Why I left Blizzard Entertainment

[@alvemaster]

That means your dad is a legend because cinematics are the only thing Blizzard have never failed at

[@TWLpontus]

They used to make good games too. The last 10 yrs or so have truly sucked the magic out of what Blizzard used to be.

[@EnbyOccultist]

@@TWLpontus Bad management can undo every effort of good workers, but somehow management is never held to the same standards as those below them.

[@Davinmk]

overwatch cinematics

[@alvemaster]

@@TWLpontus Exactly. Everything kinda went to shit after Starcraft 2. But they never failed at making cinematics

[@DadaIorian]

​@@TWLpontusAbout the time the WMV turned into a pandemic.

[@D71219ONE]

When employees leave your company and Amazon is the shining example of treating their employees right, you know you suck.

[@BrodyxBrown]

They pay their employees in Tech and IT very well apparently, it’s the grunts they don’t care about lol

[@soundrogue4472]

​@@BrodyxBrownno one cares about the grunts XD

[@NautilusGuitars]

Judging an entire companies ethos based on a few anecdotes out of millions of people over several decades is nothing more than trendy "successful company is evil" BS. It's basically just a meme that people have turned into an insane stereotype they can use to sound virtuous and socially conscious without having to do any actual mental work.

[@soundrogue4472]

@@NautilusGuitarsExactly with me hiring people. I had ONE negative interaction with ONE person I hired versus EVERY SINGLE PERSON I HIRED AND BOOM! Entire Godot Reddit jumping down my throat siding with the guy I hired.

[@NautilusGuitars]

@@soundrogue4472 Right! I've been self-employed for almost 15 years. Over that time, interacting with what has to be over a thousand people, I've had two bad interactions, which is totally normal. With that ratio of bad to good, nobody would say I'm evil or that I don't care. Now scale that up to millions of people, throw in several managerial layers, cultures, economic variables, locations etc. Obviously there will eventually be some problems at that scale. But focusing on those statistically rare moments to condemn the entire company is straight-up "Karen" thinking. It's just trendy and cool, so people get away with it. Even though the ratio of bad to good is even smaller than it is with my business, which anybody would say has a great track record.

[@1cerdaboy]

“ it’s a legendary company because, people put legendary amounts of effort into it. “ Damn near every company in current times Glad you found a better employment! 💪🏾💯

[@GregInTechnicolor]

ain't that the truth brother

[@m0nookiE]

I dont think i understand what that means. Wouldnt putting legendary amounts of effort into a company be good?

[@devforfun5618]

not if you dont get a reward for doing that@@m0nookiE, at least in the beginning they had the pride of shipping good games, but later not even that, they put a lot of effort on adding stuff they didn`t want in the game because they knew players would hate, but where still forced to do it

[@G3Dem]

This young people don't want to put in the "Legendary" work anymore!

[@jakemitchell7786]

​@@m0nookiEThe problem is that these companies make their employees work long hours for low pay on the basis that they should feel privileged to be able to work at this "legendary" company. But the reason that the company is legendary is because its employees have put in a tremendous amount of work in order to build that reputation, so making it seem like it's a favour the company has done to the workers and not the other way around is disingenuous.

[@aznfattass]

Bro just casually drop legendary dad lore like it was another Tuesday

[@Lorentari]

Which is extract crazy because the upload date, Jan 21st 2022, was actually not a Tuesday at all

[@vincentwilkes1955]

His dad was also featured on Southpark

[@KiriChan99]

​@@vincentwilkes1955 Ayo, what?

[@Fytrzaczek21]

"make love not warcraft" episode, the fat man who plays wow - he's modelled after Thor's dad

[@doctordean3301]

@@KiriChan99 They modeled the wow player guy in the WoW episode after his dad

[@Al-ks2ym]

“I went to Amazon to make a living wage” wasnt something I thought I’d hear today

[@matttondr9282]

Amazon tech jobs actually pay well. It’s all the other ones that suck 😂

[@arthand7672]

When I had to move and needed to make money fast, Amazon paid really well. They were 5 hour shifts so they worked around my other job(I was an assistant manager at the time so that was difficult), they hired me on the spot under the condition I'd pass a drug test and they actually paid higher than I got when I was a general manager for entry level work. I didn't think the working conditions were great, but because the first week was "training" I pretty much only worked there for 2 weeks on the floor and got the money I needed so it was worth it.

[@MetalHev]

Its actually not that blizzard pays badly or amazon pays better, its that pretty much every company skimps on pay raises. So if you stay in a single place too long, they won't ever give you a raise, and you'll find out the only way to get your pay up to standard is to keep jumping from job to job. The guy working on amazon for 10 years probably earns the same thing as the guy working on blizz for 10 years, which is less than the guys who barely got there.

[@jeezuhskriste5759]

@@MetalHev Unless the industry standard rate tripled in 7 years and Blizzard *never* raised pay, Blizzard paid badly.

[@manjoring5944]

​

[@Yamsauce]

Your dads work really was one of the highlights of my childhood. Im sure he hears it often, but Im glad he did that work so I could have those memories.

[@kylewindere2133er]

I revisit the cut scenes so often it’s wild Nothing beats Arthas🔥

[@charlies8282]

@@kylewindere2133ersame still go back and watch Arthas my son

[@progste]

No joke, those cutscenes were what made me try the games in the first place!

[@nolabets3130]

Blizzard cut scenes back in the day were insane, the opening of Warcraft 3 is still one of the best things I've ever seen

[@lmdirkdiggler7170]

The intro to WoW and especially both Starcraft games! His dad has etched out some memories for a ton of people, that's for sure!

[@madmatt2024]

You know a company is REALLY bad when Amazon treats you better as an employee.

[@airanator1212]

Well you have to remember that different departments always have different cultures. I can use the warehouse job I had during my first two years of college. The people out on the factory floor were subject to what I felt was pretty horrible work conditions with nobody really caring for anyone else and management being probably the root of the problem. However, just across the wall into the warehouse our working conditions were amazing in comparison. It was a refrigerated warehouse so that was horrible, but the people were all the difference. Everyone in the warehouse had the opinion that we all know the job sucks, the least we can do is always help eachother to make it not suck. Obviously that doesn’t speak for all warehouses or factory floors, of course, but it’s always a perspective to think about.

