#Blizzard Scandal 2021

[rtgame]

why does everyone hate overwatch and especially overwatch 2? i know ppl hate it but i never see anyone say why. if anyone else wants to offer opinions in the notes i'd love to hear them. i'm not defending the game(s) i'm just curious

ok so recovering from surgery has fucked up my sleep schedule so bad i'm actually up and at my pc to answer this at 7 am on a sunday bc i have a lot to say and i didn't want to type this all out on my phone lol. (also i have to take my antibiotics in an hour so i might as well get up) this is going to be LONG because i have a lot of thoughts and a lot of reasons

i think the biggest one, just to get it out of the way, is that blizzard had a MASSIVE scandal over sexual harassment. this basically changed everyone's opinions on every blizzard property, but from what i understand, the overwatch team actually didn't have a harassment problem (FROM WHAT I KNOW), but obviously it still affected people's perception of the game and i'm not defending blizzard on this issue. i think several people should die over this.

anyways, i think one of the big things was blizzard randomly announced overwatch 2 back in 2019 to distract from them banning a pro hearthstone player over supporting the hong kong protests in an interview. the development of overwatch 2 brought overwatch 1 to a COMPLETE fucking standstill like. there was literally no actual update for 3 years because they moved the entire dev team to overwatch 2 so overwatch 1 was updated by a skeleton crew, which a lot of people weren't happy about (me included). the only real difference between 1 and 2, when 2 was announced, was that it was gonna have PVE, which was already weird because in the past they said PVE was going to be in overwatch 1 and now it's not?

and then overwatch 2 finally comes out and it's like. there's no PVE. it's "coming later." they later admit that the PVE campaign was cancelled back in 2021 (remember overwatch 2 came out late 2022) BUT THEN KEPT ADVERTISING THAT OVERWATCH 2 WAS GONNA HAVE THE PVE CAMPAIGN? THEY LITERALLY JUST LIED TO EVERYONE FOR A FUCKING YEAR?

it took like 3 years for overwatch 2 to come out and at launch, all it had to offer was 3 new heroes and a few new maps and its like, if they just kept developing overwatch 1 we would've had way more by 2022.

overwatch 2 is also free to play, which is like, that's fine on paper, yay everyone gets to play it, but in practice it means that overwatch 2 is rife with microtransactions. skins cost like $26. new heroes cost AT LEAST $10 depending on when you buy them (or you can spend a ridiculous amount of time unlocking them for free) and its like. i fucking bought overwatch 1 for $40, these characters and skins would've been goddamn free in overwatch 1, i'm not spending money on this. ALSO I SPENT $40 TO BUY THIS GAME WHY THE FUCK AM I SPENDING MORE MONEY TO UNLOCK CHARACTERS???? there's some PVE missions available in game now but they're nothing like what was promised and they. also. obviously. cost. fucking. money. and i already spent $40 on the first game.

also there's a battle pass now for monetization reasons and i fucking hate most battle passes. the microtransactions in this game are fascinating because they make the overwatch 1 loot boxes look good.

also, they started the overwatch league in 2018, which is like, professional overwatch gaming, and i really liked watching it (and even went to some games irl) (i won a raffle there once!), but then they started balancing the game around the pro competitive scene which kinda made it hard for casuals to enjoy because they would keep changing the casual game mode (quick play) to be more in line with competitive, which was getting balanced around like 0.001% of players, which just made it less fun lol.

+ when they released overwatch 2, it went from 6v6 to 5v5 which was a change i never liked because my usual team was 6 people so this means that we have to rotate someone out, and they removed the 2nd tank role when switching the game to 5v5 which was uh... my main role was off tank... which they fucking removed.... because the game's 5v5 now. my main (dva) feels borderline unplayable in 5v5 because she kinda just sucks now lol. idk i don't really like the flow of the game or how short team fights are with 5v5 and i absolutely hate being the only tank. i think 6v6 was the perfect balance for overwatch but that's been thrown out the window.

ALSO they removed capture point maps which i actually did enjoy and im still salty over this

tldr basically it's like. overwatch 1 died for 3 years and blizzard killed its momentum for overwatch 2 but then overwatch 2 has literally nothing new to it and it's just overwatch 1 but worse. we waited 3 years for literally nothing.

although, i will say i saw a lot of people online make fun of the game when they announced lifeweaver because he's, iirc, a pansexual thai man, and honestly, that never sat right with me because like. it was a bunch of online leftists making fun of the game for being.... too diverse? or feeling like it was checking off a list and i was never comfortable with it because like, even just 6 years ago we would not have gotten a character like him in an AAA game. i think it's because one of the studios under blizzard posted their "diversity tool" that they used to diversify their game and it was really fucking weird and gave points to characters depending on their race and sexuality and etc, and i think they even used overwatch characters as an example, which was REALLY weird, because the tool was being used by king and not the team developing overwatch and even the dev team called it out like "we don't fucking use this, what is this shit lol, stop using our characters for this"

also lifeweaver was made by a thai person on the team to represent his own culture so i genuinely don't think he was made with the diversity tool lol.

idk i still think representation is important and i think making fun of him was weird since like. pan thai men definitely exist irl. idk. it was weird as fuck and this is probably the only thing i'll actively defend overwatch on. #LeaveLifeweaverAlone or whatever. i mean he sucks in game but that's bc his abilities are lame and his healing is shit, not because he's pan lol

but also why do they keep making their japanese characters ninjas lol. i like playing kiriko but man why can they all wall climb.

