March 9, 2024 • 30 mins
Topics include: Activision QA workers unionized; BAFTA Games Awards selected Diablo IV (among other games); Accessibility at Blizzard Entertainment; How to report
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
- It is time for Shattered Soul Stone,
featuring the latest newsfrom Sanctuary and beyond.
Each episode, a heroic partyof Nephilim Band together
to help keep you informed on everything in
the Diablo universe.
(00:28):
And now your Diablo Community podcast
- Coming to you fromsomewhere in sanctuary.
This is episode 4 4 9of Shattered Soul Stone,
your Diablo Community podcast.
This episode is called Union Strong.
It is March 8th, 2024. Andthis is Jen. And here we go.
(00:49):
With all the stuff I'vecollected for this episode,
I'm gonna start off with anarticle from Polygon written
by No Noel Carpenter,
titled 600 Activision QA Workers Unionize.
Microsoft voluntarily recognizesthis will be the largest
video game union in the country yet.
So here's a little bit from that article.
(01:10):
Hundreds of Activisionquality assurance workers are
unionizing with the CommunicationsWorkers of America CWA.
The union covers approximately600 Activision Central QA
workers across three locations.
Austin, Texas, Eden Prairie, Minnesota,
and El Segundo, California.
This makes the union calledActivision Quality Assurance
(01:33):
United cwa, the largest group
of unionized video game workers in the us.
The final vote is tallied at 390 votes.
Yes and eight votes no.
A CWA representative told Polygon quote,
something we organizedaround is that this,
in this industry, QA
and customer serviceare the lowest paid jobs
(01:55):
and often looked down uponeither within the industry
or by customers.
Activision, QA tester
and organizing committeemember Cara Fanon told Polygon
quote, it's easy for people to say qa, oh,
I found a bug even though we logged tens
of thousands of bugs.
So why is QA unionizing as opposed
to other people in the industry?
(02:16):
We have the weakest protections currently
and we want to make sure that we're strong
so our work can keep going the way it is.
We want to be supporting these games
and working really hard on them.
End of quote, ActivisionQuality Assurance.
United dash CW memberswork on games published
by Activision Publishing,including franchises like Call
of Duty Crash, Bandicootand Tony Hawk Pro Skater.
(02:39):
The group joins unionized Microsoft
and Activision Blizzardemployees at Blizzard Albany.
Raven Software and Zenax,the Blizzard, Albany
and Raven Software Unionswere brought under Microsoft
with the company's $68.7 billion.
Activision Blizzard merger.
Previously, Zenax WorkersUnited was the largest group
of video game industryQA workers at Microsoft
(03:01):
and across companies in theUS with more than 300 workers.
Like the organizing effectsat Zenax, Activision,
QA workers reportedly did notface the union busting tactics
that were alleged to haveoccurred during the Blizzard,
Albany and RavenSoftware's Union campaigns.
That's because Microsoft signeda labor neutrality agreement
with CWA in 2022, which basically acts,
(03:24):
which is basically a contract
that Microsoft muststay neutral within all
union interactions.
Agreements like this are not common.
Resa Ovitz Profess Professor of Labor Law
and Employment at Laws CornellSchool, Cornell's School
of Industrial Labor and Relations,
and Academic Director for IRL's,
(03:44):
the Worker Institute told Polygon in 2023
after XM Max's Union win.
There's more to this article
and you'll be able to find itover@shatteredsoulstone.com.
In addition, we have anarticle from The Verge,
which is similar, but probably
we'll have different things to say.
It's titled Activision QAWorkers formed the largest US
video game union, yetorganized with the help
(04:06):
of the CWA Activision Quality Assurance.
United has 600 members across Texas,
California, and Minnesota.
This is written by Anne Parrish.
Around 600 workers
and Activision's PublishingQuality Assurance Department
have formed a union assisted
by the communications Workers of America.
The employees completed their vote
with the results certifiedon Friday, March 8th.
(04:27):
That's today with thatActivision Quality Assurance,
United CWA becomes the latest,the latest union to arise out
of Microsoft's gaming division
and the largest video gameunion in the United States.
In 2022, Microsoft affirmeda labor neutrality agreement
with the CWA, which eases theorganization process of the,
(04:47):
at the company and its subsidiaries,
including Activision Blizzard.
In an interview withthe Verge, Tom Shelley,
a technical requirements specialist,
and one of Activision QualityAssurance United's organizers
said the Labor Neutrality Agreement
and Microsoft's acquisition
of Activision Blizzardlast year made their goals
of unionizing easier to accomplish.
(05:09):
Quote, this has been an emergent effort
that's ar arisen in thelast few weeks in response
to the opportunities we've had
to freely organize followingthe merger, Shelly said,
as QA workers, we oftenhave the weakest protections
and the lowest pay of anyworkers in the industry,
even though our work isintegral to make to the success
of the companies we work for
and the titles we make inquality assurance workers test
(05:31):
games looking for bugs
and other issues, flagging themfor other developers to fix.
Since the majority of QA jobsare typically entry level,
the industry has a reputationfor devaluing tho these roles,
emphasizing the needfor labor protections,
Shelly praised Microsoft
for voluntarily recognizingthe union in hopes it will
inspire more organizingat the company and beyond.
(05:52):
And there's a little bit more with that.
We've also got, uh, from the A BK workers
and CWA code, CWA together,
and they wrote this ActivisionQA vision statements.
They have a picture here that says,
Activision Quality Assurance United
and some the letters underneath it.
And a, uh, very blocky handholding a con like a controller.
(06:12):
Activision Publishing produces some
of the most profitable titlesin the history of gaming.
The Call of Duty franchisealone generates billions
of dollars with millions ofconcurrent players every year.
However, as quality assurance workers
for Activision Publishing,
we are regularly undercompensated and undervalued.
Despite our essentialrole in the development
(06:33):
of such highly regardedtitles, we, the workers
of Activision Publishing QA inAustin, Texas, Eden Prairie,
Minnesota, and El Segundo,California have come together
to form one large union
and fight side by sidefor our rights as workers.
The dread and uncertaintyof the recent layoffs
and the opportunity afforded
by the neutrality agreement have pushed us
(06:55):
to combine organizing efforts
and collectively address our issues.
We chose to build our union on these
foundational principles.
Democracy. As a worker ledunion, it's impossible for us
to be heard without fair, equalproportional representation
that is directly beholden to our members.
Diversity by embracingeveryone's unique skills
(07:16):
and backgrounds, we are all capable
of doing far more togetherthan we could ever do
Individually equity, the long history
of systemic inequality withinour country has made it
impossible for us to ignorethe unique needs of our members
and must be addressedcollectively whenever possible.
Solidarity. Our power comesfrom us standing together in
(07:37):
unity and injury to one is aninjury to all transparency.
Transparency is the only wayour union can uphold our other
principles and must be defended.
It goes on from there for a little while,
and there's a whole list of people
that had signed on to this.
