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New Leadership at Blizzard

252 点作者 bdz将近 4 年前

30 条评论

cletus将近 4 年前
Make no mistake: this is Bobby Kotick trying to save his job. He may well succeed. I hope his head also makes it to the chopping block.<p>Firstly, Brack was only president for 2 years and a lot of these incidents happened prior BUT if you&#x27;re in charge you&#x27;re responsible. That&#x27;s part of the deal that comes with that giant pay check. You don&#x27;t get to say &quot;it&#x27;s not my fault&quot;. So Brack absolutely should go because he&#x27;s seemingly failed to correct the toxic culture.<p>You&#x27;ll note the email talks about &quot;Blizzard&quot;, not &quot;Activision Blizzard&quot;. This is how you can tell Kotick is distancing himself from this. It&#x27;s &quot;Activision Blizzard&quot; when things are going well and &quot;Blizzard&quot; when it&#x27;s not. Kotick is I&#x27;m sure busy selling this narrative that Blizzard is an autonomous unit. It&#x27;s not. It&#x27;s fully Activision at this point.<p>Activision Blizzard has squandered their most valuable properties. The only thing propping up WoW is a 15 year old version of the game that&#x27;s quickly being ruined with the exact micro-transactions that ruined the game to begin with. Does anyone still care about Overwatch? Prediction: Diablo 4 is going to disappoint. This is the same company that brought you Diablo 3 after all.<p>As for the new co-leaders, ugh... this just screams PR. One of them is a woman of course. I&#x27;m not saying she&#x27;s unqualified (although both of them are relatively recent hires, interestingly). But you know given the lawsuit that this was going to happen. But the main issue is that there&#x27;s two leaders. We all know countries need two presidents, armies need two commanders, etc.<p>So what this suggests is that Ibarra had the confidence of Kotick and the board, she would now be president. So she&#x27;s co-president because of the lawsuit. It may not be true but that&#x27;s how people are going to interpret it.<p>To get out this rot it can&#x27;t stop at changing the executives. Blizzard honestly needs someone to come in and clean house. This goes beyond the lawsuit, which is no doubt a relatively small minority. This is about half the company probably being useless.
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moksly将近 4 年前
I love how easy it is for enterprise organisations to make the smart moves once shit the fan. Two good choices for leadership both based on their previous work and the fact that they are new within Blizzard and aren’t tainted by the horrible working culture like every other current high level manger.<p>Of course it’s something they’ve likely prepared to do as a contingency since January.<p>I don’t agree with people calling J. Allen Brack a scapegoat considering his role in this. There are YouTube clips of Blizcon WoW panels being lead by him where the named director that I can’t recall the name or is making misogynistic jokes that the panel continues with. He’s also worked so close to these people that he must have known and failed to act, unlike the head of Activision. Bobby Kotick may be disliked, I don’t know much about him other than that, but anyone that’s worked at the higher levels of an Enterprise organisation knows that the key decision makers are so far detached from reality that it’s sometimes painful to work with them. Not that they are delusional or incompetent, but they simply operate on a whole other plane than the rest of the organisation and that means you have to trust your governing body.<p>Maybe Kotick needs to go as well, but I don’t see any reason Blizzard shouldn’t be making this move and they should frankly be replacing every single manager and middle manager that has been anywhere near the disgusting bullshit if their goal is to alter the culture.
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techpression将近 4 年前
New leadership? He took over when it was engulfed in flames (he’s just the scapegoat), they need to clean up above him. This is a CEO and board problem, who let this run rampant for over a decade.
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hannasanarion将近 4 年前
Sounds like Bobby Kotick has chosen his scapegoat.<p>They&#x27;re not even being called &quot;president&quot;, now, just &quot;co-leaders&quot;: he&#x27;s taking the opportunity to consolidate more power too.
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mkl95将近 4 年前
As someone who has invested 1000s of hours in EA and Blizzard games, it never crossed my mind that one day I would prefer EA to Blizz.<p>EA is like MongoDB, you know you are getting a flawed product that&#x27;s nevertheless fun to use. Blizzard is like Oracle&#x27;s MySQL, they try very hard to be taken seriously only to eventually stab you in the back.
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claaams将近 4 年前
Fire bobby kotick and then I&#x27;ll care. Remove him from the board at coca cola too.
flerovium将近 4 年前
How the mighty have fallen.<p>I miss the days when they produced a solid game, charged a single fee, and let a community grow organically around it. SC was a league of its own. WoW was originally created. Let the community tell you what it wants.<p>It&#x27;s sad to see institutions decay like this.
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kar1181将近 4 年前
Unfortunately Blizzard is done.<p>There&#x27;s some debate to be had if that&#x27;s a bad thing, but it&#x27;s now a brand and IP holding company with some in-house development.
