i think there are starting to be some concerns from other corporations that if actiblizz doesn't get their house in order there'll be knock-on consequences for them that they don't want to deal with, particularly as a pro-union viewpoint becomes stronger in the company
Awesome because I want pro-union to spread not because the game industry appears to be hell on earth for people who aren’t on the board.
i think there are starting to be some concerns from other corporations that if actiblizz doesn't get their house in order there'll be knock-on consequences for them that they don't want to deal with, particularly as a pro-union viewpoint becomes stronger in the company
this is what the cynic in my brain is telling me but maybe they also just hate Kotick personally, the WSJ article was pretty surprising to me in the first place, as WSJ is typically the defender of capital and executives, so I thought to myself "maybe he has just made a bunch of rich enemies and every major executive figure in the industry knows he's a piece of shit"
As we’ve seen repeatedly these guys can be as big a piece of shit as they want and people will ignore it as long as they don’t fuck with the money; this is Xbox and PS saying ‘hey buddy you’re dangerously close to fucking with the money, here’
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
+2
admanbunionize your workplaceSeattle, WARegistered Userregular
As we’ve seen repeatedly these guys can be as big a piece of shit as they want and people will ignore it as long as they don’t fuck with the money; this is Xbox and PS saying ‘hey buddy you’re dangerously close to fucking with the money, here’
And if XBox and PS are saying that, that's going to make the market say "let's take a step back on this" and that'll make the board freak out. Etc etc.
i think there are starting to be some concerns from other corporations that if actiblizz doesn't get their house in order there'll be knock-on consequences for them that they don't want to deal with, particularly as a pro-union viewpoint becomes stronger in the company
this is what the cynic in my brain is telling me but maybe they also just hate Kotick personally, the WSJ article was pretty surprising to me in the first place, as WSJ is typically the defender of capital and executives, so I thought to myself "maybe he has just made a bunch of rich enemies and every major executive figure in the industry knows he's a piece of shit"
Yeah, this. I think he'll be gone, though it may not happen before the end of the year.
The WSJ as an institution has no love of either workers' protections or social justice, and pretty much all the information in that story is stuff that's already known. The fact that they reported it at all feels like they're establishing background and narrative for future stories on a management transition/struggle. Someone involved in Acti-Blizz C-suite politics wants Kotick out. Maybe it's other execs, maybe it's shareholder orgs, but the WSJ wouldn't be running the story if they hadn't smelled some blood in the water.
htm on
+1
Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
i think there are starting to be some concerns from other corporations that if actiblizz doesn't get their house in order there'll be knock-on consequences for them that they don't want to deal with, particularly as a pro-union viewpoint becomes stronger in the company
Yeah, it would not shock me if there are people out there legit afraid the pro-union stuff is gaining steam again. All the crunch is one thing, but I feel like sexual harassment is a way bigger hot button issue towards justifying unionization. It's a lot harder to sweep this stuff under the rug IMO (whereas all the crunch headlines are pretty much gone now). Or at the very least, it gives employees even more reasons to want to unionize.
But seriously, I would love it to see him ousted. There's no guarantee the replacement would be better, but I will legit take anyone who is even *slightly* less zealous about exploiting gambling mechanics in all of their games.
As we’ve seen repeatedly these guys can be as big a piece of shit as they want and people will ignore it as long as they don’t fuck with the money; this is Xbox and PS saying ‘hey buddy you’re dangerously close to fucking with the money, here’
And if XBox and PS are saying that, that's going to make the market say "let's take a step back on this" and that'll make the board freak out. Etc etc.
Most interesting part: "In a surprising move, the petition goes on to list the names, titles, and departments of the workers, which could potentially expose the signatories to retaliation."
They must think there's pretty good odds of replacing him, if they're going public like that.
If they do retaliate it would just be even more bad press, and other companies can get some good press for scooping them up if they do get fired.
The timing for all this coming out basically at the same time as the season of mastery has made it so I have seen ZERO info about how that is going too.
