Employee Response to Bobby Kotick, Additional Information on Cosby Suite

[Timester]

I'm pretty sure 90% of us here are at least in one friend whatsapp group / discord community where casual discussion like that happens on a daily basis ....

This is gaming comunity and i'm pretty sure E V E R Y gaming company has this chat group somewhere.

I think Kotaku should now go and ask Afrasiabi elementary school teacher if he already hit a black kid or pulled some girls hair so twitter can go :SHOCKER:

90% here have leadership chat groups, about gathering company women for a party that they knew one of the participant was a sexual creep? Thank god I never got into those type of chats.

[Gadzooks]

They don't have a union or a bargaining unit so I don't know what they really expect beyond Acti-Blizz cleaning up the immediate mess from the DFEH lawsuit. Ending arbitration won't be on the table, worker oversight of hiring and promotion won't be on the table, and more pay transparency probably won't happen.

They are very likely to get a 3rd party audit of HR and related processes.

I would love to see them form a union out of this (and to see that spread to more game devs), but I'm not holding my breath.

Forced arbitration will absolutely not be on the table, or Kotick would have announced the end of it yesterday. At most they'll fling some sacrificial lambs to the wolves, and then proceed to fight the lawsuit while Fran heads some do-nothing committees that will have lavish luncheons to pat themselves on the back for their alleged accomplishments.

Remember, the company still intends to fight the lawsuit, until they settle with the state. And one of Bobby's executives said as much in the company zoom call, and said that the remedy the company prefers is "in house" and using the systems that have already failed their employees. Kotick did not walk any of that back, refute it, or announce a change in their intent moving forward.

Nothing has changed.

Which seems to be a theme with this company. Just sayin'.

[MoanaLisa]

Oh man this shit-storm just keeps on getting bigger. Cosby also wasn’t accused until 2014, and that picture is apparently from 2013, so that raises some eyebrows.

This is incorrect. Allegations about Cosby started in the early 2000's. There's a full timeline at Vulture.com but these excerpts are enough to demonstrate the point that this was a public thing well before 2014.

February 10, 2005
Tamara Green, a California lawyer, appears on the Today show and alleges that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in the 1970s. Green tells Matt Lauer that Cosby, who had given her pills to combat a fever, drove her to her apartment and began “… groping me and kissing me and touching me and handling me and … taking off my clothes.” According to Green, Cosby left two $100 bills on her coffee table afterwards. Cosby’s lawyer issues a statement: “Miss Green’s allegations are absolutely false. Mr. Cosby does not know the name Tamara Green or Tamara Lucier [her maiden name], and the incident she describes did not happen. The fact that she may have repeated this story to others is not corroboration.”

February 17, 2005
Citing a lack of evidence, the investigating district attorney in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, announces he will not act on Constand’s accusation and bring criminal charges against Cosby.

March 8, 2005
Constand files a civil complaint against Cosby. The five-count lawsuit charges Cosby with battery and assault, and asks for at least $150,000 in damages. Thirteen women who allege similar experiences as Constand and Green are mentioned in court papers as Jane Doe witnesses.

May 2005
In Constand’s civil lawsuit, she alleges the comedian gave her three blue pills, which he said was herbal medication. Cosby’s lawyers, however, issue a court filing and attempt to clarify that the comedian merely gave Constand one and a half tablets of Benadryl.

June 2005
Jane Doe 5 goes public. Beth Ferrier claims she was in a relationship with Cosby in the mid-1980s, one that ended when he allegedly drugged her coffee and Ferrier woke in a car. “My clothes were a mess. My bra was undone. My top was untucked. And I’m sitting there going, ‘Oh my God. Where am I?’ What’s going on? I was so out of it. It was just awful.”

February 2006
While in the midst of her civil suit, Constand sues one of Cosby’s lawyers — and the National Enquirer — for defamation. Cosby had spoken to the tabloid the year before, and Constand claimed the interview defamed her as it “[intended] to or knowing it would injure” her.

June 2006*
Philadelphia magazine interviews another witness in Constand’s lawsuit, Barbara Bowman. “Cosby threw me on the bed and braced his forearm against my neck and attempted to disrobe me and himself,” she said in another Philadelphia interview later that year. “I can still remember him messing with his belt. And I was screaming and crying and yelling and begging him to stop.”

November 2006
Cosby settles with Constand. Terms are not disclosed, and none of the 13 other women testify.

December 2006
The following month, People magazine publishes Bowman’s account of several assaults: “It was in a hotel in Reno, claims Bowman, that Cosby assaulted her one night in 1986. ‘He took my hand and his hand over it, and he masturbated with his hand over my hand,’ says Bowman, who, although terrified, kept quiet about the incident and continued as Cosby’s protégé because, she says, ‘Who’s gonna believe this? He was a powerful man. He was like the president.’ Before long she was alone with Cosby again in his Manhattan townhouse; she was given a glass of red wine, and “the next thing I know, I’m sick and I’m nauseous and I’m delusional and I’m limp and … I can’t think straight…. And I just came to, and I’m wearing a [men’s] T-shirt that wasn’t mine, and he was in a white robe.’”

