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Reading a well written book that is making me hate Blizzard Entertainment.

It's kind of hard to read, actually, just how casually abusive the bosses were from the very beginning.
 
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Lovely_Cornchips

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Reading a well written book that is making me hate Blizzard Entertainment.

It's kind of hard to read, actually, just how casually abusive the bosses were from the very beginning.
I didn't know what this was referring to-is it the video game company??
 
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centen

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I didn't know what this was referring to-is it the video game company??
Yes! The company that makes World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft. None of which I've played, actually. I'm much more a single player gamer, but I picked it up because video game books that aren't, like, childish are hard to come by and the story is interesting even if the people involved suck.
 

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Yes! The company that makes World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft. None of which I've played, actually. I'm much more a single player gamer, but I picked it up because video game books that aren't, like, childish are hard to come by and the story is interesting even if the people involved suck.
OH wow-I never knew there was a controversy around them.
 
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Yes! The company that makes World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft. None of which I've played, actually. I'm much more a single player gamer, but I picked it up because video game books that aren't, like, childish are hard to come by and the story is interesting even if the people involved suck.
I've played all of them
Blizzard has really gone down hill since activision took over (both gaming wise and culture wise)
 

centen

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I've played all of them
Blizzard has really gone down hill since activision took over (both gaming wise and culture wise)
The book is wild. Like even from the beginning, the bosses were pressuring employees to sleep in the office, working 6-7 days a week for 14-16 hours a day, calling them as many as 20 times a day when they took scheduled PTO, told them the money was totes coming when they stopped being able to afford the bills, and then when they sold the company and made millions, told the employees that they weren't taking any risk, sucks to be them that they were dealing with an angry landlord who wanted the rent paid. It's just infuriating to me to tell someone who so believed in what they were doing that they were facing homelessness to stay on the project, and the boss has shown up to work with a brand-new luxury car, telling them with a straight face that they don't deserve to be paid.

I haven't even gotten to their legal troubles post-Activision yet, but tbh, knowing that this was the insane pressure cooker they were all under from the beginning, I really understand how the culture soured into being legally awful too.
 
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The book is wild. Like even from the beginning, the bosses were pressuring employees to sleep in the office, working 6-7 days a week for 14-16 hours a day, calling them as many as 20 times a day when they took scheduled PTO, told them the money was totes coming when they stopped being able to afford the bills, and then when they sold the company and made millions, told the employees that they weren't taking any risk, sucks to be them that they were dealing with an angry landlord who wanted the rent paid. It's just infuriating to me to tell someone who so believed in what they were doing that they were facing homelessness to stay on the project, and the boss has shown up to work with a brand-new luxury car, telling them with a straight face that they don't deserve to be paid.

I haven't even gotten to their legal troubles post-Activision yet, but tbh, knowing that this was the insane pressure cooker they were all under from the beginning, I really understand how the culture soured into being legally awful too.
it's all about money
when blizzard started they made good games and that's it and then as it got more corporate the games took a dive and yet they needed so sell more and asked their employees to do more etc etc
I haven't read the book but I've read about the stories of all the shit that went down at blizzard

I'm pretty sure some kpop idol will write a similar (if not worse) story about some of the companies that they were in (cough omega X cough)
 

centen

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it's all about money
when blizzard started they made good games and that's it and then as it got more corporate the games took a dive and yet they needed so sell more and asked their employees to do more etc etc
I haven't read the book but I've read about the stories of all the shit that went down at blizzard

I'm pretty sure some kpop idol will write a similar (if not worse) story about some of the companies that they were in (cough omega X cough)
Definitely, I can tell the money changed things from "passionate (if questionable) group of dudebros who just wanted to make a game that they wanted to play" to "you must do in six months what last time took us 12, so we can hit the holiday release window and make more money, oh sorry, you were two weeks late, no bonuses for you, just ignore all the info about our record breaking sales figures."

There's a story in here about one of the developers who went to CostCo and was embarrassed that he didn't have enough money in his account to buy an on-sale TV, but the worker recognized his shirt's logo, said "you made my husband a very wealthy man" and just bought it for him. Turned out, she was working at CostCo for funsies while her husband was one of Blizzard's shareholders, and the person who gave up his life, basically, to do the work that made her husband a millionaire can't even buy a simple TV.

It's really well written and compelling, but it's hard to read because the bosses are so awful to the employees.
 
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Definitely, I can tell the money changed things from "passionate (if questionable) group of dudebros who just wanted to make a game that they wanted to play" to "you must do in six months what last time took us 12, so we can hit the holiday release window and make more money, oh sorry, you were two weeks late, no bonuses for you, just ignore all the info about our record breaking sales figures."

There's a story in here about one of the developers who went to CostCo and was embarrassed that he didn't have enough money in his account to buy an on-sale TV, but the worker recognized his shirt's logo, said "you made my husband a very wealthy man" and just bought it for him. Turned out, she was working at CostCo for funsies while her husband was one of Blizzard's shareholders, and the person who gave up his life, basically, to do the work that made her husband a millionaire can't even buy a simple TV.

It's really well written and compelling, but it's hard to read because the bosses are so awful to the employees.
interesting I've read about crunch in the IT industry - doesn't sound too good

what's the book called btw?
 
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