After 800 Blizzard Employees Lose Their Jobs, Game Workers Unite Calls for Kotick Firing - MMORPG.c

Theocritus

People have to understand that its the nature of the business....it isnt like dads job where they worked for the same company for 40 years and then retired. Many gaming and software companies you go in knowing that the job is only going to last for a certain amount of time. Yes it sucks to lose your job but it shouldnt be a surprise to any of these people.

AriesTiger

It's theft when these millenials think they deserve a job when a company can do just fine firing 800 employees. SMH.

AriesTiger

OldSchoolGamer said:

Side note.  Just found out when you cancel your subscription to World of Warcraft, Blizzard doesn't even ask anymore why you are cancelling.  In the past, they at least pretended to care why you were leaving and asked you the likelihood that you would be back.  Those days are gone.  

It's the new blizzard. Few if anyone there is 30 or older. Stock/share holders found out and are pissed.

MadFrenchie

AriesTiger said:

It's theft when these millenials think they deserve a job when a company can do just fine firing 800 employees. SMH.

Seriously, GTFO with your ignorant generational generalizations (that phrase doesn't quite roll off the tongue, does it? ).  You don't even have a fucking clue about the dempgraphics of the employees fired or the company's current makeup.


Holy shit, the amount of scapegoating the ignorant do of younger generations is astounding.

Aeander

MadFrenchie said:

AriesTiger said:

It's theft when these millenials think they deserve a job when a company can do just fine firing 800 employees. SMH.

Seriously, GTFO with your ignorant generational generalizations (that phrase doesn't quite roll off the tongue, does it? ).  You don't even have a fucking clue about the dempgraphics of the employees fired or the company's current makeup.


Holy shit, the amount of scapegoating the ignorant do of younger generations is astounding.

I, conversely, am getting increasingly weary of the angry, unintelligent cretins who make up so much of the boomer generation.

Sovrath

SBFord said:

You know, all the bad PR could have been avoided:

Bobby Kotick: "While we have made record profits, we need to rethink the way we make games. But rather than let our dedicated and amazing staff go, I am voluntarily cutting my personal salary in half to keep our people employed because they are what makes ATVI great."

He would STILL make $15,000,000, more than he could spend in a lifetime (added to a doubtless huge savings in the bank) but would come out looking like the "good guy" for the gesture. He'd still be making grotesque amounts of money but would seem as if he were altruistically helping out the grunts.

This is what I would have done.

parpin

blizzard could keep those guys and not fire them if they were announcing what people want, and people would come back to blizzard games and they did not have to fire anyone, what people want is: world of warcraft 2 , diablo 4 , new star craft game, not garbage mobile game, when you are still insisting on making content for out dated mmo(wow) who is losing steam and more people are leaving and when you announce garbage diablo mobile after years of waiting by diablo fans, when you stop making star craft, do not forget these are the games blizzard is famous for. blizzard do what people want and you have more than enough money to hire those guys back.

AriesTiger

MadFrenchie said:

AriesTiger said:

It's theft when these millenials think they deserve a job when a company can do just fine firing 800 employees. SMH.

Seriously, GTFO with your ignorant generational generalizations (that phrase doesn't quite roll off the tongue, does it? ).  You don't even have a fucking clue about the dempgraphics of the employees fired or the company's current makeup.


Holy shit, the amount of scapegoating the ignorant do of younger generations is astounding.

Actually share and stockholders got numbers and demographics through websites like Glassdoor who have provided details so it's backed up. Once you can verify with real people and age groups there will be nothing you can hide from.

(Now you can just see the wheels turning in their evil little heads about to call for Glassdoor to be removed as a business because it does a good job at what it does.)

SBFord

@Hatefull

If you looked at my post earlier, I acknowledged that it is, of course, a known fact in the contractor community. We work without parachutes yet give just as much as any full time employee. It's a terrible position to be in because you need a job.

