Avis sur MZ

Avantages

MZ faces the same challenge that every single game company faces... how to stay relevant. The games business has historically been the most forward-looking, risk-taking tech industry. And perhaps for that reason and many more, the most beloved. Every innovation hits games first. Every engineer wants to make a hit game. Games make us go wow! They blow our minds. They connect us to our instincts to learn,... compete, make friends, get lucky, and win. They are dazzling and baffling. Coin-Op. Console. PC. Web. Social. Mobile. And Beyond. MMO. Card. Shooter. Puzzle. While the games business is vast, carving out a niche isn't easy. And carving out a niche while paying for Palo Alto real-estate is the most epic mongo baller of all wins. Video games were born in the Silicon Valley and Machine Zone is right in the middle of it. The buildings are brand new, clean, and beautiful on the former Facebook campus now in reconstruction. Early into the mobile games market, MZ owned top slots on the AppStores for months coasting on innovative SuperBowl advertising and then diversifying into Ad Tech, AI, Crypto, Real-Time... God Stuff. But the universe ebbs and flows. Where are we on the tech adoption curve... who knows? One thing remains true... customers expect a lot as they economize their entertainment dollars. So MZ has managed to win over a very loyal group of paying players. Every technology and community changes. Will people still program on PCs one day? Who knows. Will people still play the MZ games we operate today ten years from now? Who knows. Will we all upload? Man. Big questions. What's real is that MZ has been contracting over the last year and a half to focus on what it does best... developing and operating games. On the operations side we are embracing lots of new cloud technologies. On the development side, we have in limited release a beautiful new title that shows off our continued ability to innovate on the client, art, game design, and server. We have vast capital, intellectual assets, potential and good people. Contraction isn't pleasant, but it is often necessary. Some of what you see on Glassdoor is a reflection of that. What are you gonna do? That's life and our individual experiences will very. Ultimately our personal outcomes are a direct result of the individual choices we make in the stream of choices we have available to us. We recently re-branded as MZ... 1. Which i think is cool. As per U2 we are not the same, but we ARE 1. Culturally, I'd say we are aggressive for the games business. We lean toward core and blue. After all, we made Game of War. Teams naturally internalize their titles to some degree. But games also naturally attract fun-loving creatives. I feel that that is what we are at our core. And we are much more... Final Fantasy and brilliant technologists, artists, and game designers. To be continually relevant we must continue to make good decisions, place good bets, and make the connection with more loyal paying player fans. All game companies share this mission. MZ is a big game maker / operator by most standards. This is not just a few folks in a room. So we have teams and subcultures and thus your experience may vary. If you are into the games business and looking forward to a long-term career in it and you live in Silicon Valley or catch the Cal Train to California or carpool down 280 or live in Supertino from the SJC to the DMZ, I really think you should take a look at MZ. Perhaps you will be THE one young Jedi. Come say Hi. Take a look.

Inconvénients

Lots of change and people re-identifying with a new mission and vision that is more focused than the broad vision of "become a tech giant".

Avantages

The company rewards great contributions with great pay

Inconvénients

Previous CEO failed We're not factory workers

Avantages

The art team is full of talent but more importantly teamwork, even across multiple projects. Art directors I've worked with have a lot of experience in the games medium here, and are able to set clear goals, they aren't "idea guys" with vague requests. Additionally for LGBTQ+ and allies, the environment here is very friendly. Im a trans woman, and I never am misgendered by coworkers. Additionally, even with... racy characters in some games, the art team is very sensitive to treating their female coworkers well and not devolving into a "boys club". Teams here also have very wide ethnic and national diversity, definite plus. If you are a foodie, the food here is very very very fancy, but if you like more regular stuff like me, there are those options too.

Inconvénients

I wish there were more women in the art department, but the company does too and definitely wants to recruit more. Also...the commute in and out of Palo Alto can be absolutely brutal.

Conseils à la direction

More work from home options could be great when not scheduled for on site meetings.

Avantages

Cannot think of any pros!

Inconvénients

Toxic culture, intensive politics, chaos management, sinking business, high attrition rate, the list goes on and on. The company is also obsessed about hours everyone works instead of the results. They enforce weird 10-7 working hours which is believed to be a way to drive away candidates with families. If you have a family, especially if you have kids. NEVER EVER, NOT EVER, CONSIDER MZ!!! If you don't have... a family, also NEVER EVER, NOT EVER, CONSIDER MZ!!! Everyone around me are interviewing and leaving.

