April 09, 2022

Union Busting Is Disgusting – Episode 354

47 minutes

Activision Blizzard dropped its COVID protections and pushed people to return to the office. This caused a fourth walkout protest. The company got positive attention for making all their QA workers full time (with raises), and then blew it by engaging in union busting. Also talked about work from home jobs in gaming companies, some fun from the @Diablo account, and Season 26 “The Fall Of the Nephalem”.

The Washington Post posted an article titled: “Activision Blizzard employees walk out over lifting of vaccine mandate”

Polygon posted an article titled: “Some Activision Blizzard studios will require proof of vax as worker walkout continues”

Vice (Waypoint) posted an article titled: “Riot Games Tells Workers to Return to Office Without Vaccine or Mask Requirements”

Ben Nadler (Lead Environment Artist) tweeted about work from home jobs at That’s No Moon Entertainment.

Polygon posted an article titled: “Activision Blizzard to convert all US-based QA workers to full time positions”.

Bloomberg posted an article titled: “Activision Makes 1,100 Game Testers Full-Time Employees” (article may be behind paywall)

Jason Schreier (reporter for Bloomberg) tweeted that Activision will not give raises to Raven QA testers who are unionizing.

@ABetterABK tweeted praise for Activision Blizzard (before they learned about the Raven exclusion)

@WeAreGWA (Game Workers Alliance) posted a thread about the raises/ full-time for QA workers and mentioned the Raven exclusion

@CODE_CWA (Campaign to Organize Digital Employees in the Tech, Games, and Digital Industries) posted a thread slamming Activision Blizzard’s decision regarding Raven.

@TheOneOnDruryLn (Senior Software Engineer Blizzard Entertainment) posted a link to a job for making apps

Blizzard posted a job for Associate Historian, Lore (World of Warcraft) – work from home

@Sparkly_Julie (UX Director for Fortnite) tweeted about remote work for Fortnite

@Diablo tweeted: “We’re cancelling mortals who hoard useless items. Post what your hoarding”

@Diablo tweeted about the benefits of “HellCare”

Season 26 : The Fall of the Nephalem starts on April 15 at 5PM (PDT/CEST/KST)

Blizzard posted help for those who are having Diablo III Performance Issues

Raxxanterax posted “Diablo 3 Season 26 Complete Leveling Guide For All Classes”

Where to find Jen’s Diablo Content Creation:

Shattered Soulstone T-shirts now available on Jen’s Redbubble!

Book of Jen website: Diablo gameplay videos

Book of Jen YouTube: Diablo III Season 25 playlist (work in progress)

Book of Jen YouTube: Diablo Immortal Closed Alpha playlist

Twitch @BarbarianKobold (NOTE: I don’t stream very often.)

You can listen to Shattered Soulstone on Warcraft Radio – and submit a review there.

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By Shattered Soulstone