Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future Of Blizzard Entertainment Hardcover – October 8, 2024

“Play Nice” offers an enjoyable deep dive into the tumultuous history of Blizzard Entertainment, chronicling its journey from a ragtag group of brilliant college students to its evolution under corporate ownership and its current state. Schreier provides fascinating insights into the antics of Blizzard’s early employees, showcasing their outlandish attitudes, relentless work ethic, and tight-knit camaraderie.The book explores how Blizzard transitioned from a company renowned for producing high-quality, polished games that left competitors in the dust to one struggling to preserve its heart and soul amid mounting corporate pressures. While the corporate side and C-suite executives are often cast in a negative light, Schreier thoughtfully examines the motivations behind their decisions, offering perspectives from all levels of the company—from executives and middle management to QA testers. This balanced approach provides a refreshing take, avoiding oversimplified blame and instead considering multiple sides of the story.And while it’s easy to villainize the suits in the boardroom, Schreier does a great job showing why some decisions were made. From executives to QA testers, he pulls back the curtain to reveal a mess of perspectives, reminding us that every bad decision has some kind of reason behind it (even if it’s still a bad decision).The book also revisits the scandals that put some serious smudges on Blizzard’s reputation, offering new angles and fresh commentary. As someone who once lived for Blizzard games—cheering at Overwatch League matches and losing entire weekends to Diablo marathons—I can’t help but root for Blizzard to find its way back to glory. And hey, if it means waiting another decade for their next masterpiece, so be it. It’s done when it’s done.

I've never really been a Blizzard guy. I'm not much for complex video games and I'm terrible at strategy games where you try to claim territory, like Risk or Stratego. I like the story-building behind them, like Diablo and Warcraft and Overwatch, but I never liked the gameplay.The author doesn't talk much about the biographies of the creators like Masters of Doom did. But I liked Schreier's other book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels okay. This one is an in-depth story of how Blizzard rose to greatness in the days of PC gaming from a little company to a product of the overindulgence of capitalism.My one complaint is that it jumps around in time a lot. The book is divided into "chunks" based on the event, like the formation of Overwatch, sexual harassment suits, acquiring Diablo, etc. There starts to be a lot of names to remember. Blizzard's had quite a revolving door of CTOs and CEOs. It's hard to keep track of who's who and when's when. A dramatis personae or timeline in the back would have been nice. Otherwise, it's a solid four stars.

As a lifelong gamer and evangelist for Blizzard that once seriously aspired to work there, I went cover to cover over the first day with this book in my hands.It's tempting to describe the story in terms of its "heroes" and "villains" (and there certainly are some of the latter) but the overall takeaway is a kind of penetrating sadness about the demise of something that was undeniably special, that started and was tried to be kept aloft by people with their hearts in the right place. Activision's meddling is well documented and plays a central and devastating role in the turmoil chronicled here, but the overall growing pains of the industry are not ignored either. What happened to Blizzard happened to gaming overall too. There are lessons here for anyone in creative / entertainment careers and particularly for the investor class, but history (and current events) tells us that those people especially will miss or dismiss them.It's probably unrealistic to expect a return of the intangibles that elevated Blizzard far above its peers. The world and the business has changed. Some of it absolutely necessary, some of it painfully and regrettably.

This was a great read! I was hooked after the sample and it delivered all the way. You could feel the different threads of controversy and pain being sewn at the beginning, and the author kept the themes, timelines, and people relevant at all times.The footnotes kept getting more and more insightful. I think adding a visual timeline of big corp changes like departures, releases, and acquisitions as a reference would have been helpful.It is hard to decompose every technical aspect that goes into game design, profitability/finance, and engagement. Readers shouldn’t expect to get into the nitty gritty of old Blizzard engines or the computational metrics of game design. It is more than surface level but not overwhelming.Actual 5/5

Positive:"Play Nice" by Jason Schreier is a fun, eye-opening dive into the highs and lows of Blizzard Entertainment. Schreier does a fantastic job unpacking the tension between Blizzard's creative magic and the corporate pressures that started to shift the company’s culture, especially after its merger with Activision. It's filled with juicy insider stories that give you a sense of what it’s really like to work at a powerhouse game studio. For any gamer or industry enthusiast, it’s a fascinating look behind the curtain that also feels relatable for anyone who's had their passion collide with corporate demands.Negative:On the downside, the book sometimes gets a bit repetitive. Schreier really drills in on the company's struggles with work-life balance and workplace culture, which are important but can feel like they’re hitting the same notes over and over. And while the insider jargon adds authenticity, it can be a little hard to keep up if you’re not already familiar with game dev lingo. But honestly, these are minor gripes in what’s otherwise a great read about the complex, often messy reality of making games.