Activision-Blizzard Sued By California

[uuuhname]

So if I don't instantly fully-believe every single allegation a woman makes, I'm "misogynistic" ?

fucking lmao

Excuse me for believing that people are innocent until proven guilty.

this isn't a case about who is innocent or not it's about a company refusing to create a safe work environment for it's employees. sit the fuck down.

[Adamas102]

It paints a whole different picture when you know they were a couple... It is indication enough to me that the state agency is being scummy by even raising it as a point in their report. It is borderline a breach of privacy.

Yeah, it paints an even WORSE picture of the company if their HR department dropped the ball on what was obviously not a healthy relationship between an employee and one of their supervisors.

[anon5123]

this isn't a case about who is innocent or not it's about a company refusing to create a safe work environment for it's employees.

And where is the evidence? I just see a bunch of allegations and people immediately taking sides and jumping to conclusions based on allegations.

I wish we would stop with this whole "court of twitter" crap where allegations arise and people immediately bust out the torches and pitchforks and assume that every single allegation is 100% true.

the reason your comment is misogynistic is because you went with women as a plurality, essentially laying blame on the entire sex.

"you said thing? OBVIOUSLY YOU ARE GENERALIZING AND CLAIMING THAT LITERALLY EVERY WOMAN DOES THIS"

No.

[Forogil]

Their PR response is basically the alt right playbook 101. "We didn't do it, there's faceless bureaucrats conspiring against us!"

That's not what I got from their response.

I got: we don't like the way the accusations are described - although we might have done some of that in the past, but we've changed our way.
Honest, cross our hearts.
https://variety.com/2021/digital/new...ay-1235025376/

[Elegiac]

We don't know if it was a healthy relationship or not

Aside from all the testimony indicating a highly toxic work environment which gives credence to the charge it was not, in fact, a healthy relationship.

Stop victim blaming.

[DarkAmbient]

Ok. Well the internet should wisen up then, because that isn't mentioned anywhere in every snippet that gets posted.

Meanwhile we get to see comments such as: "A supervisor going in a business trip with an employee? Creepy..." or getting upset that the guy brought sex toys and condoms with him...

It paints a whole different picture when you know they were a couple... It is indication enough to me that the state agency is being scummy by even raising it as a point in their report. It is borderline a breach of privacy.

Yes, this is what I was feeling. The mention of sex toys in the report feels like it was written by some oldschool bigoted cop stuck in the 1950s. Seems more like an attempt to shame someone than include pertinent information. Of course the boyfriend could be a sociopathic asshole for all I know, but that doesn't seem relevant to this particular detail.

[uuuhname]

And where is the evidence? I just see a bunch of allegations and people immediately taking sides and jumping to conclusions based on allegations.

YOU sit the fuck down.

it's the state of CA investigating it! for two years! these aren't some spurious allegations shat onto social media. are you hoping daddy Blizzard sees you defending them? like seriously what the fuck are you hoping to accomplish here by making sweeping statements that women just make shit up to make faceless corporations look bad? grow the fuck up.

[Elegiac]

I wish we would stop with this whole "court of twitter" crap where allegations arise

Except this isn't a "court of twitter".

This is a serious legal challenge by the State of California coming after as it does years of stories from current and former employees of how toxic and hateful Blizzard's work culture is despite the claims they were working on it, as well as two years of investigation by the state into verifying complaints.

It certainly explains both Blizzard's shitty attitude in its IPs as well as the culture it cultivates among fans of its products. Hence why this thread is full of victim blamers that are more concerned their favorite video game might go away rather than come to terms with the fact they're effectively paying people to spend their free time harassing women.

[Deus Mortis]

After this company bent the knee to China and now this I hope California eviscerates this company. I have a bad feeling that the higher ups will somehow squirm their way out of any type of punishment.

[Elegiac]

After this company bent the knee to China and now this I hope California eviscerates this company. I have a bad feeling that the higher ups will somehow squirm their way out of any type of punishment.

Which is why it's hilarious watching the armchair lawyers trying to blame sexual harassment on its victims when Blizzard has an entire HR department and legal team that is paid good money to do that instead.

