Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment

by Jason Schreier

An advertisement in PC Gamer magazine for the Warcraft II expansion would cement the incident in company history. Just above “Now Available,” alongside other laudatory phrases, it read: “It’s the reason we don’t have sex anymore!” —Actual quote from the wife of a tech support caller

Blizzard had always tried to offer decent customer service—once, in the early days, Jesse McReynolds and Mike Morhaime himself had driven to a nearby customer’s house to debug a sound issue—but

“I think Hearthstone’s story is a microcosm of Blizzard’s story,” said Jay Baxter. “We went from creating to churning.”

seagull management: He would swoop down, poop on ideas, and then fly away.

But not all were sad to be leaving this new incarnation of Blizzard. “I kind of feel like they gave me a parachute filled with money,” one colleague told Borger, “and kicked me out of a burning building.” She couldn’t help but agree.

“Everyone said: ‘You worked for six years on this?’” said the person. “No, we worked for one year on this. We spent those other years on all the PvE stuff.”