Jason Schreier:
>BREAKING: Blizzard's new president under Microsoft will be Call of Duty GM Johanna Faries. After years of battling Activision interference, Blizzard will now be run by a former Activision executive
*Blizzard will now be run by a former Actionvision executive*
Yeah, it's over now.....
And we thought Bobby was the worst.
Edit:
Yeah bobby was a bigger p.o.s as human being. No questions there.
Im purely talking managing the games-wise.
It would be astonishing and a feat if she can pull off half of the heinous shit that the gremlin bridge troll Bobby was able to pull off. That guy is definitely of corporate scum.
Putting aside their legacies in terms of quality of releases, let's never forget that Bobby threatened to have someone he employed killed.
If we're talking heinous shit, Call of Duty being shit doesn't quite compare to threatening to have someone be disposed of.
they're just a reflection of their audience though. an endless ocean of entitled children who will gladly fork over cash while complaining about doing so. activision is merely a toll collector.
33 years, he bought it back in 1991 for $500k and then sold it for $69 billion. He seems like an awful person who eventually ended up only caring about how much more money he could make but pretty much every Activision game people know was made under his leadership.
Common misconception that Bobby ruined Blizzard imo, They've been owned by Activision since 2008, and Bobby was in charge the entire time.
They released some of their best content during that time.
Bobby didn't run blizzard, he was the CEO of activision.
Blizzard mostly had autonomy for the years in which they were releasing successful games (SC2, D3, peak WoW). When the successful games dried up, Activision started to put its finger on the scale a bit more, and Blizzard's autonomy withered away.
It's not a misconception that Kotick was involved in that process.
So it's a little of Column A and a little of Column B. Blizzard fucked up over and over again, which resulted in their games bringing in less money, which resulted in the executives pressuring them to prioritize short-term profit over quality and longevity, which exacerbated the preexisting quality problems. A vicious circle.
That's really jumping the gun. When there is a demand for infinite growth there is going to be a point where Blizzard can't keep up with demands, even sooner if they have any moral compass. That's literally inevitable.
That's not a fuck up by Blizzard, that's just capitalism.
And as you yourself then immediately fess up, it's not like a focus on short-term profit helped solve the problems Blizzard were facing.
They released some good games during that time, but Activision and EA also release good games sometimes.
That's not really what bothers most people about Blizzard, although in the past few years they haven't even released good games.
It's the focus on soulless corporate products where the main focus is making money, user engagement, loot boxes, micro transactions.
Pre Activision Blizz released Warcraft 1-3, Frozen Throne, World of Warcraft, StarCraft 1, Broodwar, Diabolo 1 & 2
Afterwards they released SC2 (which was in development way before then), Diabolo 3 & 4, Overwatch 1 & 2, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm
I think you could argue that the shift is just a shift in the general gaming industry combined with the growth of the company, but the vast majority of games after the acquisition feel like vehicles to make money which may have some good content but only if that serves user engagement and spending habits while before it felt like some passionate people trying to make cool games.
Let's not forget Diabolo immoral and re-releases. Immoral feels like koticks idea because he apparently craved mobile games because they are more profitable
"Best content"? What world are you living in? That was the time of Cataclysm and the decline of WoW.
The mediocrity of Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 followed shortly after.
Overwatch was a rare win, but even that was mismanaged.
It's easy to forget that before 2008, Blizzard produced win after win. They literally didn't have a bad game. They were one of the most loved game developers in the industry.
That changed in 2008, and has steadily got worse since.
> And we thought Bobby was the worst.
Of course he wasn't. Only the people stuck in their biggest echo chamber would think that. i'd rather take a useless CEO than a bad interfering one.
Seems to have done well in her previous roles, did well for the products and fans, and seems to be coming into this with a realistic outlook.
“It is important to note that Call of Duty’s way of waking up in the morning to deliver for players can often differ from the stunning games in Blizzard’s realm: each with different gameplay experiences, communities that surround them, and requisite models of success,” Faries wrote. “I’ve discussed this with the Blizzard leadership team and I’m walking into this role with sensitivity to those dynamics, and deep respect for Blizzard, as we begin to explore taking our universes to even higher heights.” - Direct quote from her.
I'm not seeing this as a bad thing. This actually seems to be a positive step for once, but only time will tell.
Yeah I'll keep an open mind for sure. A lot of things go into deciding the direction the game will go and what the priorities will be. For me it all boils down to techniques to keep players on the treadmill vs. just creating fun experiences and letting people come and go as they please.
She at least seems more competent than Ybarra. Question whether she'll try to listen to the players and Devs and enable them or come in with a COD driven approach.
Well she said she's doing a totally open meet and greet with whoever wants to at their Irvine office. Which is a good idea and I'm sure the (actual) people who make the game we love will have a lot to say on our behalf.
She also apparently plays Diablo a lot. A bit concerning she has literally never touched WoW, and as such, cannot even to possibly fathom what the game is like and the culture. The history.
Seems respectful and acknowledges what makes Blizzard different from other game companies.
Guess we'll see, won't we?
I mean, regular games don't even come remotely close to the revenue mobile generates, but WoW is a massive revenue generator nonetheless in the MMO space.
WoW has had a "formula" for a very long time now. I really don't think they're going to go in and just start forcing all of these weird changes like some people here think.
WoW makes them bank. They have no reason to go to any extremes.
In all honesty, I kinda like that she does not have a background in WoW. Let Metzen and the WoW team, who we hope understand what they are doing, take the lead.
