Reposted by Melialis
what a fantastic all-timer thread on this phenomena and the psychology behind it
I think about this all the time and not understanding this is the difference between successful liminal horror, and just horrorslop. liminal horror is about the baked-in hostility of public spaces we millenials saw die
![“We really started mobilizing as one Blizzard unit in [the] last couple of months, and I think that really helped put the pressure on,” Paul Cox, senior game designer on World of Warcraft, told Aftermath.
"I feel like the company dragged its feet and did a lot of posturing and wasting time until the very, very last moment."
Prior to spring of this year, the WoW team, which unionized in 2024, had gotten the lion's share of bargaining time. Other units found themselves stuck in the mud. Higher-ups were effectively stalling the whole process—unfortunately nothing new for unionized workers under Microsoft’s umbrella.
"For this whole year of bargaining on the Diablo side—and I imagine on the rest of the units as well—we received so few [bargaining] dates, but we kind of had the understanding that whatever WoW was able to win would at least influence and set the floor for the rest of our units,” Diablo senior environment artist Mahreen Fatima told Aftermath. “We adopted this messaging about how WoW's wins are our wins, so we should be out there mobilizing with them. But truly, I feel like the company dragged its feet and did a lot of posturing and wasting time until the very, very last moment this last month to finally be able to say, 'OK, yes, we are willing to extend this contract to everyone.' We really did not have any indication that we could get this done until last month."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5gdejlhcswjbzraadoltdpps/bafkreih6u6gzajbd63dovnmlnc43z5g6i35d3n735rrdkopipyjopkl72e)
