For those among us who are initiated in any way in the world of video games, Blizzard Entertainment used to be the video game equivalent Christopher Nolan. They were famous for willingness to try something new and their unwillingness to commit to release dates for their games, simply saying it would be out “when it’s done.”
They created the template for the real-time strategy with “Starcraft” and “Warcraft,” invented action role playing games with “Diablo,” made the most successful massively multiplayer RPG ever with “World of Warcraft,” revolutionized digital trading card games with “Hearthstone” and kicked off the hero shooter craze with “Overwatch.”
Then it all came crashing down. What was once the most revered video game publisher in the world by a wide margin has become a byword, a warning to those who let corporate greed seep into their decision making. The Blizzard that couldn’t miss has become the Blizzard that can’t get a hit.
The story of all this is detailed in Jason Schreier’s “Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment.”
Jason Schreier is just about the only major league investigative reporter covering the video game industry, whose ranks of journalists are mostly composed of hype men, reviewers, and people who simply repackage official company statements into articles and videos. He has written two books on the industry prior, as well as some major articles covering things like the failed development of Bioware’s major flop, “Anthem.”
So though he’s covering an entertainment sector that’s not viewed as prestigiously as something like film production, he comes at it with a level of experience and professionalism that’s well above the industry standard.
According to Schreier, this book is the culmination of over 350 interviews, and it pieces together over 30 years of Blizzard’s history. What started as a small team became a highly acclaimed development company, famous for its quality and completely chaotic culture.
When Blizzard was small, they were serious that every opinion mattered. People of all levels, from Quality Assurance on up were encouraged to hold forth in meetings and suggest improvements. Deadlines were fictional entities, to be ignored at will. Costs were something that would, of course, be made up once people saw what a marvelous product they made. And the crazy thing is that this worked for a long time.
Blizzard attracted lots of talent that was willing to work for below market rates just for the prestige and excitement of working for Blizzard. But all good things must come to an end and the end came when Blizzard was sold to Activision, a financially successful and stable corporation that made steady revenues by buying popular intellectual properties and milking them to death with yearly installments.
Activision’s and Blizzard’s philosophies could not have been more different. Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision, was famous for saying he wanted to take the fun out of making video games. He would have been just as comfortable selling toilet paper or luxury vacation packages to Guam. All he was interested in was yearly profit growth.
Blizzard was only interested in making great games and if they had a year with negative growth then that was just the price of art. Obviously something had to give, and since Blizzard was the purchasee and not purchaser, their vision was the one that went the way of the dodo.
But while that story is interesting, it is only part of it. Blizzard was also a story of a company out of control. Managers sleeping with subordinates. Wild alcohol fueled parties. Fist fights over design decisions. These were part of the Blizzard story too and they make the company’s legacy a lot more complicated.
Schreier manages to keep all these things in balance and gives a fair accounting of a company that soared into the stratosphere and has now come crashing down. His writing definitely has a reporter’s voice to it, with just enough flair and humor to let you know that he’s a gamer too.
I really enjoyed this book. I am sure that part of my enjoyment came from the fact that I’ve lived a lot of this history. I’ve played almost every Blizzard game that came out. I really believed, as one developer put it, that if a box of rocks had the Blizzard logo then it must be the best box of rocks ever made. I am also one of the people who was baffled by “Diablo Immortal” and saw “Overwatch 2” kill my love for the game.
Jason Schreier wrote this book for everyone, and I do recommend it to anyone who’d be interested. But I’d especially recommend it to people like me. So if you remember when Arthas became the Lich King or saw Kerrigan replace the Overmind, then definitely read “Play Nice.”
But if those words are just so much mumbo-jumbo to you then I can still recommend the book. Beneath all the geek veneer is a story about people and office politics on a large scale. And perhaps it will serve as a readable introduction to a world you never knew existed.
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