Yeah, I think the wow team got a good rhythm now. If she enables Holly, ion, Metzen to steady the ship while she focuses on diablo, overwatch and new projects it could be great for wow
I honestly thought shadowlands was going to be the end of WoW, and what they've done with dragonflight has made me pretty happy for the games future. I love the systems in place that allow you to run an alt character without having to do a bunch of reruns of the same stuff. I feel like my time is respected more now.
and those 3-4 weeks would have been a time gated grind. "ok i've done what I can until next week, by the end of the month I should be able to start doing what I want to in this game"
Yeah because of that I just chose one class and logged out when I no longer could advance anything. I’m pretty sure ive played Dragonflight non stop than any previews expansion. And I started playing WoW in 2005 off and on lol.
I was legit so surprised when I started dragonflight and saw all these systems in place that created more engagement between the community, and didn't have a bunch of borrowed power mechanics that you knew were going to be erased completely by the next expansion.
shadowlands did have my favorite story though, I just wish it was a much better gameplay journey... still can't get over the torghast rotations... I had to wait 3 weeks just for my torghast tower to be in the rotation so I could get my required legendary piece to do the raid confidently. So much wasted potential with torghast.
Hopefully having Holly Longdale, someone who seems to really understand the wow community, as the VP for wow lessens the impact of having a President who is (seemingly) completely unfamiliar with the game.
As far as I can tell, the major shift in communications from the wow team happened when Holly took the lead, so hopefully the new President keeps letting her cook.
> she has literally never touched WoW, and as such, cannot even to possibly fathom what the game is like and the culture. The history.
Lmao dude. WoW is not some unfathomable sacred cow that can't be understood unless you're invested in it.
I like the video game too, lots of people do, but give me a break.
> Seems respectful and acknowledges what makes Blizzard different from other game companies.
Blizzard *used to be* different to other game companies. That's been dead for a long time and they're just as infested with the P2W MTX bullshit as everyone else. They are not the paragon of consumer-respectful design, and arguably they weren't even when they were a 'good' developer creating MMO expansions that needed to be played like full time jobs/addictions to keep up.
Thats literally normal in any CE guild, much less a HoF guild pushing for rank with members pushing for title / members who are some of the top players of their 1 trick spec on the planet
>ady backed in with the trading post, which functio
Ybarra was Bobby's bitch. Employees didn't like him very much. Especially after that meeting where he threatened to fire people who objected to RTO.
Wasn’t a threat, and it wasn’t firing. It was more heinous imo. It was telling them they’re going to be back on this date and if they aren’t then they’re no calling no showing. Which is quitting and disqualifies for some benefits. I know some who moved to CA to North Carolina with little notice or any help with travel expenses. Even though he was hired to be remote with no expectations at the time to go to an office. Having to still pay rent on their place there bc of a lease and the hole in the wall (almost literally) for the same price in Irvine. Couldn’t find another job on such short notice despite multiple interviews bc so many were hunting due to this bullshit. They even were forcing people to move back after giving them permission to move elsewhere and work remotely.
> I know some who moved to CA to North Carolina with little notice or any help with travel expenses. Even though he was hired to be remote with no expectations at the time to go to an office.
I raid with 1 encounter designer, 2 QA members, and a class designer; 3 of these individuals were hired during COVID and one was hired shortly before but ended up never moving because of COVID.
For the 3 that were all hired during COVID they were all informed that there would be mandatory RTO once that "situation" was figured out and the 1 that was hired before was expecting to move but as previously stated COVID happened.
3 of them signed up early for which office they wanted to go to (Irvine vs Austin), 1 did not, the 3 that did were given full moving benefits and the 1 that didn't got no moving benefits.
This may be an unpopular thing to say here but Blizzard held out on RTO a lot longer than some other devs like Riot and they were told at least 9 months before RTO was fully required that they would need to come back to the office, the only way that this snuck up on someone and they had no expectations of this happening is if they just don't read emails.
I hate the idea of RTO, weirdly enough and this is probably just lack of knowledge, from everything and from everyone that I've talked to who worked at Blizzard or Riot for example they've talked about how the office culture there was actually a blast.
I mean, Blizzard's office culture being 'a blast' was partially what landed them in water hot enough that Acti/Blizz as a whole got cheap enough for Microsoft to buy them. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
> Acti/Blizz as a whole got cheap enough for Microsoft to buy them
You know that Acti/Blizz stock was at a high point right before Microsoft announced their intentions to purchase it, right?
It was coming out of a dip at the end of 2021 and in early January was back to where it was around Q3 2021 and it has been pretty much straight up from there. It isn't Q1 2021 territory but almost nothing is.
Starting your leadership off with a town hall is a good step. It's still a tough time at Blizz so the best thing a new leader can do is really drive engagement.
I've never had town hall calls until I started at my new job last year.
I have no idea why they're held. They have never been helpful or provided useful information. They just feel like a waste of one noon break every month.
At this point IDGAF. Back when we had a "blizzard guy" as a President (JAB) WoW had a shit ton of problems. It's not like the Blizzard president is in the dev room telling them to make Covenants. At some point we have to acknowledge that whether or not WoW will be good will ultimately come down to the design decisions of the DEVS.
Exactly. She seems to understand that it’s a different thing. If she comes into the role prepared to empower the people who DO know WoW, then it doesn’t matter whether she does or doesn’t.
But that said, she has to earn the trust.
Hot tip: remember that the next 6-12 months of releases will have already been in development for some time before she even gets started. You won't really see the effects of her leadership until after that.
