Blizzard Employee Letter to Leadership, Other Responses to Lawsuit

[DingDongKing]

I'm very supportive of this open letter. I'm not bothered if no work gets done right now. Employee welfare is vital. Without that, there is no point to any of it. If Blizzard wants to generate customer goodwill, I suppose they could freeze subs. However, that doesn't improve employee welfare.

[Gadzooks]

Do people still listen to MJ? Is people still listening to Chris Brown?

A product can still be enjoyed even if the person behind it are a shit person and you gotta remember that there are teams making the games.. Not everyone is a scumbag.

Yeah, I have experience with this, especially MJ. I dated a woman who was a huge fan. It was her whole world, growing up, him and his brothers and Janets music, bonding with her mom and aunt with it. We eventually talked about the allegations, and she said "I know. I've heard all of it. I don't care, I can't erase my whole life by boycotting his music, I just can't."

I got it. I didn't even judge her, just saw the pain it caused her, and left the whole thing alone. I think everyone has hit that point with celebrities. You like a musician, and then some awful, horrible things come out. I liked Kevin Spacey a lot as an actor, and look at that whole...ugh. Does it make his performances less great as they were? No. But it does taint it, but...I still watch old Spacey movies from time to time. Weinstein is rotting in jail, where he belongs - but does that mean every movie he was part of is now bad, and you can't watch them? That's a lot of movies to walk away from, and just because he was who he was during their filming and production, doesn't damn the whole crew and cast. But to be honest, it is difficult to not think about what Kevin Spacey was doing off set while filming. That's natural.

I have friends who are huge Marilyn Manson fans. Never was my thing, but whatever. They're going through the same thing - "Does this mean I have to throw out all of my albums and never listen again?"

I think that's something you decide for yourself, at the end of the day - you gotta figure out what helps you sleep at night.

[Kathranis]

Just want you guys to remember, if these allegations are actually true; all the employees hopping on their high horse to "demand action" are the same employees who saw this stuff happening and said nothing.

How many more ex leaders and employees need to come forward and confirm it before you believe they're true?

And you realize that much of the lawsuit revolves around management ignoring complaints and employees facing retribution and ostracization for speaking out?

What do you expect them to do, quit their job? Likely a dream job in many cases, because someone else was doing something wrong?

And then what? Find some other job in an industry where these problems are rampant? Why bother leaving if they're just going to wind up in a studio with the same sorts of people engaging in the same behavior?

[Femininity]

Saying that blizz has awfull corporate structure is like saying the nuclear bomb makes a lot of noise. Correct, but dont even begin to show the abhorent picture.

The structure and environment suck.

The 1,000+ firings/layoffs that have occurred in the past three years despite climbing profits should be reason enough not to support them. But as long as people get their pixels, they don't care.

The 800ish that were laid off in 2019 at the hint of slumping profits should clue anyone in on where the company's priorities are. The way they treat entry-level employees and interns has been well-documented. Profits have skyrocketed since then - yet the layoffs continue. Nearly 200 in March of this year.

"Restructuring"

[BossManRoth]

If someone was still harbouring honest doubts about what has been transpiring in Irvine, the employees' letter should have dispelled them by now.

I wouldnt be surprised if 75% of those signatures were coerced through harassment. That letter was drafted by a single person or small group of people looking to wield power that is not theirs, and browbeat everyone down to the janitor into signing. No wonder no work is getting done. Anyone involved should have pay docked for time not spent on the development of Blizzard properties. Shouldnt get paid for social activism at a development company.

[GreenJesus]

Blizzard had time to do their work while crawling through women's cubicles so they should have time to do their work now.

[BossManRoth]

Blizzard had time to do their work while crawling through women's cubicles so they should have time to do their work now.

You'd be surprised by how many women cubicle crawl. The lawsuit is just drafted in a way the protects them because it doesn't fit with the narrative. If this was actually rampant, all parties need to be called out for it, because its the only part of this that negatively affects business.

