted I'm an accountant and would be in the accounting department but I would love to work there.

[Sencha]

Their games cater too much to casuals. I'm done with WoW (it is just a collection game now) and I am pretty sure they will release a dumbed down diablo4 where itemization will be even worse than diablo3.

OW is ok but gets boring very fast.

[Sondrelk]

What? That working at Blizzard was a dream job to many people?

That there exists loads and loads of devs on the Blizzard team that loves working there, and who does not have any other passion projects they wish to pursue.

I am sure there are video game devs that would love to work at Blizzard, i am just not so sure there are that many that consider it the endpoint of their career. Blizzard is decades old by now, WoW 15 years old. Plenty of time for devs to get burnt out on working on the same project and want to pursue other ambitions. It is a nice dream that all the devs would love Blizzard enough to consider them as close as family and never wish to move beyond it, but most workers in large companies do not think that.
Had Blizzard been a tiny startup just celebrating 5 years then a majority of the devs leaving and being replaced would be a cause for alarm, but not really when we are talking about companies as large as this.

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I would be down to work for blizzard in a heart beat. Granted I'm an accountant and would be in the accounting department but I would love to work there.

Even if you are confident enough that you could work at Blizzard for upwards of 30 years without a masive increase in salary and authority. Accounting is not really a job staffed by passionate people.
Not that people cannot be interested in, and have a passion ofr accounting, but those that work in game development tend to be more creative people that have a vision they wish to fulfill, and expecting that to involve iterating on the same game for 15+ years seems a bit far-fetched.

[Timewalker]

Their games cater too much to casuals. I'm done with WoW (it is just a collection game now) and I am pretty sure they will release a dumbed down diablo4 where itemization will be even worse than diablo3.

OW is ok but gets boring very fast.

Tell me more about how many Mythic Azshara kills you have

[hulkgor]

Breaking News: Multi-billion dollar global corporation with thousands of employees is different to small company with barely a couple of hundred.

Also: Water is wet!

This sums it up.

What the fuck are people expecting? Especially over a 30 year time span.

[rhorle]

Activision didn't have influence. They just need both to appease shareholders.

A blizzard co-founder, willingly or ordered to, helped convince Activision to merge with Vivendi games. Blizzard didn't have to appease shareholders by adopting different corporate policies. It is just the way companies work. Rules change and somethings come from other companies when mergers happen. It clearly worked because Activision Blizzard was able to buy out Vivendi and has made some large acquisitions in the time since Vivendi took over Activsion.

[Triceron]

Also the other important point is that only 2 left from the original 180 workers of the entire starting team (which isn't normal that 99% of the team that build a company leave in merely 30 years)

The tech and entertainment industry is relatively new, and we don't actually have a lot of examples of companies where all founders stick around for 30+ years. The ones that exist are actually extremely uncommon. I don't think it's fair to say it's not normal at all, it's not like the devs all left the first 4 years after establishing Blizzard or anything. This was a slow trickle of long-term employees leaving over a 30 year span, which is incredible and outlasted most other game companies if you really think about it.

I mean aside from Nintendo, how many companies retain a majority of their original key founding members?

[DesoPL]

I've been telling this since 2016, and you know? People called me that i am an hater. Even here on forums.

You didin't said anything new.

[Shakana]

A blizzard co-founder, willingly or ordered to, helped convince Activision to merge with Vivendi games. Blizzard didn't have to appease shareholders by adopting different corporate policies. It is just the way companies work. Rules change and somethings come from other companies when mergers happen. It clearly worked because Activision Blizzard was able to buy out Vivendi and has made some large acquisitions in the time since Vivendi took over Activsion.

Yes exactly, but people often just blame on Activision as if Blizzard is still innocent and has the same people in it and keeps blaming with the wrong blame excuse.

Others had to take cover cause 'unfortunately' humans are not immortal and companies evolve, and they will have different strategies and maybe not even caring much about the products they sell, not at least as the old Blizzard founders did with so much heart and soul, when for others now, it's just a game.

This video shows me the passion:




Old blizzard didn't even know it would be so big and to this day still is.

The new Acti blizz, already knows the audience they have. They can do so much more, but i think nothing that is made without passion, will never be as good as the one that was made with passion. If the point now is just sells.

Design and music still are made with passion, but the rest is not. (imo)

[Difuid]

If your rank and file workers come and go that is okay, it is the new work style. But if the leaders and managers who have the passion and the vision that defines the company decide to leave and go to a different company then the ship is sinking.