动视暴雪:一个古怪、庞大又神奇的世界

长久的想象总在不经意间实现。或许就在一天开第五次会之前，就在吞下第三杯办公室里味道极酸的咖啡时。梦想突然降临，隐现在闪闪发光的海边小村轮廓中，藏在青翠的山脚下。走上前，伸出双手，熟悉的霓虹、米色墙壁和灰色拼接地毯统统留在身后。拥抱美丽的新世界，矢车菊蓝色调的天空，摇曳的棕榈树，琥珀色的太阳倒映在水面上。读者们，梦想就在这里，在充满魔法和奇迹的世界，在坏人落败英雄崛起造就传奇的世界。没错，就在这里。在这个名叫欧文的地方，你还可能追求更多。

因为这里有加州著名娱乐王国——动视暴雪（100家最适合工作的公司榜单排名第84）旗下暴雪娱乐王国所在地。缓缓打开的安全门后，是世界上众多职场人士的梦想圣地。

从入口走进办公区，沿着水泥路向前，很快就会看见挥舞着斧子的霜狼兽人骑士，因战争无穷无尽而表情狰狞。穿过一扇门，迎面而来的是名叫泰瑞尔的无面者大天使，漂浮在14英尺高的空中，手中持剑，保护人类不受地狱力量的侵犯。天使身后是圣殿和禅室，再穿过一条长长的昏暗走廊，就是图书馆。在铁与木组成的入口后方，成排的书本和游戏中间，终于能见到传说中的魔导师——负责保护并向下一代传承王国故事的人们。他们拍手欢迎，在大木桌前落座。

在这家市值达540亿美元的公司里，“魔导师”是真实的工作，而且并不容易。动视发展迅速，今年的年销售额同比增长6%，达70亿美元，据称月活跃用户数3.85亿人，而且每次发售新品都要担心会不会影响利润丰厚的前作。之前动视暴雪只是视频游戏帝国，如今旗下已囊括书本、电影、玩具和电子竞技。除了同为名叫动视暴雪的分公司，也就是员工经常简称的A-B，2015年在遥远的英国伦敦收购了国王数字娱乐公司，该公司曾制作《糖果粉碎传奇》等手游。

魔导师重任在肩，最重要的就是确保暴雪旗下诸多传奇产品，例如魔兽世界、星际争霸和暗黑破坏神等稳定发展。具体负责的就是肖恩·科普兰、贾斯汀·帕克，还有学徒克里斯蒂·库格勒。“（他们都是）世界级的地下城大师，还帮助公司里其他地下城设计者施展才华，”科普兰如此形容前辈们。

“爵士圈有句话，说脸上每道疤痕背后都有个故事，”经常与魔导师合作的暴雪责任编辑罗伯特·辛普森表示。在暴雪的作品中，每个细节都有故事，“错漏和不一致都会削弱故事的可信度。”

从魔导师们工作年限中就可见一斑，帕克已工作19年，科普兰11年，库格勒也已三年。他们在公司里还算不上最资深。暴雪内部到处可见印有特殊的啤酒杯、剑、盾、指环，偶尔还有头盔（类似战斗面罩），主要用来表彰工作时间很长的员工。动视有个展厅专门存放此类纪念品。

The vision will come to you when you least expect it. It will strike you a moment somewhere between accepting your fifth meeting request of the day and gulping down your third overly acidic cup of corporate coffee. You will see before you the outline of a gleaming village by the ocean, tucked into the base of a verdant mountain range. Step toward it. Reach out. Leave behind your familiar fluorescent light, beige walls, and patchwork gray carpet and venture instead to this beautiful place—its cornflower sky, its swaying palm trees, its amber sun that reflects off the water on the horizon. It is here, reader, in this land of magic and wonder, where villains are vanquished, heroes are made, and legends are born. Indeed, it is here, in this place called Irvine, where you might aspire to something more.

For this is the sovereign kingdom known as Blizzard Entertainment, part of the great California empire known as Activision Blizzard (No. 84 on this year’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list), where beyond the slow-moving security gates is a world most corporate denizens can only dream of.

Step inside the campus, walk along the concrete path from the entrance, and you will quickly confront an ax-wielding, wolf-riding Orc, its grimace frozen by the fury of an endless battle. Step through a door only to stare up at a faceless archangel known as Tyrael, hovering 14 feet in the air with sword in hand to protect humanity from the forces of Hell. Beyond this seraph, past the Sanctuary and the Zen Den and down a long and dark corridor, is the Library. It is here, behind portals of iron and wood and among rows and rows of books and games, where you will meet the Loremasters—the men and women tasked with protecting and passing on the stories of this kingdom for a new generation. They await you with hands clasped, seated around a large wooden table.

