Kotaku: WoW Senior Game Designer Jonathan LeCraft (and others) have been let go

[Palapop]

Ion isn't bad at designing raid encounters but he sucks at everything else. He needs to delegate more and focus less on system micromanagement while keeping up the work on raids because that is his strength.

Agree. And also, he should never EVER be allowed to even GET CLOSE to pvp section of the game.

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Diversity matters. I am a white man, and I see myself represented in media all the time. But what about an Asian Man? Or A Black Woman? In the last few years there has been a push towards it, but if that push didn't happen, we would still be drowning in white dicks.

People say it's fine because they see themselves represented on their game already. But let me tell you, as soon as other people are represented, they are the first to flip out. People that complain about diversity in games are the same that complain when they are not represented. So yes, diversity and representation matters. If it does not matter to you, great, then you should not complain about forced representation.

People seem to think there is only two ethnicities: white and political.

Hahahahahahaha

Tbh, "diversity" should never EVER be even considered in working environment. QUALITY should.

As long as we push diversity instead of QUALITY- we'll get what we get.

[KevyB]

wow isn't that far gone yet

Sip that copium, it's finally over.

[Kathranis]

your view on the world is warped

The fact that I just want Blizzard to enforce their zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment and you're calling me hateful really says more about you than it does me.

[Sluvs]

Agree. And also, he should never EVER be allowed to even GET CLOSE to pvp section of the game.

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Hahahahahahaha

Tbh, "diversity" should never EVER be even considered in working environment. QUALITY should.

As long as we push diversity instead of QUALITY- we'll get what we get.

First things first. We are talking about representation and diversity within blizzard games. Not in the workplace.

Second, you can hire a diverse workforce without sacrificing quality. It is not that hard.

[nnelson54]

You realize that Blizzard lost HALF of their MAUs over the course of Legion and BFA, they lost money during those expansions, that's indisputable lol. Just saying there is factual information stating his claim that neither of the expansions were financially successful.

WoW makes more money than ever and most of those MUAs were from when Overwatch tanked. WoW has obviously lost subscribers but subscribers are no longer their main concern and haven't been for some time.

BfA was hot garbage and while Shadowlands is better it's not far behind, but pretending WoW is hemorrhaging money is just some weird fantasy.

[Soon-TM]

only reason d4 looks good is because they haven't announced the business model/microtransactions yet.

which if modern PR is anything to go by, they won't reveal the worst of it until shortly after launch.

I'm likely expecting Blizzard to borrow a couple of pages from the EA manual and introduce a most predatory monetization model 5 or 6 months after launch, when all the gullible fanbois will have spread the word of how good the thing is, and everyone will have bought their copy. Oh, and since you will probably have some 5 or 10 hours of play before running into the paywall(s), it will be too late for a refund.

I'd really like to be wrong, but this is modern Blizzard we're dealing with.

[Nyel]

WoW makes more money than ever and most of those MUAs were from when Overwatch tanked. WoW has obviously lost subscribers but subscribers are no longer their main concern and haven't been for some time.

BfA was hot garbage and while Shadowlands is better it's not far behind, but pretending WoW is hemorrhaging money is just some weird fantasy.

Context please. Not retail WoW is doing all of that, Classic is massively supporting this trend. They even outright stated that TBC Classic is the main factor for this during Q2/21. They didn’t even mention retail WoW / Shadowlands in the quarterly report, that’s how pitiful retail is performing when viewed alone.

[Saltysquidoon]

sexual harassment has a different meaning for every person

unless you can read minds or remove all contact between men and women its impossible to have zero tolerance

are you pro segregation? do you want jokes to be banned? do you want a uniform to be worn in the workplace? do you want makeup to be banned? do you want to ban people from being friends or having relationships if they work together?

zero tolerance? warped a very warped point of view

How about not creepily leering at women breastfeeding (in the unlockable breastfeeding stalls) at work
How about not forcing women to write essays about what they will do on their holidays
How about letting women go to the doctor
How about not telling women directly to their face they don't want to promote them in case they get pregnant
How about promoting women doing a managerial role to manager and paying them justly
How about not protecting a known sext pest (and apparently more than one) for at least 7 years

[Kauko]

And the reasons for this are what?

[Saltysquidoon]

why do you believe all this?

how do you know it was not happening to men as well?

how do you know u are not being lied to?

I don't need to believe every single individual allegation, it's the broader context that's damning.

First of all the state of California would never have filed if they didn't have enough real evidence to force a settlement, country to what your compatriots are spewing on the forum Calfornia has neither the time or resources to personally go a few rounds with Actiblizzard over nothing. Secondly, Blizzard independently fired king sex pest before the suit was filed for another inappropriate incident. That means something happened to someone at somepoint.

Let me state this in no uncertain terms. Any amount of discrimination from leadership (be it pay or sex or both) is unacceptable, enough for an american state to launch a regulatory action means it's probably happened to the extent it would be cartoonishly obvious in any other country.

Speaking of which, given we both hail from a country that prides itself on worker protections and the qualities of life those protections have afforded us, don't you think it's somewhat of a glass house situation to be dumping on Americans for wanting even some of those protections.

