Journalist and author of Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment Jason Schreier sits for an interview on Blizzard’s many transformations, diversity scores, and what ultimately happened to Starcraft Ghost and Project Titan. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Jason Schreier. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.
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SHOW NOTES:
Happy Rosh Hashanah!
1: Was there something about Blizzard in particular that made you want to write a book? (03:21)
Acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft
Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry
WarCraft series
StarCraft series
Diablo series
2: Did you actually interview more than three hundred people for this book over three years? (06:19)
3: Was there anyone you couldn’t get an interview with? (07:45)
4: What was your personal investment in Blizzard before writing this book? (08:22)
WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos
StarCraft: Brood War
The Lost Vikings
Norse by Norse West: The Return of the Lost Vikings
World of WarCraft
5: How would you describe Blizzard’s brand identity? (11:03)
6: When did the “mergers and acquisitions” era of the video game industry really begin? (12:31)
Davidson & Associates
Math Blaster!
CUC International
Sierra Entertainment
Square Enix
Atlus
Double Fine
PsychOdyssey
7: Is the “loremaster” a real thing? (16:14)
8: What was the deal with “diversity scores?” (18:42)
Activision Makes ‘Diversity Tool’ For Overwatch 2, Call of Duty
King
Diversity, equity, and inclusion
9: How involved was Bobby Kotick in development? (20:55)
Bobby Kotick
Activision
Vivendi Games
Michael Morhaime
Allen Adham
Titan
Diablo IV
Overwatch 2
Overwatch
10: How did Titan become Overwatch? (26:10)
11: If you had to pick an Overwatch character to be the new CEO of Blizzard, who would be best and who would be worst? (27:15)
12: EvanArnett asks, in the early 2000s, World of Warcraft was the game most associated with gaming addiction. What was Blizzard’s stance on that? (27:58)
13: Yeso asks, do you still stand by your EPIC/5 review for Final Fantasy XIII on rpgamer.com? (31:01)
14: Aleph asks, what is the Day the Clown Cried of Video Games? (32:22)
The Day the Clown Cried (1972)
Citizen Kane
Jerry Lewis
Krusty the Clown
Final Fantasy Versus XIII
Final Fantasy XV
Project Milo
E3 2009: Project Natal Milo demo
15: Is there a book about games you’d really like to read, but have no interest in writing yourself? (34:44)
16: What should readers take away from Play Nice? (37:17)
LIGHTNING ROUND: Rapid Fire Blizzard Trivia(38:23)
Recommendations and Outro (42:11):
Jason: Triple Click
Jaffe: 52 Pickup
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