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

[cuafpr]

It's a realist world view.
I give you money so I get to set the terms - if you disagree with those terms, feel free to leave. No hard feelings, no nothing, take it or leave it.
Now if there are enough people that do in fact leave it... then I might have to overthink my stance... but as long as there are enough people taking it... why should i change my stance?

Blizzard can do whatever the fuck they want, they're not breaking any labor laws with their policy changes. Like, personally, I'd hate being in the position of the employees, and I would totally look to find something new... but still, unless enough people do that, why should Blizzard care? There's still thousands upon thousands of people applying at Blizzard, dreaming of making it big, willingly taking all the shit pay, the crunch, shit like this and god knows what... and Blizzard can totally get away with it just fine.

If you have a problem with that... vote with your wallet. If these employees have a problem with that? Quit. Otherwise... I mean... good luck waiting for your government to step in and change something lol. If you don't or the affected people don't stand up against this, why exactly would Blizzard change? Because you think they're being mean and "the world doesn't work like that anymore"?

It's an antiquated worldview... now it is more of hey, we are earning you and your company money, this is what it takes for us to work there and be productive. Oh, you don't want to do that ok, you get minimum effort while I find a company/person that will provide me job satisfaction, and I'll bounce with no notice and leave you SOL. One of the silver linings to COVID has been people realizing they have power where they work and how they are treated by their employers.

[Baalboski]

[QUOTE=Doombringer;54051518]Mike Ybarra is pushing mythic keys and a lot of the people under him are casuals. That about explains the divide between where his head is and where reality is.

Don't forget selling boosts and playing ridiculous non blizzard games during terrible nightmare blizzard game launches. Boosts are the bane of all things sacred in warcraft and have been a terribly contentious topic for most of the playerbase. Now that they have ripped off new world crafting, (which is good but still worse than new world), and flooded trade chat to make sure there is no negative speak. Good products start at the top and i would ask most of you... How do you rate the current owner and president of Blizzard. In all fairness, What do you think of them?

Personally, im a hard pass. I would reset and find new leadership.

[Jester Joe]

Don't forget selling boosts and playing ridiculous non blizzard games during terrible nightmare blizzard game launches. Boosts are the bane of all things sacred in warcraft and have been a terribly contentious topic for most of the playerbase. Now that they have ripped off new world crafting, (which is good but still worse than new world), and flooded trade chat to make sure there is no negative speak. Good products start at the top and i would ask most of you... How do you rate the current owner and president of Blizzard. In all fairness, What do you think of them?

Personally, im a hard pass. I would reset and find new leadership.

While I'd agree selling boosts as such a prominent figure in Blizzard is bad, I don't really think you can criticize him for playing other games and I don't get why you would. Seeing other games and what they do should be a source of inspiration when something is done well. You'd be hard pressed to find any big name in gaming companies that don't have all the systems. Hell, Sakurai has shown before that he has a PS5 and Xbox, and he's one of Nintendo's biggest names.

And while Dragonflight had a pretty bad launch day, it was just that really, a day. I wouldn't go as far to call it a terrible nightmare, it's not one Ybarra can do anything about the servers himself besides offer incentives to the team who does.


I'd rather fault the guy for things that are his fault and this interview alone has given enough reasons, dont need to add extra crimes in my opinion.

[Gasparde]

The fact that you think it's so easy to just quit a job and find a new one just shows you've never struggled financially in your life. Quitting a job for most people in the USA is practically a death sentence with our current economy and job market.

I've never claimed it's easy.

The very fact that it is not easy is why these companies keep getting away with this.
It's a nice head canon to believe that these comapnies need us more than we need them, but that simply isn't true - most people can't just leave and spent like half a year in unemployment just because their boss pulled shit like this. Companies obviously know this... so they do this shit... and then still, you either take it or leave it.

And like, even if you left, even if thousands of people left... these companies will find replacements within the very same fucking day if necessary. They simply bank on not enough people being able to just leave... and they're mostly right with that bet. So, again, they can just keep doing what they want.

Again, the only way to change this system is to quit. If that's not an option for you... then you will continue to suffer. Because, again, your government will not have your back any time soon. These companies try their best to make sure of that. So unless your country as a whole decides to just say fuck it and risk sending your economy down the drain in order to make a change... you're shit out of luck.

