Mike Morhaime Response to Blizzard Lawsuit

[The One Percent]

Cover your ass mode, activate.

[Saltysquidoon]

Val I like you and I agree with you on a lot of things when it comes to videogames but this is some tinfoil territory and not even vaguely representative of how lawsuits work.

The lawsuit was filed by a government entity called the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. If you go to their website, you see that they say "You may file your own lawsuit for employment discrimination in court rather than using a DFEH investigation." You should be asking: why aren't the women involved in this lawsuit suing Blizzard themselves or together? Private attorneys only take a lawsuit case if they think they have a good chance of winning and getting a good money. A lawsuit costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. No one is going to take it on unless they think they are going to win. Blizzard is a big company, so winning a case would get them a lot of money. The fact that the women are having to use the government as their baseball bat would imply that private attorneys don't think they would win the case. But the government will do it because they are paid salaries in taxpayer dollars, regardless if they win or lose.

Yes, the government can file regulatory actions in its own name regardless of if the victim(s) can or want to press a matter, there is self-evident social utility to it. This entire argument is tantamount to saying every single police case ever should have people asking why prosecutions exist.

They said they had been doing this investigation for more than 2 years, but they don't know who they are suing. Once you get down to the parties, you get to something really interesting. "Defendant DOES ONE through TEN". 10 people is a lot. 10 unnamed people. "DFEH is ignorant of the true names or capacities of the defendants." So they don't know who they are suing. They don't know who did anything after a 2 year investigation. "DFEH will amend this complaint to allege their true names and capacities when the same are ascertained." In other words, they will name who they are suing as responsible once discovery begins. So after 2 years of investigation, they don't know who did what and don't know who they are suing. "We did a very thorough 2 year investigation but we don't know who did anything! Let's go on a fishing expedition and we will find out who our 10 imaginary defendants are!".

The defendant is Activision blizzard in its capacity as an employer. It is safer to hold back on the names of the species in persona defendants until you get a 100% confirmed by blizzard lockdown on what their names and titles were at the time the alleged offenses took place, the statement of claim saying the plaintiff is ignorant of their names doesn't mean it literally is, it simply means they're filling with an abundance of caution.

Then you have the "factual allegations". No one is named except for Alex Afrabsabi. The rest is just "yeah, we talked to somebody and they heard that someone did something, but they don't know who". There really wasn't that much of an investigation. They're throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. In lawsuit, you're allowed to commit unlimited defamation. They can allege whatever they want. They alleged that Bret Kavanaugh was involved in giant rape orgies, etc. High profile sexual allegations are more likely to be false than true, whether it be Michael Jackson, or Bill Cosby, or Bret Kavanaugh, or Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, or Donald Trump, etc. Notice how none of the allegations ended up sticking through the courts. Almost none of them, because they are usually spurious, done for political reasons.

They can't name the offenders in the complaint and then choose not to name them as defendants (or vice versa) it doesn't work like that, the government filed cautiously that's the way it went.
I suspect if they had named the alleged offenders we'd be here talking about how cruel they are for ruing the life of low-level employees.

The lawsuit lasted 2 years. Blizzard is a huge company. If the sexual harassment was as pervasive as the lawsuit claims, then why didn't Kotaku makes tons of articles on this? if this was happening, you wouldn't be able to hide it.

The point of this is to get Blizzard to settle. Discovery is very bad for software companies. Discovery can last years and would really harm Blizzard's business as their projects are uncovered, which would influence their stockprice and influence competitors. Blizzard will settle and Alex Afrasabi will be thrown under the bus as the sacrificial scapegoat. The women cough up easy money from Blizzard and this government agency gets a trophy on the wall.

First of all, there are articles as far back as 2018 with assault allegations, there was a huge one in 2019. There is no utility in pretending there have been no allegations before now.