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dmix将近 4 年前
Weird how their dedication to HR practices are highlighted but nothing about making high quality games that people enjoy. Is that just supposed to be a given?<p>When these big companies start to get older they always seem to prioritize the organization itself instead of the value they provide to customers.
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obmelvin将近 4 年前
Based on talking to a friend who used to work at Blizzard, and was sad to leave his dream job, the main damage is long past. Key employees left over a year ago at this point.<p>I wish the new leaders well, assuming they sincerely wish to make positive change, but the soul of the company is <i>gone</i>
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VikingCoder将近 4 年前
I had to look it up, I don&#x27;t see any evidence that Blizzard&#x27;s Michael Ybarra [1] is related to Joe Ybarra [2] who produced The Bard&#x27;s Tale (1985). So he apparently has nothing to do with Ybarra&#x27;s Mystical Shield (MYSH) and Ybarra&#x27;s Mystical Coat of Armor (YMCA).<p>I can&#x27;t even tell you how many times I typed YMCA on my Apple IIc, playing Bard&#x27;s Tale. It was a lot, though.<p>[1] : <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Michael_J._Ybarra" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Michael_J._Ybarra</a> [2] : <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Joe_Ybarra" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Joe_Ybarra</a>
mabbo将近 4 年前
I think it&#x27;s a good move, but I think it would be better if they were more open about why this is happening. I think they need to explain that this is the first step in a larger move to fix their culture, and what the next steps are.<p>They need to differentiate between &quot;We screwed up, something is wrong, and it&#x27;s time for real change&quot; vs &quot;We have applied lipstick to the pig, now please go away&quot;.
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andrewzah将近 4 年前
Firing a scapegoat is meaningless. Bobby Kotick needs to be fired if any real change is to be done.
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Clubber将近 4 年前
He had only been in the position for less than three years, this has been going on for over a decade. I&#x27;m sure he&#x27;s partially culpable, but I also think he might the fall guy allowing Bobby Kotick (CEO) to stay in place.
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keymone将近 4 年前
&gt; Both leaders are deeply committed to all of our employees; to the work ahead to ensure Blizzard is the safest, most welcoming workplace possible for women, and people of any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or background; to upholding and reinforcing our values; and to rebuilding your trust.<p>what a load of bullshit. all that trust was lost when those two were already in leadership positions.
Cypher将近 4 年前
Blizzard is beyond repair
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HelloNurse将近 4 年前
Summary of plausible bad reasons to appoint two &quot;co-leaders&quot; where one would suffice:<p>- Both candidates had such strong claims on the #1 spot, and so much influence, that the company was forced to promote both to avoid losing one of them. Hiring an outsider, like a sensible and earnest company would have done, would have alienated both rather than only one. Is Activision known as a fractious organization?<p>- They really wanted Oneal, but they added Ybarra to avoid looking like they had undergone a feminist coup. Because they care about what their users think of them, and this is what they think of their users.<p>- They really wanted Ybarra, but they added Oneal to give an impression of greater change, just because she is a woman.<p>- Both candidates weren&#x27;t considered really qualified as a sole &quot;leader&quot;, but there was hope that they could handle the crisis together instead. Which implies personal conflicts, poor personnel quality (not necessarily Oneal and Ybarra, of course) or both.<p>Even worse theories would be easy to think of, but since Blizzard executives can be expected to read HN discussions about them speculation about what they are doing would be pointlessly cruel.
afrocious将近 4 年前
What about new leadership at Activision? I&#x27;m still confused about the business relationship between Activision and Blizzard.
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dmead将近 4 年前
I&#x27;ve been playing starcraft off an on since the 90s.<p>what am i supposed to replace it with?
