Martin Maenza's Reviews > Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment

Grand Central Publishing provided an early galley for review.

As a former software developer and a life-long videogame player, this new release caught my attention. And I've played a Blizzard game or two in my time.

There is a lot of history in these pages, both from the people and products that came out of the Blizzard company as well as references to other software developers and games. It will, therefore, appeal a lot more strongly to those who are familiar with and/or interested in the topic. Schreier moves through thirty-three years of videogame history at a fairly solid pace, hitting the highlights (and lowlights) as well as sprinkling in the important notes and recollections of people who were involved.

Having worked for a large computer company early in my career (IBM), I could very much relate to Blizzard's cycle of growth, faltering and reorganization. It was also interesting to see how Blizzard struggled when it came to the role (or lack thereof) of women in the company, and it was appalling to read about the amount of harassment female staff members had to endure within that corporate culture.