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Sunday, June 12, 2022

What Awaits Blizzard

I read with interest the experiences of Bethesda's disaster of a game, Fallout 76, in an article just published on Wednesday by Kotaku. While the article itself could have used better editing*, the basic premise remains the same: Bethesda refused to listen to the multi-player part of the studio, used crunch needlessly on QA and dev staff, refused to let the release date slide, utilized a game engine not built for what it was being used for, and relied upon snitches and bad management to deal with a project that chewed up and spit people out.

It sounds a LOT like what happened to Bioware with Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda, doesn't it?

But for me, the most interesting part of the article was how the QA and dev staff thought they were gonna be saved when Microsoft bought the game studio, and once they came onboard they were sadly mistaken.

Microsoft operated in a "hands-off" policy, mainly because they feared too much corporate interference would disrupt the "secret sauce" of the creative nature of game development.

“The impression that I got was that Microsoft would not make big changes unless they needed to,” one staffer told Kotaku. “Simply because they’re like: We hired you to be excellent. And if we touch you, it could be like a house of cards situation where you just fall apart [as creatives]. I don’t think health benefits are going to do that to anybody.”

Microsoft did not address a request for comment by the time of publication.

A former Bethesda employee told Kotaku, “[Xbox CEO Phil] Spencer’s word when picking up Bethesda [and ZeniMax] is largely that his preference is that studios be let to operate as they always have, let the talent be the talent.”

One source spoke cynically about Bethesda’s potential for changing from within: “It would be great if something like [Activision Blizzard worker advocacy group] A Better ABK existed for Bethesda, but everyone is terrified...because [Bethesda] HR is super cutthroat.” A current employee agreed it did not feel like Bethesda HR was actively interested in addressing “any real employee concerns.” Similar cynicism is reflected in the company’s Glassdoor reviews.
--From The Human Toll Of Fallout 76’s Disastrous Launch

My big takeaway from this is that if people thought that Microsoft would "right the ship" with Blizzard's handling of World of Warcraft or any of their other franchises, they are being naive.

There isn't going to be a big cultural shift at Activision/Blizzard, and there isn't going to be a sudden improvement in the quality of the work done on WoW. The stories aren't going to get better (or worse, I suppose), and the focus on WoW isn't going to change from raiding and Mythic+. And Diablo Immortal? It's not going to change from it's own insidious version of gambling mechanics.

Unless Blizzard itself wants it to change.

 

 

*Having blogged for almost 13 years has given me some appreciation for that part of the creative process. I mean, I read an old post I'd made and cringe at the grammatical errors I find, years later. And don't get me started on One Final Lesson; every time I go back and reread it I find new areas I could rewrite and improve the flow of the story.

7 comments:

  1. I've always been able to cut your average blogger a break for typos and stuff, even myself (and I've rolled some good ones out). But when you're paid to do it, that makes it a matter of professionalism, and when I see so-called "amateurs" consistently turn out good stuff while the "pros" frequently produce amateurish articles, that says something. And I'm not the sort of person to get in someone's face and nitpick so ...

    I think change at Blizz is out of Blizz' hands at this point. We're starting to see more studios unionize, and I don't think Blizz will be able to hold that back. I have faith in the members to speak up for themselves once they have a platform to stand on. Here's hoping, anyway.

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    1. It seems that certain words were removed during the editing process, but nothing replacing those words was put back in. The first time I saw it I thought it a one-off, but after I saw several missing I knew it was likely the editing process itself. It's kind of weird, since "Fallout 76" is what's missing in several areas, but it's plainly present in other locations. Go figure.

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    2. Next time you see that, have a look at the source code of the page and see if there's something there that's not rendering. I've seen some comments from people using that platform that there may be some sequence that they need to "escape" for it to show.

      At this point I'm just curious.

      Of course, it's also entirely possible that they blew it :)

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    3. Aha, I hadn't thought it was the platform itself, given that it typically is pretty stable. At least on the articles from Kotaku and others using it that I've read.

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    4. Kinja (that's the platform) can be unpredictable at times. As an example, have a look at one of the slideshow posts and try to comment on it. Crazee.

      I like it, but it has ... quirks.

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  2. I thought Microsoft had a really bad record of buying and killing game studios, but perhaps that was mostly EA.
    https://www.pcgamer.com/every-game-and-studio-microsoft-now-owns/
    https://www.pcgamer.com/what-happened-to-12-of-gamings-biggest-studios-after-they-were-sold/
    I'm sorry to see Bethesda's employees being in a miserable situation, via the article you cite. It's another indicator that the gaming industry should unionize. It's too large of an industry now to have people suffering day to day in their employment. I have not played Fallout 76 myself, but from what I've read, and what my son thinks of it, it just never was designed to be what players wanted, but what concepts that Bethesda wanted to experiment with. Nobody's happy, and that shouldn't be a surprise.

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    1. EA does have that sort of reputation, yes. And I'm old enough to remember when EA and Activision both were a force for positive change in the gaming industry back in the 80s. I guess you live long enough to see organizations you admired become the baddies.

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