Blizzard Employee Letter to Leadership, Other Responses to Lawsuit

[Powerogue]

So are they gonna freeze subs? Because this bald fuck just said they aren't working on content updates.

Who the fuck is this guy to tell me I am part of the problem?

The game is still playable so I doubt it. I can't say I'm happy about it but there's nothing stopping us from just unsubbing temporarily as with any content drought.

I hope they sort this out and hold people abusing their co-workers accountable.

[hydrium]

Diablo Immortal is one of the most scandalous things they've done in recent years; they weren't capable of even re-releasing Warcraft III without completely ruining a legendary game; there's no Overwatch 2 in sight; WoW isn't being developed and Hearthstone, like all their succesful IPs, are the result of the "old guard" doing their job.

The old guard were gamers and creators, they made games with passion.

The people in charge right now are marketing and finance, they don't care about gameplay. They care about metrics and engagement, doing whatever they can do to entice idiots to part with their money, I.E anyone who has spent money outside of paying their sub.

[qwerty123456]

You are painting quite a bleak world, but your suggestion seems to be "just suck it up lolz". Hard to say what your position actually is, but it does look like you support the statu quo. Yes, the same !@#$ty statu quo that you have so eloquently described.

I don't paint a bleak world I was just stating a fact. I'm from a rural area I've known tons of farm kids getting 2-3 hours of sleep because they had to help keep up the farm, I worked in a factory in college where the employee of the month was a methhead because he was the only one who could keep up with the speed/demand and others I worked with would hop from factory to factory after destroying part of their body doing the same repeated action for 12 hours a day.

And I didn't say anything about suck it up lolz. I was pointing out how hypocritical it is to be someone using the internet on technology made from the mistreatment of others to ask someone else why they don't value the people who made it over the product when they themselves clearly don't give a fuck about any of the people hurt for literally everything they own/eat.

And where did I say I support the status quo? I try and do my part by educating people when they are being ignorant and by not adding more people to the planet. And I'm enterally grateful to all the people who have to suffer for me to live the life I do. You can look at my post history and see I'm only ever correcting people when they jump to conclusions and don't think there might be other possible reasons for x or y.

[La]

I think a lot of these responses highlight that the issues at Blizzard go far beyond problems of sexual harrassment, but a shitty culture as a whole. You'd think a developer would be apologizing for delays or that it's pretty bad that you buy a box price, pay for a monthly sub, and you're told you're the problem. I dunno man, Blizzard is just full of nothing good and these "Leads" show that the worst of them are in positions of power while the rest have to sit under them and deal with it.

[Zodiark]

So are they gonna freeze subs? Because this bald fuck just said they aren't working on content updates.

Who the fuck is this guy to tell me I am part of the problem?

I don't even know what to say... Sorry after this whole debacle if they closed down the damn game to get their ducks in a row I wouldn't be sad one bit.
The developers need to get their shit together. This is potentially extremely damaging to the company especially these days. I hope they can sort it out and eventually come to a resolution and the victims of this behavior are afforded some recompense and justice for how they were treated. The ones that are alive that is. As far as the girl who sadly took her own life, perhaps if Blizzard does change then her family can take some small measure of comfort in that.

Otherwise in the meantime if you don't get no content BOO HOO! Get over it! There are bigger things in life than your own little gaming gratification!

[Indigenously Abled]

I don't even know what to say... Sorry after this whole debacle if they closed down the damn game to get their ducks in a row I wouldn't be sad one bit.
The developers need to get their shit together. This is potentially extremely damaging to the company especially these days. I hope they can sort it out and eventually come to a resolution and the victims of this behavior are afforded some recompense and justice for how they were treated. The ones that are alive that is. As far as the girl who sadly took her own life, perhaps if Blizzard does change then her family can take some small measure of comfort in that.

Otherwise in the meantime if you don't get no content BOO HOO! Get over it! There are bigger things in life than your own little gaming gratification!

Some people can't see beyond the scope of their own narrow world view.

[mrgreenthump]

Nothing about that is guilt tripping.

Literally all that was pointed out was "if you're taking hearing there will be a delayed and complaining about that, you're probably part of the issue".

Which is completely fair to say, because anyone who can see why this is so disturbing it happened would also logically understand it's going to affect the game.

