A short history of Activision Blizzard or how B.Net 2.0 came to be.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=128252

An older article that perhaps many haven't seen. I thought it was important to bring it up so you could get the ugly truth.

And I posted it here because D3 is the Blizzard game getting the most attention right now.

I't a very long, informative and eye opening read. If your attention span is short, don't even click the link.

I WILL NOT do a tldr here lol

It was quite a lengthy read for a forum post, but worth it.  It shows how Blizzard went from "by gamers, for gamers" to "a culture of thrift" in just the last 5 years.  IMO, these changes are bad for the industry.  I want the golden age of gaming back, where a handful of indie devs could make a massive blockbuster hit that they loved to play for themselves!

What's funny is that Kotick and his team thinks they are turning the company from something dopey and passionate into something profitable, and yet Google, a company with a list of employee benefits that would make most CEOs balk in envy, is crushing them under their heels.  (trading at nearly 60 times the value of Activision, not that I know much about stocks)

From what I am seeing, Diablo 3 is becoming a "Pay no attention to the RMAH behind the curtain" moment for Blizzard.  Gamers can be sheepish sometimes, but big reveals like this are not soon forgotten.

Nostalgia goggles and spin. You might want to look up the wonderful people who owned Blizzard during this ficticious "Golden age of Gaming."  It was Comp-U-Card international. Quite an interesting story how they pissed away every cent Blizzard made and almost killed both Blizzard and Sierra Online at once. You know Sierra Onine who made the Hellfire expansion for Diablo? They sure cared about games and gamers.

People forget during this "Golden age of Gaming" Activision produced such titles as the highly successful MechWarrior series. Boy if  only  the people running Activision and Blizzard could be running it now.. You know, the same ones as back then, Mike Morhaime and Bobby Kotick. .

Gee what happened to other Blizzard founders and employees who were so gamer oriented?

Allen Adham runs a hedge fund corporation, but still consults with Blizzard.

Frank Pierce is still with Blizzard and designed, well almost everything.

There's Rob Pardo who has been designing games for Blizzars since Starcraft.

There's Chris Metzen who worked on, well, everything since Justice League Task Force.

I could go on, there are dozens.

Yeah all those Guys and more who really cared about gamers that left Blizzard, never.

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Nostalgia goggles and spin. You might want to look up the wonderful people who owned Blizzard during this ficticious "Golden age of Gaming."  It was Comp-U-Card international. Quite an interesting story how they pissed away every cent Blizzard made and almost killed both Blizzard and Sierra Online at once. You know Sierra Onine who made the Hellfire expansion for Diablo? They sure cared about games and gamers.

People forget during this "Golden age of Gaming" Activision produced such titles as the highly successful MechWarrior series. Boy if  only  the people running Activision and Blizzard could be running it now.. You know, the same ones as back then, Mike Morhaime and Bobby Kotick. .

Gee what happened to other Blizzard founders and employees who were so gamer oriented?

Allen Adham runs a hedge fund corporation, but still consults with Blizzard.

Frank Pierce is still with Blizzard and designed, well almost everything.

There's Rob Pardo who has been designing games for Blizzars since Starcraft.

There's Chris Metzen who worked on, well, everything since Justice League Task Force.

I could go on, there are dozens.

Yeah all those Guys and more who really cared about gamers that left Blizzard, never.

I wish Chris 'Retcon' Metzen had left Blizzard. Guy can't write for shit. Blizzard would benefit so much from hiring a decent writer it's not even funny.

Originally posted by Rednecksith

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Nostalgia goggles and spin. You might want to look up the wonderful people who owned Blizzard during this ficticious "Golden age of Gaming."  It was Comp-U-Card international. Quite an interesting story how they pissed away every cent Blizzard made and almost killed both Blizzard and Sierra Online at once. You know Sierra Onine who made the Hellfire expansion for Diablo? They sure cared about games and gamers.

People forget during this "Golden age of Gaming" Activision produced such titles as the highly successful MechWarrior series. Boy if  only  the people running Activision and Blizzard could be running it now.. You know, the same ones as back then, Mike Morhaime and Bobby Kotick. .

Gee what happened to other Blizzard founders and employees who were so gamer oriented?

Allen Adham runs a hedge fund corporation, but still consults with Blizzard.

Frank Pierce is still with Blizzard and designed, well almost everything.

There's Rob Pardo who has been designing games for Blizzars since Starcraft.

There's Chris Metzen who worked on, well, everything since Justice League Task Force.

I could go on, there are dozens.

Yeah all those Guys and more who really cared about gamers that left Blizzard, never.

I wish Chris 'Retcon' Metzen had left Blizzard. Guy can't write for shit. Blizzard would benefit so much from hiring a decent writer it's not even funny.

 He started off as an animator for what it's worth.

