Mike Morhaime Response to Blizzard Lawsuit

[Jester Joe]

They seemingly didn't "take this serious" till the investigation started. Which was when Alex quit as well.

What's been going on FAR predates the investigation, which is the point.

I don't know about you, but June 2020 isn't 2 years ago.

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Alex_Afrasiabi

And yes, it obviously predates the investigation. But it was also going on during the investigation is the point.

[Video Games]

Are you literally trying to bully me with the meme thing or? Its kinda sus.

I thought boys liked getting bullied? There's been a couple animes about it

[Triceron]

The problem is making this a gender issue to start with. It used to be race issues now its gender issues.v

These things are much easier to sort if americans would stop pointing fingers and putting people into boxes of collateral guilt

What are you even talking about?

[Sorrowseer]

Except he is literally pretending it didnt happen by saying "if i had known i would have done something!" except he did know, for a long time, and he didnt do anything, so he is literally pretending it did not happen, stop trying to suck off mike.

Thats a hot take.

[Aggressive]

You think that is it? Get ready to choke on that popcorn cause fucking. https://twitter.com/devolore/status/...223285760?s=20

- - - Updated - - -



And yet.... https://twitter.com/devolore/status/...223285760?s=20

Fuck..../chocking on the popcorn. This shit is wild.

[Jester Joe]

Did you have trouble understanding what i wrote?
I literally said it was cannon fodder - and thats not good. But i dont think its BECAUSE they are female for the most part - as much as i think its because those kind of places are inherently toxic and people will use anything they can against eachother.

how do you ask if I've having trouble understanding what you wrote, when you're literally ignoring what I said.

Your "example" was saying "well lobbies are always toxic". To which I pointed out you could even have a normal lobby that just freaks out the moment they hear a female voice.

Again, sticking your head in the sand about it doesn't change that.

I'm honestly not sure what you mean by the 2nd paragraph. I'm not sure how those two things chance anything i said.

Because obviously it was still ongoing if one of the biggest culprits was still there.

As for the last part - well since entire thing was about me

Except what was typed was literally right under a quote of Video Games.

Although a bit ironic considering the situation that you would somehow try to make it about you.

[Queen of Hamsters]

ThE OlD GuArD AnD OLd BlIzZaRd WaS PeRfEcTiOn!


Seems myths are being challenged in real time here.

[Jamais]

This comment has a bunch of them linked.
https://old.reddit.com/r/wow/comment..._frat/h62n78j/

And it's not even up-to-date.

I've read many of the tweets from this list, and the other tweets from the posters on this subject. Many of the posts mentioned that overall they were content working at Blizzard, and in particular to read that from an ex developer who, as evident from her profile, is something many posters on MMO would angrily call ''super woke''. She worked there for 10+ years.

I was never a Blizzard fan, I was always a WoW fan, and never quite considered the 'Old Blizzard' as a construct. Granted, I never really gave it much thought, but I always separated the developers and community managers (back in the day, even game masters) as the true working class in the company. From the part of the lawsuit about frat boy culture and cubicle visits, I can't get the right picture on how much of this was happening among the workers who I've described above as a true working class. IMHO, I think the brunt of this was occurring in the ''upper echelons'', firstly because of the timeframe, the general attitude and awareness before metoo and situations like those and also, because harassment in big companies almost always comes from top to below, no matter it's nature.

I was always disgusted about the upper management, across all companies. But I sympathized with the 'so called 'lower workers'', who actually do the majority of the intended work. The same situation is with Blizzard and it's developers. I think the majority is good people, tho I do suspect there has been inappropriate behavior there as well. I work for a public, city owned company, and the uppers are notoriously infamous for their greed, corruption, nepotism and lack of actual skills for the job they were heavily paid for. But majority of my coworkers and me, we were on the ''front line'' for the citizens, trying to do our best job, helping and advising people. And we were the ones who took most of the hate and resentment for the actions of our superiors. In reality, we were just ''regular'' citizens, trying to earn for a living and being honest. We have a big chain of supermarkets, who's boss was the richest man in the country, but corrupted as well, he is now in exile to avoid prosecution. The amount of time I've seen people yelling and being rude to cashiers (almost 100% woman) was staggering - as if the action of that man were in any way their fault, those cashiers live on a small salary and often fall of their feet from the overwork and the amount of stuff they need to do other then just keeping till check.

My point is, while I am contemplating leaving WoW for time being, part of me feels like ''punishing'' them will just go on the backs of the ''average worker'' in Blizzard, as is the case in my, and I suspect many more countries when boycotts are included. Since I still like the game, a part of me also thinks I am giving myself excuses to keep playing. But too many companies have issues like this, and I am not seeing Amazon taking a dip in their business.