“Loremaster” is a real job at this $54 billion company. And theirs is not an easy task. Activision is growing rapidly—annual sales climbed 6% to $7 billion this year, and it now lays claim to 385 million monthly active users—and with every new venture comes the risk of repeating the tales of its lucrative franchises incorrectly. Once only an empire of video games, Activision Blizzard has come to encompass books, films, toys, and e-sports. In addition to its namesake divisions, A-B, as employees sometimes call it, in 2015 further expanded its borders to the far-off land of London to include the aptly named King, manufacturer of mobile adventures such as Candy Crush.

The Loremasters’ duty is to, amid all this activity, ensure that the legends of Blizzard’s Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo—never mind others elsewhere in the empire—accurately live on. That burden falls on the shoulders of Sean Copeland, Justin Parker, and apprentice Christi Kugler—“world-class dungeon masters that can empower the other dungeon masters across the company so they can execute on their awesomeness,” as Copeland describes it, paraphrasing his predecessor.

“There’s a saying about jazz musicians that every scar on their face tells a story,” says Robert Simpson, a Blizzard lead editor who regularly works with the Loremasters. Every detail has a story connected to it, and “every mistake and inconsistency makes you believe it less.”

The long tenures of the Loremasters—Parker, 19 years; Copeland, 11 years; Kugler, three years—are telling, though far from unusual. Everywhere you turn at Blizzard there are ceremonial steins, swords, shields, rings, and the occasional helm (a battle mask of sorts) to commemorate individual years of service. Similar objects decorate the halls at Activision.

在动视暴雪工作能享受的部分福利。

暴雪的人都会告诉你，上班是件开心的事。毫无疑问，常年阳光普照，处处椰林树影功劳不小。无处不在的伟大战士们——不少办公楼入口高耸的游戏角色雕像也很受欢迎。不过真正让员工不想离开的还是轻松的工作氛围。在这里，热情会得到回报，激发创意的讨论受到鼓励，人人追求卓越。“说实话，我对暴雪文化最自豪的一点是，表达不同意见完全没问题，”1991年联合开创暴雪王国的迈克·莫汗表示。“真正优秀的企业文化鼓励建设性的争论。”职业电竞组织守望先锋总监奈特·南泽尔表示同意。“能在这里工作说明你很优秀，所以应该做伟大的事，而且要积极参与我们的事业，”他宣称。

虽然南泽尔加入暴雪才三年半，但从他的从业生涯来看——先是加入研究和用户调研组织，然后一头扎进电竞圈，在暴雪王国里比较正常。很多人加入暴雪就是因为他们清楚这里可以充分发挥所长。11年前，布兰迪·斯蒂尔斯揣着戏剧学学士文凭，还有对魔兽世界的热爱加入公司，担任软件测试分析师；如今她已在动画部门联合领导模型绑定和角色模拟团队。“很多人都从初级职位做起，熟悉各种业务，向同事们学习，不断练习，在各部门轮岗最后找到适合自己的位置，”她表示。

山姆·狄迪尔是一位传奇式的艺术总监，头发浓密卷曲，1991年就加入暴雪。他很同意斯蒂尔斯的说法。重视人才管理和个人发展好处很明显。“我们团队的制作人之前在各种部门，客服、记账、质量管理之类，”他表示。（此外他补充说，工作疲劳确实存在，所以时不时换个新领域会有帮助。）在50英里外的动视，还有5400英里外的国王娱乐，情况也差不多。“我们能享受小团队的福利、感情和快乐，又能充分利用公司里更广泛的人才网络、知识和技术，”动视里以出品使命召唤系列闻名的Infinity Ward工作室负责人大卫·斯托尔表示。执掌国王娱乐的里卡尔多·扎科尼从伦敦打来的电话里简单说：“学习曲线一旦平缓，就说明要重新开始学习。”

学习就要掌握各种技能，剑术、雕塑、剧本、烹饪、举重，还有领导力，位于欧文的总部确实氛围浓厚。“每周我都要上课学点什么，有时深入学习艺术，有时学习语言之类，”白色头发的杰西卡·约翰逊说，她在动画团队担任角色建模师。“抽出时间练习自律后，最终工作上也会受益。”

夕阳西沉，落日余晖染红了陶制瓶罐。是时候返回现实世界了，还有一大堆会等着开。所以应该与这片神奇之地的国王波比·柯迪科谈谈了，他是王中之王，已在游戏王国徜徉27年之久。他目睹过从灰烬中成长为重要力量的帝国，多年经验也让他深谙如何吸引用户。