Remember back in the golden age when you could make a game for a few thousand dollars because people were not all about features and graphics...now if a game does not have those that cost millions it is a crappy game.  Yeah wonder why games became all about the money. 

I definitely didn't like the way SC2 was developed and released.  I could never get into the first one, and so I had no problems ignoring the second one.

Blizzard starting annoying me when they allowed so many hacks and dupes in D2.  Not long after the D2 expansion, everything ran amok and they seemed to give up for the most part.  Apparently it's due to the way battle net and D2 were written at the time.

The simple fact is that their games are head and shoulders above the competition.  If I could get an equally fun and deep experience from another ARPG that was offline and online then I would have skipped D3.  But POE is a horrible and dated ARPG that has clung to the worst aspects of D2.  TL2 isn't out, appears shallow and has no battle net type of service.  People can hack their characters to their hearts intent.  They depend on modders to keep the game going.  Grim Dawn seems less itneresting than Titan Quest.  Lineage Eternal sounds interesting but is a ways off.

There's obviously a market for good ARPGs and companies have had tons of time to fill the void between D2 and D3.  TQ failed and TL was the shallowest ARPG I've ever played.  The rest of the companies sat on their butts and will be releasing AFTER D3.  that's suicide.

I couldn't read the first two posts as those two are simply D3 bashers and blocked.

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Originally posted by Rednecksith

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Nostalgia goggles and spin. You might want to look up the wonderful people who owned Blizzard during this ficticious "Golden age of Gaming."  It was Comp-U-Card international. Quite an interesting story how they pissed away every cent Blizzard made and almost killed both Blizzard and Sierra Online at once. You know Sierra Onine who made the Hellfire expansion for Diablo? They sure cared about games and gamers.

People forget during this "Golden age of Gaming" Activision produced such titles as the highly successful MechWarrior series. Boy if  only  the people running Activision and Blizzard could be running it now.. You know, the same ones as back then, Mike Morhaime and Bobby Kotick. .

Gee what happened to other Blizzard founders and employees who were so gamer oriented?

Allen Adham runs a hedge fund corporation, but still consults with Blizzard.

Frank Pierce is still with Blizzard and designed, well almost everything.

There's Rob Pardo who has been designing games for Blizzars since Starcraft.

There's Chris Metzen who worked on, well, everything since Justice League Task Force.

I could go on, there are dozens.

Yeah all those Guys and more who really cared about gamers that left Blizzard, never.

I wish Chris 'Retcon' Metzen had left Blizzard. Guy can't write for shit. Blizzard would benefit so much from hiring a decent writer it's not even funny.

 He started off as an animator for what it's worth.

Well... animator or not, he is the leading writer person at Blizzard right now, and he cannot write anything decent to save his life, as SC2 and Diablo 3 clearly show us. Not that either of those franchises (Or Warcraft, on that same note) ever had truly decent  or original writing, for that matter, but whatever.

Originally posted by StormwindX

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Originally posted by Rednecksith

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Nostalgia goggles and spin. You might want to look up the wonderful people who owned Blizzard during this ficticious "Golden age of Gaming."  It was Comp-U-Card international. Quite an interesting story how they pissed away every cent Blizzard made and almost killed both Blizzard and Sierra Online at once. You know Sierra Onine who made the Hellfire expansion for Diablo? They sure cared about games and gamers.

People forget during this "Golden age of Gaming" Activision produced such titles as the highly successful MechWarrior series. Boy if  only  the people running Activision and Blizzard could be running it now.. You know, the same ones as back then, Mike Morhaime and Bobby Kotick. .

Gee what happened to other Blizzard founders and employees who were so gamer oriented?

Allen Adham runs a hedge fund corporation, but still consults with Blizzard.

Frank Pierce is still with Blizzard and designed, well almost everything.

There's Rob Pardo who has been designing games for Blizzars since Starcraft.

There's Chris Metzen who worked on, well, everything since Justice League Task Force.

I could go on, there are dozens.

Yeah all those Guys and more who really cared about gamers that left Blizzard, never.

I wish Chris 'Retcon' Metzen had left Blizzard. Guy can't write for shit. Blizzard would benefit so much from hiring a decent writer it's not even funny.

 He started off as an animator for what it's worth.

Well... animator or not, he is the leading writer person at Blizzard right now, and he cannot write anything decent to save his life, as SC2 and Diablo 3 clearly show us. Not that either of those franchises (Or Warcraft, on that same note) ever had truly decent  or original writing, for that matter, but whatever.

 I just thought it was funny. There's such a dearth of quality writing these days I hardly notice it any more.

I don't get why they didn't offer George R. R. Martin a job.  The guy has said years ago that he used to be a big fan of Blizzard games, and from what we have seen from his Game of Thrones series, he is probably one of the best writers of our time.  Oh wait, he finishes books "when they're done" and not on "a culture of thrift."  I just explained it myself.