Blizzard knows that, so they keep doing what they do. No one cares if anyone thinks that this is an "outdated" or "antiquated" world view. They can get away with it, so they do it. You as an individual mean nothing. You are 100% replaceable. Your government is on their side. They have a straight flush and they're willing to bet that you don't have a royal flush - you can keep bluffing and keep telling them that you totally have the winning hand... but unless you start acting on it, no one's gonna care for what you think is fair. That's just what it is, writing mean tweets on tweeter ain't gonna change shit.

[Cyi]

And you're 100% wrong in saying it's entitlement from the employees when the only entitlement is corporate. Productivity went up and turnover rates dropped. Also, the USA isn't a free market. A truly free market doesn't exist. Wanna know why? Because it doesn't fucking work. All you're doing is defending people with control issues.

Blizzard customer service, tech support, and other crappy things has ALWAYS been terrible. It didn't start when people started working from home. Blizzard hasn't made a quality product in quite some time.

You can continue to go down this path, but at the end of the day you can't seem to grasp that the company wants this, the employees need to follow it, if they dont like it go somewhere else. You seem to want to equate the reasons for doing this or not doing this as some sort of proof that it is or isnt the right decision. Companies do all kinds of things that dont make sense to us because we are not the ones in charge. Someone somewhere has decided that getting employees back in the office is the right thing to do and I highly doubt their motivation is "screw the working man".

In regards to quality, you brought that up as some veiled threat that because people go back to the office and you opine productivity will go down that I can't complain about it. My point is the quality with everything is just as bad now if not worse than ever, so my very isolated experience is that it wont change anything to have people go back in.

I am going to end this here, simply because you are the type that wont see reason and are so entrenched in your belief that nothing I say will render a different opinion. We could go round and round and I am sure you will say the same thing about me, however again, I am not taking a side in this, I am just stating that companies can do what they please, regardless of what their employees may thing about, so long as no laws are being broken.

Asking people to come into work, is not against the law.

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I've never claimed it's easy.

The very fact that it is not easy is why these companies keep getting away with this.
It's a nice head canon to believe that these comapnies need us more than we need them, but that simply isn't true - most people can't just leave and spent like half a year in unemployment just because their boss pulled shit like this. Companies obviously know this... so they do this shit... and then still, you either take it or leave it.

And like, even if you left, even if thousands of people left... these companies will find replacements within the very same fucking day if necessary. They simply bank on not enough people being able to just leave... and they're mostly right with that bet. So, again, they can just keep doing what they want.

Again, the only way to change this system is to quit. If that's not an option for you... then you will continue to suffer. Because, again, your government will not have your back any time soon. These companies try their best to make sure of that. So unless your country as a whole decides to just say fuck it and risk sending your economy down the drain in order to make a change... you're shit out of luck.

Blizzard knows that, so they keep doing what they do. No one cares if anyone thinks that this is an "outdated" or "antiquated" world view. They can get away with it, so they do it. You as an individual mean nothing. You are 100% replaceable. Your government is on their side. They have a straight flush and they're willing to bet that you don't have a royal flush - you can keep bluffing and keep telling them that you totally have the winning hand... but unless you start acting on it, no one's gonna care for what you think is fair. That's just what it is, writing mean tweets on tweeter ain't gonna change shit.

I dont think it takes six months to find a job in this market and even if it did, nobody is saying quit your current job and then start looking for work. The smart thing is to find the job you want, matches your lifestyle as best as a job can, and then quit. Any employer worth working for will not only understand you can't start for two weeks but will respect you for offering that consideration in hopes you will offer it to them one day.

[Relapses]

Don't forget selling boosts and playing ridiculous non blizzard games during terrible nightmare blizzard game launches. Boosts are the bane of all things sacred in warcraft and have been a terribly contentious topic for most of the playerbase. Now that they have ripped off new world crafting, (which is good but still worse than new world), and flooded trade chat to make sure there is no negative speak. Good products start at the top and i would ask most of you... How do you rate the current owner and president of Blizzard. In all fairness, What do you think of them?

Personally, im a hard pass. I would reset and find new leadership.

