Activision-Blizzard Sued By California

[Shadowferal]

The important thing when any company is accused of the allegations is to make a strong statement denying the allegations and then quietly settling out of court with a NDA that admits no wrongdoing. It's pretty standard for most companies.

If this were a civil matter...sure.
But it's the state going after them.

[Endus]

And they should still get due process like every other court case. We shouldn't rush to judgment and should wait to see what happens in court.

Due process and presumption of innocence are things the courts are required to operate under.

They have no relevance whatsoever to public discussion or opinion.

[BronzeCondor]

Apparently not enough to bring a state lawsuit against the company after a multi-year investigation. Also not enough for at least one male employee to have committed suicide as a result of sexual harassment.

Maybe it's not a big problem, believe it or not.

Maybe they are afraid to speak up because of the cultural environment. Both sexes are capable of harassment, believe it or not.

[Necromantic]

You taking that as an invitation is your problem, not theirs.

Stop victim blaming.

I disagree. There is a fine line between someone coming onto you unprovoked and someone provoking the behavior then trying to play the victim.

Good example, another women who used to work here would heavily flirt with this guy across from me. She'd grab her chest in front of him, shake it and wink at him.

When he was gone, she would complain how she was sick of him coming onto her. I told her "maybe you should stop leading him on?"

[StillMcfuu]

Curious to see how this moves forward and what evidence they bring. I know the Charging Documents are getting everyone riled, but they are purposefully written in this manner, essentially sensationalized. There is a lot of eye-rolling statements in the opening paragraphs. The meat of it, Afriasbi's conduct, etc is what I'm really interested in and we will have to wait for trial to see how it plays out.

Just to put this in perspective, USWNT lawsuit is worded similarly in it's suit, but we come to find out they actually got paid more than the men their fair-pay complaints were leveled against.

And that isn't to say that this suit isn't justified, only that the suit document doesn't need to be completely true, it just needs to get a case started.

[Endus]

I disagree. There is a fine line between someone coming onto you unprovoked and someone provoking the behavior then trying to play the victim.

They're not "provoking the behaviour". You're just acting as an apologist for creepy-ass abusive guys.

[Elegiac]

And they should still get due process like every other court case.

I'm sorry that you need someone in a black robe to tell you that a toxic work and fan culture is bad.

This is not a "did they do it" situation, it's a "to what extent are they liable under the law" situation. Y'all really to stop giving these massive corporations the benefit of the doubt that you'd never extend to someone killed by police for being suspected of passing counterfeit bills.

[Necromantic]

They're not "provoking the behaviour". You're just acting as an apologist for creepy-ass abusive guys.

For the 3rd time, I'm not talking about the people in this lawsuit.

Why do people not read your entire post before responding?...

I was saying that this type of thing happens often and sometimes, it is the women's fault. I never insinuated that it was in this case.

[Elegiac]

I disagree. There is a fine line between someone coming onto you unprovoked and someone provoking the behavior

Again, you taking that as a provocation is on you. Not them. Stop victim blaming.

Good example, another women who used to work here would heavily flirt with this guy across from me. She'd grab her chest in front of him, shake it and wink at him.

r/thathappened

[Necromantic]

Again, you taking that as a provocation is on you. Not them. Stop victim blaming.

lol no it isn't.

- - - Updated - - -

r/thathappened

Just an example.

I know women are victims. I've witnessed cases of it myself. My only point is that they're not always the victims. Some pretend to be.

[Hollycakes]

Ban me, bitch. You will lose. We're going to destroy everything you hold dear and make you watch the entire time.

lol wtf is this?

Not only do I not get this threat, but it's fucking weird lol.

Is this incel talk?

It must be.

Debating how "woke" they are to a Metzen flashing children analogy (that doesn't work) from a known creepy troll and you jump to this threat and defense? lol
In a thread about sexual harassment no less.

Priceless.

[Endus]

For the 3rd time, I'm not talking about the people in this lawsuit.

I did not think you were.

I was saying that this type of thing happens often and sometimes, it is the women's fault. I never insinuated that it was in this case.