But yeah, I, I love whenplaces that have, uh,
that are working for largecompanies of whatever kind,
(07:58):
I love when they get a union
because it means they'regonna have more protection,
typically speaking, you know,
unless you do something really awful
after you've gotten your union.
I mean, I don't know,but I think this is good.
I think this is something thatthe United States in general
needs to have because
otherwise you end up withpeople having, you know, a job
that is looked down upon
(08:18):
and as such cannot make a higher
wage than what they were getting.
Now they possibly can. And Ithink that's a beautiful thing.
We've also got a shortthread here from the,
uh, a better a, BK.
You've probably seen them on Twitter
or, you know, used to be, uh,
it's now X but it used to be Twitter.
And this is what theywrote about four hours ago.
This union was formed on fivekey principles that we wish
(08:40):
to uphold within our workplaces.
Democracy, diversity, equity,solidarity, and transparency.
With our collective voicesjoined together, we aim
to bring a brighterfuture to both our company
and the industry at large.
And then I think thisthing probably links over
to the thing I just read.
Let's see if I'm right. Yeah,so we already read that one,
but it's nice to see a BKstill kind of like, you know,
(09:01):
being pro-union out there
because people need thatswitching topics entirely here.
So this one is titledNominations Announced BAFTA Games
Award 2024.
This was on March 7th,so that was yesterday.
And this was the 20th.
The BAFTA Games Awards, uh,
that took place at the QueenElizabeth Hall in London.
(09:24):
And the highlights of thenomination include a bunch
of different games, but one of them
that is on there underthe category other games
was Diablo four, whichis kind of interesting
because there's a wholelot of games in there.
And Diablo four made it into that part.
And I think that's kind of cool as well
because, you know,
we all play Diablo four atleast a little bit, right?
(09:45):
So I think that's good. Butit also has like games I've
never heard of, um,, which,
you know, it's the way it is.
HIN Impact is in there.
Um, Forza Horizon five, Forza Motorsport,
final Fantasy XIV online,I cannot not pronounce
that to save my life.
Cyberpunk 2077. A wholebunch of things are in there.
(10:06):
So it's cool that Diablofour is part of that group.
Sometimes video games ingeneral are really fun to play
unless you have accessibility issues.
So you could see over on, it's,it's the Battle net account
and it says accessibilityat Blizzard Entertainment.
It was updated a year ago.
Um, so I'm not sure if they'rejust sticking to this one
(10:29):
or if it'll change in the future,
but here's some things that are in there.
It says common problems.
I have an accessibility issuewith a Blizzard product.
Where can I voice my concernsabout barriers in your games
that make it difficult for me to play?
Can I provide a suggestionon how to improve the game
for those of us with a disability?
And then there's a note in here.
It says this email, whichit's certainly not an email,
(10:51):
it's on their site as well.
So they probably sent outemails somewhere to someone.
This email is to reportaccessibility issues
or suggest improvementsfor improving accessibility
for Blizzard products and services.
Customer support does notmonitor the accessibility inbox
for account issues suchas a lost password, um,
account access, trouble,authenticator issues, et cetera.
(11:14):
Please contact customer support.
So here's a little bit more.
Every Voice Matters at Blizzard,
and we want to make sure ourEpic entertainment experiences
are truly epic for all our players,
as if an accessibility issue has become a
barrier to play our games.
We would like to hear fromyou to file a detailed report,
including videos and screenshots.
One email our Blizzard accessibility team.
(11:36):
There's a, a link inthere in your email title,
please indicate what game orproduct you are writing about.
Example, Overwatch Battlenet Desktop App, world
of Warcraft game website,
and include as much detailedinformation as possible due
to the volume of reports,
you may not receive aresponse from our team,
however, we take allreports very seriously.
(11:57):
Thank you for your dedication
to helping Blizzardbring the world together
through Epic Entertainment.
And I think this is really important
because I have some,um, disability issues.
I have a disease called fibromyalgia,
and when it starts kicking in,it's excruciatingly painful
and it's really hard for meto, you know, keep playing
with the controller ofmy ex, my Xbox, right?
(12:19):
So sometimes that's kindof a problem for me,
and I can, as I level up a character, it,
it gets a little bit better ifI'm not having, you know, a,
a neurological disease attack me.
However, um, sometimes, um,
just having a battle scenariothat's very, very large
with a lot of differentmonsters or creatures
(12:41):
or whatever you'refighting that lasts more
than my hands can handle.
It also brings that on.
And I don't think that Blizzard, whoever's
behind this thing at Blizzard really
thinks about that sort of stuff.
You know, just in general, andthat's just talking for me.
I'm not gonna, you know,guesstimate about what other people
that have also have, you know,
disabilities would think about this,
(13:02):
but it seems like they're tryingto make a start, you know,
and trying to kind of get things in there.
And one of the things thatI'm actually gonna read, um,
well not actually read, um,
that I've been thinkingabout is there are a number
of times you go into Diablo form
and there are popups that come up,
like you're in like a building
and these things areslowly glittering at you
and you walk over thereand then something pops up
(13:24):
and describes what is, you know,
what the thing is sitting there
or what the meaning of itis, that kind of thing.
None of those are audio.
So if you have, um, very,if you have difficulty
with your eyes, if you havelike, um, I don't know,
I guess if you were completely
and utterly blind, this would be a problem
and you know, directly
(13:44):
because you wouldn't be able to see what
that information was.
But if you have like,you know, any other kind
of eye issues, that'sgonna be really hard to try
to figure out what the little text says.
And I'm hoping maybethey can make it bigger.
I don't think theyreally listen to my show.
I really don't think so. You know,
why would they, they got a lot going on.
But I do think that thingslike this are important
to talk about becausethere are people out there
(14:06):
that are gonna have problems
with a video game no matterwhatever video game it is
because the people who designedit didn't really think too
much about, well what if thisperson can't really see the
tiny print, you know, that kind of stuff.
So this is somethingI wanted to talk about
because I thought it was important.
In addition, we alsohave from a month ago,
which I don't think I've seen this one
(14:26):
before, it's also from Battlenet
and it's titled ReportingForums Post, which kind
of makes me laugh becausesometimes like there'll be a forum
for let's say Diablo four
or any other, you know, blizzard game
and people will come in
and say, Hey, I really like this thing,
but I needed to do this instead.
Or, you know, whatever. Andthen they all get like jumped on
(14:48):
by angry people that come injust to be a jerk, you know?
So this is from a monthago, common problems,
posts on the forums needs to be removed.
Player is harassing me on the forums
or I don't have the optionto report a forum post.
So here's what you do.
If you wanna like reportsomething absolutely horrible
(15:11):
and get it removed,
customer service representativesare not able to check
or action forum reports.
You can report forum posts thatviolates the for forum code
of conduct through the forums themselves.
Go to the post, click on theclick on the flag icon at the
bottom of the post select thereason you are reporting the
post click flag Post forummoderators will review
(15:33):
and investigate as reports come in.
