Activision Blizzard Sued Over ‘Frat Boy’ Culture, Harassment

[Wangming]

"The agency alleges male employees play video games during the workday..."
Last I checked they are in the video game industry and mostly Video game company. So they testing, debugging or even showcasing something and they complained they play games all day. Sounds like they trying to parent them lol

The full report says that WoW employees were playing Call of Duty during their working hours. That's not what they are being payed for. Remind me, what is that charming saying about rivers in Egypt?

[Sett]

Afrasiabi ain't even white wtf are you people going on about.

[EnacheV]

Yeah, if the allegations are true ( which they probably are, considering the state is doing an investigation), I'm honestly disgusted.

Blizzard needs a complete restructuring of its culture and leadership at this point.

lol

if the state is doing the investigation most likely the allegations are mostly false and fabricated, with a few ones greatly exagerated

stop being brainwashed by propaganda outlets like CNN

P.S. and this is investigated by California lol, the most failed state where you can steal stuff under 950 USD all day long

thats why the strong answer from Activision, not sugaring it, calling everything a joke made by dumbs Caalifornia burecrauts

[Otimus]

Old Blizzard didn't die because of the Activision merger it died when making World of Warcraft and the rapid expansion of the company that they totally mismanaged, it's always been new Blizzard since 2004.

This is what I've been saying for over a decade. I agree, 100%. WoW Era Blizzard and Activision are an accursed match made in heaven (hell?).

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lol

if the state is doing the investigation most likely the allegations are mostly false and fabricated, with a few ones greatly exagerated

stop being brainwashed by propaganda outlets like CNN

P.S. and this is investigated by California lol, the most failed state where you can steal stuff under 950 USD all day long

thats why the strong answer from Activision, not sugaring it, calling everything a joke made by dumbs Caalifornia burecrauts

Clearly, you sound very unbiased!

[Wangming]

lol

if the state is doing the investigation most likely the allegations are mostly false and fabricated, with a few ones greatly exagerated

Oh boo hoo. The evil state is against poor Activision. Copium overdose at the ready.

[Super Dickmann]

If it didn't happen then the community gets rid of some outrage swjs types (win)

If it did happen than the neckbeards lerking here for the past 17 years finally have ACTUAL proof that blizzard = bad.

You know it, baby. You ever seen the Aliens vs Predator "Whoever wins, we lose"? This is like that, but the opposite. Let them eat each other.

[EnacheV]

This is what I've been saying for over a decade. I agree, 100%. WoW Era Blizzard and Activision are an accursed match made in heaven (hell?).

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Clearly, you sound very unbiased!

i think blizzard sucks, their games sucks but even through that hate for blizzard i can see a bollocks trial, like many are happening today in the 3rd world country called USA

some guys got drunk at work, poor females. i bet the only poor female harrased was the police plant, like in that governor kidnap attempt when 6 conspirators + 12 FBI plants were involbed, with the FBI plants calling the shots.

lol USA

[Nyel]

Honestly i am not shocked.

Hopefully this will be thing that makes them fix themselves

This would require something to be fixed and at this point I don’t know if there is. This happened throughout all of the company structure, from the bottom to the top. Something seems to be very, very rotten inside Blizzard.

If this is indeed true, the reputation of Blizzard is forever gone. You know how they were plagued by immense brain drain and lack of new developers? How most of the old guard left Blizzard and founded a new one? Who wants to work for Blizzard anymore? Honestly, if true or not, this lawsuit is ending Blizzard in the long term.

[Otimus]

i think blizzard sucks, their games sucks but even though that hate for blizzard i can see a bollocks trial, like many are happening today in the 3rd world country called USA

Clearly unbiased for sure.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Nice racism.

Love to see people pulling the reverse racism card in the wild. Like people REALLY do it!

In case that it isn't clear, to yell wolf, I mean racism, when we are pointing out how white men tend to make all conversations about themselves -such as it happened right here- is so damn childish.

To pretend to even discuss racial based harmful behaviors such as while male fragility, white female victimhood, misogynoir, etc, is inherently racist is either shutting down legitimate discussion either because purposeful silencing, or you literally don't understand the different between racism and discussing how racial construct affect us.

[Xarathan]

I wonder what Echo will do now.