Secondly, there are many safeguards in place around discovery and court control of sensitive documents, this isn't the first time nor will it be the last a company has been sued. Even then I'm struggling to think of a situation where documents relevant to sexual harassment claims could reveal top-secret information, even then blizzard can partition the court of extra safeguards. I think it's silly to suggest that discovery is some secret special weapon that is super effective against software companies and the government is just going around strong-arming them constantly.

Hell, I would argue that the fact the Department can't just fine blizzard and instead has to file a civil suit in the general division of the court shows how weak it's regulatory powers are.

[Muan]

The 3 statements/emails that were sent out are just words. No actions, just empty words.

[The One Percent]

The question is: How many people dying will they finally understand the actual cost in lives lost doesn't have a price tag?

Most human lives are cheaper than dirt when we look at it from a cold, analytical perspective. Which is exactly the perspective that it is looked at through business. Always has been and always will be that way.

[Jotaux]

Was your ethical issue sexual harassment? If not, perhaps best not equate the two as if you know what it feels like to be in that same position.

I'm not even talking about the victim, what about Lore? He was there, he did nothing. What about the HR managers that were alerted to the issue? Not to mention if you were to actually read what I said you would know the answer to the question.

[Video Games]

As the WoW culture says, "No king lasts forever".

When the institutional investors say, "enough", even WoW will die.

That's the ONLY thing keeping Activision-Blizzard alive -- those institutions like teacher pension funds that keep funding the very thing they publicly scorn.

The question is: How many people dying will they finally understand the actual cost in lives lost doesn't have a price tag?

It's just bad all around. How many feed on each other's corpse to stay afloat, too.

Good luck with that. Ill still be playing bc with my guild

[Zyky]

he doesn't have to be a participant to enable the abusers by not firing them or putting them on serious notice. He was 1000% aware of what was going on.

You are right though, we'll have a good scope of what he let fly when this is over.

Well according to a series of tweets that happened last night, I'm less convinced of his innocence and and more heartbroken for all these victims.

https://twitter.com/cherthedev/statu...057825285?s=21

[xpsync]

OH NO MY STOCK... /inserts damage control statement

[Kevyne-Shandris]

The point of this is to get Blizzard to settle. Discovery is very bad for software companies. Discovery can last years and would really harm Blizzard's business as their projects are uncovered, which would influence their stockprice and influence competitors. Blizzard will settle and Alex Afrasabi will be thrown under the bus as the sacrificial scapegoat. The women cough up easy money from Blizzard and this government agency gets a trophy on the wall.

It's not about money now. $10,000,000 in a lawsuit is peanuts for a billion dollar company that has insurance for JUST that reason.

A woman is DEAD due to toxic company culture. That puts everything into DEEP perspective, just like the SWATting incident brought front and center the problems in gaming culture.

Sadly it took her loss of life for regulators and media to even give a damn, too.

That's what's sad in all of this: it could've been prevented if Mike did so. Not just be "PC" on the forums, but being ACTUALLY PC at the office. It shows a long standing culture of Blue Badges and it's inequality in a company so toxic it now killed a dev.

As for Afrasiabi, like Mark Kern, they are "hatchet men" who do what company LOYALTY demanded: Furor "I HATE PALADINS" Plaindefiler's "note" of him being hired by Blizzard to signal people to follow him at the competition; and Mark Kern supporting Gamergate + needing to be a mouthpiece for "Classic WoW" (complete with a Hentai Twitter banner it pulled). Interesting Kern got money afterwards for his game, a guy who after the "Firefall" mess can't work in the industry anymore after screwing some Chinese investors (he did all that to sabotage the competition for Overwatch).

So they''re "big boys" and there's no "victims" on Blizzard's side.

[Video Games]

Well according to a series of tweets that happened last night, I'm less convinced of his innocence and and more heartbroken for all these victims.

https://twitter.com/cherthedev/statu...057825285?s=21

[[Apok]]

Absolutely not surprised that you're defending the accused - yet again

Why shouldnt the accused be defended?

an accusation doesnt constitute proof.

