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Murderion posted:Zero tolerance policy? :O
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Nov 18, 2021 12:10
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Murderion posted:Zero tolerance policy? Lol
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Nov 18, 2021 13:19
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gas (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Nov 18, 2021 13:36
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It's not as though there is sworn court testimony from the cabin attendant he harassed, or as if he himself admitted, in public, to having threatened to kill an employee. Hey, denial is working just fine for other men in power.
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Nov 18, 2021 16:24
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Doesn't Kotick get like $300 million if he's fired? What the gently caress is wrong with rich people I can't understand how this guy could be that critical to Blizzard's success in the eyes of the board, too. Blizzard has these massive IPs, and more money than god, they can afford to clean house and hire the best talent out there.
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Nov 18, 2021 17:16
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That's the funny part in all this, he's not lmao. Any shmuck could sit in his office and go "Ok, the things that are making money? Make more of those. And the things that aren't making money? Let's change or get rid of those." Bonus is that you could find someone to do that WITHOUT assaulting anyone, too.
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Nov 18, 2021 17:44
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Hint: The board, like most of the senior staff at Actiblizzard, think nothing all that bad happened.
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Nov 18, 2021 17:50
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Shareholders love mass layoffs that spike a company’s share price at the expense of its long term health. And Bobby is their hatchet man.
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Nov 18, 2021 17:51
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smoobles posted:Doesn't Kotick get like $300 million if he's fired? What the gently caress is wrong with rich people Potentially. He has to prove it was a wrongful dismissal among other things.
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Nov 18, 2021 17:57
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smoobles posted:Doesn't Kotick get like $300 million if he's fired? What the gently caress is wrong with rich people Arsenic Lupin posted:Hint: The board, like most of the senior staff at Actiblizzard, think nothing all that bad happened. *You know, connected/amoral yook posted:Shareholders love mass layoffs that spike a company’s share price at the expense of its long term health.
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Nov 18, 2021 18:10
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I've worked in the industry for almost a decade and its always been bad. Things are better now compared to when I started, but the bar is so extremely low that it's not saying much. I personally know of famous studio heads that were involved in harassment, covered it up, or lead to the deaths/suicides of employees. The things pulled in European and Asian studios would make you gasp even compared to the things you hear about in the USA. In my opinion this exists in corporate culture anywhere, but the games industry has always been so extremely exploitative of its workers that it is many times compounded for us. For context, the industry used to self-publish statistics about quality of life, but stopped because it was only getting worse every year. We don't even know how bad it is anymore. Ontop of harassment there are long hours, underinflated salaries, low stability, and often requires relocation every ~4 years. We need unions, fair pay, fair hours, and to raise the price of games. I doubt any of this will happen in our hell world.
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Nov 18, 2021 18:21
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BULBASAUR posted:raise the price of games. ??????
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Nov 18, 2021 19:16
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Magmarashi posted:?????? I believe the assumption is that that money would go to the employees, instead of simply inflating profit margins
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Nov 18, 2021 19:28
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So far as I can tell there has literally never been a time where raising prices ever went to benefit employees, outside of completely employee owned companies.
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Nov 18, 2021 19:55
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Bellular, a WoW/FF14 content guy, put out a couple of videos about this new drama that's added some interesting context I was not aware of. He did some research on the Playstation guy calling out Activision. Turns out that Playstation is AKB's number one console (mainly for Call of Duty), and that they have in the recent past refused to do business with companies found guilty of gross misconduct. Sony apparently has a pretty decent reputation regarding harassment in the workplace - lovely for crunch, according to Bellular, but their current leadership seems to have been working hard on issues of harassment in the workplace in the last few years. He doesn't think it's likely that Sony's going to go to Activision and say "No more Call of Duty on Playstation until you sort this poo poo out" but it is a possibility and that if Activision is sane they're going to take Sony calling them out very seriously. If Sony is trying to take a committed stand for better treatment in the workplace, even if only with regards to sexual harassment, this could be a good thing for the industry. If anything actually comes of this and it's not just talk, of course.