So if you, you know, I've lookedat the forum sometimes and
after a while I'm just like, nah,
I don't think I wanna be there.
You know, there's also somerelated articles off to the side
and one of them is my forumpost was deleted.
And I'm just like, okay,you know, what did you say?
You know, what did yousay that got it deleted?
(15:54):
I don't know. But if you'reever running through the forums
and just something absolutely vile is
there, you can report it.
And again, everythingwill be in the show notes.
So if you, if you findone, you can just go
to the show notes connectedto this particular episode
and there it'll be, there'salso a Blizzard refund policy.
Now I've never heard of this one before.
(16:14):
And um, it's connected to battle nets
and various games at the top here
and there is a DeckardCanes staring over at you.
Like, what do you want?I'm trying to work.
That's what it kind of looks like.
So here's a little bit,we've posted this policy
to make our refund philosophy clear
around purchases made fromBlizzard on battle.net.
(16:35):
This document is part ofour official terms of sale,
our philosophy, we believe in our mission
to create epic entertainment experiences
and we want you to feel confidentyou're getting the product
and support you expect from Blizzard.
If you change your mindabout a recent purchase
or you haven't used it, we'll try to work
with you on a refund.
We may withdraw refund eligibilityfor abuse of this policy.
(16:58):
Of course, that's everycompany in the world
that sells anything does havelike, well you've, you know,
if you're abusing this policy
then we don't need you anymore.
You know, uh, the same goes for violations
of the end game code of conduct
or the end user license agreement.
Now the code of conduct has
to do in general from memory here.
You know, are you beinga jerk in a video game?
(17:20):
That's kind of what that is.
, how to request a refund.
You can request a refundusing our support site
and selecting the relevant game or order.
We can only provide refunds
for purchases made on our own platform.
This includes purchases madethrough the Blizzard shop,
the battle.net app orwithin one of our games.
We will typically refundpurchases to the method
(17:40):
of payment used for theoriginal transaction.
In some cases such as those
where the original paymentmethod cannot be refunded.
We may provide the refund in the form
of battle net.net balance.
If the automated servicedoesn't address your needs,
your support team is available to help.
There's a link to that.There's some refund guidelines,
games and expansions.
We refund paid games
or expansions within 14days of purchase, as long
(18:03):
as you haven't playedfor more than two hours.
Those games include Worldof Warcraft, Diablo four,
Diablo three, and its ExpansionsWarcraft three, Reforge,
StarCraft Remastered andDiablo two resurrected.
And then there's endgame itemsthat you have to, you know,
that people pay for sometimesand stuff like that.
And there's examples in here
and it goes on and on from there.
There is a blizzard balance
(18:24):
and purchased virtual currency thing.
We'll refund purchases of Blizzard balance
and purchased virtual currencywithin 14 days of purchase
as long as you haven'tspent the currency yet.
And they're talking aboutHearthstone, Rone Stones,
Overwatch League tokens,Overwatch two coins
and tokens, Diablo four Platinum Diablo,
immortal Eternal Orbs andHeroes of the Storm Gems.
(18:46):
I'm surprised Heroes ofthe Storm is still in there
because I haven't reallyseen many people playing it
and sticking it on social
media, you know, that kind of thing.
Then there's this, thisjust made my night actually.
So Overwatch posted a video
and it says Overwatch two
with the you a little two onthe side and there's a little x
and then there's something in Kanji
(19:07):
and underneath it it says Cowboy Bebop.
It is a collaboration trailer.
So what you have here, and I'mnot gonna play it right now
because you'll only get audio
from it and not just the visual.
So, um, I'll put it in the show notes
so you can track this down pretty easily.
The video is a minute and 34 seconds long
and it's got various Overwatchcharacters dressed up like
(19:28):
the Cowboy bebop charactersand I think it's fantastic
'cause I fucking love CowboyBebop I have for years.
This makes me really happy.
Is it gonna make me wanna playOverwatch too? I don't know.
Probably not. I'm kindof more into Diablo,
but I'm glad this exists anyway.
And then we have the Diablofour patch notes. So here we go.
(19:48):
These were posted today, March 8th.
The Diablo four team has beenmonitoring your feedback As we
introduce patches to keepyour experience in sanctuary
smooth, we will update the below list
and denote whether the fixesare intended for pc, Xbox,
PlayStation, or all platforms.
This one starts with allplatforms from March 12th, 2024.
(20:09):
I guess that's when it's going to happen
'cause we're not at March 12 yet.
Bug fixes accessibility fixed
and issue where the screenreader did not read out the view
button when opening the trials menu.
See that goes back to the accessibility
thing I was talking about.
If you can't see it, you don'tknow what's gonna happen.
Fixed an issue where the screenreader did not announce all
(20:29):
the information in the trials menu
unless the player was in world tier four,
which takes a while to getto for some fixed an issue
where the screen reader didnot announce the party entry
trials and weekly resultmenus fixed an issue
where the screen reader didnot read options in dropdown
menus in various instances fixed an issue
where the screen reader did notannounce available points in
(20:50):
the skill tree season ofthe construct fixed an issue
where the chaw was considered a minion,
which made the sacrificial glyph unusable.
Okay, that's a problem.
Fixed an issue where thenext ranked description
for the chaw ability burningsupport was inaccurate, fixed.
An issue where the barrier granted
by the haw ability protect didnot trigger the damage bonus
(21:12):
from the conceited aspect.
Fixed an issue where malicemeteor could still deal D could
still deal damaged players couldstill deal damaged players,
is probably meant two players
after his defeat, uh, fixed an issue
where the laborist proficient objective
could not be completed.
The objective can now alsogain progress from acquiring
(21:33):
murmuring caches.
In addition to uncertain stonecaches and fixed an issue.
Al Stone caches couldn't becrafted when only the duration
support stone was left to get
to max level gameplay fixed an issue
where equipping multipleinstances of the aspect
of the moonrise would only usethe first instance equipped.
Instead of using the strongestversion equipped
(21:55):
fixed an issue where the gauntletplay again button did not
take the player to a new instance
of the same dungeon fixed an issue
where a nightmare dungeon could be reset
by using a nightmare sigil while
inside the dungeon nightmare.
Sigils can no longer be used while
inside an active nightmaredungeon fix an issue
where tortured gifts inhell tide could not drop at
least one equipment.
(22:15):
And then we have somedungeons fixed an issue
where the tomb Lord bossin the ion fields would not
reappear if the player leftthe boss arena immediately
after placing the last statue.
That's a problem. I'mglad they fixed that.
That would be weird. You'dbe like, Hey, it's supposed
to be here now what's going on?
And you didn't know. Wellnow you know, fix an issue
where these spider collarmonsters could sometimes not spawn
in the sco rocco rocco ca caverns,
(22:39):
which would block progression fix an issue
where an insufficient amountof animus carriers could fail
to spawn in the dark ravineblocking progression.
