Jason Schreier

And I was trying to do it in as fair and accurate as possible. And so people wanted to make sure that they were able to contribute to that history and make sure their perspectives were in there in some way or another. Um, so that was part of it too.

Um, but yeah, I mean me granting people anonymity when they wanted, um, especially for fact checking purposes, like some people would only agree to just participate in fact checking and, uh, uh, would, would let me run things by them to, and they would tell me, uh, if they felt like something was wrong and inaccurate. Um, yeah. So, yeah, it was a complicated process.

Um, but yeah, I mean me granting people anonymity when they wanted, um, especially for fact checking purposes, like some people would only agree to just participate in fact checking and, uh, uh, would, would let me run things by them to, and they would tell me, uh, if they felt like something was wrong and inaccurate. Um, yeah. So, yeah, it was a complicated process.

With some people, it took a lot of asking, a lot of pestering. But yeah, I mean, I found that in general, a lot of people were willing to talk. And like I mentioned earlier, I mean, I got like some 300 Blizzard people to wind up talking for the book.

With some people, it took a lot of asking, a lot of pestering. But yeah, I mean, I found that in general, a lot of people were willing to talk. And like I mentioned earlier, I mean, I got like some 300 Blizzard people to wind up talking for the book.

Um, it was a fun process. The, the organization of it all was, yeah, it was, uh, it was a beast.

Um, it was a fun process. The, the organization of it all was, yeah, it was, uh, it was a beast.

I mean, it depends on what your idea of what quote-unquote Blizzard, like old good Blizzard is. Because to me, Blizzard changed so much after World of Warcraft that it essentially became a different company then. Before World of Warcraft, it was releasing a new game every couple of years. And then it became a...

I mean, it depends on what your idea of what quote-unquote Blizzard, like old good Blizzard is. Because to me, Blizzard changed so much after World of Warcraft that it essentially became a different company then. Before World of Warcraft, it was releasing a new game every couple of years. And then it became a...

live service company where like and it wasn't just releasing games it was releasing games and then updating them forever and if you look at Blizzard now they're a company that is working on WoW working on Diablo 4 working on Overwatch 2 working on Hearthstone Um, and those four games are all forever games.

live service company where like and it wasn't just releasing games it was releasing games and then updating them forever and if you look at Blizzard now they're a company that is working on WoW working on Diablo 4 working on Overwatch 2 working on Hearthstone Um, and those four games are all forever games.

Those are games that just have teams dedicated to creating new content for them that aren't working on other stuff that aren't working on totally new games. And there are teams that Blizzard that are working on new stuff too, but still the company is, uh, uh, is a live service company at this point. Um, and I'll give you an example of that. The team that made Hearthstone, um,

Those are games that just have teams dedicated to creating new content for them that aren't working on other stuff that aren't working on totally new games. And there are teams that Blizzard that are working on new stuff too, but still the company is, uh, uh, is a live service company at this point. Um, and I'll give you an example of that. The team that made Hearthstone, um,

When they published that in 2014, it was a very small team. It was a team of like 15 people. The game almost got canceled several times, as documented in the book. And when the team released the game, there were a couple of people on it who were pretty disappointed that after that, they would then go on to, rather than going and working on something totally new... keep working on Hearthstone.

When they published that in 2014, it was a very small team. It was a team of like 15 people. The game almost got canceled several times, as documented in the book. And when the team released the game, there were a couple of people on it who were pretty disappointed that after that, they would then go on to, rather than going and working on something totally new... keep working on Hearthstone.

And there were some people who felt like, hey, we're this small, talented incubation team. We captured lightning in a bottle. Can't you let us go and do that again? But no, it wasn't to be because Hearthstone came out and then Hearthstone became enormous and it needed to be updated. It needed new cards and expansions and content. And bug fixes. So it wasn't to be.

And there were some people who felt like, hey, we're this small, talented incubation team. We captured lightning in a bottle. Can't you let us go and do that again? But no, it wasn't to be because Hearthstone came out and then Hearthstone became enormous and it needed to be updated. It needed new cards and expansions and content. And bug fixes. So it wasn't to be.

It became another live service game. So the Blizzard of the very old, the Blizzard that was just releasing new products every couple of years, that is no more. The question is, can they go back to the Blizzard of... pre-2018 when they weren't just kind of stepping on rakes all the time and getting into PR controversy after PR controversy. And I think that'll be interesting to see. I don't know.

It became another live service game. So the Blizzard of the very old, the Blizzard that was just releasing new products every couple of years, that is no more. The question is, can they go back to the Blizzard of... pre-2018 when they weren't just kind of stepping on rakes all the time and getting into PR controversy after PR controversy. And I think that'll be interesting to see. I don't know.

It's hard to know what Microsoft is going to do with them because Microsoft as a whole has such a tenuous gaming... The gaming division's status is so tenuous right now. Yeah. That said, I've heard a lot of good things about Johanna Farris, their new boss. She seems to be well-respected. And it's definitely hard to argue that they haven't been battle-tested at this point at a company.