(Below: a slightly longer version of a review that I first wrote on the website of a swedish book company)
“Play Nice” – an interesting review of the fates and adventures of a game company.
This book is about the particular culture in which game creation arose, and especially when the company “Blizzard” was formed in the 1990s. The author writes that it was initially a “boys’ club” with an emphasis on quite aggressive masculinity, but also depicts an enormous dedication to game creation itself – an existence where professional life merged with personal life in long work shifts that extended over nights and weekends. Which could be devastating for family life…
When “Activision” gradually integrated Blizzard in the 2000s, a tension arose between those who created games for the sake of the players, and those who created games for the sake of the money. “Blizzard” had always wanted to belong to the first group. But now time limits were set that became very stressful, contrary to Blizzard’s rule “a game is finished when it is finished” even if it takes several years. Precisely so that a churning would be made that suited the players, with as few bugs and technical problems as possible. Something that could be very time-consuming.
The story extends into the 2020s, and does not neglect to mention the scandal with the state of California suing the company due to reports of sexual harassment against female employees, and the subsequent, gigantic deal with Microsoft, and what consequences it had. Then we are in 2024. Had the aggressive “boys’ club culture” become so entrenched in parts of the company’s management that it really went crazy? The book contains very interesting perspectives that are given in an factual tone. So factual at times that one might suspect a commissioned work, to at least somewhat camouflage the true extent of the scandals
*) “Diablo” is one of the successful games with millions of users that Blizzard has published, together with “World of Warcraft” and “Call of Duty”, among others.
NME – November 2021
subsequent 