Have you ever imagined, in what atmosphere are the games that Blizzard presents created? !!!
Today, we have a very interesting video of the building and staff room of this popular company, so stay tuned for more.
Blizzard co-founder Mike Morheim, who left the company, spoke to Eurogamer about the company’s crunch hours. “If it weren’t for the overtime, Blizzard wouldn’t be in this position now,” he said. “I do not think this is the way to go, though.”
According to Murheim: “Blizzard evolved around such a thing. In the first days of our company, we tried to finish making a game with a lot of overtime. “If you are part of a small studio, the success or failure of the project you are working on is a matter of life and death, and working on it requires a superhuman effort, so it was with us.”
“I can not talk about other companies and on the other hand I am sure that there are better ways to move a project forward,” he said. But that was not the case for us. “If we did not do everything we could to make the games, we would never have achieved these successes.”
There are other managers who see overwork as part of the seriousness of the builders. According to some, in the months leading up to the game’s release, it is not possible to predict exactly when it should be put on the project, and so Crunch becomes an integral part of the development process during this period. However, many studies have shown that this way of working not only harms the health of employees, but also reduces the quality of the final product.
According to a 2008 study, employees lose a significant portion of their efficiency this way. Another study found that crunch was inversely related to the average score of games on the Metacritic website.
“I think the creators have found much better ways these days,” Murhim said. For example, crunch is controlled in which, despite the hard work of employees, they do not need to spend time on the project around the clock. They breathe new life and sleep. “Larger companies have always been able to hire more employees, but these days, with more substantial budgets, smaller studios can hire as many people as they need.”
A few months ago, World of Warcraft producer John Hyatt talked about Blizzard intending to distance itself completely from the crunch. According to him, the company has not yet fully achieved its goal, but compared to five years ago, it has seen significant progress in this area, and now a very small part of the team may be involved in the process of making the game unusual working hours.
