Are you done? Why?

[Ingmar]

I have possibly misunderstood your whole gaming journalism crusade for years now.

[Paelos]

That's cause it's stupid. Nobody who follows games believes gaming journalism is actually journalism.

[LK]

Think it might be best to let this situation breathe and take a break from the internet today. I'm certainly feeling extremely upset and emotional by this bullshit. Ta.

[Paelos]

Think it might be best to let this situation breathe and take a break from the internet today. I'm certainly feeling extremely upset and emotional by this bullshit. Ta.

Yeah, have a beer, relax, and watch a little Tosh.O

Always cheers me up. The show, not the beer. I gave that up a few years ago.

[Outlawedprod]

I think the core problem here is that ultimately D3 succeeds at what its designers intended and sold a lot of box copies.  To them this probably means the peak of achievement and success.  At the same time a lot of people who purchased the game have discovered it was not what they were hoping for or wanted which mostly seems tied to the loot system.  The fact that the game is heavily played single player vs group public multiplayer in this day and age despite Blizzard's efforts is probably the most clear point you can charge them with.  The D3 devs might listen to that but as long as it keeps selling I think to come from any other angle is just met with hubris.  This is the exact same pattern we saw with WoW's Cataclysm expansion.

[Margalis]

Oh, by the way, fuck it. 7 year veteran of the company, left in October due to personal problems and professional concerns with the state of Blizzard and Diablo III, which I worked on as a member of QA. Anyone paying attention should immediately know who I am. Considering I've already given up on a career in the games industry as of this week, I'm really tired keeping so much of myself hidden out of professional courtesy.

Are you Rob Pardo?  

So now that you've left Blizzard can you tell us in great detail about all the defections from the Titan team?  

The "objective" comment makes no sense - it was an interview!

It really sucks to get negative criticism of a game you've worked hard on. But circling the wagons is not a good response, especially when the guy said nothing really offensive and most users are saying the same thing. In the video game industry people are often treated as disposable, where shifting around directors or leads or whatever is ok as long as the franchise remains. A guy saying that individual talent is important is something most developers should be happy to hear. I can see how that can be taken as a slight - "we were talented and these guys weren't" - but that's a very defensive reading. As is taking very common and well-grounded design criticism and spinning it as "we did things differently - therefore we suck right!"

The people at the highest levels of design and direction in the company should really be able to take criticism.

[Hoax]

I still can't believe what a bad game D3 is/was and I'm just a player who didn't even ever go nuts for D2 and only played it for maybe a solid 8 months total through all the starts and stops.

I have no idea what a mindfuck it must be to try to come to grips with how bad D3 is when you spent 5 years working on it and you had such a big party when the box sale numbers came out and PC Gamer or whatever shit gaming mags still exist were giving you 15/10's. I doubt those people will ever understand just how shitty D3 is let alone why its such a piece of shit.

[LK]

More Facebook Shenanigans.

Fake Edit: I remember when Blizzard QA would instruct each of its members on the importance of professionalism in our work environment and in our industry presence. I felt a particular responsibility to maintain the good name Blizzard had through my conduct both in and out of Blizzard. At gaming conventions, we'd refrain from commenting on other people's work negatively. Nice to see that going down the shitter at the highest levels... and for what?

[Margalis]

Who would think that people who work in computer gaming are as clueless about Facebook and Twitter as professional athletes and such?

[Hawkbit]

It's one thing to read that initial article, but watching the video is another.  Brevik was asked some on-the-spot questions and answered about as nicely and politically as he could.  For the Blizzard team to get as upset as they did, well that simply shows (as others have said here) they simply don't understand why their game is poor. 

The whole experience makes them look like buffoons.  I don't run a major game development company, but if these clowns worked at my company they'd all be out the door today, regardless of title.  Every single one of them.

This whole thing makes me not want to touch another Blizzard game.

[LK]

I have no idea what a mindfuck it must be to try to come to grips with how bad D3 is when you spent 5 years working on it and you had such a big party when the box sale numbers came out and PC Gamer or whatever shit gaming mags still exist were giving you 15/10's. I doubt those people will ever understand just how shitty D3 is let alone why its such a piece of shit.

