A 100+ Photo Look at Blizzard's Awesome Offices

Heart of Darkness

The final days of His Trolliness
Jul 1, 2009
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I love how a shot from that South Park episode managed to make it into this list, and...

...

...chesssss....I wonder if the employees of Blizzard are any good?
 

Valiance

New member
Jan 14, 2009
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FUCK YEAH THEY HAVE TACHYON THE FRINGE! (and so much...so much games I thought no one bought, like Anarchy Online...)

I mean, uh, that art's pretty sweet.

(Really though, everything about all of this was awesome, the SC2 lan, the WoW monitor is something I'm glad they keep track of, and yeah.)

But thank god they have Puerto Rico and Nexus Ops while designing the starcraft board game! (Granted I've noticed EXTREME SIMILARITIES in it and Nexus Ops, but whatever.. ;P)
 

Zerbye

New member
Aug 1, 2008
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Sigh. I'm old enough to remember when all GameStops looked just like the "libraries" at Blizzard.
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
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Sounds like a definate haven for my fellow nerds.

Truthfully though it doesn't impress me that much price wise, with the amount of money they make I was expecting something that would get them kicked off MTV's "Cribs" for being too ridiculously opulant. Of course this is the office, not the personal homes.

Generally speaking given the amount of money they make, I am not going to be convinced that they don't have private jets with swimming pools, mink toilet seat covers, and solid gold Murloc idols with ruby eyes, full of expensive vintage- German style clockworks that make them perform their trademark murgling noise when people walk by....

The toilet seat covers and murloc idols might be in the executive washroom.

-

Oh and one last thing, are we SURE those are Blizzard's offices? Despite poking fun, I am a fan, and like all fans I know they en-masse suffer one paticular sexual dysfunction: Fecophillia.

As ANYONE who plays WoW can tell you, the game is full of things to get characters to dig around in, play with, and otherwise handle poop. There is even one quest where you eat some nuts, and then have to go and find a way to get yourself to poop them back out, only to learn that this happens routinely and someone apparently pooped them out before YOU did. Creating a cycle that could ultimatly involve all the characters in the game and thus getting us to indulge in their ultimate fecophille fantasy.

So really, I'd expect plastic (or is it?) poo on the desks, and scat referances all over the place. Not to mention detailed, loving, planning on the next time they plan to squeeze some more "fun with #2" into their game.

Okay, okay, I'm still poking fun, but come on people.... everyone who plays WoW knows this. It's discussed periodically in mass chat channels.

Does this really seem like the offices of the company that makes millions and millions of dollars and gave everyone a pet bunny that poops out eggs? :p

>>>----Therumancer--->
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
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Zerbye said:
Sigh. I'm old enough to remember when all GameStops looked just like the "libraries" at Blizzard.
Well, sort of. Back when I started gaming and such it was mostly companies like "Software Etc." (run by the now defunct B.Dalton) that had that kind of a motif. So did many Electronic Boutique stores. It alwasy seemed to me (locally) that Gamestop always favored their current display method, whenever they entered the scene (they were latecomers locally).

It seemed the spine displays and such began to die out when 5 1/4" discs were truely dying to be replaced by the 3.5" format. It's also noteworthy that it was about this time that they also began to pack games with far less in the way of materials. I remember a time when you'd buy a game like "Ultima 4" which would absolutly bulge with components. When that kind of thing started to die I noticed the way games were displayed also changed.

Nothing important I guess.

Strangely, as much as I like their work, Blizzard to a great extent represents a lot of what I think is wrong with the current gaming industry compared to the one of yesterday. They aren't the worst of the bunch by a long shot, but well.... I don't know, I think an industry loses something when people start to build offices like that.
 

Trivun

Stabat mater dolorosa
Dec 13, 2008
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CantFaketheFunk said:
Some of the more notable things: the WoW Status Monitor [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GzQNaaZsh_8/SszTOUxCK3I/AAAAAAAAbP8/qQeVOsSXpDE/s1600-h/ofis083.jpg], which shows where people are connecting to the game from all over the world (this was obviously taken during its hiatus in China).

