Blizzard workers strike and GoFundMe page!

[Chilela]

Cost of living in Irvine is about 1.5x higher than the national average. You probably couldn't comfortably live in Orange County on $50-60k but you could commute in from a neighboring city and get a roommate or a one bedroom apartment or something. A one bedroom in Irvine is about $2k a month on average.

Funny enough, I was gonna look up rent prices there, but that actually takes care of it for me. But yeah, presuming the person in question was living alone, that's 24k/yr in rent. Add to that $2k/yr for food (and I'm probably highballing that budget a bit if they actually budget well), $1k/yr for gas (this one widely varies), $8k/yr for loans/debt payments (again, this one can easily vary), $1.5k/yr for other various bills (Internet, phone, etc.), $500/yr for toiletries/cleaning products, $7k/yr for insurance, and that totals roughly $44k, giving some wiggle room on paper. Granted, I'm not sure about what benefits Blizzard offers, nor any given individual's exact financial situation, so my numbers may be slightly wonky.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

So I have to pay twice to increase the chances that the product I already bought wont be a scam? Yeah, makes sense.

I mean kinda I guess? if you want quality products you need the company's to hang onto quality workers.

[Video Games]

Frankly I'm hoping that this leads to them either firing all the purple haired activists that make bad games and hire people that actually like games or it causes activision/blizzard to go out of business. Either way it's a win-win

[rogoth]

Welcome to the fight for workers rights since forever, it's always been this way. And like...David beat Goliath in the story : 3

but america doesn't have any of those, so how would they know about that if it doesn't exist there?

[Devilyaki]

Seems kind of scumy to block union, but all the big ones do it to shit on their employees sadly…

[oplawlz]

Frankly I'm hoping that this leads to them either firing all the purple haired activists that make bad games and hire people that actually like games or it causes activision/blizzard to go out of business. Either way it's a win-win

My feelings exactly.
It's a shame because there are some legit issues that are being crowded out by rediculous shit like demanding employees get a say in who gets hired. If you want to be the boss start your own company.

[Lex Icon]

kinda sad that i'm not at all surprised by the reactions of mmo champs. but good for them if they manage to unionize.

[Tenjen]

Frankly I'm hoping that this leads to them either firing all the purple haired activists that make bad games and hire people that actually like games or it causes activision/blizzard to go out of business. Either way it's a win-win

This is a very thorough misunderstanding of the actual situation going on. The bad games we are seeing are a direct result of those who do have power and the awful business practices they conduct, you can draw a straight line between them. Not "activism" which amounts to a few skins and couple lines of dialogue, which most of the time is just paint thin rainbow capitalism the execs put in to look good.

You're blaming things with little actual influence over the design process and system's functions. Meanwhile executives abuse the work staff with crunch and unrealistic deadlines (leaving little time for proper coding and stable infrastructure), demanding they alter every core aspect of a game to focus purely on generating profit through live services, shops and mtx to the point of damaging the efficacy of the game, leaving little to no focus on anything related to story or meaningful mechanics. Lots of people like to say "companies are supposed to make profit", but not to the exclusion of everything else. Half the time they dont even need to bother making it good or even average cause people pour money into it anyway. Certainly can't expect the staff to make good games with passion when they make a record breaking game and get fired right after despite promises of big payouts, like we keep seeing with actiblizz and more recently with Raven.

Such views only serve only to further dilute the discussion, if not outright subvert them. It exhausts those trying to actually address the real issues and also alienates those in serious positions who could help consumers and players because no one in such positions can take a group with such views like that seriously and still want to represent their interests.

Whether the "purple haired activists" are there or not makes no difference, with the execs and system like this, they're going to keep hiring people who like money and dont give a damn about games except on how to desing them best to sell players as a product to their real customers, the shareholders. Unless we address that, nothing changes.

[ldev]

There are easier ways to part with your money lol.

[Sentynel]

Frankly I'm hoping that this leads to them either firing all the purple haired activists that make bad games and hire people that actually like games or it causes activision/blizzard to go out of business. Either way it's a win-win

^
100% this.

[Xath]

Well for everyone wanting to unsub, that's a good place to put those dollars.

Or you know to another game or really anything besides giving money to a class of workers that is in high demand and choosing to continue working at a studio they dislike. Anyone even semi decent at coding can get a new job near instantly. Now if WoW as a whole outside art and raid devs hadn't been complete trash basically since the end of MoP then I might care more about if devs choose to leave. Getting an infusion of new blood throughout the org can do nothing but good at this point. Get back to having people who love making games they want to play again all throughout the org.

[Mic_128]

My feelings exactly.
It's a shame because there are some legit issues that are being crowded out by rediculous shit like demanding employees get a say in who gets hired.

