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by rizzin
2773 days ago
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At the present I mostly dislike large companies, as their games nowadays tend to "monetize" more and choose "safe" options in game design thus making them less appealing. It's kind of like Marvel movies. Great production, but after you've seen a few of them you lose interest, unless you have some kind of special attachment to the universe or the characters. I respect Blizzard's history and games, however I feel it is going downhill, especially after their Diablo Immortal fiasco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmkHAlhCvWg
To those who are unaware: Blizzard has historically been a company making awesome games mainly for PC. Blizzcon is an annual conference where hardcore Blizzard fans (mostly PC gamers) come to learn what's next for them. Diablo 3 was released 6 years ago, so naturally people have been expecting the next installment. And then Blizzard says to those people that the next Diablo is a mobile-only game (co-)developed by a Chinese company. Naturally, this isn't what most of the series' fans were expecting and are excited about. |
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You certainly have a point, but I think it's also really easy to develop a characterization of a company based on relatively shallow information. I had a conversation with a friend recently who's not quite in the same situation, but is worth recounting anyway. We live in Vancouver, BC, home of one of EA's campuses. He went to school for game design, then proceeded to not do anything relevant for about 6 years. He has no professional game design experience to speak of, yet has a tendency to speak as though he does. It seemed to be a surprise when I broke this down for him. When I asked "We know multiple people at EA right now, who, despite EA's reputation, speak highly of the company. You have a certification of some sort, why haven't you applied?". He proceeded to describe what he thought of EA, based on some of the decisions they've made, some of the games he's disliked, and the internet's opinion of them. The conversation went well, but I had to feed him some harsh realities, I hope he does well.
My point is not so much that it's not valuable information, but it's not a lot of information to bet potentially very valuable experience on. If you can say "I worked for Blizzard and it really wasn't for me. But I gave it a shot." then that might give you a lot more information in terms of what you do want to do.
This relates to me a little as well. I'm at a crossroads as a developer. Having been a web developer for a few years, with no degree at the moment, I'm trying to figure out where I want to be. A few years ago the prospect of working for a large online auction corp. I had a very strong suspicion that I would not do well—culturally and otherwise—at this company, but it was double the money and I was at that time not doing anything constructive. So I set my ego aside for a while and proceeded to take the job and subsequently confirm my suspicion. It wasn't all bad, but near the end it got pretty bad. It was a mistake I don't regret. It cost me a lot emotionally, but now I know which kind of companies I won't work for. I have a lot more information to go on, and sometimes those risks are worth taking.