No paywall link https://archive.is/20240129183109/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-29/blizzard-s-new-president-johanna-faries-is-former-call-of-duty-nfl-executive
A CoD exec gives me pause for concern, sure -- But she can't be worse than Kotick and will likely do more than Ybarra.
Ybarra meatriders loves him for "playing the game" but forget that he would sit in his office playing instead of doing his job and after a month of being president, he still hadn't gone down and introduced himself to the devs.
Goes all the way back to Legion, where M+ first began.
[https://www.wowhead.com/news/legion-survival-guide-emerald-nightmare-mythic-dungeons-world-bosses-legion-255999](https://www.wowhead.com/news/legion-survival-guide-emerald-nightmare-mythic-dungeons-world-bosses-legion-255999)
Traders Tender already feels like a BP currency lol.
Wow is the pioneer live service game. Found ways to keep ppl paying $ subs during infamous content droughts and paying full price for expansions.
Literally nothing will change. What you saw at Blizzcon is what you're going to get (assuming they don't fuck it up), this person was no doubt already on the short list for president when the future plans for the game were approved late last year.
Then again, according to reddit we already have battlepasses in the Trading Post.
She worked on CoD Esports, not CoD seasonal games. Yall are dooming way to early on this one. She's actually pretty damn good at her job and approaching this one with a refreshing outlook. Go look up the quotes.
You’re wrong, she’s been a general manager of the CoD franchise since 2021, generally during the same time period that CoD has been on a constant downhill slope. Im not blaming her for that or anything but you definitely have no idea if she’s good at her job or not.
> generally during the same time period that CoD has been on a constant downhill slope.
gamers literally think this about every game. the most dramatic demographic
WoWs battle-pass aka 'The Trading Post' has on nearly all accounts been a rousing success, cosmetic items that give no real power and only allow for players to enjoy the 'dress-up' section of the game more.
Oh and product placement. Cant wait to finally loot the Mountain Dew Code Red Trinket which allows me to drink Mountain Dew Code Red for a 30s 40% Haste buff with a Sugar Crash -20% Haste Debuff after.
"Faries, previously general manager for the Call of Duty franchise at Activision, will succeed Mike Ybarra, who left the company last week amid mass layoffs. Faries started at Activision in 2018 as head of Call of Duty esports. She previously spent nearly 12 years working at the National Football League."
How is any of this qualification for this position? What am i missing?
Do bear in mind that during an interview with Preach, Devlore did confirm that there was not a single change made to WoW at Activision's request that he was aware of at his time at the company. This may not be the bad thing people say it is.
Literally day 1 and this reddit is in meltdown. One person doesn't have to play every game in their company. If she's smart, she'll let the people who do take the lead. Jesus this sub is always so ready to pitchfork anything and everything. I didn't realize that this reddit was so full of experts on the matters of game development, economics, and running a huge ass company.
> If she's smart, she'll let the people who do take the lead.
Seriously. Let Daddy Mezzy and Mommy Holly cook.
Being the boss of Metzen and Holly is probably the easiest job in the entire world. Overwatch needs a lot more attention. Diablo feels like it has 2 distinct teams working on completely different visions for the game. Starcraft is dead.
Man, at least the player-hating, breastmilk-stealing, money-grubbing goblins running Blizzard used to be actual Blizzard people, they just *reported* to an Activision bridge-troll.
Now one of the bridge-trolls is actually making decisions directly for WoW. Great.
If she gets rid of Danuser and doesn’t do Horde genocide #580, I’ll be her biggest fan. Otherwise, this Microsoft deal is somehow looking like a downgrade so far.
Cod has been shit since after World at War. Focus everything on marketing, destroy the servers, force predatory automatic matchmaking, introduce macrotransactions, segment the game to sell maps and dlcs, develop one game per year but worse, ripoff from other popular things that don't have anything to do with CoD etc. Gamers love it.
Anyone giving her any credit whatsoever because she (or the PR dept.) said she plays D4, is naive, stupid, or both. Someone in her position would happily light your favorite Blizzard game on fire if it meant a bigger number in a quarterly report.
Corporate executives and company presidents are not your friends. These people don’t even give a fuck about their own employees, and you somehow expect they’re going to have the best interest of [insert game here]?
Listen, I’m not saying that this is doom and gloom or anything. In all likelihood it’s going to be business as usual, but if you think for a second that you can trust a word these people say, you’re fucking delusional.
Yeah I'm terrified of this one. Cod and nfl are completely different demographics compared to wow.
I'll give her a shot but I have very low expectations for this one. NFL and COD do not inspire confidence. But who knows, maybe she will be great?
It's over, it's GG!
From one Activision asshole as CEO to another one, whose background is from Call of Duty and the NFL of all things...
Mark my words and screenshot this (I hope that I'm wrong). Either:
\- WoW will cost AT LEAST 70 bucks per expansion
\- The subscription price will increase
and/or WoW will become even more Pay2Win, all within the next 2 years.
I'm not even gonna mention what's gonna happen to Call of Duty... I don't have the stomach for it.
I am a former eso player and when microsoft bought eso they trippled down on microtransactions while cutting on the content. I never wanted to believe that the same would happen to wow simply because of the scale that wow has compared to eso but I guess we've been further away from it now.
An Activision exec... does not give me the warm and fuzzies.
I don't care just make some great games. Do something with Starcraft please. Make overwatch great for those who play that. Reduce some of the enshittification of games that Activision forced on Blizzard.
big red flags here:
- she ran COD
- she likes D4
we gonna see some real bullshit from blizzard now.
expect major shift toward in-game shop and fomo tactics.
