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1. Absorbing for entertainment professionals + gamers + a withering portrait of what greed can destroy
   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.

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2. “Inside Blizzard: The Creativity, Crunch, and Corporate Clash in Play Nice”
   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.

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3. A Stunning and Realistic Insight into a Titan of the Game Industry
   As a former game dev at Blizzard I was cautiously optimistic about hearing insights into a company I had worked at. Having interviewed for the book, it was interesting to see how the things I had witnessed made it in, or didn’t. There were events at Blizzard that were a mystery to me, but thanks to Play Nice I can understand more about the rumors and back room tales that didn’t make much sense to me when I heard them.It’s an enjoyable read, and a fantastic look at the phenomenon I call Corporate Necrosis. The gradual degradation of the established culture that made Blizzard great, slowly falling apart as Kotick and his minions vomit acid onto award winning franchises and suck up the profit juice, leaving gaping holes in their reputation. A poignant cautionary tale to future game development studios considering selling out.

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4. Great Book, Scary Consequences
   This book was well written though at times the author can be verbose to the point of redundancy. But that being said, the contents of this story are both terrifying and just sad. The whole Blizzard company shows what NOT to do as a Video Game Company!

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5. Super interesting if you like video games and business.
   Heard about it from Atrioc. If you like Marketing Mondays you’ll like this. Covers a ton of different facets of Blizzard, and it has a lot of video game anecdotes that I thought were cool to learn about.

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6. A Nice Consolidation of What We Already Know
   I enjoyed the read, and for the price I don’t feel particularly upset about what I received, but if you’re interested in this book, then you’ve probably been following these events at least somewhat loosely, and there’s really not a whole lot of new content here that you wouldn’t get from a few paragraphs of summation.The biggest takeaways are probably the interesting narratives around some of the bigger players in Blizzard. I think Schrier still has a bit to improve on in his storytelling, but ultimately, if you’re a big Blizzard fan you should probably give this a read.

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7. Incredible read.
   I wouldn’t call myself an avid reader but I finished this in 2 days because I simply could not put it down. It was fun and sad all at the same time. Being a Blizzard gamer since the early Starcraft days, I found it awesome to see what happened. Loved it.

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8. Would like to have read more about the single greediest and nasty game company in modern history
   A great documentary called Play Money exposes just how greedy this company was. I would love to have known how much money Blizzard spent on lawyers and court cases to attack fans of the game that they sued. Karma caught up with this nasty company and I hope the people in charge are put in jail.Yes, they made great games. But they also acted liked legal hitmen creating feuds and taking money (in a legally, but unethical way) from the very people who helped make the game so popular.It sickens me there isn’t more in this book to disclose the majority of court cases brought against civilians in several countries that Blizzard and how much money Blizzard needlessly spent to initiate legal battles against third-parties that made any money offering fans what Blizzard didn’t. Blizzard, as rich as it was, went after the LITTLE GUY to get MORE and destroyed people’s lives without a care in the world.When MORE isn’t enough, you are willing to sue your fans and destroy their lives because you have the budget to pay the lawyers and they don’t, then you might be right for a leadership position in this company. What a shame it took so long for them to fall. I have never seen such aggressive greed against ordinary people from ANY modern day corporation.If only this book would have explored how much time, money and other resources in such testosterone fueled business decisions ended up costing this company and, ultimately, reducing their revenue by trying to MORE revenue through the legal system instead of simply investing in making the product better. Just total morons who really should be investigated by the DoJ, in my opinion.

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9. Accurato, ben documentato e ben esposto. Come sempre Schreier si dimostra ancora una volta un giornalista in un settore spesso fatto di recensori e opinionisti, e ci guida in un viaggio piacevole, chiaro e talvolta nostalgico nell’evoluzione di una delle software house più singolari e importanti dell’industria videoludica.Tutto è sempre referenziato con nomi e cognomi: non c’è speculazione; non c’è ipotesi, ma solo riportare i fatti come raccontati dai protagonisti, aggiungendo solo un flare narrativo che aiuta a digerire facilmente quello che è un contenuto sostanzialmente informativo.

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10. Well written, Jason Schreier proves again his interest and knowledge of the games industry, this is not only for enthusiasts but also for anyone who likes a good read!

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11. Loved the pacing and how easy it was to follow a troubled 30-year history of one of the most important and influential studios of the games industry, and one that I was very unfamiliar with. Schreier did it again! Looking forward to his next book

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12. Just as Jason’s other books this is exceedingly well written and incredibly hard to put down. Anyone with interest in the gaming industry should read this.

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13. I am an avid player of Blizzard’s games. It is awesome to join the dots of events and comments of people during the years when things were good and bad. Thank you author.My only quip was – felt like the author even though he had interviewed 350+ former staff of the company, I wished he could have interviewed some of the more recent names eg Jeff Keplan (I assume it isn’t possible eg NDA or whatever) some parts felt more a broad stroke of events and not enough juicy details – I am greedy probably …

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