also like, the final thing, regarding everyone else hating it is like, im gonna be blunt, i think a lot of times the internet will just randomly turn on something it loved (marvel (rightfully honestly), borderlands, someone provide more examples) and say it sucks/its cringe/etc because loving something is #Cringe and hating everything is #Cool or whatever, and overwatch has reached that phase of its life, and all the issues i mentioned above really didn't fucking help. the internet adores its hate trains yknow

idk genuinely my relationship with overwatch is super fucking complicated as someone who loved/loves the game. i really do like a lot of the characters and i think the game is still fun SOMETIMES, but it's definitely lost that spark it had in 2016 thanks to shit management and blizzard focusing on the wrong things. i think a lot about a world where blizzard didn't suck and overwatch never had all this shit happen to it.

also WOW IM SORRY this is so rambly i've had like 4 hours of sleep and this is just something i do feel strongly about since the game is/was important to me and quite literally changed my life, so it sucks to see how it turned out. when i was 16 i really was enamored by this game where the whole premise was fighting for the future and it was just optimistic about the future, and i think that really was important for me at the time, as dumb as that is. a game being like "hey, the future's gonna be awesome" during a year that was really nerve-wracking for me was something i did need at the time. it really does suck that overwatch's own future wasn't as bright as the future it was envisioning.

[potatosteinsillustrations]

Just so you get to know that there are alternatives to this:

Back in 2013-2014 Nintendo's President and CEO Satoru Iwata (rest in peace) cut his salary in half (along many of the other execs like Shigeru Miyamoto cutting 30& of his own salary) to avoid laying off employees at the company after the Wii U severily underperformed.

Here are some of Iwata's notable quotes from an investor Q and A: Source: Polygon

"If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results, employee morale will decrease," he said. "I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world." "I know that some employers publicize their restructuring plan to improve their financial performance by letting a number of their employees go, but at Nintendo, employees make valuable contributions in their respective fields, so I believe that laying off a group of employees will not help to strengthen Nintendo's business in the long run."

In 2021 everyone was rightly scandalized and enraged when it was revealed that Bobby Kotick ( Activision-Blizzard's CEO and one of the biggest scumbags in the world) received a $200 million bonus after laying off around 240 employees at ABK ( Source: Yahoo News) Now your next question should be: How much money will the CEO and executives at Epic (or any other AAA studio or company doing massive lay offs this year like the Embracer Group, Electronics Arts) will receive and why are they receiving said bonuses if their mistakes have led to 830 employees being laid off.

And of course most people won't care, much like when it was revealed that there was a super toxic and chauvinistic environment in Activision Blizzard that led to many women being rampantly sexually harrased and even on of them taking her own life.

Or the severe crunch that employees at CD Project Red had to endure with Cyperpunk 2077 (even after they were promised there wasn't going to be cruel crunch like they had to endure with The Witcher 3)

As long as consumers can play their game sadly they won't care and that massively sucks! There won't be any effective change in how employees are treated at these big corporations if consumers don't vote with their wallets and advocate for the workforce's well being.

And this tweets ring true:

- The metaverse isn't worth 830 people being laid off even if it was the" next big thing", but let's be real it isn't and it won't. -This is another reminder that corporations aren't anyone's friends. -Also fuck corporations.

[nitewrighter]

i hate that I'm starting to get those ppl who say shit like "i know it's problematic but I can't not interact w it cuz it's my hyperfixation"

I've been in this overwatch shit since the game launched and stayed even when the fandom was dead like in 2021, and i just feel like I can't leave now even tho everything abt it makes me either sad or angry

Well like, I think it's always been kind of complicated with Overwatch because when it first dropped, everyone was crowing about its representation and its optimism, but at the beginning, so much of it was fan hype. It's never really belonged to just one person like H*rry P*tter. It started out as a completely different game, Titan, passed through god-knows-how-many hands before it dropped in 2016 and became this massive phenomenon. The first big Blizzard scandal was centered on Hearthstone, not Overwatch, and when the sexual harassment and union-busting scandals started emerging, it was clear there were still people at Blizzard who cared about Overwatch and their work on the game and the community it created, they just wanted better working conditions and workplace culture. Overwatch was never the product of one singular asshole, it's always been collaborative, and that's also why I've spent the past few days really questioning my relationship to it--because I poured a lot of myself into this community through my fanfics, and I had gained this wonderful audience from it, but the negative keeps stacking and stacking, and even if you've carved out your comfortable little niche, eventually it weighs on you more and more.

On top of it all, the game was very much designed to be addictive. The sensory overload of the game itself, the euphoria of working with a cohesive team, the exasperation of being on a shit team, the leveling systems, the sounds the game makes as you get a loot box or progress through the battlepass, the challenges and achievements, the cosmetics, the sunk cost fallacy of how much time you've already put in, the way it can be 1 in the morning but you're like "oh that last game sucked, I can't end the night on that note" like--I know it sounds ridiculous but it is a game that really worms its way into your psyche in the same way gambling can.

I think like... the first step to getting some distance from it is giving yourself permission to explore other things. One of the first steps to breaking a habit Like, for me, because I had such a narrative focus on it, I kind of joked that getting into Dune and reading 'Fire and Blood' after months of writing Overwatch fic was like doing lines of coke because my brain was going, "Holy shit, lore." I'm also lucky enough to work in a library, where my magpie brain can go into overdrive. I've been reading a lot of comics, working my way down a reading list I had been neglecting too long, and when I get an urge to play video games specifically, I play a different game like Horizon Zero Dawn or Skyrim. I found that open-world games have kind of helped my brain wean a bit off of they hyper-overstimulation of Overwatch, and it also scratches my narrative itch, too.

Basically what I'm saying is, if everything about the game is making you sad or angry, it's okay to explore other things. Don't make it about quitting, per se, make it about finding something new that makes you happier. And if you're just getting sad/stressed from it, I promise you, you are going to find something new. It might not scratch all the itches Overwatch did at first, but just be patient with yourself.

[mrslittletall]

How do you like FF14? I have yet to look into FF games besides FF7 actually.

