Mike Morhaime Response to Blizzard Lawsuit

Originally Posted by OrcsRLame

How hard is it to not be a piece of shit?

It's so fitting too. Blizzard is one of the preachiest companies I've ever seen in my life. "Look! We added another minority to Overwatch! Look how progressive we are!" Meanwhile they're harassing real life women until they kill themselves. Disgusting.

Just goes to show, never trust anyone that talks about how great and righteous they are. Actual good people don't feel the need to tell everyone how good they are. They're too busy living their lives and actually doing good things.

Because all those moments of "look we made a trans character!" is virtue signaling and a smoke screen. They knew about this investigation. Their claim that the DFEH is lying is nothing but gaslighting. They're in panic mode. All those "woke" additions in games was nothing but a distraction. they don't actually fucking care about diversity.

Originally Posted by Doombringer

This is very important for anyone who hasn't dealt with Human Resources before.

Those words there - Human Resources - are so true. HR manages a commodity. That is, human labor. They do this for the betterment of the company. Humans are a necessary evil for a company and by extension, HR exists to corral those pesky humans. The only thing that keeps HR in check and on a human's side are fair employment regulations.

I've worked with HR professionals who will terminate an employee recognition program to save a few hundred dollars a year. When pressed about how not giving a 20 year employee a $65 chunk of acrylic with an engraving on it would somehow break the company, their answer was, "this is the policy now." This is while green-lighting regular gifts for board members.

Human resources aren't there to make good decisions for the employees. They will do the bare minimum there. They're there to keep the company flush with labor and to meet a bottom line.

I realize not all HR professionals are so cold, but in an entity as large as ActiBlizz you can bet your boopy they're not your friend.

HR doesn't give a damn about people. It's workforce contract and policy management.

Originally Posted by Doombringer

This is very important for anyone who hasn't dealt with Human Resources before.

Those words there - Human Resources - are so true. HR manages a commodity. That is, human labor. They do this for the betterment of the company. Humans are a necessary evil for a company and by extension, HR exists to corral those pesky humans. The only thing that keeps HR in check and on a human's side are fair employment regulations.

I've worked with HR professionals who will terminate an employee recognition program to save a few hundred dollars a year. When pressed about how not giving a 20 year employee a $65 chunk of acrylic with an engraving on it would somehow break the company, their answer was, "this is the policy now." This is while green-lighting regular gifts for board members.

Human resources aren't there to make good decisions for the employees. They will do the bare minimum there. They're there to keep the company flush with labor and to meet a bottom line.

I realize not all HR professionals are so cold, but in an entity as large as ActiBlizz you can bet your boopy they're not your friend.

HR's main job is to make sure that the employer is protected in the event of a lawsuit. They make sure that every mistake/error an employee makes is kept track of and then brought up if necessary.

If you go into a meeting and they say that everything is confidential, rest assured that your supervisor and those above will know about who said what.

Originally Posted by OrcsRLame

How hard is it to not be a piece of shit?

It's so fitting too. Blizzard is one of the preachiest companies I've ever seen in my life. "Look! We added another minority to Overwatch! Look how progressive we are!" Meanwhile they're harassing real life women until they kill themselves. Disgusting.

Just goes to show, never trust anyone that talks about how great and righteous they are. Actual good people don't feel the need to tell everyone how good they are. They're too busy living their lives and actually doing good things.

I've got a better lesson for you: don't confuse a company with a person. Blizzard isn't a person.

There were people at Blizzard who were abusive, and there were people who were being abused. There were people who were ignorant of what was going on, and there were people who ignored what was going on. There were people making things worse, and there were people trying to make it better. Many of those people are still there.

Either way, it's time for a reckoning. Things need to change. The best we can really hope for at this point is they clean house and right the ship. Hopefully such a thing is possible, because I still love Blizzard's universes and I want the people who make them to be able to keep making them in a safe and supportive environment.

