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Source: Link | Link Mirror
Some select SC2 related inquiries:
Why the hell did starcraft 2 take so long?
lol that was totally up to the Devs for that one. I have no idea why it took so long, but I can tell you that while I personally wasn't working on it during that time, my friends were doing QA for it and it was basically hell for them. Working 14 days straight, 12-14 hours a day, non-stop. I feel like the devs wanted it to be perfect before they released it so they could prove to everyone that they were the shit. In reality, though, I just think they didn't have their shit together enough and couldn't collaborate properly to get it out on time.
What did Blizzard think internally over the company's complete and utter failure to support and co-opt DOTA, which was originally a Warcraft III custom map? I know that Blizzard tried to sue Valve and others when Dota moved on from WC3.....
We WC3 players had been pleading with Blizzard for YEARS to provide official support for DOTA, to hire DOTA developers, and in general acknowledge the game's existence, yet none of that ever came about.....and now League of Legends is several times more popular than WoW has ever been. What do the people inside of Blizzard think about this monumentally epic fuckup?
Same thing you're feeling. A lot of people rolled their eyes and laughed at what they were intending to do with DOTA. I know a lot of QA people thought it was a joke, but we didn't get paid to have an opinion. I'll just reiterate this: SC2 devs are mostly dicks.
Whoa. Huge SC fan here. Expand on this? They always come across as nice guys, even if they are a bit stubborn to make balance patches.
I'll say that working with SC2 devs can be challenging because they don't tend to want to listen to your suggestions. They can also come across as quite dickesh because they feel they can do no wrong. Mind you there are some very nice devs on that team that actually give a shit, but some of the more "esteemed" devs have a superiority complex for sure.
[edit] Not all the comments he left were negative, in fact most of the comments about other Blizzard games and policies were mostly positive. These were the answers he had regarding SC2. Read the full AMA for answers to questions about World of Warcraft, Titan, and some of his more personal takes on the direction of Blizzard.
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This is interesting, thanks for the post!
Certain professions think they are better than other professions.. A Sc2 dev thinks he is greater than another blizzard employee (not a dev) just like a doctor thinks he is superior to a nurse/pharmacist.
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Sounds about right. The SC2 developers have refused to comment on fundamental issues that hinder the game (the fact that ALL map balance must take into account one fucking spell: Forcefield), The fact that expanding isn't more of a priority thus creating pockets of skirmishes throughout the map and the list goes on.
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This honestly just smells like a fired person venting about his previous employer.
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Wow, thanks for this, really interesting read even though I havent gotten around to finishing it. Not surprised to hear about lots of massive egos within the Blizzard dev teams. On the other hand, I was surprised to read that lots of Blizz viewed D3 as a success... kinda troubling lol.
@ Assirra, I thought that to for a second, but the guy *seems* pretty honest if you start reading through more of it. He has a lot of nice things to say a long with some more critical points. Doesn't really seem as if hes super miffed and has a bone to pick.
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Devs that work for a company that makes a shit tone of money with everything they touch are thinking they are good and better then other? Not very surprising at all.
And that the gaming industry is kind of a hell to work is nothing new.
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United States60190 Posts
Ok, people need to take this all with a huge grain of salt. First off, the guys name is "BlizzardThrowaway", so that give you a good idea of his intent. The guy was let go from Blizzard, worked in QA, tech support and other areas of the company. Quality assurance, or testing, is the lowest level of game development. People who work there are not involved with the primary decisions as to how games are made and would not have access to a lot of areas of the company. They may hear stuff, but they are not part of the meetings or involved with the decision making itself, so his claims "that Blizzard did this thing for this reason" are likely his own personal opinion.
The guy is clearly grumpy he got let go and doesn't care if he gets rehired at another company. A lot of the stuff he is saying sounds like he is telling the community exactly what they want to hear about Blizzard, which may or may not be true.
Not saying people shouldn't listen to him, but remember that he may have other motivations to the AMA than just telling people about his time at Blizzard.
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i guess someone was mad bout blizz and want to let some steam out
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Ever since the whole Blizzard North situation (the Schaefer brothers, David Brevik and Bill Roper leaving) and then shortly after that the Activision deal, Blizzards policies have been much less pleasant towards fansites. I think Teamliquid has also been on the receiving end of some this unpleasantness in the past and I know of at least one other fansite who got the finger after over a decade of dedication to one of their games. If you did not praise everything Blizzard crapped out then you would not be allowed to even look in their direction.
Recently, some time after the release of SC2, I feel they have adjusted their attitude somewhat.
At any rate, this guy is obviously just annoyed with standard office politics. I can't blame him, but this is how it goes.
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On June 06 2013 23:46 Plansix wrote:
Ok, people need to take this all with a huge grain of salt. First off, the guys name is "BlizzardThrowaway", so that give you a good idea of his intent. The guy was let go from Blizzard, worked in QA, tech support and other areas of the company. Quality assurance, or testing, is the lowest level of game development. People who work there are not involved with the primary decisions as to how games are made and would not have access to a lot of areas of the company. They may hear stuff, but they are not part of the meetings or involved with the decision making itself, so his claims "that Blizzard did this thing for this reason" are likely his own personal opinion.
The guy is clearly grumpy he got let go and doesn't care if he gets rehired at another company. A lot of the stuff he is saying sounds like he is telling the community exactly what they want to hear about Blizzard, which may or may not be true.