The main reason to post all of this is to knock down the incorrect thought that there was no way that anyone at Blizzard would have started up the "Cosby Suite" for innocent reasons. You can talk all you want about how the cases were handled but the important thing here is that accusations against Cosby had been ongoing for eight years prior to Blizzcon. This was not some unknown thing. For fuck's sake there was an article in People magazine in 2006.

Link: https://www.vulture.com/2014/09/time...nst-cosby.html

[Timester]

I do sort of appreciate that ghostcrawler's entire contribution to that chat is that he's at the bar.

https://twitter.com/oliviadgrace/sta...68265781010432

Basically, Kosak and Greg were the ones that invited people to the Suite.

[Lawlhero]

More power to the Employees, stand up and force the changes that the company needs. A healthier better work environment = better quality game.

[Trbn]

More power to the Employees, stand up and force the changes that the company needs. A healthier better work environment = better quality game.

factories to workers

[zorkuus]

A healthier better work environment = better quality game.

I don't know about that. My current job has an awesome work enviroment and very friendly people but all they do is pointless meetings for the sake of holding meetings. We're burning money and the solution is more meetings.

[dalrint]

https://twitter.com/oliviadgrace/sta...68265781010432

Basically, Kosak and Greg were the ones that invited people to the Suite.

Oh no, I wasn't defending him. I just thought it was funny that the chat went 'creepy creepy creepy I'm at the bar creepy.'

[Tooshie]

Oh man this shit-storm just keeps on getting bigger. Cosby also wasn’t accused until 2014, and that picture is apparently from 2013, so that raises some eyebrows.

Hold on, hold on. Not only is that inaccurate but are you trying to tell with a straight face that these fellas named it Cosby suite outta their enthusiasm towards The Cosby Show?

[oldgeezer]

Re: workers rights and all that. Unions are excellent things. Collective bargaining works.

[muto]

Hold on, hold on. Not only is that inaccurate but are you trying to tell with a straight face that these fellas named it Cosby suite outta their enthusiasm towards The Cosby Show?

Look for yourself. He was doing the dirty well before 2014, but 2014 is when people started coming forward.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cosby

[Doombringer]

A few weeks ago, I saw Morhaime and Metzen as paragons of Old Blizzard, the "Good" Blizzard...

Then this news broke and I thought... no, Morhaime, Metzen, Ghostcrawler, they couldn't have known...

Then the news keeps coming... and it's pretty clear everyone I held in high regard at Blizzard was in some way either turning a blind eye to this terrible behavior or outright participated in it.

I'm not sure if I'm more sad or more angry, they're about equal now.

I suppose Terran Gregory is still a good egg? His early work kindled my very, very short leap into machinima. Please say I can at least put him down as Not a Ghoul.

Or Samwise. Although now that I've said it, watch something break about him. Ugh.

[MoanaLisa]

Oh no, I wasn't defending him. I just thought it was funny that the chat went 'creepy creepy creepy I'm at the bar creepy.'

That text string did have street saying that he was otw (on the way).

[Afrospinach]

I don't know about that. My current job has an awesome work enviroment and very friendly people but all they do is pointless meetings for the sake of holding meetings. We're burning money and the solution is more meetings.

There is a management theory that does state that workplace friction/conflict can make a more productive environment.

[Trbn]

A few weeks ago, I saw Morhaime and Metzen as paragons of Old Blizzard, the "Good" Blizzard...

Then this news broke and I thought... no, Morhaime, Metzen, Ghostcrawler, they couldn't have known...

Then the news keeps coming... and it's pretty clear everyone I held in high regard at Blizzard was in some way either turning a blind eye to this terrible behavior or outright participated in it.

I'm not sure if I'm more sad or more angry, they're about equal now.

I suppose Terran Gregory is still a good egg? His early work kindled my very, very short leap into machinima. Please say I can at least put him down as Not a Ghoul.

Or Samwise. Although now that I've said it, watch something break about him. Ugh.

if you think big bosses in big company must know what is happening on every desk then you probably 15 or didn't work at all

[Byleth]

I'm pretty sure 90% of us here are at least in one friend whatsapp group / discord community where casual discussion like that happens on a daily basis ....

Yeah mate, no. That's not a normal thing, and you should probably review your friend groups.

[zorkuus]

Yeah mate, no. That's not a normal thing, and you should probably review your friend groups.

Yes it is normal. Most people are douches. We "nice people" are a minority.

[EyelessCrow]

Look for yourself. He was doing the dirty well before 2014, but 2014 is when people started coming forward.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cosby

What Cosby was doing wasn't a secret. He was a notorious womanizer but his PR firm did a good job of keeping his Cosby Show image seem like a reality. I remember I think it was Joe Rogan talking about it when things were coming out.

[Cracked]

Yeah mate, no. That's not a normal thing, and you should probably review your friend groups.

Eh, taken out of context, I'm pretty sure I could find some damning shit in some of your conversations. That goes for anyone and everyone.

[oldgeezer]

The Daily Beast reports that Kotick's compensation package for 2020 (including stock options) was $154 million. Back when I was young that might be considered a lot of money.