PC gamer interview: Blizzard 'has completely changed,'

[sam86]

link
An interview just 2 days ago that interested me, specially that part "We didn't talk about Chinese government and what they might want. The only thing we ever talked about was what we wanted to do and what the fans would like."
It shows what blizz was vs what it is now the best
Also the other important point is that only 2 left from the original 180 workers of the entire starting team (which isn't normal that 99% of the team that build a company leave in merely 30 years) and the interviewer claims he is still in good relation with one of them
I think that is best thing to show why we loved blizz and why it keep disappointing us now, because it is a 1% of what it used to be

[iosdeveloper]

Yep, pretty much that!
These aren't the people who got us hooked on quality video games.

[Schmilblick]

It's been known years ago by true Blizzard fans.

[Amerissis]

(which isn't normal that 99% of the team that build a company leave in merely 30 years)

Wait, what? I've worked at a company (1500+ people) for 15 years and after only 10 years there were just 2 people there longer than me, the founder and his mate, the HR director. I've never seen a company that has the same team for 30 years.

[Arainie]

Wait, what? I've worked at a company (1500+ people) for 15 years and after only 10 years there were just 2 people there longer than me, the founder and his mate, the HR director. I've never seen a company that has the same team for 30 years.

Yup, there aren't many people who work for the same company for 30 years, but you can't expect sam86 to be unbiased.

[Dhrizzle]

Breaking News: Multi-billion dollar global corporation with thousands of employees is different to small company with barely a couple of hundred.

Also: Water is wet!

[XDurionX]

Its absolutely normal that less then 1% stays in a company for more than 30 years.

[Alvito]

(which isn't normal that 99% of the team that build a company leave in merely 30 years)

Most people don't even work for that long, even less in a company that has been so extremely successful. Many of the best there are working because they want to d not because they have to. When you life shifts to doing only what you want you skip out on the 9 to 5 grind. This is why you have seen so many of the big names go off and do tiny side projects. Believe whatever you want about a company, but it is rare for people to stay more than 10 years at a job and as you get close to 20 those numbers drop rapidly. Work at a place long enough and you hit a ceiling and have no more room for growth, so at some point people have to leave you can't endlessly promote everyone. Even if you could those people that really did make the games of the 2000's would be in new roles with the company so either way you wont have the same people doing the same work, either way you are looking at that 1%.

[Astalnar]

So, now it's obvious, we're dealing with convergence of the company. Convergence that was going on for awhile. Blizzard who made all those games we loved is no more, now it's just an empty husk filled with people who want it make it their own, while still banking on the name recognition. Same as Star Wars phaenomena, same as the crash of Marvel and DC comics. The people who made it great are gone, and the people who were brought in, are destroying it.

[Yoshingo]

I'm all for dunking on plenty of the dumbass, anti-consumer, and horrible things Blizzard has done.

However the people quoted quit and found companies who then put out games (Or are developing games) that are in direct competition with some of Blizzard's properties.

So you should take some of what they say with a grain of salt. I'm sure most of what they're saying is true but to pretend they don't have an agenda to take Blizzard down (In whatever tiny way they can) would be disingenuous.

[Raelbo]

Its absolutely normal that less then 1% stays in a company for more than 30 years.

Yup.

Average tenure in a company is often quoted to be less than 5 years, meaning that 20% of your staff leave every year. Over a 30 year period that would leave an organisation with 0.1% of its original staff.

The fact that they've retained a "mere" 1% of their original staff suggests an average tenure of 7 years. Although I would note something else here: 30 years of tenure is VERY long in any job, especially if you only start that job in your 30s. A lot of people have stopped working for Blizzard literally because they've retired.

Anyhow I guess it all depends on what agenda the OP is trying to prove. Organisational culture is an interesting thing, and it can remain intact even after all the original staff are long gone. Or it can change in spite of retaining the orignal staff. Either way, the fact that almost everyone who started the company has, 30 years later, moved on proves very little in and of itself

[Relapses]

Brevik seems to epitomize the angry butthurt ex-game developer who hates the company which helped found his fortune. Every time I see him speaking about "old Blizzard" it reminds me of somebody regailing tales of a lost lover.

At least he didn't buy a $3 million bus with Chinese venture capital like the other popular ex-Blizzard dev Mark Kern.

[RemasteredClassic]

It's been known years ago by true Blizzard fans.

And this true Blizzard fan is not gonna let the new system win even if it means boycotting them regularly.

[Raven]

So only 2 out of 180 is left after 30 years, doenst seem wierd at all other way around sounds pretty logical, of all people on the earth its probably a really low % of people that worked at the same place their hole life.

[ecospherez]

In the last 11 years I've had 5 different jobs. Each 1 for a better salary than the last.

Shock horror that people move on for new jobs.

[Corroc]

Also the other important point is that only 2 left from the original 180 workers of the entire starting team (which isn't normal that 99% of the team that build a company leave in merely 30 years)

This is actually false interpretation by the interviewer. It could also be intentional. Alot of the people who worked on wow are still in Blizzard and work in other games. So I highly doubt that all those 180 workers left the company.

Edit. Ok so I read the actual interview and its basically talking about people who created warcraft, diablo 2 etc. Not people who worked at Wow and other games. I mean we have Tom Chilton, Jeff Kaplan etc who are not part of those 180 employees but were huge part of wow's success and Blizzards succession.

[cuafpr]

In the US it's common to leave a company after a short time, heck most studies here show that staying with a company for more than 5 years is costing you 20% pay. Add in the fact that going from small company to large corp is going to run off people (Saw it in my own career), and the fact blizz employess are probably highly saugh after in the industry and thus get nice offers from other places and this is not shocking at all nor is it an issue. The games are still fun enjoy them or don't.

[The Butt Witch]

It's a known fact that the vast majority of the devs who brought us WoW, are no longer with the company, and their replacements are just random hires and not the passionate folks that used to make up Blizzard.

[Nynax]

Also the other important point is that only 2 left from the original 180 workers of the entire starting team (which isn't normal that 99% of the team that build a company leave in merely 30 years)

I've had this conversation with others....but if you follow any form of software development as a career field, the current climate is pretty heavy on the idea that if you want a promotion you have to "move out and up." What's rare today is staying at any one company for longer than 5 years, most people are changing every 2-3 years unless they helped found the company and are heavily vested.

With that in mind, basically realized that every single game development studio essentially has a completely different team every 10-15 years. So very often the team that brought the "big hit" isn't around for later sequels, and maybe that's why IP's always seem to decline in quality.

[Yeti Glanchi]

Blizzard is evolving with the times ... not much more to it