Blizzard Employee Letter to Leadership, Other Responses to Lawsuit

[Magnagarde]

No BLIZZARD caused this issue. BLIZZARD ignored it. BLIZZARD are currently attempting to minimize it, and thats literally what people are pissed off at - blaming paying customers for their own personal mistakes and problems is beyond unacceptable.

Have not seen a single person say that, what people are saying is, if they are openly admitting to not developing the game, AND openly BLAMING the players for their own internal problems, then they dont deserve any money from us, the paying customer.

They have so many employees that are completely out of touch with their responsibilities. With that kind of logic being peddled publicly and directly towards the paying customers worldwide, one can only imagine what they think and say outside of public view.

[Kiwijello]

"...that he could be tough on his team or an asshole from time to time."

RIGHT HERE. They knew he was mistreating his team. I wouldn't put up with a boss who was an asshole, why did they ALLOW it?

Complacency folks. You didn't know he was sexually harassing people, but you knew he was being an asshole to them? Hmm. So much better...

[Guyviroth]

Have not seen a single person say that, what people are saying is, if they are openly admitting to not developing the game, AND openly BLAMING the players for their own internal problems, then they dont deserve any money from us, the paying customer.

Well...

If Blizzard is busy dealing with the investigation, then maybe they should just cancel the sub fee while they aren't working on the game.

I've also seen similar posts in the news threads about JAB and Mike's responses.

But yeah, you're correct, absolutely so. If you feel Blizzard don't deserve your money, then don't give them your money. I myself cancelled my sub a couple of days ago with 4 days left on my sub. I'll turn up to my raid tomorrow, maybe do some more Path of Ascension currency farming, and then see how I feel further down the line.

In any case, people need to understand this much from Blizzard's perspective in the grand scheme of things: You are paying a sub to play 9.1, not for them to develop 9.2; they are making 9.2. to keep you subbed longer. and not to keep you subbed now.

So, again, if people are that pissed off with them... cancel your sub. Don't give them your money.

[arkanon]

Blizzard dont deserve that money or devs dont deserve that money?

We pay Blizzard - what Blizzard do with that money is out of our control. So Blizzard, as a company, do not deserve my money, in my opinion. If others have a different opinion, thats totally fine.

[Alayea]

I doubt Alex Klontzas reads here, but I'll say it anyway: I agree with your sentiment, but the way you worded it could have been done much differently. If you think you didn't have a high enough character limit to explain your perspective well, there is always Twitlonger you can use.

WHO CARES. You haven't even posted about TBC Phase 2. Stop posting about this drama.

I care since it pertains to me as a paying customer. And reducing the sexually-related harassment and assaults -- which are considered criminal acts, by the way -- that apparently was endemic to Blizzard Entertainment to just "drama" is quite frankly awful.

[Kathranis]

You folks only selfishly thinking about how this affects you and your experience with the product: the products will be better if workplace conditions are better.

We've got stories about people being drunk and having sex instead of working, and foisting their responsibilities off on other employees. Stories of lazy people who suck at their jobs being promoted over industrious people who are good at their jobs. Stories of talented people who quit or switched to other teams to get away from the toxic environment.

If you want a better game, you start with better workers. And if you treat those workers better they'll be able to do better work.

[arkanon]

You folks only selfishly thinking about how this affects your and your experience with the product: the products will be better if workplace conditions are better.

We've got stories about people being drunk and having sex instead of working, and foisting their responsibilities off on other employees. Stories of lazy people who suck at their jobs being promoted over industrious people who are good at their jobs. Stories of talented people who quit or left the team to get away from the toxic environment.

If you want a better game, you start with better workers. And if you treat those workers better they'll be able to do better work.

Yes, and until it is "better", I recommend anyone who is unhappy simply stops giving Blizzard their money, and move to other products until they fix the shitshow that is their company. By continuing to give Blizzard your money, you are saying "your behavior is ok, i still fully support you". Again, if someone is comfortable supporting a company with a 1980s wall street culture, thats their decision and is totally fine.

[Aliven]

We pay Blizzard - what Blizzard do with that money is out of our control. So Blizzard, as a company, do not deserve my money, in my opinion. If others have a different opinion, thats totally fine.

I agree, Blizzard dont deserve our moneys.

[Magnagarde]

You folks only selfishly thinking about how this affects your and your experience with the product: the products will be better if workplace conditions are better.

It is ironic that their product was the best and peaked when the people, who allegedly unknowingly fostered this culture in the first place, were in charge.

If you want a better game, you start with better workers. And if you treat those workers better they'll be able to do better work.

Being a better worker should at least include not blaming the customers for everything that transpires in their workplace, just because they're expecting them to actually work. I can understand that they can be taken aback and shocked by the lawsuit and how their colleagues were affected, but I think it is inappropriate(to put it mildly) to claim the customers contribute to it.

[GreenJesus]

Well...



I've also seen similar posts in the news threads about JAB and Mike's responses.

