Mike Morhaime Response to Blizzard Lawsuit

[Verdugo]

THAT was your takeaway from all of this?

Wow.

Its a guy that fell for Star Citizen scam, nuff said.

[Drindorai]

Its a guy that fell for Star Citizen scam, nuff said.

Not entirely sure what that means but if your response to the Chris Metzen statement is that he's "apologizing to the twitter mob" then that's a level of delusion I do not know how to even begin to comprehend.

[arandomuser]

lol the left leaning ppla re all like " wre sorry"
but the one republican the townsend lady is like "fake news" shows you which people have a spine

[Kevyne-Shandris]

Ok so there's a HUGE difference between what's happening right now to Activision-Blizzard and "cancel culture". If there wasn't evidence to back up the accusations then the state of California wouldn't be involved and they wouldn't have filed legal proceedings because they wouldn't waste money further investigating and the costs of a trial on "bogus" claims. Saying this is "no more than mob mentality" is insulting to ANY rational person.

This is beyond "wokeness".

There's a major system failure in Activision-Blizzard top/down and also at the CULTURE level.

It seems everyone at the top are saying, "Sorry" when they KNEW what was going on. You can't be management without knowing what is going on in the organization. That's part of learning the very office politics to survive, and with Blizzard, used to abuse and silence victims, too.

They allowed it to get out of hand -- be it at Activision OR Blizzard.

They would need to totally restructure top/down and bring in ethics people to double-check any personnel issue for YEARS. Something like the DOJ did with voting in the South (as soon as the DOJ stopped, we saw WHY they have to protect voting there. That's systemic racism playing out. Blizzard has systemic sexism and it maybe racist, too [it tends to go together as it's a CULTURE, one Bannon keeps harping on]. We saw ALL the White Power racism in WoW from guild/PvP group names onward for years, too).

The CULTURE has to change at Blizzard, which will reflect on WHO they will attract as gamers, too.

CAN Blizzard reform? That's the big question.

Worse can you trust Blizzard anymore to change without lying through their teeth (and they lied a lot)?

[Zequill]

Morhaime saw nothing, Metzen saw nothing, either the accusation are out of proportion (the suicide make me think this is not the case) or they are just lying. I will not take blind and stupid as an excuse.

[Gadzooks]

To be clear, the indictment alleges systemic pay discrimination. It does not allege systemic sexual harassment; the sexual harassment incidents are anecdotal.

Factually incorrect. The filing, found here: https://aboutblaw.com/YJw starts referencing the culture of harassment with paragraph 5, and continues to lay out a culture of harassment across the company throughout the filing. You can quibble about the use of the word "systemic", but the original complaint filed in 2018 and this lawsuit are laying the basis of a hostile workplace, that includes egregious allegations of sexual harassment.

Nowhere in the filing are the charges of harassment labeled or qualified as "anecdotal", and they in fact form a large basis of the overall lawsuit that addressed the different complaints they were investigating.

You might want to review the actual meaning of 'anecdotal", and read the filing more carefully, before posting again.

Additionally, the indictment itself does not prove that the allegations are true.

True. And, it's quite damning that the ex-CEO and ex-Creative Director and later VP have publicly apologized for the things claimed in the lawsuit, and said they failed the female employees the state is filing in defense of. Are their posts "anecdotal", too?

[Gadzooks]

IIRC, Hoeg Law specifically mentions that the bulk of the allegation is systemic pay discrimination, not systemic sexual harassment. I don't have the exact time that he says it, but it's in his video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyerVVc2e98

While the indictment does make mention of certain circumstances, it's a leap to say it's systemic sexual harassment based on the allegations in the indictment.

The majority of sexual harassment claims specifically named in the later part of the document are anecdotal. The specifically mention either Afrasiabi or an unnamed employee harassing another employee. Those are anecdotal examples.

To allege systemic sexual harassment, they'd have to have some kind of concrete proof that Blizzard executives explicitly setout to systemically harass any women they hire and the indictment doesn't allege that.

In regards to what the ex-CEO has said (I haven't read what the ex-Creative Director or VP have said), he specifically says some women and not all women that have worked at Blizzard. That implies that it isn't systemic and that it could be isolated incidents with problematic former (or current) employees.

Activision Blizzard is a company of ~9,500 people with roughly 20% (1,900) being women. I don't believe that all of the women at Blizzard have been systemically sexually harassed.

I see, you're going to nitpick over the word systemic, as I suspected. Well, make of it what you will. I'll end this here, for the night.

[SinR]

I see Metzen chimed in as well on this.

