#398 - Into the Nexus: “Turn It Off & On Again”
• Garrett • Kyle • NotParadox or Guest
Tracking Link:
https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/
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Intro: Welcome to Into the Nexus! The Heroes of the Storm podcast!
We’ve been had! Heroes of the Storm awaits its season role and next big patch. We know reworks and balance await us, but we don’t know when. Blizzard/Activision made headlines again this week and it left the whole “park” of Heroes of the Storm feeling off. Garrett and Kyle discuss the future but also the present. CCL is going strong into its first week of competition and there is quite a bit to glean from it.
- Sylvanas Main? Varian
- NGS Teams are SL getting ready for finals
- CCL has a strong start!
Manenice Concludes at Noon
PezRadar Blizzard - Community Manager
Nothing to share today. Just to set expectations - But I always do love these summonings.
Hopefully something soon :)
- Previously announced the Stukov
CCL 2021 Season 3
- 30k, WildHeart, Oxygen, & Simplicity are all 1-0 after the first week with 30k & WildHeart both winning their matchups 3-0.
- Week 1
- WildHeart beat Chilly Mountain 3-0
- Simplicity beat Diamond Hands 3-2
- 30k beat Granit Gaming 3-0
- And Oxygen beat Storm 3-1
Popular Winning Heroes
- Valla
- Wildheart in all 3 of their games.
- Simplicity in 3 of their 5 games (2 winning games)
- Blaze - Didn’t come up last week but appears to be a darling this season.
- Simplicity in 4 games (and all of their winning games)
- 1 of 30k’s games
- 2 of Oxygen’s winning games (taken by Storm in 1 of the others)
- The meta: Pick or Ban These Heroes
- Stukov, Dehaka, Junkrat, Hogger, Diablo, Lunara
- Honorable mentions: Maeiv, Lost Vikings, Anub’arak, Falstad
Links
Patreon Mention: Patreon.com/ITN
Thanks to our Patreon producers Declan H, Chris K, Shawn B, Mike R, & JM Tibbles!
Patron Thanks Doc for keeping track
- Conor Richter
Possible Conversations
Blizzard Company Stuff
Twitter Chain by contract worker - Zach Fischer #AbetterABK
It's sad to see Heroes abandoned the way it has been. There was a time when it was my favorite game to play, and the work I have done with that team is some of my best work ever. I learned so much and had so much fun playing with those characters and ideas! I hope it gets revived
- I got my first couple of gigs working on things in an official capacity in 2015 when I got to create some weapon art for Hearthstone and some holiday portraits for Heroes of the Storm. Both were exhilarating learning experiences, even if it didn't pay all that great.
- The number of portraits being assigned grew from there as I proved myself to be capable and dependable. 8 portraits. Then 15. Then 20. I think I may have maxed out at 22 + 6/8 sprays? While the workload increased, the deadline often did not, but I got it done w/ very few hiccups.
- As the years increased, I got to do more and more work for HOTS and it was always exciting! I would get new yearly contract agreements to sign, but never really got an increase in pay. To be fair, I never asked. I figured I was building good will. You know, not rocking the boat.
- In 2019 got to work on redoing the loading screen maps for WCIII:RF which was a very different experience from anything I was used to. I had to produce DOZENS of illustrations on a pretty tight deadline. More than that, my experience with management was different.
- Instead of the familiar names I could contact if I needed clarification or a green light on an idea, who would get back to me usually within a few hours, I had a new team to report to who were often seemingly confused by my basic questions and would take in cases days to respond.
- The whole while, I was still being pressed to finish my work on time, regardless of anything else gumming up the works. I realized that that's just sometimes how these things go. Dug in. Took initiative to solve some problems myself, and got it done. I was exhausted.
- I was applauded for my hard work, but still paid a portion of what my time would be worth elsewhere, but once again, I didn't complain. It was another title I could put under my belt. It had value to me in the long game I was playing to become a full time employee.
- In 2020, the gigs began to slow down as the studio grappled with Covid and how to continue production in a pandemic. I continued to get assignments, but they were not as frequent. My last assignment was for HOTS and was completed in fall of 2020. Things went quiet.
- I was contacted by one of my directors in the fall before the holiday season to say I wasn't needed for any holiday portraits and that the team would be scaling back operations. I was given a new contract to sign for 2021 and a short intro to a new producer I would report to.
- I responded with a friendly hello and introduction of my own and said I was very much looking forward to working with them over the next year. I got no response. Even to today, I have not heard back. I have sent several follow up emails.
- After a few months of hearing nothing, I messaged my previous point person who told me to hang in there, that he had my back, and that I was on the "short list" for new positions when they came along. It was reassuring. He is a good dude. I still believe he wants me to be there.
- After a few more months I pinged him again to see how things were coming along and if he knew when production might be getting ramped up again. His response, while friendly, seemed more uncertain and less optimistic. He was as in the dark as I was. He too was being run around.
- My last communication with him was a couple months ago right before all of the mess of what was going on behind the scenes was revealed. He was still friendly, but was honestly at a loss to tell me any good news. I knew then, it was likely I wouldn’t be getting any work in 2021.
Outro
Patreon Shout Out
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Thanks to Gorath for our intro music and briangriffithmusic.com (@briangriffith) for our outro..
Personal Stuff
Garrett
- Follow Garrett @GarrettArt
- NOMOONart.com to hire Garrett for graphic design and video editing
- The Angry Chicken: A Hearthstone Podcast
- R2-T2
Kyle
- Twitch.tv/kylefergusson
- Kylefergusson.com