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Ex-Blizzard Exec Dragged For Suggesting Gamers Start Tipping (kotaku.com)

submitted 7 months ago by ylai@lemmy.ml to c/gaming@lemmy.ml

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[–] HuddaBudda@kbin.social 98 points 7 months ago (3 children)

“I’ve often thought ‘I wish I could give these folks another $10 or $20 because it was worth more than my initial $70 and they didn’t try to nickel and dime me every second,’”

You know what, I could agree with that opinion if the irony wasn't lost to folks

No. One. Would tip for a blizzard game.

Blizzard DOES nickel and dime you at every second. Literally.
Blizzard has not produced a good game since Overwatch 2.
Blizzard made 8.71 Billion in 2023. They can afford to pay their developers without relying on public donations.

[–] jsomae@lemmy.ml 8 points 7 months ago

I don't think he's saying to tip for a Blizzard game. He's not at Blizzard anymore (probably still has stock though).

I basically agree, I mean, I'd tip for a game I really like. Actually I do, indirectly. I buy other things from companies like FromSoft. I would go further than you and admit I agree with him despite the irony.

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[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 71 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Is dragging what happens before someone else slams them?

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 24 points 7 months ago (2 children)

It comes after getting "blasted" I would assume.

[–] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 5 points 7 months ago

Which of course precedes being KERBLOOIED!

[–] datavoid@lemmy.ml 4 points 7 months ago

Let's hope no one gets wrecked

[–] Ashyr@sh.itjust.works 14 points 7 months ago

I would assume after. They’re already down, after all.

[–] minibyte@sh.itjust.works 54 points 7 months ago

What, don’t you have phones?

[–] Finalsolo963@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 7 months ago

Sure, put it out for free and I'll donate the same as I do for any open source software I use.

[–] menemen@lemmy.world 21 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I'd tip the developers, but not the shareholders or execs who treat the developers like slaves...

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 17 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Nah man. Tipping has its place and it’s not to take the place of regular payment for goods. Developer makes a product, I’ll buy it like a product.

Expanding the scope of tipping is not good.

[–] thirteene@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

Tipping is a exploitive behavior used to underpay staff with a high variance system. Employers need to pay a living wage.

[–] t_berium@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago

If there's a need for tips, your business model sucks and you should be ashamed of yourself.

If there's no need for tips, you could just take some of your perverted bonuses or some of that ridiculous amount of money you take out of children's pockets with micro transactions and show those people some love who did the actual work, you prick. They make millions and millions for you.

What a world we live in where asshats like that step forward and ejaculate their greed into the world and expect applause!

Disgusting.

[–] TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee 17 points 7 months ago

Blizzard is such a disgusting company nowdays. They don't even try to hide it.

[–] Skasi@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I think the concept of "Pay what you want." is a very friendly approach to this. It already exists on platforms like itch.io and some free to play games financed through donations, like Dwarf Fortress, also became extremely popular. Humble Bundles are also pretty famous for this. And of course kickstarters do something a bit similar to this.

Personally I'd love to see donation buttons/infos especially for all the free music and games that exist out there. But I want to make sure my donations reach the people who actually worked on it, so I dislike products like paypal or patreon where a portion of the money goes to men in the middle and their managers/owners, etc. A bank account number or something along those lines where I can transfer money a bit more directly would be nice, but some creators only provide paypal buttons, so I won't donate.

[–] HRDS_654@lemmy.world 32 points 7 months ago (2 children)

He's not talking about donations though, he's talking about paying full price THEN tipping. It's a blatant excuse to pay developers less while placing financial guilt on the people paying for the product. It's the same way tipping at a restaurant works.

[–] MysticKetchup@lemmy.world 22 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Worse, since if you tip through the game you're almost certainly just giving that money to the execs

[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 4 points 7 months ago

Like they said, exactly like tipping at a restaurant.

[–] Skasi@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

That's where work contracts can help. Any form of tipping and how it is split would have to be handled by a contract anyway.

[–] Skasi@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago

He’s not talking about donations though, he’s talking about paying full price THEN tipping.

I'm aware of that. The "Pay what you want." concept mentioned in my first paragraph was its own idea/suggestion/thought, since it kinda fits the topic. It's a different thing.

It’s a blatant excuse to pay developers less while placing financial guilt on the people paying for the product. It’s the same way tipping at a restaurant works.

Not really, really good video games take months or even years to complete, so your developers will want to be paid for that time before they become profitable. At restaurants the initial investment isn't quite as high, as far as wages are concerned. I'd argue that you get tipped before even getting your first monthly paycheck. That can not be the case for video game tips.

I assume software developers and other people in the IT sector are also in higher demand than waiters, so they don't have it quite as bad as waiters. That's why I think they're not comparable.

That said, I do believe that a company that is open about the tips it receives could be interesting for developers. If I saw that tips were actually split evenly among all the employees and their work hours then I think it'd be worth considering applying there. Though I guess for fairness those tips should even be paid out if employees quit or get kicked out so you'd have to track how much each person contributed to each product and that could be a bit of a bureaucratic hassle.

[+] helenslunch@feddit.nl 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] jsomae@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

The dorf fort devs made like $3k-6k per month throughout the 2010s. They did end up going commercial to get more. But it was hardly "not even a little profitable." I mean, I'd take that deal to do what I love too.

[–] Skasi@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I'm aware of that and also see the problem, but argue that that's partially because most people just aren't used to this. People's actions depend a lot on what they consider the norm. Take waiters or other service people as an example - in some cultures it's usual to tip them, in others it's unusual or even frowned upon.

You would have to at least have a base minimum purchase price and then accept tips on top.

That's also fine. If the initial price were lower than other comparable games then I assume that more people could be convinced to tip. Or even just if a company is very open about their work / income and dedicated to communicating to their players. I think there's already some companies like that, though perhaps not necessarily the big ones.

[–] RIPandTERROR@sh.itjust.works 13 points 7 months ago

They can take the tip of my dick

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 11 points 7 months ago

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 8 points 7 months ago

M'game dev

[–] skozzii@lemmy.ca 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I think all CEO's should create some sort of tip platform.

They do so much single handedly for the company, most companies could simply not exist or have any direction without them and their leadership.

And to make things worse they aren't appreciated and are hardly compensated.

Imagine having to go to lunches at fancy golf courses, trips with your peers to exotic locations, all for a measly few hundred million per year?

CEO's are almost being mistreated and borderline persecuted infront of us, and all they want is to be treated and compensated fairly like the average worker with 3 jobs.

Maybe if we all come together and show them that we care , and more importantly, send them as much of our money as we can, then they will feel better about their terrible circumstances.

[–] mrfriki@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

How about shareholders tip me instead?

[–] demonsword@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Archived version

[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago (4 children)

To all of you who still tip in this day and age: will this convince you that tipping culture only exists to underpay (usually black) workers?

[–] MeetInPotatoes@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

As a white middle-aged guy who spent most of my youth waiting tables for a job...No.

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