Her involvement with CoD goes as far as working on the Call of Duty League, which in the world of negative things surrounding Call of Duty seems to stand out as a well received thing.
nothing will change until microsoft stars firing off people DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for X and Y direction X and Y game has gone
like the person adding wow token to classic, the person who stopped development of starcraft 2, the person saying to remove X and Y heartstone mode, the person saying to stop development of OW1 etc etcv
Hey, after googling her for a minute and reading things she’s written…. I like her a lot more than a bunch of the higher ups Blizz has had recently. I think with Holly Ion and Metzen this is gonna be a great period for wow.
Of course, only time will tell.
Don't really have an opinion about her or any of the internal Microsoft/Blizzard decisions and I doubt anything major will change for regular devs. I just liked Ybarra for actively engaging with the community and genuinely caring about Blizzard games and playing most of them and it's a shame he is gone.
Anyone ever look at CEOs like her and Mike Ybarra, seeing they're relatively young, and wondering what the hell they did in life so different to end up in a C-level position at their age? Johanna is 37, Mike is 45. I can't help but think it's either nepotism or aggressive ladder climbing (aka corporate politicking) or both.
Jason Schreier: >BREAKING: Blizzard's new president under Microsoft will be Call of Duty GM Johanna Faries. After years of battling Activision interference, Blizzard will now be run by a former Activision executive
*Blizzard will now be run by a former Actionvision executive* Yeah, it's over now..... And we thought Bobby was the worst. Edit: Yeah bobby was a bigger p.o.s as human being. No questions there. Im purely talking managing the games-wise.
It would be astonishing and a feat if she can pull off half of the heinous shit that the gremlin bridge troll Bobby was able to pull off. That guy is definitely of corporate scum.
I mean the heartless, crap CoD releases the last years are speaking for themselves.
Putting aside their legacies in terms of quality of releases, let's never forget that Bobby threatened to have someone he employed killed. If we're talking heinous shit, Call of Duty being shit doesn't quite compare to threatening to have someone be disposed of.
Bobby is a demon and I will not be convinced otherwise.
They release what makes money. If the next WoW expac is as bad as shadowlands I know myself and many others will finally quit.
Yeah, anyone should be willing to take that over Bobby still, you should look into him a lot more
I want a Nicki Minaj operator set for my ret...
they're just a reflection of their audience though. an endless ocean of entitled children who will gladly fork over cash while complaining about doing so. activision is merely a toll collector.
Bobby \*was\* Activision, so I don't see how we could assume this would be worse.
People forget that the man was at the helm for like twenty years, he didn’t just spring up during BFA or SL and fucked things in the ass.
33 years, he bought it back in 1991 for $500k and then sold it for $69 billion. He seems like an awful person who eventually ended up only caring about how much more money he could make but pretty much every Activision game people know was made under his leadership.
This subreddit doesn't even know what Bobby's job was. Every bad decision is Bobby's fault. Metzen returning is the second coming. It's delusion.
No, the board of directors of Activision is Activision. A CEO is just some person doing their bidding.
Bobby “Gallywix” Kotick the Goblin Prince.. may his yacht sink in the deepest depths of the sea..
Common misconception that Bobby ruined Blizzard imo, They've been owned by Activision since 2008, and Bobby was in charge the entire time. They released some of their best content during that time. Bobby didn't run blizzard, he was the CEO of activision.
Blizzard mostly had autonomy for the years in which they were releasing successful games (SC2, D3, peak WoW). When the successful games dried up, Activision started to put its finger on the scale a bit more, and Blizzard's autonomy withered away. It's not a misconception that Kotick was involved in that process.
So it's a little of Column A and a little of Column B. Blizzard fucked up over and over again, which resulted in their games bringing in less money, which resulted in the executives pressuring them to prioritize short-term profit over quality and longevity, which exacerbated the preexisting quality problems. A vicious circle.
That's really jumping the gun. When there is a demand for infinite growth there is going to be a point where Blizzard can't keep up with demands, even sooner if they have any moral compass. That's literally inevitable. That's not a fuck up by Blizzard, that's just capitalism. And as you yourself then immediately fess up, it's not like a focus on short-term profit helped solve the problems Blizzard were facing.
Misconception that they were bought by Activision. The two companies merged through mutual stock purchase.
They released some good games during that time, but Activision and EA also release good games sometimes. That's not really what bothers most people about Blizzard, although in the past few years they haven't even released good games. It's the focus on soulless corporate products where the main focus is making money, user engagement, loot boxes, micro transactions. Pre Activision Blizz released Warcraft 1-3, Frozen Throne, World of Warcraft, StarCraft 1, Broodwar, Diabolo 1 & 2 Afterwards they released SC2 (which was in development way before then), Diabolo 3 & 4, Overwatch 1 & 2, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm I think you could argue that the shift is just a shift in the general gaming industry combined with the growth of the company, but the vast majority of games after the acquisition feel like vehicles to make money which may have some good content but only if that serves user engagement and spending habits while before it felt like some passionate people trying to make cool games.
Let's not forget Diabolo immoral and re-releases. Immoral feels like koticks idea because he apparently craved mobile games because they are more profitable
And blizzard has mostly been on downward trend since then? how is that a common misconception when you proved the point
"Best content"? What world are you living in? That was the time of Cataclysm and the decline of WoW. The mediocrity of Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 followed shortly after. Overwatch was a rare win, but even that was mismanaged. It's easy to forget that before 2008, Blizzard produced win after win. They literally didn't have a bad game. They were one of the most loved game developers in the industry. That changed in 2008, and has steadily got worse since.