[@joshuamcalistair2787]

Amazon treats their white collar workers great lol

[@arandomnamegoeshere]

Badge colors make a difference.

[@rovvy221]

white and blue collars get treat differently, just like market place vs web service. Everything even out to make the AVERAGE stats seemed great on paper, as well as paying zero fed taxes.

[@imtryinghere1]

​@@rovvy221they pay taxes. It's a published fact. People like Bernie sanders just claim otherwise to use the company as a whipping boy for their agenda

[@willmiles7978]

Wait your dad's Joeyray Hall? What a guy! That impeccable cinematics quality for so many games. Met him once, Worldwide Invitational Paris 2008, on a big screen over part of the show floor they had a reel of all the old cinematics playing, and he happened to be wandering past just as it had the intro to the Terran campaign of original Starcraft on. I sidle up and match the line as it plays: "Whatchu got for me out there Joeyray?" and then awkward thanks for many fond memories.

[@caryccharlson]

I'd rather hear from the dad this guy just drones on

[@maceface2892]

Dude's got a killer voice

[@67steinip]

Feels a bit Howard Stern

[@chrisivan_yt]

@@67steinip “Howard is that you?” 😂

[@alihaider2853]

this "podcaster voice" is called vocal fry, it's a skill you can learn

[@nicholasriley4729]

No it’s not. Lol He has a clear, deep tone. Vocal fry is when you close up your vocal chords and force air through a tiny space causing a gravely, quiet, annoying character

[@alihaider2853]

@@nicholasriley4729 oh youre right i must have mixed up the terms, but the radio voice is definitely something you can learn

[@Valkyani]

Your dad made some of the best cinematics. Thralls and Gromash vs Manoroth still sends chills up my spine 25 years later.

[@rudyj8948]

FRRRRRR

[@RabidDogma]

SERIOUSLY, I've always wondered who the people who work on those WoW cinematics are. Your father is a legendary talent.

[@Klaaism]

The best thing I can say about Blizzard is they had the best game cinematics over the years. ❤

[@thisismychannel607]

For me it doesn't get any better than WoD's cinematic. Fugitive Garrosh on the run fresh off his defeat in Siege of org hopping timelines to save his father and tell guldan to get fukt, to rebuild the iron horde to face the legion Worst xpansion but best cinematic, by far

[@magne7771]

I can still feel that *_NOOOO!!!_* to this day

[@RadioMan2023]

"And I got paid like a human being" The Amazon packagers in the next room over: "is it possible to learn this power?"

[@nicknick_nick]

Lmao they do not get paid they get a purpose.

[@waynewayne9693]

What you want is for them to get paid and benefits like it’s a career but that will never be a career but simply a hourly job and that’s exactly how they should be paid just like any unskilled worker. If you are 30 and still unskilled hourly labor than that’s on you and shut up.

[@nicknick_nick]

@@waynewayne9693 You are acting way uncool, sure its not a crazy job, but it needs to be done. If all those workers had better careers, you would not be getting your packages. Same goes for other "unskilled" jobs.

[@ChuuniKaede]

every job, regardless of skill, should pay a livable wage and benefits.@@waynewayne9693

[@RadioMan2023]

@@waynewayne9693 your acting very edgy rn lmao it would be nice if amazon could treat them like human beings, im not asking for them to have 999k a year salaries but like let them use the bathroom and have breaks, i mean even the kids in ethiopia mining lithium get more breaks than amazon workers at this point

[@ShamankingZuty]

I work in a job for several years getting paid hardly anything (I could barely make my car payments and rent each month if I ate nothing but ramen it was that bad) and I had no medical benefits. Worked from 9PM until 9AM six days a week. It wasn't until I had to take a bereavement leave that I was allowed any time off and my bosses all told me, "Do you really need three days off for bereavement? Your grandmother is dead nothing you can do about it." And that was when I put in my two week notice and left. Got hired right away by a different place which had normal business hours, I got paid a living wage, I actually got to see my friends and family, and I was treated like a human. If you're out there dealing with shitty work conditions and being treated like a cog in a machine, know that they need you more than you need them. Always be looking for the next job, because YOU deserve to be treated like a human.

[@MaddieThePancake]

You know it's bad when even fucking Amazon treats the employees better

[@goldenhate6649]

It was the games studio and not the warehouses. Two totally different environments.

[@mowkikowski]

@@goldenhate6649 I still hear horror stories about people who work in their corporate offices. It's not the same type of stress obviously, but it still doesn't sound like a great place to work.

[@Michael20]

@@mowkikowski true. their corporate can't be that good if mgmt is forcing their workers return to office for arbitrary reasons and you can be fired if you dont comply

[@jroach1501]

@@goldenhate6649 Yeah but theyre still owned by the same C*nt... same working conditions just a different enviroment. you are treated like a robot

[@alejmc]

@@goldenhate6649I got a young brother that works on one of the warehouses… he actually says that it’s chill enough even during Christmas days. Pay is low (but above minimum wages enough to consider it over other easier minimum ones) and they only require him to work 20hrs a month to keep his job intact. Not saying is the pinnacle of greatness but far from what people would imagine for an “Amazon warehouse”. Big busy international metropolitan city we live at.

[@arkorat3239]

Reminder that Bobby was one of the most highly paid CEOs in gaming.

[@leosybagrind]

I wonder how, hmmm

[@SignorAde]

In other words, "seize the means of production comrades"?

[@masterexploder9668]

@@SignorAde People are actually the means of production, nothing gets done without them, so you could say that totalitarian regimes did exactly that.

[@SignOfTheTimes008]

yeah and probably cares little for gaming, just for milking the cow for every penny he can. Whatever is not spent on the grunts, is extra for him.

[@Postaldude__]

@@SignorAdeand then do what? Make video games ourselves? 😂

[@Raikos100]

Man was indeed a legend. Made our childhoods amazing. I always loved warcraft cutscenes bcs they always felt ahead of its time, it was like watching a movie. Best dad man

[@ShadowoftheRisingSun]

Game veteran here. They are one of the "any kid would kill for your job" companies. I worked at Bethesda in the 90s and 3DO...both had the same attitude.

[@NorthernSeaWitch]

Jeez, 3DO, that tweaked the nostalgia for the whole Might and Magic universe.

[@ShadowoftheRisingSun]

@@NorthernSeaWitch hah. One of the franchises I worked on. Good teams, bad release schedules.