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Nov 18, 2021 20:18
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https://twitter.com/wuffles/status/1461085981159923712?s=20 I mean sure a major somebody in the industry giving a poo poo would be great but if they can't manage to clean their own house well Hub Cat fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Nov 18, 2021 |
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Nov 18, 2021 20:33
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If only Reagan hadn't deregulated the games industry
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Nov 18, 2021 20:42
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that's one hell of a shot across the bow https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1461420439004188673?s=20
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Nov 18, 2021 20:46
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The Lord of Hats posted:I believe the assumption is that that money would go to the employees, instead of simply inflating profit margins LOL, well, that sure would be a loving WILD assumption to make, Games already make enough bank for these companies to be paying a fair and competitive wage
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Nov 18, 2021 21:00
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I mean let's be real, it's just Sony and MS taking the opportunity to try and milk better deals out of Activision for CoD crap while they have bad press hammering them.
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Nov 18, 2021 21:02
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PerilPastry posted:that's one hell of a shot across the bow the Xbox guy is saying he's having second thoughts about wanting more Call of Duty games on the platform which is a pretty notable development.
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Nov 18, 2021 21:06
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100% posturing Though both MS and Sony have tightened up a lot about quality of life and harassment, this means nothing unless they put their money where their mouths are and refuse to publish ATVIs upcoming games
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Nov 18, 2021 21:07
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Chillgamesh posted:I mean let's be real, it's just Sony and MS taking the opportunity to try and milk better deals out of Activision for CoD crap while they have bad press hammering them. It's probably also partly for show to their own employees who may be considering going somewhere else. Games aren't immune to the whole 'Great Resignation' thing.
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Nov 18, 2021 21:11
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S&P 500 has risen 15% over the past 6mo, ATVI has fallen 35%. I'm not saying that they're definitely definitely going to do something, but it's also inaccurate to say this whole thing isn't impacting the stock price, and this latest round of accusations isn't centered on blizzard.
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Nov 18, 2021 21:49
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Chillgamesh posted:I mean let's be real, it's just Sony and MS taking the opportunity to try and milk better deals out of Activision for CoD crap while they have bad press hammering them.
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Nov 18, 2021 22:51
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stev posted:A spokesperson acknowledged and admitted that he threated to have someone killed. like we said, no evidence. nothing we can do, sorry. our hands are tied
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Nov 18, 2021 23:10
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The latest stuff goes beyond Blizzard but it seems unlikely journalists would've been digging without the Blizzard centered shitstorm. I've been continuously surprised that Activision hasn't long ago gutted Blizzard and shifted the IPs onto more pliable studios. They keep their CoD factories on a short leash and while Blizzard games make good money when they are released they also blow more money not making games than any other studio I can think of. I don't see the cut throat corporate benefit to leaving Blizzard as they are for so long and now that they are dragging down the more profitable arms of Activision I can't imagine why they wouldn't gut them.
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Nov 18, 2021 23:16
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FuzzySlippers posted:The latest stuff goes beyond Blizzard but it seems unlikely journalists would've been digging without the Blizzard centered shitstorm. i mean, i think we're watching the gutting happen in real time
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Nov 18, 2021 23:23
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FuzzySlippers posted:The latest stuff goes beyond Blizzard but it seems unlikely journalists would've been digging without the Blizzard centered shitstorm. The employee that killed herself wasn't from Blizzard as far as I know, it was just mentioned in the first public announcement and assumed it was Blizzard as it was beside the Cosby Suite stuff. It wasn't specified anywhere what company she was in. Blizzard has been taking the front of it, Treyarch and so saying nothing for obvious reasons. And Activision has been gutting Blizzard, they got rid of Blizzard's E-sports and QA division with the last layoffs. The dev team will be the last to go, when you hear about their Customer Support being downsized, that will be the last days of Blizzard.
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Nov 18, 2021 23:42
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happyhippy posted:The employee that killed herself wasn't from Blizzard as far as I know, it was just mentioned in the first public announcement and assumed it was Blizzard as it was beside the Cosby Suite stuff. It wasn't specified anywhere what company she was in. Yeah the gutting has really been the waves of really massive layoffs going back to I think 2017 (might've started in 2018). It's very much an underway thing, if not already a fait accompli. iirc the employee suicide was reported as an activision employee and the exec was activision as well.