[Saltysquidoon]

your broader context could be made up of mostly lies

what you get paid is based on who you are as a individual it has nothing to do with gender

1. Again California's not going to pull the trigger without either a lot of circumstantial evidence or a smoking gun (or both). This suggests there is some amount of not lies.
2. King sex pest was fired for being a sex pest by blizzard's own admission. Again-meaning there is some amount of not lies
3. We now have three more senior staff being 'let go' for reasons as yet undisclosed
4. As an Australian I find it odd you would think people get paid on individual 'merit', that's an American idea. In Australia, we mostly get paid on a ladder of base salary for a position + experience gained at the employer. Which again is ignoring collective bargaining agreements which are almost ubiquitous for support staff in large blue-collar work forces or the statutory requirements of the relevant award for a given field.

[Kathranis]

why do you believe all this?

An internal investigation and a state investigation both found evidence of these abuses, and it's been verified by people within the company, including former leadership.

how do you know it was not happening to men as well?

Men were being harassed too, in very fratty, homoerotic ways, according to reports.

how do you know u are not being lied to?

Preponderance of evidence.

what you get paid is based on who you are as a individual it has nothing to do with gender

Not at Blizzard. That's why they're being sued by the state of California for violating equity guidelines after a two+ year investigation.

[Yriel]

Diversity matters. I am a white man, and I see myself represented in media all the time. But what about an Asian Man? Or A Black Woman?

I watched a number of chinese movies this year, they were full of asians, not a single white man in sight.
And i looked over a number of Nollywood movies, there were full of black people (and black women). Again, barely any white people in them.

Could it be that media made in an area usually portrays the majority of people living there? If you want to see asian people in movies or games, why not watch asian movies and play asian games?

[Kathranis]

sexual harassment has a different meaning for every person

unless you can read minds or remove all contact between men and women its impossible to have zero tolerance

They have clear guidelines for employee conduct which are supposed to be enforced. Most workplaces do.

are you pro segregation? do you want jokes to be banned? do you want a uniform to be worn in the workplace? do you want makeup to be banned? do you want to ban people from being friends or having relationships if they work together?

This is some Jordan Peterson level nonsense.

Sexual jokes are not appropriate in the workplace, full stop.

You can be friends with people without making sexual jokes or giving them unwanted sexual attention. Romance between coworkers is usually a bad idea and in many cases needs to be disclosed to management, if it's allowed at all.

If you think that men can't control themselves in the presence of women who are wearing makeup or skirts, you need to be removed from the general population. You're not healthy.

[Kumorii]

D4 is most likely fine. Everything points to it being in late stages of development meaning changing directors won't drastically change its course.

I'm assuming McCree (the cowboy) is unlikely to be renamed since McCree (the guy) basically signed over rights to his name when they made the character. That doesn't necessarily mean that his name couldn't be changed for reasons of association but it's a lot of effort compared to just kicking the guy out of the company and never mentioning him again.

The fact that they have to call back voice actors to redo lines to change any of his names being called out is a big reason why I doubt it'll happen.

At least not quickly.

[Kralljin]

The fact that they have to call back voice actors to redo lines to change any of his names being called out is a big reason why I doubt it'll happen.

At least not quickly.

They did it for Kael'thas' VA, Quinton Flynn, before even any investigation was done and said accusation turned out to be false.

Now they basically fired one of their own over something similiar and when a company fires you over this, they basically make it known that they think you're guilty.

They removed references to Afrasiabi.
They fired contractors over allegations and rerecorded voicelines with another VA to completely replace him.

The only logical conclusion is to scrub those names also off Blizzard products.

[SunspotAnims]

They did it for Kael'thas' VA, Quinton Flynn, before even any investigation was done and said accusation turned out to be false.

Now they basically fired one of their own over something similiar and when a company fires you over this, they basically make it known that they think you're guilty.

They removed references to Afrasiabi.
They fired contractors over allegations.

The only logical conclusion would be to scrub those names also off Blizzard products.

The big difference is that changing McCree's name requires re-recording all voice lines referring to him in-game, that means recalling nearly every OW voice actor to record new lines. That would be on top of remaking or scrubbing his animated short, comic, YA novel, and other merchandise.

And this would all be done just because he shares a name with one of the guys that got kicked out. Like I said, the easier option in this scenario is that they never mention McCree's namesake again and eventually McCree-the-dev will become irrelevant.

[Kralljin]

The big difference is that changing McCree's name requires re-recording all voice lines referring to him in-game plus remaking or scrubbing his animated short, comic, YA novel, and other merchandise.

It's also a big difference between firing a contractor who has been falsely alleged of sexual harassment, remove him anyway (nor restore his position) and having an employee be implicated in a sexual harassment scandal.

In the case of the contractor, they can wash off their hands easily, after all, what the contractor does outside of his immediate work when he's hired by Blizzard is not their responsbility.

When i hire a plumber and learn that he's a sexual predator when he's off work, okay, that's bad, but it's not like i'm personally responsible for what he has done after work.

But when when an employee tolerates sexual harassment or even is implicated himself at the work place, then it's their damn responsibility to remove that person ASAP, which Blizzard did not do.

They set the precedent, hiding behind "it's too much work!" excuse would be very hollow.
Is Blizzard stance really supposed to be "We remove references to sexual harassers - but only if it's not too much work"?

[Tamurello]

Ion next please /pray

[Ivarr]

No they did not. You people know nothing and are always so quick to jump at anyone sprouting what you want. Wow kncreased in subs. The losts were from overwatch and the others. Wow gained the lowing is fron blizzards other IPs

I'd be happy with any figures confirming anything.

Maybe one proxy for MAU specific to WoW is the achievement tracker on WoWhead. Perhaps the number of people completing a particularly simple quest line held against a comparable quest line in a different expansion allows us to see how many people are actively playing an expansion.