[@KazzoKiller3890]

​@ShadowoftheRisingSun I was just reminiscing on the 3do tank game, forgot it's name, but aan older title I think on the Nintendo 64

[@leezhieng]

Those companies used to be run by game developers, now they are just another corporate run by some MBA guys who never did games.

[@nugsnjugs9954]

My dad worked for this company for 35 years and I have worked there for 5 years. Every time we talk about our experience, it's vastly different.

[@greenbean4422]

It's because times have changed. 35 years ago? 1988 We had just won the cold war within the past decade, shooting the US dollar into the stratosphere as the US becomes the only superpower in the world It was easy to pay you a good wage for your job in the 80s no matter what you did, and that effect steamrolled into the 90s

[@trevordwyer5638]

@@greenbean4422Odd because wages are out of control. I'm driving through states where the minimum wage is under $8/hr and Burger King have signs out offering $17/hr and nobody wants it...

[@nugsnjugs9954]

@@trevordwyer5638 that's not true that no one wants it. I worked at a few fast food places and they always had their signs up even when they were not hiring.

[@nugsnjugs9954]

@@greenbean4422 you can make that argument. However my argument is that since the 80's most corporations have outsourced their manufacturing to other countries, increasing the profit margin. Unless you work at a rare company, most of that gain went to the executives. The company I work for, my dad works for, has expanded exponentially in the past 20 years, becoming a global presence. The amount of money they waste now is incomprehensible, hundreds of thousands of wasted products every quarter. This is not my lone opinion, my dad also agrees that the company has been more limiting on what bonuses and benefits they give. They cut our cafe funding, holiday bonuses and incentives, while the executives enjoyed a 600% increase in pay during covid. Its happening throughout the US, and it's only getting worse. With how universities are separating the rich from the poor. There are countries that keep public schools well funded and equal, so the rich in those countries attend them, and the kids learn the experiences from others struggles, and have some of the most beneficial company policies because of it. So really, the greed in the US companies can be attributed to the large separation between private education vs our public education. That and the incredibly individualistic views that the US has now vs back in the 60s.

[@bloodydove5718]

@@greenbean4422 Moreso its because Blizzard went through intense management changes after it became part of Activision, which radically changed the entire culture of the company.

[@farlonmuentes6004]

The dude who can say "my dad worked at blizzard" and meant it.

[@climbon3157]

Lmfaooooo

[@garrettfiorito4482]

@@michaelbranchini9133If u r serious i’m worried

[@sosa8549]

@@michaelbranchini9133in his case it’s different blizzard makes a TON of live service games, he sold his son to modern day slavery.

[@-grumpygold1155]

@@sosa8549 yeah i could totally see it happening, pulled some strings and they welcomed him because he is the son of the director. good for him that he left though, all in all, it made his resume to be impressive enough to be accepted into just about any related company. not to say that blizzard have any high standards however, them paying for less indicates that they would take in any manpower for less

[@Netsuko]

"Oh yeah? My dad works for Blizzard. IN FACT, *I* work for Blizzard..."

[@MNNoxMortem]

The cinematics your dad worked on give me a shiver to this day. They were so above other cinematics that I sometimes rewatched them from time to time, a thing I think I never have ever done with other game cinematics

[@dwatts64]

I agree the Blizzard ones are legendary, but come on you never re-watched the openings to old Squaresoft games? Final Fantasy VIII and Parasite Eve particularly stand out in my memory. Capcom and Eidos tended to have great stuff for their time as well. I'm talking about that golden age of cinematics from around 1995-2005. So the cinematics era to me is from the start of the 32 bit disc based era to the launch of 7th Gen consoles with the Xbox 360, which is shortly after World of Warcraft. I will say though, those cinematics on Warcraft III and early WoW stuff were so far beyond what anyone else was doing at the time. They're impressive enough to hold up today in some parts.

[@DiscoAlly00]

@@dwatts64 Damn right mate!

[@dielf1]

The cinematic for vanilla wow is the greatest cinematic to this day!

[@enverse244]

Blizzard must’ve been total ass to make him say Amazon was an improvement

[@SoAaron_]

There's probably a difference between how Amazon e-commerce is run versus Amazon Game Studios

[@bocelott]

Amazon pays tech workers very well. They're the highest paying large company for many product mgr / software engineer type jobs.

[@justinbowen1183]

​@@bocelottwell of course they do the expectation level is way up there. Just because you pay someone doesn't mean they will always stick around. Sometimes the money simply isn't worth it.

[@goldensaurus]

Not only that, but the fact that he’s a relative to the director of cinematics, and they still treated him like crap, says a lot about them.

[@atash-tg2ws]

Amazon's dev teams are very well paid, in my country they pay as good as Microsoft or Googl e

[@Fate025]

The original starcraft cinematics were so good they were one of the key reasons for me buying and enjoying that game. Your dad is a legendary man :)

[@JmKrokY]

Cool

[@SticksAandstonesBozo]

If only morning radio was still a thing this guy would be a billionaire.

[@shiden239]

Just realizing how much he sounds like Howard Stern

[@Blewlongmun]

Morning radio is still a thing just no one under the age of 50 listens to it lol

[@vaevictusdeus]

Yes...like all of the OTHER billionaire radio hosts out there lol The hell does that even mean? XD

[@SticksAandstonesBozo]

@@vaevictusdeus My god replies in comments these days just make me sad. You can’t be a functioning human and be this stupid.

[@zuterwer1835]

@@vaevictusdeus He's saying thor's voice is nice.

[@Quickcat21MK]

Thank your dad for his work on D2 cinematics. I spent a lot of time enjoying that game. I don’t like how the game has been crumpled up and then unfolded again and ironed out. The ip was fine, complete, and no changes were necessary.

[@neo_man3014]

all i have to say is that Reinhardt cinematic is my all time favorite piece of gaming cinematic. literally made me cry. Bless your dad for giving us those memories.

[@GBS4893]

Damn it reinhardt! Is something that i still regularly say

[@minimushrom]

I can't seem to find it, can you tell me what the cinematic is called?

[@ELIYM]

@@minimushrom Honor and Glory

[@neo_man3014]

@@minimushrom kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYLJnGh-rtCce80si=RCcXmHi6zZi_0jQ6

[@tedstyle3798]

Mk Ultra

[@stubbornviking8548]

Your dad single-handedly sold me on every single thing I ever bought from blizzard. Good lord he should be a movie director; the StarCraft 2 cutscenes gave me chills down my spine SO many times.