Here’s a good YouTube video from an unbiased lawyer in Michigan about the actual legality of the case.

what kind of a womanlet manages to get "harassed" by the kind of soy boys that work at blizzard LMAO

Originally Posted by Shyning

what kind of a womanlet manages to get "harassed" by the kind of soy boys that work at blizzard LMAO

Victim blaming nice.
Not all predators are built like brick shithouses. No means no, someone not taking no for an answer or not respecting boundaries is harrassment.

Although using the terms womanlet and soy boys, it's no wonder your comprehension is lacking.

Originally Posted by Valkyrst

I think they're all full of shit, every one of these 'I'm so sorry we ran a company that had a load of douchebags' type statements.

They all knew. And if they didn't directly know, they'd allowed the culture to exist. So yeah, fuck them all.

Chris retired. Alex Afrasiabi was his replacement. Hard to imagine that if Metzen wanted someone else to follow him he couldn't have stepped up. At this point it's just one thing after another. They all knew. All of them. Even if you are a CEO in a nice office on some other floor from where the work is being done it doesn't pass the smell test that after more than a decade they didn't know.

Originally Posted by Paperfox

HR's main job is to make sure that the employer is protected in the event of a lawsuit. They make sure that every mistake/error an employee makes is kept track of and then brought up if necessary.

If you go into a meeting and they say that everything is confidential, rest assured that your supervisor and those above will know about who said what.

The best policy for HR is to avoid contact, be very careful what you say to them, and don't look to them to solve your problems. And do not engage with them outside of work, like at happy hour events.

Oh, btw - some companies review internal emails and messages, and those can/will be brought into the discussion with HR. Be very, very careful what you do with company equipment like computers, tablets, and phones. I carry my own devices and never use company wifi or ethernet for them. I locked horns with a past employer because they wanted me to answer emails over the weekend, but refused to issue me a phone. Nope. Sorry, that opens too many privacy doors. Voice call? Sure. Email/text? Nope. My phone will never connect to your servers. But that's getting off topic.

Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss

No. Alex Afrasabi was not named as one of the 10 unnamed defendants. "Defendant DOES ONE through TEN". "DFEH is ignorant of the true names or capacities of the defendants." "DFEH will amend this complaint to allege their true names and capacities when the same are ascertained." In other words, "We did a very thorough 2 year investigation but we don't know who did anything! Let's go on a fishing expedition and we will find out who our 10 imaginary defendants are!".

Specific names will be provided with specific examples of Blizzard's negligence with respect to pay equity and compensation, harassment, retaliation, and promotion opportunities.

Originally Posted by Gaidax

Haha nope.

They will settle, then release D4, OW2 and new WoW expansion and it all will be forgotten like their other PR fuckups.

Lets be real - the most you will see out of it is some high profile names being let go, more Activision influence (which imo would be good) and some $$ thrown around. No, Blizzard won't die, it will take its slap on the face and will wipe the subsequent tears with $$.

That's wishful thinking.

Had to remind my sis, Bobby Kotick settled HIS sexual harassment lawsuit, too. He also took a drastic pay cut now!

https://kotaku.com/activision-boss-l...ssme-452575586

BOTH companies are eyebrow deep in a SICK culture!

Investors have to figure in their calculations what is GOOD for their returns.

Or, this may happen with the government seizes assets to pay court debts!!!

(WHY Social Security doesn't invest in the stock market!!!)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4phv4A9ngA

It's like a Twilight Zone of MISMANAGEMENT.

Take note Brack, this is what a real and sincere letter of apology looks like.

Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss

Never apologize to the twitter mob.

THAT was your takeaway from all of this?

Wow.

Originally Posted by Drindorai

THAT was your takeaway from all of this?

Wow.

Its a guy that fell for Star Citizen scam, nuff said.

Originally Posted by Verdugo

Its a guy that fell for Star Citizen scam, nuff said.