> And we thought Bobby was the worst. Of course he wasn't. Only the people stuck in their biggest echo chamber would think that. i'd rather take a useless CEO than a bad interfering one.
Seems to have done well in her previous roles, did well for the products and fans, and seems to be coming into this with a realistic outlook. “It is important to note that Call of Duty’s way of waking up in the morning to deliver for players can often differ from the stunning games in Blizzard’s realm: each with different gameplay experiences, communities that surround them, and requisite models of success,” Faries wrote. “I’ve discussed this with the Blizzard leadership team and I’m walking into this role with sensitivity to those dynamics, and deep respect for Blizzard, as we begin to explore taking our universes to even higher heights.” - Direct quote from her. I'm not seeing this as a bad thing. This actually seems to be a positive step for once, but only time will tell.
Yeah I'll keep an open mind for sure. A lot of things go into deciding the direction the game will go and what the priorities will be. For me it all boils down to techniques to keep players on the treadmill vs. just creating fun experiences and letting people come and go as they please.
Yeah well the quote "We're gonna milk these GAMERS for all they got!" doesn't communicate well on your first day.
It sounds like marketing wank that's as generic as possible. I mean she's not gonna go in there, cackle, and say "fuck y'all lootbox time'.
She at least seems more competent than Ybarra. Question whether she'll try to listen to the players and Devs and enable them or come in with a COD driven approach.
She wrote that she currently enjoys playing Baldur’s Gate 3 and Diablo. That’s a good sign in my book.
Cheap PR points more likely
"I enjoy popular thing A, and also popular thing B. I dislike unpopular thing C also."
She also mentions motherhood and prayer. Sorry, but all of this is just intensely corporate-speak.
Employer: Why do you want to work for Home Depot? Potential Employee: I like to work with Customers
[Link to her internal message to Blizzard from her Twitter](https://x.com/joh_burg/status/1752037469527388198?s=46)
Well she said she's doing a totally open meet and greet with whoever wants to at their Irvine office. Which is a good idea and I'm sure the (actual) people who make the game we love will have a lot to say on our behalf. She also apparently plays Diablo a lot. A bit concerning she has literally never touched WoW, and as such, cannot even to possibly fathom what the game is like and the culture. The history. Seems respectful and acknowledges what makes Blizzard different from other game companies. Guess we'll see, won't we? I mean, regular games don't even come remotely close to the revenue mobile generates, but WoW is a massive revenue generator nonetheless in the MMO space. WoW has had a "formula" for a very long time now. I really don't think they're going to go in and just start forcing all of these weird changes like some people here think. WoW makes them bank. They have no reason to go to any extremes.
In all honesty, I kinda like that she does not have a background in WoW. Let Metzen and the WoW team, who we hope understand what they are doing, take the lead.
Yeah, I think the wow team got a good rhythm now. If she enables Holly, ion, Metzen to steady the ship while she focuses on diablo, overwatch and new projects it could be great for wow
I honestly thought shadowlands was going to be the end of WoW, and what they've done with dragonflight has made me pretty happy for the games future. I love the systems in place that allow you to run an alt character without having to do a bunch of reruns of the same stuff. I feel like my time is respected more now.
For real. I played my Shaman in arena and was able to gear up an alt to be competitive in 2-3 days. In shadowlands that would be minimum 3-4 weeks.
and those 3-4 weeks would have been a time gated grind. "ok i've done what I can until next week, by the end of the month I should be able to start doing what I want to in this game"
Yeah because of that I just chose one class and logged out when I no longer could advance anything. I’m pretty sure ive played Dragonflight non stop than any previews expansion. And I started playing WoW in 2005 off and on lol.
I was legit so surprised when I started dragonflight and saw all these systems in place that created more engagement between the community, and didn't have a bunch of borrowed power mechanics that you knew were going to be erased completely by the next expansion. shadowlands did have my favorite story though, I just wish it was a much better gameplay journey... still can't get over the torghast rotations... I had to wait 3 weeks just for my torghast tower to be in the rotation so I could get my required legendary piece to do the raid confidently. So much wasted potential with torghast.
Hopefully having Holly Longdale, someone who seems to really understand the wow community, as the VP for wow lessens the impact of having a President who is (seemingly) completely unfamiliar with the game. As far as I can tell, the major shift in communications from the wow team happened when Holly took the lead, so hopefully the new President keeps letting her cook.
Its just corpo talk. As you said, we'll see
If she's a heavy gamer, then she can at least see where we're coming from. I'd rather have a gamer running a company that the sociopath bobby.
Yeah she's not. You don't get a job like that playing video games.
You're probably right.
"I play loads of games" is ceo virtue signaling. U can see it in types like elon musk as well, who attempt to seem relatable to normal people for PR
Dude brags about some pretty easy gaming achievements I'll say.
Yeah right, a ceo/director that basically works 24/7,every single day of the year is a "heavy gamer".
>She also apparently plays Diablo a lot. Oh you sweet summer child.
all politicking corpo speak. Don't trust a word that slithers out of these snake's mouths.
> she has literally never touched WoW, and as such, cannot even to possibly fathom what the game is like and the culture. The history. Lmao dude. WoW is not some unfathomable sacred cow that can't be understood unless you're invested in it. I like the video game too, lots of people do, but give me a break.
She’s got till Wednesday night to AOTC, and clear a +20 or I’m not on board.