穿过另一扇门和长长的走廊，国王在尽头等待。他坐在柔软的宝座上，肩膀后面满是棕榈美景。我们问他为什么员工都如此开心。问他为什么就像之前安迪·西蒙兹说过，暴雪的员工都相信“自己的工作很酷，而且做的是别人关心的事。”我们问他如何打造舒心的工作环境，就像另一个名叫朱莉·法班尼克的人解释的，人们“不用打扮得‘衣冠楚楚’”便能友好相处。他嘴角扬起微微一笑。

“我们的目标是让每天更开心，”柯迪科回答说，眼中闪过一道光。“如果以生产快乐为使命的公司还营造不出快乐的氛围，还有谁能做到？”（财富中文网）

本文另一版本将刊登于2018年3月1日出版的《财富》杂志，为100家适合工作的公司系列文章之一。

译者：冯丰

审稿：夏林

Some perks of working at Activision Blizzard.

The people of the realm are quick to tell you that they are happy here. The perpetual sun and the palms help, no doubt. And the ubiquitous presence of their great warriors—the towering statues of game characters that stand at the entrance to many campus buildings—is most welcome. But it’s the daily freedom it affords that keeps most people from uprooting and finding work elsewhere. Passion is rewarded, creative discourse is encouraged, and excellence is paramount. “Honestly, one of the things I’m most proud of about Blizzard culture is that disagreeing is okay,” says Mike Morhaime, who co-established the Blizzard kingdom in 1991. “A really good culture actually encourages healthy debate.” Nate Nanzer, the commissioner of the Overwatch League, a professional e-sports association, agrees. “You are here because you’re great, and you’re expected to do great things and be an active voice in what we’re building,” he proclaims.

Though Nanzer has been with Blizzard for only 3½ years, his path—first joining its research and consumer insights group before diving headlong into e-sports—is common in the greater Activision Blizzard empire. Many people come to this place because they know their versatility will be rewarded. Brandy Stiles joined 11 years ago as a quality assurance analyst with a college degree in theater and an affinity for World of Warcraft; today she co-leads the rigging and character simulation teams for its animation group. “We’ve got a lot of people here who started in entry-level positions, made connections within the company, learned peer to peer and practice to practice, and switched between titles to find their spot,” she says.

Sam Didier, a legendary art director with a dark mop of heavy-metal hair who joined Blizzard in 1991, concurs. The merits of talent management and individual development are manifest. “All of the producers on our team came from customer service or billing or QA or any other department,” he says. (Besides, he adds, battle fatigue is real. It can be helpful to embark on a new mission from time to time.) This approach rings true 50 miles north at Activision as well as 5,400 miles east at King. “We’re able to balance the benefits, feeling, and fun of being on a smaller team with the benefits of the broader network of talent and knowledge and technology in the company,” says Dave Stohl, leader of Activision’s Infinity Ward studio, known for its Call of Duty series. Riccardo Zacconi, the reigning monarch at King, puts it more simply in a phone call from London: “When the learning curve goes flat, you have to learn again.”

Even if that includes lessons in swordsmanship, sculpture, screenwriting, cooking, weight lifting, or leadership, as it does in Irvine. “I take a class once a week no matter what—either learning more art or a language or something,” says Jessica Johnson, a platinum-haired character modeler on the animation team. “You’re scheduling time to practice a discipline that ultimately leads back into your work.”

The sun is getting low in the sky now, its rays tinged in terra-cotta. It is nearly time for you to return to the real world and the parade of meetings that awaits. You must therefore speak with the emperor of this fantastic realm, Bobby Kotick, the king of kings who has presided over these lands for 27 years. He has watched the empire grow from near-ruin into a great power; surely he knows what attracts people to it after all these years.

Through another door and down a long corridor, the emperor awaits. You find him seated on a soft throne with a panoramic view of palms visible over his shoulders. You ask him why the people are so happy. You ask him how, as one citizen called Andy Simonds earlier described, it remains a place where people believe they can “work on cool stuff that other people care about.” You ask him how he fosters an environment where, as another citizen named Julie Farbaniec explained, people “don’t have to ‘suit up’ ” to coexist. The corners of his mouth turn upward into a slight grin.

“Our purpose is to make every day more fun,” Kotick replies with a glint in his eye. “If you can’t be a great place to work when your mission is that, who can?”

A version of this article appears as part of the 100 Best Companies to Work For package in the March 1, 2018 issue of Fortune.