[DingDongKing]

I wouldnt be surprised if 75% of those signatures were coerced through harassment. That letter was drafted by a single person or small group of people looking to wield power that is not theirs, and browbeat everyone down to the janitor into signing. No wonder no work is getting done. Anyone involved should have pay docked for time not spent on the development of Blizzard properties. Shouldnt get paid for social activism at a development company.

My fucking God, some people...reasserting why some parts of the gaming community are looked at with such disgust.

[Super Dickmann]

And you're ignoring that shitty work conditions degrade the quality of the products over time.

Allegedly everyone involved in the studio since inception has either participated in or been allowing all of this. Despite this, the game's success has been proportionate to these early devs' presence and become worse with their absence on a monetary and user engagement front. In the absolute worst case scenario presented here the people who produced the game at its most successful were able to do so while at the same time being drunk off their ass and grabbing everything with a pair of tits in a several mile radius. To expect these employees - who I can only assume by the way they're willing to purposefully reduce their employer's standing in an ongoing lawsuit had zero involvement in any of the ongoing allegations and were focused on their jobs to perform to a comparable extent is only fair.

To have these whingers instead complain about how it's the fault of the paying customer that they have to engage in a struggle session and the customer has to just suck it up and be left without the product that the people whining are hired to make would certainly put them in a poor light regarding even their most basic abilities relative to the ones we're supposed to be lambasting for their conduct.

[Kathranis]

What is certain is that it has reached its nadir with none of them present, irrespective of their culpability or lack thereof, which is to be established.

You build a faulty system, it's going to fall apart eventually.

[Magnagarde]

That you don't care about the work conditions in the places that are making the products you're consuming absolutely means you're contributing to shitty work conditions.

And you're ignoring that shitty work conditions degrade the quality of the products over time.

If what you said was completely correct, we'd be best off throwing half of our belongings into the trash. It isn't completely untrue, but there's systems and mechanisms in place which are meant to ensure working conditions are up to a certain standard.

Shitty work conditions absolutely degrade the quality of the product over time, but it is not the consumers responsibility to make sure that working conditions are good nor is it the consumers fault when they aren't. That is why there's a lawsuit.

That aside, I completely agree with the rest of your post, except this initial tie-in.

[Tetley]

Is there a way for us, as (former) fans of Blizzard games, to sign the letter as well.

[Jwelch900]

I’m not trying to be “that” guy but the people that are continuing to sub are literally fueling actiblizz’s legal defense ($14 a month for 3m subs so a cool ~40 million a month)while they also stop production on what you are paying for... I understand that unsubbing might cause layoffs but there are always going to be places to work and after hearing about SOME of the company trash, they are probably better places.

[MoanaLisa]

The open letter is fine and I trust that Brack (or whoever is in charge) especially pays attention to it.

It's not surprising that the office shut down for a few days upon receiving the news. There will be meetings. In a couple of days work will resume. I disagree with the idea that some future patch will be delayed mainly because dropping a few days (including a weekend) may not mean anything. It might, it might not.

Blizzard will eventually just go on doing whatever it is they're doing, hopefully having learned a lesson or two. This isn't the end of Blizzard, WoW, or anything else. Not a defense of anything that has gone on which is truly terrible and laughable on the face of it that Morhaime and the founder guys had no idea that any of this was happening. They did. It's gone on for too many years.

But it's a reality that just like after Ubisoft had their problems and Riot Games had their problems they both went on, hopefully changed, and Blizzard will too.

EDIT: For the record it seems likely that the issues with pay equity, retaliation and advancement are really the more serious legal problems that Blizzard faces.

[LazarusLong]

I wouldnt be surprised if 75% of those signatures were coerced through harassment. That letter was drafted by a single person or small group of people looking to wield power that is not theirs, and browbeat everyone down to the janitor into signing. No wonder no work is getting done. Anyone involved should have pay docked for time not spent on the development of Blizzard properties. Shouldnt get paid for social activism at a development company.

You are definitely part of the problem.

[BossManRoth]

My fucking God, some people...reasserting why some parts of the gaming community are looked at with such disgust.