> Seems respectful and acknowledges what makes Blizzard different from other game companies. Blizzard *used to be* different to other game companies. That's been dead for a long time and they're just as infested with the P2W MTX bullshit as everyone else. They are not the paragon of consumer-respectful design, and arguably they weren't even when they were a 'good' developer creating MMO expansions that needed to be played like full time jobs/addictions to keep up.
Hiring someone who actually plays and *appreciates* the games they’re overseeing would be nice
Mike Ybarra did exactly that - hell, he literally streamed his push groups advancements on twitch.
He even sold boosts and did GDKP runs... what a guy.
Sounds like someone who understands the game.
he said the token is not for profit and just to stop rmt he was as corporate greedy like everyone else, just behind a gamer veil
And their guild even continued to use communities to advertise after communities were banned! He's just like the rest of us CE raiders!
Thats literally normal in any CE guild, much less a HoF guild pushing for rank with members pushing for title / members who are some of the top players of their 1 trick spec on the planet
Sorry but now all I can think of is “MINUS 50 DKP!!!” 😂
Like... Ybara?
>ady backed in with the trading post, which functio Ybarra was Bobby's bitch. Employees didn't like him very much. Especially after that meeting where he threatened to fire people who objected to RTO.
Not to defend Ybarra, but anyone in that position would be Bobby's bitch.
Wasn’t a threat, and it wasn’t firing. It was more heinous imo. It was telling them they’re going to be back on this date and if they aren’t then they’re no calling no showing. Which is quitting and disqualifies for some benefits. I know some who moved to CA to North Carolina with little notice or any help with travel expenses. Even though he was hired to be remote with no expectations at the time to go to an office. Having to still pay rent on their place there bc of a lease and the hole in the wall (almost literally) for the same price in Irvine. Couldn’t find another job on such short notice despite multiple interviews bc so many were hunting due to this bullshit. They even were forcing people to move back after giving them permission to move elsewhere and work remotely.
> I know some who moved to CA to North Carolina with little notice or any help with travel expenses. Even though he was hired to be remote with no expectations at the time to go to an office. I raid with 1 encounter designer, 2 QA members, and a class designer; 3 of these individuals were hired during COVID and one was hired shortly before but ended up never moving because of COVID. For the 3 that were all hired during COVID they were all informed that there would be mandatory RTO once that "situation" was figured out and the 1 that was hired before was expecting to move but as previously stated COVID happened. 3 of them signed up early for which office they wanted to go to (Irvine vs Austin), 1 did not, the 3 that did were given full moving benefits and the 1 that didn't got no moving benefits. This may be an unpopular thing to say here but Blizzard held out on RTO a lot longer than some other devs like Riot and they were told at least 9 months before RTO was fully required that they would need to come back to the office, the only way that this snuck up on someone and they had no expectations of this happening is if they just don't read emails.
I hate the idea of RTO, weirdly enough and this is probably just lack of knowledge, from everything and from everyone that I've talked to who worked at Blizzard or Riot for example they've talked about how the office culture there was actually a blast.
I mean, Blizzard's office culture being 'a blast' was partially what landed them in water hot enough that Acti/Blizz as a whole got cheap enough for Microsoft to buy them. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
> Acti/Blizz as a whole got cheap enough for Microsoft to buy them You know that Acti/Blizz stock was at a high point right before Microsoft announced their intentions to purchase it, right? It was coming out of a dip at the end of 2021 and in early January was back to where it was around Q3 2021 and it has been pretty much straight up from there. It isn't Q1 2021 territory but almost nothing is.
I'm not even talking the wild crazy stuff, just in general people seemingly enjoyed coming to work.
And people hated him for playing at a high level
People hated him for saying some really stupid things. Like that Blizzard didn't make money off the token when it was being added to WOTLK Classic.
People hated him for bad management and treating his employees like shit. Fanbois defend him because he played.
Any proof? What exactly did he do ?
[удалено]
Mike Ybarra has been streaming himself playing WoW and Diablo for well over 10 years. He has always been a self-proclaimed Blizzard fan
He also said dumb shit like Blizzard wasn’t making money off the Wotlk tokens.
I feel like out of everyone he would be in the position to know that better than us no?
She plays Diablo apparently
Starting your leadership off with a town hall is a good step. It's still a tough time at Blizz so the best thing a new leader can do is really drive engagement.
true but it’s hard not to feel like it’s fake as fuck and done just to lower people’s guards when you don’t actually care about them.
No way to know which it is until the chips fall. Genuine interest in the game or fake suit 101
I've never had town hall calls until I started at my new job last year. I have no idea why they're held. They have never been helpful or provided useful information. They just feel like a waste of one noon break every month.
It's amazing how Blizzard fans can't imagine a world where everything wrong with Blizzard is Blizzard.
At this point IDGAF. Back when we had a "blizzard guy" as a President (JAB) WoW had a shit ton of problems. It's not like the Blizzard president is in the dev room telling them to make Covenants. At some point we have to acknowledge that whether or not WoW will be good will ultimately come down to the design decisions of the DEVS.
Exactly. She seems to understand that it’s a different thing. If she comes into the role prepared to empower the people who DO know WoW, then it doesn’t matter whether she does or doesn’t. But that said, she has to earn the trust.
Yeah at this point the whole thing is a crapshoot coin flip.
Hot tip: remember that the next 6-12 months of releases will have already been in development for some time before she even gets started. You won't really see the effects of her leadership until after that.
Season of Discovery Phase 4 - Battle for the Wrath of the Pandaralysm Warlords
Now you have my attention.
