This review should have been published a couple of weeks ago, but stuff got in the way so here we are now, and lo, hasn't the real world really been at it! Microsoft's announcement of games cancellations and job cuts (all reportedly to fuel some fuckwitted belief in AI) has placed a really sour cherry on top of this review given the subject matter. As it is, here is the original piece as written prior to that news. I was going to add my sixpence worth about the cuts at the end of the post, but everything I had to say has already been said in many ways much more elegantly by others.
It took me a few minutes to check, but I've never reviewed Jason Schreier's previous two books on the blog - and that surprised me as I'm looking at my copies of them on the shelf now. You really should check out Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, and Press Reset, as they're both cracking behind the scenes looks at how videogames are, and in some cases are not, made. But it is with his latest tome that we're concerned with today, and a history/expose of the machinations of Blizzard, from its initial founding to Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard.
I've never played Blizzard's releases. Never really gotten into the that style of RPG, and I'm not an online player whatsoever. However, since I have more than a passing interest in the nature of the videogames industry, that detachment from the subject matter could be seen as a bonus - no emotional baggage to consider when talking about specific titles.
Anyhoo, over some 350 plus pages, Mr Schreier writes lucidly on the subject at hand - the history of Blizzard, the titles released (and those cancelled along the way), the company culture, the associated corporate culture (some may consider that an oxymoron, but we'll get to that later), and how the company changed along with its ownership. There is an even hand given to those named within, and a definite sense of clarity, especially when discussing some of the highly disturbing allegations and behaviours which have been widely detailed elsewhere.
The author's reporting is factual, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions as to how and why things went wrong. That extends from the personal behaviours of staff to the corporate approach adopted as the company changed hands. And it's here that, yep, you guessed it, high horse time has arrived.
I have never been a corporate cheerleader. Never will be, either. Via a combination of reading about such cases and near thirty years personal experience, I believe that certain types of individuals climb the corporate/management ladder to the point where their actual contribution to the success of a company is vastly minimised by their (possibly, nay probably self aggrandised) emphasis towards "leadership" - and by that, I mean knowing naff all about what the company/organisation that employs them does, but being able to spaff word salads sprinkled with bullshit dressing with ease. This might appear to be professional management, but again, there is a great deal of truth in saying that if your job is to simply make numbers become bigger on a quarterly/half year/annual basis, then you're not a practical part of the solution to achieve that, you're often part of the drag preventing it. And thus we come to Bobby Kotick...
Look, there are times when those who, at heart, are consummate sales people will be in the right. And when they are, they can be fantastically successful - I give you Alan Sugar for one - in the 1980's, he made the right decisions to grow Amstrad from primarily a hi-fi builder to one of Europe's most valuable computer companies. Then the market, processes and appetites changed (not helped by dodgy hard drive controllers), and the company faded from that area and evolved into something else. But from what I understand and have read, Alan, later Sir Alan, now Lord Sugar, was never the massive thundertwat in the same vein that Kotick and co. were. And, by the way, their actions aren't unique - read the corporate history of Commodore and it's 1980's shenanigans... absolute clueless were the corporate types towards their staff. It also has to be noted that the effect that MBA's have on companies seems to garner the most negative of headlines - looking once again at you, Boeing...
Back to Bobby. He knew what could sell, and ensure it would sell he did, but by doing so gutted the golden goose that created that success. Annual releases, constant crunch, and absolutely no fucking clue whatsoever that videogames are an art form (and as such, that creativity needs nurturing). Sure, mistakes were made at the lower levels: poor management decisions within teams being a regular occurrence, but the never ending push for higher numbers is at the heart of this tale, the core reason why Activision Blizzard and the wider modern videogames industry is, to put it mildly, fucked sideways. This subject was satirised brilliantly in the highly recommended Who Hunts The Whale by Laura Kate Dale and Jane Aerith Magnet, so grab a copy of that if you can.
What Play Nice shows in excruciating detail is the corrosive effect of late stage capitalism on the videogames industry. If you're not C-suite, you're nobody, and if that means screwing people over for rightly deserved bonuses, or waiting until you lose key staff before realising that, shit, maybe you should have treat them more fairly, then so be it. I'm not pushing for some workplace utopia, just that Play Nice reinforces my long held belief that there are those who directly contribute to success, and those who feed off it - and it's always the feedees that benefit the most. The tone deaf approach of some execs also hits the offensive button like a sledgehammer.
Is Play Nice a great book? Yes, absolutely, and one that you should read to understand how passionate people can deliver wonders, but have also been (and no doubt will continue to be) treat like shit by those who do the corporate ladder thing, and as such, it's rather an emotive one for me - especially so when a key individual left the absolute shit show with a golden parachute worth hundreds of millions of dollars. This expose on one of the largest videogames companies in the world has once again proven that there should, nay, needs be a rebalancing, a move away from the current hellscape that is the corporate videogames industry, and the wider corporate world at large. I doubt that will ever happen, but one should never lose hope.
As for Mr Schreier, by all means, good sir, keep 'em coming if you can, as your third tome will remain on my shelves for many years to come, and it also deserves to be on yours as well.
You can pick up a copy of Play Nice from the usual online stores, and you might be able to order it in from your local physical book shop too.
No comments:
Post a Comment