On September 24 2020 01:44 Zambrah wrote: Dev teams wouldnt fuck up so much if they weren't made to work way too long hours to hit asinine deadlines.
before ATVI , Blizzard had all kinds of crazy messed up deadlines and processes. Its part of what inspired the name "Blizzard" because the place was total chaos.
i seem to recall Bob Fitch getting locked in a room for 6 weeks to build the engine for SC1. Software projects go awry all the time. My best customer has a service called "Project Rescue". She sends me on these crazy assignments working on projects that have failed 3+ times and have been going on for 5+ years. That is the way the entire industry is. Its not like video games are some special case.
"we were no where near the home stretch". crunch lasted 8 months.
I love doing the hermit coder 24/7 thing. its a blast. its also clear Bob Fitch loved it as well. When the project is a success... you gain legend status.
In conclusion, Blizzard had all kinds of issues before ATVI took over. Bungie also jettisoned ATVI and kept their Destiny franchise. Has Destiny2 gotten much better without ATVI? I'd say its a little bit better. But its not some dramatic night-and-day improvement.
On the other hand, game development has become much more tools- and process-driven than it was in the past. In the days you're talking about, teams were building engines from scratch. Now you have so much infrastructure in game development that naturally invites people of all roles in game-making to collaborate, it does remove some of the chaos of development.
All this talent would have potentially seen how process could be deployed at larger scales during their tenure at Activision, too.
I've worked in software development for a long time (mostly web / distributed systems) and I have also spent a fair amount of casual time learning about large-scale game development from folks who've been doing it for a while. IMO game development is diverging a lot from other kinds of software development, and it's becoming a lot more of its own thing.
I think creative projects in general will always have a lot of dynamism to them, but I suspect that many--not all, but many--of the variables that used to contribute to messed-up gamedev projects in the past are being controlled for better than they used to be.
I'm excited to see where this goes. Also, I got a good chuckle out of "Proteans and Xarg."
On September 24 2020 01:44 Zambrah wrote: Dev teams wouldnt fuck up so much if they weren't made to work way too long hours to hit asinine deadlines.
before ATVI , Blizzard had all kinds of crazy messed up deadlines and processes. Its part of what inspired the name "Blizzard" because the place was total chaos.
i seem to recall Bob Fitch getting locked in a room for 6 weeks to build the engine for SC1. Software projects go awry all the time. My best customer has a service called "Project Rescue". She sends me on these crazy assignments working on projects that have failed 3+ times and have been going on for 5+ years. That is the way the entire industry is. Its not like video games are some special case.
"we were no where near the home stretch". crunch lasted 8 months.
I love doing the hermit coder 24/7 thing. its a blast. its also clear Bob Fitch loved it as well. When the project is a success... you gain legend status.
In conclusion, Blizzard had all kinds of issues before ATVI took over. Bungie also jettisoned ATVI and kept their Destiny franchise. Has Destiny2 gotten much better without ATVI? I'd say its a little bit better. But its not some dramatic night-and-day improvement.
On the other hand, game development has become much more tools- and process-driven than it was in the past. In the days you're talking about, teams were building engines from scratch. Now you have so much infrastructure in game development that naturally invites people of all roles in game-making to collaborate, it does remove some of the chaos of development.
All this talent would have potentially seen how process could be deployed at larger scales during their tenure at Activision, too.
I've worked in software development for a long time (mostly web / distributed systems) and I have also spent a fair amount of casual time learning about large-scale game development from folks who've been doing it for a while. IMO game development is diverging a lot from other kinds of software development, and it's becoming a lot more of its own thing.
I think creative projects in general will always have a lot of dynamism to them, but I suspect that many--not all, but many--of the variables that used to contribute to messed-up gamedev projects in the past are being controlled for better than they used to be.
I'm excited to see where this goes. Also, I got a good chuckle out of "Proteans and Xarg."
you make a lot of good points, however, doesn't Blizzard still build its own engines?
There are some things people are missing and/or have a bit wrong in my opinion.
Blizz has underpaid and overworked their employees for a long time, not just since Activision buy out. (Others pointed this out) but they do't give a proper reason why they can get away with it. Those in the game industry saw Blizz as a huge checkmark on their resume. Blizz knew it, and used it that way. You go there knowing full well the consequences of that choice. Very few are paid their actual worth.