Is she a current employee of Blizzard? I could see HR not taking kindly to her shittweeting about what goes on inside the company, yeah...
Yeah she is (she's a Producer for Overwatch). For context, the tweets were complaining that Ybarra (sp?) the male half of the new "co-heads" of Blizzard had scheduled a meeting with the company but it ended up being a pre-recorded video (they all expected him to be there and he wasn't) reading out a PR statement and then only taking pre-screened questions that you had to submit in advance through your department leads, except no one told them about that (at least for her department). She also mocked him for running keystones during work hours all the time :P She said they got back from the "meeting" and literally everyone on her team was extremely pissed off by the whole thing.
fyi since your wording here makes me think you haven't heard, Jen Oneal quit (citing how she was still not being paid equally, how she had no faith in the leadership to actually fix the problems, and how she felt tokenized) so Ybarra is now the only head. So, there's that too.
The community has the attention span of a goldfish and 9.2 datamining is up, PTR is up after Thanksgiving.
First off, Male Incubus:
Damn.
TryCatcher on
+2
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Tier sets are up too. The amount of excited chatter I see on my old guild's discord about their bonuses makes me even more incredulous that we used to get this excitement and discussion every tier and they took it away.
+2
3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Looks like the usual mix of insane, niche, and worthless to the point of troll bonuses so far.
The ret one in particular is very weird. Cool on paper but the build most people use holds Wake for a specific combo every minute, so resetting it randomly is eeeeehhhhhh
My experiment into Disc priest didn't go so well. The spec just isn't for me. Plus, to be honest, I struggle with that class outside of raids and dungeons. I just do not enjoy questing as shadow (or holy or disc). And I need to main a class that I enjoy doing world content and solo stuff on.
So I'm back on paladin. Been healing as a Kyrian Holy Paladin and loving it. Divine Toll is so amazing. I'm gonna be very sad if that ability doesn't make it out of the expansion.
And on the topic of 9.2 set bonuses, the holy paladin set bonus looks super good. I'm excited for it and excited to be a holy paladin.
0
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Looks like the usual mix of insane, niche, and worthless to the point of troll bonuses so far.
The ret one in particular is very weird. Cool on paper but the build most people use holds Wake for a specific combo every minute, so resetting it randomly is eeeeehhhhhh
The bonuses that enhance existing playstyles are always the one that look the best at first, then after a couple of days to digest it people start working out what new playstyles will be enabled
You’ll meet the Enlightened Brokers in Zereth Mortis and become allies with them to be able to obtain a new Legendary belt empowered with your covenant’s Runecarving Effect. The unique characteristic of this new Legendary belt is that your Runecarving Effect will switch freely alongside your character whenever swapping covenants. There’s no need to craft a new Legendary Belt for each covenant. The Legendary belt will match the look of your class’s Progenitor armor set and can be equipped alongside another Shadowlands Legendary in a different armor slot, giving you two powerful legendary effects to boost your power. If you’d like to craft the new covenant-swapping Runecarving Effect on a different armor slot, a new Runecarving Memory will let you do so.
Note: In order to equip two legendary items, one must be either the Legendary belt or another armor slot imbued with the new Runecarving Memory.
All legendaries can now be upgraded with Cosmic Flux, a new currency inspired by lessons learned from Echoes of Ny’alotha in Battle for Azeroth. Cosmic Flux will be rewarded from a variety of activities in Shadowlands Season 3, such as defeating raid bosses, PvP, Mythic+, Torghast, Tower of the Damned, and World Quests.
So wearing two legendaries is locked to putting one legendary in the belt slot, but this enables them to make a belt that can swap legendary effects when you swap covenants. This is amazing.
That says that you get a free leggo belt, but if you want your Covenant swappable legendary on any other slot, you can just craft it with the new Memory, so is not locked to the belt slot.
MW, 2pc looks not great, 4 pc is healing Rune of Power and that spell has a tendency to be not fun (though Thunder Focus Tea, the spell is attached to, is a spell you cast often enough). So will see how that goes after the big theorycrafting heads go through it.