Not saying people shouldn't listen to him, but remember that he may have other motivations to the AMA than just telling people about his time at Blizzard.
It's a she and the name 'BlizzardThrowaway' doesn't say anything of her intent. The term throwaway on reddit refers to using an account that isn't your main, essentially it's identical to the term 'smurfing' in Starcraft/Dota etc.
She could definitely be full of shit, spiteful, or whatever but most of her responses were pretty fair and she even goes on to say Blizzard is a great place to work and that she might not get back into the gaming field because she knows she will never find a place as great as Blizzard.
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I think we knew the sc devs were dicks when they refused to give listen to the community wants and suggestions.
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From personal experience - a lot of stuff he's saying in answers in general is true , as for some other stuff it's rather hard to confirm.
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So basically the only information in the AMA is petty office gossip? The person is clearly frustrated because they felt unappreciated by the dev team, but really, one team being frustrated and annoyed with another is pretty common in any organization.
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Not a surprising interview.it is sort of obvious blizzard devs are living in their own ivory tower,disconected from reality having a "we know better than you guys who buy our product" attitude.This is happening while competition such as league of legends constantly has high end personnnel constantly interracting with fans on their forums asking questions about balances,changes etc.Basicly if you get a thread with more than 20 pages of responses it is likely a red poster aka riot employee to give you a response.Oh well its their company and their product and in the end their profit.Wish they would listen more to the community though.In this highly competitive scene i do not see blizzard going well in the next 10 years.
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United States60190 Posts
On June 06 2013 23:51 crms wrote:Show nested quote +On June 06 2013 23:46 Plansix wrote:
Ok, people need to take this all with a huge grain of salt. First off, the guys name is "BlizzardThrowaway", so that give you a good idea of his intent. The guy was let go from Blizzard, worked in QA, tech support and other areas of the company. Quality assurance, or testing, is the lowest level of game development. People who work there are not involved with the primary decisions as to how games are made and would not have access to a lot of areas of the company. They may hear stuff, but they are not part of the meetings or involved with the decision making itself, so his claims "that Blizzard did this thing for this reason" are likely his own personal opinion.
The guy is clearly grumpy he got let go and doesn't care if he gets rehired at another company. A lot of the stuff he is saying sounds like he is telling the community exactly what they want to hear about Blizzard, which may or may not be true.
Not saying people shouldn't listen to him, but remember that he may have other motivations to the AMA than just telling people about his time at Blizzard. It's a she and the name 'BlizzardThrowaway' doesn't say anything of her intent. The term throwaway on reddit refers to using an account that isn't your main, essentially it's identical to the term 'smurfing' in Starcraft/Dota etc. She could definitely be full of shit, spiteful, or whatever but most of her responses were pretty fair and she even goes on to say Blizzard is a great place to work and that she might not get back into the gaming field because she knows she will never find a place as great as Blizzard.
Some of her responses are reasonable and I have no doubt that she is being truthful about some things. I am only pointing out that anyone should be suspicious of claims made by a fired employee about a previous employer. There is no way the point of view would be objective or provide a complete view of the company. There was a reason sh was let go, which we don't have all the facts on.
Second, if she was in QA, it isn't likely that she was involved with any of the big decisions made by Blizzard or knows the exact reasoning behind them. She may have some information, but a lot of the things she has are just way to close to exactly what the community wants to think about Blizzard. There may be some truth to it, but I personally got the feeling she was telling people what they wanted to hear.
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On June 06 2013 23:55 HeeroFX wrote:
I think we knew the sc devs were dicks when they refused to give listen to the community wants and suggestions.
To be fair have you seen some of the suggestions the community has?
Some places (a couple where I have worked) don't even allow the devs on their forums because
a) it's soul destroying and
b) because the suggestions are largely bad at best and insane at worst
It's ok to listen to a subset of the community, generally the top level players, as they understand things the most. Outside of that, though, you're all crazy.
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On June 06 2013 23:55 HeeroFX wrote:
I think we knew the sc devs were dicks when they refused to give listen to the community wants and suggestions.
Any expert in any field will always look down on community feedback and suggestions by people not involved in their industry. Not saying that it's a good thing to do, but it happens in all industries because many things the community want or suggest are just borderline retarded.
I'll give an example from my own field of work. At my last job people kept on ranting about wanting less traffic congestion, more parking spaces AND more room for children to play. Those things do NOT go along.
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On June 06 2013 23:32 Assirra wrote:
This honestly just smells like a fired person venting about his previous employer.
Agreed, I really don't think anyone should take what he wrote to heart.
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His AMA was actually quite entertaining...Lot's of good insight into the inner workings of Blizzard and how they treat their employees.
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United States60190 Posts
On June 07 2013 00:06 Gowerly wrote:Show nested quote +On June 06 2013 23:55 HeeroFX wrote:
I think we knew the sc devs were dicks when they refused to give listen to the community wants and suggestions. To be fair have you seen some of the suggestions the community has? Some places (a couple where I have worked) don't even allow the devs on their forums because a) it's soul destroying and b) because the suggestions are largely bad at best and insane at worst It's ok to listen to a subset of the community, generally the top level players, as they understand things the most. Outside of that, though, you're all crazy.
This is so true. My firm does not let us read new articles about us at work either, because the comments are soul crushing and terrible. I have no doubt that Blizzard tells their programmers and non-community oriented employees to limit their time of the forums, just for their own mental well-being
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