Someone's experiencing the sowing/reaping dissociation of the free market
A Formal Thread about Activision/Blizzard
- Thread starter CriticalGaming
- Start date
Yeah. Saying everyone's day should be measurably worse so you can maintain your business is bad actually. Businesses become redundant or obsolete all the time and need to pivot or become irrelevant. For example Stores mainly selling physical media? Not so much a thing anymore.
It would also encourage more businesses to exist around residential areas. Before covid I worked for a small chain of coffee shops. Our city center shops were the busiest. The one near the trainstation busiest by far. When Covid hit our coffee shop in a small village started earning what two of our city center stores combined earned.
The shop I work in now is in a commuter town that always got by with one person behind the bar until covid hit. With so many people working from home even now we have at least 2 on any given day and 3 on the weekend because now there's more business outside of the city than before. 2 other shops have opened in the same town since covid and all three of us are having solid turnover.
I plan on opening my own specialty coffee shop in a small rural town over the next couple of years, a place where before covid it really wouldn't have been feasible because the market just wasn't there but now with more remote work more of that demographic are living in that area. It also has the added benefit of people are able to move and buy in cheaper areas because they can bring their work with them.
So workers save money and have better work-life balance. Businesses can thrive outside of major commercial hubs, housing doesn't have to be concentrated to specific areas which will, at least in theory, help with housing costs.
No, dude. Those with the reach and wealth required to lobby central government are not staying open on a shoestring budget, struggling to stay afloat. They are enormously profitable chain outlets.
Are you serious?
The majority of people work in jobs they don't want. They have to work to pay bills and rent. Just quitting if you don't like an aspect of your job is not an option for most people, for whom the loss of income would be dangerous.
Bollocks has it. Research generally tends to show there's no appreciable loss of productivity.
No: the manager/owner class in those businesses feel the same way. Coincidentally also the people least likely to need to go into the office themselves.
Games were delayed not because of WFH, but often because of other impacts of the pandemic: sickness, burnout. And if a game is delayed in order for its developers to have humane working conditions, then I'm all for that. Too often gamers put their own immediate gratification above the mental and physical wellbeing of the people who made those games.
Absolutely none of this is impossible to do with a video call and sharescreen. Even when I'm in the office, the majority of my communication is via email or video call.
That's some cool anecdotal evidence, but very unpersuasive and completely unrelatable to my own situation and millions of others. Productivity on average does not suffer.
Ya know what actually does harm productivity? A five day work week instead of a four day one. But I don't see the same lobbyists agitating for that change.
Which just reinforces everything I said previously. Corporations cannot be trusted, period.
Ah, I don't play games very much, but I do have much more free time.Honestly: do you have more or less time to game that way?
I have seen people quit because the commune was too long. Or because their significant other got a job elsewhere and it wasn't possible to live near both places. I have also seen people turn down job offers after looking for nearby apartments/houses. And i have seen WFH regularly come up during interviews for years.
Nonsense. Most companies did just fine with WHF once they actually got it running.
Oh really ? If i want to see art (or something) approved with WFH, i scedule a meeting in Teams or whatever, share my screen with everyone and discuss it. If i want to do hat in person, i reserve a meeting room, schedule an in person meeting, show the picture via a projector connected to some laptop and discuss it. Not much difference.
If i only need to consult one person, i can make a call (and also share a screen) or use the Teams chat (where i can just put the picture in). It has not to be a meeting all the time. But "making a call" was also the common approach before everyone moved to WFH. If people don't actually sit in the very same room, they don't seem to prefer in person meetings all that much.
I have found that the ability to share screens with everyone and the ability to look up stuff online while the meeting is running means far less misunderstandings than before.
Meetings are actually one of the things many people i have talked to found improved when WFH became a thing. Though some admitted it was by "actually being able to work while people talk about stuff i am not involved in".
I mean we have the discussion in our company as well. Nearly everyone wants to work from home, though some want to come once a week. That includes the whole middle management who all seem to think that it doesn't decrease efficiency. The primary owner of the company doesn't like this. Because he really likes to go through the offices and make smalltalk.
Personally i do have noticeably more time for playing games when WFH. But i live in a country with very strict laws about working hours that actually got even stricter during the pandemic. You only work when on the clock and companies have to track this or are looking at huge fines. There are special rules for odd hours and for mandatory brakes and those are enforced as well.Honestly: do you have more or less time to game that way?
All of this happened because people found that many worked longer hours when the lines between work and private life became blurry. Law makers put a stop to this.
Last edited:
Capitalist scum!
Recently I worked in senior management for a chain got too stressed out running someone else's entire business for them so decided to take it easy and just work in a store as a barista for a bit. Turns out it was owned by a couple of investors who never worked in the industry so I ended up running their entire business for them. Figured fuck it, if that's my lot in life it might as well be my business 
Yes, in the sense that I can get more shit done in a day if I don't spend hours of it sitting in my car commuting, meaning more spare time in the evening or weekend for leisure.Honestly: do you have more or less time to game that way?
Quite right too. If you're going to oppress the workers, you may as well make the real money for it.
Management often is stressful, unless you're a workaholic and/or a c*nt, or you've lucked out into management at a very relaxed organisation.
Can I just add this little tidbit in here
The richest 1% of people amassed almost two-thirds of new wealth created in the last two years, Oxfam says
Since 2020, the richest 1% of people have accumulated close to two-thirds of all new wealth created around the world, according to a new report from Oxfam.
Pre-Covid, the top 1% used to suck up half of the wealth generated around the world. During Covid, its 2/3rds
I would also suggest all the money wasted on lobbying governments and advertising COULD be spent on better products and welfare for staff. Its not a question of budget, its a question of priority
Shoestring, my ass
Activision confirms data breach exposing employee and game info
Activision has confirmed that it suffered a data breach in December 2022 after one of its employees fell victim to an SMS phishing attack, giving hackers access to its internal systems.
Major Video Game Union CWA Calls For Regulators To Approve Microsoft's Activision Buyout
The CWA sent a letter supporting to the merger to the commission's executive vice president.
www.gamespot.com
Microsoft says no to Activision merger without 'Call of Duty'
European regulators say Microsoft may need to divest 'Call of Duty' over antitrust concerns. Microsoft says that would be a deal breaker.
www.latimes.com
But... but Cawwa Doody doesn't make all that much money anyway so it doesn't even matter, guyze!Microsoft says no to Activision merger without 'Call of Duty'
European regulators say Microsoft may need to divest 'Call of Duty' over antitrust concerns. Microsoft says that would be a deal breaker.