I will give Jay Wilson credit -- he knew the importance of the first few moments of gameplay and was extra particular of that time period. They spent a lot of time tweaking that initial experience from how you meet Leah to the tutorials. Somehow I didn't get a feeling they had a good idea of what would work mechanically, that they were instead throwing stuff on the wall, seeing what stuck, then repeating ten thousand times to get results. I don't know the psychological impact of spending so many hours on a passion project, but it takes a toll.

Marketing, fan exploitation, a biased gaming media and brand trust helped sell all those copies, but so did a polish-to-a-sheen first 13 levels of play experience that they trotted to bait them into buying. I don't believe the rest of the game was even a factor in people's buying decisions because it was locked away and left to people's imagination based on snippets of information (hype). Once they got there and it wasn't robot jesus, discontent was bound to happen. They didn't have real players operating at the highest level -- I think their end game was all theoretical. Pure risk.

I felt that last year of development was troubled as they saw major design revisions at a time when they should have had a real clear picture -- but there was a lot more going on than I could see. Game development is extremely, extremely difficult, and insanely so at Blizzard's level.

However, "Diablo is a game about trading" is just dumb.

[Amaron]

The irony of this happening to the company that tried to force RealID down everyone's throats is delicious.

[Setanta]

Yes, the first 13 levels were fun. It's just a pity that the loot and the next 47 levels sucked, as did the always online system.

You can polish a turd, but it still remains a turd.

Interestingly enough, Jay etc were never paragons of virtue, slagging off at how their game improved on D2.

What they forgot to realise is...

... it didn't.

[Ironwood]

Actually, Lorekeep, you make a good point.  I ponied up the dough after watching the wife over her shoulder as she did the first couple of levels and I'd then signed up for the trial card to do the first levels myself.

You're right.  They were ok and managed to convince you that it might be ok itself.

It wasn't.  These guys remain clueless.  It's utterly willful ignorance and that's the worst type of fucking ignorance.

[Ironwood]

More Facebook Shenanigans.

Fake Edit: I remember when Blizzard QA would instruct each of its members on the importance of professionalism in our work environment and in our industry presence. I felt a particular responsibility to maintain the good name Blizzard had through my conduct both in and out of Blizzard. At gaming conventions, we'd refrain from commenting on other people's work negatively. Nice to see that going down the shitter at the highest levels... and for what?

Wow.  Good Job Leo.

Or at least, that job that you had.

[Xanthippe]

While the first 13 levels might be important as a hook to get people to buy the game, Jay Wilson failed to understand that it's the other 47 levels that get people to recommend the game to their friends. Sure, D3 was successful at launch, but when a company is shortsighted (as ActiBlizzard is), it results in doom.

How far Bilizzard has fallen. What a bunch of crybabies.

[Merusk]

The whole experience makes them look like buffoons.  I don't run a major game development company, but if these clowns worked at my company they'd all be out the door today, regardless of title.  Every single one of them.

This all underlines the major thing that comes up again and again.  People who work at games companies are grown-up children and unprofessional.  They're in games because they're by and large unfit for anything else.  From the sex scandals to the Facebook bullshit, all of it should be expected because they are largely 15-year-olds in 30-year-olds bodies. 

It's not worth it to be a fan of a company or an individual developer because they've pretty much all got their heads up their asses.  Make your decisions based on the individual game and if it's worth it to you and ignore the rest.  You're only going to find sadness if you look behind the wrapper.

[Hutch]

I don't know who Jill Harrington is, but I want to find out - can you click her name. She can lick all the taints if she thinks she can toss the word "objective" around when it comes to gaming journalism. I invented that fight, motherfucker.

So... you want to excoriate someone for agreeing with you that gaming journalism isn't objective? 

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jill-harrington/1/295/b04

She's a technical artist or animator of some kind it appears.

That is not what she said, she implied that gaming journalism SHOULD be objective and that Inc Gamers wasn't.

Which is WRONG.

Maybe she's a fan. Perhaps she's read your work, but has misunderstood you?
(Maybe Lorekeep isn't the only stealth Blizzard employee hanging around here.)

Educate her. Educate us all 

[Lantyssa]

Someone buy Peet a beer.  He seemed to be keeping things in perspective.

[Ironwood]

Yeah.  He said pretty much what I did a couple of posts up.

