Yes, I understand completely. Nothing I said was incorrect. It's part of the human condition to rebel against the notion that people are sometimes simply better than you, however that is relevantly measured in a given circumstance. I'm sure I'm guilty of it as well, from time to time.
And Jaina, Jaina, Jaina. I put my money on this company in a big way. If you think I give a shit about their PR spin, you are woefully mistaken. 99% of the forum goers howling at the wind about CEOs being unworthy, or in your case, the evils of selling $80 preorders, have no dog in this fight. I do. A big one. I have no idea why you would suggest otherwise.
But while we're on the subject of things you claim to know, please, educate me as to which industry has 2/3 of its CEOs unworthy of their positions. I'll wait.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Oh, just to address the talking point about "declaring record profits and firing people", I don't pretend to know whether the layoffs were warranted in this case, but there are fairly common circumstances where those two things go hand in hand.
For those old enough to remember, there was once a company named Blockbuster, and they specialized in brick and mortar stores in which video games and movies were rented out for money. For a long time, that was their primary source of income. Now, hypothetically, if Blockbuster had read the tea leaves and seen the move to digital streaming coming, they might have made more prudent investments earlier on in a Netflix-like structure. If they had done so, one could easily imagine a year where they make quite a bit of money off the fledgling streaming service, and yet still lay off many employees as the brick and mortar businesses decline.
That was not an analogy to Blizzard's circumstance; that was simply a clear and correct example of a company making lots of profit and still warranting layoffs.
EDIT:
Turns out, a lot of the employees laid off were in the European customer service section. For all I know, they just saw a marked decline in service calls as a result of less spaghetti code in Warcraft over the past few years. Time will tell if they're actually going to have a 20% increase in developers, but certainly a company making good money does not obligate it to employ additional customer service reps.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Yes, I understand completely. Nothing I said was incorrect. It's part of the human condition to rebel against the notion that people are sometimes simply better than you, however that is relevantly measured in a given circumstance. I'm sure I'm guilty of it as well, from time to time.
LOL, do you seriously believe I think Blizzard's CEO is a better person than me? Hahahahaha. Jesus Christ dude, that was so funny... Just because he has a better job and salary than me doesn't mean I would like to be like him. A good job and a lot of money aren't everything in this life, dude.
And Jaina, Jaina, Jaina. I put my money on this company in a big way. If you think I give a shit about their PR spin, you are woefully mistaken. 99% of the forum goers howling at the wind about CEOs being unworthy, or in your case, the evils of selling $80 preorders, have no dog in this fight. I do. A big one. I have no idea why you would suggest otherwise
This is the most important part. Always have skin in the game and I respect that you do. It's what separates the men from the boys. Or in this case the men from the idiots on here who cry "morality" and "unfairness" who have never in their insignificant lives ever had skin in the game and live off of bullshit currency based on other trolls approval of them. To them I say go out and do something useful that people will pay you for and then put your money where your mouth is. They won't though. They'll just shitpost here.
Don't respect it too much. I'm down like $40,000 this year.
I don't pass judgment on other people's work. I just react assertively when people suggest I don't know my business.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Sounds like based on the stuff I've read that they are simply re-organizing. Cutting positions they see as unnecessary so they can afford to grow in other areas. According to the recap by Flux on HearthPwn the Hearthstone dev team is increasing by 20%. So I'd say HS as a whole is doing just fine for now. Does sound like HS income has slumped a little as of late, but I wonder if that'll just be the case until cards like Genn and Baku rotate to Wild in April 2020. Several streamers have voiced their concerns based around these two cards, probably the loudest about it has been Brian Kibler. Even right now Asmodai is streaming and saying HS has been stale feeling for the past year (coincidentally when Genn/Baku were released with WW).
Oh wait, it looks like a majority of the staff being let go are the ones in marketing/social media, aka the ones that have nothing to do with game development. I'm fine with that.
Yes, I understand completely. Nothing I said was incorrect. It's part of the human condition to rebel against the notion that people are sometimes simply better than you, however that is relevantly measured in a given circumstance. I'm sure I'm guilty of it as well, from time to time.
