There are again problems at World of Warcraft. A producer explains that there is more and more crisis planning because people are leaving.
World of Warcraft Dragonflight is running quite well and new patches are coming at regular intervals. However, that might change because Activision Blizzard is still losing important employees. The blame is said to be on “someone up there” who simply does not want to listen to the game directors.
Where does the information come from? On Twitter, the game producer Adam, whom some may know as “Glaxigrav”, explained that something is going wrong at Activision Blizzard. He said:
I am loud because I lost another person this week.
Blizzard is losing fantastic talent because someone in power is not listening to the game directors who create its products. Diversity, fairness, and inclusion also means diversity of thought, especially when it is backed by data and finances.
And, look: I don’t want to fight.
I just want to make video games. I want to make fantastic bestsellers that are loved by critics. I want to make better dragonflights. I want to create better experiences.
We cannot do that if we get rid of everyone who created it.
A final thought: “some talent” undermines the point I want to make.
We are creating crisis maps with the things we can publish and those we cannot publish. THAT is the extent of the loss we are facing.
What is the problem? There were already new conflicts at Blizzard a few weeks ago. Because Activision Blizzard has decided to lift the home office rule from the Corona pandemic. Developers may spend a maximum of two days a week in the home office; the rest must work in one of the offices.
This, however, leads to several conflicts. Many employees who are employed at Blizzard only joined during this home office period and cannot afford to make the long journey every day. Employees have warned for weeks that this will lead to resignations that will ultimately affect the products (like World of Warcraft).
Whether and when that will have an impact on World of Warcraft remains to be seen. But when developers call for help, it is usually a bad sign.