Fix an issue where thegauntlet could be reentered
after leaving via a scroll of escape.
And then there's some otherinterface stuff fixed.
An issue where season journeyobjectives would not display
as completed when applicable.
(23:00):
Fixed an issue whereswapping between menus
and the world map while ina vault could cause the map
to erroneously default to the gate hall.
Map fixed an issue where the Hall
of Ancients records did notdenote if a character is playing
on hardcore difficulty, fixed an issue
where there was no dungeonexit icon on the map
or mini map had gauntlet dungeons like,
well this is your life now.
Right? Fixed an issue
(23:21):
where the butcher's barrier would not
show as being depleted.
Fix an issue wherefiltering the leaderboard
to all platforms did not includePC entries fixed an issue
where the map icon for pillars
of glory would only be visiblein close proximity to it.
And then there's somevarious, uh, stuff fixed.
An issue where the visual effect
of meteor did not match thedamage radius of the ability.
(23:43):
Fixed an issue where thearrows fired from rogue's
volley could appear invisible.
Various performance, visualand stability improvements.
That's what we've got there.
There's another videothat is about nine minutes
and 37 seconds long.
It is titled Rise to the Challenge,
the Gauntlet featuring Macro Bio Boy
and he's going to talk to you through it.
(24:03):
Again, I'm not gonna pull inthe audio into this podcast,
but again, everything will be in the
show notes for you to check out.
Um, so that's something you could look at.
And if you're, I'm not readyfor the gauntlet yet, um,
maybe I will be at some point.
But I like that Blizzardis, you know, finding people
who are really good at this game.
Much better than me, I would assume.
'cause I don't play a lot.
(24:24):
Um, I play when I can
and you know, it's like really good
to see somebody within thecommunity explaining how
to do the gauntlet thing.
I think that's awesome and I think
Blizzard should keep doing that.
We've also got somestuff here from Wow Head.
This one's from three daysago, Diablo four leaderboards,
day one Roundup openingnight of the gauntlet.
This is written by J Tross,
(24:46):
which I hope I'm pronouncing correctly.
So it says this, the gauntletis finally out and with it.
So are the leaderboards a widely
requested Diablo four feature.
These leaderboards havebeen in flux all night
with the top 10 for eachclass, constantly shifting
as higher and higher scoresare achieved while day one's
launch means that the Hall
of Ancients is currently unpopulated.
(25:06):
We're taking a look at asnapshot of tonight's progress
and what it shows for each class.
Now keep in mind thiswas from three days ago.
There's an editor's notesaying, due to the rapid nature
of change in the openingnight's leaderboards,
this data was taken froma snapshot of builds
and leaderboards atapproximately 6:30 PM EST.
The data has changed since then.
(25:26):
However, we're focused onthis one instance for now
to represent the spread ofbuilds we've seen so far.
Additionally, due to the factthat many players have elected
to make their profilesprivate on the leaderboards,
we're currently exploring thebest way to present this data
as accurately and faithfully as possible.
We may incorporate feedback
and suggestions, so letus know in your thoughts,
your thoughts in the comments below.
(25:47):
And then they have the typesof things from top to bottom
and how much damage they do.
So the ball lightningsorcerers right at the top,
the Hoda charge Barbarianis right behind it.
Our Clash soer is next.
Uh, death Blow barbarian is after that,
but just very close to the one above it.
And then, you know, penetratingshot rogue, all that stuff,
it's all in there if you wannasee everything at the bottom
(26:08):
is the necromancer for somereason, I'm not really sure why.
Oh, it's the severe necro answer.
There is a bone spear one
that apparently got higherup in the, uh, thing
that they were looking at and there's
just a bunch of stuff in here.
Interesting to note, but tonot many players surprised is
that the hardcore playerbase is both smaller
and scoring differently thanstandard seasonal players.
(26:29):
Sorcerers who dominatestandard comparisons fall
behind barbarians in terms
of score while the otherclasses follow the same score.
Progression on average rogues are
by far the lowest scoringclass, which leads
to an interesting thought.
Will Blizzard use these scores in order
to address class tuning going forward?
DPS rankings in World ofWarcraft have been similarly used
(26:49):
for tuning purposes.
So only time will tell,
but leaderboards may havea distinct impact on future
metas in seasons to come.
Another one from Wow Head is from today.
Uh, community created Diablofour gauntlet map by Rob.
2 6 2 8.
Uh, this was posted by Theod
and there's pictures ofthe, the ranks you can get.
So the first one is bloodied.It's a silver shield.
(27:12):
The steadfast one's alittle bit more gold.
The iron wheeled has purple in it
and then the worthy one has red in it
and it all has like a barbarian looking
helmet kind of thing.
And, uh, embedded withinthis article is a post from
Rob, 2 6 2 8.
And uh, it's from uh, x slash Twitter
and says community created this map
for my current gauntlet run inDiablo four, currently R one
(27:34):
with 9 39 K score on Barb.
We'll try to beat 1 million soon,
but I'm gonna go source first now.
He says, hope this overview helps you
to improve your personal score.
And there's like picturesof it here, like where to go
and you know, there's um,color coded things of where
to start and what todo, that kind of thing.
(27:54):
So I think that's kind of cool.
I don't think I'm gonnabe doing that tonight,
but maybe eventually.
And then we have one last thing here.
Diablo four patch 1.3 0.3 a.
Now live PlayStation tutorial
and a leaderboard filtering fixed.
This is posted one day ago
by Siic on Wow head Blizzardhas released Patch 1.3
(28:16):
0.3 A for Diablo four,which contains various bugs,
including a fix for thePlayStation first time player
experience appearing on every startup
and multiple leaderboardfiltering fixes.
Um, so March 7th, 2024 gameplay fix,
fix an issue on PlayStation
where first time playerexperiences triggered
whenever a player visitedthe Diablo four title screen
(28:37):
gauntlet fixed an issue
where the filtering the solo leaderboard
by friends could accidentallyprovide no results.
Fixed. An issue where filteringthe leaderboard by friends
or clans could lead to only one entry.
Fixed an issue whereplayers could not scroll
through all pages of the leaderboard.
Stability fixed various crashes
that occurred when playersinspected another player's
profile on the gauntlet leaderboard.
(28:58):
And this seems to be specifically for,
it says all platforms,
but I think PlayStation isprobably having an issue with
that specifically.
And that's really all I've got for today.
So I'm gonna close out the show now
and hopefully some of thiswas interesting to you.
And I'll be back in another week
with a brand new showyou have been listening
to Episode 4, 4 9 of theShattered Soul Stone.
(29:20):
Your Diablo communitypodcast missed an episode.
You can find the show blog
and listen to the show archives at
www.shatteredsoulstone.com.
Cub, join us in game.Our in-game, community
and clan, both namedShattered Soul Stone are open
to anyone who would like to join.
You could also join us on Discord.