LOL, do you seriously believe I think Blizzard's CEO is a better person than me? Hahahahaha. Jesus Christ dude, that was so funny... Just because he has a better job and salary than me doesn't mean I would like to be like him. A good job and a lot of money aren't everything in this life, dude.
I seriously believe you've never entertained the possibility that anyone is better than you at anything or in any way ever in your life.
"however that is measured in the given circumstance" is a phrase I included specifically to forestall the "you think he's better than me" strawman, but I appreciate the rhetorical effort nonetheless. I clearly was referring to business acumen, but my belief applies to any way you could measure "better".
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Activision Blizzard reported a profitable 2018 then laid off 800 of the employees they easily paid with surplus profit in that year.
This isn't an indie company making hard decisions, this is a company trying to make stock holders happy about a 45% drop. They're cutting the lowest on the totem pole, not shifting the income dynamics to compensate.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Rage quitting: the best way to ensure your opponent knows they beat a giant baby.
Activision Blizzard reported a profitable 2018 then laid off 800 of the employees they easily paid with surplus profit in that year.
This isn't an indie company making hard decisions, this is a company trying to make stock holders happy about a 45% drop. They're cutting the lowest on the totem pole, not shifting the income dynamics to compensate.
You are correct, but let me frame that in a slightly different way.
A company posting record profits lost 45% of its market capitalization in one year after nearly a decade-long upward trend. Now how could that be? One potential answer, the one that seems to be favored by certain folks on this thread, is that more money is never enough and corporate greed will never be satisfied until it cannibalizes its golden goose.
Another answer, and one that I strongly suspect is the case, is that a brand's value includes consumer "good will", and that while the numbers are solid, the reputation of the company has been absolutely bear-mauled. The Blizzcon fiasco, the cancellation of HotS . . . these things have damaged investor confidence (they sure as hell have damaged mine). So yes, if you like, streamlining the customer service and marketing departments was, in all likelihood, a gesture to investors. But there was a clear and present reason for it.
Hell, with all the layoffs in the marketing department, maybe they managed to fire the mongoloid who hatched the Diablo Blizzcon rollout.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Yes, I understand completely. Nothing I said was incorrect. It's part of the human condition to rebel against the notion that people are sometimes simply better than you, however that is relevantly measured in a given circumstance. I'm sure I'm guilty of it as well, from time to time.
LOL, do you seriously believe I think Blizzard's CEO is a better person than me? Hahahahaha. Jesus Christ dude, that was so funny... Just because he has a better job and salary than me doesn't mean I would like to be like him. A good job and a lot of money aren't everything in this life, dude.
I seriously believe you've never entertained the possibility that anyone is better than you at anything or in any way ever in your life.
"however that is measured in the given circumstance" is a phrase I included specifically to forestall the "you think he's better than me" strawman, but I appreciate the rhetorical effort nonetheless. I clearly was referring to business acumen, but my belief applies to any way you could measure "better".
Now seriously, are you f...king kidding me? You talk as if my life would end tommorrow while comparing me with a 55 years old (56 next month) person, who was born in the USA and was a friend of Steve Jobs at a very young age. You don't have any idea about my past, present or future, so assuming this guy is definitely better at business than me, with the few data you have about my person, is just plain ridiculous. Yeah, he seems to be very good at it if you google him, but maybe if I and many others would have had the same opportunities, we would have done better, who knows? Also, appearances are deceiving, bro, always remember that: all his career could be a big lie and it wouldn't surprise me at all. ;)
And if he ends up being better than me at business, I really don't give a shit, I'm not a "Jack of all trades, master of all" for f..king sake... I'm just a f.,king person and I do not have to prove anything to anyone >:-( (well, maybe to super hot girls and women, they are really worth the effort after all XD).
No, I'm not kidding you. I started by saying people have a bad habit assuming that those situated better than themselves do not deserve their positions. You not only assumed I was speaking of you, but double down on the nepotism rhetoric. Then YOU took this discussion into the realm of "better person" when I clearly stated I was speaking of the specific dimensions in which the person is situated well, in this case general business acumen.
All of this makes me very comfortable in certain assumptions about your outlook on life. But I'm happy you have nothing to prove. Should make things easy for you.