They split from Method for "similar" things. If they are honest and upright, they should switch to FF XIV instantly

Didnt know echo was a part of blizzard, sponsored by blizzard or endorsed in anyway by blizzard.
Sure echo plays a game by blizzard that hits nowhere near as close to home as working for an organization and with management that allowed for such things.

Bit of a room temperature IQ comparison honestly

[Graeham]

You know it, baby. You ever seen the Aliens vs Predator "Whoever wins, we lose"? This is like that, but the opposite. Let them eat each other.

It's a blow to the industry no matter what happens, really.

I haven't bothered giving Blizzard any of my money for a while now for various reasons. This hasn't exactly convinced me to change my mind. I did, however, hope that WoW would thrive in some capacity to provide some much needed competition for FFXIV and ESO.

With WoW declining rapidly, it's going to be up to future MMO's to provide that competition I guess.

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Love to see people pulling the reverse racism card in the wild. Like people REALLY do it!

In case that it isn't clear, to yell wolf, I mean racism, when we are pointing out how white men tend to make all conversations about themselves -such as it happened right here- is so damn childish.

To pretend to even discuss racial based harmful behaviors such as while male fragility, white female victimhood, misogynoir, etc, is inherently racist is either shutting down legitimate discussion either because purposeful silencing, or you literally don't understand the different between racism and discussing how racial construct affect us.

'Reverse racism' is a pretty dumb term. All racism is racism.

Pointing out that racist comments were made by representatives of the company is hardly inappropriate, either. Not when the thread itself is a discussion about a culture of harassment within the company itself.

Thankfully not everybody buys into CRT or the idea of the progressive stack which is essentially what you're really pushing here. I know your type well.

[Super Dickmann]

It's a blow to the industry no matter what happens, really.

I haven't bothered giving Blizzard any of my money for a while now for various reasons. This hasn't exactly convinced me to change my mind. I did, however, hope that WoW would thrive in some capacity to provide some much needed competition for FFXIV and ESO.

With WoW declining rapidly, it's going to be up to future MMO's to provide that competition I guess.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. While the game going down the tubes gameplay-wise has been rightfully picked up on and will either have it stabilize at a lower sub number or make some changes to make up for actual pressure from FFXIV especially, likely the latter knowing Blizzard's refusal to change, I seriously doubt this lawsuit will meaningfully cut into their sub count.

Especially not given that it could pass as a Vox article and includes gems like "Its top leadership is exclusive white and male. The CEO and President roles have been exclusively white and male." while its first page references Gamergate of all fucking things.

It does explain why Afrasiabi was fired, which was much appreciated.

[Cthulhu 2020]

As horrible as it is, I hope people remember it isn't only women who are attacked by Blizzard employees. That should be dealt with, certainly, though the main goal should be dealing with discrimination and hatred in all forms. Not just selectively.

Multiple people hired by the company have gone on lengthy Twitter rants attacking men and/or 'white people' for example.

Hopefully all of the baggage is revealed and dealt with, otherwise nothing changes.

Though I don't expect much given how a lot of people over on the politics sub-forum behave on this very site...some of whom voice the exact same opinions and phrases as the aforementioned Twitter users.

As a gay guy, I also want to point out that the people who are most desperate to show how tolerant they are typically turn out to be the worst humanity has to offer. Most of the homophobia I have experienced, for example, has come from so called tolerant individuals the moment I disallowed them the opportunity to use me for virtue signalling or dared to hold a different/non stereotypical opinion to themselves.

People are way overthinking this whole "double think" about woke culture. The reality is that corporations know that being LGBTQIA+ friendly is good for business. The employees they have are told to exude this kind of culture, but internally are not like that at all themselves. Blizzard was THE place to work for a long time, let's not pretend it wasn't just frat boys pretending to be tolerant because they cared more about their career than pushing their homophobic views.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

Nah, you're just a racist.

You also apparently struggle to actually read what you quote, since at no point did I suggest that the other stuff wasn't an issue or was less important. I was merely pointing out that the company has been hiring openly discriminatory individuals for a while now which is no doubt part of the problem.

It also wasn't a single post on Twitter. It was multiple and sustained. Most people make the odd joke here and there that can be considered to be in poor taste or questionable. When they do it repeatedly and in public, though? Yeah, no...that's a trend and a deep rooted issue.

Sure, as if derailing a conversation saying "BUT WHAT ABOUT X" isn't transparent as hell.

Also yeah, I have read Roux's tweets, I find them gouache. But if you get offended by that leve of "men ain't sh*t" drivel, you are weak as hell.