Anyone who hears it and starts still complaining about the content most likely doesn't care about what happened, hence they become part of the problem.

Trying to sugar coat it as "but I have to pay monthly!" isn't justifiable either because you can just cancel until the next patch.
You're not responsible for what happened.
But if your reaction isn't going to extend sympathy, then you can hardly complain if it's pointed out how insensitive that can be.

I have symphaty for the people. I have zero sympthaty for Activision Blizzard. They are public company only beholden to their share holders. Am paying my sub to a company. Not to the developers. Am not happy about the company supplying a sub par product and still having a sub.

And I can cancel the sub, but am addicted this goddamn game that has no content outside raiding.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I think a lot of these responses highlight that the issues at Blizzard go far beyond problems of sexual harrassment, but a shitty culture as a whole. You'd think a developer would be apologizing for delays or that it's pretty bad that you buy a box price, pay for a monthly sub, and you're told you're the problem. I dunno man, Blizzard is just full of nothing good and these "Leads" show that the worst of them are in positions of power while the rest have to sit under them and deal with it.

I think it's a combination of

• The Western gaming industry had a "rockstar" culture where dev teams were celebrities back in the day.

• Blizzard is based in big city California, which is narcissism central.

• Twitter makes people into narcists, conditioned to keep yapping their mouths so they can get the dopamine rush of seeing likes and retweets and feeling all of that attention.

• Lots of people distancing themselves and throwing each other under the bus to make themselves look good. Very self-centered.

• The people at Blizzard legit disdain their paying customers. From the way they talk, they seem to wish that their customers were... themselves the devs.

Contrast that with the Japanese gaming industry. I've noticed on a whole, they are far more professional. Whereas most people at Blizzard have a public twitter account and feel free to talk, it seems that only a handful of employees of a Japanese game dev team publicly talk. From what I've heard, the Japanese are more about "for the glory of the team as a whole, not for the glory of myself" and leave it up to the designated spokesperson or team lead to exclusively talk about the game online, which makes everyone look better. So when information does come out, it's highly controlled. And I can't think of an instance where the Japanese bad mouthed their paying customers (whereas in recent years, many people in the Western entertainment industry has been publicly flaunting their hatred of their customers).

[Mrbleedinggums]

GC keeps talking about how he always messes up responding to people in a respectful way. Why in the hell was he ever in the position he was in to begin with in that case? It sounds like executive management isn't his wheelhouse.

because executive management has higher priorities that are more crucial as their primary responsibilities/qualifications required.

[Zodiark]

All I'm saying is that it's very easy to sh*t on Blizzard while most of us don't give a sh*t about far greater injustices in the world. Ones you can actually avoid being part of. It's seems very selective and convenient to me.
Your whole 'being Jesus' statement basically tells me that you don't want to be consistent, you only care about the injustice you can afford to care about.

I don't go searching for injustices like some people. I don't need to be another Hero. I however have sunk a good portion of my life into Blizzard games starting back in the 90's. I as well as many others have vested interest. When someone is teased or harassed to the point of taking their own life that's in our own back yard. You nor I can solve the worlds problems we aren't meant to live each day thinking of all the injustice in the world. We live as long as we can the best we can and try to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
I have personally endorsed Blizzard games as well as the company in general over the years as I'm sure many of us have. Partly because we all thought this was a company that cared as much about it's employees as it did it's customers. Sadly over the years that illusion has been slowly coming down. Now with this, it's the last straw for many.

[Sinyc]

So are they gonna freeze subs? Because this bald fuck just said they aren't working on content updates.

Who the fuck is this guy to tell me I am part of the problem?

Do you really want them to refund you 50 cents like they used to for outages? Humans were allegedly abused and harassed at a company. One took their own life. And you are worried about your sub status?

[Indigenously Abled]

I have symphaty for the people. I have zero sympthaty for Activision Blizzard. They are public company only beholden to their share holders. Am paying my sub to a company. Not to the developers. Am not happy about the company supplying a sub par product and still having a sub.

And I can cancel the sub, but am addicted this goddamn game that has no content outside raiding.

It's like when your dealer's supplier cuts the crack more and more. You're mad that the product is cut down, but you need that fix, and you need it now.

