Patch 9.1 Hotfixes - July 21, 2021, Activision Blizzard Sued By California

Update: Added Blizzard's statement on the lawsuit

Patch 9.1 Hotfixes - July 21, 2021
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Classes
  • Druid
    • Born Anew's (Conduit) primary stat bonus reduces to 20 upon the beginning of a new encounter.
      • Developers’ note: The intent of this bonus is to provide a benefit when using resurrections in combat. But it is best to avoid situations where players might feel compelled to min/max something like this before starting a pull.
  • Priest
    • Shadow
      • Shadow Crash's (Talent) ground visual will now match the area effect.
      • Void Volley's (PvP Talent) ground visuals will now match the area effect and has more defined edges.
  • Warrior
    • Arms
      • Fixed an issue where Swift Patrol (Niya Soulbind) caused the auto-attack timer to reset.

Creatures ad NPCs
  • Players now have a 2 second grace period to keep their vision of targets within the area contained by the Soul Chains between the Soul Cages during the Mor'geth encounter.
  • Reduced the number of Prince Renathals in Sinfall. Press F to pay respects.

Dungeons and Raids
  • Sanctum of Domination
    • Defeating Sylvanas Windrunner on Mythic difficulty will now reward 2 Vengeance’s Reins.
    • Remnant of Ner’zhul
      • Players can no longer cause a second orb to become non-interactable while carrying an Orb of Torment.
  • Plaguefall
    • You must now defeat the first three bosses of the dungeon before the door to Margrave Stradama opens on all difficulties.
      • Developers’ note: The first two bosses of the dungeon were frequently being skipped in lower-difficulty dungeons, typically by groups who were trying to earn Renown much faster than intended. To improve players' Renown earnings, we've also added a chance for Renown to be earned by completing layers in Torghast (see hotfix below).

Items and Rewards
  • Teleporter Repair Kits should no longer have a Unique count and will now stack to 50.
  • Repaired Riftkeys will also now stack to 50.
    • Developers’ note: Early in development, Teleporter Repair Kits and Repaired Riftkeys were only available from the vendor. Based on player feedback of not knowing if they were worth purchasing, we decided to have them drop occasionally as well. Now that these items dropped and became out of player’s control, we should have removed the unique cap on the Teleporter Repair Kits then. Also, since you have access to purchasing the Teleporter Repair Kits or Repaired Rift Keys, we are disabling them from going to mail if you loot one with a full inventory so they will no longer fill up your mailbox.

  • The item levels of Conduits sold by the Rated PvP vendor have been corrected.
  • Fixed an issue where the Salvaged Fusion Amplifier was not dropping for Marksmanship and Beastmaster Hunters.

Quests
  • Fixed an issue during “Nal’ragas” that caused internal text to be visible to users of certain nameplate addons.

Torghast
  • Renown is now a possible reward from Torghast completions, with better chances at Renown coming from higher Torghast difficulties.

Activision Blizzard Sued By California
According to a Bloomberg law article, Activision Blizzard is being sued over 'frat boy' culture after a 2-year investigation by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. For more information, check out the article below, and read the full court filing.



Blizzard provided Polygon with a statement responding to the lawsuit:

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
We value diversity and strive to foster a workplace that offers inclusivity for everyone. There is no place in our company or industry, or any industry, for sexual misconduct or harassment of any kind. We take every allegation seriously and investigate all claims. In cases related to misconduct, action was taken to address the issue.

The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past. We have been extremely cooperative with the DFEH throughout their investigation, including providing them with extensive data and ample documentation, but they refused to inform us what issues they perceived. They were required by law to adequately investigate and to have good faith discussions with us to better understand and to resolve any claims or concerns before going to litigation, but they failed to do so. Instead, they rushed to file an inaccurate complaint, as we will demonstrate in court. We are sickened by the reprehensible conduct of the DFEH to drag into the complaint the tragic suicide of an employee whose passing has no bearing whatsoever on this case and with no regard for her grieving family. While we find this behavior to be disgraceful and unprofessional, it is unfortunately an example of how they have conducted themselves throughout the course of their investigation. It is this type of irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State’s best businesses out of California.

The picture the DFEH paints is not the Blizzard workplace of today. Over the past several years and continuing since the initial investigation started, we’ve made significant changes to address company culture and reflect more diversity within our leadership teams. We’ve amplified internal programs and channels for employees to report violations, including the “ASK List” with a confidential integrity hotline, and introduced an Employee Relations team dedicated to investigating employee concerns. We have strengthened our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and combined our Employee Networks at a global level, to provide additional support. Employees must also undergo regular anti-harassment training and have done so for many years.

We put tremendous effort in creating fair and rewarding compensation packages and policies that reflect our culture and business, and we strive to pay all employees fairly for equal or substantially similar work. We take a variety of proactive steps to ensure that pay is driven by non-discriminatory factors. For example, we reward and compensate employees based on their performance, and we conduct extensive anti-discrimination trainings including for those who are part of the compensation process.