And I am telling you that blaming a girl for being "flirty" when you sexually harass her is a shitty argument that does not hold up, in any circumstance.

[Elegiac]

My only point is that they're not always the victims. Some pretend to be.

That's nice dear, we're talking about a biased system which has fuck all to do with whether or not some individual is making claims.

[Necromantic]

Why shouldn't we give them the benefit of the doubt? That's why it's a court case and not a summary judgement. Both sides should get equal time to explain what happened and we should judge the *results* of what come out of court. Not rush to judgement on what was filed.

It's why due process is so important.

Precisely!

I'm not saying the women here are wrong because I don't know that they were.

Anyone who has watched cases similar to this know that some are and some are not. Some women "come forward" just because others did, hoping for some kind of payout. Again, not insinuating that anyone in this case is doing that. It's only one of the many things that HAVE happened in our world. If the people at Blizzard really are treated like this, I honestly hope justice finds them.

[Elegiac]

Why shouldn't we give them the benefit of the doubt?

I am not a court of law.

And because this is far from the first instance of aforementioned toxic work and fan culture and is representative of a trend that has been commented on for more than a decade.

Again, I'm sorry you need a judge to tell you your opinion.

[Endus]

Why shouldn't we give them the benefit of the doubt?

Because doing so creates wiggle room that allows for additional victimization to occur and which can have a chilling effect on others coming forward.

For starters.

That's why it's a court case and not a summary judgement.

And now you're conflating the court proceedings with public opinion.

If a court's not able to prove someone's murdered their spouse beyond a reasonable doubt, but they probably definitely did murder them, it's completely reasonable for everyone to assume they got away with murder and to treat them accordingly.

[MoanaLisa]

blizzard is a sad company now. so looks like they are worse than EA right now.

I rather imagine that gamer/developer culture in these studios is not unique to Blizzard. California picked the largest, most visible target. They may eventually file suit against others or this may be some sort of shot across the bow for everyone in this business in California.

As I said in a couple of the closed threads, none of this should be surprising. There were always hints and in some cases articles that hinted at the frat house atmosphere in Blizzard's workplace. It's not a giant leap to go from frat-house/bro culture to any of this.

For anyone imagining there will be an actual trial, probably not. The sensible thing to do is to mollify the state of California, demonstrate the willingness to fix stuff, show some progress that over the last two years they've worked on this, adjust pay scales, and generally promise the state to do better. This will be settled out of court, Blizzard will pay some fine (probably a slap on the hand amount) and then it will be up to Blizzard management to insure it sticks. There may be a few heads that roll but I wouldn't expect that it would be any big names (for the most part the really big legacy names that tolerated this for years have already left) but office behavior is ripe for a reset since everyone has been working from home for the last year anyway.

They have a lot of what's needed—sensitivity training, diversity programs, etc.—in place. Now they need to take them seriously. As a consequence of this just about every other game/development studio with HQ/offices in California will look inward, take note and likely do the same.

[Elegiac]

Some women "come forward" just because others did, hoping for some kind of payout. Again, not insinuating that anyone in this case is doing that.

Yes, you are, or else you wouldn't even be mentioning it.

Stop victim blaming. It's seriously despicable.

[Necromantic]

And I am telling you that blaming a girl for being "flirty" when you sexually harass her is a shitty argument that does not hold up, in any circumstance.

I never said to sexually harass someone. That's a stretch.

I'm talking about women who flirt with men, heavily come onto them and when they say "would you like to go to dinner?" find themselves sitting in HR.

Not all companies HR are the same. I'm glad ours has common sense. Asking someone out is one thing. Pursuing it after being told "no", making physical contact or sexual remarks, etc is.

That's nice dear, we're talking about a biased system which has fuck all to do with whether or not some individual is making claims.

A biased system that we know of.

[Elegiac]

I am suggesting that we reserve judgement until we hear both sides.

We've heard both sides, dude. Not my fault you haven't been paying attention for the past 10+ years of ActiBlizzion's conduct.