So what do you think would be the best course of action?

[Video Games]

I've read many of the tweets from this list, and the other tweets from the posters on this subject. Many of the posts mentioned that overall they were content working at Blizzard, and in particular to read that from an ex developer who, as evident from her profile, is something many posters on MMO would angrily call ''super woke''. She worked there for 10+ years.

I was never a Blizzard fan, I was always a WoW fan, and never quite considered the 'Old Blizzard' as a construct. Granted, I never really gave it much thought, but I always separated the developers and community managers (back in the day, even game masters) as the true working class in the company. From the part of the lawsuit about frat boy culture and cubicle visits, I can't get the right picture on how much of this was happening among the workers who I've described above as a true working class. IMHO, I think the brunt of this was occurring in the ''upper echelons'', firstly because of the timeframe, the general attitude and awareness before metoo and situations like those and also, because harassment in big companies almost always comes from top to below, no matter it's nature.

I was always disgusted about the upper management, across all companies. But I sympathized with the 'so called 'lower workers'', who actually do the majority of the intended work. The same situation is with Blizzard and it's developers. I think the majority is good people, tho I do suspect there has been inappropriate behavior there as well. I work for a public, city owned company, and the uppers are notoriously infamous for their greed, corruption, nepotism and lack of actual skills for the job they were heavily paid for. But majority of my coworkers and me, we were on the ''front line'' for the citizens, trying to do our best job, helping and advising people. And we were the ones who took most of the hate and resentment for the actions of our superiors. In reality, we were just ''regular'' citizens, trying to earn for a living and being honest. We have a big chain of supermarkets, who's boss was the richest man in the country, but corrupted as well, he is now in exile to avoid prosecution. The amount of time I've seen people yelling and being rude to cashiers (almost 100% woman) was staggering - as if the action of that man were in any way their fault, those cashiers live on a small salary and often fall of their feet from the overwork and the amount of stuff they need to do other then just keeping till check.

My point is, while I am contemplating leaving WoW for time being, part of me feels like ''punishing'' them will just go on the backs of the ''average worker'' in Blizzard, as is the case in my, and I suspect many more countries when boycotts are included. Since I still like the game, a part of me also thinks I am giving myself excuses to keep playing. But too many companies have issues like this, and I am not seeing Amazon taking a dip in their business.

So what do you think would be the best course of action?

Stop being soft and stop giving companies money if you don't want to. It's that easy

[damonskye]

And you still believe you would know EVERYTHING in a company of that size ? Really ?

If I was the CEO of a major gaming company and my employees were doing absolutely revolting things... yes, I'd know what was going on that company.

You Blizzard fanboy apologsts are forgetting that this isn't some random employee disconnected to the rest of the organization. IT. WAS. HIS. COMPANY.

[Logwyn]

Not sure how Cher Scarlett's response means Morhaime is a liar. She didn't state who reprimanded her for cc'ing the CEO. It's also highly unlikely he read the email.

So....what her take on it looks like, is she emails the CEO on a matter, and some low level scrub manager, slaps her wrist for "ZOMG, you just sent that to the CEO?!?!?"

That's what it reads like anyways. She's free to clarify the record.

"Attitude reflects leadership". If the people at the top promote a company culture that promotes certain behavior they are as at fault as those below. If they do not know what is going on below them then they are not effective leaders. IMHO do not deserve their millions of dollar salaries and deserve jail time if approbriate.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

** EDIT **

At the current point in the thread the following was just posted from Lore, which outright states that Morhaime knew.


- Source

I'm leaving what was below (albeit stricken out to show that is no longer my belief) because I believe it's important to own your past positions.

Figured something like this would come out shortly.

[Logwyn]

Yeah since you can obviously trust anyone instantly in such cases.. gosh you are such a whiny man..



And you still believe you would know EVERYTHING in a company of that size ? Really ? What an absolutely bullshit comment to make.

That's why they make millions of dollars. To know these things and fix them and to keep them from happening.

[Xez]

If these accusations are real, Blizzard is getting what they deserve. If these accusations are false, Blizzard is getting what they deserve because now they know what it's like to get in a world of sh** based on false accusations like they did to Quinton Flynn.

[LordVargK]

I don't care about what Blizzard become, its what Blizzard were. Plus I was a fan of Blizzard, apple is just a thing I consume I have no passion or connection the same way I did for Blizzard.