Haha, that is a funny story ^^ Because it is an online game, I never wanted to play it, especially because I already played World of Warcraft. I quit WoW in 2021 because I didn't like the direction it was going and the Blizzard scandal was really disgusting. I then was like "No MMOs more. Never. I am done with them!" Fast forward to February 2022. TheatRhythm Final Bar Line came out, a rhythm game with Final Fantasy song. I am playing it and come to the FF14 songs. I play them and get BLOWN away by how good the music is! I also know that my husband started playing the game before he got sick and was really liking it. With him in hospital and us having nothing to talk about anymore, I wanted something to connect to him, so I downloaded the game. The base game and the first two expansions are actually completely free to play. I started to play it and I quickly fell in love. I liked the story, the characters, the music, the way it did dungeons, the trial fights which are pretty much just a boss fight you fight with seven other players. I did upgrade to the full version before I even got the first expansion. I am farther than my husband and that is a lot, because he did only the story while I was doing the sidequests and optional dungeons and alliance raids left and right before I moved on to the next expansion. I spent pretty much the entire first week of my days off doing FF14 group stuff in the evenings ^^ I have to say this though. Yes, FF14 works well as standalone game, but it SHINES if you know the other Final Fantasies. It is FULL of little references and easter eggs. It is glorious, really. Anyway, I heard bad things about the fandom, so I am staying out of it so far, but playing the game and experiencing it has been an amazing experience and I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who wants to play a really fun MMO which doesn't force you into playing daily.

[thunderrabby-blog]

4 news stories that shaped the video game industry in 2022

4 news stories that shaped the video game industry in 2022

With the video game industry in constant growth mode, it’s rare we ever get through a year without some massive bombshell announcement with huge implications for the future. In 2021, for instance, we saw Epic waging war against Apple’s business practices, Valve disrupting hardware with its Steam Deck announcement, and a harrowing Activision Blizzard scandal that acted as a tipping point for the…

[official-alan-dabiri]

Was digging for Heroes of the Storm content to put my grubby little hands on, which is understandably challenging right now. Most Blizzard-adjacent blogs and tags are flooded with anger against Bobby Kotick and the abusers he protected, and support for the employee walkout. (And about half of the Overwatch community still being shitty about the Cole Cassidy rename.) And while I don’t want to talk about the issue - it’s been better covered by more dispassionate and informative people than me - I saw a tag that was definitely something worth drawing attention to:

Soak that up for a second. The Blizzard Of Yore. This wasn’t the first time I’ve seen this sentiment. People talk about Blizzard’s good old days. That the company went downhill, and that’s why these things happened. None of these abusers would have been allowed in the presence of the great Auteurs who brought us SC:BW, WC3, and that one good expansion for WoW. We all know which one, I don’t have to specify. But the guys who made those games were above this kind of behavior, and wouldn’t have tolerated it.

I don’t know why this needs to be said, but this is, obviously, bullshit.

Putting the rest under the cut for the benefit of those who might be particularly upset by what’s gone on at Blizzard.

These abuses happened because Blizzard had - since the beginning - a “frat boy culture.” Women employed at Blizzard in the early 2000s have come forward and said that they were treated as a sex object from the moment they were employed. This culture didn’t just start yesterday. Years of work was done at Blizzard to foster this environment, and those who didn’t work to build it chose to ignore it. Abusers spent years developing a workplace where they could have free reign. They made misogynist jokes to identify coworkers they could trust. They worked to inure HR to reports of little shitty behaviors to mask the big problems. They developed a pattern of behavior so that any women in the environment could be isolated, surrounded by like-minded assholes who would let the abusers have their way.

Yes! Even when they made that one game you like! This was happening then! Yes! Even when Dustin Browder and all the Dreamhaven people were still there! Yes! Even when Metzen was still there! This has been happening for as long as Blizzard has existed! In the Golden Age of Blizzard, Blizzard was full of shitty people, making a shitty environment so that they could be shitty to women. (And cowardly people who didn’t stop it.)

Alex Afrasiabi - one of the worst offenders - was hired at Blizzard in 2004. He was slotted into the WoW quest development team, and worked on the vanilla game along with all the expansions you love. He was, by all current accounts, a shitty fucking dude, and plenty of people knew it - whether or not they qualified his behavior as shitty. But no one in authority there saw any problem with naming numerous NPCs and items after him. The people he hurt were isolated, surrounded by people who thought his behavior was okay. And that environment was one that had been built from day one to accept him and his behavior. To give him access and control, and protect him from consequences.

This happened when Blizzard was still “Blizzard of Yore.”

There was no perfect iteration of Blizzard. Stop fucking talking like Blizzard 20 years ago was above this. It fucking wasn’t. Blizzard 20 years ago was the soil that nurtured all the shit you’re hearing about right now. Blizzard 20 years ago was where these events physically happened. Yes. It’s absolutely true that Blizzard made better games back in the old days. But just because they were making better games back then doesn’t mean no one was being harassed. When you talk about those games as some sort of golden age that Blizzard should return to, you’re not asking them to go back and be better.

You’re asking them to go back and be better at hiding it again.

