A Blizzard CM running a trolling account to sway public opinion without disclosing his ties to Blizzard when making posts. It's dishonest and sneaky. Actually including pictures that can be viewed publicly on your account that connects the trolling account to yourself is downright stupid and irresponsibly damages the company.
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Blizzard's Community Manager: WE ROLL WHILE YOU B*TCHES HATE (also: fecal matter)
- Thread starter sazzy
- Start date
A Blizzard CM running a trolling account to sway public opinion without disclosing his ties to Blizzard when making posts. It's dishonest and sneaky. Actually including pictures that can be viewed publicly on your account that connects the trolling account to yourself is downright stupid and irresponsibly damages the company.
And acted upon as an employer. Or worse, even, depending on the opinion and how you go about stating it. Thus the problem is, rather obviously I think, anything but simply "having an opinion".
Causing misery on the internet is the ultimate F2P-with-cash-shop, iOS/Android-compatible social network game, and if we've heard anything these past few years it's that those are the ultimate evolution of the industry.
It's hard to believe, but you would have to be pretty dedicated to trolling to do that considering the age of the account. I don't think he should be fired, but it's really stupid.
Seems like we're taking different approaches here. Yes, he needs to be aware of what and how he says as an employee. But as a neutral party I don't see it as a problem that he chooses to express whatever his opinions in whichever manner.
I wouldn't say he should or shouldn't be allowed to express opinions in certain manners. His employer may.
Blizzard needs to reign in their employees and tell them to stop posting fucking dumb comments on Facebook on their personal accounts. They're heavily misrepresenting their company and unfortunately for Blizzard they're not in the position to be able to afford it like they were a few years ago. SC2 and D3 are out, WoW is declining and the new IP is no where in sight. Seems like a bad business decision to piss off your fans.
Was wondering if you were going to defend this guy as much as you defended the guy yesterday.
Was wondering if you were going to defend this guy as much as you defended the guy yesterday.
Pride comes before the fall.
Perfect Cha0s
Member
I suppose I was speaking more to the general sense of how Blizzard's leads seem. The atmosphere that it creates in Blizzard.
Felix Lighter
Member
Seems like a lot of pent up frustration is slipping out.
The post of mine you felt compelled to quote was me responding to somebody saying he hopes the people involved get fired. Please try to read before calling other people's posts stupid.
dragonflys545
Member
HAHAHAHA this is just too much.
Littlegator
Banned
I had a 3 week ban once because people didn't read the post I was responding to and thought I was being a total twat.
Anyways, none of this shit should have happened, but I think it's being blow way out of proportion.
RSLAEV
Member
Well as entertaining as this is, let's not forget that Blizzard has tons of employees who aren't out there picking fights online.
But on the other hand..
But on the other hand..
Blizzard probably feels somewhat vulnerable for the first time in a long time, and it's starting to ooze out.
I watched that whole interview with that Diablo II guy and he didn't say a single thing that was out of line, especially to warrant such junior high esque tomfoolery.
cpp_is_king
Member
Mike Morhaime needs to send out a company wide email saying "THE NEXT MOTHERFUCKER TO POST ANYTHING RELATED TO THIS, EITHER IN PUBLIC OR PRIVATE, IS FUCKING FIRED. NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET BACK TO WORK"
None of this is helping anything, and it's just making them look bad. This is exactly why companies have "no comment" policies.
None of this is helping anything, and it's just making them look bad. This is exactly why companies have "no comment" policies.
The lesson to be learned here is that some people really need to get a grasp of how the Internet works. You don't post things publicly on the Internet and just expect them to disappear into the ether.
Twitter and Facebook have been the cause of much hilarity throughout their existence because some people of relative repute seem to have no idea how to censor themselves when speaking out in public.
The Crimson Kid
what are you waiting for
Incidents like this are how PR jobs are created.
These guys should keep embarassing themselves more and more for two reasons:
1. Creating some jobs for unemployed college grads than majored in communication is always a good thing.
2. To continually vindicate my decision not to purchase Diablo 3. I'm actually starting to enjoy this whole fiasco a bit.
These guys should keep embarassing themselves more and more for two reasons:
1. Creating some jobs for unemployed college grads than majored in communication is always a good thing.
2. To continually vindicate my decision not to purchase Diablo 3. I'm actually starting to enjoy this whole fiasco a bit.