For the ultimate team andcommunity-based experience,
find the Discord invitationlink on our Twitter at shattered
(29:42):
stone as well as theShattered Soul Stone website.
Thank you for listening.
- It is time for Shattered Soul Stone,
featuring the latest newsfrom Sanctuary and beyond.
Each episode, a heroic partyof Nephilim Band together
to help keep you informed on everything in
the Diablo universe.
(00:28):
And now your Diablo Community podcast
- Coming to you fromsomewhere in sanctuary.
This is episode 4 4 9of Shattered Soul Stone,
your Diablo Community podcast.
This episode is called Union Strong.
It is March 8th, 2024. Andthis is Jen. And here we go.
(00:49):
With all the stuff I'vecollected for this episode,
I'm gonna start off with anarticle from Polygon written
by No Noel Carpenter,
titled 600 Activision QA Workers Unionize.
Microsoft voluntarily recognizesthis will be the largest
video game union in the country yet.
So here's a little bit from that article.
(01:10):
Hundreds of Activisionquality assurance workers are
unionizing with the CommunicationsWorkers of America CWA.
The union covers approximately600 Activision Central QA
workers across three locations.
Austin, Texas, Eden Prairie, Minnesota,
and El Segundo, California.
This makes the union calledActivision Quality Assurance
(01:33):
United cwa, the largest group
of unionized video game workers in the us.
The final vote is tallied at 390 votes.
Yes and eight votes no.
A CWA representative told Polygon quote,
something we organizedaround is that this,
in this industry, QA
and customer serviceare the lowest paid jobs
(01:55):
and often looked down uponeither within the industry
or by customers.
Activision, QA tester
and organizing committeemember Cara Fanon told Polygon
quote, it's easy for people to say qa, oh,
I found a bug even though we logged tens
of thousands of bugs.
So why is QA unionizing as opposed
to other people in the industry?
(02:16):
We have the weakest protections currently
and we want to make sure that we're strong
so our work can keep going the way it is.
We want to be supporting these games
and working really hard on them.
End of quote, ActivisionQuality Assurance.
United dash CW memberswork on games published
by Activision Publishing,including franchises like Call
of Duty Crash, Bandicootand Tony Hawk Pro Skater.
(02:39):
The group joins unionized Microsoft
and Activision Blizzardemployees at Blizzard Albany.
Raven Software and Zenax,the Blizzard, Albany
and Raven Software Unionswere brought under Microsoft
with the company's $68.7 billion.
Activision Blizzard merger.
Previously, Zenax WorkersUnited was the largest group
of video game industryQA workers at Microsoft
(03:01):
and across companies in theUS with more than 300 workers.
Like the organizing effectsat Zenax, Activision,
QA workers reportedly did notface the union busting tactics
that were alleged to haveoccurred during the Blizzard,
Albany and RavenSoftware's Union campaigns.
That's because Microsoft signeda labor neutrality agreement
with CWA in 2022, which basically acts,
(03:24):
which is basically a contract
that Microsoft muststay neutral within all
union interactions.
Agreements like this are not common.
Resa Ovitz Profess Professor of Labor Law
and Employment at Laws CornellSchool, Cornell's School
of Industrial Labor and Relations,
and Academic Director for IRL's,
(03:44):
the Worker Institute told Polygon in 2023
after XM Max's Union win.
There's more to this article
and you'll be able to find itover@shatteredsoulstone.com.
In addition, we have anarticle from The Verge,
which is similar, but probably
we'll have different things to say.
It's titled Activision QAWorkers formed the largest US
video game union, yetorganized with the help
(04:06):
of the CWA Activision Quality Assurance.
United has 600 members across Texas,
California, and Minnesota.
This is written by Anne Parrish.
Around 600 workers
and Activision's PublishingQuality Assurance Department
have formed a union assisted
by the communications Workers of America.
The employees completed their vote
with the results certifiedon Friday, March 8th.
(04:27):
That's today with thatActivision Quality Assurance,
United CWA becomes the latest,the latest union to arise out
of Microsoft's gaming division
and the largest video gameunion in the United States.
In 2022, Microsoft affirmeda labor neutrality agreement
with the CWA, which eases theorganization process of the,
(04:47):
at the company and its subsidiaries,
including Activision Blizzard.
In an interview withthe Verge, Tom Shelley,
a technical requirements specialist,
and one of Activision QualityAssurance United's organizers
said the Labor Neutrality Agreement
and Microsoft's acquisition
of Activision Blizzardlast year made their goals
of unionizing easier to accomplish.
(05:09):
Quote, this has been an emergent effort
that's ar arisen in thelast few weeks in response
to the opportunities we've had
to freely organize followingthe merger, Shelly said,
as QA workers, we oftenhave the weakest protections
and the lowest pay of anyworkers in the industry,
even though our work isintegral to make to the success
of the companies we work for
and the titles we make inquality assurance workers test
(05:31):
games looking for bugs
and other issues, flagging themfor other developers to fix.
Since the majority of QA jobsare typically entry level,
the industry has a reputationfor devaluing tho these roles,
emphasizing the needfor labor protections,
Shelly praised Microsoft
for voluntarily recognizingthe union in hopes it will
inspire more organizingat the company and beyond.
(05:52):
And there's a little bit more with that.
We've also got, uh, from the A BK workers
and CWA code, CWA together,
and they wrote this ActivisionQA vision statements.
They have a picture here that says,
Activision Quality Assurance United
and some the letters underneath it.
And a, uh, very blocky handholding a con like a controller.
(06:12):
Activision Publishing produces some
of the most profitable titlesin the history of gaming.
The Call of Duty franchisealone generates billions
of dollars with millions ofconcurrent players every year.
However, as quality assurance workers
for Activision Publishing,
we are regularly undercompensated and undervalued.
Despite our essentialrole in the development
(06:33):
of such highly regardedtitles, we, the workers
of Activision Publishing QA inAustin, Texas, Eden Prairie,
Minnesota, and El Segundo,California have come together
to form one large union
and fight side by sidefor our rights as workers.
The dread and uncertaintyof the recent layoffs
and the opportunity afforded
by the neutrality agreement have pushed us
(06:55):
to combine organizing efforts
and collectively address our issues.
We chose to build our union on these
foundational principles.
Democracy. As a worker ledunion, it's impossible for us
to be heard without fair, equalproportional representation
that is directly beholden to our members.
Diversity by embracingeveryone's unique skills
(07:16):
and backgrounds, we are all capable
of doing far more togetherthan we could ever do
Individually equity, the long history
of systemic inequality withinour country has made it
impossible for us to ignorethe unique needs of our members
and must be addressedcollectively whenever possible.
Solidarity. Our power comesfrom us standing together in
(07:37):
unity and injury to one is aninjury to all transparency.
Transparency is the only wayour union can uphold our other
principles and must be defended.
It goes on from there for a little while,
and there's a whole list of people
that had signed on to this.