But again, trying to compare the horrid nature of what the lawsuit say in terms of work environment with Roux's tweets is legit groan-worthy. You just keep confirming them.

[Realtalk]

You all think Blizzard is bad. Just wait until you see Twitch.

[Usagi Senshi]

lol

if the state is doing the investigation most likely the allegations are mostly false and fabricated, with a few ones greatly exagerated

stop being brainwashed by propaganda outlets like CNN

P.S. and this is investigated by California lol, the most failed state where you can steal stuff under 950 USD all day long

thats why the strong answer from Activision, not sugaring it, calling everything a joke made by dumbs Caalifornia burecrauts

You might want to lay off the retarded right wing brainwashed bullet train, man. I watched Fox New/OAN (free clown shows are great! Only good part about Fox is Business with Charles Payne) and CNN for 10+ years and Fox lays it on thick and dumb compared to CNN which is a nothing burger by comparison.

California is totally in the right here, and more states should be doing similar to other corporations/etc more often to keep them honest.

Again, quit being a brainlet lemming for liars

[Mojo03]

So I read the the court document.

The thing that bothered me the most when reading the article on Bloomberg was the girl who took her life.

It's not quite what it sounds like... Who would of guessed a journalist would be deceptive... It says she was in a relationship with a supervisor and took her life due to that relationship (not clear at all) while on a company trip with him, but "one" (one) employee thinks she "may" have been dealing with other sexual harassment at work specifically at a holiday party where its "alleged" male co-workers were passing a photo of her female genitalia.

It obviously very sad, but missing a LOT of context and information still... It's currently very dishonest journalism to be linking the two until more is made public on that. If ever.

Much of the pay issues can be summed up as women blaming their gender exclusively for not getting paid more and promoted more. Some sounds totally legit on paper, if true, like getting hired and making less out the gate that an equally qualified male or objectively accomplishing more on paper and being with the company longer than a male, but the male gets promoted. Undeniably messed up and inexcusable.

Some sounds like they're trying to use the gender card and act like a victim rather than take responsibility for their work not being as good...

Most of the sexual harassment stuff sounds legit and inexcusable. Non of it is actually too crazy, like life threatening or stalking or physically groping or anything too heavy, more just bantering and flirting and making women feel uncomfortable from the sound of it. The Afrasabi stuff sounds like he's a sleazebag. Legitimately. There really isn't enough to say if the Cosby suite thing is true on the document. Literally one person could of told them that and they put it in the document to make their case stronger. Who knows.

Overall, its looking pretty bad for them... If a lot of this can be proven. Pretty disturbing.

One thing to note. The women making claims are also financially incentivized, because if California wins the case, they get paid. Probably a lot. It's literally on the last page of the document.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

'Reverse racism' is a pretty dumb term. All racism is racism.

Pointing out that racist comments were made by representatives of the company is hardly inappropriate, either. Not when the thread itself is a discussion about a culture of harassment within the company itself.

Thankfully not everybody buys into CRT or the idea of the progressive stack which is essentially what you're really pushing here. I know your type well.

It sure is some Flavor-Aid gulp to believe that any disparaging comment in reference to a group is racism of the same caliber than systemic oppression of any kind.

How can anyone have a mature conversation with someone so milquetoast that truly believe "all racism is racism". Even murder has degrees.

Also don't you think that it is kinda lazy to go all essentialist and deem any discussion of racial groupings as racism just because... it discusses race? Nuance? I don't know her.

"All racism is racism" is what people with zero understanding of how systemic oppression works thinks racism is.

[Graeham]

Sure, as if derailing a conversation saying "BUT WHAT ABOUT X" isn't transparent as hell.

Also yeah, I have read Roux's tweets, I find them gouache. But if you get offended by that leve of "men ain't sh*t" drivel, you are weak as hell.

But again, trying to compare the horrid nature of what the lawsuit say in terms of work environment with Roux's tweets is legit groan-worthy. You just keep confirming them.

I stand against racism and discrimination in all its forms, not just selectively. So it's less that I'm offended and more so calling out all of it rather than some of it.

The company has had many issues for a while and has been sabotaging potential sales with its growing toxicity.

You're misrepresenting what I stated yet again, too. I didn't seek to put one above the other, I merely pointed out that it wasn't the only issue that needs to be dealt with.