Now, back to the subject at hand. Jaina made some crude reference to me sucking Blizzard's dick, and to be honest, I would seriously consider it if it got me my $40,000 back. But, given that such an easy fix is not likely to present itself, I will be watching closely to see how they handle the alleged "investment" in new developers.
Anyone know how the OWL is going these days? I know they decided to go hard in the paint on intersectional politics a couple years ago and ban some of their most popular players for saying bad words on stream. Ever since then I've hovered between wanting the league to succeed for financial reasons and wanting the whole enterprise to go up in flames because . . . well because fuck them.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
All of this makes me very comfortable in certain assumptions about your outlook on life. But I'm happy you have nothing to prove. Should make things easy for you.
Do you really want to know my "outlook on life"? Well, here you have a gif expressing it very well:
So we're clear, I can quote you on this: Life's a bitch, and so are you?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Blizzard just needs to produce some new games. WoW is in decline. SC2 is in decline. Diablo is in decline. HotS, Overwatch, and HS are probably flat to down in growth.
Fortnight is on a tare right now which leaves Blizzard with trying to milk old titles. A few years from now the Fotnite fad might be in decline to some new Blizzard game... probably not.
Oh yeah, have you heard about Warcraft 3 remastered? that's new. I'm actually glad they rereleased that game, but it won't save jobs.
I'm hoping Blizzard will consider either making a Starcraft 3 or trying a new real-time strategy IP.
We haven't had a relevant RTS release since 2010 (no, the SC2 expansions don't count), and that's my favorite game space. Furthermore, the original Starcraft holds the mantle of OG esport for most of my generation. I miss it so.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
And Jaina, Jaina, Jaina. I put my money on this company in a big way. If you think I give a shit about their PR spin, you are woefully mistaken. 99% of the forum goers howling at the wind about CEOs being unworthy, or in your case, the evils of selling $80 preorders, have no dog in this fight. I do. A big one. I have no idea why you would suggest otherwise.
Oh you still remember that?Anyway, i thought i had already clarified this with you in the pms but anyway...I never "argued" about the price of the bundle nor cared. I spoke against those whose comments belittled those who can't afford it. Your original comment was doing it too. You explained to me that this was not your intention and i even apologised. Done and done.
But while we're on the subject of things you claim to know, please, educate me as to which industry has 2/3 of its CEOs unworthy of their positions. I'll wait.
You got the wrong idea. I never said that they are unworthy, i said they are average and this is true for ANY industry. They are not incompetent, but there are not the best in their company either and usually they have the best as advisors or direct subordinates. As i said in my previous comment, having capital, connections and knowing how to "navigate" in the hierarchy are as or more important than your ability.
You seem to think the hierarchy as a race where the best and most hardworking get on top, while in reality is like the game of thrones, full of backstabbing, internal conflicts and "unsavory "relationships. If you have this attitute in life too, i suggest you reading Machiavelli and the others great thinkers of Renaissance. You will realise why once you read their works, but to give you a taste, many of them speak of "Fortuna", which is a combination of luck, circumstances and decisions by others and explain how positions of power are occupied.
Yes, I understand completely. Nothing I said was incorrect. It's part of the human condition to rebel against the notion that people are sometimes simply better than you, however that is relevantly measured in a given circumstance. I'm sure I'm guilty of it as well, from time to time.
And Jaina, Jaina, Jaina. I put my money on this company in a big way. If you think I give a shit about their PR spin, you are woefully mistaken. 99% of the forum goers howling at the wind about CEOs being unworthy, or in your case, the evils of selling $80 preorders, have no dog in this fight. I do. A big one. I have no idea why you would suggest otherwise.
But while we're on the subject of things you claim to know, please, educate me as to which industry has 2/3 of its CEOs unworthy of their positions. I'll wait.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Oh, just to address the talking point about "declaring record profits and firing people", I don't pretend to know whether the layoffs were warranted in this case, but there are fairly common circumstances where those two things go hand in hand.