[eruhamster]

it’s 2021, chuck schumer is attempting and failing to convince joe biden to cancel student loans. the ceo of activision is in epstein’s black book with his activision email as his contact info. the vice president of blizzard that they hired following a sexual assault scandal is a literal war criminal responsible for the torture at abu ghraib. chris chan admitted to have been fucking his senile mother for the past month, letting us all know that the only woman he’s ever been inside is his own mother in every conceivable sense.

mr bones’ wild ride never ends 

[yeah-yeah-beebiss-1]

predictions from 2021

president beto o’rourke faces scandal when his old funnyjunk account is leaked to the press

nintendo breaks all-time sales records with their 2021 pokemon release, Pokemon Sword/Shield But This Time There’s Mewtwo In It

PepsiCo purchases tumblr, user experience is pretty much the same except now there are mountain dew ads everywhere

someone on tumblr draws that creepy frosted mini-wheats mascot as a blonde white dude in a suit and creates a sexual phenomenon the likes of which haven’t been seen since bowsette or the once-ler

disney and marvel studios have responded to the box office success of avengers: endgame by upping marvel studios’ output to eight films a year and very rapidly runs out of A- and B-listers to make movies about; we finally get steve buscemi starring in a live-action M.O.D.O.K. movie

we have seen one (1) new trailer for the final fantasy vii remake

blizzard finally confirms that there is canon micropenis representation in overwatch; refuses to say which hero they’re referring to fueling months of heated fan debate

HBO announces Game of Thrones: Brotherhood, a remake that will follow the trajectory of the books that weren’t released at the time of the original series, but has to cancel it when they realize george rartin rartin martin still hasn’t written any more books

avatar 2 comes out, breaks box office records, nobody remembers a goddamn thing about it

[melbournenewsvine]

Netflix opening fifth studio and seriously exploring cloud gaming

At a glance Netflix opening fifth internal studio, led by former Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny Streaming firm is “seriously exploring a cloud gaming offering” but not “as a console replacement” Netflix has 55 titles in the works, and wants 50% to be based on its own IP Netflix continues to ramp up its games strategy with talk of a cloud gaming service and the announcement of a new development studio in Southern California. The news comes from an on-stage session with the company’s vice president of gaming Mike Verdu at TechCrunch Disrupt, who said that Netflix is “seriously exploring a cloud gaming offering.” While Verdu did not share details, he did suggest this will not be positioned as a platform in its own right. “It’s a value add,” he told TechCrunch. “We’re not asking you to subscribe as a console replacement. It’s a completely different business model. The hope is over time that it just becomes this very natural way to play games wherever you are.” His comments come in the wake of Google’s announcement last month that Stadia, its own cloud gaming service, will shut down in January 2023 – a little over three years after launch. When asked about Stadia’s failure, Verdu argued that Google’s service “was a technical success,” adding: “It was fun to play games on Stadia. It had some issues with the business model.” More immediately, Netflix is opening its fifth development studio with the creation of a new outfit in Southern California. This team will be led by Chacko Sonny, a former Overwatch executive producer who left Blizzard last year shortly after the harassment and discrimination scandal emerged. Verdu pointed to Sonny’s recruitment as a sign of how committed Netflix is to its gaming operations: “You don’t get people like that coming to your organisation to build the next big thing in gaming unless there’s a sense that we’re really in it for the long haul, and in it for the right reasons.” Sonny’s studio follows Netflix’s launch of a development studio in Finland last month, led by Zynga Helsinki co-founder Marko Lastikka. Since September 2021, Netflix has also acquired Oxenfree developer Night School Studio, Finnish mobile studio Next Games, and Dungeon Boss creator Boss Fight Entertainment. Finally, Verdu discussed the company’s upcoming slate of games. There are currently 35 mobile games available to subscribers, including Oxenfree, Into The Breach and Desta: The Memories Between, a new title by Monument Valley studio Ustwo Games. Netflix has a further 14 in development across its own studios, with Verdu reporting there are a total of 55 “in flight” at the moment. Last month, Ubisoft announced it has partnered with Netflix to produce three mobile games, including Valiant Hearts 2 (which debuts in January 2023), Mighty Quest (also due next year) and an undated Assassin’s Creed spin-off. Some of Netflix’s games will be based on licensed IP, such as Spongebob Squarepants, while others will be based on the streaming firm’s own franchises, including Stranger Things. Verdu hopes the latter will represent 50% of Netflix’s overall games library. Source link Originally published at Melbourne News Vine

[mainsstereo]

Roller champions ubisoft

Each season lasts 2 months, so the game allegedly has 6 more months yet to change minds before it gets canned. Right now it’s in its first season called Disco Fever (trailer below). Roller Champion is a 3v3 roller skating game where teams compete to score goals in a skating rink. While the game is financially more successful than battle royale game Hyper Scape, it still isn’t high enough to justify continued support. Roller Champions’ development will be wound down after its third season according to sources close to journalist Jeff Grubb on the Xbox Era podcast. It’s not a good day for Ubisoft as yet another of its live service games is getting the shaft. You can rest assured we’ll keep you updated as we roll forward.įull statement: /U8mfQRZRoH Hello Champions! Let’s clear it out of the way first, Roller Champions isn’t getting cancelled, and Ubisoft fully supports it. That’s great news for Ubisoft rollerskating fans out there. A lack of support has been added to Ubisoft’s release schedule.Update (): Turns out Ubisoft isn’t shutting off Roller Champions and is fully supporting the game. As employees leave, games are not being canceled or delayed. The result of a failure to meet those demands could have caused a lot of damage to Ubisoft’s bottom line. Ubisofts upcoming roller-derby-meets-Rocket-League game Roller Champions has been delayed. Their key demands from 2021 are repeated in today’s Twitter thread. A Better Ubisoft was created to promote the development of employees who wrote an open letter seeking the approval of Ubisoft executives. However, they didn’t later mention the toxic work culture of Ubisoft. CEO Yves Guillemot announced a new management system to improve its diversity among companies. The company shut down after reports accused them of harassment, assault or abuse. Women are just 45,4 percent of our global workforce, explained a Better Ubisoft, a sign of our open letter called for some more action against abuse.Īfter the scandal began in the summer of 2020, Ubisoft was rocked by the scandal. Launching in May on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, Ubisoft’s free-to-play skater, Roller Champions has rolled onto the Switch out of nowhere, with a surprise launch on a Tuesday. Of those who quit, 39 percent use their pronouns while 1 percent use their pronouns. The key items used in the Twitter thread include 25 percent of those who signed the 2021 letter now quit Ubisoft to use other companies. The letter is one year to the day we signed with Ubisoft management that calls for some more action to tackle abuse and to set out our 4 key demands, wrote A Better Ubisoft. Related: A Roller Champions is Yet another Live Service Failure from Ubisoft. Even though Ubisoft is losing valuable employees, a lot of whom is women. One year later, The Better Ubisoft has recently announced that absolutely no demands had been met. The letter was signed by the company called for the end of abuse at Ubisoft and the video game industry as a whole. A thousand current and former employees of Ubisoft signed the letter in solidarity with Activision Blizzard walkout in August 2021. It was one year since the abundy group A Better Ubisoft released an open letter asking the management of the French publishing house to change the structure and effect of the policy.