But yeah, I, I love whenplaces that have, uh,
that are working for largecompanies of whatever kind,
(07:58):
I love when they get a union
because it means they'regonna have more protection,
typically speaking, you know,
unless you do something really awful
after you've gotten your union.
I mean, I don't know,but I think this is good.
I think this is something thatthe United States in general
needs to have because
otherwise you end up withpeople having, you know, a job
that is looked down upon
(08:18):
and as such cannot make a higher
wage than what they were getting.
Now they possibly can. And Ithink that's a beautiful thing.
We've also got a shortthread here from the,
uh, a better a, BK.
You've probably seen them on Twitter
or, you know, used to be, uh,
it's now X but it used to be Twitter.
And this is what theywrote about four hours ago.
This union was formed on fivekey principles that we wish
(08:40):
to uphold within our workplaces.
Democracy, diversity, equity,solidarity, and transparency.
With our collective voicesjoined together, we aim
to bring a brighterfuture to both our company
and the industry at large.
And then I think thisthing probably links over
to the thing I just read.
Let's see if I'm right. Yeah,so we already read that one,
but it's nice to see a BKstill kind of like, you know,
(09:01):
being pro-union out there
because people need thatswitching topics entirely here.
So this one is titledNominations Announced BAFTA Games
Award 2024.
This was on March 7th,so that was yesterday.
And this was the 20th.
The BAFTA Games Awards, uh,
that took place at the QueenElizabeth Hall in London.
(09:24):
And the highlights of thenomination include a bunch
of different games, but one of them
that is on there underthe category other games
was Diablo four, whichis kind of interesting
because there's a wholelot of games in there.
And Diablo four made it into that part.
And I think that's kind of cool as well
because, you know,
we all play Diablo four atleast a little bit, right?
(09:45):
So I think that's good. Butit also has like games I've
never heard of, um,
you know, it's the way it is.
HIN Impact is in there.
Um, Forza Horizon five, Forza Motorsport,
final Fantasy XIV online,I cannot not pronounce
that to save my life.
Cyberpunk 2077. A wholebunch of things are in there.
(10:06):
So it's cool that Diablofour is part of that group.
Sometimes video games ingeneral are really fun to play
unless you have accessibility issues.
So you could see over on, it's,it's the Battle net account
and it says accessibilityat Blizzard Entertainment.
It was updated a year ago.
Um, so I'm not sure if they'rejust sticking to this one
(10:29):
or if it'll change in the future,
but here's some things that are in there.
It says common problems.
I have an accessibility issuewith a Blizzard product.
Where can I voice my concernsabout barriers in your games
that make it difficult for me to play?
Can I provide a suggestionon how to improve the game
for those of us with a disability?
And then there's a note in here.
It says this email, whichit's certainly not an email,
(10:51):
it's on their site as well.
So they probably sent outemails somewhere to someone.
This email is to reportaccessibility issues
or suggest improvementsfor improving accessibility
for Blizzard products and services.
Customer support does notmonitor the accessibility inbox
for account issues suchas a lost password, um,
account access, trouble,authenticator issues, et cetera.
(11:14):
Please contact customer support.
So here's a little bit more.
Every Voice Matters at Blizzard,
and we want to make sure ourEpic entertainment experiences
are truly epic for all our players,
as if an accessibility issue has become a
barrier to play our games.
We would like to hear fromyou to file a detailed report,
including videos and screenshots.
One email our Blizzard accessibility team.
(11:36):
There's a, a link inthere in your email title,
please indicate what game orproduct you are writing about.
Example, Overwatch Battlenet Desktop App, world
of Warcraft game website,
and include as much detailedinformation as possible due
to the volume of reports,
you may not receive aresponse from our team,
however, we take allreports very seriously.
(11:57):
Thank you for your dedication
to helping Blizzardbring the world together
through Epic Entertainment.
And I think this is really important
because I have some,um, disability issues.
I have a disease called fibromyalgia,
and when it starts kicking in,it's excruciatingly painful
and it's really hard for meto, you know, keep playing
with the controller ofmy ex, my Xbox, right?
(12:19):
So sometimes that's kindof a problem for me,
and I can, as I level up a character, it,
it gets a little bit better ifI'm not having, you know, a,
a neurological disease attack me.
However, um, sometimes, um,
just having a battle scenariothat's very, very large
with a lot of differentmonsters or creatures
(12:41):
or whatever you'refighting that lasts more
than my hands can handle.
It also brings that on.
And I don't think that Blizzard, whoever's
behind this thing at Blizzard really
thinks about that sort of stuff.
You know, just in general, andthat's just talking for me.
I'm not gonna, you know,guesstimate about what other people
that have also have, you know,
disabilities would think about this,
(13:02):
but it seems like they're tryingto make a start, you know,
and trying to kind of get things in there.
And one of the things thatI'm actually gonna read, um,
well not actually read, um,
that I've been thinkingabout is there are a number
of times you go into Diablo form
and there are popups that come up,
like you're in like a building
and these things areslowly glittering at you
and you walk over thereand then something pops up
(13:24):
and describes what is, you know,
what the thing is sitting there
or what the meaning of itis, that kind of thing.
None of those are audio.
So if you have, um, very,if you have difficulty
with your eyes, if you havelike, um, I don't know,
I guess if you were completely
and utterly blind, this would be a problem
and you know, directly
(13:44):
because you wouldn't be able to see what
that information was.
But if you have like,you know, any other kind
of eye issues, that'sgonna be really hard to try
to figure out what the little text says.
And I'm hoping maybethey can make it bigger.
I don't think theyreally listen to my show.
I really don't think so. You know,
why would they, they got a lot going on.
But I do think that thingslike this are important
to talk about becausethere are people out there
(14:06):
that are gonna have problems
with a video game no matterwhatever video game it is
because the people who designedit didn't really think too
much about, well what if thisperson can't really see the
tiny print, you know, that kind of stuff.
So this is somethingI wanted to talk about
because I thought it was important.
In addition, we alsohave from a month ago,
which I don't think I've seen this one
(14:26):
before, it's also from Battlenet
and it's titled ReportingForums Post
of makes me laugh becausesometimes like there'll be a forum
for let's say Diablo four
or any other, you know, blizzard game
and people will come in
and say, Hey, I really like this thing,
but I needed to do this instead.
Or, you know, whatever. Andthen they all get like jumped on
(14:48):
by angry people that come injust to be a jerk, you know?
So this is from a monthago, common problems,
posts on the forums needs to be removed.
Player is harassing me on the forums
or I don't have the optionto report a forum post.
So here's what you do.
If you wanna like reportsomething absolutely horrible
(15:11):
customer service representativesare not able to check
or action forum reports.
You can report forum posts thatviolates the for forum code
of conduct through the forums themselves.
Go to the post, click on theclick on the flag icon at the
bottom of the post select thereason you are reporting the
post click flag Post forummoderators will review
(15:33):
and investigate as reports come in.