Avantages

The single most prominent feature of MZ is that I am never bored. There is way too much to do and probably too little oversight, giving me enormous opportunity to do something new and make an impact. I often do things that are not my job and not part of a plan because they are the right thing to do, and I generally don't get in trouble for it, the times that it's even noticed. On another note, if you want to make... games and make rent, come here - the compensation and benefits are great.

Inconvénients

It's chaos, more or less. Schedules are aggressive to the point of being delusional and often our optimistic plans degrade into little plan at all. The company is great at operating and marketing and selling games, so once one staggers out the door it's going to do great. I simply recommend taking deep breaths and letting go of a lot of the craziness. Other cons - I guess the hours can be long. This is a game... company, and it doesn't excuse our planning missteps, but other game companies can be quite worse. Also, MZ seems to be quite wary of hiring junior talent, and I think would be well served to start doing so and giving leads and managers time and support to mentor those junior contributors.

Conseils à la direction

Start with a realistic plan informed by the measure velocities of previous projects.

Avantages

Machine Zone has taken fantastic care of me financially, offering excellent opportunities for advancement, rewarding hard work and proposals. It's enabled experimenting with management techniques. It's well funded for future ventures and the board works to create a healthier road for the future. The CEO visibly works to make sure that rewards for company success can be shared well with staff. It's got 3 meals a... day by a reasonable cafeteria crew that take good care of the group. It takes care of a lot of out of pocket costs for benefits.

Inconvénients

We don't know what builds success, but have succeeded a lot, leading to very painful patterns (Projects without staff or roadmap or pitch). Decisions on major company timelines can shift quickly and multiple times a year. Building a 6 or 12 month plan is an exercise in futility for the most part. A lot of teams are understaffed from a constant drive toward shared service models. Promotions often lack filling... the gap promoted out of, leaving folks responsible for wider and wider spaces. Accountability is so distributed as to basically have no accountability for almost all of our game products. We brutalize our customers with buggy and poorly considered content, leaving them with the impression we don't care. Off hours incidents are multiple times a month. Some teams crunch excessively.

Conseils à la direction

Build a solid longterm plan and staff for it. The constant struggle of 'what is most important to hire, we won't hire where it isn't important' leaves the company constantly fragile. Spend a year on fundamentals. There's lots of signs that the ground at which we're trying to run on and the way we spin up projects isn't sound, and we keep adding more without fixing. Actually have some folks responsible for... what a game should contain, pitching for budget, manpower, time, direction rather than just funneling staff and time at a project. It'd lead toward less alignment problems and less folks swimming painfully without any idea where they're going.

Avantages

Location, Benefits, Perks, Food and Parties. Generally a pretty chill place to work. Even though it was not my choice to leave, I will always have a positive outlook for MZ for giving me an opportunity and helping me grow as an artist.

Inconvénients

Housing/ apartments close by are pretty expensive ( Bay Area ) plus cost of living is high. But manageable with income earned.

Conseils à la direction

Improve communication between leadership and subordinates. At least this is mainly what I believe led to me parting ways with MZ. Also, maybe try to improve in quality over quantity.

Avantages

The impact you have, every person in the building is critical! CEO is really making changes that are up leveling us like never before and being more open and transparent, the pay, bonuses and equity...and working with REALLY smart and passionate people! The culture has definitely made a shift, and while we all still work extremely hard, it feels more flexible. There are growth and development opportunities for me... and my team, and I learn something new everyday. The #triumphtogether mantra is bringing the one MZ feeling back!

Inconvénients

It is challenging to have core hours that are so late, but nice to come in later. I wish we had a little more flexibility there. The Game Production teams are working extremely hard, which means a lot of hours for them at month end. What makes MZ successful is the blood sweat and tears put in by everyone. That also means some teams have a window of critical crunch time, and we need to find creative ways to support... them.

Conseils à la direction

Keep pushing the envelope, keep growing your people and giving opportunities to folks who have worked hard for the company! Find a way to keep the passion and drive, but give even more on the flexibility front.