[newjerseyprelawland-blog]

Activision Sexual Harassment Scandal

By Josiah Baik, Rutgers University Class of 2023

August 29, 2022

Activision is a company that specializes in the development of video games, known famously for works such as Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and many other classics. [1] Activision was founded in 1979 in Sunnyvale, California, and is now one of the largest third party video game publishers in the world. In 2008, Activision strategically merged with another gaming company known as Blizzard, and this collaboration has opened up many new opportunities for the company and for the gaming community. Despite the numerous and bountiful successes brought up by the company, there has been a terrible streak of sexual harrassment and sexual bias allegations within the organizations.

On July 20, 2021, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for sexual bias allegations after a lengthy two year investigation. The company was accused of promoting a “Gamer” culture that unfortunately disregarded the well-being of female employees. Despite only being 20% of the Activision Blizzard employee population, many of them went through  constant sexual harrassment, unequal pay, and retaliation. [2] There were many recollected events of abuse towards female employees, whether it was openly joking about rape towards them, passing responsibilites to female coworkers to play video games, or being passed over for promotions because “They might become pregnant”. There are a multitude of disturbing and gross sexual harrassment stories, even going so far as to a female employee committing suicide after intense sexual harrassment with her nude pictures  being circulated around the workplace. The worst part of it all is how much of the company played a part in adding to the problem; it was revealed that many prominent figures of the company, including the President and the CEO, were involved in sexual harrassment scandals that later caused them to resign or be fired. In addition, instead of doing anything to address the problem, the company decided to downplay the validity and severity of the situation, as well as trying to destroy and hide evidence related to the allegations. The tone-deaf nature of how the problem was being handled led to others taking matters into their own hands, whether it was employees staging walkouts and signing petitions, or fans boycotting the company and its games.

In response to Activision Blizzard’s crimes, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stepped up to fight the company in court. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is an organization in charge of enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against an employee based on their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information. [3] The laws covered by the EEOC apply to all types of work situations, including hiring, firing, promotions, harassment, training, wages, and benefits. The EEOC also has the authority to investigate charges of discrimination against employees, making sure to fairly and accurately assess allegations in an investigation. If a discrimination is found, they try to settle the charge, and if that isn’t successful, theyhave the authority to file a lawsuit to protect the rights of the individuals.

In 2018, the EEOC received a letter regarding the sexual harrassment  allegations taking place at Activision Blizzard, and after gathering more information, the EEOC initiated an investigatio, which later led to them filing suit in federal court. The EEOC alleged that Activision Blizzard violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by subjecting employees to sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, and retaliation related  to sexual harrassment or pregnancy discrimination. [4] They also filed a proposed Consent Decree resolving the lawsuit and gave an outline on how Activision Blizzard would provide monetary and non-monetary relief to their potential victims. The Consent Decree settle’s the EEOC’s cases, providing relief such as monetary relief for harmed individuals, victim specific relief the provides non-monetary relief for harmed individuals, and injunctive relief intended to correct  and prevent discrimination.

The case turned out a success, as a Los Angeles federal judge signed off on Activision Blizzard Inc’s $18 million settlement of the U.S. EEOC lawsuit. EEOC spokeswoman Nicole St. Germain says that the agency is pleased with  the approved settlement, and that in addition to the payout, the deal requires Activision to take steps to prevent and address the discrimination, harrassment, and retaliation problems. [5]

______________________________________________________________

Josiah Baik is a rising senior at Rutgers University, majoring in Criminal Justice with a minor in Psychology. He is currently studying for the LSATs and hopes to attend law school in the future.

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[1] “About Us.” Activision, Activision Publishing, https://www.activision.com/company/aboutus.

[2] Greenbaum, Aaron. “Everything You Need to Know about the Activision Blizzard Scandal .” Den of Geek, 20 Jan. 2022, https://www.denofgeek.com/games/activision-blizzard-lawsuit-major-events-history-everything-explained/.

[3] “Overview.” US EEOC, https://www.eeoc.gov/overview.

[4] “What You Should Know about: Eeoc's Settlement with Activision Blizzard.” US EEOC, https://www.eeoc.gov/what-you-should-know-about-eeocs-settlement-activision-blizzard.

[5] Person, and Daniel Wiessner. “Activision, EEOC Win Judge's Approval of Sex Bias Settlement.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 30 Mar. 2022, https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/activision-eeoc-win-judges-approval-sex-bias-settlement-2022-03-29/.