So if you, you know, I've lookedat the forum sometimes and
after a while I'm just like, nah,
I don't think I wanna be there.
You know, there's also somerelated articles off to the side
and one of them is my forumpost was deleted
And I'm just like, okay,you know, what did you say?
You know, what did yousay that got it deleted?
(15:54):
I don't know. But if you'reever running through the forums
and just something absolutely vile is
there, you can report it.
And again, everythingwill be in the show notes.
So if you, if you findone, you can just go
to the show notes connectedto this particular episode
and there it'll be, there'salso a Blizzard refund policy.
Now I've never heard of this one before.
(16:14):
And um, it's connected to battle nets
and various games at the top here
and there is a DeckardCanes staring over at you.
Like, what do you want?I'm trying to work.
That's what it kind of looks like.
So here's a little bit,we've posted this policy
to make our refund philosophy clear
around purchases made fromBlizzard on battle.net.
(16:35):
This document is part ofour official terms of sale,
our philosophy, we believe in our mission
to create epic entertainment experiences
and we want you to feel confidentyou're getting the product
and support you expect from Blizzard.
If you change your mindabout a recent purchase
or you haven't used it, we'll try to work
with you on a refund.
We may withdraw refund eligibilityfor abuse of this policy.
(16:58):
Of course, that's everycompany in the world
that sells anything does havelike, well you've, you know,
if you're abusing this policy
then we don't need you anymore.
You know, uh, the same goes for violations
of the end game code of conduct
or the end user license agreement.
Now the code of conduct has
to do in general from memory here.
You know, are you beinga jerk in a video game?
(17:20):
That's kind of what that is.
You can request a refundusing our support site
and selecting the relevant game or order.
We can only provide refunds
for purchases made on our own platform.
This includes purchases madethrough the Blizzard shop,
the battle.net app orwithin one of our games.
We will typically refundpurchases to the method
(17:40):
of payment used for theoriginal transaction.
In some cases such as those
where the original paymentmethod cannot be refunded.
We may provide the refund in the form
of battle net.net balance.
If the automated servicedoesn't address your needs,
your support team is available to help.
There's a link to that.There's some refund guidelines,
games and expansions.
We refund paid games
or expansions within 14days of purchase, as long
(18:03):
as you haven't playedfor more than two hours.
Those games include Worldof Warcraft, Diablo four,
Diablo three, and its ExpansionsWarcraft three, Reforge,
StarCraft Remastered andDiablo two resurrected.
And then there's endgame itemsthat you have to, you know,
that people pay for sometimesand stuff like that.
And there's examples in here
and it goes on and on from there.
There is a blizzard balance
(18:24):
and purchased virtual currency thing.
We'll refund purchases of Blizzard balance
and purchased virtual currencywithin 14 days of purchase
as long as you haven'tspent the currency yet.
And they're talking aboutHearthstone, Rone Stones,
Overwatch League tokens,Overwatch two coins
and tokens, Diablo four Platinum Diablo,
immortal Eternal Orbs andHeroes of the Storm Gems.
(18:46):
I'm surprised Heroes ofthe Storm is still in there
because I haven't reallyseen many people playing it
and sticking it on social
media, you know, that kind of thing.
Then there's this, thisjust made my night actually.
So Overwatch posted a video
and it says Overwatch two
with the you a little two onthe side and there's a little x
and then there's something in Kanji
(19:07):
and underneath it it says Cowboy Bebop.
It is a collaboration trailer.
So what you have here, and I'mnot gonna play it right now
because you'll only get audio
from it and not just the visual.
So, um, I'll put it in the show notes
so you can track this down pretty easily.
The video is a minute and 34 seconds long
and it's got various Overwatchcharacters dressed up like
(19:28):
the Cowboy bebop charactersand I think it's fantastic
'cause I fucking love CowboyBebop I have for years.
This makes me really happy.
Is it gonna make me wanna playOverwatch too? I don't know.
Probably not. I'm kindof more into Diablo,
but I'm glad this exists anyway.
And then we have the Diablofour patch notes. So here we go.
(19:48):
These were posted today, March 8th.
The Diablo four team has beenmonitoring your feedback As we
introduce patches to keepyour experience in sanctuary
smooth, we will update the below list
and denote whether the fixesare intended for pc, Xbox,
PlayStation, or all platforms.
This one starts with allplatforms from March 12th, 2024.
(20:09):
I guess that's when it's going to happen
'cause we're not at March 12 yet.
Bug fixes accessibility fixed
and issue where the screenreader did not read out the view
button when opening the trials menu.
See that goes back to the accessibility
thing I was talking about.
If you can't see it, you don'tknow what's gonna happen.
Fixed an issue where the screenreader did not announce all
(20:29):
the information in the trials menu
unless the player was in world tier four,
which takes a while to getto for some fixed an issue
where the screen reader didnot announce the party entry
trials and weekly resultmenus fixed an issue
where the screen reader didnot read options in dropdown
menus in various instances fixed an issue
where the screen reader did notannounce available points in
(20:50):
the skill tree season ofthe construct fixed an issue
where the chaw was considered a minion,
which made the sacrificial glyph unusable.
Okay, that's a problem.
Fixed an issue where thenext ranked description
for the chaw ability burningsupport was inaccurate, fixed.
An issue where the barrier granted
by the haw ability protect didnot trigger the damage bonus
(21:12):
from the conceited aspect.
Fixed an issue where malicemeteor could still deal D could
still deal damaged players couldstill deal damaged players,
is probably meant two players
after his defeat, uh, fixed an issue
where the laborist proficient objective
could not be completed.
The objective can now alsogain progress from acquiring
(21:33):
murmuring caches.
In addition to uncertain stonecaches and fixed an issue.
Al Stone caches couldn't becrafted when only the duration
support stone was left to get
to max level gameplay fixed an issue
where equipping multipleinstances of the aspect
of the moonrise would only usethe first instance equipped.
Instead of using the strongestversion equipped
(21:55):
fixed an issue where the gauntletplay again button did not
take the player to a new instance
of the same dungeon fixed an issue
where a nightmare dungeon could be reset
by using a nightmare sigil while
inside the dungeon nightmare.
Sigils can no longer be used while
inside an active nightmaredungeon
where tortured gifts inhell tide could not drop at
least one equipment.
(22:15):
And then we have somedungeons fixed an issue
where the tomb Lord bossin the ion fields would not
reappear if the player leftthe boss arena immediately
after placing the last statue.
That's a problem. I'mglad they fixed that.
That would be weird. You'dbe like, Hey, it's supposed
to be here now what's going on?
And you didn't know. Wellnow you know, fix an issue
where these spider collarmonsters could sometimes not spawn
in the sco rocco rocco ca caverns,
(22:39):
which would block progression fix an issue
where an insufficient amountof animus carriers could fail
to spawn in the dark ravineblocking progression.
Fix an issue where thegauntlet could be reentered
after leaving via a scroll of escape.
And then there's some otherinterface stuff fixed.
