Activision-Blizzard Sued By California

[unfilteredJW]

There was one civil suit, which never really made it into the mainstream. Then silence for years, while Cosby was still being lauded publicly, working with individuals and corporations, and so on.

No one in the wider picture talked about any of this until it blew up in 2014. People claiming otherwise are just revising history to add some sensationalism to this story, when it already has plenty to go around.

Sure thing.

[muto]

There was one civil suit, which never really made it into the mainstream. Then silence for years, while Cosby was still being lauded publicly, working with individuals and corporations, and so on.

No one in the wider picture talked about any of this until it blew up in 2014. People claiming otherwise are just revising history to add some sensationalism to this story, when it already has plenty to go around.

Yeah most likely coincidence, but it possible that whoever decided on Cosby’s portrait as their mascot for the suite knew what he was up to. The group chat photo also doesn’t help their cause.

[DarkAmbient]

There's some real hindsight bullshit being pulled about the Cosby thing. "An accusation was in the public domain" does not equal "everyone knew Cosby was a monster". Their claim about the picture and the nickname of the suite is a reasonable one, and the way it's been mentioned in the lawsuit doesn't change that. This is not to cast doubt on the claims of harassment btw, before anyone tries to paint it that way.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

New day more bullshit.

Now the investors are getting firms to investigate the company for hiding information of this mess as potentially misleading.

https://www.wowhead.com/news/investo...against-323598

[Traveler Voltin]

New day more bullshit.

Now the investors are getting firms to investigate the company for hiding information of this mess as potentially misleading.

https://www.wowhead.com/news/investo...against-323598

this will be a poor choice of words but
sounds like blizzard is royally screwed now.

[Jessicka]

Have they? Seems to me the only one's caught lying so far are former employees.

Their initial response to the charges was straight up denial and insistence that anything that has happened was historical. Alex was fired last year, that’s not very historical.

Furthermore, staff and managers have since denied involvement and knowledge; contradicting that original statement - because they knew that was a lie. And now, this was known to be happening as recently as last year, and the latest article shows knowledge and involvement going back a long way.

They’ve lied and denied, got caught out and now making individual efforts to distance themselves from what was going on.

[Saltysquidoon]

Reading 8 pages of "There couldn't be any sexual harassment in the Cosby suite because it was named after an ugly sweater and not actual rapist Bill Cosby" is pointless? You, people, realise neither you nor blizzard's defence team is going going to win any points with anyone for needlessly filling air time with this if it's shown sexual harassment occurred in the suite?

[YUPPIE]

I find it distressingly weird how WoW made up so much of my early adult life and nowadays its own consumers are hellbent on taking it down.

[Saltysquidoon]

Ah yes, the takeaway from this controversy about unequal restitution and a pervasive culture that permitted and covered up harassment of women and minorities is and should be 'But why are people being mean to WoW?'

I don't go in for 'X product shaped my childhood' but I have memories of playing WCII basically on repeat for months as a kid and losing my mind when I got WCIII and playing it for thousands of hours with myself and my mates.

Blizzard being a shithole does not invalidate those experiences, but those experiences do not justify defending blizzard being a shithole.

[Jessicka]

I find it distressingly weird how WoW made up so much of my early adult life and nowadays its own consumers are hellbent on taking it down.

“We should just accept reprehensible workplace practices because they used to make good games”.

[YUPPIE]

“We should just accept reprehensible workplace practices because they used to make good games”.

it's not black and white like that. Say people kill Blizzard, they might be like "we fucking did it. For social justice and humanity."

but then there's gonna be a sad realization of no more Warcraft, Diablo (Diablo 4 canceled news), Starcraft, Overwatch. And then it'll be "was it worth it" for a lot of gamers

I wish people went and killed off Riot Games instead of Blizzard. They're way worse and no one bats an eye.

[Specialka]

it's not black and white like that. Say people kill Blizzard, they might be like "we fucking did it. For social justice and humanity."

but then there's gonna be a sad realization of no more Warcraft, Diablo (Diablo 4 cancelled news), Starcraft, Overwatch. And then it'll be "was it worth it" for a lot of gamers

And a ton of people without work.

[Jessicka]

it's not black and white like that. Say people kill Blizzard, they might be like "we fucking did it. For social justice and humanity."

but then there's gonna be a sad realization of no more Warcraft, Diablo (Diablo 4 canceled news), Starcraft, Overwatch. And then it'll be "was it worth it" for a lot of gamers

I wish people went and killed off Riot Games instead of Blizzard. They're way worse and no one bats an eye.

I want them to be better. That is what I think most people want.

It isn’t a binary. I work in academia and a lot of this shit is absolutely reminiscent of horror stories from 20-30 years ago in my own department. That they’re considered horror stories now, and things have unquestionably improved (albeit not perfect), shows it can be done if the culture is changed.

I don’t understand this resistance to trying to be better. Look at it this way, if you’re sympathetic with many of the “coulda woulda shoulda” comments - in a better environment, they wouldn’t be put in that position in the first place.