WoW was made by people who are being accused of harassment, they stem from the people who made the game. They are literally in and around the game. They are the roots and the core of what WoW was, what Blizzard games in general were.

cool you can turn a blind I and continue to give Blizzard your money, but I cannot. I was really looking forward to playing the Diablo 2 remaster and Diablo 4, now all I see when I look at those games are the people who originally created it, who are now in the toxic frat club and not the visionaries who I inspired to be growing up.

I been playing Blizzard games since 1994, I was 11 years old at the time, Blizzard have been so much apart of my life growing up, I remember the old manuals that used to come with the old Blizzard games, those things were my bibles, I used to read them at night because back then those books would be filled with lore about the game, its because of Blizzard I got into the fantasy genre. Trust me when Metzen gets outed (and he will), I am done. forever.

Well, that's a different perspective. I nearly forgot that there are people that are fans of Blizzard, not because of their games, but because of their whole culture. I can understand that you and others like you are incredibly disappointed on a personal level. For sure, those are the fans Blizzard loses, scandal by scandal.

Blizzard lost me (as a fan of their distinct quality) when they changed their physical WoW expansion box design in BfA. It's a minor thing, but the thing lacked the excellent design Blizzard games boxes once had.
Call me petty, but that was more important to me than any scandal Blizzard faced/faces.

[Raven]

I've read many of the tweets from this list, and the other tweets from the posters on this subject. Many of the posts mentioned that overall they were content working at Blizzard, and in particular to read that from an ex developer who, as evident from her profile, is something many posters on MMO would angrily call ''super woke''. She worked there for 10+ years.

I was never a Blizzard fan, I was always a WoW fan, and never quite considered the 'Old Blizzard' as a construct. Granted, I never really gave it much thought, but I always separated the developers and community managers (back in the day, even game masters) as the true working class in the company. From the part of the lawsuit about frat boy culture and cubicle visits, I can't get the right picture on how much of this was happening among the workers who I've described above as a true working class. IMHO, I think the brunt of this was occurring in the ''upper echelons'', firstly because of the timeframe, the general attitude and awareness before metoo and situations like those and also, because harassment in big companies almost always comes from top to below, no matter it's nature.

I was always disgusted about the upper management, across all companies. But I sympathized with the 'so called 'lower workers'', who actually do the majority of the intended work. The same situation is with Blizzard and it's developers. I think the majority is good people, tho I do suspect there has been inappropriate behavior there as well. I work for a public, city owned company, and the uppers are notoriously infamous for their greed, corruption, nepotism and lack of actual skills for the job they were heavily paid for. But majority of my coworkers and me, we were on the ''front line'' for the citizens, trying to do our best job, helping and advising people. And we were the ones who took most of the hate and resentment for the actions of our superiors. In reality, we were just ''regular'' citizens, trying to earn for a living and being honest. We have a big chain of supermarkets, who's boss was the richest man in the country, but corrupted as well, he is now in exile to avoid prosecution. The amount of time I've seen people yelling and being rude to cashiers (almost 100% woman) was staggering - as if the action of that man were in any way their fault, those cashiers live on a small salary and often fall of their feet from the overwork and the amount of stuff they need to do other then just keeping till check.

My point is, while I am contemplating leaving WoW for time being, part of me feels like ''punishing'' them will just go on the backs of the ''average worker'' in Blizzard, as is the case in my, and I suspect many more countries when boycotts are included. Since I still like the game, a part of me also thinks I am giving myself excuses to keep playing. But too many companies have issues like this, and I am not seeing Amazon taking a dip in their business.

So what do you think would be the best course of action?

There is no right answer so something you need to figure out yourself.

Of the names i have seen being mentioned doing the actuall harassment most of them are no longer at Blizzard, but im sure there are still idiots there, you can never get ride of all but that goes for every workplace, but im also sure its a safer and better place to work at after all this came out then before.

[Alamhaoingaturlife]

"real people have been harmed, and some women had terrible experiences."

based mike insinuating women arent people :^)

[LordVargK]

That's why they make millions of dollars. To know these things and fix them and to keep them from happening.

No, the old leadership got millions because they founded the company and were hugely successful. But anyone that came after that should have earned their money by knowing those things.

[Xez]

"real people have been harmed, and some women had terrible experiences."

based mike insinuating women arent people :^)

As funny as it is to joke on, I do think that should be given the benefit of the doubt as bad sentence structure.

[Traveler Voltin]

i am going to say i am cautiously optimistic about Mike here. i am going to take the opinion that he was kept in the dark about a lot of things. he also seems to not be named in the lawsuit.

also i dont trust Lore at all. i have to look into something that caught my attention on the official forums.