Blizzard Q&A With Leadership about Return to Office, WoW Hotfixes - February 17, 2023

[chaud]

Blizzard Q&A With Leadership about Return to Office
Game Developer has a nice summary of how Blizzard leadership responded to employee concerns about the return to office mandate.

Blizzard employees have been especially vocal on Twitter about the return to office change and how they felt they were treated by the Q&A.

• Game Developer received confirmation from Blizzard that the Q&A happened and the comments were accurate.
• Mike Ybarra and other leadership took prescreened questions at a Q&A.
• Blizzard employees (including executives) are only receiving 58% of their profit-sharing bonus, despite a strong fourth quarter.
• Ybarra stated something to the effect of: "If you think that executives are making a lot of money and you aren't, you're living in a myth."
• QA and CS team members aren't highly paid, barely making a living wage at the lower end of job postings. This gets tougher for them when asked to being commuting in to the office again.
• Ybarra reportedly said something similar to "some of our disciplines are not long-term disciplines," in reference to those departments.
• When asked about the comment, Blizzard said "Roles at Blizzard have different compensation levels. We encourage and support people in lower-compensation roles to further develop skills and expertise that allow for greater opportunity and rewards for them."
• Ybarra said "At the end of the day we want people to be happy, and if decisions about about being happy don't align with where we're going, and you won't be happy, then you'll have to do what will make [you] happy."
• Employees interpreted that comment as suggesting that employees who do not like the return-to-office policy should leave.

WoW Hotfixes - February 17, 2023

Items and Rewards

• Fixed a number of legacy dungeon items in the current Mythic+ pool that had secondary stats that were slightly lower than intended.

System

• We are adding Fire Elemental Totem, Earth Elemental Totem, and Army of the Dead to the list of cooldowns that are reset when an encounter ends. We feel this is safe now that Naxxramas is not the primary raid.

Wrath of the Lich King Classic

• Classes
  
  • Paladin
    
    • Fixed an issue with the Vindication talent's effect stacking inappropriately with other similar effects.
      
  • Warlock
    
    • Fixed an issue with Curse of Weakness stacking inappropriately with other similar effects.

[Duende]

First! Oof this is gonna be good /popcorn

[Laqweeta]

Fuck man, I remember when Blizzard used to be PRAISED. You'd hear "World of Warcraft" or "Blizzard" and people's eyes would light up.

Such a pathetic fucking excuse now, so sad.

[Jester Joe]

Yeah...all he had to do was appear like, vaguely sympathetic.

Instead of using that mic, Ybarra broke out the shovel and just started digging away.

[cozzri]

Nothing screams cohesive team like saying "If you want to be happy you should leave"
kudos hahaha

[Ealyssa]

Ybarra really wanted to go full on douchebag executive mode I guess.

Mission accomplished.

[OokOok]

If the employees didn't know where they stood in the company before, they should now.

Imagine working for a company that has a meeting over Zoom and turns the chat Emote only to stop people from having actual opinions and thoughts.

[Jester Joe]

Nothing screams cohesive team like saying "If you want to be happy you should leave"
kudos hahaha

My favorite part is that before that, they state "Our goal is to make people happy" and then instantly contradict that.

Like, if you're telling people you want them to be happy, but also repeatedly shoving onto them something that isn't making them happy, then blaming them...well, yeah, can't really claim you're aiming to make people happy.

[McNeil]

The biggest ''You Think You Do But You Don't'' is thinking that you wanted to work at Blizzard when you were young. Even employees from back in the early 2000's when the company was at its prime will tell you that it was a nightmare.

[Natureseer]

Ybarra said "At the end of the day we want people to be happy, and if decisions about about being happy don't align with where we're going, and you won't be happy, then you'll have to do what will make [you] happy."

this is giving me Daphne from the white lotus

[bmjclark]

Man, he really went mask off for those questions didn't he?

[Biglog]

2021: "We understand that our people are our greatest asset." (actual quote from them btw). 2023: If you don't like it gtfo, along with thinly veiled threats of some departments going away in the future. There are always 2 methods for layoffs; the direct way, or this crummy process where a company intentionally drives employees away and gets to their desired headcount through attrition.

[Caerule]

At the end of the day if Blizzard wants its people to be happy, and if decisions about about being happy don't align with where Blizzard going, and won't make its workers happy, then I think what they have to do to make them happy, is to fire Mike Ybarra.

[SL1200]

Good for Blizzard. People working at home aren't productive.

[Flame6]

I don't think it's unreasonable for a company to say "we want employees in the office part time".
I worked for 2 years from home and it was AMAZING, but the whole "team" aspect really fell apart when we had new hires I had never met.
A hybrid schedule sounds 100% reasonable.

Part 2. Long term disciplines? Yeah, some jobs just don't have infinite growth protentional. IF you want to make more / advance at a company you need to further your skill set and not just master customer service or QA.

It sucks that QA & CS folks don't get paid better, but it's really not a job that requires a lot of specialized training, and its a field that has a lot of people who will jump at the opportunity.

Part 3.

• Blizzard employees (including executives) are only receiving 58% of their profit-sharing bonus, despite a strong fourth quarter.
• Ybarra stated something to the effect of: "If you think that executives are making a lot of money and you aren't, you're living in a myth."

Holy crap, what an asshole. First, you should be paying out your profit sharing if you're making a profit and that is what was agreed on.
2nd. executives are making a lot of money. FACT. And it's acceptable, but don't dismiss the people who are making less. JEEZ!

I know my boss makes 2.5x more than I do. He knows he does too, but if he made a comment about our pay comparison and it wasn't clear that he makes way more than I, then I'd be very angry.

[Palapop]

When will you learn, guys? Only smaller companies/groups make quality content/games. Big huuuuuuuuge multi-billion $$$ companies can make only milking micro-transaction BS.

[Xeenith]

wow, thankfully those question were pre-screened... I'd love to see what would happen without this selection lol

[Shinagami091]

I think what he meant by saying that QA positions aren’t long-term is that they are very much replaceable. And if you can’t afford to come in to work, apply for a higher position or be replaced.

I wonder when the day will come when they will stop treating their employees like cattle to be thrown in a meat grinder?

[Utrrabbit]

"Guys I'm suffering too, I can barely afford to staff my yacht this year!"

Ybarra is not he who shall not be named.

Not everyone at a higher position gets paid more hourly. I make more hourly than my boss and I am full time. Only reason he gets more is he is salery, but he also works up to 15 hrs a week more than me.

[kasuke06]

Wow. that was.... fucking terrible, like I don't think you could actually try to do worse.