[unfilteredJW]

The report has it in there just fine. Read it before you go making claims about its authenticity maybe.

That’s not part of Anarch’s shtick.

[Rennadrel]

I'm sensing a trend here. After the whole Ubisoft toxic work culture, sexual harassment and rape allegations among its management, all this while they pushed their performative wokeness behavior, Activision-Blizzard is caught doing effectively the same abhorrent things. These corporate idiots need to practice what they preach because it's pretty hypocritical of them to try and promote tolerance and equality while treating their own female employees like utter shit. Whatever happens, a lot of heads are going to roll and they are in some serious hot water here.

Expect more of these stories to come out from these gaming corporations, guaranteed EA has its own dark secrets too that they have tried to suppress.

[Elegiac]

I'm sensing a trend here. After the whole Ubisoft toxic work culture, sexual harassment and rape allegations among its management, all this while they pushed their performative wokeness behavior, Activision-Blizzard is caught doing effectively the same abhorrent things. These corporate idiots need to practice what they preach because it's pretty hypocritical of them to try and promote tolerance and equality while treating their own female employees like utter shit. Whatever happens, a lot of heads are going to roll and they are in some serious hot water here.

Expect more of these stories to come out from these gaming corporations, guaranteed EA has its own dark secrets too that they have tried to suppress.

If it's not harassment culture, it's crunch culture.

The gaming industry needs a massive regulatory hammer taken to it and, honestly, quite a few of these large publishers should be broken up.

[Forogil]

Hmm... Two specific individuals are singled out for sexual harassment, one is named, the other is an unnamed former CTO.

I guess having "CTO of Activision/Blizzard" on your CV just became a lot less attractive, and we will see if it were Andy Hendrickson, (it seems Pavel Murnikov was VP of Technology instead of CTO), or someone unnamed that have completely erased their past.
I don't know how important the CTO position was at Activision/Blizzard and if they only had one.

Added: Ben Kilgore seemed to have been a CTO at Blizzard, at that time - and he seems to have completely erased his past.

[PC2]

The gaming industry needs a massive regulatory hammer taken to it and, honestly, quite a few of these large publishers should be broken up.

Why though? What regulations are you proposing? Do you have a precise criteria that determines when any business should be broken up or is it just decided based on feelings and emotions on a case-by-case basis?

[unfilteredJW]

Why though? What regulations are you proposing? Do you have an actual criteria that determines when any business should be broken up or is it just decided based on feelings and emotions on a case-by-case basis?

Go away. The adults are having a duscussion.

[Mayhem]

They were a couple... which the report conveniently left out.

Uhu, ah, so that excuses driving someone to suicide because they were a couple. Got it.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

Apparently the report left out that she also was in a relationship with her supervisor. Personally I don't trust state agencies to be honest about anything. The USA is particularly obsessed with hunting down social witches right now.

I suggest you read the entire report; the allegations are significantly worse than the specific one you fixated on, and much more pervasive with regards to discriminatory employment practices.


As a side note: Which do you think are more trustworthy in general, USA state agencies tasked with rooting out abusive business practices or multi-billion dollar corporations? Personally I'm going to be more skeptical of the corporations, for the obvious reason that they have significantly more to lose.

[Elegiac]

Why though?

Because it stifles competition and innovation.

What regulations are you proposing?

Enforcement of the government's existing prerogative under current anti-trust laws.

Do you have a precise criteria that determines when any business should be broken up or is it just decided based on feelings and emotions on a case-by-case basis?

I love how you're trying to simultaneously argue that treating companies on an individual basis rather than a "precise general criteria" is both good and bad.

The only feeling and emotion here is your emotional attachment to the status quo.

- - - Updated - - -

There is some karmic justice in the 'woke' company

Blizzard was never woke.

[PC2]

Go away. The adults are having a duscussion.

Caring about business regulation is childish? Wanting a precise criteria for breaking up companies is childish? I'm sorry, I guess I'm not mature enough to have a real "duscussion" about adult issues.