It's absolutely mind boggling how people are still holding that against Ybarra. The guy made the cardinal error of being better at the game than 99.9% of its playerbase, that means that he's single-handedly on a crusade to ruin fun for the little guy. I cannot wrap my mind around this kind of thinking. This isn't a defense of Ybarra, either, he came off like a dick in this meeting but fucking hell dude. Pick some better low hanging fruit.

[Chain Chungus]

I am just so appreciative of your comment. Seriously. It gives me hope that there are people who actually properly educate themselves instead of eating up propaganda. I tip my hat to you.

Thanks! It's nice to see someone else who gets it.

[Grimtoons]

It's so easy to get a W here by simply letting people who want to work from home do so. By doing this you can proclaim you are Earth friendly by not forcing people to drive and sit in traffic all day. Also reducing traffic for everyone involved is a solid W. I miss getting to work in 25 min during covid and now its back to 45.

[cuafpr]

It's so easy to get a W here by simply letting people who want to work from home do so. By doing this you can proclaim you are Earth friendly by not forcing people to drive and sit in traffic all day. Also reducing traffic for everyone involved is a solid W. I miss getting to work in 25 min during covid and now its back to 45.

this.. so much this.

I wonder how some folks in this thread are going to re-act to studies showing a 4-day week/8hr-day is doing wonders for companies and employees.

[themortalgod]

I'm actually somewhat amazed by the vitriol I constantly see on this topic. (Not on mmo-c because here vitriol is the norm but just in general)

I'm a senior manager in the software development space who has been the position of managing multiple teams of developers both remotely and in the office. I've led and worked on projects the scale of what Blizzard works on with multi-billion dollar companies. (Not tooting my own horn, just establishing some credibility)

My observations are simple:

1. The least productive people in the office are the least productive when working from home. There was no change just instead of pretending to work in the office; they pretend to work at home. Long bathroom or smoke breaks and hours wasted doing nothing in the office, gossiping or playing on their phone became hours of playing games while pretending to work.

2. The most productive people in the office became the most productive people working from home. The work ethic that made them succeed in the office is the same one that makes them productive at home. Generally speaking, these people have improved their productivity by working from home.

The problem we face with WFH or not is the same as it has always been. It is a management problem. Managers who measure success by hours worked, or other ridiculous metrics will have no visibility into who is in camp 1 and who is in camp 2. The solution is pretty simple: Learn to be a better manager. If you don't know exactly how productive each team member is, regardless of being remote or not, the manager is in dereliction of their job.

I have a simple measure to determine who the productive ones are: I look at how much work is getting done and by whom. I don't care if they work odd hours. I don't care if they unconventionally do things. I care about results, and I measure each individual's performance by those results. Those who consistently deliver get rewarded. Those naive enough to think they can do no work and have me not notice get to find a new job.

With every new employee, I sit down and have a conversation with them. I tell them that I employ adults, not children, and thus, I expect them to act like adults. In return, I will treat them like responsible adults. I'm not going to micromanage them; I'm not going to obsess over their hours worked or how they do their job. They are experts in their field and are more than capable of managing their own time. In return, I expect them to act responsibly and do their job. If they need to take a break in the middle of the day, that's fine. If they need to disconnect early to pick their kid up from school, no problem. Doctor's appointment in the middle of the day? No sweat. But the assigned work still needs to get done, and I expect them to be still just as productive. It's up to them to manage their time to ensure this is the case.

For the most part, I've found this strategy to be highly effective, and the teams that work for me are generally high performing and dependable. Demanding workers submit to a lower quality of life because management can't be bothered to be effective at their jobs is a terrible excuse. Any org that is suffering from a decline in productivity as a result of WFH needs to demand that leaders take a look in the mirror at who is to blame.

I'd also add that any organization using this strategy to get people to quit to avoid layoffs is beyond foolish. When laying people off, they can reduce the workforce by cutting all the least productive members of the team. This strategy, in contrast, will drive away all the most productive team members as they have come to like their better quality of life and can easily go find employment elsewhere. Meanwhile all the deadbeats will whine and stick around because they know it will be hard get another position.

[TheRevenantHero]

You can continue to go down this path, but at the end of the day you can't seem to grasp that the company wants this, the employees need to follow it, if they dont like it go somewhere else. You seem to want to equate the reasons for doing this or not doing this as some sort of proof that it is or isnt the right decision. Companies do all kinds of things that dont make sense to us because we are not the ones in charge. Someone somewhere has decided that getting employees back in the office is the right thing to do and I highly doubt their motivation is "screw the working man".