It'll be very interesting to see where this goes in a court of law

[Claymore]

There's absolutely no denying that what took place is completely and utterly unacceptable, and measures SHOULD be implemented to not only better serve the employees there, but protect them from retaliation.

However, I think it's a bit shocking how many people seem to think "oh, people KNOW this kind of stuff was going on". Simply working at a place doesn't guarantee you're informed on the goings-on there. I mean, not to put too fine a point on it, but I spent most of my life dealing with constant suicidal thoughts, and even slit my wrists one night, but nobody ever knew; I learned how to "act like everything's fine". I'm fortunate to be in a much better place now; what sad, is many women are very likely also "acting like everything's fine".

Of course, as more details emerge, it may be completely true that upper management was aware that there were issues. I've been with my current job for almost five years, and I'm still learning new things about some of my closer friends there, and there are coworkers who I barely know anything about. This isn't an overly large company; about 30-40 employees total. I haven't ever heard of any unscrupulous behavior, but that certainly doesn't mean it HASN'T ever happened, either.

I'll say, I've definitely had my eyes opened the past few years. I remember vividly a conversation with a close female friend of mine a few years ago, and she talked about when she was in highschool, she had teachers openly flirting with her and even asking for pictures of her in a swimsuit, or wanting to set her up with their son. This is a woman who does NOT talk in hyperbole; I have no doubt that these things happened, exactly as she described them. It completely boggled my mind, and made me incredibly sad to realize how young she was when grown men started openly sexualizing her.

But it's not like I was "sticking my head in the sand" or "going through a stage of denial". I literally didn't know that kind of stuff was going on, and it would have never occurred to me.

That Cher Scarlett touches on a super interesting point in her recent tweets, though. She says, in response to Holinka, that part of the problem is that "people are free to be themselves", instead of "being professional and having boundaries". She basically says "you can be comfortable, or you can be professional; you cannot be both".

Which I think is absolutely true. But it does raise the question, which is Blizzard supposed to be?

I remember a few years ago, the makers of "Cards Against Humanity" were in hot-water because -- surprise -- it was created by a couple of college guys, and as the company grew, the new people they hired didn't feel comfortable. The intent of the game is literally to be as profane and offensive as possible, yet people look legal action when the founders would suggest other profane, offensive jokes.

Considering how many people via twitter I've already seen calling Blizzard out that "there are too many white men working there", or that "this is inevitable of any company with more men than woman", part of me wonders if people even CAN work together. There's so much harshness, it almost feels like the only way to change is to start completely anew. But then I recall an article when a bright young Asian-American women left Google to start her own tech company, with the express intent of hiring a diverse staff, only to find after a few months, white men were the only ones applying to work at her startup.

Anyways... I suppose I'm not really going "anywhere" with all this. It's clearly a very serious issue, and warrants equally serious consideration.

[lockybalboa]

This is akin to letting a fart and saying nothing at all. "Oh I did nothing about it but trust me, I really am against all the atrocities" All about hypocritical personal damage control as usual from these bastards. And very interesting that a lot of these people left the company in around 2018, the time when the investigation started.

[hawaiianJ]

with everthing going on i'll say it i can see blizzcon being cancelled till 2023 if not longer or untill all of this is taken care of

[Itisamuh]

Guilty until proven innocent as usual with the social media mob. If only they had more forced diversity!

[Sinyc]

Man, what a brilliant yet heartless move. Washing his hands clean of this horrendous culture that grew unabated in his shadow, acting like there was nothing he could have done about it, trying to preserve that 'old blizzard' brand that will drive business to his new company.

God this guy is clever.

Morhaime saw nothing, Metzen saw nothing, either the accusation are out of proportion (the suicide make me think this is not the case) or they are just lying. I will not take blind and stupid as an excuse.

Of course they are lying. This is all legalese. So that they don't say something that will burn them in a court room.

[heroic moment]

Guilty until proven innocent as usual with the social media mob. If only they had more forced diversity!

Except they have been proven to be guilty. This isn't a lawsuit to prove they are guilty. The 2 year investigation showed that. This lawsuit is about damages to female employees and forcing Blizzard to change how they handle things going forward or simply shut down as a company. This is a civil case, not a criminal case(yet).

[Triceron]

Guilty until proven innocent as usual with the social media mob. If only they had more forced diversity!

When you have some of the ex top people making statements of failing the people under them and taking responsibility over what happened, I think that helps legitimize the fact that it did happen, even if people haven't been 'proven guilty' yet.

[Jinpachi]

1) you should be being nice to people regardless? Doesn't have much to do with respect.
2) I honestly hope you're not saying entire genders/orientations/races/etc should "earn" respect.