[@Zealant]

I feel like there may have been more than one person’s hands involved

[@mystrre3553]

@@Zealant But his dad was the DIRECTOR. Which means he DIRECTED the story, narration, setting, visuals, etc. Basically put the puzzle pieces together to make the cinematics.

[@maddawg9636]

@@Zealant True but yeah as the person above me wrote, Director is in charge of it, if cinematic failed then everyone would have pointed fingers at him.

[@lukeellis2934]

​@@mystrre3553It's not quite that as a role in the industry, Director of Cinematics is the one in charge of the department and tends to be the one in meetings discussing the needs, expectations, standards of their departments, tool requests (and sometimes the more tricky, challenging things that need multi departments to agree) Doesn't take anything away from his role, it's just that it's not the same as say a Director on a film - it's more like a head of department

[@LilypadOW]

I mean he did greater work than being a movie director arguably by pioneering a new field and settings industry standards. He is also more famous than most due to the stories still being told about him by highly influential people and by being the antagonist in one of the biggest South Park episodes ever. Kindof a legend.

[@arx3516]

The count on the fact that employees are proud to be part of such an historical company. They feel like you owe them for letting you work for them.

[@hopefulpellinore5490]

True, and ironically this foolishness all but guarantees a future degradation of quality that will eventually undermine that legacy-perhaps to the point of complete failure.

[@arx3516]

@@hopefulpellinore5490 it's because big corporations underestimate the artistic value of videogames. Look at how Wolkswagen behaved with Lamborghini and Fiat with Ferrari: unlike EA that gutted the studios they acquired just to improve the profits on the short term, Fiat and Wolkswagen p left them intact, and give them the resources needed to do their work, even if it meant losing money for a few years, which allowed both Lamborghini and Ferrari to become extremley profitable. As it turns out, american corporations simply aren't capable to manage prestige brands.

[@quickdraw6893]

This happens outside of the gaming industry even, just look into how SpaceX treats its employees. The other thing that "incentivizes" them to do this is that it does actually look good on a resume to have these companies because of how reputed they are. I don't know if that really holds true for Blizzard anymore after all the lawsuits, but for similar companies, you can go into it knowing it'll suck and you'll at least have a nice bit of leverage to hopping onto another job because recruiters and algorithms see, "Ooh big company!"

[@arx3516]

@@mozzjones6943 the problem with many american corporations is the composition of their shareholder boards, too many investors without any of them having a majority share, wich means the corporation is run by the CEO with the only goal of always increasing the dividends.

[@CybinTalus]

That's the culture of American corporations

[@loganwhite3991]

Your dad worked on some of my favorite game cinematics then, that's awesome!

[@kirillpskov]

Your dad is an absolute legend, as soon as you said cinematics, i just got a flashback to masterpieces of WC3. Cant think of my childhood without them

[@juz882010]

if only we all had dads who could hand us jobs.

[@dethmaul]

Dude, mannoroth slithering and chucking still is burned into my brain. I'd put the cinematic dvd on the tv too watch them lol

[@justwatchinfunnyvids]

Ive watched the cinematics so many times they are so damn good no game has EVER to this day EVER made a cinematic as good as any of the WoW cinematics up to Wotlk i can't speak for anything after lich king though because i quit playing after that

[@jump312]

shout out your dad for all the amazing memories, it was like dreaming the game before they had the gfx they had. such memories, honestly so happy i can say thank you.

[@gm08351]

have a radio voice and talk shit about blizzard = guaranteed youtube success

[@LiliumCruorem]

PLEASE tell me you got to drop the “oh yeah well my dad works for Blizzard…” line in game at some point lol.

[@blakksheep736]

It's the "my uncle works for Nintendo" kid but he's not lying. 😆

[@DrakeOola]

Telamon is my dad

[@palmberry5576]

@@DrakeOolaI cant tell if this is an extremely outdated roblox joke or not

[@HeterosexuaI]

​@@palmberry5576dude i think it is, that shit was crazy

[@Dog_in_tree]

My dad owns Microsoft and he'll ban you! 😡

[@nickstevenson2839]

Holy crap i knew that your dad worked for blizzard but to be the cutscene director? Are you kidding me? My friends and i would spend so long watching those over and over again i still check them out every once in a while because they are so good. So many iconic shots and lines and things that made my childhood. I can not thank your dad and his team enough. Man was obviously had passion and he’s passed that on to you. So keen to see more from you Thor!

[@starlette7820]

The fact that amazon treats their game devs better than their warehouse employees is insane. My friend works in one of their warehouses and she had to FIGHT them to get workers comp when she got injured on the job. During training and initial tour of the warehouse you are reminded frequently that you are replaceable if you dont make your quotas. Among many other issues...

[@fromthedumpstertothegrave3689]

Man I am eternally greatful I have a profession where my skills are in demand enough, that even though sometimes treated like crap, I still know they need me more than I need them. EDIT: Combined with being a member of a relatively strong public services union.

[@Juicyuu]

I mean tbf he has some extremely valuable skills and a lot of evidence from his previous occupation at blizzard so obviously they would treat him better

[@farrenh]

My nephew was a lead dev on an Amazon project and he said working conditions were great and so were the incentives. I think he'd still be there if Google didn't offer him an even sweeter deal. I was also surprised because I've read so much about how shit they treat their warehouse staff. Amazon is notorious for being one of the worst employers

[@sadcat520]

office workers in general are very privileged

[@lonestar2078]

and suddenly I'm thankful I didn't pass the online entrance exam

[@ahetzel9054]

I used to dream of working on wow at blizzard, so glad that never happened 😂

[@JayBigDadyCy]

Same. I applied to work there back in 2010. I would've had to move across the country, but I was ready too had I got the job. After hearing so many of these horror stories of working for them, I'm glad it didn't happen.

[@shrugrug7172]

You learn a lot while being there. I left after 6 years when it was very apparent they wouldn't promote me but had no issues promoting other people ahead of me. Now I almost make triple what I made there.

[@UpNorth_Woodlander]

I agree! but when i visited the company I saw what it devolved to.

