New Leadership at Blizzard

[ClassicPeon]

Madeline Roux made various sexist and racist comments aimed at men and white people with zero repercussions so it most certainly isn't just women who stand to be harassed within the company or amongst its customers. At least when women are attacked and harassed it's usually taken seriously.

To say nothing of the elephant in the room that it is the company's chosen stance on the Hong Kong controversy.

To be honest i dont think she ever actually officially worked at blizzard(i know she was comissioned to write books but i think it was as an outside agent). However her case was just extreme i agree. Its gonna be interesting to see what the new blizzard heads thinks about that level of toxicity when its not aimned at minorities

[SirFinlot]

Had something similar in my company.
Managers had to explain for couple of months, how and why stuff works, to new "co-directors".
20% of employees were laid off.
The rest had it calm for some time, but now the burner is up.

- We need more products, we need more profit for share holders.
- What about our current working conditions and support of current products?
- If people can work and products work, there is no need for support, we need more profit, people can work longer hours.

[Bee76]

Blizzard needs a good game in the next 1-2 years otherwise its game over so if these people just got the job because of friends politics or a feminist agenda then it might become even worse.

Well most modern games need 3 years fpr development at least, most tile even longer. so you shouldnt expect the new leaders to deliver a game so fast.

[Tarba]

So new leads are a bland corpo guy and someone from Vicarious Visions that is just known for making remakes.
Great.
A good way to officialize that Blizzard is a bland boring company without character.
But yeah with the shitshow occuring it will be some very hard next months. Talented people will leave for better opportunities.

[Ianus]

So new leads are a bland corpo guy and someone from Vicarious Visions that is just known for making remakes.
Great.
A good way to officialize that Blizzard is a bland boring company without character.
But yeah with the shitshow occuring it will be some very hard next months. Talented people will leave for better opportunities.

yeah gg WoW.. going full game shop with trash expansions every year

[Gratlim]

Bobby is cutting heads i see. Good with leadership change and newcomers. When you have a toxic management culture, it's important to NOT promote any existing managers that are part of the problem.

Good PR as well, but too little too late. Truth is Blizz was already in a poor state with all of its ips. This is just the final blow. My thoughts for my friends from Versailles who got fired last year.

[panda040]

Imagine if the head of VV was a dude getting this promotion. Nobody would be saying shit if it was a John Oneal instead of a Jen Oneal because they have years of experience as the head of a studio.
Instead we get to hear months/years of whiny, insecure man-child complaints about "token" this and "SJW" that.

Yea its all just a coincidence that while blizzard is going through a massive sexual assault lawsuit that they promoted someone who just joined 5 months ago to be a leader of all of blizzard! Just a coincidence! I'm sure she plays WoW all the time!!!! /s

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Wild ride for JAB huh?
Went from being a virtually unknown part of the WoW team to making a comment about Classic that single-handedly allowed the community to force them to make the product.
The dumbest, then the smartest, then the dumbest, and now the most true thing ever said about any product.

Then he becomes president of the entire company, then forced to resign for things that happened before the Classic comment.

Wild, wild ride.

Pretty sad people's lives are getting flip by abuse and firings and you still dwell on Classic. It gets a lot of free rent in your head I see.

[Sensa1]

Yeah right, VERY arguably. VV produced a few good games...and so many generic shitty games I lost count. Without the scandal she would have never scored that job...thats the definition of token woman.

without the scandal the new male co-leader of Blizz wouldn't of scored the job either ...which means he's either a token as well or you're just another rabid sexist.

[grandgato]

Each new article released is a fresh can of gasoline being added to this dumpster fire.

Truly amazing to watch this company fall apart so fast.

[Graeham]

To be honest i dont think she ever actually officially worked at blizzard(i know she was comissioned to write books but i think it was as an outside agent). However her case was just extreme i agree. Its gonna be interesting to see what the new blizzard heads thinks about that level of toxicity when its not aimned at minorities

Yeah, they could probably lean on the fact that she's basically a contractor. With that said, I'm gay and I'm comfortable saying that if her comments were aimed at gay people the reaction would have been very different.

