Mike Morhaime Response to Blizzard Lawsuit

[Chilela]

isnt segregation considered racist/sexist these days?

You would think, but for some, the answer has short of shifted to "It depends on who's calling for the segregation".

Apparently stock value wasn't affected at all:

"If you work on the understanding that the market value of a company is found through discovery of all information and data, the current price is arguably the effect the market has decided this law suit has on the company. That’s to say until more data is found or discovered.

Blizzard is only a portion of the whole business, but it’s clear the markets aren’t overly worried of any massive loss of subs / revenue at least in the medium term. Unfortunately for everyone here blizzard and activision are large enough to pay and make this go away under NDA."

I wouldn't be surprised if people are speculating that people will be momentarily outraged but still funnel money, and things will just return to business as usual within a few months at absolute most, given the amount of blunders Blizz has gone through, both in and out of the games they produce.

[Inoculate]

At this point, you might as well delete all games in some way linked to AAA development, really. And I don't mean this sarcastically or anything. This is an industry-wide problem, and just boycotting the latest company that had their shady crap revealed just serves to shift things around a little bit. It seems lately that they all have something going on, be it inhumane crunch, sexual harassments, whatnot. Putting money where the mouth is may be the only way, but it is probably best to only put that money into companies at this point that can somehow prove that they aren't like that and not give any of them the benefit of the doubt.

Mostly been playing FF14, Oxygen Not Included and some switch titles - AAA has been declining in terms of actual decent output lately and this is an industry wide issue, mostly, as you say. Until real change comes, I won't be touching anything Riot, Activision, EA, and the like produce.

It's a shame it took this suit to really inspire a big change and I hope it actually comes for the people affected and this isn't just another week of us rumbling and nothing actually comes of it which is my fear.

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That's completely fair, dude. And I respect your view point. I'm not really a paying customer at this juncture, so I can't comment.

I'll probably play Hades instead of Diablo 2 anyway. Feels like a fresher game, but let's see how it goes.

Hades is pretty solid, I'm more a Hollow Knight man myself - not really comparable to D2 but if you haven't tried it, I highly highly recommend it and the sequel (prequel?) is coming soon.

I get what you mean though, a lot of people are upset and still shelling money out to them which means that the stakeholders don't care what's being said, money is all they care about.

[Valkyrst]

Mostly been playing FF14, Oxygen Not Included and some switch titles - AAA has been declining in terms of actual decent output lately and this is an industry wide issue, mostly, as you say. Until real change comes, I won't be touching anything Riot, Activision, EA, and the like produce.

It's a shame it took this suit to really inspire a big change and I hope it actually comes for the people affected and this isn't just another week of us rumbling and nothing actually comes of it which is my fear.

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Hades is pretty solid, I'm more a Hollow Knight man myself - not really comparable to D2 but if you haven't tried it, I highly highly recommend it and the sequel (prequel?) is coming soon.

I get what you mean though, a lot of people are upset and still shelling money out to them which means that the stakeholders don't care what's being said, money is all they care about.

Looking at my collection of games, there’s only FIFA from EA. Nothing from Activision. Ubisoft I have the Assassin’s Creed games. But I don’t do whale purchases, so there’s that. I’m boring to them.

[Makabreska]

GhostCrawler on that Blizzcon answer 10y ago:

https://www.wowhead.com/news/ghostcr...lizzcon-323549

[Muxtar]

Welp, if they are afraid of people's opinions on mmo-champion then that's just the way that it is. I'm not giving up my right to free speech because of how these gaming companies behave. So they'll just have to sort it out themselves.

No one asks you to give away freedom of speech. But that freedom should be used with responsibility, because it is people's lifes, not just some silly forum banter that will be forgotten next day. And you may as well appear on those people's seat soon enough. Mob lynching works that way, 'there must always be a bad guy' (c)

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Spoken like someone who has never owned a business.

Yep, I didn't own a business and don't want to. So what?

[Berndorf]

No one asks you to give away freedom of speech. But that freedom should be used with responsibility, because it is people's lifes, not just some silly forum banter that will be forgotten next day. And you may as well appear on those people's seat soon enough. Mob lynching works that way, 'there must always be a bad guy' (c)

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Yep, I didn't own a business and don't want to. So what?

Well, I do take responsibility for everything I say on the internet and everything I've said on this thread I stand 100% behind. Simple as that. Bliz deserves to be raked over the coals and their responses aren't going to do them any favors. Their own people are calling them out for it right now as much as we are on mmo champion. Their own people. Metzen has publicly said that Afriasabi's behavior was reprehensible.