[@EnderGoku9001]

@@shrugrug7172 big yikes

[@calamity0.o]

​@@shrugrug7172 You probably did the work of 3 people which would cost them more to promote and retrain multiple people to replace you.

[@geneticallytails]

Your disappointment and sadness about what Blizzard could be is... we feel you, Thor.

[@georgemichael1842]

Merci to have cradle my childhood with those cinematics. And love what you have been doing in those streams. Keep up

[@Gkowi]

But "its a family."

[@PirateSoftware]

If it's a family then it's one that isn't getting any Christmas cards lemme tell ya.

[@ulogy]

​@@PirateSoftwarethink it'll get better under Microsoft?

[@g00gleisgayerthanaids56]

​@@PirateSoftwarethatll show em!

[@carliemorgan1871]

Yet between him and his father put in 30 years. This dude is full of crap

[@GorimLivingstone]

Well, seeing how they are taking their employees for granted, want to milk them for every second of their time and not pay them adequately, I'd say that it definitely looks like working for family XD

[@ericadventures5045]

Your dad was part of the reason for those amazing cinematics. Amazing

[@Marius2Rocker]

"I work at amazon and get paid a human wage" Wild thing to hear

[@ClockworkOuroborous]

Please thank your dad for the cinematic opener for DIablo II. I think that is still one of most amazing shorts I have ever seen. The 1st time I watched it, I got goosebumps on my arms. All these years later, still one of the best pieces of CGI ever.

[@mynameisforrest]

The Starcraft/Broodwar cinematics is the best ones ive seen in terms of pure atmosphere. The detonation of the science vessel, the lonely zealot vs zerg in the greco-roman setting, also the final voyage of Gantrithor with Tassadar.. I will never forget them, a big cultural part of my childhood

[@dtester]

"Thank gawd for cold fusion!"

[@lukewarm6973]

I always want to avoid the companies that make a lot of excess profit. Chances are, they make that money out of cutting your paycheck.

[@thewhitefalcon8539]

Every company makes profit by stealing from its customers and employees. End capitalism.

[@tangomango8474]

Capitalism

[@WayStedYou]

Valve has entered the chat

[@EnbyOccultist]

That's the name of the game in the modern day, big corporations consider having to pay their employees a loss of profit and they try to slash it as much as they think they can get away with. Government regulation is the only reason they aren't paying us in cheap food and cages to live in on company property.

[@mycelia_ow]

They make that money by sucking the joy and inspirations out of their developers, forcing them to prioritize monetization over anything else.

[@espirite]

The cut scenes from Blizzard games was always something that stood out even way back in the day. I know there was a huge team behind him but kudos go your dad as well that truly is something legendary. Also your voice is incredible.

[@marcusguimaraes1701]

The cutscene that there's a human knight swordfighting an orc and suddenly a green meteor falls from the sky and that huge monster appears, both human and orc now realize they have to unite forces against a common enemy... I still remember flashes of that scene with excitement and it even inspired me to do some music about a part of the text in that short movie. Ty to you, your father and the team for making that.

[@Mrgiggles9007]

You know it's bad when Amazon pays better than Blizzard.

[@wwjccsd]

Amazon tech is way different than Amazon retail in terms of quality and pay. How do you think they were able to say that when looking for new headquarters the median salary would be 6 figures and 1000s of them?

[@FighteroftheNightman]

Amazon tech side is considered part of the big 4 bc it pays above average wages

[@Imjonny89]

They pay okay. Their vesting schedule is pretty crazy and they usually pay lower than median.

[@MultiArtStyleTWT]

I heard that they payed decent, but the working hours were extramly bad (mainly in th warehouses)

[@duncanfromunderthebridge]

Developers/Engineers at Amazon have tremendous salaries, even without the vesting portion considered. My signing bonus alone was >$50k.

[@RedFactionMedia]

I think I met your dad once! It was the very first BlizzCon and my girlfriends dad worked in video production and was able to get us tickets and even got us back stage where I met a few old school Blizzard employees and one was someone who edited cinematics for StarCraft and others, he said he'd worked on every one of them which makes me think it was your dad based on your story. Was amazing to meet legendary old school Blizzard employees. We got to test Ghost before it was scrapped and test Burning Crusade prior to release. Great event, great people. I miss that era of Blizzard :(

[@taintwasher3703]

What is ghost

[@emmanuelsifontes4467]

@@taintwasher3703 it was gonna be another starcraft game, but wasnt gonna be an RTS, but more like a TPS (tho i dont know much about how the gameplay was supposed be). However, the proyect got scrapped and the game never released.

[@jamie_miller]

@@taintwasher3703 A shooter set in the SC universe which was stuck in development hell for so long that it began as an N64 game and died as a GameCube game and never made it to a finished product lol

[@hunterchapman4699]

Your dad was a god at his job The fact they probably underpaid him too is absolutely INSANE

[@parasitex5]

I don't think every rung of the corporate ladder is underpaid. I doubt the CEO is underpaid. Directors may or may not be high enough, but they're definitely upper management.

[@NevesThaMenace]

Nah, he was just a human being who had talent give. To him by the one true God. People like you are the worst.

[@TheIsaeldelgadojaime]

Recently found your channel on shorts and dude…. Great content. You make this industry much more interesting to research for the average consumer. kudos 🤘🏽

[@D0S81]

hearing amzon pay someone ''like a human being'' feels like i'm in an alt universe episode of Fringe

[@UltimateEnd0]

Ugh such a good show...

[@CreativityNull]

​@@UltimateEnd0 Right!? I loved that show too.

