Giant orc statue on Blizzard's lawn

Blizzard Entertainment's new Orange County offices are graced with a giant raging orc statue.

Blizzard puts up 12-foot orc on wolf in Irvine (via Wonderland)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Salty

Proves the Blizz bias for Horde, we’ve long suspected.

LOL, idc, switched to Horde to not get nerfed, ftw!
Anonymous

Our WoW dollars hard at work.
AnjaFlower

Meh, another raging ultra-masculine raging bonehead orc from Blizzard. I’m not as thrilled by this stuff as I was in middle school.
AsteriskCGY

Unfortunately I am.
davechua

Artbot – Doubt if that’s gonna happen anytime soon. The company pulled in US$1 billion in revenue last year.
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2007/12/03/activision-blizzard-update-world-of-warcraft-financials-revealed/

Blizzard has always maintained a high standard in their products, even killing them rather than release bad stuff. The statue will also probably fetch a lot of bidders when its time has come anyway.
Anonymous

But what will future archaeologists, human or otherwise think when they come across this piece?
artbot

The official term is “stereolithography”. In lieu of that, you could make up any old word and it would have as much (or little) meaning as that does for most people.

How about “Thing-a-ma-jig-a-lizer”?
alisong76

I want one.
PurpleWyrm

Oh please, Games Workshop has had a space marine outside their HQ in Nottingham for years.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doonvas/2502973248/

Once again computer games playing catch-up to the tabletop ;P
Takuan

oooh! open season then! (rerapped?)
Anonymous

to those who say blizzard favors horde:

do you really want a gnome statue?

or a dwarven female statue?

/caseclosed
Takuan

reprapped,rapprotoed,rapfabbed (fabbed is kind of taken already), solprinted, Realized,
Bumlooker

That statue is way more entertaining then the second job you get playing wow.

However I have to admit that not ever knowing what they might have done to your character while you where logged off afforded some mystery. Good one month crap the next. Fun fun.
doc_roswell

Last time I checked, Blizzard’s offices were far enough away from the main campus that top-hatting tomfoolery isn’t likely to happen. I’d also note that (at least when I attended) the only students who hung around campus in any appreciable forms were either compsci or liberal arts twinkies (liberal art twinkie representing!) and were more likely to be geeking out in their respective field and not looking for trouble.

Raiders were always the coolest unit, too. Siege damage FTW.
Amayain

FOR THE HORDE!
KanedaJones

OMG if only the (in)action figures they sold came in that size..

that would scare the heck out of the kids in the park when they wander into the shrubbery.

as for wether it was a waste of money it might be made from a mold they used for life like statues used at game cons so I doubt it was too bad on the pocketbook.
Anonymous

Fair enough, WoW probably paid for the whole building anyway.
ridl

It’s kind of ugly. Is that the point?
aeflash

In a few hundred years, this will be an interesting artifact for future generations to figure out.
artbot

#6 – I’m all for public art. This is “private” art, at their HQ, correct? It’s cool and all, but seems a bit of an over-the-top display, imho. I guess it’s just hard for me to relate to something as semi-permanent as this in the face of the ever-changing whims and tastes in this fickle business of video games.

#10 – Company revenues and employee compensation have absolutely zero correlation. I’ve worked in the video games biz for 17 years, at various companies with widely varying degrees of financial success, and can attest that little to none of those profits reach most of the workers there. Sure, a few old timers and senior people do nicely, but I’d guess the rest get paid pretty much the going rate. Perhaps I am wrong, though, as I have never been at a company as wildly successful at Blizzard.
dero

Hmmm, I think there might be some indignant New Zealanders after reading the label on that picture. Weta Workshops are famously a New Zealand company (effects for Lord Of The Rings etc) not Australian.

Disclaimer: I am Australian
JimXugle

Nerf the horde!
Takuan

http://www.solidsmack.com/3d-printers-rapid-prototyping-mainstream/2009-03-19/
ridl

oooh! I like “realized” – although bit awkward as a noun, would need an -object or somesuch.

Formed (a form)? Carved (a carve?) ess-lithed? litho’d? decubed? threeprinted (a 3print)?

this is fun!
wilmo

I give it less than 6 months before blizzard receives a strongly worded letter informing them that they must remove that statue or it will be removed for them.

also, a former (thankfully) resident of irvine
Anonymous

I don’t think Acti-Blizzard is going anywhere. That statue will be around long after the Fallout.
Takuan

usually some company name glomms onto new tech that goes ubiquitous (xerox, kleenex). This one maybe not since the field seems open with no strong leader to saturate the market. Which science fiction story has the best claim? Failing that, pop culture icons? What’s Futurama’s?
Trent Hawkins

#12: pft. That’s such a star craft rip off
demidan

For the Horde!
mneptok

@ #18: Except Warhammer40K was first released in 1987. Starcraft was 1998.
franko

i love the statue, but sorry — for the alliance!
wilmo

oh oh, it just occurred to me that blizzard is on land that’s owned by the university (UCI, go eaters!). So, there’s a pretty solid chance that the statue will stay… although, I give it a week before a frat puts a top-hat on him.
Itsumishi

Autofabricated or to Autofabricate.

