J. Allen Brack's Internal Email, Warcraft III: Reforged Production Backstory

[SniperCT]

EDIT:
This stuff about Golden is wild. I'm no fan of her wow world building but holy shit. Does she even work on the campus? She was a contractor like three years ago why are people pretending its her personal responsibility to stop sexual harassment at blizzard?

Yeah, it's kind of ridiculous the amount of hate she gets. Unsurprising. But ridiculous.

[Saltysquidoon]

What are you talking about?

The regulatory lawsuit this thread is about was filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

[Walkerbo]

Fuck you Brack.

• It goes - with saying - it is completely unacceptable for anyone in the company to face discrimination or harassment.
• It goes - with saying - that everyone should feel safe working here, whether we are on campus, at BlizzCon, or working from home.
• It goes - with saying - it takes courage to come forward, and all claims brought to the company are investigated by internal and (when needed) external investigators. We take these claims very seriously. Claims can be made without fear of retaliation, and many times, I attend to them personally, along with our other leaders.

It does not go without saying; it must be stated as obviously Blizzard turns a blind eye to employee predators.
This shit does not exist in a vacuum and your pretty flowery words in are meaningless when this sort of culture exists.

Fuck you Townsend.
As the Executive Sponsor of the ABK Employee Women's Network and our Chief Compliance Officer, I wanted to reach out to you. I know this has been difficult for many of us. A recently filed lawsuit presented a distorted and untrue picture of our company, including factually incorrect, old, and out of context stories — some from more than a decade ago.

The fact that issues were known for 10 or more years proves the lie about the "not happening here" pleadings.

This action was initiated after a 2 year investigation and the main response from Blizzard is "no one told us" and "this action happened before we were told so we can hush it up".

Blizzard needs to be held accountable and I hope this action leads to huge financial fines and and a clean out of people.

I also hope that the victims in this case pursue civil action as the action against the company are one thing, but the predators must be exposed and suffer sanctions as well.

[Mojo03]

The regulatory lawsuit this thread is about was filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

Okay.

What does that have to do with you quoting me saying -

"It's mindboggling you think the department of employment has the time or resources to file a frivolous suit against a multibillion-dollar company just to destroy the life of a random blizzard exec"

[HansOlo]

The president of a major company, who can't even write something better than a highschool dropout(no offfense - you would expect better at that position)?

Zero charisma.

[Zyky]

Those emails just look like they're trying to do damage control and save their reputations. Not going to work. The damage has been done.

It's 100% damage control. J. Brack and Afrasiabi openly mocked a woman at Blizzcon during the WoW QA if we would ever see less sexualized strong women in the game. As far as I'm concerned Brack is a lying piece of shit tbh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcqY40Kx2RY

[Saltysquidoon]

Okay.

What does that have to do with you quoting me saying -

"It's mindboggling you think the department of employment has the time or resources to file a frivolous suit against a multibillion-dollar company just to destroy the life of a random blizzard exec"

That would be my response to the fanfiction you wrote defending the alleged sex pest Alex Afrasiabi and actual sex pest Bill Cosby. I'd have thought a one post quote train wherein I directly quoted you would be easy to follow but evidently, I was wrong.

Do you require further clarification or do you understand my point now?

[uuuhname]

Imagine assuming someone is guilty before its legitimately proven.

imagine not knowing how the legal process here works so you can knee-jerk defend Daddy Blizzard. hope they read this bro.

[HansOlo]

Guys - its not about 1 person or 2.

It's the fucking company culture(and it always starts from the management). Of course women went to HR and thier supervisors - only to get rejected(and of course the management team were aware of the situation - they just didn't do anything). Not only that - think of those who left in silence(think of those who went to new startups and Riot).

Everybody who didn't react is guilty. They all created this environment. Expel these people from the industry and make it an example.

[Mojo03]

That would be my response to the fanfiction you wrote defending the alleged sex pest Alex Afrasiabi and actual sex pest Bill Cosby. I'd have thought a one post quote train wherein I directly quoted you would be easy to follow but evidently, I was wrong.

