Article: WoW Shut Down in China, January 23 Hotfixes

[BrokenRavens]

He told all his colleagues he was quitting, and literally said to his bosses he refused to work, and was going to quit.

there is a difference, and I already said it.
saying he is going to quit, and then refusing to work till they fire him gets him benefits.
just quitting gets him nothing.

Your article says he was terminated by HR, my article says the same.

Take it up with the writers, but as far as it has been reported in print, he was terminated. Maybe find an article that said he quit and link it.

[Shadowferal]

He can still probably collect unemployment benefits if terminated. If you quit then he can't collect anything. At least that's how it works in my state.

"Ranking"...sounds like a good reason for unionization.

[FelPlague]

Your article says he was terminated by HR, my article says the same.

Take it up with the writers, but as far as it has been reported in print, he was terminated. Maybe find an article that said he quit and link it.

Again he said "i am quitting" to literally everyone and then said "i am going to do no work until you fire me" and so they fired him...
that is him quitting but forcing them to fire him so that he gets benefits, come on now, how many times do i need to say this?

[Fight4Fun]

How much % of WoW money was from China?

Do we have the numbers?

[mbit2]

How does that stack ranking measure up with the insurgence of activists at Blizzard who's no doubt mostly looking for things to be outraged about?

First problem with stack ranking is it's applied to teams individually and not company wide. So lets say you have 2 teams
mythic raid team
lfr raid team

stack ranking says you promote & fire 15% of each team. This means you lose mythic raiders while promoting lfr raiders.
Some suits think they smart beating the horse into a gallop making everyone fear for their job but it just exhausts itself faster.
The real motivation this gives is to compete against your teammates over collaborating together. You dont need to work hard when you can just crab bucket and focus on not being at the bottom of the performance review. Microsoft tried and failed with it so they dropped it already a decade ago.

[BrokenRavens]

Again he said "i am quitting" to literally everyone and then said "i am going to do no work until you fire me" and so they fired him...
that is him quitting but forcing them to fire him so that he gets benefits, come on now, how many times do i need to say this?

Sigh. That is NOT what he said…

He reportedly told staff he would be leaving the company if the policy was not reversed, but shortly after the email was sent he was called into HR and “terminated”.

Saying “I am quitting” is not the same as “if they don’t change x, I am quitting”, but either way, in the end he got fired.

I want to also emphasize the word shortly here. He wrote an email saying he did not like the policy and made it public, that was what he got fired over.

[FelPlague]

Sigh. That is NOT what he said…

He reportedly told staff he would be leaving the company if the policy was not reversed, but shortly after the email was sent he was called into HR and “terminated”.

Saying “I am quitting” is not the same as “if they don’t change x, I am quitting”, but either way, in the end he got fired.

I want to also emphasize the word shortly here. He wrote an email saying he did not like the policy and made it public, that was what he got fired over.

He said he was then called by an HR representative to confirm his resignation and he told them that he was still considering it but that he would not work until the policy was retracted.
mate come on now, a policy change takes MONTHS its not something that can be done in a day, and if someone says "i refuse to work for weeks/months" then you fire them, simple as, he knew what he was doing, he was quitting, but he wanted to be fired to gain benefits.

[rogoth]

Again he said "i am quitting" to literally everyone and then said "i am going to do no work until you fire me" and so they fired him...
that is him quitting but forcing them to fire him so that he gets benefits, come on now, how many times do i need to say this?

so in summary, you're being a pedantic cunt arguing over semantics when in reality the company FIRED HIM as per the reports on this subject, and regardless of what he said to people, that is the fact of the matter, he was terminated from his job before he had any chance to officially quit his role in the company, that's literally what happened black and white, there's no grey area there's no subjective 'but he told people he was quitting' bollox, his employment was terminated by the management at blizzard, meaning whatever he said to friends/colleagues is irrelevant.

[FelPlague]

so in summary, you're being a pedantic cunt arguing over semantics when in reality the company FIRED HIM as per the reports on this subject, and regardless of what he said to people, that is the fact of the matter, he was terminated from his job before he had any chance to officially quit his role in the company, that's literally what happened black and white, there's no grey area there's no subjective 'but he told people he was quitting' bollox, his employment was terminated by the management at blizzard, meaning whatever he said to friends/colleagues is irrelevant.

He told HR he was planning to quit, and refused to work.
he quit, but wanted to be fired to get benefits
that is literally what happened
Nothing you say changes that.