But yeah, you're correct, absolutely so. If you feel Blizzard don't deserve your money, then don't give them your money. I myself cancelled my sub a couple of days ago with 4 days left on my sub. I'll turn up to my raid tomorrow, maybe do some more Path of Ascension currency farming, and then see how I feel further down the line.

In any case, people need to understand this much from Blizzard's perspective in the grand scheme of things: You are paying a sub to play 9.1, not for them to develop 9.2; they are making 9.2. to keep you subbed longer. and not to keep you subbed now.

So, again, if people are that pissed off with them... cancel your sub. Don't give them your money.

I cancelled my sub a few weeks ago anyway so this just affirmed my decision.

[DingDongKing]

I would rather Blizzard be a stable and good company to its employees and customers moving forward and lose people who are upset about new content right now, than be a stagnant organisation that doesn’t treat its stakeholders as human beings.

[Alatie]

We are part of the problem WE? Are you fucking thick we pay Blizzard for a product it aint our fault that instead of making a game your devs get drunk and harass woman to the point of suicide you cannot blame this on us this is all you all of it is on Blizzard and Blizzard alone.

[arkanon]

I agree, Blizzard dont deserve our moneys.

Just to be clear, I dont consider Blizzard in its current state to be worth MY money, and i certainly recommend people think about it before making a decision about THIER money, but it is THEIR money - if someone still wants to support the company, thats their decision and i dont have a problem with it. I dont AGREE with their decision, but it is THEIR decision.

[Giannis-GR]

The responses here perfectly explain how these people can get away with anything.. it seems people will eat like ice-scream any “empathetic” corporate statement from someone senior or a company if it’s (or pretends to be) “woke enough”

Do you have no idea of scale?

In real life.. even complex investigations.. into murders, drug cartels etc.. cost a tiny-tiny fraction of the resources a multi-billion dollar giant corporation like Acti/Bliz possesses...

So these multi-billion dollar resources are taken away from game development and are being put into the “investigations” and “uprooting harassment”...

literally 100x the resources any IRL investigation about cartels , drug lords, murders etc...

And all they have to show for it is 1000 word PR essays saying that “harassment is bad but I didn’t see anything” ?

And if you complain about game development.. YOU CONDONE HARASSMENT... but literally all the senior guys didn’t see anything... only YOU are the issue...

No wonder they always get away with stuff.. like the Hong Kong incident etc... seems it’s very easy to manipulate the masses by “empathetic statements”

[Gadzooks]

Freezing the development of your flagship product is indeed a business decision. Not wise, definitely not smart, but it's a decision after all. Let's see how far they'll get with that.

It's important to note (and will be promptly ignored, but f it) is that the dev said "right now". The game has not been officially been frozen, no announcement of this has been made, and it is most likely no work was being done Friday - and continuing this week, that employees are too upset to focus on their tasks.

And that won't stop the usual suspects like The Quartering from the click baitiest videos today bellowing that the game development is stopped. Because gotta bait, amirite?

(Oddly, the one person I expected to feast on this is Heelvsbabyface, but he's ranting about He-man. Maybe he's just done with all things Blizzard.)

The employee letter is a big wow though. Shot right across Bobby's bow, and he HAS to act now, his staff are in open insurrection. We'll see who's side he's really on very soon, I feel.

And, a note to Ghostcrawler: just stop posting. The more these devs, past and present, post, the worse it gets. Apologies have no statute of limitations - it's not about you right now.

[Kathranis]

Being a better worker should at least include not blaming the customers for everything that transpires in their workplace, just because they're expecting them to actually work.

Oh, come off it. They aren't blaming "the customers" for "everything that transpires" -- they're saying they're contributing to the culture that created these problems in the first place.

If that's what you take away from any of these statements, you absolutely are part of the problem. If you weren't, you wouldn't be so fucking defensive about it.

[Super Dickmann]

Expecting these layabouts to actually do their job instead of whinging about social issues de jour is asking too much of them. But they do have time to ask the parent company to fall on its own sword rather than defend itself from accusations like any party accused of anything should do by default.

The American mindset of expecting a company to be a social instrument instead of a vehicle to generate a product and gain money has been a disaster.

Do your jobs, that's what you've got those contracts for. The people who preceded you could both do their jobs and create the world's most successful MMO while also allegedly being constantly drunk off their ass and harassing their co-workers.

[Soon-TM]

Oh i really really do understand - i think most of us understand. And to be very clear, this wasnt mocking / attacking you for the sub, like you said thats your "problem", im just asking your thoughts on it.

I feel myself dirty for having paid for 2 months of game time just a week or so before all this @#$&show started. I was really enjoying myself with BC Classic, but what has happened... Is just disgusting. I have uninstalled everything Blizzard from my HDD, just as I did with Ubisoft not so long ago. Oh well

[starstationprofm]

Categorizing the claims that have been made as “distorted, and in many cases false” creates a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims.

Good thing they're alleged victims, then.

[Kathranis]

It is ironic that their product was the best and peaked when the people, who allegedly unknowingly fostered this culture in the first place, were in charge.

Or it got progressively worse the longer they were in charge and increasingly abdicated their responsibilities.