[esportopedia]

Ex-Disney member hired to promote culture and engagement

Ex-Disney member hired to promote culture and engagement

2021 will be full of scandals for Blizzard. In 2022, the company will begin a lot of work to foster inclusion and diversity in development and management teams. This of course requires not only internal reform, but also appointments to certain key positions. The company announced yesterday Hiring of Jessica Martinez as Vice President of Culture. “Put people back in the business” At Blizzard,…

[innocentamit]

From Then to Now, the Activision Blizzard Scandal

From Then to Now, the Activision Blizzard Scandal

Activision Blizzard has faced a series of big changes in the past year. It all started in July of 2021, with a lawsuit citing numerous cases of sexual harassment and deplorable workplace culture. Since then, a lot has occurred, but this year, another shocking event took place: Microsoft moved to acquire Activision Blizzard. The purchase of the company will position Microsoft as one of the largest…

[aion-rsa]

Everything You Need To Know About The Activision Blizzard Scandal 

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Microsoft blindsided the world by purchasing publisher and developer Activision Blizzard in the biggest acquisition deal in video game history. This surprise buyout resulted in a slew of questions, such as “Which franchises does Microsoft own now?” and “Is Call of Duty now an Xbox exclusive?” However, the most prominent question was the simplest: “Why?” Why did Microsoft purchase Activision Blizzard given the ongoing investigation into the company’s alleged history of employee abuse and harassment and the numerous lawsuits that the investigation has resulted in?

Activision Blizzard’s legacy as not just one of the most successful studios in video game history but the makers of some of the most beloved and influential games of all time has forever been compromised by that investigation and the many revelations it has resulted in. It’s a story that has already changed the gaming industry and will certainly continue to do so.

Where and when did this harassment controversy start? This article should help get you up to speed.

California Files a Lawsuit Against Activision Blizzard

On July 20, 2021, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard after a lengthy two-year investigation. According to Bloomberg Law, the agency accused the company of promoting a “‘frat boy’ culture” that put female employees in the crosshairs. While women only made up approximately 20% of Activision Blizzard’s employee population, they experienced “constant sexual harassment, unequal pay, and retaliation.” 

One of the biggest discoveries was the pervasiveness of what the lawsuit dubbed “cube crawls,” where male employees got drunk, crawled their way through cubicles, and participated in “inappropriate behavior toward female employees.” Many male employees also allegedly openly joked about rape and passed off their responsibilities to their female coworkers just so they could slack off and play video games. Moreover, female employees claimed they were passed over for promotions because “they might become pregnant.” However, arguably the most troubling accusation listed in the lawsuit is the reveal that one unnamed female Activision worker committed suicide while on a company trip with an unnamed “male supervisor.” She was allegedly the victim of “intense sexual harassment” to the point where nude pictures of her were circulated during a company holiday party.

While women were the main targets, nobody was safe. According to Kotaku, male employees were also the target of sexual harassment. 

Former Blizzard President J. Allen Brack Addresses the Harassment Allegations Before Leaving the Company

Shortly after the sexual harassment allegations came to light, many prominent figures in the gaming industry expressed how much the news distressed them. One such person was then-Blizzard President J. Allen Brack. He claimed to know nothing about the harassment and wanted to help ensure the wellbeing and safety of Blizzard’s employees, which is all well and good save for one crucial detail: He was mentioned by name as having prior knowledge of the harassment and reportedly did nothing about it, all while acting “too friendly” to female employees. The other prominent Blizzard figure directly named in the lawsuit is Alex Afrasiabi. He reportedly told women he wanted to marry them and tried to kiss them, among other actions, and his supervisors had to “pull him off” his victims multiple times. 

While Brack and Afrasiabi left Activision Blizzard (or, in Afrasiabi’s case, was fired) due to their connection with the lawsuit, they weren’t alone. Diablo 4’s Lead Designer Jesse McCree, World of Warcraft designer Jonathan LeCraft, and Lead Game Designer Cory Stockton were all fired after their part in the company’s sexual harassment scandal came to light.

Frances Townsend (or Bobby Kotick?) Sends a Troubling Internal Email

Controversial Activision Blizzard Vice President Frances Townsend (who formerly worked for the Bush administration) disturbed many people in and outside of the company when she reportedly sent an email that called the allegations outlined in the investigation a “distorted and untrue picture of our company” and generally attempted to downplay the validity and severity of the situation.

Later, the Wall Street Journal reported that the email was actually written by Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. Author aside, the tone-deaf nature of the email caused many Blizzard employees to immediately respond in their own way…

Activision Blizzard Employees Stage A Walkout

As news of the lawsuit and its allegations spread through Activision Blizzard’s workforce, many employees staged a walkout in response. Tempers didn’t calm down afterward. If anything, emotions rose after reports hit that many higher-ups knew about the accusations and did nothing about them. Over 100 employees walked out in protest and shared a clear demand: Fire CEO Bobby Kotick. Moreover, well over 2,000 employees signed a letter that called the company out on their response. 

According to the organization behind many of the employee protests, ABK Workers Alliance, many of the employees’ demands have not been met. That was true back in August of 2021, and it is still true today. Moreover, the Communication Workers of America labor union called Activision Blizzard’s $18 million settlement deal over sexual harassment allegations, “a slap in the face” since the company is worth $72 billion.

Fans and News Outlets Refuse to Play and Cover Activision Blizzard Games

Shortly after the sexual harassment lawsuit came to light, a huge portion of the Blizzard fanbase boycotted the company and its games. Many gamers and streamers, including those who were known for playing titles like World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, refused to touch the games. They weren’t alone, as sites such as The Gamer, Prima Games, and GameXplain elected to cease all coverage of Activision Blizzard titles. No good news, no bad news, just deafening silence until, as The Gamer Editor in Chief Kirk McKeand put it, “there’s some real change.”

Allegations Against Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick Are Made Public

Recently, many allegations regarding Activision Blizzard’s CEO, Bobby Kotick, have come to light. For instance, according to the Wall Street Journal, he once sent an intimidating voicemail to one of his assistants, threatening to kill her. And yes, he also allegedly knew about the sexual harassment in his company and did nothing about it. Well, that’s not entirely true — he apparently protected the perpetrators and refused to report the incidents to the company’s board of directors. This led to another lawsuit filed by investors angry over Kotick’s “issuing materially false and misleading statements during a class action period.”