Tier sets are up too. The amount of excited chatter I see on my old guild's discord about their bonuses makes me even more incredulous that we used to get this excitement and discussion every tier and they took it away.
I feel like Blizzard are being deceptive with their wording.
Yes, technically they are bringing back class tier sets. But once again, like with so many other things in recent times, not in the way players are asking for. These new tier sets are absolutely still just thematic expansion sets. This is the Oribos set. So they haven't really gone back to class themed sets. All of these class sets are themed after the aesthetic found in Oribos and Korthia and Zereth Mortis, not after class fantasy.
When people ask for class sets, they are asking for sets that make their class look like their class. And that's not what Blizzard delivered.
0
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Pretty sure most people asking for tier sets back were referring to the gameplay.
I don't doubt a lot of people care about the art, but it was the set bonuses that were discussed in the context of wanting tier back.
Blizz talked about how they want to theme the sets around both the class and the zone themes, and I rather see all Mythic recolors before judging whatever they suceeded on the matter. Most of the complaints seem to be based around the Cloth sets, and a bit of the Hunter set looking bad like always.
(Seriously class-agnostic Mail sets are one of the best things that happened to Hunters on this game).
I’ve also seen some discussion that at least some of these new tier sets are just reused pieces from other sets. One of the best examples being the warrior shoulders. They bear an awfully striking resemblance to the paladin shoulders from Tomb of Sargeras, just re-textured and recolored.
I’ve also seen some discussion that at least some of these new tier sets are just reused pieces from other sets. One of the best examples being the warrior shoulders. They bear an awfully striking resemblance to the paladin shoulders from Tomb of Sargeras, just re-textured and recolored.
I personally don't care that much about 2/4 set bonuses per se; they have lots of ways to add gameplay tier by tier now and honestly tier armor sets feel a little hidebound
I do miss the class-specific transmogs though, everyone having the same white/gold/red colorations every tier is real boring
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
As we’ve seen repeatedly these guys can be as big a piece of shit as they want and people will ignore it as long as they don’t fuck with the money; this is Xbox and PS saying ‘hey buddy you’re dangerously close to fucking with the money, here’
And if XBox and PS are saying that, that's going to make the market say "let's take a step back on this" and that'll make the board freak out. Etc etc.
Most interesting part: "In a surprising move, the petition goes on to list the names, titles, and departments of the workers, which could potentially expose the signatories to retaliation."
They must think there's pretty good odds of replacing him, if they're going public like that.
They basically have nothing to lose; blizz purges hundreds of people a year just in time to give themselves a bonus, the long term outlook is bad for the company and apparently it’s still a shitshow for anyone who isn’t straight white and horny.
So why not unionize so as toget job security and oust your shitty co-workers? Odds are pretty damn good you were going to get fired anyways, and even if this doesn’t work at least you are hitting the board where it hurts.
0
Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
A few of the set bonuses are so nuts there is no way they go live like that anyway. Elemental Shaman and Sub Rogue seem to be two of those at least that I remember. Oh, and Vengeance DH is outright broken. Like, I assume it would have a max, but extending immo aura by any significant amount when they have a conduit increasing its damage by a decent amount per tick, while also causing it to give souls, and souls have a huge effect on a pretty strong legendary for them... might be the single biggest DPS increase even compared to all the DPS ones.
Also, there is info about the Jailer fight from the journal, and well...
Firing planet destroying bolts, that players have to intercept. Yeah, we use our bodies to stop planet destroying bolts. That is where we are now
0
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
There’s a full set of transmog armor in the cash shop, and it’s way more impressive than the newly announced 9.2 tier sets. Needless to say, people are NOT happy about it. The video got ratio’d to hell.
0
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
to be fair I think the shop set also looks terrible but it is definitely more detailed and flashy than the tier
It looks very targeted at casters. I think it looks good, but since I don't main a mage I am not interested. I mean, I am not interested anyway, out of principle.