Common courtesy? absolutely. Respect is a totally different thing. You have to actually do something worthy of respect to receive it. Respect goes above and beyond the golden rule.

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Boy, you need some education man. You are saying you don't respect others privacy? You don't respect others wishes not to be touched or groped? You don't respect someone's wishes not to have someone pass around photos of your genitalia at a xmas party with coworkers?

That's not a courtesy. That's base level rights that EVERY human deserves. This isn't someone saying their coworker has a poor work ethic, this is life/carrer changing situations these women were put through and still are going through - not just at Blizzard.

Use some common fucking sense. re-read shit you don't initially understand instead of making a foolish post.

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Well, technically you can demand whatever you want. It's up to the rest of the world whether or not they give it to you.

At the same time though, there are certain things that everyone should expect to have when they go to work every day, and the ability to do their job without being harrassed or threatened is one of them.

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There's at least one person who said she contacted him about it and was threatened because of that. And if the problem was as big as it sounds like it is, then yes, the CEO should know about it. If no one else was doing anything about it, then he certainly should have.

At what point did i ever say people should be harassed or threatened at work? There are rules against that behavior in workplaces, yes? So if it's going on then someone isn't "respecting" or abiding by the rules and should be fired.

[FelPlague]

Take note Brack, this is what a real and sincere letter of apology looks like.

"real and Sincere" except its literally lies but ok sure.

[Mojo03]

Yeah, I find their statements extremely problematic from a legal point of view and if I was their attorney I would not have allowed them to comment on an ongoing investigation. I honestly don't see how it helps them at all because either people are going to believe they knew, people are going to believe they didn't know, and no matter what you say, you're not going to really persuade either side to change their position.

From a legal point of view, the only statement I agree with is Fran's statement, though I find the antagonistic tone of her statement as undermining Activision Blizzard's legal standpoint as well.

They were under insane pressure to say something and it looks really bad in the court of public opinion and their former peers not to comment on it. There is zero chance I would of not said anything if I was them.

I wouldn't be surprised if people got really weird with them if they didn't and sent death threats or followed them around somewhere. Just look at all the mindless mob people on here and Twitter going crazy. These people have already decided the truth they want to believe and will dismiss and attack you if you present anything that conflicts with it. It's scary how much self-righteousness can close people minds and turn them into zealots.

It also plausible it mostly went on behind their backs, or over their heads, if true. They are the bosses and people are afraid to look bad in front of their bosses or share anything negative, but I have no idea. That's something the courts and the employees at Blizzard can decide.

I legitimately never liked Afrasabi or JAB and I've actually said it numerous time on these forums throughout the years. They're weirdly the only two I've been harshly critical of on here throughout the years (prior to all this). People are already talking about Afrasabi like he's the next Cosby, but according the documents, the guy didn't do anything you don't see multiple guys doing at any college bar any night of the week. Like this is PG stuff compared to what happens at bars and frat houses on weekends and I can personally attest to that having seen an insane amount of crazy stuff living in college towns and growing up in the midwest.

That doesn't make it okay and it shouldn't normalize it. It's super douchey, but it's not super serial sexual predator stuff like the mob is making it out to be based on what they've shared so far.

[AeneasBK]

This is such a ridiculous amount of hyperbole.

Yeah but it lightened the mood, no Think we all needed a laugh.

[shise]

"it isnt the company owners fault that his employees are scum"
You are right. It is his fault for not correcting or firing them, however.

But it is hard to do when you don´t get the right feedback about them.

Also, this all probably started with small details, then escalated into the problem the report mentions.
So no, you do not fire people because they got drunk at a party and said bad things.. you take disciplinary action, which normally is.. talk to them. So is normally enough to make people stop doing that... Obviously, we are seeing the full evolved problem here. But hey, Mike left in 2018.

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Sure, I acknowledge that. I don't mean to be "burn Mike Morheime" but more like those who actually did this, needs to gets fired etc. In the end in a lawsuit or similar stuff, it's the company that gets the punishment.

I mean they already made Afrisiabi leave, so to say they didn't do anything isn't right either. I am not the one to point anything of anyone of the leaders, but what I react more to in an earlier post is that some people say that Brack definitely knew, but Morheime did not? Doesn't make sense.

I am all for not guilty until proven in a court with evidence, we are to swift to pass judgement these days.

Yeah exactly. Firing that guy is a big deal, he was literally one of the co-founders and co-creators of WoW... which is a pity, because that means that he was a part of the master piece creation.
So, obviously, the company did the right thing at the end and got ride of the source of the problems. Case closed imo (unless he planted seeds, then now it is time to cleanse the seeds).