Dinosaur Tamer
Member
Yeah, that's definitely not the same as someone "having an opinion".
I am not even sure what is more disheartening here. The silly way this guy tried to get away with publicly insulting Brevik and his own fanbase or the fact that a lead designer and a community manager (how ironic) manage to make the same stupid mistake within two days. Social media - how does this work again?
Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
The things you say on the internet are Always Online.
Always Online
Always Online
Always Online
Last Baron
Member
All this talk of Diablo 3 has got me wanting to reinstall it...so I can RMAH all my gear.
Wouldnt trying to sway negative opinion from a community to positive opinion be one of the many roles a community manager would do?
Yeah that's what he was doing. And with so much tact!
Seems pretty common to ask the creator of a series what he thinks of the latest entry that he was not involved in. He wasnt overly rude or anything either.
Psychotext
Member
Bunch of fucking manbabies. Get some class and act your age Blizzard reps.
CecilRousso
Member
If he has such a position at Blizzard, he shouldn´t have written it. That´s just stupid.
And he shouldn´t have written the fecal matter comment.
Other than that, he kinda has a point. People are way to hurt by Jay Wilsons comment.
And he shouldn´t have written the fecal matter comment.
Other than that, he kinda has a point. People are way to hurt by Jay Wilsons comment.
What I got from those pics was that people care way too fucking much about this sort of thing.
That aside, its crazy to think a community manager can be that stupid. I know someone who fought tooth and nail to get such a job and has to deal with possibly the worst collective community I've ever seen on a daily basis, with some real honest-to-goodness nutcases thrown in, and she's never been so much as snippy. That is the norm for community relations. I can only imagine how Blizzard (and Bioware before them) managed to hire such incompetent fucktards.
That aside, its crazy to think a community manager can be that stupid. I know someone who fought tooth and nail to get such a job and has to deal with possibly the worst collective community I've ever seen on a daily basis, with some real honest-to-goodness nutcases thrown in, and she's never been so much as snippy. That is the norm for community relations. I can only imagine how Blizzard (and Bioware before them) managed to hire such incompetent fucktards.
Beast Legacy
Member
I'm feeling queazy about all this because I'm 100% going to get Marvel Heroes. It's a bigger Ultimate Alliance, I have no choice
shinra-bansho
Member
I know! We'll dig our way out!
No, no. Dig up, stupid.
MasterOfPastures
Banned
Why the fuck haven't companies included no-talk clauses about company work in their contracts? Example:
"YOU SHALL NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE TALK, POST OR REPLY ABOUT ANY SERVICE OR PRODUCT THAT YOUR EMPLOYER IS ASSOCIATED WITH, WHEN USING SOCIAL INTERNET MEDIA. IF YOU WISH TO TO DO SO, CONTACT THE PR DEPARTMENT FOR AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT. ANYTHING ELSE WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE TERMINATION."
Shit like this is tabloid smearing, and since they are referencing the company they work for and their products, it reflects on all of them. smh....
"YOU SHALL NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE TALK, POST OR REPLY ABOUT ANY SERVICE OR PRODUCT THAT YOUR EMPLOYER IS ASSOCIATED WITH, WHEN USING SOCIAL INTERNET MEDIA. IF YOU WISH TO TO DO SO, CONTACT THE PR DEPARTMENT FOR AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT. ANYTHING ELSE WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE TERMINATION."
Shit like this is tabloid smearing, and since they are referencing the company they work for and their products, it reflects on all of them. smh....
UberTag
Member
Until people start voting against Blizzard with their wallets (i.e. using this PR debacle to rally people to cancel their WOW & Call of Duty memberships en masse), I can't see it resulting in anyone getting fired or an in-house change in the way Blizzard chooses to "manage its Community" and "respect their customer base".
There are plenty of people capable of behaving professionally out of work right now and plenty of publishers that deserve our gaming dollars far more than the human cesspool that is Activision Blizzard.
There are plenty of people capable of behaving professionally out of work right now and plenty of publishers that deserve our gaming dollars far more than the human cesspool that is Activision Blizzard.
He failed spectacularly at that though.
This. Also, let's not forget that other Blizzard employee that posted his real name during the "real ID" controversy, thinking that no problem could come out of it.