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Nov 18, 2021 23:45
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they didnt even do it through layoffs, iirc they cut profit share for senior employees at some point which is aroudn when you saw the exodus of like ben brode and stuff. that might just be hearsay tho, but a lot of people explicitly quit around that time.
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Nov 18, 2021 23:48
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Bliz has been gutted over the years. The gentle corporate squeezing that starts after an acquisition happens and continues until its a clenched first with all blood squeezed out of the stone.FuzzySlippers posted:The latest stuff goes beyond Blizzard but it seems unlikely journalists would've been digging without the Blizzard centered shitstorm. The games business likes to mine for gold. For every project that makes money every year some is taken and 'invested' into more creative things that you hope turns out to be the next big thing. I would wager this one reason they still have some creative freedom, though they certainly make tons of money from their 'always on games' so its not like they're hemorrhaging money. Also they haven't really taken any big risks lately so even those times might be behind us. They took 12 years to publish Diablo 3, after all.
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Nov 18, 2021 23:50
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anime was right posted:they didnt even do it through layoffs, iirc they cut profit share for senior employees at some point which is aroudn when you saw the exodus of like ben brode and stuff. that might just be hearsay tho, but a lot of people explicitly quit around that time. For the management, maybe, unhappy they can't get that third house with this year's pay. For a lot of the lower staff living from month to month, it was lol gtfo. Herstory Begins Now posted:(might've started in 2018). That the one Bobby was gleeful in the investors call that profits were up when 800 were sacked hours earlier.
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Nov 18, 2021 23:54
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BULBASAUR posted:Bliz has been gutted over the years. The gentle corporate squeezing that starts after an acquisition happens and continues until its a clenched first with all blood squeezed out of the stone. Yeah they're killing the studio brand so they can have the IPs at a discount
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Nov 18, 2021 23:59
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I saw Blizzard just hired a bunch of people  I'm just surprised they don't literally shutter it and restart with a structure that Activision controls completely ala their CoD factories.Doesn't Activision already own the IPs? What's stopping them from just tossing Overwatch 2 to a less dysfunctional studio who can just crank out a shooter without spinning in circles for years? Its not like they care about any online reactions considering the state of things
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Nov 19, 2021 00:08
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FAUXTON posted:Yeah they're killing the studio brand so they can have the IPs at a discount They're making the IPs worthless in the process.
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Nov 19, 2021 00:12
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stev posted:They're making the IPs worthless in the process. I don't think that's true. They might have to time them out for a bit but nostalgia and name recognition do a ton of lifting in the games industry.
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Nov 19, 2021 00:29
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tracecomplete posted:I don't think that's true. They might have to time them out for a bit but nostalgia and name recognition do a ton of lifting in the games industry. This. Back before all hell broke loose, I used to say that it would even be easy for Blizzard to win back much of the goodwill that they lost. Show some performative humility, do a big song and dance about listening to players and getting back on track, show a clear roadmap for the future, and a lot of people would have instantly given them the benefit of the doubt. I think one of the fundamental problems here is Blizzard's absolute unwillingness, with regards to their internal culture or their game design, to take the L and go "My bad, here's how we're going to do better."
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Nov 19, 2021 00:44
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Cythereal posted:This. Back before all hell broke loose, I used to say that it would even be easy for Blizzard to win back much of the goodwill that they lost. Show some performative humility, do a big song and dance about listening to players and getting back on track, show a clear roadmap for the future, and a lot of people would have instantly given them the benefit of the doubt. well they have said that repeatedly, and they've said it repeatedly because they have lied every time lol
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Nov 19, 2021 00:51
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BULBASAUR posted:I've worked in the industry for almost a decade and its always been bad. Things are better now compared to when I started, but the bar is so extremely low that it's not saying much. I personally know of famous studio heads that were involved in harassment, covered it up, or lead to the deaths/suicides of employees. The things pulled in European and Asian studios would make you gasp even compared to the things you hear about in the USA. The solution is the same, of course: unionization. I think I had some other points but my post-vaccine booster brain is still melting down.
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Nov 19, 2021 00:53
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