Jen Oneal steps down as co-director of Blizzard after just three months – IT Pro – News

By far the biggest reason for Blizzard’s demise is money. They have gone from a relatively quality-conscious company to a mainly profit-driven company. This started before the acquisition by Activision and continued after that. Main cause: shareholders want to see money, and then more money than last year. In spite of everything. The games became secondary. This has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with genders. Just pure neoliberalism, which just about every company with a unique quality has to believe in.

Completely separate from this: society is now reckoning with real atrocities such as abuse of power and sexual violence, which our supposedly neat world is full of. The fact that there is genuine attention for this, from victims and from organizations that want to change something, is a very good thing in my opinion.

Unfortunately, that movement has been hijacked by… you guessed it: money. Large companies have quickly come to see diversity and inclusivity as the next hype or trend; just like there are tons of vampire movies after one was successful. Everything that plays in society is incorporated by companies for image advantage. That makes this period cringe-inducing. The same goes for Blizzard, who are now making unnecessary changes to their games while the question is whether the business problem is sufficiently solved. Hardly anyone asked for that; it’s companies themselves that walk away with a fake version of inclusivity; in an easy and superficial way.

The real movement underneath, however, is necessary and useful, but only requires real change and not just sweet talk. Companies have more with the latter, unfortunately. Hopefully Blizzard will be able to clean itself up from the total acorns that have served there. And I don’t think the games really diminish because of that; that damage has already been done by the excessive profit motive.

[Reactie gewijzigd door geert1 op 3 november 2021 11:07]

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