Blizzard Employee Letter to Leadership, Other Responses to Lawsuit

[Jastall]

Nothing about that is guilt tripping.

Literally all that was pointed out was "if you're taking hearing there will be a delayed and complaining about that, you're probably part of the issue".

Which is completely fair to say, because anyone who can see why this is so disturbing it happened would also logically understand it's going to affect the game.

Anyone who hears it and starts still complaining about the content most likely doesn't care about what happened, hence they become part of the problem.

Trying to sugar coat it as "but I have to pay monthly!" isn't justifiable either because you can just cancel until the next patch.
You're not responsible for what happened.
But if your reaction isn't going to extend sympathy, then you can hardly complain if it's pointed out how insensitive that can be.

That was my understanding of what was said as well, and kinda meshes with my reaction. The response to "it's been a lot to take in and the dev team hasn't worked a lot in recent days" being "but what about muh new injection of crac- content??" is pretty gauche if you ask me. They're hardly saying they will stop working altogether or go on strike for extended periods of time, but the idea that such smashing news disrupts production is hardly an unacceptable notion to me.

But of course some people make it all about how that guy personally offended them.

[The One Percent]

Imagine telling your customers it's their responsibility that your organization can't treat employees with basic dignity. That's some top tier deflecting, makes you wonder how much involvement he has in the current issues.

[Ihavewaffles]

western gaming? you realize japan is literally an ethnostate, with an emperor who by law can only be male, and liberal parties in japan get 0% of the vote, and its against their culture for woman to even have a job
so like
yeah ill take the west over japaan when it comes to these issues any day

did you just confuse japan with saudi-arabia? women have not jobs in japan, lol??

[Walkerbo]

The open letter to blizz higher ups proves that employees recognize the statements from Brack and Townsend were totally reprehensible; those statements tried to dismiss the severity of the situation by suggesting that the lawsuit was frivolous, taken out of context and in some areas totally false are just another form of abuse visited upon victims.

The fact that Townsend said the cases were distorted, untrue, incorrect, old and some from more that a decade past just floors me, especially as the leader of the ABK employee women's network her remarks are absolutely outstandingly disgraceful; Townsend should immediately step down from her position on the ABK and offer a sincere apology for her attempt to shift the blame onto the victims themselves.

The responses from Morhaime, Hamilton and Metzen are, IMO, sincere and forthright; they accept accountability and do not try to shirk their responsibility unlike those statements from Brack and Townsend.

I hope that this legal action makes blizz take responsibility and forces real action and change, not just words, to provide better work environment for all employees.

The video from Hazelnutty responds to this whole disgusting behaviour in a very direct and unambiguous way.
It is worth a view and an upvote.

[Ihavewaffles]

Imagine telling your customers it's their responsibility that your organization can't treat employees with basic dignity. That's some top tier deflecting, makes you wonder how much involvement he has in the current issues.

considering the state of the game, too much involvement i'd say...

[alturic]

What was promised? Access to the service is what you pay for. If they shut the servers down tomorrow, you -might- get a refund on the sub you paid.

I'm sure there's a legal doc out there showing otherwise, but the overwhelming majority of players pay a subscription not just for the ability to login. It's implied you are paying for updates, patches, etc.

[Mentaldemise]

This entire thread has been hilarious to read, people just breaking out into full-on warfare with each other over this shit when objectively it's very very clear.

Blizzard fucked up colossally, they deserve all of the negative press and punishment they get.

People can ask about sub fees and be "entitled" whilst still caring about the victims of what blizzard has done, they pay their money, they have the right to question what's going on, no amount of sophistry can change that or they can not care at all about what happened at blizzard and still have a right to ask about their sub fee.

Blizzard is handling this about as well as a 4-year-old with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar and keeps fucking it up every time they open their mouth.


No amount of arguing or discussion is gonna change these facts, while I feel bad for what happened to the people at blizzard and think the people who did it should be dragged into the street, its hilarious watching this clusterfuck of a company destroy itself.

Feel free to pick random parts of this and argue amongst yourselves.

[alturic]

The responses from Morhaime, Hamilton and Metzen are, IMO, sincere and forthright; they accept accountability and do not try to shirk their responsibility unlike those statements from Brack and Townsend.

I like Metzen and Morhaime, but tbch you are implying they accept the fact they knew about things and did nothing to stop them? Hell, you're not even implying it, they are basically saying as much.

"Sorry I killed your soul, please don't be mad".

[Darkeon]

Well, only thing missing was shifting some of the blame to the fans. lol

What a pathetic company.

[arkanon]

So, like I totally get the whole "innocent until proven guilty" principle but regardless if it's in the court of law, or public opinion, do you seriously think none of these stories are true? This is exactly like Bill Cosby, et al. Sure, some of the accusers that come out of the woodwork do look for the monetary gain, but most of them seriously just want justice - closure.

I'm sorry, but if you seriously think these things didn't happen at the company (and thousands of others) you are out of touch with reality.

I never once said they didnt happen - so your entire reply is one big strawman.