And again I agree with him, and what he did was a fucking smart move, and I hope they listen.

[Shadowferal]

It's not everyday that someone takes a hit for the sake of ethics.

[mbit2]

It's not everyday that someone takes a hit for the sake of ethics.

Maybe maybe not. If he is so moral why not earlier? Maybe just already planned to quit and got some grievances on way out.

[Shadowferal]

Maybe maybe not. If he is so moral why not earlier? Maybe just already planned to quit and got some grievances on way out.

The end result here, please...

[Locruid]

Erm, in many states if you were fired for refusing to work you dont get Unemployment benefits....

[BrokenRavens]

Maybe maybe not. If he is so moral why not earlier? Maybe just already planned to quit and got some grievances on way out.

They only started enforcing the policy recently, apparently.

[Shadowferal]

Erm, in many states if you were fired for refusing to work you dont get Unemployment benefits....

Yup...that's one...another is insubordination.

[RobertMugabe]

How much % of WoW money was from China?

Do we have the numbers?

I don't know the exact numbers of how much they earn, but it is known that China was a lot cheaper and that they had a different sub model, like you could pay to for just 1 day of game time or per hour AFAIK.

That being said, Chinese players made about half of all WoW subs back in the day when they would still report sub numbers and I assume it was somewhat similar until recently, so if I have to guess, it's a pretty big financial hit for Blizz nonetheless, but also nothing that we non-PRC players have to worry about.

[Kathranis]

He quit, but he made his bosses pull the trigger, so that he would get firing benefits, he quit, entirely, but he didnt make it official, that way blizzard would have to, and that way he gets benefits, its a super common and smart tactic.

I don't know, can come back to haunt you if all your work referrals are to people who say, "Yeah, this guy flaked out and stopped doing his work because he wanted to get fired." And in many (most? all?) states if you're fired for cause, you get no benefits. Refusing to work would be "for cause."

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Maybe maybe not. If he is so moral why not earlier? Maybe just already planned to quit and got some grievances on way out.

The wowhead article tells us why, the policy was ignorable until now so it wouldn’t have been an issue until they started forcing it.

In an internal staff email reported by Bloomberg, Birmingham expressed his frustration, writing that the quotas were often ignored, but that he was now being forced to lower an employee's evaluation from successful to developing, a change which affects their profit-sharing and can have an adverse effect on their likelihood for future promotion

https://www.wowhead.com/news/classic...protest-331111

He’s also said on his Twitter he’s willing and wanting to go back if the policy changes.

[FelPlague]

I don't know, can come back to haunt you if all your work referrals are to people who say, "Yeah, this guy flaked out and stopped doing his work because he wanted to get fired." And in many (most? all?) states if you're fired for cause, you get no benefits. Refusing to work would be "for cause."

Thing is him saying he is "not going to work" is not proof enough for the cause, and they are not about to keep him on for weeks/months to get enough cause, better to just get rid of him before it becomes a hassle if he is really going to do that.
Better to pay off the troublemaker then keep them on and put a wrench in the cogs for a long enough period of time to prove you don't need to pay em.

And yeah if all of your referrals, but I doubt there is a single company who would hear
"you got fired for refusing to work at activision blizzard?" and go "That is a bad thing"
if it was a reputable company sure, but with the press they have going on these past few years? lol nah.


like literally he is super smart, knows blizz would not be willing to call his bluff basically.
Cause yeah they could keep him on and play a game of "corporate chicken" where they keep him on and if he refuses to work they fire him for refusing to work, or if he gives in and starts working worried they will have probable cause to fire him without reverence.
Basically he said something, knowing blizz was unlikely to challenge it, now if he was bluffing or not, we may never know. But that does not matter cause he got blizzard's money, he got out of there, and he sent a message.

[cateran100]

"Activision does not have greater power in Activision-Blizzard! Blizzard still doing it's own decision!"
Meanwhile in reality:
"In creating "Activision Blizzard" they needed an executive, and Bobby Kotick, from Activision Publishing was selected as the new CEO of Activision Blizzard. Mike Morhaime, still President of Blizzard at that time, reported up to Bobby Kotick's staff at "Activision Blizzard"

Bobby and an investor group staged a "hostile takeover" meaning that they bought up more than 50% of Activision Blizzard shares. (There's no actual violence in a "hostile takeover" despite the name). I forget which year this happened, but it resulted in greater control."