Blizzard Vs Sentura

[Furyo]

Yes I'm serious. If Blizzard is not good enough for someone that wants to work in the industry, I do suggest that one reevaluates their desire to work in the video games industry. Because to 99.9% of games developers out there who will never get as good working conditions, salaries, or motivating titles to work on, that's a slap in the face.

So yeah maybe one's dream is to make it big as an indie. Fine, be my guest and try and make it on your own. I'll watch. I'll watch 99.9% of all attempts fail miserably while some perfectly viable commercial products from companies like Blizzard help thousands make a living and support their family.

[wacko]

I would not even say 99.9% of them fail but most people who work on indie companies came from the likes of places like blizzard and they at least have an understanding of what the industry has to offer and what it takes to make a game. I mean sure not every gaming company is awesome but a lot of them are. I do think if your going to comment on the company you should at least work for them or have worked for them or even better had a job in the industry; because you really do not know what your talking about until then. I think you find anyone who works in the industry is crazy passionate about their company and their products and for you to sit there and say well the company sucks because they don't innovate or they just release the same product over and over... is really a slap in the face because you know nothing about it and these people make huge sacrifices to their lives and families for your entertainment and not because they give a shit about what you say.. but because they love it and they want to make something awesome. I would agree with Furyo if you would question working at a company like Blizzard or Valve etc... then you should likely look somewhere else for a job because your not the type of person the industry wants.

[Sentura]

i bet there are a ton of studios out there who have the same working conditions as blizzard. i don't know about salaries, but honestly if one in the industry to make money, then i'd suggest to move to a different industry. it's not that i'm into the whole "games are art" thing, but i'd rather be doing what i love for the rest of my life with money just to get by, rather than be a slave to a corporation that focuses on the money and product over the quality of a game. i think this a creed that any designer or artist should live by. it is also something that i have never seen from blizzard, and that is exactly why i would never, ever work there.

and i do mean that a product and a game are two separate entities here.

just to further the debate about salaries: i read in a pamphlet that overall people in the games industry are paid less in comparison software development (for engineers) or design studios (for designers). if you'd really want to support your family etc., why not just go all the way and choose the better wages?

the entire statement that people want to be in it for the money just makes me cringe. this is not what the game industry should be about, because then there'd be no reason to choose it over any other industry. since the industry is still young, i'll be observing to see which direction it will be headed. of course it will to some degree still be about the money, but i'm hoping that at some point the people that are directly involved in the industry because of the money (i'm excluding investors, publishers and suits in general) will get flushed out into other industries; sort of like where the film industry is now. because if you're not in the games industry to make games, then why bother being there at all?

it should be noted that i am not here to offend anyone with this, i'm sure all corporations somewhere have their good sides (i mean people still work for them, right?), but it's just not a path i would go down. also, i would not compare blizzard and valve or put them in the same category. blizzard has (taken from wiki) 4,600 employees. valve has 250. this alone should be enough to tell that even a large studio is something entirely different from a corporation.

i might also add that i would aspire to work in a place such as valve.

[Pericolos0]

you have no idea what Blizzard is like in the inside, yes they have 4600 something employees, but the actual developer count is probably closer to valve, working on several projects. I'm not sure how much I can say about this though, except that the teams are a lot smaller than you think. They have a very open culture as well, and have a large focus on individual development, which is the main reason for me to go there, I want to learn from the best. I think you can probably count the companies with working conditions similar to blizzard on one hand.

And yeah I'm also dreaming of starting my own indie/freelance company one day, but right now I feel like I still have a lot to learn.

Also where did you get the idea Blizzard puts money in front of quality lol, the reason blizzard is so successful is because of their huge commitment to quality.

[Sentura]

you have no idea what Blizzard is like in the inside, yes they have 4600 something employees, but the actual developer count is probably closer to valve, working on several projects. I'm not sure how much I can say about this though, except that the teams are a lot smaller than you think. They have a very open culture as well, and have a large focus on individual development, which is the main reason for me to go there, I want to learn from the best.

fair enough, i'll take your word for it. i would be wary as to call them the best though, as i think that's highly subjective. i will however say that they have their business strategies in sound order, and their products are polished - which is also why they sell so well. but like i mentioned before, this has nothing to do with game quality.

Also where did you get the idea Blizzard puts money in front of quality lol, the reason blizzard is so successful is because of their huge commitment to quality.

quality in a game for me is innovation, and i haven't seen them being innovative in any of their games really. i used to have more respect for what blizzard north did back in the day with diablo and diablo 2, because they took it further each time. now that the studio is defunct, you can see those same people at a new studio trying to make things even more innovative. in comparison with that, blizzard's irvine studio seems to be in stagnation for ideas, essentially pumping out the same game with upgraded graphics.

of course i am being open minded about what they will come up with in the future, but honestly i don't expect things to change. this is the main reason for my critique of them (and of them alone).

[Grinwhrl]

Peri... Wow pass, ok?

[Taylor]

This is the company that still supports and hosts free servers for games over a decade old, puts all their games through public beta, and is renowned for holding back releases until they’re polished to a capacity that makes other companies with stricter deadlines jealous.

Quality being directly proportional to innovation is debateable but not relevant, because Blizzard brings a ton of innovation to their games anyway. Yes they do. Sometimes these are obvious like adding RPG elements to an RTS series, buy they’re usually little new and interesting things for the initiated. I’m not sure where this clone comment comes from either, as while they have established franchises all the main games within a series have been substantially different.

When most people insult Blizzard on respectable gaming boards like /v/ it basically boils down to one thing. Yes, World of Warcraft is amazingly successful to a point nobody could have foreseen and they have made a lot of money, and yes some of us didn’t like the direction the game took. But this doesn’t mean they became an evil, money grabbing machine that only cares about profit. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone as supportive of their games and community.

[Seldoon182]

Sentura Won! Or I'm jealous...

[Rick_D]

nah, i'd just rather work somewhere with innovation rather than reuse. i did wish him luck though.

I think anyone that would shun the idea of working for a company like Blizzard has to consider his real intentions of working in the industry.

are you serious? and if yes, care to elaborate?

you're retarded to even say something like that.

once you've worked for a few companies, even your sacred holy-grail-indie-devs, then you can come back and start criticising companies like blizzard.

this topic doesn't even belong here, this is gaming discussion, not off topic faggotry, and this thread is just a troll (or you're literally retarded).

you're going get such a fucking massive shock if you ever get into the industry.

[Rick_D]

i might also add that i would aspire to work in a place such as valve.

really. after you spent a fucklong amount of time complaining that L4D2 did not innovate at all and wasn't a worthy sequel.

i'm seriously lolling right now. you have no fucking idea how shit works :3

[Furyo]

I split the thread so the mapcore job census would stay nice and on topic, but I couldn't create this new thread in off topic where it belongs...

[Rick_D]

Oh I understand.

Then let's just delete it and ban everyone involved.

[Steppenwolf]

Not everybody wants to work on the biggest games and for the biggest companys. Whats so wrong about that?

[KoKo5oVaR]

Personally i could work anywhere, i don't have much standards : as long as there is a good and creative atmosphere without people shooting in the legs of each others to take the place of the boss and that i'm forced to do politics... Big and small studios can be like that

[Steppenwolf]

Same for me but i can totaly understand why some people want to work on big stuff while others rather want to work on small stuff. It all comes down to things like how career driven you are, how much creeative freedom you want etc.