Did Gamers forget there is a pandemic going on?

[Shyning]

Your sarcasm sucks. It is more than that. What will you do with shit internet connection at home as graphics artist, eh?

Funny you should ask, since I am one. Your internet connection isn't relevant to anything other than uploading images and forwarding sheets to clients/employer. No graphical design software is unusable without internet that I know of, and custom design engines (such a 3d software for lighting/modeling/texture baking) can be given home copies and probably already require a security key to use, which many professionals keep on a USB drive that is on their person. The tablets are almost always provided by the company (if it's a large one like Blizzard, Riot, etc. who have deals with Wacom), but I don't think a single graphical professional on the planet doesn't have their own tablet at home. If there's any issues with working from home, the art team sees the least of them. i'd be more curious about the systems designers and network engineers working from home.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

If you have an issue with the "lack of content" showed at the absolutely free Blizzcon this year...you should request a refund.

[Elim Garak]

I don't know, I definitely slacked off way more when the pandemic hit until I went on sick leave.

Did you do a poor job?
There's nothing wrong with slacking off if you do your job good anyway. I slacked off a lot in the office - still did my job good.

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I love that people in this thread with zero knowledge of game developing think they could lecture people on how easy it is to adapt to a situation like the pandemic when developing AAA gaming content. Sometimes I would love to know what shitty jobs you guys have just to laugh a little harder at how disconnected you kids are from reality.
Even in my small agency of 21 people the slowdown because the more complicated communication was VERY noticable. Especially when working in a creative job you rely HEAVILY on feedback an communication.
"But yeah duuude, just grab your workstation, bring it back home and chill on discord to manage the workflow." So easy. Sure. Absolutely NO drawbacks.

The majority of AAA production work goes with outsourced agencies. This is remote work between the studio and the outsourcing. Also big companies have offices scattered across the country or even the globe - this is remote work. And even at the same studio/branch - there were people who already worked remotely because they wanted, asked, and were allowed. Remote work is nothing new. It might be new for those who haven't done it yet - and there will be an adjustment period - but it won't take a year. It will take weeks. If your agency fails to adapt - well then there's something to say about people working there.

[Xath]

Serious question, Did Gamers (not all just the loud minority) forget there is a pandemic going on?

All I have been seeing lately is people mad about the Nintendo Direct, Blizzcon ect.... Did gamers (to be clear not all) realize that the pandemic really fucked things up and delayed a lot of stuff. Yes lots was able to start working at home but that in itself still makes developing content take much longer.

I honestly expected releases to be much lighter than it already is, so I'm impressed we are getting the games we are getting.

Maybe those people should sit back and clear some of their backlog or find something else to play for a bit.

WFH is more efficient than working from the office. More and more companies are finding this out it's possible it's different with asset based work but in general wfh is much more efficient.

[zhorteye]

It should have taken a month - no more than two at the most - to adjust to working from home. Working from home has been proven to be more efficient than going in to work, so by the end of the year it should have evened out.

People are right to be mad about Nintendo and Blizzcon. Nintendo has historically neglected the outcries of their fans for decades, and Blizzard has been in shambles for years. Even if covid had never happened people we would still be in this situation and people would still be rightfully upset.

In some industries its more efficient, yes.. but for the gaming industry where you have to share large amounts of data, look at code, take care of large server rooms etc it presents a huge logistical difficulty..

And no. People are in no rights to be mad about blizzcon. Blizzard is of no obligation to even host blizzcon, and are of no obligation to give us any information before the things are ready to be released. Its literally just blizzard giving back to the community.

[ryanmahaffe]

Regardless of pandemic. Gamers on the internet are one of the most entitled, whiny, bitchy, and egotistical groups of there. They always think they know how to do X and Y and that they are the arbiter on every design philosophy knowing exactly what is a perfect system. Also just extremely toxic, seeing the D2 remastered fans just assaulting D4 endlessly is proof of that.

Shit is just embarassing.

[Kithelle]

Serious question, Did Gamers (not all just the loud minority) forget there is a pandemic going on?

All I have been seeing lately is people mad about the Nintendo Direct, Blizzcon ect.... Did gamers (to be clear not all) realize that the pandemic really fucked things up and delayed a lot of stuff. Yes lots was able to start working at home but that in itself still makes developing content take much longer.

I honestly expected releases to be much lighter than it already is, so I'm impressed we are getting the games we are getting.

Maybe those people should sit back and clear some of their backlog or find something else to play for a bit.