As someone who has worked as a contractor for the last decade -- including this particular job -- I fully appreciate that, but it doesn't make it any less disheartening or frightening to be let go. We do what we do without insurance, without guarantees, and without thanks most of the time, yet we throw our whole selves into our work. A lot of these people were working to gain full time status at Blizzard, something that's happened a lot in the past. 
I'm not 100% on board with the whole firing of Kotick thing, but I can say that whoever their PR people are should be given a stern talking-to because they bungled this horribly.

AriesTiger

Over the years I've been trying to develop a filter. I used to be a lot worse lol.

Forgrimm

OldSchoolGamer said:

Side note.  Just found out when you cancel your subscription to World of Warcraft, Blizzard doesn't even ask anymore why you are cancelling.  In the past, they at least pretended to care why you were leaving and asked you the likelihood that you would be back.  Those days are gone.  

I believe they stopped asking that a while ago.

Ungood

jonrd463 said:

Sure, CEOs make an exorbitant amount, but if one would take their pay and spread it equitably across all accounts payable in a company, it amounts to pennies on the dollar, so the argument about the CEO's pay is just a virtue signal.

This is not True, CEO's in America make near to 500 times what their employees make. Let me put that in perspective for you. Average employee in a Company like Blizzard, is around 60 - 100K a year.

That means that the CEO is making roughly 40 Million Annual Salary, if they were to be making, say, what a comparable CEO in England would make (in England, CEO make 20 - 25 times what their employees make) which means they would be making 2 million a year.

Now if you scoff at that, thinking that would not be anywhere near enough, keep in mind the median income in America is around 40 - 60K.. if 40 times our median income in this country, is not enough to live a rich life, there is something very.. very.. wrong with this country.

Equally so, if they took a comparable paycheck to what other Capitalist countries make, (20 - 25 times) they would be able to keep on an additional, 475 employees... that does not look like pennies on the dollar if you ask me.

laserit

Aeander said:

MadFrenchie said:

AriesTiger said:

It's theft when these millenials think they deserve a job when a company can do just fine firing 800 employees. SMH.

Seriously, GTFO with your ignorant generational generalizations (that phrase doesn't quite roll off the tongue, does it? ).  You don't even have a fucking clue about the dempgraphics of the employees fired or the company's current makeup.


Holy shit, the amount of scapegoating the ignorant do of younger generations is astounding.

I, conversely, am getting increasingly weary of the angry, unintelligent cretins who make up so much of the boomer generation.

It's always the people who brought the younger generation up that complain about them. What they are really criticizing is their generations parenting skills.

black9ice

SBFord said:

parrotpholk said:

the package they received seemed fair and reasonable.    This is a nonstarter all around.

Contractors and part time employees got a pink slip, a final check and a foot in the ass sending them out the door.

Just about everyone in this thread is freaking crazy. You are an at will employee period. If people would get through their thick skulls in 2019 that YOU or anyone else is not ENTITLED to anything but the air you breath, this whole world would be a much better place! But that is how society has shifted, GIVE ME, OWE ME, blah blah blah...

Gdemami

DMKano said:

Has it ever occurred to you that maybe us humans dont deserve nice things?

Thinking that we do is the very entitlement you are so quick to speak against. 

...ok?

I said nothing about whteher someone deserve nice things, in fact I implied some of those employees indeed deserved to be fired...oh, you consider that a nice thing then? Otherwise I fail to see how your comment is related or just even make any sense...

Gdemami

Aeander said:

Every time I see Gdemami, my first thought is that either 1) Andrew Wilson or Bobby Kotick have nothing better to do than to troll a random forum or 2) their shoe polish must taste great to encourage such loving defense.

I think the latter more likely.

I am...flattered....?

CIB3

They need to LEARN TO CODE!

alkarionlog

Ungood said:

jonrd463 said:

Sure, CEOs make an exorbitant amount, but if one would take their pay and spread it equitably across all accounts payable in a company, it amounts to pennies on the dollar, so the argument about the CEO's pay is just a virtue signal.

This is not True, CEO's in America make near to 500 times what their employees make. Let me put that in perspective for you. Average employee in a Company like Blizzard, is around 60 - 100K a year.

That means that the CEO is making roughly 40 Million Annual Salary, if they were to be making, say, what a comparable CEO in England would make (in England, CEO make 20 - 25 times what their employees make) which means they would be making 2 million a year.