You want to see the entire entertainment industry crash and burn, don't you?
That would be quite a sight.
CadetMahoney
Member
play video games? what?
but to be serious, GAF has always talked about what's going on in the industry and not just games themselves.
It's why GAF is so great.
Why this is dangerous is that the community at large is sometimes very incapable of critical thinking, and instead just compress, compress and compress until Blizzard is digging itself into an imaginary hole, and all that is thanks to a COMMENT on a facebook page made by a CM.
As far as I am concerned, Blizzard's efforts with communicating to the fans (the HUNDREDS of Bashiok posts in the past few months only, all the explanations, back-and-forths, developer blog, the patch 1.0.4 and the other goals that are yet to be implemented) GREATLY trumps one overzealous CM who does not understand that his post, however true it might be for quite a few people, will not only not change their mind, but will only escalate things.
Looking at the big picture, I still have yet to see other examples of teams that are this communicative about their games like Blizzard is - with a few VERY good exceptions like Grinding Gear Games and ArenaNet -, because by large, the industry is as one-sided as it gets. And until Blizzard is the exception to this rule, I do not feel like I should be mad at them for what they are actually doing right.*
I see two ways out of this tunnel.
One is realizing, recognizing and accepting that the developers of Blizzards are not demigods, or not even the peaks of the human existence - they are capable of failing and yes, they say FUCK YOU when someone pokes at them just as much. Especially if they think it is a private facebook conversation, not a public one, but hey. Yes, they swear, they make mistakes, but their goal is to improve the product they are making. And that is more important to me, personally. Might not be for others.
The other way is to close off all non-professional communication channels to all staff and only allow them to express themselves through the official chnanels. Which would be a sad development, maintaining a social prison because they and their community are both not ready for a natural social engagement yet.
Which way do we go?
As far as I am concerned, Blizzard's efforts with communicating to the fans (the HUNDREDS of Bashiok posts in the past few months only, all the explanations, back-and-forths, developer blog, the patch 1.0.4 and the other goals that are yet to be implemented) GREATLY trumps one overzealous CM who does not understand that his post, however true it might be for quite a few people, will not only not change their mind, but will only escalate things.
Looking at the big picture, I still have yet to see other examples of teams that are this communicative about their games like Blizzard is - with a few VERY good exceptions like Grinding Gear Games and ArenaNet -, because by large, the industry is as one-sided as it gets. And until Blizzard is the exception to this rule, I do not feel like I should be mad at them for what they are actually doing right.*
I see two ways out of this tunnel.
One is realizing, recognizing and accepting that the developers of Blizzards are not demigods, or not even the peaks of the human existence - they are capable of failing and yes, they say FUCK YOU when someone pokes at them just as much. Especially if they think it is a private facebook conversation, not a public one, but hey. Yes, they swear, they make mistakes, but their goal is to improve the product they are making. And that is more important to me, personally. Might not be for others.
The other way is to close off all non-professional communication channels to all staff and only allow them to express themselves through the official chnanels. Which would be a sad development, maintaining a social prison because they and their community are both not ready for a natural social engagement yet.
Which way do we go?
drkOne
Member
Blizzard got mad because someone said his vision of Diablo 3 is different from what it turned out to be, started insulting his work of the last couple of years, and this is what we're discussing here.Which way do we go?
The truth is that there are more people that consider Diablo 3 "fecal matter" than those who actually enjoy it. And Blizzard is aware of that.
If they felt they had made the greatest game ever why would they need to defend themselves? Wouldn't the game speak for itself? No one would even care about what Brevik had to say if Diablo 3 was better than Diablo 2, that much is certain.
As a gamer this also worries me because apparently Blizzard is blind with arrogance and isn't able to acknowledge that Diablo 3 was a huge disappointment. If they keep this arrogance up Blizzard will keep losing their fanbase, and even though that won't run them out of business, it's still not the way you want to go.
doubleplusgood
Member
Well for a community manager, that post did not seem very community manage-y.
Edit: Ups, I missread. Rep, not manager.. Still not great form.
Edit: Ups, I missread. Rep, not manager.. Still not great form.
About as funny as how Diablo 3 was in a similar state despite being in development for 10 years with an infinitely more expensive budget. What's funny now? But seriously, I suspect a few angry calls from head office explain why a supposed community representative is insulting the community. Fun times.