Ultimately unless discrimination is rooted out across the board then the problems continue to exist. I don't think the company will recover simply because it isn't prepared to truly ask any hard hitting questions.

[Sensa1]

Yea its all just a coincidence that while blizzard is going through a massive sexual assault lawsuit that they promoted someone who just joined 5 months ago to be a leader of all of blizzard! Just a coincidence! I'm sure she plays WoW all the time!!!! /s

it's not a coincidence at all...they promoted 2 people with extensive gaming experience but little Blizzard experience because you can bet your last dollar that almost everyone in the current leadership structure that had a long work history with Blizzard was tainted as a result of the investigation from either being part of the problem or looking the other way and not having the courage to stand up for their co-workers...there is virtually no one in the current leadership that would have real credibility thus the need to look to talented people that were not part of the "culture" that produced the problem

[natham]

As they deserved to be.

Look like you are product of 21 century. Pathetic.

[DingDongKing]

Imagine paying for this game in its current state in the first place.

Pretty much. The game is a shit-show either way. But that doesn't mean the company ought not to focus on both, the game and its own state.

Why are you worried about women at blizz who just got a few hands touching them, when there are women in other countries who get their hands chopped off, who are beaten daily, and who are killed arbitrarily?

You see how dumb this rabbit hole is people like you can't wait to jump down? We are on a site dedicated to MMOs (WoW let's be honest) and you are surprised that people are concerned about the state of the game???

That is the worst take ever. 'DON'T SAY YOU'RE HUNGRY, THERE ARE PEOPLE DYING OF HUNGER IN OTHER COUNTRIES!' 'ALL LIVES MATTER!'

While I personally thing all the issues at Blizzard need to be addressed and the victims should be supported, in the end I'm still a customer in a business relationship with Blizzard. So yes, it is a completely valid stance for a consumer to focus on the delivery of the product.
It is not our fault that everything is fucked up at Blizzard, that is a problem THEY need to handle. If they can not do that while simultaneously producing content and caring for their games I can understand that, but then either make it F2P for the time being or find another solution for your customers.
Ofc, completely focusing on the internal problems and ignoring your customers is always fair game, but then don't act surprised if people unsub.

I completely agree with you. But it's not a mutually exclusive situation.

One can be bothered about the state of Blizzard's games AND the state of the company, and wish both would improve at the same time.

[bagina]

The new co-CEO looks like Afrasiabi and JAB had a baby. So creepy.

What in the actual fuck.

[Coldkil]

I wouldn't expect a lot of changes in the next patch or expansion. Usually things are pretty far along the pipeline to where changes aren't as easy to make. Granted it could still happen, but I wouldn't expect much.

My point is that they should take the chance right now. They have the "excuse" to stop current developement and change things in pipeline. They axed projects so they can axe an expansion.

They really need to deliver to make the game "look good again".

[DarkAmbient]

At least Ybarra actually plays the game, and not just a little bit either.

[Doombringer]

Co-leadership, that's fine. It's the best move they could have done. I don't care about the new folks' tenure in the company... if they have some industry experience, that's enough. We need new blood here and I guess these 2 were the best choice to take from within.

It wouldn't surprise me if we start seeing more distance between 'Activision' and 'Blizzard'. Suddenly Activision's reputation is at risk for something going on primarily in one of their studios. I'm sure the shareholders aren't happy. It's harder to say "This was all Blizzard!" when your company is literally called Activision-Blizzard like some kind of corporate conjoined twins. Separate them.

[Confucius]

2 CEO's? LMAO this will end well

[Delever]

2 CEO's? LMAO this will end well

They re not CEOs my dude. Just new leadership. Bobby is still the CEO.