That's a pretty unfair take. The specific demand - “(2) the adoption of inclusive recruitment and hiring practices” isn't saying they 'get a say in who gets hired', but just want it so it's not just white dude-bro buds who are getting hired.

[Tang0]

you won't get the product fixed if all the talents leave because of the work environment, so it would be a lose lose lose as they say. you don't get your product blizzard doesn't get money, the employees suffer or uproot.

All the talent is already gone. And people left couldn’t deliver, so now instead of working for money, where people see your work and are genuinely disappointed with it, you can strike for money, and no one knows you can’t make a decent game.

[tikcol]

Asking their consumers for money to go on a strike is when they lose me real fast.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

All the talent is already gone. And people left couldn’t deliver, so now instead of working for money, where people see your work and are genuinely disappointed with it, you can strike for money, and no one knows you can’t make a decent game.

So you think there putting there consistent pay health care and all other benefits at risk because they know they can’t make a decent game and just want a quick pay day while striking?

[Video Games]

This is a very thorough misunderstanding of the actual situation going on. The bad games we are seeing are a direct result of those who do have power and the awful business practices they conduct, you can draw a straight line between them. Not "activism" which amounts to a few skins and couple lines of dialogue, which most of the time is just paint thin rainbow capitalism the execs put in to look good.

You're blaming things with little actual influence over the design process and system's functions. Meanwhile executives abuse the work staff with crunch and unrealistic deadlines (leaving little time for proper coding and stable infrastructure), demanding they alter every core aspect of a game to focus purely on generating profit through live services, shops and mtx to the point of damaging the efficacy of the game, leaving little to no focus on anything related to story or meaningful mechanics. Lots of people like to say "companies are supposed to make profit", but not to the exclusion of everything else. Half the time they dont even need to bother making it good or even average cause people pour money into it anyway. Certainly can't expect the staff to make good games with passion when they make a record breaking game and get fired right after despite promises of big payouts, like we keep seeing with actiblizz and more recently with Raven.

Such views only serve only to further dilute the discussion, if not outright subvert them. It exhausts those trying to actually address the real issues and also alienates those in serious positions who could help consumers and players because no one in such positions can take a group with such views like that seriously and still want to represent their interests.

Whether the "purple haired activists" are there or not makes no difference, with the execs and system like this, they're going to keep hiring people who like money and dont give a damn about games except on how to desing them best to sell players as a product to their real customers, the shareholders. Unless we address that, nothing changes.

Nah. I can see the clear line of the more diversity and inclusion the west does, the worse and worse their games are getting. Japan is killing it in games quality right now after they stopped trying to cater to the west during the ps3/360 era. Same goes for the western comic industry and manga. That being said, I've always hated kotick and I'm fine with the company collapsing since all this is their fault in the first place

[Beefhammer]

I mean, they're signing union auth cards now. Sure it's still a big uphill battle for them before anything happens, but it always is.

And make up for the lost wages of the employees of a company we hate? Yeah, because we can separate out - employees who are pushing for change and not a part of the problems within the company, and the company itself and its management who are the primary ones at fault here who people are angry with.



No, this is to show your support for the workers as they push for better working conditions and the removal of the leadership members that created and protected a toxic work environment. The goal being that the workers are able to unionize, and can negotiate contracts that would include actual accountability within the company and force out Kotick to bring in new leadership capable of enacting the change that needs to happen.



Don't think you know what that term means.



Welcome to how workers rights are fought for. It's not fun, it's messy, it's risky, and a huge number of people who benefit from the rights and protections that union members have fought and died for will piss on continued efforts without understanding their significance.

Yup. Nobody wants to see how the sausage us made and some of the comments here just show lack of empathy for fellow humans facing deplorable and hostile working conditions.

- - - Updated - - -

All the talent is already gone. And people left couldn’t deliver, so now instead of working for money, where people see your work and are genuinely disappointed with it, you can strike for money, and no one knows you can’t make a decent game.

No the handful of names you knew for the last 20 years are gone. There is still plenty of talent there.

- - - Updated - - -

Frankly I'm hoping that this leads to them either firing all the purple haired activists that make bad games and hire people that actually like games or it causes activision/blizzard to go out of business. Either way it's a win-win

Oh please. This is such a bad take even for your shitty takes on everything.

[Video Games]

Oh please. This is such a bad take even for your shitty takes on everything.

"You're wrong because - YOU JUST ARE OK?!"

Alright.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Looks like blizzard is trying to cast doubt on unions hoping people won’t go with it.

[Gorsameth]

Workers rights definitely haven't been fought for with crowdfunded customer money, that's for sure.

Really? Your telling me no where in the history of employment have people lived off the charity of others while fighting for their worker rights?

Cause that is some grade A bullshit right there.