It’s little wonder the internet is celebrating Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard. Many people see it as an opportunity to finally have Kotick fired and held accountable for his alleged crimes and misdeeds. 

Read more

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Activision Blizzard Lawsuit Reactions Expose the Horrors of Fan Entitlement

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Blizzard’s Reputation Won’t Be Saved by J. Allen Brack “Stepping Down”

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Some of Activision Blizzard’s Worst Offenders Frequented a Hotel Room Known as the “Cosby Suite”

Back when BlizzCon was a large, live expo, many Blizzard employees slept in a local hotel to stay close to the convention center. Each employee had his or her own assigned room, including Alex Afrasiabi. Unfortunately, Afrasiabi’s harassments were so notorious and purportedly well-known as far back as 2013 that his BlizzCon hotel room was nicknamed “the Cosby Suite.”

For those unaware, the hotel room’s name allegedly references the ex-comedian Bill Cosby, who was also convicted of sexual assault (at least until the ruling was overturned). Since many of Afrasiabi’s sexual abuse activities occurred during BlizzCon, his hotel room was assigned the moniker. According to a Kotaku report, the Cosby Suite was a hotspot for Blizzard employees to meet, drink alcohol, and pose with a portrait of Bill Cosby.

While one anonymous source told Kotaku that the nickname was originally a bad joke meant to link the room’s dated appearance to Cosby’s signature ugly sweaters, the suite eventually became synonymous with sexual harassment. Many employees who have been photographed in the room with the Cosby portrait, including Cory Stockton and Jesse McCree, have since been fired.

Activision Blizzard Begins to Change In-Game Content Related to Accusations and the Investigation

As of late, many gamers have noted changes in various Activision Blizzard titles. For instance, Overwatch hero Jesse McCree (originally named after the Diablo 4 director of the same name who left the company following the Cosby Suite scandal) now goes by Cole Cassidy, and many achievements and images in World of Warcraft have been censored to appear less racy.

While opinions are split on the exact changes, many see them as a way for the company to cheaply change its public-facing content while remaining silent regarding the history of their culture and what changes they intend to make to help their employees.

Activision Blizzard Employees Fight For Unionization

Once Activision Blizzard employees started organizing in a show of solidarity over the sexual harassment lawsuit, some wondered if they could take their organization one step further and unionize. As Bloomberg points out, the gaming industry displays a distinct lack of unionization, but many Activision Blizzard employees have taken the first tentative steps by signing a union authorization card to join the Communications Workers of America. According to the ABK Workers Alliance, hundreds of employees have already signed up.

Unfortunately, Activision Blizzard executives have been less than receptive to its employee’s attempts to unionize. The company has been accused of union-busting due to hiring the law firm WilmerHale (which helped Amazon and other companies avoid unionization), as well as Donald Trump’s former Under Secretary of State for Management, Brian Bulatao. One of Bulatao’s first actions at Activision Blizzard was to send employees an email that asked them to “consider the consequences” of unionization. Many outlets have laughed at Bulatao and Activision Blizzard’s tactics, viewing them as a last-ditch, desperate (and according to NPR, borderline illegal) effort. 

Reports Suggest Activision Blizzard Tried to Destroy and Hide Evidence

According to Axios, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing claimed that Activision Blizzard did everything it could to derail investigations. This ranged from forcing employees to wade through Activision Blizzard’s own bureaucratic red tape before they can contact the agency to shredding “documents related to investigations and complaints.”

Activision Blizzard representatives denied the allegations and claimed that they took “appropriate steps” regarding the relevant information.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Launches an Investigation Into Activision Blizzard

The Wall Street Journal reported that the SEC has begun an official investigation into Activision Blizzard’s workplace practices that will focus on “the company’s disclosures regarding employment matters and related issues.”

The SEC’s investigation will primarily focus on whether Activision Blizzard’s executives lied to investors by trying to hide and destroy evidence related to the harassment allegations.

Top Activision Blizzard Employees Continue to Leave the Company

In the weeks and months following the public reveal of California’s investigation, top Activision Blizzard employees (including Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan, Overwatch 2 director Chacko Sonny, Diablo 4 director Luis Barriga, and studio co-head Jen Oneal) announced their decision to leave the company.

While some employees have been fired from Activision Blizzard due to their alleged involvement in the harassment allegations, many of the company’s recent high-profile departures are believed to be related to the individuals’ decisions to leave following what they learned about the company’s practices.

Bobby Kotick Allegedly Considered Buying News Outlets to Control the Narrative

Given the updates and bombshells regarding Activision Blizzard and its lawsuit, it’s difficult to find any positive coverage of the company, let alone its CEO Bobby Kotick. Instead of winning people over by fixing Activision Blizzard, Kotick may have been interested in controlling what certain outlets could and could not say.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Kotick floated the idea of purchasing sites such as Kotaku and PC Gamer to “change the public narrative.” Currently, Kotaku is owned by G/O Media, which also controls sites such as The Onion and Gizmodo, while PC Gamer is under the wing of Future plc (which also manages news outlets like Edge and Games Radar).

In the spirit of fairness, the Wall Street Journal article notes that an Activision Blizzard representative denied the allegations against Kotick, and neither Kotaku nor PC Gamer (or their parent companies) responded. While the veracity of the claim is up in the air, many gamers believe it matches Kotick’s modus operandi. 

Microsoft Purchases Activision Blizzard

On January 18th, Microsoft purchased Activision Blizzard, giving it access to the publisher’s expansive library of games. Once the deal is complete, Activision Blizzard will report directly to Phil Spencer. While this decision seems divorced from the lawsuit, The Wall Street Journal confirmed that because Activision Blizzard’s bargaining power had been severely diminished due to the scandal, it was essentially the perfect time for Microsoft to buy the flagging publisher.