For those old enough to remember, there was once a company named Blockbuster, and they specialized in brick and mortar stores in which video games and movies were rented out for money. For a long time, that was their primary source of income. Now, hypothetically, if Blockbuster had read the tea leaves and seen the move to digital streaming coming, they might have made more prudent investments earlier on in a Netflix-like structure. If they had done so, one could easily imagine a year where they make quite a bit of money off the fledgling streaming service, and yet still lay off many employees as the brick and mortar businesses decline.
That was not an analogy to Blizzard's circumstance; that was simply a clear and correct example of a company making lots of profit and still warranting layoffs.
EDIT:
Turns out, a lot of the employees laid off were in the European customer service section. For all I know, they just saw a marked decline in service calls as a result of less spaghetti code in Warcraft over the past few years. Time will tell if they're actually going to have a 20% increase in developers, but certainly a company making good money does not obligate it to employ additional customer service reps.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
LOL, do you seriously believe I think Blizzard's CEO is a better person than me? Hahahahaha. Jesus Christ dude, that was so funny... Just because he has a better job and salary than me doesn't mean I would like to be like him. A good job and a lot of money aren't everything in this life, dude.
This is the most important part. Always have skin in the game and I respect that you do. It's what separates the men from the boys. Or in this case the men from the idiots on here who cry "morality" and "unfairness" who have never in their insignificant lives ever had skin in the game and live off of bullshit currency based on other trolls approval of them. To them I say go out and do something useful that people will pay you for and then put your money where your mouth is. They won't though. They'll just shitpost here.
Don't respect it too much. I'm down like $40,000 this year.
I don't pass judgment on other people's work. I just react assertively when people suggest I don't know my business.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Sounds like based on the stuff I've read that they are simply re-organizing. Cutting positions they see as unnecessary so they can afford to grow in other areas. According to the recap by Flux on HearthPwn the Hearthstone dev team is increasing by 20%. So I'd say HS as a whole is doing just fine for now. Does sound like HS income has slumped a little as of late, but I wonder if that'll just be the case until cards like Genn and Baku rotate to Wild in April 2020. Several streamers have voiced their concerns based around these two cards, probably the loudest about it has been Brian Kibler. Even right now Asmodai is streaming and saying HS has been stale feeling for the past year (coincidentally when Genn/Baku were released with WW).
Oh wait, it looks like a majority of the staff being let go are the ones in marketing/social media, aka the ones that have nothing to do with game development. I'm fine with that.
I seriously believe you've never entertained the possibility that anyone is better than you at anything or in any way ever in your life.
"however that is measured in the given circumstance" is a phrase I included specifically to forestall the "you think he's better than me" strawman, but I appreciate the rhetorical effort nonetheless. I clearly was referring to business acumen, but my belief applies to any way you could measure "better".
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Activision Blizzard reported a profitable 2018 then laid off 800 of the employees they easily paid with surplus profit in that year.
This isn't an indie company making hard decisions, this is a company trying to make stock holders happy about a 45% drop. They're cutting the lowest on the totem pole, not shifting the income dynamics to compensate.
Rage quitting: the best way to ensure your opponent knows they beat a giant baby.
You are correct, but let me frame that in a slightly different way.
A company posting record profits lost 45% of its market capitalization in one year after nearly a decade-long upward trend. Now how could that be? One potential answer, the one that seems to be favored by certain folks on this thread, is that more money is never enough and corporate greed will never be satisfied until it cannibalizes its golden goose.
Another answer, and one that I strongly suspect is the case, is that a brand's value includes consumer "good will", and that while the numbers are solid, the reputation of the company has been absolutely bear-mauled. The Blizzcon fiasco, the cancellation of HotS . . . these things have damaged investor confidence (they sure as hell have damaged mine). So yes, if you like, streamlining the customer service and marketing departments was, in all likelihood, a gesture to investors. But there was a clear and present reason for it.
