Activision-Blizzard Sued By California

[Jotaux]

It's not exactly a dead horse when the horse is very much alive and promoting a toxic environment at Activision-Blizzard, bruh.

I fail to see how asking for gaming journalists to disclose their personal relationships has anything to do with what happened at blizzard.

[Elegiac]

I fail to see how asking for gaming journalists to disclose their personal relationships has anything to do with what happened at blizzard.

Simple. It sent a message that sort of behavior was acceptable within the gaming community and discouraged women from speaking up about it lest they too be pilloried. To say nothing of helping to crystallize a core of highly reactionary politics among younger white men that we're now seeing the consequences of in the post-Trump era.

Blizzard encouraged that sort of culture, and it is now very apparent that's because it too was deeply immersed in it.

[Jotaux]

I'm saying that nobody ever took media reviews for games seriously, because everyone knew they were bought-and-paid-for. Major magazines that never gave anything under a 7/10, and even that only for the worst of the worst.

There wasn't a reason to support that, but the backlash that sprang up had nothing to do with that status quo. It had to do with wanting to slutshame a particular female developer who was seen as too "woke" by a certain subset of people. So they made up a baseless claim that she'd slept with reviewers to get good reviews. Which she hadn't.

Gamergate was entirely focused on that, rather than the big magazines that were selling "reviews" that were basically paid-for marketing.

Isn't that the one that sent her followers after a forum for severely depressed men because they didn't like her game?

[Endus]

Isn't that the one that sent her followers after a forum for severely depressed men because they didn't like her game?

"Shit that didn't happen" for $1000, Alex.

[Forogil]

It's telling that they think the complaint is too much skin showing and not the disparity in skin showing.

Well, it didn't seem that the male employees cared so much about female skin showing since they played Call of Duty instead; which can be seen as more warrior-like and thus more male than sitting in wow's character creation/transmog menu trying to make a female character, or playing e.g., Hearthstone.

Additionally they seemed to have been more self-centered; the obvious bro-joke would be to create a half-naked character in game based on some female employee - but I couldn't find any such cases. Could be that it was too much work; the law-suit seems to indicate that some males were more hungover than working.

However, the disparity in skin showing in the game itself isn't absolute - but people view it differently; for male skin showing look no further than Illidan Stormrage in TBC-trailer.

And Illidan is not just showing any body - but a sort of ideal male body - with visible muscles in arms and torso. In movies that possibly influenced the employees that was sometimes over the top - especially over-muscled Schwarzenegger as e.g. Conan and Matrix; but recently that is toned down a bit as in The 300; but still more muscled and clearly more naked that in CoD.
It could be that men fantasize they are that ideal - compared with the physique of Blizzard's male employees.

I'm not saying that the employees didn't misbehave, or even that they didn't try to introduce sexual themes in WoW (at least early on) - but in that case is was so badly executed that people forget it - including a sex-den with a harem and a literal sex-goddess; and thus it's not included in the complaint.

[Levelfive]

Sooo.... yeah, apparently work on World of Warcraft has ground to a halt as a result of the higher ups mismanaging this crisis.

Someone just sent me this. What a fucking dumpster fire of a response. IIRC ActiBlizzard and DFEH had mutually agreed that if things weren't resolved by July 21st, the lawsuit would be filed. WHAT IN THE WORLD is their excuse. Maybe their PR team was drunk and cube crawling.

[Elegiac]

And Illidan is not just showing any body - but a sort of ideal male body - with visible muscles in arms and torso.

I am literally begging y'all to read your Laura Mulvey, please.

- - - Updated - - -

Someone just sent me this. What a fucking dumpster fire of a response. IIRC ActiBlizzard and DFEH had mutually agreed that if things weren't resolved by July 21st, the lawsuit would be filed. WHAT IN THE WORLD is their excuse. Maybe their PR team was drunk and cube crawling.

I mean did we expect any better from Bush' chief torture apologist? Lol.