[alturic]

I never once said they didnt happen - so your entire reply is one big strawman.

Oh, sorry I misread it. I thought you said they are just accusations at this point. So, are they just accusations and you are holding out for judgement, or do you know this actually happened simply due to the overwhelming amount of people saying they have first-hand experience of it?

That's the point I was making. No strawman. Not just accusations. This shit happened.

[arkanon]

Oh, sorry I misread it. I thought you said they are just accusations at this point.

They are just accusations at this point.

[Trenbolone]

Yo, I have some problems at home, with my cats, my son might have abused them. I have to work this out, I will not show up to work for, I dont know how long.
BUT REMEMBER TO KEEP SENDING ME MY PAYCHECK!

Are people really defending and promoting this kind of behaviour? WOW!

[Siraeyou]

Honest I feel like I made out like a bandit by selling my ATVI stocks back in June looking at the current state of affairs there. Their value is only going to continue to fall.

As far as the issue with a content all-stop for WoW that absolutely sucks. My 6 month sub period ends in November and I currently have no intention on reupping it this time around but for most people bought into their store mount carousel the currently level of content that came out this month should be sufficient. Anything past that though I would highly recommend people resist the urge to continuing to sub until they get their shit together.

[arkanon]

Oh, sorry I misread it. I thought you said they are just accusations at this point. So, are they just accusations and you are holding out for judgement, or do you know this actually happened simply due to the overwhelming amount of people saying they have first-hand experience of it?

That's the point I was making. No strawman. Not just accusations. This shit happened.

I see you have gone back for a few edits and additions. Nothing changes on my end, they are just accusations at this point, and it is not for me, or you, to draw any conclusions about the validity of those accusations - that is for the court to figure out.

You saying "it all happened, its all true" is equally as unreasonable and illogical as someone saying "none of it happened, its all made up".

However, what i can say with complete confidence is that their RESPONSE to the accusations is completely unacceptable to me, and i find it quite repulsive.

[masterhorus8]

I see you have gone back for a few edits and additions. Nothing changes on my end, they are just accusations at this point, and it is not for me, or you, to draw any conclusions about the validity of those accusations - that is for the court to figure out.

Being used as evidence is different than an accusation. The accusation is that it's a systemic problem. The evidence is that those things happened.

[alturic]

I see you have gone back for a few edits and additions. Nothing changes on my end, they are just accusations at this point, and it is not for me, or you, to draw any conclusions about the validity of those accusations - that is for the court to figure out.

That's all a legal issue - good thing I'm not on the jury because simply due to the amount of people coming forward I'm already at a "guilty". We're in the court of public opinion, however, so it's easier to play arm-chair without any repercussions. If the legal system says it didn't happen, all of these people speaking with supposed first-hand experience of this are lying, to you?

I guess the point I'm trying to make, is that yes if one person comes forward it's very difficult to make a determination on the claim without overwhelming evidence. Two people, same, but once you start getting into three and beyond... it's pretty difficult to think everyone could be lying (and all the stories are made up), especially if some of them don't have a care in the world regarding any monetary gain (i.e. no incentive to lie).

I'm curious, where do you stand on Bill Cosby? I mean, ~50 women claimed he did things. The legal system actually convicted him of doing things. Hell, he even admitted to doing things. But he's free on a technicality. So, did he do things or no? Legally, he did not. Realistically, we all know he did. That's the point.

[Bigcountry11782]

Alex Klontzas<------ this fucking cunt wow all that is going on at blizzard and he wants to throw a finger at the community smfh

- - - Updated - - -

Well, only thing missing was shifting some of the blame to the fans. lol

What a pathetic company.

They did in a way lol look at Alex Klontzas twitter post.

[Xires]

I truly believe this is the end of WoW's life. I mean seriously as both a long time member of this sub and scrolling through all the "wow is dead/dying, this will kill wow etc." I think for real this time.

Same here. 9.0 around late Feb was the last time I played Retail. Been playing TBC but after what has been going on...and after that Wow Dev just now tried to deflect and blame the players for the sexual harassments and probably full on sexual assaults that have been going on at Activision for so long now.
I'm done with classic now as well. I refuse to give these people my money/support. Their game in retail is terrible and has been for some time now to be honest.
They monetized TBC because of how successful Vanilla was.

Their content and game have been suffering because of a dangerous work environment. And you'll notice how they use the word "systemic" over and over as if to try and pull a race card somehow and to try and push some form of wokeness. And let's be honest...when you see a major corporation pushing the woke card...it's because they have some huge skeletons in their closet. And this is a global thing.

I've spent YEARS seeing people claims that this game or that game would be the death of WoW...and I ALWAYS knew it was bs. The saying of course was always that the only game that could kill WoW....was WoW itself. And buddy....WoW at this point is done for and it killed itself.
I can't believe that asshole actually had the nerve to blame players on Activisions rape work environment. What scum he is.

[arandomuser]

did you just confuse japan with saudi-arabia? women have not jobs in japan, lol??

good example actually, japan is quite like saudi arabia in many regards