An issue where season journeyobjectives would not display
as completed when applicable.
(23:00):
Fixed an issue whereswapping between menus
and the world map while ina vault could cause the map
to erroneously default to the gate hall.
Map fixed an issue where the Hall
of Ancients records did notdenote if a character is playing
on hardcore difficulty, fixed an issue
where there was no dungeonexit icon on the map
or mini map had gauntlet dungeons like,
well this is your life now.
Right? Fixed an issue
(23:21):
where the butcher's barrier would not
show as being depleted.
Fix an issue wherefiltering the leaderboard
to all platforms did not includePC entries fixed an issue
where the map icon for pillars
of glory would only be visiblein close proximity to it.
And then there's somevarious, uh, stuff fixed.
An issue where the visual effect
of meteor did not match thedamage radius of the ability.
(23:43):
Fixed an issue where thearrows fired from rogue's
volley could appear invisible.
Various performance, visualand stability improvements.
That's what we've got there.
There's another videothat is about nine minutes
and 37 seconds long.
It is titled Rise to the Challenge,
the Gauntlet featuring Macro Bio Boy
and he's going to talk to you through it.
(24:03):
Again, I'm not gonna pull inthe audio into this podcast,
but again, everything will be in the
show notes for you to check out.
Um, so that's something you could look at.
And if you're, I'm not readyfor the gauntlet yet, um,
maybe I will be at some point.
But I like that Blizzardis, you know, finding people
who are really good at this game.
Much better than me, I would assume.
'cause I don't play a lot.
(24:24):
Um, I play when I can
and you know, it's like really good
to see somebody within thecommunity explaining how
to do the gauntlet thing.
I think that's awesome and I think
Blizzard should keep doing that.
We've also got somestuff here from Wow Head.
This one's from three daysago, Diablo four leaderboards,
day one Roundup openingnight of the gauntlet.
This is written by J Tross,
(24:46):
which I hope I'm pronouncing correctly.
So it says this, the gauntletis finally out and with it.
So are the leaderboards a widely
requested Diablo four feature.
These leaderboards havebeen in flux all night
with the top 10 for eachclass, constantly shifting
as higher and higher scoresare achieved while day one's
launch means that the Hall
of Ancients is currently unpopulated.
(25:06):
We're taking a look at asnapshot of tonight's progress
and what it shows for each class.
Now keep in mind thiswas from three days ago.
There's an editor's notesaying, due to the rapid nature
of change in the openingnight's leaderboards,
this data was taken froma snapshot of builds
and leaderboards atapproximately 6:30 PM EST.
The data has changed since then.
(25:26):
However, we're focused onthis one instance for now
to represent the spread ofbuilds we've seen so far.
Additionally, due to the factthat many players have elected
to make their profilesprivate on the leaderboards,
we're currently exploring thebest way to present this data
as accurately and faithfully as possible.
We may incorporate feedback
and suggestions, so letus know in your thoughts,
your thoughts in the comments below.
(25:47):
And then they have the typesof things from top to bottom
and how much damage they do.
So the ball lightningsorcerers right at the top,
the Hoda charge Barbarianis right behind it.
Our Clash soer is next.
Uh, death Blow barbarian is after that,
but just very close to the one above it.
And then, you know, penetratingshot rogue, all that stuff,
it's all in there if you wannasee everything at the bottom
(26:08):
is the necromancer for somereason, I'm not really sure why.
Oh, it's the severe necro answer.
There is a bone spear one
that apparently got higherup in the, uh, thing
that they were looking at and there's
just a bunch of stuff in here.
Interesting to note, but tonot many players surprised is
that the hardcore playerbase is both smaller
and scoring differently thanstandard seasonal players.
(26:29):
Sorcerers who dominatestandard comparisons fall
behind barbarians in terms
of score while the otherclasses follow the same score.
Progression on average rogues are
by far the lowest scoringclass, which leads
to an interesting thought.
Will Blizzard use these scores in order
to address class tuning going forward?
DPS rankings in World ofWarcraft have been similarly used
(26:49):
for tuning purposes.
So only time will tell,
but leaderboards may havea distinct impact on future
metas in seasons to come.
Another one from Wow Head is from today.
Uh, community created Diablofour gauntlet map by Rob.
2 6 2 8.
Uh, this was posted by Theod
and there's pictures ofthe, the ranks you can get.
So the first one is bloodied.It's a silver shield.
(27:12):
The steadfast one's alittle bit more gold.
The iron wheeled has purple in it
and then the worthy one has red in it
and it all has like a barbarian looking
helmet kind of thing.
And, uh, embedded withinthis article is a post from
Rob, 2 6 2 8.
And uh, it's from uh, x slash Twitter
and says community created this map
for my current gauntlet run inDiablo four, currently R one
(27:34):
with 9 39 K score on Barb.
We'll try to beat 1 million soon,
but I'm gonna go source first now.
He says, hope this overview helps you
to improve your personal score.
And there's like picturesof it here, like where to go
and you know, there's um,color coded things of where
to start and what todo, that kind of thing.
(27:54):
So I think that's kind of cool.
I don't think I'm gonnabe doing that tonight,
but maybe eventually.
And then we have one last thing here.
Diablo four patch 1.3 0.3 a.
Now live PlayStation tutorial
and a leaderboard filtering fixed.
This is posted one day ago
by Siic on Wow head Blizzardhas released Patch 1.3
(28:16):
0.3 A for Diablo four,which contains various bugs,
including a fix for thePlayStation first time player
experience appearing on every startup
and multiple leaderboardfiltering fixes
Um, so March 7th, 2024 gameplay fix,
fix an issue on PlayStation
where first time playerexperiences triggered
whenever a player visitedthe Diablo four title screen
(28:37):
gauntlet fixed an issue
where the filtering the solo leaderboard
by friends could accidentallyprovide no results.
Fixed. An issue where filteringthe leaderboard by friends
or clans could lead to only one entry.
Fixed an issue whereplayers could not scroll
through all pages of the leaderboard.
Stability fixed various crashes
that occurred when playersinspected another player's
profile on the gauntlet leaderboard.
(28:58):
And this seems to be specifically for,
it says all platforms,
but I think PlayStation isprobably having an issue with
that specifically.
And that's really all I've got for today.
So I'm gonna close out the show now
and hopefully some of thiswas interesting to you.
And I'll be back in another week
with a brand new showyou have been listening
to Episode 4, 4 9 of theShattered Soul Stone.
(29:20):
Your Diablo communitypodcast missed an episode.
You can find the show blog
and listen to the show archives at
www.shatteredsoulstone.com.
Cub, join us in game.Our in-game, community
and clan, both namedShattered Soul Stone are open
to anyone who would like to join.
You could also join us on Discord.
For the ultimate team andcommunity-based experience,
find the Discord invitationlink on our Twitter at shattered
(29:42):
stone as well as theShattered Soul Stone website.
Thank you for listening.
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