In regards to quality, you brought that up as some veiled threat that because people go back to the office and you opine productivity will go down that I can't complain about it. My point is the quality with everything is just as bad now if not worse than ever, so my very isolated experience is that it wont change anything to have people go back in.

I am going to end this here, simply because you are the type that wont see reason and are so entrenched in your belief that nothing I say will render a different opinion. We could go round and round and I am sure you will say the same thing about me, however again, I am not taking a side in this, I am just stating that companies can do what they please, regardless of what their employees may thing about, so long as no laws are being broken.

Asking people to come into work, is not against the law.

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I dont think it takes six months to find a job in this market and even if it did, nobody is saying quit your current job and then start looking for work. The smart thing is to find the job you want, matches your lifestyle as best as a job can, and then quit. Any employer worth working for will not only understand you can't start for two weeks but will respect you for offering that consideration in hopes you will offer it to them one day.

I will never understand why people like you hardcore worship corporate boots. I really don't.

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It's absolutely mind boggling how people are still holding that against Ybarra. The guy made the cardinal error of being better at the game than 99.9% of its playerbase, that means that he's single-handedly on a crusade to ruin fun for the little guy. I cannot wrap my mind around this kind of thinking. This isn't a defense of Ybarra, either, he came off like a dick in this meeting but fucking hell dude. Pick some better low hanging fruit.

A combination of him being a toxic part of the game and now showing he's toxic OUTSIDE of the game is why he's being criticized. He's just a piece of shit all around.

[Relapses]

A combination of him being a toxic part of the game and now showing he's toxic OUTSIDE of the game is why he's being criticized. He's just a piece of shit all around.

Boosting runs are not toxic and if you honestly think they are the problem is you, not the game.

[TheRevenantHero]

Boosting runs are not toxic and if you honestly think they are the problem is you, not the game.

The number of boost groups in game have definitely trashed the game overall. The only people who say otherwise are people who run boosted groups.

[Baalboski]

The number of boost groups in game have definitely trashed the game overall. The only people who say otherwise are people who run boosted groups.

100% agreed. More information. Apparantly he had never heard of Preach? What kind of WoW ceo is this? Proof https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y08sZ-jeCZo

Some nice steps being taken for the future of warcraft but i hope for thier sake they have the right leadership in place.

[MoanaLisa]

The problem we face with WFH or not is the same as it has always been. It is a management problem. Managers who measure success by hours worked, or other ridiculous metrics will have no visibility into who is in camp 1 and who is in camp 2. The solution is pretty simple: Learn to be a better manager. If you don't know exactly how productive each team member is, regardless of being remote or not, the manager is in dereliction of their job.

Indeed, it is. I would reiterate something I said earlier: Generally, in-office protocols for collaboration and management need to change somewhat when a significant part of a team is remote. Managers who try and recreate an in-office environment while most of their people are working remotely are going to fail. Smart managers allow for this and generally get excellent results because employees and team members feel more empowered and trusted. I expect that Blizzard is going to have significant disruption issues reintegrating to in-office life, likely worse than when they had to go to a remote workplace.

[rrayy]

And remaining stubborn and resisting all change tells the rest of the company that you don't care and aren't willing to work with your own employees.

There's a GIANT space between the two extremes of dictator and doormat.

But they aren't being a dictator. IN fact it is the employees trying to be the dictatorts by refusing to go into the office and accusing the employer of being anti-worker if they have to go into the office. The employer is not being unreasonable by requiring people to be in the office. Their company, their rules.

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Mike Ybarra is pushing mythic keys and a lot of the people under him are casuals. That about explains the divide between where his head is and where reality is.

I wonder if we'll see some moves now about someone taking over for Mike in terms of being the "face" of leadership... someone who isn't a complete and total douchebag and can actually do a Q&A like this without insulting half the employee base.

And for anyone saying "omg, WFH is over, suck it up" -- when your pay is low, as it is in many Blizzard positions versus your cost of living to exist near to the office and GET the job in the first place ... EVERYTHING is compensation at that point. WFH is a huge boon to employees facing an hours-long commute into Orange County.