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Originally posted by StormwindX

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Originally posted by Rednecksith

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Nostalgia goggles and spin. You might want to look up the wonderful people who owned Blizzard during this ficticious "Golden age of Gaming."  It was Comp-U-Card international. Quite an interesting story how they pissed away every cent Blizzard made and almost killed both Blizzard and Sierra Online at once. You know Sierra Onine who made the Hellfire expansion for Diablo? They sure cared about games and gamers.

People forget during this "Golden age of Gaming" Activision produced such titles as the highly successful MechWarrior series. Boy if  only  the people running Activision and Blizzard could be running it now.. You know, the same ones as back then, Mike Morhaime and Bobby Kotick. .

Gee what happened to other Blizzard founders and employees who were so gamer oriented?

Allen Adham runs a hedge fund corporation, but still consults with Blizzard.

Frank Pierce is still with Blizzard and designed, well almost everything.

There's Rob Pardo who has been designing games for Blizzars since Starcraft.

There's Chris Metzen who worked on, well, everything since Justice League Task Force.

I could go on, there are dozens.

Yeah all those Guys and more who really cared about gamers that left Blizzard, never.

I wish Chris 'Retcon' Metzen had left Blizzard. Guy can't write for shit. Blizzard would benefit so much from hiring a decent writer it's not even funny.

 He started off as an animator for what it's worth.

Well... animator or not, he is the leading writer person at Blizzard right now, and he cannot write anything decent to save his life, as SC2 and Diablo 3 clearly show us. Not that either of those franchises (Or Warcraft, on that same note) ever had truly decent  or original writing, for that matter, but whatever.

 I just thought it was funny. There's such a dearth of quality writing these days I hardly notice it any more.

Couldn't agree more. It seems all good writers pretty much left the video game industry at 2007 or so. That or they just don't care anymore. Or most gamers don't care and the writers realized that, so they don't really try anymore. /shrug

whine whine, lots of old outdated never came to pass blue posts compiled , added extra spicy rambling and here we are, as for d3, its not worse than d2, people whine about ah , thenwhen ah is broken, they should be happy you figure, no they cry again  OMG AH IS NOT WORKING, RMHA IS NOT I NGAME WHY

sure blizzard got lazy in many ways, god if imade so much money i would be half assed to do anything for rest of my life,

times changes, i still cringe at how poeple compare old and current games, and how indies would make super hits, do you remember old games, i do , i do miss them, but the complexity of those games cant even come close, there are plenty of indie games now, there are plenty of 2d cheap games, they are cheap because they dont need much, so why arent you playing them all the time?

this old games vs new aaa games comparison is beyond stupid. its like comparing first cars and current super cars and saying but they both drive thus are equal.. bs

Originally posted by Souldrainer

I don't get why they didn't offer George R. R. Martin a job.  The guy has said years ago that he used to be a big fan of Blizzard games, and from what we have seen from his Game of Thrones series, he is probably one of the best writers of our time.  Oh wait, he finishes books "when they're done" and not on "a culture of thrift."  I just explained it myself.

 If he would quit playing hollywood star and actually write something I might agree. Game of Thrones isn't really a series. It's one long book broken into five rambling  volumes with no ending is sight.  By compairison Tolkien is positively terse. I know there's a plot in there somewhere but damned if I can find it.

OP: Very interesting article.

That Kotick is the worst kind of suit only thinking to make more money is clear to everyone.

I did not know that now Kotick's side kick is the boss of Blizzard's Boss and that makes me sad.

I've loved everything Blizzard made. I love WoW, SC2, Diablo3... their game quality has not suffered under Activision's Iron hand, but unfortunately Kotick's mentaliy is not just a fluke but the ONLY way of thinking for mega-corporations of today.

He is not even particularly "evil" at it, he is just the latest incarnation of this phenomenon of putting money above all, not just in the video game market but everywhere.

I hate it. I think Kotick is deadly wrong in his idea to not use ANY money for the comfort of his developers. Luckly, last I checked Blizzard's HQ is still Wonderland, but I wonder how long will it last?

Isn't it weird though? Blizzard is one of the most succesfull development game company ever and they even said they would not touch them... and now that is exactly what they are doing...

Valve is another super succesful Game company and guess what? they treat their developers as decent human beings and provide them all sorts of perks and benefits (including a yearly company-wide holiday somewhere exotic, just check out that awesome valve employee hand book that got leaked some time ago). Google does the same... is it possible they do not understand it??

Developers are more like artists or scientists than labor! They cannot make games on command! they need their space and their time to do their job and if you do not give that to them.... they will do a shitty job :(

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Originally posted by Souldrainer

I don't get why they didn't offer George R. R. Martin a job.  The guy has said years ago that he used to be a big fan of Blizzard games, and from what we have seen from his Game of Thrones series, he is probably one of the best writers of our time.  Oh wait, he finishes books "when they're done" and not on "a culture of thrift."  I just explained it myself.