The main thing is that their timing couldn't be worse. It's like their marketing department has no idea how bad of a look it is to announce a highly controversial cash shop item in the midst of a very serious sexual harassment scandal. They have no customer goodwill banked at all right now. How did they think that trailer would be received?
Because A) Cash shop items are always controversial, and Because objectively speaking, the new cash shop transmog set has more animations, more glowy bits, and more uniqueness than the tier sets.
Maybe if they would have held back the cash shop set by another few weeks, or a month or two, it would have landed better. But since we're just starting to see the new tier sets this week, it's just too close. Comparisons are bound to be made. And people (rightfully) feel like Blizzard is holding back the best bits for the cash shop, while delivering lesser quality armors for the tier sets that they earn in game. It smacks of corporate greed. It smacks of Bobby 'KingHarasser' Kotick.
Cash shop items are always controversial because the game has a monthly sub, and they also sell each expansion as a full priced new game. So we're paying the full price of a new game every 2 years, plus paying a monthly sub, and they have the audacity to ask for even more money on top of that in the cash shop.
A lot of the complaints are because the preview had the Normal versions. Can see the Mythic versions and they look fine.
People always complain about the store, and get very defensive when you point out that the FFXIV store has far more stuff on it. Even if the item looks bad, like the pajamas and the boatmobile from Spongebob, the latest robes are actually decent.
That being said, it was pointed out that the Warlock tier design is....unfortunate. So hopefully they will change that.
I don't think it's up to any one individual if something is controversial or not. It's almost, by definition, out of any one person's control (although one can incite a mob to be fair).
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Posts
Awesome because I want pro-union to spread not because the game industry appears to be hell on earth for people who aren’t on the board.
this is what the cynic in my brain is telling me but maybe they also just hate Kotick personally, the WSJ article was pretty surprising to me in the first place, as WSJ is typically the defender of capital and executives, so I thought to myself "maybe he has just made a bunch of rich enemies and every major executive figure in the industry knows he's a piece of shit"
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
And if XBox and PS are saying that, that's going to make the market say "let's take a step back on this" and that'll make the board freak out. Etc etc.
Yeah, this. I think he'll be gone, though it may not happen before the end of the year.
The WSJ as an institution has no love of either workers' protections or social justice, and pretty much all the information in that story is stuff that's already known. The fact that they reported it at all feels like they're establishing background and narrative for future stories on a management transition/struggle. Someone involved in Acti-Blizz C-suite politics wants Kotick out. Maybe it's other execs, maybe it's shareholder orgs, but the WSJ wouldn't be running the story if they hadn't smelled some blood in the water.
Yeah, it would not shock me if there are people out there legit afraid the pro-union stuff is gaining steam again. All the crunch is one thing, but I feel like sexual harassment is a way bigger hot button issue towards justifying unionization. It's a lot harder to sweep this stuff under the rug IMO (whereas all the crunch headlines are pretty much gone now). Or at the very least, it gives employees even more reasons to want to unionize.
But seriously, I would love it to see him ousted. There's no guarantee the replacement would be better, but I will legit take anyone who is even *slightly* less zealous about exploiting gambling mechanics in all of their games.
The employees are going all-in to get him out, too. From The Verge: Over 1,000 Activision Blizzard employees petition to remove CEO Bobby Kotick.
Most interesting part: "In a surprising move, the petition goes on to list the names, titles, and departments of the workers, which could potentially expose the signatories to retaliation."
They must think there's pretty good odds of replacing him, if they're going public like that.
The timing for all this coming out basically at the same time as the season of mastery has made it so I have seen ZERO info about how that is going too.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
fyi since your wording here makes me think you haven't heard, Jen Oneal quit (citing how she was still not being paid equally, how she had no faith in the leadership to actually fix the problems, and how she felt tokenized) so Ybarra is now the only head. So, there's that too.
First off, Male Incubus:
Damn.
