Kaplan's a good egg and it's a loss to Blizzard's other games and genres that he's on Overwatch instead. Public pressure from someone more or less untouchable is one of the few remaining vectors for getting anything done, and hardly anyone else there is in his position.
This has long ceased to be about the ban, though, and about the mismanagement and messaging. I've had a lot of Blizzard-related conversations in the past few weeks with twenty-year players like myself who have certainly not forgiven anything after BlizzCon and are ready to extricate themselves. These are people who run active clans and guilds or are otherwise so deep in the Blizzard tank that it's not just a matter of shutting off the tap, but they all know, better than Blizzard seems to know themselves, what a serious line has been crossed.
And after thinking about it, I know what my red line is. J Allen Brack must go.
It won't happen until a few more critical fumbles and alarming metrics; it's unlikely to improve anything with Blizzard's relationship with China or change their behaviour with similar situations in the future; it has an even chance of making matters even worse if more executive interference from Activision bleeds in, as Brack was supposedly set up for the position as a long-timer from the Blizzard side who could forestall the erosion of the cracking Activision/Blizzard firewall. I concede all that. But this fiasco, from one response to the next, has been an abject failure of leadership. Sheer incompetence and cowardice from end to end. He claims he's accountable: so be it. Make him accountable. I'll put in an order for Shadowlands the day that Brack resigns. Until then, nothing.
This has long ceased to be about the ban, though, and about the mismanagement and messaging. I've had a lot of Blizzard-related conversations in the past few weeks with twenty-year players like myself who have certainly not forgiven anything after BlizzCon and are ready to extricate themselves. These are people who run active clans and guilds or are otherwise so deep in the Blizzard tank that it's not just a matter of shutting off the tap, but they all know, better than Blizzard seems to know themselves, what a serious line has been crossed.
And after thinking about it, I know what my red line is. J Allen Brack must go.
It won't happen until a few more critical fumbles and alarming metrics; it's unlikely to improve anything with Blizzard's relationship with China or change their behaviour with similar situations in the future; it has an even chance of making matters even worse if more executive interference from Activision bleeds in, as Brack was supposedly set up for the position as a long-timer from the Blizzard side who could forestall the erosion of the cracking Activision/Blizzard firewall. I concede all that. But this fiasco, from one response to the next, has been an abject failure of leadership. Sheer incompetence and cowardice from end to end. He claims he's accountable: so be it. Make him accountable. I'll put in an order for Shadowlands the day that Brack resigns. Until then, nothing.