My problem is some devs have taken to use it as a excuse to do a piss poor job. (Not saying WoW...another mmorpg I play development has been almost at a standstill, I mean they're keeping right up with developing things they can sell! But actual in game content development is almost nonexistent)

This is about WoW...I wish they'd postpone things a little instead of worrying about a deadline...they had to get SL out before 2021 and it suffered

[Squigglyo]

Sure there is and productivity has suffered.

But if i go buy a Burger, Im not gunna mind waiting twice as long as usual for it (afterall, there is a pandemic going on, allowances have to be made).
But if it comes out and the meat isnt cooked, the lettuce is wet seaweed and the bun is just a piece of driftwood, I'm gunna be a little pissed.


Lower productivity doesnt have to equate to less quality.

Thats what people are pissed about. Not that it takes longer but that there is less and its not as good as it should have or could have been.

[Unholyground]

Did you do a poor job?
There's nothing wrong with slacking off if you do your job good anyway. I slacked off a lot in the office - still did my job good.

Ya I always do a good job, just bunch of stuff amplified by the lockdown and restrictions.

[zhorteye]

Sure there is and productivity has suffered.

But if i go buy a Burger, Im not gunna mind waiting twice as long as usual for it (afterall, there is a pandemic going on, allowances have to be made).
But if it comes out and the meat isnt cooked, the lettuce is wet seaweed and the bun is just a piece of driftwood, I'm gunna be a little pissed.


Lower productivity doesnt have to equate to less quality.

Thats what people are pissed about. Not that it takes longer but that there is less and its not as good as it should have or could have been.

Well. With stuff taking longer people cant complain about there being less. As stuff taking longer automatically means getting less in the same timeframe as usual.
Quality i can however see being a matter of diccussion and thats a viable complaint

[VinceVega]

Serious question, Did Gamers (not all just the loud minority) forget there is a pandemic going on?

All I have been seeing lately is people mad about the Nintendo Direct, Blizzcon ect.... Did gamers (to be clear not all) realize that the pandemic really fucked things up and delayed a lot of stuff. Yes lots was able to start working at home but that in itself still makes developing content take much longer.

I honestly expected releases to be much lighter than it already is, so I'm impressed we are getting the games we are getting.

Maybe those people should sit back and clear some of their backlog or find something else to play for a bit.

It is one thing to ask for patience and a complete other to hype a Blizzconline like it would be a real Blizzcon when you don't show ANYTHING real for any game.
I rather they scrap the Blizzcon concept for the forseeable future and give us monthly updates on development. More frequent but smaller. So we don't get overhyped or expect too much.

I do get that it is more difficult to get content finished. But god damn. They delayed shadowlands. Delayed Blizzcon. And still nothing to show? Like.... absolutly nothing bare a few models and concepts. Not even Artwork of the new zones. We don't even get a new set. Just these weird watered down covenant sets with the kyrian being the only one who looks kinda special. (poor necrolords walking around like a plastic toy)

IF they are not able to keep up. SAY SO! Tell us we are sorry but patches for Shadowlands will come out a bit slower than in the last few addons. We will not get a new expansion anouncment this year (which would be the normal pace), which is to be expected and ok.
But Blizz will NEVER tell us that beforehand. The will hold a blizzcon throw us some halfbaked shit and won't mention in one sentence that there is something expecte dmissing

[Cosmic Janitor]

Wait...did they even announce anything?

I think they only new thing announced was D2 Rehash. Unless WOW getting a 9.1 patch someday was a huge shock to someone.

The whole "it was leaked" thing is just a pathic diversion from fanboys. We had a couple of screenshots. If anything we wanted to hear context and explanations, everyone knew Anduin will be Arthas2 - diptshit boogaloo, because they pretty much promised that already in 9.0. Not having seen some transmogs and an entirely non-specific shot of the maw would have not magically turned this presentation into one of substance. I mean they didn't even show the concept art from the spoilers that could have been used to explain alot of things they are planning to do, so this entire thing is a giant non-argument.

[pacotaco]

Most of the time it's a waste. Every time it's a waste at least for one participant who just wants to go back to work but the company culture is preventing them exactly because of the nonsense about "socializing that helps". Socializing helps only extroverts, the majority of devs are introverts. The majority of managers are extroverts though. Connect the dots.

I work in the industry (a small indie company). I'm an introvert, and I don't use to do coffee talks, but I miss them. The first months were weird, but after the things settle a bit, staying alone on the computer without anyone talking around is bad for the mind with no fresh inputs (so if you're stuck you have to unstuck yourself or call directly someone) and feelings of isolation.
So yeah, you have no distractions, but we're not machines, so sometimes distractions are good.

[Yriel]

Serious question, Did Gamers (not all just the loud minority) forget there is a pandemic going on?