Stop defending senior leadership -- unless you ARE senior leadership. They don't have your best interest at heart, in ANY company. Yours or Blizzard's or mine. Their interests are to lin their own pockets and in this case, satisfy shareholders. That means record profits year over year... and if you're not making the money on selling games, you're saving money by firing people or rolling back bonuses. Don't be ignorant, the deck in the corporate world is definitely stacked against the average worker.

Styop with this. People were commutiing BEFORE the pandemic at the same pay. They made it work. They aren't going make any "moves" in aterms of "face of the company" because he didn't say anything wrong. A few lazy and entitle people in their 20's whining about it doesn't mean they have to make a change.


Stop making senior leadership out to be the big evil because they want to go back to pre-pandemic ways and get people back in the office. There is NOTHING unreasonable about having employees work at the office. This is nothing but BS excuses to cover for the real reason and that is laziness and entitlement,m especially entitlement.

[Jester Joe]

Styop with this. People were commutiing BEFORE the pandemic at the same pay. They made it work. They aren't going make any "moves" in aterms of "face of the company" because he didn't say anything wrong. A few lazy and entitle people in their 20's whining about it doesn't mean they have to make a change.


Stop making senior leadership out to be the big evil because they want to go back to pre-pandemic ways and get people back in the office. There is NOTHING unreasonable about having employees work at the office. This is nothing but BS excuses to cover for the real reason and that is laziness and entitlement,m especially entitlement.

They also hired people with the offer of work from home since then. That alone makes your point invalid. Granted, the whole "It's been this way before!" doesn't justify it in the first place.

[Nachtigal]

Of course theyre not making their profit sharing, because they hired an entire team of diversity/equity/inclusion professionals. Not sure why they need that if people are working from home. How can you be harassed while at home in your pajamas.

What a joke. There's nothing in active development. WoW is on a fourth digit patch cycle, meaning they are trickling content in as soon as it's available, as miniscule as it is. OW has minimal development. D4 is about to release. All other games are on life support. However they have high profits from what is being consumed, yet they aren't getting their full share.

Called this when the trial ended. This equity lunatics are there to funnel money from the company. So they have two HR teams and didnt do their job

You think you know what you’re talking about, but you don’t. There’s definitely stuff in active development. 10.1 is likely getting wrapped up and people working on 10.2, not to mention they’re already developing the next expansion.

On top of that, there’s also an unannounced game they’re hiring for.

[TheRevenantHero]

But they aren't being a dictator. IN fact it is the employees trying to be the dictatorts by refusing to go into the office and accusing the employer of being anti-worker if they have to go into the office. The employer is not being unreasonable by requiring people to be in the office. Their company, their rules.

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Styop with this. People were commutiing BEFORE the pandemic at the same pay. They made it work. They aren't going make any "moves" in aterms of "face of the company" because he didn't say anything wrong. A few lazy and entitle people in their 20's whining about it doesn't mean they have to make a change.


Stop making senior leadership out to be the big evil because they want to go back to pre-pandemic ways and get people back in the office. There is NOTHING unreasonable about having employees work at the office. This is nothing but BS excuses to cover for the real reason and that is laziness and entitlement,m especially entitlement.

Holy fucking shit, dude. Your comments are beyond toxic. Employees who literally do ALL THE WORK are somehow being dictators for asking to remain in a work space that has caused them to be more productive and create better quality work? It's like you're a sentient wealthy elite propaganda article.

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You think you know what you’re talking about, but you don’t. There’s definitely stuff in active development. 10.1 is likely getting wrapped up and people working on 10.2, not to mention they’re already developing the next expansion.

On top of that, there’s also an unannounced game they’re hiring for.

[citation needed] on them working on 10.2 right now. Because unless you work for Blizzard, this is nothing but your own speculation.

[rrayy]

They also hired people with the offer of work from home since then. That alone makes your point invalid. Granted, the whole "It's been this way before!" doesn't justify it in the first place.

So? UNless there was a guarnatee that it would never change, they can change it. Nothing invalid about my point at all. ANd it does justify it as well. The fact that you think you have the right to dictate the rulues to your employer is laughable. Your argument is invalid because it is nothing more than "because I say so". It also proves my point about entitlement.