I think the term work is being use interchangeably with gaming companies selling out to try to get as much of an audience as possible or generate as much of a top line as possible via microtransactions.

I think these are two very separate things.

I don't think it's wokeness that's driving Boards to pressure COO's, CFO's , Presidents etc. to do what is happening. It's a profit motive.

Is there instances of wokeness in modern games, yes but its certainly not the main issues as to why games are coming out half-baked with terrible content.

Just because WoW finally released a non-binary NPC is not the reason WoW sucks today. Its content is bad and most of the systems feel meaningless now. There's a big over-arching issue and I think it boils down to more of a profit motive than being culturally sensitive.

This post was edited by SBD on Jul 22 2021 01:14pm

hahah unironically, it would honestly be for the better

edit: updated what i quoted

This post was edited by ChocolateCoveredGummyBears on Jul 22 2021 01:15pm

Not the same but they are related in a way.

wokeness caused demographic shifts at companies like Activision/Blizzard and the focus is altered for the direction of the company as a result.

I firmly believe if the old Blizzard north crew was told to make loot boxes and micro transactions in a game sequel to one of their classics they'd have told activision to fuck off and went on strike. there just isn't a backbone strong enough in the current crew that only has a few of the old guard to do it.

but the lack of backbone isnt due to their wokeness as new hires, its just new aged devs dont think like Blizz north used to, new aged devs are happy to feed into micro transaction metas.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Jul 22 2021 01:17pm

Maybe, but I have to wonder how many of those original Blizzard North Devs were from the ground up. It might not have necessarily been these new people dont have a backbone it could be that they really feel no ownership over the product they're putting out. Its a Pub Co. now , no private ownership for these employees outside meaningless positions from an employee stock plan. Its not the same feeling of accomplishment when you don't have ownership of it and you're in this big revolving door corporate structure vs a smaller close-knit team thats not having its decisions made by someone over everyones heads.

I think that's frankly why you see these little studios put out some stellar content. They take pride. Same demographic of people but they own it. its their baby.

So i'm not so sure its the lack of backbone as much as the business landscape has changed so much over the years that as soon as any small devs make something good they just get eaten up at a price that cant be refused.

This post was edited by SBD on Jul 22 2021 01:24pm

1.14, so no 08s

That three page shared stash though.

that does have an effect im sure, but listening to the devs talk about the pride they had in making d2 and other games im sure they'd have done almost the same with no stake financially in stock. they really ate, slept, breathed the lore, the art, the aesthetic, the gameplay, etc.

This is what i'm picturing, though. That classic cliché movie or story scene where the young person goes out into the world bright-eyed, that small twinkle and gets the job only to get put down in a cubicle and get a dose of reality and that twinkle dies off real fast vs the old landscape where it was 8 sweaty nerds jammed into an office made for 1 having a ball making their game.

Just a completely different landscape now that video games make so much money. The industry is just so massive now compared to those early birds in the 90s. I mean twitch, e-sports, merchandise, essentially gambling for kids, its turning heads that have big money that would have never looked this way otherwise.

If video killed the radio store, money slaughtered creativity.

This post was edited by SBD on Jul 22 2021 01:39pm

ya i know this time had to come given the cash involved eventually, just hurts given that blizzard made game of the year every year and literally every game they made was a god tier creation. they didnt even once slip up other than starcraft ghost which died in dev hell. everything else was top game of all time material.