- - - Updated - - -

Do you really want them to refund you 50 cents like they used to for outages? Humans were allegedly abused and harassed at a company. One took their own life. And you are worried about your sub status?

A symptom of the human condition. The people suffering aren't in their monkey sphere, so they don't care.

[Soon-TM]

I was pointing out how hypocritical it is to be someone using the internet on technology made from the mistreatment of others.

By your reasoning, those guys who advocated for the French Revolution, equality of rights, citizenship for everyone, etc. shouldn't have eaten anything at all, other than whatever they could grow themselves. After all, agriculture at the time was structured in a 100% feudal fashion, and the situations of workers (usually slaves) in e.g. the American colonies was even worse. Do you realise how dumb does that sound?

[arkanon]

By your reasoning, those guys who advocated for the French Revolution, equality of rights, citizenship for everyone, etc. shouldn't have eaten anything at all, other than whatever they could grow themselves. After all, agriculture at the time was structured in a 100% feudal fashion, and the situations of workers (usually slaves) in e.g. the American colonies was even worse. Do you realise how dumb does that sound?

This was the point I was trying to make as well - the idea that these things are pure right/wrong, purely left/right, black/white, yes/no, 0/1 - is just idiotic. I know people who dont eat meat, but go through a dozen eggs a day, and i know others who wont touch an egg if you paid them to, because they are unhappy with the animal conditions.

I know people who wont buy clothes from overseas, unless they feel there is no local alternative, and i know people who buy the cheapest clothes they can find. Neither are bad people. Its perfectly acceptable to make a stand on something you dont agree with, without feeling like you have to be perfect in every possible way, on every single subject and topic of inequality.

I personally am pretty disgusted not by their behaviour, because that is still just an accusation at this stage, but rather by their pathetic response to the accusations, and the final straw for me is some assclown blaming the community for how him and his frat-bros apparantly treated the female employees. I had ended my sub anyway, as much fun as TBCC was, it was never intended to hold my interest for long, and SL has simply failed to hold my interest at all. I have no other Blizzard products installed at all, and nothing on the horison interests me much at all.

[arandomuser]

I think it's a combination of

• The Western gaming industry had a "rockstar" culture where dev teams were celebrities back in the day.

• Blizzard is based in big city California, which is narcissism central.

• Twitter makes people into narcists, conditioned to keep yapping their mouths so they can get the dopamine rush of seeing likes and retweets and feeling all of that attention.

• Lots of people distancing themselves and throwing each other under the bus to make themselves look good. Very self-centered.

• The people at Blizzard legit disdain their paying customers. From the way they talk, they seem to wish that their customers were... themselves the devs.

Contrast that with the Japanese gaming industry. I've noticed on a whole, they are far more professional. Whereas most people at Blizzard have a public twitter account and feel free to talk, it seems that only a handful of employees of a Japanese game dev team publicly talk. From what I've heard, the Japanese are more about "for the glory of the team as a whole, not for the glory of myself" and leave it up to the designated spokesperson or team lead to exclusively talk about the game online, which makes everyone look better. So when information does come out, it's highly controlled. And I can't think of an instance where the Japanese bad mouthed their paying customers (whereas in recent years, many people in the Western entertainment industry has been publicly flaunting their hatred of their customers).

western gaming? you realize japan is literally an ethnostate, with an emperor who by law can only be male, and liberal parties in japan get 0% of the vote, and its against their culture for woman to even have a job
so like
yeah ill take the west over japaan when it comes to these issues any day

[Kalisandra]

Lot of social justice warriors here. I wonder how many of those stopped buying Iphones after they found out that those were produced in countries with horrible working conditions, or stopped buying cheap clothing produced by children for 1 dollar an hour in Asia. Lets not forget buying gas from oil companies that destroy the environment and villages in Africa and other places. It's just very convenient to sh*t on Blizzard.

What happened at Blizzard is horrible, assuming it's true but ignoring the injustices I mentioned above, that's way worse. Bunch of hypocrites.

Nice round of whataboutism, there.

[alturic]

Do you really want them to refund you 50 cents like they used to for outages? Humans were allegedly abused and harassed at a company. One took their own life. And you are worried about your sub status?

