http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010 ... ffices.ars

pretty damn impressive

That's absolutely incredible. A museum, a gym... they have their own little world in which to create worlds!

...I need to work there. Now. Heck I'll go clean the soles of their shoes if it means I get to walk around there looking at that amazing artwork.

Employers having gyms for their employees isn't totally unheard of over here. My employer of course doesn't provide that (or anything else). That'd be awesome. Other awesomeness includes employers helping employees pay for schooling if you get a grade about a certain level, or letting you work on personal projects during the work day, all kinds of other cool stuff. None of which my employer does.

Well thats why they are raking in the big moneys.

I always admired the worker benefits of companies like Google and Blizzard. They sound like very relaxed companies to work for, combining the American work ethic/job mobility with the European ideas on worker happiness and life/work balance. I'd love being able to work on my own projects as part of my week and being able to go to the gym at work. Not to mention exhaust the games library and compete in company-wide contests. I can imagine a company like Blizzard holds internal electronic gaming tournaments for example. Dang. Suddenly my job seems pretty lame. Well, time to pack my bags to California and become a game designer. If only.

The best picture by far.

I hear Google's not so great to work for. Lots of overtime, and your "personal project" is company owned, so you're basically just working on a google labs project of some sort. Having not worked for Google, I can't personally comment.

I've been to one of Microsoft's campuses (for some Silverlight training), and it was NICE. Of course, that's their publically-accessible training area, so it may have been prettified to impress the public, but it was still awesome. XBox360 gaming stations set up, coffee/espresso/cappuccino maker, free food and drinks.... nice.

Yeah I've heard a lot on Microsoft places. One of my old colleagues worked with M$ for his year out in Uni and got to play Halo 3 nearly a year before it was released. From what he told me of it the whole place seemed pretty amazing. And of course our Microsoft rep has told me about the places they go to train. That's what big bucks can do for a place. Unfortunately my mate who works at Criterion doesn't seem to have such an awe inspiring workplace

Looks like piracy isn't hitting them financially.

Well, for one their (by far) biggest cash cow WoW is pretty much piracy proof by its very nature, and of course there is the fact that piracy affecting sales is completely overblown. But yeah, imagine what a mountain of yak they must be sitting on if they can afford to get their employees swords and shields with yearly changing designs. And gigantic custom-cut orc statues. If I wasn't so jealous, I'd call it ridiculous.