[Muxtar]

Well, I do take responsibility for everything I say on the internet and everything I've said on this thread I stand 100% behind. Simple as that.

Yea, you do take it behind anonymous account without any personal info, sure. I mean that responsibility should be used such way, that you will think twice before jumping on that hype 'burn em all' train with all the mob already there, and at least will think of 'innocent until proven guilty' principle. And mind you, state investigation =/= court verdict, not yet.

[Berndorf]

Yea, you do take it behind anonymous account without any personal info, sure. I mean that responsibility should be used such way, that you will think twice before jumping on that hype 'burn em all' train with all the mob already there, and at least will think of 'innocent until proven guilty' principle. And mind you, state investigation =/= court verdict, not yet.

I wouldn't think twice about anything I've said even if my name and picture were being used on this thread. That's the way I am. We as people get to comment on everything going on in the world and I'm not calling for people to be put in jail. All that I've said so far is that Bliz has a serious problem with it's work environment and that if they are smart they will fire Brack and most of the other top brass. Look at what current employees are saying.

[Triceron]

GhostCrawler on that Blizzcon answer 10y ago:

https://www.wowhead.com/news/ghostcr...lizzcon-323549

Unpopular opinion, but I don't think there was anything wrong with the original response other than a matter of being tactless and untasteful at the time. I don't see this as a matter of discrimination at all, considering they are the designers of the game and they pick and choose what the females in the game look like. I don't think there's anything really to apologize for in terms of an actual stance.

Was the answer tasteless and creepy? Yeah, of course. But it's not what I consider a step in the direction of harassment or 'frat boy culture' as pertains to the lawsuit. I believe bad jokes and bad responses can be differentiated from sexually deviant behaviour. I personally do not evaluate this to being to the level of a rape joke, cube crawl or any type of actual deviant behaviour, to me it's a bunch of jokes in bad taste and that's about it.

Overall though, I am happy to see GC owning up to it and still giving a response regardless, only that I don't think it is particularly damning to say the least. I don't see that particular event being any more than simply being cringeworthy response material.

[Aliven]

Well, I do take responsibility for everything I say on the internet and everything I've said on this thread I stand 100% behind. Simple as that. Bliz deserves to be raked over the coals and their responses aren't going to do them any favors. Their own people are calling them out for it right now as much as we are on mmo champion. Their own people. Metzen has publicly said that Afriasabi's behavior was reprehensible.

Metzen also appointed him as his successor. He is trying to coves his new product, nothing else.

Some thrall - garrosh vibes ;P

[Berndorf]

Unpopular opinion, but I don't think there was anything wrong with the original response other than a matter of being tactless and untasteful at the time. I don't see this as a matter of discrimination at all, considering they are the designers of the game and they pick and choose what the females in the game look like. I don't think there's anything really to apologize for in terms of an actual stance.

Was the answer tasteless and creepy? Yeah, of course. But it's not what I consider a step in the direction of harassment or 'frat boy culture' as pertains to the lawsuit. I believe bad jokes and bad responses can be differentiated from sexually deviant behaviour. I personally do not evaluate this to being to the level of a rape joke, cube crawl or any type of actual deviant behaviour, to me it's a bunch of jokes in bad taste and that's about it.

Overall though, I am happy to see GC owning up to it and still giving a response regardless, only that I don't think it is particularly damning to say the least. I don't see that particular event being any more than simply being cringeworthy response material.

It's not wrong in the legal sense but it is wrong in terms of how they seem to view their female audience and in terms of what it reflects about how they view women npcs/players imo. Personally I never got the whole 'every npc needs to be a blood elf in a bikini' mindset. That's just me speaking as a man in his 40's who may outgrew that way of thinking 20 years ago. I feel like a lot of the men who worked for Bliz and who were speaking for them at Blizzcons never outgrew that early 20's mentality.

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Metzen also appointed him as his successor. He is trying to coves his new product, nothing else.

Some thrall - garrosh vibes ;P

That may be true. You still have both former employees and current employees saying some pretty harsh stuff about the company though. Which says a lot imo. Obviously including women as well.

[Triceron]

It's not wrong in the legal sense but it is wrong in terms of how they seem to view their female audience and in terms of what it reflects about how they view women npcs/players imo. Personally I never got the whole 'every npc needs to be a blood elf in a bikini' mindset. That's just me speaking as a man in his 40's who may outgrew that way of thinking 20 years ago. I feel like a lot of the men who worked for Bliz and who were speaking for them at Blizzcons never outgrew that early 20's mentality.