[@CreativityNull]

As a former Amazon employee, I will say they actually did pay you (if you were a direct employee and not a contractor) higher than most that did similar work in the area, plus some extra benefits that others didn't get (like free dental and eye coverage automatically even for part time employees.) Now, I wouldn't call that "paid like a human" but the problem is that no one was being paid like a human anywhere. Amazon just had to pay better and provide better benefits than everyone else nearby. The problem came in when peak season ended (I was in the shipping warehouse) and they had to get rid of excess employees. As for the work, the facility I was at was allowed to be more autonomous and therefore had pretty decent working conditions because what we were doing was experimental, but as our facility and other facilities like ours matured our processes, Amazon's corporate started to get more and more strict which made conditions worse slowly over time. That being said, I have since worked in places that are much worse than the Amazon facilities are and I can't believe they don't get more attention. Warehouse work SUCKS. Amazon is bad and absolutely deserves the negative attention it gets, but companies like Geodis and XPO deserve that same attention if not more. Right now a lot of the attention is on Amazon's contracted drivers, and having worked directly with both the truckers and the last mile delivery drivers and found they were getting screwed pretty hard by ridiculous time demands and low pay. The problem is that the market was oversaturated with drivers and the employers that paid well didn't need help because everyone flocked to them first. Basically, if Amazon needs more of something, they will pay well and offer decent benefits. If it's something they think they can get without trying, they will be the most bottom of the barrel negotiators you will ever meet. Since truckers are more in demand they've been training their own (I left when they were piloting this program in 2018 and 2019) as well as trying to be better with contracted short haul and OTR drivers, but they still treat their last mile contractors like crap. EDIT: Oh yeah. Some definitions since I realized they're a bit esoteric. Last Mile drivers are your delivery guys. They're the ones that drive up and deliver the package to your door. Short haul drivers are truckers that make short, usually 1-4 hour trips one way to deliver a trailer full of stuff. OTR, AKA Long-Haul are the ones you see in the big sleeper tractors. Their hauls will take 5 hours or longer one way.

[@goldenhate6649]

The thing is, the complaints about Amazon usually aren't usually about the pay, but the working conditions. Of that, the place where the complaints come from is the Delivery Warehouses.

[@mynt4033]

He's not mentioning any numbers

[@ArchieNox]

The Diablo 2 opening cinematic still kicks ASS to this day.

[@landoncoffel3104]

I remember being like 6/7 years old thinking that the cinematics in d2 were real people acting

[@red5standingby419]

It's a legendary company because of the legendary devs and efforts they put in over 20 years ago. Most things in the last 10-15 years have sucked hard.

[@ogjuggalo4671]

Right he was part of the problem maybe they can hired someone better lol

[@RemedieX]

​​​@@ogjuggalo4671 It's management. Heroes of the Storm failed, StarCraft died, OW's reputation died in 2, not 1, Diablo was fine during his time working there, they started heavily Fing up later a lot, etc. During his time there, he, like most devs, was constantly ignored on things he was right on the money about later. It's management and greed.

[@XSpiegel]

Thats an L take my man. The devs are working just as hard, but the leadership was terrible and it caught up to them.

[@red5standingby419]

@@XSpiegel Nah. More than half of them are just DEI hires who were brought on to fill a quota and not because they're actually good at their job. Another quarter just suck or are mediocre at best. And the final amount are truly talented but there isn't enough of them to make actual good games. And yes 90% of leadership sucks. That doesn't give the devs a pass though.

[@GetShrekd]

@@red5standingby419 as soon as you said "dei" your entire argument fucking crumbled like a kkkookie

[@MekeninzoUG]

I loved the cinematics on Warcraft II & III

[@m1bl4n]

He's using Gamemaker Studio like an absolute legend

[@PirateSoftware]

Heck yeah!

[@mycelia_ow]

Godot is better

[@CarGuyCole360]

Game maker is awesome, it's what I learned on

[@dntakemesrs]

Aw how cute, your daddy got you a job at Blizzard. That is so sweet.

[@kamensky4114]

​@dntakemesrs you obviously dunno how good this guy is at hacking and cybersec lmao

[@Mostaism]

Dude! Your dad directed some of the cut scenes that guided my gaming birth. Thanks so much for all the work he did.

[@floh667]

the human ending cinematic of warcraft 3 gave me the ultimate chills

[@kosmosyche]

You mean Arthas Betrayal? Yeah, this one and the intro to Diablo II are exceptional examples of impactful cinematic storytelling.

[@patrickmacasaet3493]

I'd even add his ascension to the Frozen throne is up there too on an all time list

[@CharlieEdward25]

love your shorts bro thanks

[@darkdestroyer32]

This is essentially why I never pursued a job in the game industry even though I have a degree and a lot of training in it... Somewhere down the road, way past my innocent joy for the craft, I realized that a lot of these guys who "made it" worked under horrible conditions, slept under desks, and the pay was laughable to boot. No unions, no real flexibility, extremely competitive... I quickly realized that even though I had a passion for it, it didn't go deep enough for me to effectively sell my soul for years at a time. My quality of life matters too. And so I am doing something that has high returns for my time and allows me plenty of opportunity and flexibility without torturing myself

[@TMK20X3]

You know you could always work on an indie game on your own. Even if it's just a passion project.

[@Khotetsu]

I did the same thing. Dropped out of a game art/animation program 2 years in after hearing about the working conditions from our professors who were mostly still in the industry and realizing that I'd be making the same salary with a 4 year degree as I was working at my summer job at a fish market. The industry literally depends on exploiting passionate young college kids who don't know any better.

[@Titanium_699]

By the way what job you are currently working??

[@concept5631]

This is why I'm not seriously going into game development. Honestly have no idea why people go through such punishment for a non-essential job.

[@gamefreak173]

@@concept5631 This is starting to explain why the game market is super dry. Nobody getting paid to innovate. while big companies copy paste

[@shtookeyGAMES]

Blizzard used to be the dream for me as a network engineer. I had my chance too. I interviewed with blizzard for 6 months…. I had roughly 8 different interviews that went on for several hours with multiple rounds of people. In the end they ghosted me. I called them up wondering what happened and their answer was, “oh, sorry. That position was removed because of budget….” Biggest waste of time. They can suck it.

[@mycelia_ow]

What the f

[@Zetunez]

8 Interviews is absolutely criminal

[@Robcarpentier12]

Yep. I think some large companies tend to behave that way for the interview process. Exact same thing happened to me over 6 months and countless rounds of interviews for Bass Pro Shops. (hilariously different industry but I'm a web designer)

[@Meilk27]

absolutely deplorable

[@KoRnrulesM6]

they flew me out and interview me alllllllll day for a very low paying game design job then ghosted me

[@bambuco2]

Meanwhile the CEO of Blizzard gets a 375 million dollar bonus

[@andrewpyrah]

​@@miriamweller812new to voting commie?

[@Randalandradenunes]

@@miriamweller812 Of course we do, capitalism is the greatest economic system that has ever existed in human history. That doesn't mean it's perfect, it has a lot of issues, this is one of them. Comunism on the other hand is proven to just lead to famine and poverty. Voting for comunism or any other system because of capislism's failures is dumb af. You gotta vote for what you believe will fix capitalism's failures.Also, you probably don't know what capitalism is, most people get it wrong.

