Do we need more reasons to dislike Blizzard? (Gaming)

by kidtsunami , Atlanta, GA, Wednesday, August 05, 2020, 07:28 (1360 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

I haven’t seen anything in this piece that proves to me that Jack is an asshole.

And here we have the problem.

You’re making assumptions. I didn’t say that “Jack isn’t an asshole”... I said I don’t see proof.

When I was 19 and living on my own for the first time, my daily budget for food was $5 (Canadian). For reference, a McDonald’s combo meal at that time cost $6.95 Canadian, or there about. Does that make my employer an asshole? Well, no. I was working for them before I moved out on my own. The pay was fair given the demands of the job and my experience. I knew what I was making, yet I chose to rent an apartment I could barely afford because at that time the freedom of living on my own was more important to me than financial comfort or stability. I made that choice.

I need way more info about these people and their living situations before I know whether or not to blame their employer. How much are they spending on their cell phones every month? How many subscription services are they signed up for? The reality is many people SUCK with money and budgeting. Maybe the people featured in this article do, and maybe they don’t, but I don’t have nearly enough info to know either way.

I had a really sarcastic response queued up for this post... I just wanna say that it wouldn't be much of an article if somebody was bad at budgeting. That's not how an anonymous list of salaries gets put together. Like "I spent $1000 on shoes this month and forgot to afford my lunches" doesn't jive with "let's analyze the pay disparities here"...

First of all, I just want to point out that “pay disparity” is not necessarily a problem. The 22 year old handling the company’s twitter account does not deserve to make the same amount of money as the lead sound designer, for example. There are obviously points where pay disparity can go too far and become damaging, but that’s one of those squishy things that is tough to pinpoint. I’ve worked with people who were great at their job and worked hard and deserved more than they made. I’ve also worked with people who were petty and jealous and always complained that they deserved more than they were making, even though they barely deserved what they were already getting. Just because someone says they deserve more money doesn’t mean they’re right. I’m not going to pass judgement either way if I’m not there to see it with my own eyes.

Also, it is perfectly reasonable to point out that people who don’t make much money are not always good at managing money. When I was younger, every single payday I’d go straight to the bar with my coworkers, and by the end of the night we’d all blown 30% of our paycheques. Beyond anecdotal experience, the data on lottery winners is super depressing. Most are right back where they started a year after winning, and some are far worse off because they used their temporary wealth to develop a nasty cocain addiction.

Again, I’m not arguing against these employees, nor am I defending Blizzard. I’m merely pointing out that we don’t have enough info to see the whole situation.

Yeah I mean I think the article would have been better if they deep a proper analysis of the data, both contextualizing it in the context of the games industry and separating the signal from the noise.

I do want point out that it's unfair to respond to a pay disparity conversation by saying "The 22 year old handling the company’s twitter account does not deserve to make the same amount of money as the lead sound designer" because NO ONE IS SAYING THAT. We're saying the 22 year old handling the company's twitter account should be paid a living wage. At that point, we'd have to dig into the cost of living in Irvine and its surrounding areas, what the social media manager at Blizzard gets paid, and whether or not that's considered a "living wage". We don't have that, so we can't REALLY have that conversation here beyond me asserting "I think everyone at Blizzard should be paid a living wage, and I mean EVERYONE, facilities staff included" and you either agreeing or disagreeing with that.

I think Cody's subject did a disservice to the discussion even if I agree with him on the core topic.