What because I have a healthy skepticism of of allegations? Because I believe people should have their day in court? Because I recognize that ALL people can be disgusting and twist stories to their own benefit? Because I know how toxic the Me Too movement became? Because I have been on the wrong side of a false harassment allegation and was vindicated when actual evidence came forward? You people dont want justice. You want power that is not earned.

[StillMcfuu]

How many more ex leaders and employees need to come forward and confirm it before you believe they're true?

And you realize that much of the lawsuit revolves around management ignoring complaints and employees facing retribution and ostracization for speaking out?

What do you expect them to do, quit their job? Likely a dream job in many cases, because someone else was doing something wrong?

And then what? Find some other job in an industry where these problems are rampant? Why bother leaving if they're just going to wind up in a studio with the same sorts of people engaging in the same behavior?

Its your attitude that allows shit like this to fester, "ohh they are going to lose their job". You stand up to what you thing is wrong... or YOU DONT THINK ITS WRONG.

Its as simple as that, the employees clearly thought that the behavior was ok as a whole.

And who's coming out to say anything about it? The only thing I see is exleaders dancing around the topic.

[Triceron]

Just want you guys to remember, if these allegations are actually true; all the employees hopping on their high horse to "demand action" are the same employees who saw this stuff happening and said nothing.
They all need to shut their mouths and get back to work, they are and always have been the problem (if there is one.) Instead of pretending that they don't stand for these injustices, maybe they should let the investigations playout and the case run its course.
Blizz has laid it on thick for years about how woke they are, now the employees are going to pretend they are paragons of virtue separate from their corporate shilling advertising; its all so laughably transparent.

We don't know that is the case that *they did nothing*.

It's possible to witness or know of something bad that happened, and notify the proper authorities with the expectation that your report is being handled and carried through.

That the authorities did nothing to investigate the problem is not the responsibility of the one who reported the incident. That these allegations are coming out and people are coming out to confirm these reports is simply what it is. We can't assume either way that they are complicit in inaction, or if they genuinely did something and are expressing frustrations at nothing having been handled. It could be either scenario.

So far the broadest picture being painted is that the top people were in the know, and that HR was intentionally covering things up and complicit in gaslighting. The responsibility isn't squared in the hands of the employees, regardless of their knowledge of the situation. Even if we did know, they technically aren't the ones responsible to changing the system if HR was actively covering it all up.

[Kathranis]

Allegedly everyone involved in the studio since inception has either participated in or been allowing all of this. Despite this, the game's success has been proportionate to these early devs' presence and become worse with their absence on a monetary and user engagement front. In the absolute worst case scenario presented here the people who produced the game at its most successful were able to do so while at the same time being drunk of their ass and grabbing everything with a pair of tits in a several mile radius. To expect these employees - who I can only assume by the way they're willing to purposefully reduce their employer's standing in an ongoing lawsuit had zero involvement in any of the ongoing allegations and were focused on their jobs to perform to a comparable extent is only fair.

To have these whingers instead complain about how it's the fault of the paying customer that they have to engage in a struggle session and the customer has to just suck it up and be left without the product that the people whining are hired to make would certainly put them in a poor light regarding even their most basic abilities relative to the ones we're supposed to be lambasting for their conduct.

If you think they were so great at their jobs you should be made at them for doing this shit that caused them to get shitcanned. Think about how much better the game would have been if they dedicated 100% of their effort to it, and were still around to work on it instead of dipping out to Hawaii with a golden parachute before the shit hit the fan.

[Soon-TM]

I wouldnt be surprised if 75% of those signatures were coerced through harassment. That letter was drafted by a single person or small group of people looking to wield power that is not theirs, and browbeat everyone down to the janitor into signing. No wonder no work is getting done. Anyone involved should have pay docked for time not spent on the development of Blizzard properties. Shouldnt get paid for social activism at a development company.

You are free to believe whatever you want, but in my experience, employees typically don't raise such poignant issues, least of all this overtly, unless they are @#$&ing tired of all the crap such as this.

In this case, if the letter had actually been signed under duress, why not having all, or most ATVI employees sign it? It would certainly look far more impressive. Furthermore, do you really think that corporate management can force >750 employees to sign the letter without someone leaking the info to the press? Especially in this context.