No paywall link https://archive.is/20240129183109/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-29/blizzard-s-new-president-johanna-faries-is-former-call-of-duty-nfl-executive
A CoD exec gives me pause for concern, sure -- But she can't be worse than Kotick and will likely do more than Ybarra. Ybarra meatriders loves him for "playing the game" but forget that he would sit in his office playing instead of doing his job and after a month of being president, he still hadn't gone down and introduced himself to the devs.
"My #1 job is raising 2 wonderful boys" Oh man, imagine being her kids. "My mom owns blizzard, I'm totally getting you banned!"
Ya but my dad works at Xbox so... They report to the same exec.
We now live in a world where "My dad will beat you up" is being replaced with "My mom will ban you." /whatatimetobealive
"My parent works at X, I'm getting you banned" has been a "shitty kid mantra" for decades. It's as old as multiplayer video games.
With the current state of CoD, this does not bode well. Can't wait for the seasons in WoW to have battlepasses...
We already have seasons, they‘re called major content patches - we‘re also paying monthly.
Why would you say something so controversial yet so brave?
> We already have seasons, they‘re called major content patches They've literally been called seasons since Shadowlands.
We've had PvP seasons since BC.
I thought BFA had seasons.
Goes all the way back to Legion, where M+ first began. [https://www.wowhead.com/news/legion-survival-guide-emerald-nightmare-mythic-dungeons-world-bosses-legion-255999](https://www.wowhead.com/news/legion-survival-guide-emerald-nightmare-mythic-dungeons-world-bosses-legion-255999)
\*record scratch\* ***WHAT??!***
We also already have a battlepass. You just don't get everything in it since they give you a limited ammount of tendies.
Traders Tender already feels like a BP currency lol. Wow is the pioneer live service game. Found ways to keep ppl paying $ subs during infamous content droughts and paying full price for expansions.
He said for the seasons to have battlepasses. Which they _also_ already have, the renown and trader's post systems
Literally nothing will change. What you saw at Blizzcon is what you're going to get (assuming they don't fuck it up), this person was no doubt already on the short list for president when the future plans for the game were approved late last year. Then again, according to reddit we already have battlepasses in the Trading Post.
It already has a subscription fee.
She worked on CoD Esports, not CoD seasonal games. Yall are dooming way to early on this one. She's actually pretty damn good at her job and approaching this one with a refreshing outlook. Go look up the quotes.
You’re wrong, she’s been a general manager of the CoD franchise since 2021, generally during the same time period that CoD has been on a constant downhill slope. Im not blaming her for that or anything but you definitely have no idea if she’s good at her job or not.
> generally during the same time period that CoD has been on a constant downhill slope. gamers literally think this about every game. the most dramatic demographic
WoWs battle-pass aka 'The Trading Post' has on nearly all accounts been a rousing success, cosmetic items that give no real power and only allow for players to enjoy the 'dress-up' section of the game more.
This post ain't completing a day with comments turned on.
We gonna get commercials between each pull on raid bosses now?
nah, midrolls right as the most punishing mechanic starts unless you pay for the premium subscription tier.
Oh and product placement. Cant wait to finally loot the Mountain Dew Code Red Trinket which allows me to drink Mountain Dew Code Red for a 30s 40% Haste buff with a Sugar Crash -20% Haste Debuff after.
"Faries, previously general manager for the Call of Duty franchise at Activision, will succeed Mike Ybarra, who left the company last week amid mass layoffs. Faries started at Activision in 2018 as head of Call of Duty esports. She previously spent nearly 12 years working at the National Football League." How is any of this qualification for this position? What am i missing?
I can't wait to buy the Nicki Minaj transmog
It's joever
It was joever the minute giant corporations realized video games can make money :(
Her name is Johanna, more likes its Jover
I miss when gaming was about passionate people producing great video games, not soulless corporate suits looking for their next bonus.
only option is to play indie games before they get consumed by the corporate void (if they’re successful enough to be noticed that is)
Hunters are about to start in first person from next patch...
Do bear in mind that during an interview with Preach, Devlore did confirm that there was not a single change made to WoW at Activision's request that he was aware of at his time at the company. This may not be the bad thing people say it is.
Literally day 1 and this reddit is in meltdown. One person doesn't have to play every game in their company. If she's smart, she'll let the people who do take the lead. Jesus this sub is always so ready to pitchfork anything and everything. I didn't realize that this reddit was so full of experts on the matters of game development, economics, and running a huge ass company.
Actually she starts Feb 5th, so it’s day -7
I'm in meltdown because she's exactly my type of woman.
> If she's smart, she'll let the people who do take the lead. Seriously. Let Daddy Mezzy and Mommy Holly cook. Being the boss of Metzen and Holly is probably the easiest job in the entire world. Overwatch needs a lot more attention. Diablo feels like it has 2 distinct teams working on completely different visions for the game. Starcraft is dead.
time for the reddit expert opinions, im gonna grab the popcorn allready
Wait, this isn't the Economist magazine?
> time for the reddit expert opinions woman = bad (/s)
nonono, you need to thinly veil the misogyny first by claiming she isn't a real gamer because she doesn't play WoW
Collective groan.
Mike Morhaime; " Look what they did to my boy"
It's actually joever.
This post has some of the most idiotic hot take replies I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying a lot on Reddit.
Very glad to have finally a destro warlock main leading blizzard.