 If he would quit playing hollywood star and actually write something I might agree. Game of Thrones isn't really a series. It's one long book broken into five rambling  volumes with no ending is sight.  By compairison Tolkien is positively terse. I know there's a plot in there somewhere but damned if I can find it.

There are two more books in the series, and it is done.  Why would you want him to rush it?  Personally, I am of the opinion that quality > quantity.  If he would stop writing the series today, it would still be a rousing success.  Martin has worked in film before, and it never hurt his writing.

The funny thing is, this is a perfect analogy of Old Blizzard vs New.  Their company was built upon catch phrases like "ready when it's done", "by gamers, for gamers" and "Soon(TM)."  Now it's "a culture of thrift."  Let's hurry up and release something profitable and make a quick buck, quality be damned.  That is why they released SC II when it was 1/3 of the way done, maybe less than 1/3.  That is also why the Diablo 3 RMAH, by my prediction, will be a massive flop.

Diablo 3 development reminds me of Dick Jones talking about his ED 209 from Robocop.  When it "accidentally" murders an excecutive, he looks at the CEO and calls it a "minor glitch."  Then later, he tells another exec, "who cares if it worked?!  I had spare parts for thirty years!"  It seems to me that Blizzard is now run by Dick Jones.

Originally posted by Souldrainer

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Originally posted by Souldrainer

I don't get why they didn't offer George R. R. Martin a job.  The guy has said years ago that he used to be a big fan of Blizzard games, and from what we have seen from his Game of Thrones series, he is probably one of the best writers of our time.  Oh wait, he finishes books "when they're done" and not on "a culture of thrift."  I just explained it myself.

 If he would quit playing hollywood star and actually write something I might agree. Game of Thrones isn't really a series. It's one long book broken into five rambling  volumes with no ending is sight.  By compairison Tolkien is positively terse. I know there's a plot in there somewhere but damned if I can find it.

There are two more books in the series, and it is done.  Why would you want him to rush it?  Personally, I am of the opinion that quality > quantity.  If he would stop writing the series today, it would still be a rousing success.  Martin has worked in film before, and it never hurt his writing.

The funny thing is, this is a perfect analogy of Old Blizzard vs New.  Their company was built upon catch phrases like "ready when it's done", "by gamers, for gamers" and "Soon(TM)."  Now it's "a culture of thrift."  Let's hurry up and release something profitable and make a quick buck, quality be damned.  That is why they released SC II when it was 1/3 of the way done, maybe less than 1/3.  That is also why the Diablo 3 RMAH, by my prediction, will be a massive flop.

Diablo 3 development reminds me of Dick Jones talking about his ED 209 from Robocop.  When it "accidentally" murders an excecutive, he looks at the CEO and calls it a "minor glitch."  Then later, he tells another exec, "who cares if it worked?!  I had spare parts for thirty years!"  It seems to me that Blizzard is now run by Dick Jones.

 Rush it hell I'd like Martin to actually work on it. He's less like a Blizzard game and more like Duke Nuke'em. It took him five years to write the first book.  Then three then two then five and then six. He's actually taken the precaution of telling his publisher the ending in case he dies before he finishes.

In the good old days Blizzard spent more time talking about "when it's done" than actually doing anything. How many times did they cancel or put off games not because of design reasons but because of funding? They used to piss away vast sums of money starting and stopping for financial reasons. That was the fault of the lackadaisical management who wouldn't provide the backing for Morhaime to actually make the games he wanted to. It's a tribute to Morhaime that he actually held the core of Blizzard together through all that. People like to claim all the talent left with Blizzard North but what have they done? One project after another down the drain. The Arenanet people were from Blizzard not Blizzard north. One of the big reasons they all left was because of the mismangement of Vivendi. Something that hasn't happened since the merger with Activision. Usually when a studio is bought out the talent leaves soon after but not in this case.

 SC2 wasn't anywhere near a third of the way done when they tripled the size of the game. It was still in the design phase and running parallel development with the Battlenet expansion. When in the past have they had the support to do anything that ambitious?  D3 has two expansions scheduled they haven't even begun to work on. Those will be completed in a reasonable amount of time instead of being delayed or canceled. When in the past could you say that? They were raking in the cash from WoW  and from other games before that but instead of using it to make games it was all going to Vivendi. No Blizzard is far more productive now than they ever were. Just because people who know nothing about finance want to bitch and moan about businessmen who actually do their jobs doesn't mean they aren't on the right path. Making the games they want to make. The quality is there in ways it never was before.

TLDR:

D3 sucks, and ex Diablo1 & 2 players feel cheated.

More news at eleven.