Blizzard Entertainment Welcomes Jessica Martinez as Vice President Head of Culture

[GratsDing45]

Giving a shit about the people who make the video games we enjoy doesn't make you a hypocrite. Demanding video games be made by only a demographic of people who you perceive to be "better" at making games, on the other hand...

There are people who only play Japanese games because they believe they make better games than Western developers.

[Delekii]

"Head of Culture" oh so we are using our made-up names. I'm Spiderman.

You know what other made up names there are for jobs? Literally all of them.

No job has a name until someone needs someone to do that job, so they give it a name. There was no such thing as a "game developer" either, until there was.

[Radeghost]

I am capable of holding more than a single idea in my brain at the same time. I want high quality video games and I want the companies making them not to sexually harrass their employees to the point where the state has to get involved in stopping them.

I remember when you could fire somebody for misbehaviour, but now apparently we need to swarm company with activists after doing so.

People should get fired and we should move on, instead we've got this flying circus.

[Relapses]

I want the same demographics that created Half-Life, Warcraft 2, Diablo 2, for example. I don't know who is or isn't part of that demographics. I know they made awesome games.

Uh huh. I'm sure that's why you condescendingly referred to Blizzard's current "blue haired developers" and "inclusivity crusade." Oh, and you've yet to answer why you think that being from a marginalized group somehow has an impact on one's work performance.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

To be fair he said old school blizzard. There's no way Diablo 2 was a unacceptable work atmosphere when they worked on it... Or vanilla WoW, tbc... There way too much passion and effort into those games and they weren't "rockstars". There were no Blizzcons... Alll the stories came later. I'm gonna bet a lot of money that the horrible work atmosphere didn't start til much later and once activision came in and Blizzard became a bigger corporate corupt company with more people... Which pretty much was when their games started going down hill.

The first blizzcon was in 2005, the key named person in the lawsuit had been at blizzard since 2004and people have come forward with cases as far back 2008 with it being any one's guess if there are earlier cases where people haven't come forward.

this has nothing to do with activision.

[kranur]

Wonder what's next ... news about when they do the Christmas party?

Who the hell cares about their internal hiring that has nothing to do with the game development.

[Radeghost]

Uh huh. I'm sure that's why you condescendingly referred to Blizzard's current "blue haired developers" and "inclusivity crusade." Oh, and you've yet to answer why you think that being from a marginalized group somehow has an impact on one's work performance.

Easy answer. That's because they are workers hired not because of their experience or skill, but to fill diversity quotas, as stated very explicitly in various statements by Blizzard and Blizzard employees. I have respect for actual skilled devs, writers, designers.

Sorry that I want a game I like to have competent developers.


Infracted.

[Celement]

Didn't this happen a month or two ago?

[Radeghost]

Didn't this happen a month or two ago?

Nope, that was some other culture/diversity hire.

[CataclismicSunrise]

sounds like one of those jobs where you're not quite sure what you're doing, but everyone seems to think you're doing it, and you're getting paid a whole lot more than everyone else to reply to emails.

[Relapses]

Easy answer. That's because they are workers hired not because of their experience or skill, but to fill diversity quotas, as stated very explicitly in various statements by Blizzard and Blizzard employees. I have respect for actual skilled devs, writers, designers.

Sorry that I want a game I like to have competent developers.

But that's not why they were hired so your entire argument is imaginary. You can be a skilled game dev, writer and designer and also be a member of the LGBTQ+ community. The fact that you're completely unwilling to even entertain the possibility of this says all we need to know about why a position like "head of culture" is necessary at Blizzard in 2022.

[Chilela]

Wonder what's next ... news about when they do the Christmas party?

Who the hell cares about their internal hiring that has nothing to do with the game development.

What gets me is that Blizz seems to be gung-ho about there being fanfare about every hire in a position such as this one. They did it with two earlier DEI-related hires over the past couple of months too.

[Stickiler]

Easy answer. That's because they are workers hired not because of their experience or skill, but to fill diversity quotas, as stated very explicitly in various statements by Blizzard and Blizzard employees. I have respect for actual skilled devs, writers, designers.

Sorry that I want a game I like to have competent developers.

Except that's not what was said at all. You extrapolated from what was said to include your own biases.

[VMSmith]

Wonder what's next ... news about when they do the Christmas party?

Who the hell cares about their internal hiring that has nothing to do with the game development.

Oh, look, yet another person who seems to think that everything in the world should be tailored solely to their narrow interests and nobody could conceivably care about anything that they, personally, do not care about.

Sorry, Spanky, but you're not the center of the universe.

[Stickiler]

What gets me is that Blizz seems to be gung-ho about there being fanfare about every hire in a position such as this one. They did it with two earlier DEI-related hires over the past couple of months too.

They always announce leader-level changes, regardless of position.

[Frozen Death Knight]

The first blizzcon was in 2005, the key named person in the lawsuit had been at blizzard since 2004and people have come forward with cases as far back 2008 with it being any one's guess if there are earlier cases where people haven't come forward.

this has nothing to do with activision.

Well, yes and no. If the allegations are to be believed, the heads over at Activision let this stuff to continue happening. They've been the same company for 14 years now, so it's not like this is strictly a Blizzard or Activision thing at this point.

[Relapses]

What gets me is that Blizz seems to be gung-ho about there being fanfare about every hire in a position such as this one. They did it with two earlier DEI-related hires over the past couple of months too.

Gee, I wonder why a company mired in hundreds of sexual abuse and discrimination lawsuits would be inclined to report enthusiastically about changes to their work culture designed to help curb these disturbances. Huh.

[GratsDing45]

The first blizzcon was in 2005, the key named person in the lawsuit had been at blizzard since 2004and people have come forward with cases as far back 2008 with it being any one's guess if there are earlier cases where people haven't come forward.

this has nothing to do with activision.

lol that doesnt mean it was a horrible work environment when they made those early games. It doesn't mean it wasn't either

[Dystemper]

Sorry, I prefer studios like old-school Blizzard that spawned OG Warcraft trilogy, Diablo 2, and vanilla WoW. AFAIK nobody was murdered in Blizzard, nobody was forced to stay hired, no animals died, no land burned. So what's the issue again?


Infracted.

Why was this infracted?

[Xilurm]

Jessica joins Blizzard after more than 14 years leading strategy, communications, operations and employee experience at the Walt Disney Company, where she served as Chief of Staff and key strategic advisor to both the Chief Security Officer and the Chief Technology & Digital Officer for Disney Parks & Resorts.

Isn't the staff at the Disney parks one of the most overworked and underpaid in the industry?