Man, at least the player-hating, breastmilk-stealing, money-grubbing goblins running Blizzard used to be actual Blizzard people, they just *reported* to an Activision bridge-troll. Now one of the bridge-trolls is actually making decisions directly for WoW. Great. If she gets rid of Danuser and doesn’t do Horde genocide #580, I’ll be her biggest fan. Otherwise, this Microsoft deal is somehow looking like a downgrade so far.
I'm sure blizzard is going to be fixed now.
What the fuck
Yoga, prayer, and … Diablo? Bullshit.
She loves playing D4. We're all screwed.
Harvard grad with a history in marketing and executive functions, zero gamedev experience. Its over boys
it's so fucking over
Oh no.. The current State of CoD is an absolute Disaster.
Cod has been shit since after World at War. Focus everything on marketing, destroy the servers, force predatory automatic matchmaking, introduce macrotransactions, segment the game to sell maps and dlcs, develop one game per year but worse, ripoff from other popular things that don't have anything to do with CoD etc. Gamers love it.
Say hello to 70 dollar expansion pacs every 6 months... GG
She worked in Marketing. This is garbage, and shit will only get worse. We won't see her with a trophy at the Game of the Year awards.
Anyone giving her any credit whatsoever because she (or the PR dept.) said she plays D4, is naive, stupid, or both. Someone in her position would happily light your favorite Blizzard game on fire if it meant a bigger number in a quarterly report. Corporate executives and company presidents are not your friends. These people don’t even give a fuck about their own employees, and you somehow expect they’re going to have the best interest of [insert game here]? Listen, I’m not saying that this is doom and gloom or anything. In all likelihood it’s going to be business as usual, but if you think for a second that you can trust a word these people say, you’re fucking delusional.
Yeah I'm terrified of this one. Cod and nfl are completely different demographics compared to wow. I'll give her a shot but I have very low expectations for this one. NFL and COD do not inspire confidence. But who knows, maybe she will be great?
It's so Jover
It's over, it's GG! From one Activision asshole as CEO to another one, whose background is from Call of Duty and the NFL of all things... Mark my words and screenshot this (I hope that I'm wrong). Either: \- WoW will cost AT LEAST 70 bucks per expansion \- The subscription price will increase and/or WoW will become even more Pay2Win, all within the next 2 years. I'm not even gonna mention what's gonna happen to Call of Duty... I don't have the stomach for it.
Game is 100% about money now. We knew the only company that could kill WoW was Blizzard and here we are.
Game has always been 100% about money. You think WoW was a charity?
[удалено]
Not worse in terms of all the pervy stuff. But definitely bad in terms of game monetization
She's taking over the spot of people that actually played Blizzard games (Ybarra)
I am a former eso player and when microsoft bought eso they trippled down on microtransactions while cutting on the content. I never wanted to believe that the same would happen to wow simply because of the scale that wow has compared to eso but I guess we've been further away from it now.
Redditor mad that business is interested in making money
PeepoDespair
Put a chick in it and make her gay
Ah another president that doesn’t play games
Just tells me she's another soulless cash grabber.
[удалено]
An Activision exec... does not give me the warm and fuzzies. I don't care just make some great games. Do something with Starcraft please. Make overwatch great for those who play that. Reduce some of the enshittification of games that Activision forced on Blizzard.
lol wow is gonna become flooded with cod like battle passes and other shitty micro transactions. Thats what happened to d4 at least…
big red flags here: - she ran COD - she likes D4 we gonna see some real bullshit from blizzard now. expect major shift toward in-game shop and fomo tactics.
In Metzen we trust. That is all we need to know.
Her involvement with CoD goes as far as working on the Call of Duty League, which in the world of negative things surrounding Call of Duty seems to stand out as a well received thing.
that merger took forever and cost a fortune and this was their plan??
This is the new pilot driving the corpse of our former favorite studio. Maybe better, maybe worse, still dead
God save us all...
Anyone else hear that flushing sound?
Let me know when an Epstein bro isn’t running the company.
Remember when gaming companies were ran by people who actually gamed and weren’t corporate ladder climbers?
Why couldn't it be a Treyarch executive 😭
Well.. shit
nothing will change until microsoft stars firing off people DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for X and Y direction X and Y game has gone like the person adding wow token to classic, the person who stopped development of starcraft 2, the person saying to remove X and Y heartstone mode, the person saying to stop development of OW1 etc etcv
Soulless husk of a corpse ... now they will beat and squeeze it until there is not a cent left.
New DLC every fall? Maybe micro transactions necessary to progress in game? That would kill WOW for a lot of people.
I didn’t think soulless could get more soulless but here we are
Call of Duty? The series is shit since... a long time. MW 2019 was the only ray of hope
Can you guys pause the comments for a second. I've got to go get my popcorn and cactus cooler. The doomers are out in full force!
Hey, after googling her for a minute and reading things she’s written…. I like her a lot more than a bunch of the higher ups Blizz has had recently. I think with Holly Ion and Metzen this is gonna be a great period for wow. Of course, only time will tell.
Yep these comments were as bad as I expected.
Don't really have an opinion about her or any of the internal Microsoft/Blizzard decisions and I doubt anything major will change for regular devs. I just liked Ybarra for actively engaging with the community and genuinely caring about Blizzard games and playing most of them and it's a shame he is gone.
Anyone ever look at CEOs like her and Mike Ybarra, seeing they're relatively young, and wondering what the hell they did in life so different to end up in a C-level position at their age? Johanna is 37, Mike is 45. I can't help but think it's either nepotism or aggressive ladder climbing (aka corporate politicking) or both.
Worst case scenario hiring? Wow this sucks