We are confident in our ability to demonstrate our practices as an equal opportunity employer that fosters a supportive, diverse, and inclusive workplace for our people, and we are committed to continuing this effort in the years to come. It is a shame that the DFEH did not want to engage with us on what they thought they were seeing in their investigation.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 9.1 Hotfixes - July 21, 2021, Activision Blizzard Sued By California started by Stoy View original post
Published on 2021-07-22 02:18 AM
356 Comments
Comments 355 Comments
  1. Echeyakee's Avatar
    Wish this would get more coverage...
  1. woopytywoop's Avatar
    We are sickened by the reprehensible conduct of the DFEH to drag into the complaint the tragic suicide of an employee whose passing has no bearing whatsoever on this case and with no regard for her grieving family. While we find this behavior to be disgraceful and unprofessional, it is unfortunately an example of how they have conducted themselves throughout the course of their investigation. It is this type of irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State’s best businesses out of California.
    Yeh fuck you Blizzard, you're not the victim.
    You created an environment that tolerated harassment for such a long time, you're not entitled in the slightest to play the victim card.

    Calling the DFEH irresponsible but it's you who doesn't take responsibility.

    And best businesses... Warcraft III reloaded? Or how you have shit on your legacy yourself...
  1. AlexeiPavlov's Avatar
    Only naive fools believe what this world is populated by pink unicorns.
    Unicorns don't make games.
  1. La's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by shise View Post
    Honestly, the old team created the best version of WoW. So I am willing to look away... At least they created a masterpiece.
    I do hope that nothing of this is true, but if it is, I hope it is the newer people, so we finally get ride of them.
    So basically sexual assault is fine if it was a long time ago, and also you did something really good that made people happy, aside from the person you made not happy and or made kill themselves.

    I understand that women doing this kind of thing when it isn't true is what people like to believe, but the reality is a lot of "men" and "gamers" don't quite understand what's like to be a woman in a male dominated workplace and the things they have to deal with. Just saying "Just quit" doesn't change both it being wrong or it having happened.

    But if people wanna sit here and pretend that "Oh it's just more Twitter" this or "It's women overexaggerating" that, then your opinion is the one that matters the least in all of this. This statement basically doesn't even deny any of it.
  1. naeblis495's Avatar
    "The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past"

    Did they just admitted doing thoses things in the pasts , even if tonned down ? I can't beleive how fucking retarded they are .

    Even if i beleived them ,they would would still stand trials for those actions "in the past"
  1. Vasilisa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ArenaDk View Post
    but blizzard currently is inoccent lmao . if you all want to do witch hunts log in to twitter and join there
    In terms o law, yes Blizzard is innocent. But is suspected of not being one.
  1. ArenaDk's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vasilisa View Post
    In terms o law, yes Blizzard is innocent. But is suspected of not being one.
    You are just as suspected to have done the same in my eyes. So you are a criminal now?
  1. Aggressive's Avatar
    Blizzard is a piece of shit now. Funny how they were saying Asmongold is 'Toxic Masculinity' when all along they were rolling deep in their OWN company with just that. I DO NOT regret at all cancelling my sub 3 months ago with WoW and taking my ass over to FFXIV. Sickening and disgusting to even think of Blizzard right now.
  1. Osmeric's Avatar
    https://thebeaverton.com/2021/07/fac...arassment-dlc/

    "Facing lawsuit, Blizzard argues female employees should have just acquired Anti-Harassment DLC"
  1. starstationprofm's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Xilurm View Post
    But, they are? Are you blind? A woman killed herself because of it. You really think it's all fake?
    Suicide is always the decision of the person doing it. There's no such thing as " He made me kill myself ".

    And so far we have seen no evidence of it. This is a civil suit, anyway. If they were so confident in Blizzard wrongdoings why aren't they trying to put people behind bars?
  1. Vasilisa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ArenaDk View Post
    You are just as suspected to have done the same in my eyes. So you are a criminal now?
    There should be a limit to fanboism. Your comments not only prove that there isn't one but they also insult my intelligence.
    @starstationprofm you are right,suicide is always the decision of a person doing it. Yet life events might make you think that it's the only thing left to do.

    I bet the earliest you'll see any evidence is going to be in front of the judge, not earlier. Assuming there is one. I hope that these accusations won't stand but seeing recently how toxic work atmosphere can be and how abusive bosses are I allow myself to wonder how this case end. time will tell.
  1. Aggressive's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mendzia View Post
    Wow dude... You are so brave...
    We are here to discuss not saying 'idiot' or 'you piece od shit' to each other.
    Calm down.
    I am sorry. I literally have to agree with him on what he said.

    - - - Updated - - -

    And that letter that J. Allen Brack made is pitiful as well. Basically 2 things are happening with him.