Do you require further clarification or do you understand my point now?

No, it was pretty dumb.

I'm starting to see a theme with that with you.

[Dread Pirate Phayde]

Ah yes, the old, "It goes without saying"....yet it was allowed to go on, and much like the Harvey Wenstein crap, there is no way higher ups didn't know about this.

[uuuhname]

No, it was pretty dumb.

I'm starting to see a theme with that with you.

it is pretty dumb to say a company that was under investigation for two years and pretend like the evidence they bought in... doesn't count as evidence, cuz reasons...

[Soon-TM]

Well, one thing that it's pretty clear after reading the article is that jerk moves such as denying a proper budget to one of Blizzard's most popular franchises goes hand in hand with BS like the seemingly widespread sexist practices within the company. In both cases, the higher ups think that they are God's gift to humanity, so they can do whatever they want because they will never be held accountable. And as a matter of fact, they haven't... until now (hopefully).

[Rexosaurus]

Any chance you link her tweets about being in a position of power?

Afaik, this is the only statement that she's made about it.

https://twitter.com/ChristieGolden/s...88186057388033

She basically just says that joining Blizzard as an older woman with some name recognition as an author afforded her a certain amount of respect/immunity from harassment, and that all women should be getting that same amount of respect. It doesn't really come off as arrogant or aloof to me, but more importantly, idk where the idea comes from that she's in a position of power or that she has the power to change Blizzard's culture.

It's 100% damage control. J. Brack and Afrasiabi openly mocked a woman at Blizzcon during the WoW QA if we would ever see less sexualized strong women in the game. As far as I'm concerned Brack is a lying piece of shit tbh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcqY40Kx2RY

Y I K E S. That video was always kinda gross/cringe, but it really reinforces the idea that Blizzard was (and possibly still is) Gamer-ish/Bro-ey as heck.

[Ryzek]

So with Townsend saying some of the stories are old and more than 10 years old and Afrasiabi being there since 2004 really makes you think just how far back this "bro culture" probably went. All the idolized "old guard" that just wanted to make good games probably were in on this or allowed it. Hopefully we find out just how far back it went. Current Blizz and even those not there should be held accountable.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Honestly it is the standard CEO letter you send out when things like this happen. The whole.. we shouldnt do this, we will try hard not to let it happen, and respect those that it happens to letter. Not to say that this is odd, bad, good, proof of innocents or an admission of guilt but I wouldn't read anything of it. Just so when they are in court they can show "remorse" to some degree in an almost perfect way written or at the very least approved by a lawyer to send out.

[Ianus]

Or they don't want to moderate toxic comments? I would've done exactly the same.

If they were a blizz shill they wouldn't have posted it.

toxic comments are nothing compared what they did and everyone knew.. if brack knew then all execs and HR knew they were just silent

[Dazmalak]

What boggles my mind is they are apparently this gamer, "bro culture" workplace, and yet we get a bunch of limp-dick, preachy, childish story-telling where the game is focused on desexualizing its characters, propping up their female cast, and casting away every bit of masculinity in the game like it's radioactive sludge.

Ironically enough, they may be pushing diversity in its most basic, shallow form (appearance), but the characters in the game all feel more and more like carbon copies of one another and less diverse than ever. So wheres the disconnect? How is this "bro culture" company making such limp-dick material? Why? I suppose I can see it reflected in the gameplay since it caters to competitive crowds, but not in the themes and everything else the game currently offers.

Either way, glad I stopped giving them money awhile ago. Feel bad for the suckers who paid for 6 month subs. I doubt this will affect anything in the long run, though.

[Skylarking]

Oh please do. Maybe they got bought by someone who actually cares about the franchises.

But who would be willing to buy a tainted franchise

[uuuhname]

But who would be willing to buy a tainted franchise

when has that ever mattered when a franchise has made billions of dollars?