I've been lurking all of the posts over the past few days, biting my tongue as I don't want to get infracted or be labeled the monster I typically am when these type of stories come out... but yea?

What exactly is wrong with someone expecting to receive a credit or a refund for something they didn't receive but paid for? If I receive half of what's promised, I don't expect to pay full price, or at the I expect a discount or refund.


As to the actual topic, sorry but it's a literal non-issue to me. I know, I know, it's because my pronouns are him/he, and I'm straight but these things happen every day, every hour, hell in the case of assault against women, every 2 minutes in the US. Should they - fuck no, but the only reason I see this uproar is because of 'zomg Activision Blizzard'. Send it to management, if you don't like the outcome, go to the police.

Do you seriously think the number of people suddenly outraged (management and low-level employees alike) didn't hear about these things prior to this lawsuit? Now all of a sudden they want to play white-knights, and fake outrage?

- - - Updated - - -

I personally am pretty disgusted not by their behaviour, because that is still just an accusation at this stage, but rather by their pathetic response to the accusations, and the final straw for me is some assclown blaming the community for how him and his frat-bros apparantly treated the female employees. I had ended my sub anyway, as much fun as TBCC was, it was never intended to hold my interest for long, and SL has simply failed to hold my interest at all. I have no other Blizzard products installed at all, and nothing on the horison interests me much at all.

So, like I totally get the whole "innocent until proven guilty" principle but regardless if it's in the court of law, or public opinion, do you seriously think none of these stories are true? This is exactly like Bill Cosby, et al. Sure, some of the accusers that come out of the woodwork do look for the monetary gain, but most of them seriously just want justice - closure.

I'm sorry, but if you seriously think these things didn't happen at the company (and thousands of others) you are out of touch with reality.

[Nathreim]

Fuck Klontzas. This problem is 100% self induced they fucked up and players have every right to be angry about another decline in an already poorly run service. Blizz has long shit on its own customers resting on their crown won by people far better and talented than the current cocks running this shit show.

WoW is only in a precarious place because of the poor products they have been turning out over the last few years. The only way they make it out of this is if they take responsibility, fire the shit heads, and go back to producing great content like they used too. If they cant unfuck themselves quickly they will all be out of the job.

[Indigenously Abled]

What exactly is wrong with someone expecting to receive a credit or a refund for something they didn't receive but paid for? If I receive half of what's promised, I don't expect to pay full price, or at the I expect a discount or refund.

What was promised? Access to the service is what you pay for. If they shut the servers down tomorrow, you -might- get a refund on the sub you paid.

[qwerty123456]

By your reasoning, those guys who advocated for the French Revolution, equality of rights, citizenship for everyone, etc. shouldn't have eaten anything at all, other than whatever they could grow themselves. After all, agriculture at the time was structured in a 100% feudal fashion, and the situations of workers (usually slaves) in e.g. the American colonies was even worse. Do you realise how dumb does that sound?

WTF you talking about? If an Southern worker back in the day was complaining about how they had to do dangerous work because they had to cross a deadly stream and meanwhile made some slaves work 15 hours straight in deadly heat you would be well within your right to call out their hypocrisy. I'm not saying you should stop eating anything I'm saying that everything you have has someone suffering for you so complaining about someone wanting a product they purchased because there are some people mistreated in a relatively tame way compared to factories putting up suicide nets because so many people are killing themselves while you ignore all that other suffering is hypocritical. Pointing out someone's ignorance is not the same as telling them to go off the grid and only eat what they make themselves.

Like I said before :Them not working isn't going to help the lawsuit and isn't going to help if anymore people are fired in finding who should be promoted to replace em. The only thing not working will due is help any innocent guys alleviate the fear that a women might target them if they said her hair looked nice today or some shit like that. Any guilty guys works going to suffer no matter what as they wait for the lawsuit. If they were still working it could however help find qualified replacements and potentially finding more evidence if shit wasn't corrected like Blizzard claims.

And for the record I'm totally cool with them taking time off if needed. I play multiple games and do 6 months subs so that "missing time" doesn't really effect me as when I'm out of content I play other stuff. I can understand why others can be pissed though esp when the likely hood of any dipshits pulling any inappropriate stuff at this time is highly unlikely and is probably the safest time they could work.