Now if you scoff at that, thinking that would not be anywhere near enough, keep in mind the median income in America is around 40 - 60K.. if 40 times our median income in this country, is not enough to live a rich life, there is something very.. very.. wrong with this country.

Equally so, if they took a comparable paycheck to what other Capitalist countries make, (20 - 25 times) they would be able to keep on an additional, 475 employees... that does not look like pennies on the dollar if you ask me.

if the problem was money, with we know its not,

the question here is why keep employees who don't produce? we know blizzard was canning Esports so why keep people who will not produce you anything?

laserit

alkarionlog said:

Ungood said:

jonrd463 said:

Sure, CEOs make an exorbitant amount, but if one would take their pay and spread it equitably across all accounts payable in a company, it amounts to pennies on the dollar, so the argument about the CEO's pay is just a virtue signal.

This is not True, CEO's in America make near to 500 times what their employees make. Let me put that in perspective for you. Average employee in a Company like Blizzard, is around 60 - 100K a year.

That means that the CEO is making roughly 40 Million Annual Salary, if they were to be making, say, what a comparable CEO in England would make (in England, CEO make 20 - 25 times what their employees make) which means they would be making 2 million a year.

Now if you scoff at that, thinking that would not be anywhere near enough, keep in mind the median income in America is around 40 - 60K.. if 40 times our median income in this country, is not enough to live a rich life, there is something very.. very.. wrong with this country.

Equally so, if they took a comparable paycheck to what other Capitalist countries make, (20 - 25 times) they would be able to keep on an additional, 475 employees... that does not look like pennies on the dollar if you ask me.

if the problem was money, with we know its not,

the question here is why keep employees who don't produce? we know blizzard was canning Esports so why keep people who will not produce you anything?

Easy thing is to lay them all off, don't need a 30 million dollar salary to figure that one out. Now using those 800 people to make you more money is why you're making the big buck ain't it?

Panther2103

black9ice said:

SBFord said:

parrotpholk said:

the package they received seemed fair and reasonable.    This is a nonstarter all around.

Contractors and part time employees got a pink slip, a final check and a foot in the ass sending them out the door.

Just about everyone in this thread is freaking crazy. You are an at will employee period. If people would get through their thick skulls in 2019 that YOU or anyone else is not ENTITLED to anything but the air you breath, this whole world would be a much better place! But that is how society has shifted, GIVE ME, OWE ME, blah blah blah...

Holy crap. What? You shouldn't be on edge 24/7 about whether or not you get to keep your job. Even as an at will employee, you should have some semblance of being treated fairly at work. How would you feel if tomorrow you walked into work and someone fired you on the spot. Would you be on a forum talking about how they are perfectly within their right to do that? Or would you be pissed. I'm guessing it's the latter. 

Sal1

Welcome to 2019 the new gilded age. I am saddened to see this.

Thane

found it quite funny how all major companies came to "search" for ex blizz employees on the600 (facebook group for blizz workers and related stuff).

including EA.
had to resist making ANY comments on them

Vorthanion

black9ice said:

SBFord said:

parrotpholk said:

the package they received seemed fair and reasonable.    This is a nonstarter all around.

Contractors and part time employees got a pink slip, a final check and a foot in the ass sending them out the door.

Just about everyone in this thread is freaking crazy. You are an at will employee period. If people would get through their thick skulls in 2019 that YOU or anyone else is not ENTITLED to anything but the air you breath, this whole world would be a much better place! But that is how society has shifted, GIVE ME, OWE ME, blah blah blah...

Yet you afford corporations that very same entitlement?  How strange.

ACommonMugger

Gdemami said:

That is why we can't have nice things...

The self-entitlement of these disgruntled ex-employees is shocking...well, not so much, seems like a good riddance...

Oh boy, can't tell if a troll or actually thinking like this.

The world is so jaded to me at this point that I have to second guess if someone is trying to bait me into an argument now.

Ungood

TimEisen said:
 Theres only two directions from here and I've seen altered Carbon, one isn't pretty. 

I gave this post an LOL, because I thought this bit was funny..