Ep. 357 - Playing Nice, with Jason Schreier

The Insert Credit Show

Journalist and author of Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment Jason Schreier sits for an interview on Blizzard’s many transformations, diversity scores, and what ultimately happened to Starcraft Ghost and Project Titan. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Jason Schreier. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.

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SHOW NOTES:

Happy Rosh Hashanah!

• Yom Kippur
• Hanukkah
• Sukkot
• Simchat Torah
• Shemini Atzeret

1: Was there something about Blizzard in particular that made you want to write a book? (03:21)

• Acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft
• Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry
• WarCraft series
• StarCraft series
• Diablo series

2: Did you actually interview more than three hundred people for this book over three years? (06:19)

• EverQuest
• Leeroy Jenkins

3: Was there anyone you couldn’t get an interview with? (07:45)

4: What was your personal investment in Blizzard before writing this book? (08:22)

• WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos
• StarCraft: Brood War
• The Lost Vikings
• Norse by Norse West: The Return of the Lost Vikings
• World of WarCraft

5: How would you describe Blizzard’s brand identity? (11:03)

• Pixar
• Make Love, Not Warcraft
• Overwatch series
• Hearthstone: Heroes of WarCraft

6: When did the “mergers and acquisitions” era of the video game industry really begin? (12:31)

• Davidson & Associates
• Math Blaster!
• CUC International
• Sierra Entertainment
• Square Enix
• Atlus
• Double Fine
• PsychOdyssey

7: Is the “loremaster” a real thing? (16:14)

• Script supervisor
• Better Call Saul
• Breaking Bad
• DC Comics
• Batman
• Wonder Woman

8: What was the deal with “diversity scores?” (18:42)

• Activision Makes ‘Diversity Tool’ For Overwatch 2, Call of Duty
• King
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion

9: How involved was Bobby Kotick in development? (20:55)

• Bobby Kotick
• Activision
• Vivendi Games
• Michael Morhaime
• Allen Adham
• Titan
• Diablo IV
• Overwatch 2
• Overwatch

10: How did Titan become Overwatch? (26:10)

• Animal Crossing series
• Team Fortress 2
• Tracer
• Reinhardt

11: If you had to pick an Overwatch character to be the new CEO of Blizzard, who would be best and who would be worst? (27:15)

• Winston
• Soldier: 76
• Reaper
• Widowmaker
• Wrecking Ball

12: EvanArnett asks, in the early 2000s, World of Warcraft was the game most associated with gaming addiction. What was Blizzard’s stance on that? (27:58)

13: Yeso asks, do you still stand by your EPIC/5 review for Final Fantasy XIII on rpgamer.com? (31:01)

• EXCLUSIVE REVIEW!!! by Jason Schreier
• Final Fantasy XIII

14: Aleph asks, what is the Day the Clown Cried of Video Games? (32:22)

• The Day the Clown Cried (1972)
• Citizen Kane
• Jerry Lewis
• Krusty the Clown
• Final Fantasy Versus XIII
• Final Fantasy XV
• Project Milo
• E3 2009: Project Natal Milo demo

15: Is there a book about games you’d really like to read, but have no interest in writing yourself? (34:44)

• Midway Games

16: What should readers take away from Play Nice? (37:17)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Rapid Fire Blizzard Trivia(38:23)

Recommendations and Outro (42:11):

• Jason: Triple Click
• Jaffe: 52 Pickup

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