Personally i have been the subject of a bogus malicious sexual harrassment claim, even the allegations ruined my life for a long time, it didnt matter that in the end i was vindicated, people had already made up their mind and added their misinformation and thoughts. All because i wasnt interested in pursuing a relationship with a female employee who was interested in me and couldnt take being turned down.

I also know a gay man who had his life absolutely destroyed by someone who falsely accused him of rape, he was very close to suicide from the abuse he received because people made up their mind after he had been labeled a rapist. he had people vandalising his home, personally attacking or threatening him abusing him the street, people didnt want to work with him because of that label. even after he was proven innocent he suffered abuse for over 2 years, and still gets called a rapist by people to this day.

Trial by media and cancel is dangerous, and is nothing more than mob mentality.

[FelPlague]

I feel like this is the beginning of the end for Blizzard.

In truth, I hope it is.

nah not even close. Riot had this exact stuff happen, they simply said "we will stop it" then year later it came out they did literally nothing other then the bare basics shit. Ubisoft had the exact same thing JUST happen.

[Muxtar]

Why shouldnt the accused be defended?

an accusation doesnt constitute proof.

Personally i have been the subject of a bogus malicious sexual harrassment claim, even the allegations ruined my life for a long time, it didnt matter that in the end i was vindicated, people had already made up their mind and added their misinformation and thoughts. All because i wasnt interested in pursuing a relationship with a female employee who was interested in me and couldnt take being turned down.

I also know a gay man who had his life absolutely destroyed by someone who falsely accused him of rape, he was very close to suicide from the abuse he received because people made up their mind after he had been labeled a rapist. he had people vandalising his home, personally attacking or threatening him abusing him the street, people didnt want to work with him because of that label. even after he was proven innocent he suffered abuse for over 2 years, and still gets called a rapist by people to this day.

Trial by media and cancel is dangerous, and is nothing more than mob mentality.

Totally agree here. And - sadly - this is going to be more and more aggressive, mob just loves to lynch anyone who is pointed as potential rapist/harasser/racist/whatever. It was like this in Middle Ages, when mob fried women for 'witching' and church tortured people to death for 'heresy' - and it is going to be like that now, again. History repeats itself.

[Palapop]

Trial by media and cancel is dangerous, and is nothing more than mob mentality.

They got used to it, mate.

[Berndorf]

Totally agree here. And - sadly - this is going to be more and more aggressive, mob just loves to lynch anyone who is pointed as potential rapist/harasser/racist/whatever. It was like this in Middle Ages, when mob fried women for 'witching' and church tortured people to death for 'heresy' - and it is going to be like that now, again. History repeats itself.

This is such a ridiculous amount of hyperbole. At worst some people will stop buying their games and the people who are named in the lawsuit will find it harder to find new jobs though some of them probably already have. People are allowed to voice opinions on the internet. That does not = 'mob justice'. Just as we as consumers can use whatever sense of corporate responsibility we want to apply to companies to decide whether we want to buy their products.

[Matsumotto]

To be fair at a certain point you get so far up the ladder you can't see everyone at the bottom anymore, it is true with all huge companies.

Yeah and the problem is if someone harasses someone else and they get away with it once, twice, 3 times, they're just not gonna spot...

[Kevyne-Shandris]

Good luck with that. Ill still be playing bc with my guild

On a private server???

I like my nostalgia much better!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX13vYvon6I

[FelPlague]

On a private server???

I like my nostalgia much better!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX13vYvon6I

on wow classic i assume not a private server...

[Video Games]

On a private server???

I like my nostalgia much better!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX13vYvon6I

Nah, i like keeping my progress while having full boss scripting and as bug free as possible

[Gaidax]

I feel like this is the beginning of the end for Blizzard.

In truth, I hope it is.

Haha nope.

They will settle, then release D4, OW2 and new WoW expansion and it all will be forgotten like their other PR fuckups.

Lets be real - the most you will see out of it is some high profile names being let go, more Activision influence (which imo would be good) and some $$ thrown around. No, Blizzard won't die, it will take its slap on the face and will wipe the subsequent tears with $$.