This is a fantastic book! In Play Nice, Jason explains Blizzard’s history and how it became part of Activision. The success of Blizzard is explained, along with how the company lost its identity and was largely absorbed by Activision.
I wasn’t sure how I wanted to write this review, as many of the things in this book hit close to home for me. While I could go through this chapter by chapter, I decided to write a short review and follow up with some of my thoughts. This will let readers skip to the part they want to read.
The review will come first, and some of my thoughts will come next. I found the two companies’ history to be very interesting, as well as how the culture of abuse was created. The struggle between corporate interests and creative works is what I found most interesting.
You see this crop up in almost every one of these histories of video game companies. It also happens with any creative project that turns into a business or could be turned into a money-making enterprise. This is something that won’t be going away.
A Short Review of the Book
Jason does an excellent job of explaining how Blizzard was created and how it improved on other companies’ ideas. They weren’t copying ideas outright but seeing how they could improve on what other companies were doing. It is an important distinction, even if it is standard practice in the video game industry.
An abridged history of Activision is given. What is important about it is that the company was being run by Bobby Kotick, who was more concerned with money. He is a businessman who didn’t care much about the creative process.
The story of how the two companies eventually merged is explained. Jason does a wonderful job of laying this out in an easily understandable way. He also explains the issues that started occurring between the two groups.
Activision wanted Blizzard to have a predictable schedule of releases, similar to the Call of Duty series. They didn’t care about the creative process or creating new intellectual property. A known property with predictable results was more attractive to the corporate board than creating something new that wouldn’t generate a continuous revenue stream.
I like how Jason breaks this down and explains how Blizzard would “surprise” Activision with a new IP that would become a big hit. While Blizzard was succeeding with new games, they would get pressure to focus on World of Warcraft and its various expansion packs. It created an odd dynamic between the two parts of the company.
The tensions between the two companies eventually tie into the scandals at Blizzard. This is most likely the part of the book that many people will be familiar with. Jason explains that the culture that led to the lawsuits had been in place for a long time. It just came to a head in the 2020s.
He brings the reader up to date with what has been going on with Activision-Blizzard. I like the way he tells the story of these two companies. While it would’ve been nice to learn more about Activision, this is a story about Blizzard.
If you’re a fan of Blizzard and Activision or enjoy reading about video game history, this is the perfect book for you. You can stop here if you just want to read about the book. I’ll be writing about some of my thoughts from this point forward.
What I thought about while reading this
This was a lot of fun to read. I was more interested in reading about the history of Blizzard than anything else. Earlier this year, I read about StarCraft and the eSports scene it created in South Korea. Here is a link to that book by Simon Dor if you’re interested (Link).
Jason does write about this, but I feel that Simon does a better job explaining it because his book is solely focused on it. I think the two books complement each other quite well. Both are very good books.
Let’s get back to Jason’s book. There is something about it that struck a chord with me. I worked where creativity became frowned upon; at least, that was my impression of the direction management wanted us to go in. I worked in a very different industry, but there were some parallels between the two situations.
Working in a place like this can be frustrating, and I bet it can be even more frustrating when coming up with something fun is the sole purpose. This is where my experience differs greatly. The video game industry is a business, and making money is a big part of the goal for companies like Blizzard.
Development hell wasn’t something that existed where I worked. I also wasn’t normally working with a team as large as the development teams at Blizzard. My timelines were considerably shorter, and, at times, if it passed a day, the project was either abandoned or became part of something larger.
I found myself sympathizing with part of what was going on at Blizzard. Many development teams weren’t given direction and had to deal with terrible management. I’ve read this before, like in Jason’s other books.
This happened a lot in the 2000s, as many of the development studios were bought up by larger companies. Video games have become a business or become a corporate business. There still are small studios and publishers, but they don’t always get the attention that they deserve.
Final Thoughts
I like Jason’s books quite a bit. Play Nice is a wonderful book. Writing this was hard for me as I wasn’t sure what to mention and what to leave out. I felt some things were important, and even now, I wonder if I left out something.
This book has so much information in it, and there are so many fascinating stories in it. If you’re interested in Blizzard, the games made by the company, or one of the many controversies, this is the book for you. Jason compiled a comprehensive history of the company, their games, and its relationship with Activision.
If you liked this post, please check out my review of Warcraft or Simon Dor’s book on StarCraft.