 

[Lantyssa]

I expect it from you.  (Though someone buy Ironwood a beer, too. ;))  That he's trying to make his co-workers see reason is deserving of notice though.

[Phred]

More Facebook Shenanigans.

Fake Edit: I remember when Blizzard QA would instruct each of its members on the importance of professionalism in our work environment and in our industry presence. I felt a particular responsibility to maintain the good name Blizzard had through my conduct both in and out of Blizzard. At gaming conventions, we'd refrain from commenting on other people's work negatively. Nice to see that going down the shitter at the highest levels... and for what?

So would you ascribe these changes to Kotick? After all he has said making games shouldn't be fun.

[LK]

More Facebook Shenanigans.

Fake Edit: I remember when Blizzard QA would instruct each of its members on the importance of professionalism in our work environment and in our industry presence. I felt a particular responsibility to maintain the good name Blizzard had through my conduct both in and out of Blizzard. At gaming conventions, we'd refrain from commenting on other people's work negatively. Nice to see that going down the shitter at the highest levels... and for what?

So would you ascribe these changes to Kotick? After all he has said making games shouldn't be fun.

Kotick's too easy a target. While one man can have a major influence, I believe more in a large quantity of factors collectively motivating change. If I would place special attention on anything, it's WoW's enormous, unexpected success and the burden that placed on Blizzard to keep living up to those expectations of quality and service from the get-go of a product release combined with the importance of shoring up the inevitable decline of the WoW business. Business objectives and shifting industry culture having an increasingly apparent influence on the underlying game design and user experience of triple-A games.

[LK]

Point being: I think the environment within Blizzard was influenced strongly by these outside factors and created conditions where professionalism would break down. Gamers being gamers and your typical internet users as their most vocal customers doesn't exactly give someone the warm fuzzies about the work they're doing either.

[Merusk]

I read that as:

They hired too many 'just need a warm body with experience' people because the company had to grow too quick. These people are now shitting up the culture and quality of the company product due to a number of factors.

[Phred]

I read that as:

They hired too many 'just need a warm body with experience' people because the company had to grow too quick. These people are now shitting up the culture and quality of the company product due to a number of factors.

Ya I got the same feeling but wasn't sure if it was my prejudices or real.

[Xanthippe]

Company culture comes from the top.

If Blizzard fucked up their culture by hiring people who didn't fit, that decision came from the top.

From the outside, it seems to me that Blizzard's company culture changed dramatically when Kotick/Activision took over.

[Lantyssa]

When your goal is Moar Money instead of Love of Product, it always will.

[Ironwood]

But that's what's wrong and happened with one of the companies I was a Director at :

When you ignore the product for the money, you end up with neither.  Fucking Obvious, right ?  Some assholes DON'T GET THAT.

[KallDrexx]

Blizzard got plenty of money, and all they have to do is fix the game then come out with an expansion and they'll be just fine.

I already know 2 friends who were thinking of getting into GW2 who are now getting ready to get back into d3 for now instead.

[Tannhauser]

More Facebook Shenanigans.

Fake Edit: I remember when Blizzard QA would instruct each of its members on the importance of professionalism in our work environment and in our industry presence. I felt a particular responsibility to maintain the good name Blizzard had through my conduct both in and out of Blizzard. At gaming conventions, we'd refrain from commenting on other people's work negatively. Nice to see that going down the shitter at the highest levels... and for what?

Wow.  Good Job Leo.

You know Blizzard, when the natives are attacking you circle the wagons, not set them on fire and try to jump the Grand Canyon.

Or at least, that job that you had.

[Ironwood]

I don't remember saying that.

 

[Tannhauser]

Internet is hard 

[cmlancas]

When your goal is Moar Money instead of Love of Product, it always will.

It's not even love of product, it's losing sight of what made you successful in the first place.

The company I work for has doubled in size (1058 stores now) in the last 25 years.  I keenly understand the need for warm bodies with experience and the strain that puts on folks who're trying to instill that culture as well.

[Paelos]

Fast, unchecked growth and actually be more devestating for any corporation than anything. By the time the realization sets in that the corporate culture has been lost, and you've birthed this unwieldy behemoth that's leveraged to the hilt, a bad product release or a turn in the economy can sink the entire ship.