    1. He either comes to work and goes straight to his office and shuts the door. Not giving a damn about what is going on in the company with employees, or.......

    2. He is lying his ass off in the letter.

    Either way he needs to be fired. His leadership is pitiful.
  1. Azerate's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Voidwielder View Post
    These cases are extremely difficult to tilt in favour of the defendant, it's usually ''my word against his/hers''. Unless they have actual text messages, audio and video recordings but that stuff can also be easily invalidated in court if gathered improperly but US laws are weird in this regard.

    Odds are, ActiBlizz will lawyer up and settle quietly.
    Wrong. In most sexual assault/harassment cases, the predators actually evade justice. Again, try to do some research instead of posting your hunches and beliefs.

    Quote Originally Posted by Vasilisa View Post
    I bet the earliest you'll see any evidence is going to be in front of the judge, not earlier. Assuming there is one. I hope that these accusations won't stand but seeing recently how toxic work atmosphere can be and how abusive bosses are I allow myself to wonder how this case end. time will tell.
    Based on the accounts and testimony from the victims provided you have to be completely dumb in order to need a judge to tell you that these things happened. And even dumber, to then believe that nothing wrong has happened if the court decides the predators at Blizzard are innocent
  1. ArenaDk's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vasilisa View Post
    There should be a limit to fanboism. Your comments not only prove that there isn't one but they also insult my intelligence.
    @starstationprofm you are right,suicide is always the decision of a person doing it. Yet life events might make you think that it's the only thing left to do.

    I bet the earliest you'll see any evidence is going to be in front of the judge, not earlier. Assuming there is one. I hope that these accusations won't stand but seeing recently how toxic work atmosphere can be and how abusive bosses are I allow myself to wonder how this case end. time will tell.
    I will only believe evidence that is shown to a official person handling the law and who can make a decision about its audentici ? Yes, yes and tripple yes. And while you are now act all smarter. They way you believe ‚‘ evidence‘‘ every street homless person could call you a pedophile and in your world that would be HARD EVIDENCE.

    Just relax, put your pitchfork away and let the legal system make a decision
  1. Vasilisa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ArenaDk View Post
    I will only believe evidence that is shown to a official person handling the law and who can make a decision about its audentici ? Yes, yes and tripple yes. And while you are now act all smarter. They way you believe ‚‘ evidence‘‘ every street homless person could call you a pedophile and in your world that would be HARD EVIDENCE.

    Just relax, put your pitchfork away and let the legal system make a decision
    I suggest that you take a step back and take a deep breath. If you'd read my previous posts you'd see that I'm against witch hunting Blizzard now until judge sentence them for their crimes (if it comes to that).
  1. starstationprofm's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vasilisa View Post
    There should be a limit to fanboism. Your comments not only prove that there isn't one but they also insult my intelligence.
    @starstationprofm you are right,suicide is always the decision of a person doing it. Yet life events might make you think that it's the only thing left to do.

    I bet the earliest you'll see any evidence is going to be in front of the judge, not earlier. Assuming there is one. I hope that these accusations won't stand but seeing recently how toxic work atmosphere can be and how abusive bosses are I allow myself to wonder how this case end. time will tell.
    It will probably be settled out of court and the liberals on Reddit will continue assuming guilt.
  1. ArenaDk's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vasilisa View Post
    I suggest that you take a step back and take a deep breath. If you'd read my previous posts you'd see that I'm against witch hunting Blizzard now until judge sentence them for their crimes (if it comes to that).
    My apologie, it seems my english was lacking here again. I understood your sentence in a way thag you implied, that for me it would only count as evidence when a judge says so, but that you imply it is already only based on accusation evidence.
  1. Vasilisa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ArenaDk View Post
    My apologie, it seems my english was lacking here again. I understood your sentence in a way thag you implied, that for me it would only count as evidence when a judge says so, but that you imply it is already only based on accusation evidence.
    No worries, apologies accepted My way of thinking is that I allow the possibility that the charges are true but I'll hold my judgment until the court decides if the evidence is hard enough. The last company I worked in was really toxic I believe that such things like the ones stated in the lawsuit could happen but let's not burn people at stakes basing on accusations only.
  1. Galluccio's Avatar
    They need to do a phased withdrawal from California. They should go to a state like Texas where all the other companies from California are going. Let California burn. The place isn’t like it used to be. Stay in California to get a company going and then move the heck out.
  1. MoanaLisa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vasilisa View Post
    I suggest that you take a step back and take a deep breath. If you'd read my previous posts you'd see that I'm against witch hunting Blizzard now until judge sentence them for their crimes (if it comes to that).
    The State of California is requesting certain things. Jail time for anyone isn't one of them. They want Blizzard to comply with workplace protections, as well as deliver unpaid wages, pay adjustments, back pay, and lost wages and benefits for female employees. I recommend that everyone read the actual legal filing. It's mostly in plain English, not legalese).
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