[DarkAmbient]

Reading 8 pages of "There couldn't be any sexual harassment in the Cosby suite because it was named after an ugly sweater and not actual rapist Bill Cosby" is pointless? You, people, realise neither you nor blizzard's defence team is going going to win any points with anyone for needlessly filling air time with this if it's shown sexual harassment occurred in the suite?

I don't think anyone has said nothing sexual happened in that hotel room.

- - - Updated - - -

this will be a poor choice of words but
sounds like blizzard is royally screwed now.

This honestly feels like the end. Maybe it's just caught-in-the-moment hyperbole, but it really feels to me like Blizzard is done.

[MoanaLisa]

This honestly feels like the end. Maybe it's just caught-in-the-moment hyperbole, but it really feels to me like Blizzard is done.

I disagree with that. It's a big ship that makes a lot of money. They can fix the immediate problem by taking a bunch of heads (firing people) and I expect that they may well do that. Blizzard will have an opportunity to do something about it but the plain fact is it's an industry problem. Ubisoft and Riot have been through something similar and survived just fine in a corporate sense.

Blizzard has dropped to a low-performing part of the Activision portfolio (3rd now in most metrics behind King and CoD). Someone needs to turn them around and I suppose they will get that chance. This is a big deal in the gaming world but I kind of doubt that it's made much of an impact on casual players that don't follow gaming news, don't ever post on forums, etc.

[Draco-Onis]

This honestly feels like the end. Maybe it's just caught-in-the-moment hyperbole, but it really feels to me like Blizzard is done.

Nah, a few sacrificial lambs a few millions here some virtue signaling statements and there and back to business. Also gamers have the memory of fish and mostly do not care see (Ubisoft).

[Saltysquidoon]

I don't think anyone has said nothing sexual happened in that hotel room.

What's the argument then?

It was (arguably) named for the sweater and not the rapist wearing it:
And implicitly this supports my world view sexual harassment is no big deal;
And implicitly this supports my belief that it is appropriate to have party rooms at work events where employees get drunk and sexually harass women;
And implicitly this supports my belief that no sexual harassment occurred and women are liers; and/or;
And implicitly this supports my belief the woke snowflakes are making mountains out of molehills.

You see no one argues pointless minutia unless they have a greater vastly more insidious argument they know not to make directly or they know they've got no better point to make.

[DarkAmbient]

I disagree with that. It's a big ship that makes a lot of money. They can fix the immediate problem by taking a bunch of heads (firing people) and I expect that they may well do that. Blizzard will have an opportunity to do something about it but the plain fact is it's an industry problem. Ubisoft and Riot have been through something similar and survived just fine in a corporate sense.

Blizzard has dropped to a low-performing part of the Activision portfolio (3rd now in most metrics behind King and CoD). Someone needs to turn them around and I suppose they will get that chance. This is a big deal in the gaming world but I kind of doubt that it's made much of an impact on casual players that don't follow gaming news, don't ever post on forums, etc.

Yeah you're probably right. When the Diablo remaster and D4 come out people's wallets will be twitching.

- - - Updated - - -

What's the argument then?

It was (arguably) named for the sweater and not the rapist wearing it:
And implicitly this supports my world view sexual harassment is no big deal;
And implicitly this supports my belief that it is appropriate to have party rooms at work events where employees get drunk and sexually harass women;
And implicitly this supports my belief that no sexual harassment occurred and women are liers; and/or;
And implicitly this supports my belief the woke snowflakes are making mountains out of molehills.

You see no one argues pointless minutia unless they have a greater vastly more insidious argument they know not to make directly or they know they've got no better point to make.

You're making a lot of ridiculous and inflammatory assumptions. I don't think it's pointless minutiae to point out that posing with a pic of Bill Cosby in 2013 does not equal being guilty of sexual harassment. I'm thinking specifically of GC here, not the person named in the lawsuit.

[Draco-Onis]

You're making a lot of ridiculous and inflammatory assumptions. I don't think it's pointless minutiae to point out that posing with a pic of Bill Cosby in 2013 does not equal being guilty of sexual harassment. I'm thinking specifically of GC here, not the person named in the lawsuit.

I think that remains to be seen there's 10 unnamed John Does in the lawsuit, this is just starting I am sure there will be more leaks. A lot more people are going to be outed for either turning a blind eye or just taking part in this.

[Forogil]

Yeah most likely coincidence, but it possible that whoever decided on Cosby’s portrait as their mascot for the suite knew what he was up to. The group chat photo also doesn’t help their cause.

It's also possible that both stories are kind of true.

Some thought it was named after Cosby's sweater, and some after Cosby's sexual "exploits".
That could be because the meaning changed with time, or someone back then created the ugly sweater as a cover-story; e.g. to tell their wife (or ignorant boss) why there was a Cosby suite.

Additionally it seems clear that the 2013 Cosby suite named in the suit wasn't the first one. Is it possible that they had Cosby suites going back all the way to BlizzCon 2005 or 2007 when the Cosby allegations were more discussed than in 2013?