Well, that's hard to really differentiate as 'frat boy culture', because yes, admittedly there was plenty of immaturity all around in the dev team.

I agree that they're a bit tone deaf and immature, but my point is that the article in question was pointing out specific discrimination, while my view on this is that they are not particularly discriminating women here, more that they're just being dumbasses mocking fans for the sake of mocking fans. And we actually see this being fairly common when faced with *any* question they don't particularly feel like answering legitimately.

Of course I'm not saying it's a good response or a good way of handling PR, but more that we can't pinpoint this as being discrimination on the basis of it literally being a cherry picked statement and an example of bad behaviour that has been isolated and taken out of context of how they usually tend to reply 'immaturely' to other fans. We can definitely say they were immature and not very tactful, I simply wouldn't go as far as equating this as particularly discriminating. The response itself of wanting Sylvanas to look like how she does and not change her is still a creative decision.

[Berndorf]

Well, that's hard to really differentiate as 'frat boy culture', because yes, admittedly there was plenty of immaturity all around in the dev team.

I agree that they're a bit tone deaf and immature, but my point is that the article in question was pointing out specific discrimination, while my view on this is that they are not particularly discriminating women here, more that they're just being dumbasses mocking fans for the sake of mocking fans. And we actually see this being fairly common when faced with *any* question they don't particularly feel like answering legitimately.

Of course I'm not saying it's a good response or a good way of handling PR, but more that we can't pinpoint this as being discrimination on the basis of it literally being a cherry picked statement and an example of bad behaviour that has been isolated and taken out of context of how they usually tend to reply 'immaturely' to other fans. We can definitely say they were immature and not very tactful, I simply wouldn't go as far as equating this as particularly discriminating. The response itself of wanting Sylvanas to look like how she does and not change her is still a creative decision.

I agree with that. Its just an example of them being somewhat tonedeaf as you say and not really seeming to understand why women were asking these kinds of questions.

[Triceron]

Yea, you do take it behind anonymous account without any personal info, sure. I mean that responsibility should be used such way, that you will think twice before jumping on that hype 'burn em all' train with all the mob already there, and at least will think of 'innocent until proven guilty' principle. And mind you, state investigation =/= court verdict, not yet.

Hell, that's even *if* we get to a court verdict.

Chances are this will all be settled out of court, so we won't be able to really validate any of the evidence.

Blizzard is going to do all in their power to prevent any 'truth' from getting out into the public eye.

[Valkyrst]

Hell, that's even *if* we get to a court verdict.

Chances are this will all be settled out of court, so we won't be able to really validate any of the evidence.

Blizzard is going to do all in their power to prevent any 'truth' from getting out into the public eye.

It'll be a really tricky one to settle out of court, because they can't play the 'we have more money to drag this through the levels' card.

The State of California will see this is a big statement case to contest, so time will tell how it rolls out.

[Berndorf]

It'll be a really tricky one to settle out of court, because they can't play the 'we have more money to drag this through the levels' card.

The State of California will see this is a big statement case to contest, so time will tell how it rolls out.

Not tricky. They just pay whatever is being asked and put try to it behind them as quickly as possible. The bigger issue right now is their own employees calling them out and telling them their public response was terrible.

[Sentynel]

There isn't much more to say other than he's a failed CEO and carries that failure with him to Dreamhaven.

He's a pretty successful CEO, he built a multi billion dollar company. But hey, let's cancel him and his new studio.

[Valkyrst]

Not tricky. They just pay whatever is being asked and put try to it behind them as quickly as possible. The bigger issue right now is their own employees calling them out and telling them their public response was terrible.

Could be one of the routes. Will be a fuck load of money to pay out at that juncture. It'll be a huge scalp for the State Attorneys.

[Berndorf]

Could be one of the routes. Will be a fuck load of money to pay out at that juncture. It'll be a huge scalp for the State Attorneys.

Not sure it will be that much for Bliz. Has an amount actually been named yet?

[Triceron]

It'll be a really tricky one to settle out of court, because they can't play the 'we have more money to drag this through the levels' card.

The State of California will see this is a big statement case to contest, so time will tell how it rolls out.

It's all about money. So yes, they can lose a shit ton of money, at the cost of keeping everything quiet, as they always have. The alternative is arguably worse, and their brand damaged further by not only admission of guilt, but knowingly lying to the public with PR statements of deniability. It's arguably the worse case scenario.

Settlement out of court is going to be the way it's likely going to be handled in any case where-they-don't-come-out-on-top.

At best, they spin the whole situation as being something in the past, and how they're 'forging a new path of diversity and inclusion' in the future, yadda yadda.