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peterthehacker将近 4 年前
Whenever I see a business try “co-leader” stuff I think of that episode of the office where Jim and Michael are promoted to “co-managers”, then Oscar comments, dripping with sarcasm:<p>&gt; Look, it doesn’t take a genius to know that any organization thrives when it has two leaders. Go ahead, name a country that doesn’t have two presidents, a boat that sets sail without two captains. Where would Catholicism be without the popes?<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=wF8jmFoQ7zM" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=wF8jmFoQ7zM</a>
mdip将近 4 年前
Good for them. Though, I wonder how this ever was allowed to get this bad in the first place[0]. Perhaps it&#x27;s how I was raised, my employment history, or I&#x27;ve just &quot;gotten lucky&quot; with (larger) employers[1], but it blows my mind that <i>any</i> large employer allowed an employee to come <i>within a 100 yards</i> of harassing behavior.<p>I worked in various lead&#x2F;senior roles in IT Infrastructure, security, support and development at a 5,000-20,000 (depending on the time) employee telecom. I know of one incident in the 17 years I was there that was <i>serious</i> related to sexual harassment. In that case, the &quot;victimized employee&quot; remained with the company, the harasser handled by suspension during a (hours long) investigation where they were fired with cause (also the only case in the US that I&#x27;m aware of). I was asked to collect his computer; yeah, firing him was a good call.<p>Women and minorities in IT -- both technical and management (VP was and currently still is the same woman) were represented well above the average[2] and promoted at no different rate. On our team and among our larger team -- 17 years -- <i>all</i> of the staff acted like <i>adults</i> (some had quirks, but nothing more). I don&#x27;t <i>ever</i> recall a frat-boy like attitude and I know <i>none</i> of my co-workers would tolerate it. I don&#x27;t even recall an incident of inappropriate humor. The only thing that came close was one colleague who dropped an F-Bomb casually about every 3 words (usually a &quot;F<i>ckin&#x27;&quot; or &quot;F</i>cked Up&quot; -- despite the word, I don&#x27;t recall him using the word <i>sexually</i>). He lasted a year or so and didn&#x27;t get fired for the F-Bombs -- everyone talked about it but nobody really cared[3].<p>[0] In fairness, I&#x27;ve not followed this story closely, so that may be my perception.<p>[1] The tempting explanation of &quot;I didn&#x27;t experience it, myself, therefore I was blind to it&quot; isn&#x27;t something I can <i>prove</i> I wasn&#x27;t affected by, but my unusual set of jobs&#x2F;position in the company allowed for few places to hide this kind of behavior from me at times.<p>[2] I&#x27;m always uncomfortable mentioning this -- we had higher than average because we actively <i>recruited</i> from places that would increase the number of minority candidates. We <i>did not</i> in <i>any way</i> apply hiring practices that favored under-represented races&#x2F;genders -- and ended up having a very diverse team.<p>[3] I&#x27;m not suggesting harassing&#x2F;racist behavior be ignored, however, another part of being an adult is tolerating things that we feel are &quot;moral faults&quot; in others without being uptight about it. &quot;It takes a lot of people to make a world&quot; ... My casually-swearing colleague never swore <i>at</i> people or <i>about</i> people -- he swore about <i>things</i> sometimes, and swore casually, even though he chose a word that many in the US feel to be among the most offensive profanities, co-workers used to just comment about &quot;how strange it is to hear so much profanity out of one guy when nobody else is swearing at all&quot;.
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jrockway将近 4 年前
I kind of agree with the other comments that Blizzard is probably done. It will be interesting to see what emerges as the successor. They have made spectacular games over the years and those franchises will be sorely missed. But someone, someday, will probably do even better.<p>I hold on to a scrap of hope that somehow they will turn it around. But I can&#x27;t think of a Fortune 500 that ever turned it around, so I can&#x27;t be too optimistic.
njharman将近 4 年前
More than one person is responsible for the illegal culture. More than one person should go. And they should be fired before having opportunity to resign.
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kesor将近 4 年前
A two-headed hydra is an excellent way to improve proper decision making in a crumbling company.
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seanp2k2将近 4 年前
I wonder if Townsend will be next <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.activisionblizzard.com&#x2F;leadership&#x2F;frances-townsend" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.activisionblizzard.com&#x2F;leadership&#x2F;frances-townse...</a>
serverholic将近 4 年前
Sounds like a good change.
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emptyfile将近 4 年前
Too little too late.
sudhirj将近 4 年前
Nicely decisive move, going straight for the head. And the optics of a diverse leader duo look great given some of the problems.
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_RPL5_将近 4 年前
WoW has been my main game since I was a teenager, and for the past decade it&#x27;s been lurching up (Legion) and down (WoD), but mostly down (BFA, SL). It seems like Blizzard is out of ideas with WoW. They are like a tired writer who is trying to edit a paragraph trying to make it read better, but ultimately makes it worse with the edits.<p>Health of their games aside, here is to hoping that they at least take care of their employees moving forward. The thing that&#x27;s most disheartening about the harassment allegations is how many former female employees (50+) came out on twitter to collaborate the claims of run-away toxicity. Not something I expected from a company that positions itself as the &quot;wholesome gaming company of your childhood.&quot;<p>Whatever it takes for them to clean up their workplace, they need to do it. The games, too, will be better for it. Workplace toxicity doesn&#x27;t just lead to harassment, it kills collaboration and creativity.
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NonContro将近 4 年前
There&#x27;s a big systematic inequality in gaming, particularly PC gaming where Blizzard&#x27;s products are most popular.<p>Blizzard has its own launcher, which means they can sell directly to customers, at 0% commissions.<p>Any new Indies have to go through the monopolist Steam, which means a 30% commission and no direct access to their fanbase.<p>If we want better conditions in game development, it needs to be easier for disgruntled employees to leave and start their own companies. That means, explicitly, that Steam (holding the monopoly position on PC) needs to be pressured to lower its commission (the 15% level Apple and Google are moving towards seems reasonable) and offer the same terms to Indies as they do to AAA.