All I have been seeing lately is people mad about the Nintendo Direct, Blizzcon ect.... Did gamers (to be clear not all) realize that the pandemic really fucked things up and delayed a lot of stuff. Yes lots was able to start working at home but that in itself still makes developing content take much longer.

I work in software development, my whole company is in homeoffice for just about a year now and aside from a short transition period it's just business as usual, nothing takes much longer.
Granted, it's not game development but still, i really don't see the reason that after 1,5 years they could only present 1 new/old class for D4 and 2 maps and a talent tree for O4. That seems just lazy or mis-managed.

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I work in the industry (a small indie company). I'm an introvert, and I don't use to do coffee talks, but I miss them. The first months were weird, but after the things settle a bit, staying alone on the computer without anyone talking around is bad for the mind with no fresh inputs (so if you're stuck you have to unstuck yourself or call directly someone) and feelings of isolation.
So yeah, you have no distractions, but we're not machines, so sometimes distractions are good.

I don't know how you are organized but we have meetings all the time, just not in person but remote. We have chillout rooms where people can just hang out and talk and all kind of remote social events.
I see no reason not to get fresh inputs aside from actually touching the other person.

[Elim Garak]

i really don't see the reason that after 1,5 years they could only present 1 new/old class for D4 and 2 maps and a talent tree for O4. That seems just lazy or mis-managed.

What might have actually happened:
They COVID-scared the shareholders to approve the deadline move and spent the new time (and money) on something else. Something they needed or wanted, but that wasn't related to the development of actual game content. Maybe they did the much-needed refactoring or started from scratch, or did some prototyping.

[Baconeggcheese]

I completely missed this outrage, what are people mad about?

I think my biggest complaint about blizzcon was that they for no apparent reason decided to have 1 Q&A per franchise despite them having 2-3 games to talk about. I have no idea why they thought it a good idea to lump TBC and shadowlands Q&A together or D4, D2R, and immortal together. I don't really understand how when they had all the time in the world to pre-record this stuff they put out less information about these games than when they rent out a convention center and have those little sit downs where they're scrambling to fit everything in.

[pacotaco]

I don't know how you are organized but we have meetings all the time, just not in person but remote. We have chillout rooms where people can just hang out and talk and all kind of remote social events.
I see no reason not to get fresh inputs aside from actually touching the other person.

It could be done, but it's harder. Physically, you just take a break, go to the toilet, go to the coffemachine and join some conversation or start one with a coworker.
On remote we have Slack, we do a scrum every morning and we have meetings when something urgen needs to be discused, but if we have a problem we have to write or call someone, etc.
It's not the same, it's not just the physical contact. The way we socialice is not the same.

So while you gain some preformance from not getting distractions, you also lose it because, as humans, we also need that from time to time. In the end the performance would be more or less the same as before

[Easo]

Funny you should ask, since I am one. Your internet connection isn't relevant to anything other than uploading images and forwarding sheets to clients/employer. No graphical design software is unusable without internet that I know of, and custom design engines (such a 3d software for lighting/modeling/texture baking) can be given home copies and probably already require a security key to use, which many professionals keep on a USB drive that is on their person. The tablets are almost always provided by the company (if it's a large one like Blizzard, Riot, etc. who have deals with Wacom), but I don't think a single graphical professional on the planet doesn't have their own tablet at home. If there's any issues with working from home, the art team sees the least of them. i'd be more curious about the systems designers and network engineers working from home.

I specifically asked this because of internet. It is very relevant, maybe you live in somewhere with 5mbit upload, good luck doing anything with that, unless you love sitting and waiting.

[francisbaud]

[...] Did gamers (to be clear not all) realize that the pandemic really fucked things up and delayed a lot of stuff. Yes lots was able to start working at home but that in itself still makes developing content take much longer.

I would be interested in seeing statistics/studies about the drop of productivity caused by the transition to work-from-home in video game studios.

I'm pretty sure it's significant but without concrete numbers I can only guess.

Maybe a large proportion of developers are really disciplined and it didn't impact that much at all...

[Struggle]

Serious question, Did Gamers (not all just the loud minority) forget there is a pandemic going on?

All I have been seeing lately is people mad about the Nintendo Direct, Blizzcon ect.... Did gamers (to be clear not all) realize that the pandemic really fucked things up and delayed a lot of stuff. Yes lots was able to start working at home but that in itself still makes developing content take much longer.

I honestly expected releases to be much lighter than it already is, so I'm impressed we are getting the games we are getting.

Maybe those people should sit back and clear some of their backlog or find something else to play for a bit.

How could I forget? Blizzcon spent about an hour of air-time reminding me.