She probably calls sexual harassment "enhanced team building".

[Levelfive]

I am literally begging y'all to read your Laura Mulvey, please.

What is the with the fucking obstinacy of pretending that men and women have been treated exactly the same throughout history and that objectification has had and continues to have the exact same effect on the trajectory of men's and women's lives. Jesus fuck it's beyond tedious.

[Lochton]

https://www.wowhead.com/news/blizzar...rssTtFGSWHlBqQ

A day of solidarity tomorrow.

[Levelfive]

I am literally begging y'all to read your Laura Mulvey, please.

- - - Updated - - -



I mean did we expect any better from Bush' chief torture apologist? Lol.

She probably calls sexual harassment "enhanced team building".

I lol'd.

/10 chars

[Elegiac]

What is the with the fucking obstinacy of pretending that men and women have been treated exactly the same throughout history and that objectification has had and continues to have the exact same effect on the trajectory of men's and women's live. Jesus fuck it's beyond tedious.

I really do think it's just a function of people hearing terms like "male gaze" and "toxic masculinity" and immediately assuming that it's because the speaker hates men rather than the fact we live in, you know, a patriarchy - one that fucks over its male participants as much as its female ones.

[Levelfive]

I really do think it's just a function of people hearing terms like "male gaze" and "toxic masculinity" and immediately assuming that it's because the speaker hates men rather than the fact we live in, you know, a patriarchy - one that fucks over its male participants as much as its female ones.

iLLiDaN dOeSn'T hAvE a ShIrT oN

Ok? He didn't have to wait til the 1970s to have a bank account in his own name, either.

[Muzjhath]

I really do think it's just a function of people hearing terms like "male gaze" and "toxic masculinity" and immediately assuming that it's because the speaker hates men rather than the fact we live in, you know, a patriarchy - one that fucks over its male participants as much as its female ones.

Innuendo Studios on YT has some really good videos on GamerGate, and speculates (with thought out reasoning) about the "good guy" myth and how it causes all the bad things.
They are "good guys", they like the same thing as "Guy V" who has been accused of something. So Guy V is also a good guy. Thus it isn't Guy V is bad. It's "Good guys are wrong". Etc
(Anyone who likes gamergate and "support" it ought to watch his Angry Jack series).

[nocturnus]

Signal received, virtue confirmed

Doesn’t surprise me that someone like you is willing to support such a company. Oh well, people are who they are.

[xChurch]

In case it hasn't been posted yet, here is Metzens response to the situation. Seems a lot like previous responses, basically boiling down to pleading ignorance. Which is really starting to strain credulity, does/did any of the management know what was really going on? If not it does kind of explain Blizzard's last few years...

[Forogil]

I am literally begging y'all to read your Laura Mulvey, please.

The main idea does not seem relevant in the WoW-context as games are primarily interactive and there's no director controlling what players look at.
Clearly her male gaze theory can still indicate that men and women, who are both scantily clothed in WoW; are seen through a different lens.

However, since the employees didn't care for this, but instead played CoD - I view as a tangential discussion.

[Jotaux]

"Shit that didn't happen" for $1000, Alex.

I don't think you understand how Jeopardy works

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

Is this it? Are we gonna see Blizzard die? I never thought it'd happen, too big to fail and all.

[NoiseTank13]

Who, of note, is even around still at Blizzard who's managing to escape the magnifying glass, is Tom Chilton still there working on some unannounced shit

Ion Hazzikostas is an asexual, damp creature of a man and I'm sure he's made plenty of women uncomfortable over the years but less because of advances and more because he sometimes forgets to make only the horizontal eyelids blink when he's around humans.

[Santti]

Is this it? Are we gonna see Blizzard die? I never thought it'd happen, too big to fail and all.

100% certain Blizzard isn't going anywhere. They will lose some money and possibly some employees, but it's not like Blizzard is hurting for either. They will have a black eye for a while, but they'll just tape a lootbox over it, and they are good to go.