Dialogue

Issue 357

Dialogue

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A little bit of politics

I’ve never played World Of Warcraft, or Hearthstone, or indeed any of Blizzard’s time (and money) black holes since the first Starcraft, which is why I was surprised to see in my tailored newsfeed an article on Activision Blizzard hiring controversial Republican Brian Bulatao as CAO. This comes despite laying off presumably thousands of employees in their European restructuring, each almost certainly more invested in gaming and the company than said businessman (how much says he has no clue what a murloc is?).

I shared this with my Hearthstone-playing friend, and also read a few tweets on the subject, and was surprised at how many people had decided that this move was the tolling of the bell for them.

“Although Blizzard can probably afford to lose players, what of smaller companies?”

It strikes me as unfair that people are discounting games (or, indeed, entire companies) because of one person – how many developers, publishers and myriad others have toiled, often excruciatingly, late into the night (looking at you, CD Projekt Red) to create and perfect a product for people to enjoy, only to be snubbed by those unable to overlook such minutiae?

Although Blizzard can probably afford to lose a few players, what of smaller companies? JK Rowling’s comments have cast doubts amongst Potterheads about their continued involvement in the fandom, which is certain to impact sales of Avalanche’s Hogwarts Legacy, if we are unable to separate art from artist. Each member of that team has likely invested as many hours into crafting their game as an average Warcraft player has going on raids.