[@9BallBory]

@@miriamweller812yup I love the thing that has brought more people out of poverty than anything else.

[@nateshepardson]

​@@andrewpyrah😂😂😂😂😂 best comment ever.

[@UserJWR]

@@Randalandradenunes Not every criticism of capitalism is an endorsement of communism. Just because I think a lot of things under capitalism suck doesn't mean I want communism in any way, shape or form.

[@Coreyahno]

Poor Blizzard doesn’t have enough money to pay their employees a fair wage. Maybe they should charge more for skins in their games? I don’t think $25 is cutting it.

[@EnbyOccultist]

We really need to be more considerate of Blizzard, they're just a small billion dollar mega-corporation, we can't expect them to pay the people making them those billions!

[@Greatlakessailing]

Don't forget the monthly fee. Activision was a bad idea.

[@joshua7426]

Blizzard pays well, Thor was paid what he was worth.

[@plopsplipspladoodle]

Blizzard cut scenes are untouchable to this day. your dad is a fucking legend.

[@leftcoaster67]

Sad to hear so many companies treat their employees like crap. While the top makes all the coin.

[@sponkmyers7478]

It's like that everywhere where you been🤣🤣🤣🤣. It's cry babies like this guy who thinks he entitled and thinks he should get paid more but in Reality PC programming is dime a dozen now days and he's only bitching about blizzard NOW because of the back lash of blizzard lawsuits.

[@kristoffer3000]

Capitalism goes brrrrr

[@leftcoaster67]

@@kristoffer3000 Greed goes "haha" and it shouldn't.

[@messybuttons7525]

It fuckin sucks and it’s making game quality go downhill.

[@TheTubejunky]

HIS DAD.... Think about that for one fkn second then think WHY he wanted out of that company.... He couldn't compare to the work his father did... That's how the fk i see it. This guy has NEVER worked a PHYSICALLY LABORIOUS JOB in his life so for all the hard work his dad did he shuns the company that fed his stupid ass.

[@koldo791]

Your dad made a amazing work, I really love the cinematics from SC and SC2.

[@campate1902]

Your father and his department are the sole source of my the only positive things I’ve ever said about Blizzard. Godly Cinematics.

[@drafman1]

you are cringe if the cinematics are the ONLY good thing you think has come out of blizzard lmao. Stop shitting on them to just be trendy bro its fucking weird.

[@AlejandroVales]

This is indeed why we should NOT glorify companies that treat their employees like shit

[@thengine7]

I've boycott Blizzard since China made them screw over the hearthstone dude.

[@Saldivinorum]

Except he never actually sites any real reason why "it sucks" to work for Blizzard... weird I say, but sure believe anyone who complains as if their word and lack of evidence is golden

[@sci-figameguy8241]

@@Saldivinorumhe literally said the reasons why it sucked for him… why are you so quick to doubt someone talking bad about a big company? Your comment reads like you got triggered by the video and instantly and hurriedly typed this comment up

[@Art2D2]

​@@sci-figameguy8241Exactly.

[@DirkusTurkess]

Now lets not get hasty. They make bad games AND treat their employees like shit. If they went back to making good games , most people would be chill.

[@DanTheCaptain]

The more I grow up (25M), the more I realize that we’re living in a world with astonishing levels of corporate greed and most people in most industries are just barely scraping by while busting their asses (including me). That doesn’t make me want to work. And people wonder why industries are struggling to attract people. Has it ever crossed their mind that maybe you should treat said people better instead of lining their pockets.

[@tommantek3632]

I worked at Blizzard from 2010-2017 and got my sword after the 5 year mark. I knew I wouldn't be staying for my 10 year shield because the job sucked, the pay sucked, and the customers sucked. Only thing I miss from there are the people I worked with. I mean, sure the perks were pretty good - free games, free WoW game time, Christmas gifts that were pretty good ($250 winter coat one year). But yeah, if it wasn't the rampant misogyny then it was the promotions were infrequent and the amount of work we were put under was insane.

[@AgatePoleCat120]

Omg your dad directed the Warcraft 3 intro cutscene? 😩😩 those blew my mind

[@kingezekiel125]

yeah, warcraft 3 is a sss+ tier game and the cinematics give it the s+

[@caseyjones6929]

Your dad is literally my hero. I still remember vanilla wow cinematic to this day

[@K-ro7lm]

That first cinematic I seen for WOW was a big deal, that scene were it opens with that nightelf running from the orcs was so otherworldly and magical I have no doubt those cinematics alone sold millions of people on getting the game. What a GOAT holy shit

[@mikevigliotti3798]

This showed up as recommended to me under the original WoW trailer. Thank your dad for creating the best game cinematics ever. I’ve been going back and rewatching all the trailers in preps for TWW and that’s so awesome to hear. Your dad is awesome at what he did

[@popomomo12]

Starcraft had a great amount of awesome cut scenes 👌

[@LordGrape]

Either your mic is really friggin good or youve got one of the smoothest voices I've ever heard. But on topic, I'm glad you've found a place to work that works better for you.

[@Soap010]

markiplier was the dad

[@twizz420]

First time I've ever heard of an Amazon employee being treated like a human

[@fw_salmon5392]

he only said he got paid like a human tho

[@leatherhidegaming]

@@fw_salmon5392 it's not that bad. I'm sure they gave him his own bottle to pee in.

[@topogigio7031]

That's because Amazon being a bad place to work is a meme. You saw the headlines about incels peeing on bottles, but you didn't see the crazy high pay, insurance and hours they actually have. Bottle pissers got that idea from doing it at home. You don't just decide to start peeing in bottles *at work*

[@kirasdri9483]

amazon entry level factory working is pretty abysmal but that's what to expect from a warehouse there higher Tech jobs are a whole different story tho there's still some stress but that comes with any job FYI this is coming from someone that worked in the warehouse for 3 years and just Started doing software development for them for Prime video Not to long ago

[@lightworker2956]

Companies generally treat replaceable workers like dirt, but they don't treat hard-to-replace workers like dirt.

[@petedavis7970]

That's the story at a LOT of gaming companies, or so I've been told. I applied to Sierra back in the early 90s and after taking their test was called out for an interview, but I changed my mind and decided the game industry wasn't for me. 2 of my buddies started a game company and they had a pretty good thing going. They invited me to be the third, but I had already made plans to leave the country.