Simple, sensible and understandable.
Takuan

“autfab”?
Bonnie

Sure not as peaceful as our Yoda statue:

http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2009/02/25/yelp-reviews-yoda-fountain-at-lucasfilms-hq/
Stefan Jones

#4: Printed on a giant fab.
artbot

#35 – One company’s success does not an industry make. Just because Blizzard has been successful doesn’t make the rest of the industry any less fickle or unstable.

Perhaps I *am* jealous, though. They showed some interest in hiring me recently, but it would take much more than a 6 figure+ salary to get me to move back to the smoking crater that is California, much less Orange County.
Anonymous

Why am I not surprised that blizzard chose horde, they were probably worried that if they put a NightElf on a kitty mount out front they’d be laughed at by the other game companies.
cinemajay

Mmm. Classy.
boingaddict

I’m going to go over there and gank the horde with a flamestrike *gets gasoline ready*

for alliance!!
Itsumishi

Autofabing is autofabulous?
h3llc4t

That would make for an excellent photo op, if they wouldn’t yell at me to get off their damn lawn.
(FTH, FFS)
Auto Parts for Brains

Is this on Google street view yet? It looks like the statue has a lot of details going. The orc really looks awesome.
Jazzhigh

Time to grab the miniatures paint. I always did like painting the big figures the best.
Talia

eh, autofabing is just an autofad.
Takuan

auto as in self… mmmm. What’s the essence here?
Big Daddy

@Artbot

I think the success of the Warcraft franchise is evidence that the games business is not as fickle as you allege.

Blizzard employees have incredibly generous bonus programs. I have two friends and former colleagues (I, too, work in the games business) that receive 5-figure quarterly bonus checks as profit-sharing for their work on WoW. That is rare in the business, as you must know.

Perhaps you’re just jealous? I know I am.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Btw, that isn’t just a statue of “some orc” – it’s Thrall, the Warchief of the Horde, and one of the most important characters in the WC universe. Sort of like how Walt Disney put up a statue of Mickey.
Itsumishi

#6 – I’m all for public art. This is “private” art, at their HQ, correct? It’s cool and all, but seems a bit of an over-the-top display, imho. I guess it’s just hard for me to relate to something as semi-permanent as this in the face of the ever-changing whims and tastes in this fickle business of video games.

I’ve seen a lot more over the top and I’m sure a lot more expensive corporate art at far less successful companies. Also, I want one for my front lawn.

On another point you made, they might be a bit annoyed about their paycheck but at least they get a miniature of the statue!

Blizzard COO Paul Sams holds Orc Warrior of Wolf Mount in his Irvine office. It is the model used for the 12-foot sculpture the company commissioned for its courtyard. A replica was made for each of Blizzard’s 3,000 employees as a thank you.
Anonymous

@8: “Meh, another raging ultra-masculine raging bonehead orc from Blizzard. I’m not as thrilled by this stuff as I was in middle school.”

As someone who played WoW for a long while, I don’t really think there’s anything all that masculine about orcs or this orc in particular, other than the fact that it is a male orc. Blizzard’s characters have never hit me over the head with their masculinity to the point where I can’t identify with their male characters (which, as a woman, I pretty much have to be able to do to a degree in order to enjoy the media) like most other video games. I had to put down Gears of War in the first thirty minutes because of all the grunting. Orcs grunt too, of course, but grunting in orc culture takes place evenly across gender lines… I love me some growly, grunting, hairy-chested orc women!
Anonymous

Awewsome statue gotta get one for nt garden:)
Takuan

come to think of it, what is the proper word (noun/verb) for things made by 3D printers and other such devices? Best coinage anyone?
hekler37

I don’t believe that is Thrall. Thrall does not wear a topknot, nor does he wield an axe. He wields a maul.

That statue appears to be Grom Hellscream.
artbot

All I can picture is the chain and pickup truck that will pull this down when Blizzard’s time has come and gone. I wonder if employees there are wondering why their bonuses were instead spent on a statue.
Bucket

Oh my god, something interesting in Irvine! Quickly now, cover it in beige stucco! It might give people… ideas. That can be dangerous.

-Bucket, former (thankfully) resident of Irvine.
jburris

Proof the horde is better.
Takuan

cast or sculpted?
tuckels

Should’ve painted it red. Red wuns go fasta.
hexcalibur

That’s a pretty nice statue. How can someone with the tag “artbot” not celebrate the creation of public art? There are more WoW players than there are Belgians, ffs. I seriously doubt the employees at the Blizzard campus in Irvine fret about their pay packets and financial futures.