Not entirely sure what that means but if your response to the Chris Metzen statement is that he's "apologizing to the twitter mob" then that's a level of delusion I do not know how to even begin to comprehend.

lol the left leaning ppla re all like " wre sorry"
but the one republican the townsend lady is like "fake news" shows you which people have a spine

Originally Posted by Zyky

Ok so there's a HUGE difference between what's happening right now to Activision-Blizzard and "cancel culture". If there wasn't evidence to back up the accusations then the state of California wouldn't be involved and they wouldn't have filed legal proceedings because they wouldn't waste money further investigating and the costs of a trial on "bogus" claims. Saying this is "no more than mob mentality" is insulting to ANY rational person.

This is beyond "wokeness".

There's a major system failure in Activision-Blizzard top/down and also at the CULTURE level.

It seems everyone at the top are saying, "Sorry" when they KNEW what was going on. You can't be management without knowing what is going on in the organization. That's part of learning the very office politics to survive, and with Blizzard, used to abuse and silence victims, too.

They allowed it to get out of hand -- be it at Activision OR Blizzard.

They would need to totally restructure top/down and bring in ethics people to double-check any personnel issue for YEARS. Something like the DOJ did with voting in the South (as soon as the DOJ stopped, we saw WHY they have to protect voting there. That's systemic racism playing out. Blizzard has systemic sexism and it maybe racist, too [it tends to go together as it's a CULTURE, one Bannon keeps harping on]. We saw ALL the White Power racism in WoW from guild/PvP group names onward for years, too).

The CULTURE has to change at Blizzard, which will reflect on WHO they will attract as gamers, too.

CAN Blizzard reform? That's the big question.

Worse can you trust Blizzard anymore to change without lying through their teeth (and they lied a lot)?

Morhaime saw nothing, Metzen saw nothing, either the accusation are out of proportion (the suicide make me think this is not the case) or they are just lying. I will not take blind and stupid as an excuse.

Originally Posted by Demalaked

To be clear, the indictment alleges systemic pay discrimination. It does not allege systemic sexual harassment; the sexual harassment incidents are anecdotal.

Factually incorrect. The filing, found here: https://aboutblaw.com/YJw starts referencing the culture of harassment with paragraph 5, and continues to lay out a culture of harassment across the company throughout the filing. You can quibble about the use of the word "systemic", but the original complaint filed in 2018 and this lawsuit are laying the basis of a hostile workplace, that includes egregious allegations of sexual harassment.

Nowhere in the filing are the charges of harassment labeled or qualified as "anecdotal", and they in fact form a large basis of the overall lawsuit that addressed the different complaints they were investigating.

You might want to review the actual meaning of 'anecdotal", and read the filing more carefully, before posting again.

Originally Posted by Demalaked

Additionally, the indictment itself does not prove that the allegations are true.

True. And, it's quite damning that the ex-CEO and ex-Creative Director and later VP have publicly apologized for the things claimed in the lawsuit, and said they failed the female employees the state is filing in defense of. Are their posts "anecdotal", too?

Originally Posted by Demalaked

IIRC, Hoeg Law specifically mentions that the bulk of the allegation is systemic pay discrimination, not systemic sexual harassment. I don't have the exact time that he says it, but it's in his video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyerVVc2e98

While the indictment does make mention of certain circumstances, it's a leap to say it's systemic sexual harassment based on the allegations in the indictment.

The majority of sexual harassment claims specifically named in the later part of the document are anecdotal. The specifically mention either Afrasiabi or an unnamed employee harassing another employee. Those are anecdotal examples.

To allege systemic sexual harassment, they'd have to have some kind of concrete proof that Blizzard executives explicitly setout to systemically harass any women they hire and the indictment doesn't allege that.

In regards to what the ex-CEO has said (I haven't read what the ex-Creative Director or VP have said), he specifically says some women and not all women that have worked at Blizzard. That implies that it isn't systemic and that it could be isolated incidents with problematic former (or current) employees.

Activision Blizzard is a company of ~9,500 people with roughly 20% (1,900) being women. I don't believe that all of the women at Blizzard have been systemically sexually harassed.

I see, you're going to nitpick over the word systemic, as I suspected. Well, make of it what you will. I'll end this here, for the night.