The ret one in particular is very weird. Cool on paper but the build most people use holds Wake for a specific combo every minute, so resetting it randomly is eeeeehhhhhh
So I'm back on paladin. Been healing as a Kyrian Holy Paladin and loving it. Divine Toll is so amazing. I'm gonna be very sad if that ability doesn't make it out of the expansion.
And on the topic of 9.2 set bonuses, the holy paladin set bonus looks super good. I'm excited for it and excited to be a holy paladin.
The bonuses that enhance existing playstyles are always the one that look the best at first, then after a couple of days to digest it people start working out what new playstyles will be enabled
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/gearing-in-eternity’s-end/1136870
So wearing two legendaries is locked to putting one legendary in the belt slot, but this enables them to make a belt that can swap legendary effects when you swap covenants. This is amazing.
MW, 2pc looks not great, 4 pc is healing Rune of Power and that spell has a tendency to be not fun (though Thunder Focus Tea, the spell is attached to, is a spell you cast often enough). So will see how that goes after the big theorycrafting heads go through it.
For Azerite armor of all things
All of that and the ones on the preview are normal recolors.
Yes, technically they are bringing back class tier sets. But once again, like with so many other things in recent times, not in the way players are asking for. These new tier sets are absolutely still just thematic expansion sets. This is the Oribos set. So they haven't really gone back to class themed sets. All of these class sets are themed after the aesthetic found in Oribos and Korthia and Zereth Mortis, not after class fantasy.
When people ask for class sets, they are asking for sets that make their class look like their class. And that's not what Blizzard delivered.
I don't doubt a lot of people care about the art, but it was the set bonuses that were discussed in the context of wanting tier back.
(Seriously class-agnostic Mail sets are one of the best things that happened to Hunters on this game).
I don't see it. Sure, they are both big I guess.
EDIT: And here are the rest of the Mythic sets.
https://www.wowhead.com/news/first-datamining-look-at-mythic-progenitor-tier-set-models-from-patch-9-2-324977
The only, like, "bad" ones are probably the Cloth sets, rest do look pretty dope.
I do miss the class-specific transmogs though, everyone having the same white/gold/red colorations every tier is real boring
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
They basically have nothing to lose; blizz purges hundreds of people a year just in time to give themselves a bonus, the long term outlook is bad for the company and apparently it’s still a shitshow for anyone who isn’t straight white and horny.
So why not unionize so as toget job security and oust your shitty co-workers? Odds are pretty damn good you were going to get fired anyways, and even if this doesn’t work at least you are hitting the board where it hurts.
Also, there is info about the Jailer fight from the journal, and well...
There’s a full set of transmog armor in the cash shop, and it’s way more impressive than the newly announced 9.2 tier sets. Needless to say, people are NOT happy about it. The video got ratio’d to hell.
The main thing is that their timing couldn't be worse. It's like their marketing department has no idea how bad of a look it is to announce a highly controversial cash shop item in the midst of a very serious sexual harassment scandal. They have no customer goodwill banked at all right now. How did they think that trailer would be received?
Why is the cash shop item controversial?
Maybe if they would have held back the cash shop set by another few weeks, or a month or two, it would have landed better. But since we're just starting to see the new tier sets this week, it's just too close. Comparisons are bound to be made. And people (rightfully) feel like Blizzard is holding back the best bits for the cash shop, while delivering lesser quality armors for the tier sets that they earn in game. It smacks of corporate greed. It smacks of Bobby 'KingHarasser' Kotick.
Cash shop items are always controversial because the game has a monthly sub, and they also sell each expansion as a full priced new game. So we're paying the full price of a new game every 2 years, plus paying a monthly sub, and they have the audacity to ask for even more money on top of that in the cash shop.
That being said, it was pointed out that the Warlock tier design is....unfortunate. So hopefully they will change that.
I didn't think of that until I read your post. But now that I look at the warlock set again, I can't un-see it.
If what I'm seeing is what you're talking about, it looks like...
Looks like Paladin Tier 2, but mostly white.
Yup. Again, unfortunate.
PSN: Bizazedo
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