Hell, with all the layoffs in the marketing department, maybe they managed to fire the mongoloid who hatched the Diablo Blizzcon rollout.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Now seriously, are you f...king kidding me? You talk as if my life would end tommorrow while comparing me with a 55 years old (56 next month) person, who was born in the USA and was a friend of Steve Jobs at a very young age. You don't have any idea about my past, present or future, so assuming this guy is definitely better at business than me, with the few data you have about my person, is just plain ridiculous. Yeah, he seems to be very good at it if you google him, but maybe if I and many others would have had the same opportunities, we would have done better, who knows? Also, appearances are deceiving, bro, always remember that: all his career could be a big lie and it wouldn't surprise me at all. ;)
And if he ends up being better than me at business, I really don't give a shit, I'm not a "Jack of all trades, master of all" for f..king sake... I'm just a f.,king person and I do not have to prove anything to anyone >:-( (well, maybe to super hot girls and women, they are really worth the effort after all XD).
No, I'm not kidding you. I started by saying people have a bad habit assuming that those situated better than themselves do not deserve their positions. You not only assumed I was speaking of you, but double down on the nepotism rhetoric. Then YOU took this discussion into the realm of "better person" when I clearly stated I was speaking of the specific dimensions in which the person is situated well, in this case general business acumen.
All of this makes me very comfortable in certain assumptions about your outlook on life. But I'm happy you have nothing to prove. Should make things easy for you.
Now, back to the subject at hand. Jaina made some crude reference to me sucking Blizzard's dick, and to be honest, I would seriously consider it if it got me my $40,000 back. But, given that such an easy fix is not likely to present itself, I will be watching closely to see how they handle the alleged "investment" in new developers.
Anyone know how the OWL is going these days? I know they decided to go hard in the paint on intersectional politics a couple years ago and ban some of their most popular players for saying bad words on stream. Ever since then I've hovered between wanting the league to succeed for financial reasons and wanting the whole enterprise to go up in flames because . . . well because fuck them.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Do you really want to know my "outlook on life"? Well, here you have a gif expressing it very well:
Hope I didn't disappoint you, Donald. XD
So we're clear, I can quote you on this: Life's a bitch, and so are you?
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Blizzard just needs to produce some new games. WoW is in decline. SC2 is in decline. Diablo is in decline. HotS, Overwatch, and HS are probably flat to down in growth.
Fortnight is on a tare right now which leaves Blizzard with trying to milk old titles. A few years from now the Fotnite fad might be in decline to some new Blizzard game... probably not.
Oh yeah, have you heard about Warcraft 3 remastered? that's new. I'm actually glad they rereleased that game, but it won't save jobs.
I'm hoping Blizzard will consider either making a Starcraft 3 or trying a new real-time strategy IP.
We haven't had a relevant RTS release since 2010 (no, the SC2 expansions don't count), and that's my favorite game space. Furthermore, the original Starcraft holds the mantle of OG esport for most of my generation. I miss it so.
Helpful Clarification on Forbidden Topics for Hearthstone Forums:
Enjoying Americans winning in the Olympics is forbidden because it is political. A 14 plus page discussion of state-sponsored lawsuits against a multi-national corporation based on harassment, discrimination, and wrongful death allegations is apparently not political enough to raise an issue.
Yeah, why not? I'm pretty sure in some few years, the word "bitch" is going to be used normally to refer to men and women alike. XD
After reading some of these posts I have found myself not as geeked up about April as I once was. Better start saving gold now if you haven't already.
I'm not dead yet!
Oh you still remember that?Anyway, i thought i had already clarified this with you in the pms but anyway...I never "argued" about the price of the bundle nor cared. I spoke against those whose comments belittled those who can't afford it. Your original comment was doing it too. You explained to me that this was not your intention and i even apologised. Done and done.
You got the wrong idea. I never said that they are unworthy, i said they are average and this is true for ANY industry. They are not incompetent, but there are not the best in their company either and usually they have the best as advisors or direct subordinates. As i said in my previous comment, having capital, connections and knowing how to "navigate" in the hierarchy are as or more important than your ability.
You seem to think the hierarchy as a race where the best and most hardworking get on top, while in reality is like the game of thrones, full of backstabbing, internal conflicts and "unsavory "relationships. If you have this attitute in life too, i suggest you reading Machiavelli and the others great thinkers of Renaissance. You will realise why once you read their works, but to give you a taste, many of them speak of "Fortuna", which is a combination of luck, circumstances and decisions by others and explain how positions of power are occupied.
If Hearthstone dies, it dies. I'm not buying packs to satisfy some megacorporations greed.