Jeff Kaplan and the en-shittification of Blizzard

[Natasha Tori Maru]

I wish there was a full on breakdown in-depth interview that went into Blizzards history (and the Activision merge).

Jeff Kaplan goes into how turd operations and marketing people eat the soul of good game designers and creators, and guts out a business. I really enjoy interviews with the guys behind Blizzard (I am a huge Chris Metzen fangirl huehue).

NGL I hate Lex Friedman 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 11:05 PM by Natasha Tori Maru

[Leo Gura]

Blizzard has been a toxic mess from day one.

When I was a game designer at Irrational, I was told an anecdote of how the CEO of Blizzard would whip out his dick to show to Japanese investors at the board meeting.

That tells you everything you need to know about Blizzard.

Edited Thursday at 11:14 PM by Leo Gura

[Leo Gura]

14 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

NGL I hate Lex Friedman

God's test of your love

[Natasha Tori Maru]

 

10 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Blizzard has been a toxic mess from day one.

When I was a game designer at Irrational, I was told an anecdote of how the CEO of Blizzard would whip out his dick to show to Japanese investors at the board meeting.

That tells you everything you need to know about Blizzard.

Holy FUCK. YAZ boss destroy my childhood love of Blizzard! I wish someone would do a tell all.

I recall all the other sexist stories regarding women from a while back also. Sad.

[Leo Gura]

1 minute ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

my childhood love of Blizzard

That Blizzard simply no longer exists.

Although, when it did exist it was still a toxic frat house.

[Natasha Tori Maru]

@Leo Gura Stahp! My broken heart 

[Leo Gura]

18 minutes ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

@Leo Gura Stahp! My broken heart 

That's how I feel about Bethesda. Corruption kills every AAA studio.

[Basman]

Wasn't it at Blizzard where routinely breastmilk was stolen from a female employee?

[Alexop]

17 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

That Blizzard simply no longer exists.

Although, when it did exist it was still a toxic frat house.

World of Warcraft WOTLK patch is one of the best games ever developed. The asymetric power balance between classes, the virtual world ecosystem... Even today there are WOTLK private servers full to the top with nostalgic players. And then, slowly, patch by patch the game went to shit.

[Butters]

2 hours ago, Alexop said:

World of Warcraft WOTLK patch is one of the best games ever developed. The asymetric power balance between classes, the virtual world ecosystem... Even today there are WOTLK private servers full to the top with nostalgic players. And then, slowly, patch by patch the game went to shit.

Let's be honest, I've also played during this time and it was just like porn. Addictive, mindless play. 

[Leo Gura]

I never liked WoW. I don't understand how people love that game. Always baffled me.

Come to think of it, I don't like a single Blizzard game except Diablo 2, which was not made by Blizzard.

Edited 4 hours ago by Leo Gura

[emil1234]

42 minutes ago, Butters said:

Let's be honest, I've also played during this time and it was just like porn. Addictive, mindless play. 

what.

 

30 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

I never liked WoW. I don't understand how people love that game. It is so shallow.

and what.

 

3 hours ago, Alexop said:

World of Warcraft WOTLK patch is one of the best games ever developed. 

completely agree. i've had a great life i would say, and yet some of the best memories i have ever, are from WoW wotlk era. it is so dear to my heart, the unparalleled feeling of magic and mystery the world induced. just wow. im so glad i got to play during that time

[Alexop]

1 hour ago, Butters said:

Let's be honest, I've also played during this time and it was just like porn. Addictive, mindless play. 

Of course it was like porn but you still watch porn. It was addictive as fk. 

[Alexop]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

I never liked WoW. I don't understand how people love that game. Always baffled me.

Come to think of it, I don't like a single Blizzard game except Diablo 2, which was not made by Blizzard.

I see it as a sport. It is mindless shit that occupies your time and fulfills your basic needs. Socialization, appreciation for your skills, competition and winning, feeling of progress. I think such games help many not fall in deep depression, the same way as porn helps incels not run their cars over people maybe.

[Alexop]

1 hour ago, emil1234 said:

completely agree. i've had a great life i would say, and yet some of the best memories i have ever, are from WoW wotlk era. it is so dear to my heart, the unparalleled feeling of magic and mystery the world induced. just wow. im so glad i got to play during that time

See? Here is your poof.

But I still recommend getting a life than playing such games in your adulthood. In teenage it is understandable.

For me, it helped me go over the hardest period of my life. I suffered from very severe social anxiety due to trauma from bullying. I am happy that I chose WoW over heroin or gambling, or suicide. I basically never met a person who did so much positive change in their life. A person like me should be dead by now or severely crippled mentally. But here I am, stable and strong, thanks to some crutches that helped for some time. 🙂

Edited 3 hours ago by Alexop

[Natasha Tori Maru]

Gotta agree WoTLK was peak for me. Ulduar Hardmode unlocks and Algalon were sick. I healed and tanked the black hole explosions as a priest/spriest against that dual wielding fuckdumpster of a boss. 

I have the feat of strength and a few really hard to obtain titles like Immortal and Undying. 

I played through BC as well, but WoTLK surpassed it imo.

I went vanilla > BFA and raided with top oceanic guilds (no 1/2 guilds). Back then revealing you were a chick was drama central. Even applying to those guilds. Fuck I had a full resume, stat sheets and logs of play to submit to get in. I remember Not Steamboat putting me through the most toxic elitist sledging to see if I could handle how brutal it was. They thought they were so hardcore. It is its own little status hierarchy world. 

Tbh WoW is just one of those games where it grabs you or it doesnt. I can see why people just don't get into it. I had a group of IRL mates who played with me which made it special, then I met like 7-8 more good mates through the game.

Edited 3 hours ago by Natasha Tori Maru

[Vynce]

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

I never liked WoW. I don't understand how people love that game. Always baffled me.

Come to think of it, I don't like a single Blizzard game except Diablo 2, which was not made by Blizzard.

What are your top 5 video games of all time. Rank them. 

[Natasha Tori Maru]

I was big on Diablo 2 prior to going hard into WoW. 

[Leo Gura]

27 minutes ago, Vynce said:

What are your top 5 video games of all time. Rank them. 

Morrowind, Rayman, Patapon 2, Dark Souls 2/3, Warlords Battlecry 3, Dark Could.

Not necessarily in that order.

I am probably forgetting some other great ones. That's just off the top of my head.

There are many other very good ones.

Divinity Original Sin 1/2 are really good.

UN Squadron for SNES is a perfect game.

Sidearms for the TurboGrafx is awesome.

Geometry Wars is a perfect game.

Donkey Kong Country games are near perfection.

Stardew Valley is a perfect game.

Subnautica.

Edited 3 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Alexop]

@Natasha Tori Maru i only played PvP. I mean I don't care about how shit Blizzard management is or was, idk how they pulled it out but wotlk pvp was just artwork. The classes had such different abilities, strengths and weaknesses but still it was balanced. Not just that but you needed serious skill and Intelligence to be good at it. It was not like PvE, in PvP you are against other humans who can outsmart you all the time. 

Now of course I am not a game developer, I just picked the game that was in front of me like a pig eating what he finds in the trough. A game developer sees things that normies don't.

Edited 3 hours ago by Alexop