I don't want to think about what this sort of place costs, but it's not like there isn't a healthy revenue stream there. Not that the The Escapist's offices aren't awesome or anything, but if I worked in a place like this, I might never get anything done. And then I would get fired. And I would be sad.
Oh my God. I'm sure most of you who've seen me post often know that I want to work in Level Design - I have now decided that I want to work specifically at Blizzard, in California. This surprises me too because I was adamant on staying with one of the major UK companies in London or perhaps Leeds, where I'm now studying, but if this is the sort of thing Blizzard have got over in CA then I'm sure as hell going to try and emigrate (not that there isn't already reason to leave the UK, take a look at our government). It's enough to make me want to start playing WoW and Starcraft, things I swore I'd never do (mainly since aside from FF XI, MMOs have never interested me much). Blizzard, make damn sure you have a job opening for Level Designers in your CA office within the next three years, as soon as I graduate I'm coming for you! :D
 

toapat

New member
Mar 28, 2009
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Amnestic said:
CantFaketheFunk said:
Now I'm actually pretty lucky, myself. I've twice, no less! [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94044-BlizzCon-09-Behind-Blizzards-Walls] -
*shake fist* Time to go get myself into video game journalism I suppose.

The WoW monitor is cool. I'd love to get something like that up in my room as a piece of decoration and just watch it quietly brighten and dim.
actually a better reason for why europe and america are bright glowing masses while china, korea, and japan are basically unlit is because of what time that photo was taken, about 2:00PM EST, that mass of glow creaps its way across the map once every 24 hours.
and if you look at it, that absurd digit of 13 million for WoW is actually not in china, its in America and Europe
 

toapat

New member
Mar 28, 2009
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Therumancer said:
Zerbye said:
Sigh. I'm old enough to remember when all GameStops looked just like the "libraries" at Blizzard.
Well, sort of. Back when I started gaming and such it was mostly companies like "Software Etc." (run by the now defunct B.Dalton) that had that kind of a motif. So did many Electronic Boutique stores. It alwasy seemed to me (locally) that Gamestop always favored their current display method, whenever they entered the scene (they were latecomers locally).

It seemed the spine displays and such began to die out when 5 1/4" discs were truely dying to be replaced by the 3.5" format. It's also noteworthy that it was about this time that they also began to pack games with far less in the way of materials. I remember a time when you'd buy a game like "Ultima 4" which would absolutly bulge with components. When that kind of thing started to die I noticed the way games were displayed also changed.

Nothing important I guess.

Strangely, as much as I like their work, Blizzard to a great extent represents a lot of what I think is wrong with the current gaming industry compared to the one of yesterday. They aren't the worst of the bunch by a long shot, but well.... I don't know, I think an industry loses something when people start to build offices like that.
would you rather they have to buy the local landfill for the cash? or pay people to build things for them, thus returning the money to the economy. Blizzard may need front end loaders for the money, but they at least spend it, unlike NCsoft, those greedy bastards who cant even spend enough money for an honest PR department
 

Zarthek

New member
Apr 12, 2009
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....so awsome.... i'm struck speechless..... new... dream... job.... *falls over drooling*
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Pyromaniac1337 said:
Y'know what's awesome? On the WoW status board, I know at least two people in Australia that play the game, and considering the general LACK of lights, they're two of the very few playing.
Well, consider the statement above - that was taken during the afternoon in US time. Which means it was late, late night / early morning in Australia.
 

hansari

New member
May 31, 2009
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CantFaketheFunk said:
Now I'm actually pretty lucky, myself. I've twice, no less! [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94044-BlizzCon-09-Behind-Blizzards-Walls]...
And where are the photos YOU took to share with us?!

You basked in heaven and withheld the knowledge of its beauty from us.

SHAME!!!!
 

Kollega

New member
Jun 5, 2009
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I would really like to see these 100 photos. Maybe they would convince me that Blizzard did not perform a Face Heel Turn. But you know what?

THAT SITE WON'T FUCKING OPEN!
 

Flos

New member
Aug 2, 2008
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Europe and North America are lit up like Christmas trees, I see.:B

...Blizzard volley ball?

Those are cool. I love game makers offices, they always look so fun and insane. There's one I know of in Japan that has little beds under their desks because they enjoy working their team to death.

They also had a washer/dryer.

I want to use my various artistic and baking skills to make a snack version of Icecrown. Completely unrelated to the topic, I know, but still.
 

More Fun To Compute

New member
Nov 18, 2008
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Chipperz said:
OH MY GOD THEY HAVE ARCANUM! I've looked everywhere for that game!

I was gonna try getting a job at Rebellion, but I might have to send my portfolio off to Blizzard...
Having Leonard Boyarsky on the payroll is more impressive than having a copy of Arcanum.
 

thenumberthirteen

Unlucky for some
Dec 19, 2007
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CantFaketheFunk said:
Pyromaniac1337 said:
Y'know what's awesome? On the WoW status board, I know at least two people in Australia that play the game, and considering the general LACK of lights, they're two of the very few playing.
Well, consider the statement above - that was taken during the afternoon in US time. Which means it was late, late night / early morning in Australia.
The world times are written at the bottom. All those lights in Asia/Australia are playing at between 3-5am.