Since Microsoft only recently announced its acquisition, it is too early to tell if the company’s newfound ownership of Activision Blizzard will result in any tangible changes for the better. However, according to The Wall Street Journal, Bobby Kotick, who has been a major player and target in the sexual harassment accusations, will potentially leave Activision Blizzard “once the deal closes.” Moreover, the ABK Worker’s Alliance announced on Twitter it will continue its unionization efforts even after Microsoft assumes full control of the company.

We should all consider the investigation, lawsuits, the Microsoft deal, and the many stunning revelations that have come to light as a result of all of this to be an ongoing story.

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[tagnoob]

What Hurt Blizzard Most in 2021?

What Hurt Blizzard Most in 2021?

In our little corner of the internet it is broadly assumed that 2021 has been a very bad year for Blizzard, perhaps their worst year ever.  How can it not be?  Look at the scandals!  Look at the headlines!  Look at the stock price!  Look at the employees leaving… pushed or otherwise!  Look at all those influencers jumping ship for FFXIV or whatever! Blizzard execs in 2021 But, as I have to remind…

[official-alan-dabiri]

Jesus Christ Blizzard What The Fuck

Alright, I just want to get my thoughts down on this because acknowledging it is mandatory and the more I think about it the more I have to think about it and holy shit. Jesus Christ Blizzard what the fuck.

Before the cut, the most important thing to say is that down here as physical people on the ground, our individual mental health matters more than making a gesture that might not mean anything. If thinking about the shit that happened hurts you, do yourself a favor and don’t think about it. Don’t worry: plenty of other people are being emotionally consumed by it at every hour of the day!

Additionally, if you want or need to be playing Heroes of the Storm - or whatever other games Blizzard made, if any - for your own mental, social, or emotional well-being, you aren’t morally obligated to stop. Do what you gotta do to make it day to day, okay? Obviously if you can stop giving them money, that would be great - some proportion of that money will indirectly go towards paying the lawyers who will be trying to dodge facing consequences for these actions. But please secure your own orcs-ygen mask before assisting others.

The second most important thing to say is that I wholeheartedly condemn the actions described in the DFEH investigation. The vast majority of those behaviors are monstrous and unforgivable, and the only thing worse is the implication - true or not - that Blizzard’s management and HR department either participated or was complicit in them.

With those matters said, I’ll put the rest under the cut to spare you all the dash space.

In case it needs to be said again: I am not Alan Dabiri. This blog is not affiliated in any capacity with Blizzard. I’m just some guy copying something cool I saw a lesbian do.

For the sake of everyone’s mental health, I’m not going to go into details about the report. If you want details, they’re all over the internet, but be warned that they range from frustrating to enraging to nauseating. Just searching for “Blizzard Scandal” isn’t specific enough, so I will say - for future generations who might be scrolling back and reading this in 2022, after “Blizzard Scandal” brings up a whole new thing - that this is in reference to the California DFEH discrimination lawsuit, wherein a 2-year investigation led to a laundry list of crimes committed by Blizzard and Blizzard employees against the women who worked there. Some of these are labor crimes, some of these are just dick moves, and some of them are seriously dark shit that’s going to haunt me every time a Blizzard game’s story decides that the only thing they can do with a woman is have her go crazy and get killed. What immediately followed was an outpouring of more horrifying stories across social media from others who worked for Blizzard, whose experiences were not included in the report.

Blizzard’s statements in response to the suit are a mixed bag. For one thing, they outright deny all the charges, insisting that many of the claims are distorted, out of context, factually incorrect, or - the most irrelevant kind of accusation - old. They hide behind an updated Code of Conduct and new training standards rather than do anything to acknowledge any of the wrongdoing. (Because no one would ever know that [redacted] was a morally disgusting crime unless an HR video told them!) Their statement instead points fingers at the state and their “unaccountable bureaucrats” driving businesses out of California. It’s the most childish response imaginable, and makes the whole thing look even worse than it already did. When you are accused of ignoring mistreatment of a specific group of employees, perhaps the correct response isn’t to ignore the accusations altogether and whine that you’re being bullied by law enforcement.

That said, the Blizzard response does have a grain of truth to it. The DFEH’s filing is outside of normal protocol. After the investigation, the DFEH’s normal procedure is to work with the company, resolving claims and concerns with them directly before moving to litigation, if necessary. Further speculation online has been that the state of California may be trying to make an example out of Blizzard. The games industry has long been full of this exact kind of discrimination and harassment. Coming down on Blizzard for this shows the industry that even their titans can and will be held accountable, even if it means going to court when it may not have been by the book to do so.

Maybe it’s not fair to Blizzard that they have been denied the opportunity to address these complaints in private with their own evidence and information. Maybe some of these complaints are indeed factually incorrect. Maybe some of these perpetrators faced serious consequences that the victims were not aware of. Maybe they did everything right to cut the problems in their internal culture out over the last few years, but the DFEH had already decided that Blizzard needed to be their scapegoat for the whole industry.

But Blizzard’s response being a tantrum cry of “nah-uh ur a bunch of fudging meaners” makes it look to me like they want to be that scapegoat. And if this is the only way the industry starts holding their supervisors and HR departments accountable for how they treat women and minorities in their employ, it would be a hard sell to convince me that the DFEH is making a bad call to take Blizzard to task for these offenses. Even if Blizzard puts to rest each and every claim with clear evidence of proper behavior on the part of the company in a court of law, I also find it hard to argue against having Blizzard submit to the public record a roadmap on how a large corporation in an especially abusive industry can eliminate a culture of harassment and sexism.

I, uh, don’t expect that to be the result. But boy, wouldn’t that be great? All the victims got their justice, Blizzard is exonerated, and every HR department in the nation is handed a toolkit to fix even the worst work environment? You want to talk about a fantasy setting, there you go.