[@Mtaalas]

This is huge issue, where companies who get enough applicants and there's people in line to want to work there because "hey it's BLIZZARD, LEGENDARY!" regardless of anything else. The second people start to swap their employees on the dime if stuff's not right, companies need to start to compete for employees and get them to stay. And that means better pay, better working conditions, better products ultimately.

[@ghostreporting3769]

If the pops did the viking transition in the hots cinamatic he is one of my main inpirations for being an animator.

[@joerod9340]

Wait, your dad directed the best cut scenes in gaming history? Man that cut scene where Arthas mercs his dad still gives me chills.

[@Patrick_The_Pure]

"What are you doing, my son" "Succeeding you.... father"

[@TheAzrai]

Welp, guess who's reinstalling that game for the first time in years.

[@Phnx8]

I saw that cinematic for the first time when I was around 6 years old, almost 20 years later I decided to replay warcraft 3 from start to finish and that cinematic is still a golden standard for me, I remembered it so well and it didn't dissapoint.

[@zf-xi6ds]

​@@TheAzraidid and bored already. Waste

[@Enixious99]

The WotLK opening cinematic was one of the most hype things I saw as a kid, my uncle and aunt were big players at the time and I remember seeing that and saying "I WANNA PLAY THAT GAME"

[@ijsynth5383]

I thank you and your dad for contributing to one of my favorite games I have ever played. Many great memories were made from your efforts.

[@CataclysmicVsGaming]

Looks like Blizzard gave employees the "cold shoulder"! ... I'll leave now

[@MrhibyeTV]

Wow, I had no idea your Dad was the cinematic director. The Blizzard cinematics from Diablo 2 blew my mind as a kid, I couldn't believe how amazing they looked. The cinematics are some of my favorite parts of the games. I remember getting excited after finishing each Act in D2 because it meant I got to watch an amazing masterpiece of visual storytelling. Props to you and your father. ❤️

[@fromthedumpstertothegrave3689]

yeah man, I remember Burning Crusade being released and going round to my mates to watch the intro cinematic together cos back then Blizz's cinematics were lightyears ahead.

[@catsi563]

Fun fact his dad was the inspiration for the south park wow meme

[@C_Corpze]

The fact your dad also worked as a dev or did cutscenes is such a cool thing. Dads doing something in the same direction as their son.

[@FIRE_BOMB1]

Any company that has worse pay than Amazon should reconsider their existence

[@sauce8075]

Bro your dad is a legend, I don’t even play WOW but when I was a kid watching my brother play the Lich king expansion those cutscenes were fucking awesome man.

[@largemargeog1023]

I watch some of your dad’s cutscenes once a year. I had no idea. I would put those cutscenes up against any scene from any media. Chef’s kiss. Tell him people out there appreciate his work!

[@GoreDough92]

"Legacy of the Void" opening cinematic is the by far the most gripping piece of 3 minutes I've ever seen. I don't even fkn play that game and I still go to it from time to time... "Power... Overwhelming." Holy fkkkk. What a scene

[@jbstans]

Your dad did phenomenal work. I still remember seeing the cinematic trailer from Warcraft 3 and nearly crapping myself with excitement. Their cinematics in the early Noughts were absolutely unparalleled god tier stuff.

[@hopsthagreat]

Dude you should be a voice actor. Wtf are you even doing. Your voice is amazing.

[@LATR0NIS]

It's not the company, it's the model they all follow. You just described corporate America. You have to leave to get paid what you deserve, otherwise, a company will do just enough to keep you around. It's basic business really but it sucks because, well, we're humans and we want to be cared for. Especially, be cared for when we are contributing to the success of the company. Often, people feel their efforts are for the 'greater good'. Company does well, we all do well. I wish that were true, but alas, we're just part of a system that is trying to run lean and cheap. Basic principles of business in Corporate America; it's all about that bottom line. Follow the money, it'll answer most questions.

[@aceofspades9503]

Yep. If you want to be paid fairly, jump either positions or companies every 2 years. Only stay in a position for over 2 years if you are working toward something specific.

[@captainCaveman80]

Yep

[@khodakii]

The speech at the end gave me utter chills absolutely legendary i hope to meet you atop the peak of mount mieslympus one day

[@flaagan]

Worked in the industry, *every* person I knew who went to Blizzard disappeared off the face of the goddamn earth for months at a time, and they were miserable assholes when they did pop back up. The real bad ones were drinking the Kool Aid and would take any comment against the company as a personal insult.

[@sfx.1355]

A man quits his job to be treated like a human being on Amazon is something i would‘ve never expected to hear in million years

[@rosso6342]

Damn thats a talk shows voice right there

[@stevenstump246]

Close your eyes and it almost sounds like Howard Stern. Almost.

[@brandonengen6455]

Once you know your worth, and have the skills you can be anywhere, I’m happy for you, I’m in the hvac industry and it takes moving around to know what’s best for you, doesn’t matter if the company is at the top or bottom, if you find a good one for you then it’s a fit and a huge life changer.

[@maskatron9788]

When Amazon treats you better, that REALLY says something.

[@KingBobXVI]

The tradeoff of Amazon Game Studios is that while they pay you like a real developer, you won't get to work on any games anyone will ever care about, lol (sadly).

[@yogichopra6606]

The tech side of Amzaon at least does good by the employees, especially the pay.

[@neoachilleos6891]

So a company that charges sub for a 20 y/o game with a game store and seperate charges for each "expansion" doesnt pay its employees? Huh....

[@carliemorgan1871]

Both him and his father worked 30 years. The working conditions were not bad at all

[@stark8363]

@@carliemorgan1871they def were stop bootlicking they probably weren’t for his father but for him most likely yes

[@jdogwegs2382]

To this day the only cinematic that has given me real chills is SC2 Legacy of the Void opening

[@spikem5950]

That and Artanis Alone are the best contenders for best Blizzard cinematic.

[@1anubis1god]

Dude, so 4’s dad is the guy who cut together all those legendary trailers and cinematography for the games. That makes my childhood. That is so cool. There’s just some of the most epic games cinematics ever.

[@nstearman]

Your dad made THE BEST cutscenes in all gaming history bow down to the actual greatest video game cinematic director of all time