Kotick IS a prick, he doesn't just act like one to be the 'bad cop'. Ask anyone that has had any interaction with him in any way, business or otherwise.
The difference in the Blizz model did change after his arrival...from yah, we will work you to the bone for virtually nothing, but gd they made good products. Now their oversight is a joke...at best.
Also, long crunch times are nothing new to the industry. The last game I worked on (now a good number of years ago) was a 12 month crunch period...and at the end was madatory 7 days, 12 hours a day for several months. Think productivity stayed the same, or got better? Nope. People found ways to blow 4 hours a day or more. Hell at the start of that part, the entire programming staff said F you, and walked out. The uppiddy ups then told the rest of us to go home and take a 4 day weekend before returning to hell.
“We’re not in a hurry to go out and get funding because the most important thing is to make sure we retain control over the company’s decision making,” Morhaime said. “When we do go out and seek investment, we want to be aligned in terms of vision and values.”
This is an interesting quote. Regretting selling Blizzard to Activision perhaps? I'm excited to see what they come up with.
Seeing a lot of folks draw some pretty wild conclusions about what this retroactively meant about blizzard and/or activision. Running a big company with a household brand name, thousands of employees, and huge budgets that depend on your success to keep the machine rolling is a whole different world of experience and responsibility than running a small indie studio with your friends and colleagues. Doesn't matter whether its Activision, EA, Microsoft, or any other major name behind it.
Excited to see what this crew gets up to, but also not holding my breath for any 'spiritual successors' to early Blizzard IPs. If I had to wager, I'd expect something cool and new from these studios, and I can't wait to find out what it will be!
“We’re not in a hurry to go out and get funding because the most important thing is to make sure we retain control over the company’s decision making,” Morhaime said. “When we do go out and seek investment, we want to be aligned in terms of vision and values.”
This is an interesting quote. Regretting selling Blizzard to Activision perhaps? I'm excited to see what they come up with.
Morhaime didn't own Blizzard in 2008 when Blizzard was acquired by Activision.
Blizzard was acquired by Davidson and Associates in 1994 for ~$6-7 million USD. Davidson was acquired by CUC International who created Vivendi Games to house Blizzard and their other acquisition Sierra Online.
“We’re not in a hurry to go out and get funding because the most important thing is to make sure we retain control over the company’s decision making,” Morhaime said. “When we do go out and seek investment, we want to be aligned in terms of vision and values.”
This is an interesting quote. Regretting selling Blizzard to Activision perhaps? I'm excited to see what they come up with.
Morhaime didn't own Blizzard in 2008 when Blizzard was acquired by Activision.
Blizzard was acquired by Davidson and Associates in 1994 for ~$6-7 million USD. Davidson was acquired by CUC International who created Vivendi Games to house Blizzard and their other acquisition Sierra Online.
Well alright. Regrets being sold to Activision. Passive voice, not the actor and beholden the whims of others- same regret.
i think everyone from blizzard community especially the fans would jump on board to ensure that dreamhaven is successful. but in order for them to release games that are as engaging as the previous blizzard games will take alot of hard work and creativity.
This is amazing news, looking forward to what they will be working on there!
In regards to ATVI its not only about firing people and paying low wages, workplace environment is really important. Obviously I don't know how the atmosphere and situation is at Blizzard right now but maybe all the old Blizzard people leaving is and indication.
I have never worked in games but I can tell you from my own experience that often what makes a work feel rewarding and fun is not what you are doing but why you are doing it. If all your meetings and the perspective of the company is about "but how can we earn more money from this product" instead of "how can we make this product the best on the market" then its sucks the passion out of most people.
Blizzard was originally about making great games, support the games and then make new games. Especially their inclination to work on games for years but then not releasing it because it didn't reach the bar says a lot about this.
At an company making any product the first question should be how do we make the best product we can. If you make something amazing it will sell, compared to making games catering to a specific trend or the as many f the biggest publishers do: Only make games that can earn record amounts of money through microtransactions, if the game doesn't have microtransations, add it, if it doesn't fit into the game, change the game, if you cant change the game start working on a new game. All so that we can earn ALL the money and not for making a good fun game.
EPT
