Blizzard Employee Letter to Leadership, Other Responses to Lawsuit

[MoanaLisa]

Let's not forget that their letter started with ""We believe these statements have damaged our ongoing quest for equality inside and outside of our industry.""

This is what happens when developers and salesmen are replaced with activists.

It's 2600 current and former employees that have signed the letter. They're just employees that want fairness in a workplace and industry that clearly has a lot of problems. Great jab at developers and salesmen implying they don't have any opinions. Since I'm guessing you're not a former or current employee of Blizzard you may not clearly understand how they came to sign this letter. Sometimes you have to be there.

[Nimin]

It's 2600 current and former employees that have signed the letter. They're just employees that want fairness in a workplace and industry that clearly has a lot of problems. Great jab at developers and salesmen implying they don't have any opinions. Since I'm guessing you're not a former or current employee of Blizzard you may not clearly understand how they came to sign this letter. Sometimes you have to be there.

Developers and salesmen have opinions but are capable of putting their jobs and their product over their subjective personal and political stances.
Activists do the exact opposite.
Based on the response of Klontaz ragging on their customers for not giving them an unlimited free pass with that "holier than thou" attitude... he's in the second camp.

Besides that letter has some really indefensible stuff in it if you look at it. Things like "Categorizing the claims that have been made as “distorted, and in many cases false” creates a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims." is the same nonsense of "believe all women" that activist tried to push some years ago.

No, victimhood needs to be established in a court of law.
Evidence, the burden of proof, the presumption of innocence... they don't become invalid because the accuser is female.
What we have so far are various ALLEGATIONS of misconduct that will need to be proven, and yet the letter acts as if the judge, jury and verdict has already been given and Blizzard is being awful for not just accepting it wholly.

[Nimin]

It's 2600 current and former employees that have signed the letter. They're just employees that want fairness in a workplace and industry that clearly has a lot of problems. Great jab at developers and salesmen implying they don't have any opinions. Since I'm guessing you're not a former or current employee of Blizzard you may not clearly understand how they came to sign this letter. Sometimes you have to be there.

Developers and salesmen have opinions but are capable of putting their jobs and their product over their subjective personal and political stances.
Activists do the exact opposite.
Based on the response of Klontaz ragging on their customers for not giving them an unlimited free pass with that "holier than thou" attitude... he's in the second camp.

Besides that letter has some really indefensible stuff in it if you look at it. Things like "Categorizing the claims that have been made as “distorted, and in many cases false” creates a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims." is the same nonsense of "believe all women" that activist tried to push some years ago.

No, victimhood needs to be established in a court of law.
Evidence, the burden of proof, the presumption of innocence... they don't become invalid because the accuser is female.
What we have so far are various ALLEGATIONS of misconduct that will need to be proven, and yet the letter acts as if the judge, jury and verdict has already been given and Blizzard is being awful for not just accepting it wholly.

[Yarathir]

So wait, you read what's going on out there, and your sole reaction is "But... muh content updates!", REALLY?

I'm not sure about "Part of the problem", but at least try having some perspective on this horrible situation.

No, the point is that you can be upset about multiple things at once, yet some senior dev (who probably has years of experience and knew about this) makes his first mention of all of this on twitter in order to deflect and pass culpability onto the customers who are subscribed to his product.

It's perfectly reasonable to expect content updates at a normal pace, not for all development to be halted simply because Blizzard devs cannot keep their dicks in their pants and half of the company ended up going on strike while the other half is embroiled in a lawsuit, which is something only Blizzard developers are responsible for.

That's not saying "game more important than people," that's saying that customers shouldn't have to pay for the fact that Blizzard's work culture is more rank than raw sewage where it's apparently normal to harass and abuse both female and male employees.

[Klontzas]

Are you serious right now? Imagine being that weak minded that you're manipulated by "twitter statements". If people got refunded for their lack of live service in their subscription game they're paying for, then sure.

But that's not happening. Dude is demanding players to wait "or you're part of the problem" due to his company not being able to keep their hands to themselves.

Their little tweet statements have got people like you actually working PR for them, get some self awareness.

I genuinely think it's the people who enjoy the drama who agree with him. You love the excitement, and rather than care about the game, you care about the meta-game outside of it, and no matter what, you're team WoW. You're team blizzard. When they do something wrong and apologise for it, you forgive them. When they tell the players they're wrong, you agree with them.

[Darth Vowrawn]

So wait, you read what's going on out there, and your sole reaction is "But... muh content updates!", REALLY?

I'm not sure about "Part of the problem", but at least try having some perspective on this horrible situation.

Yes, how dare those evil customers demand a return on their investment. Those monsters. Other companies go through similar crap, and their entire workforce doesn't throw a temper tantrum and refuse to provide service for customers, while blaming the customers for their shitty company's internal problems.

[Sinyc]

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.

Did Blizzard commit to any new content this month or even in the next 6? If not, what "did you pay for but not receive"???? Nothing.

If you are truly that hellbent on getting compensated for possible future delays, then open a ticket and ask for a refund. Given all that is happening at ActiBlizz right now you might just get it without much of a fight.

[noctim2]

When I started playing WoW in 2004, everything seemed to be great. Nobody could imagine the amount of scandals that followed. Now, in my mid-30s, I realize that the whole gaming community is either toxic, misogynic, ultra-left- or right-wing and outright disturbing.

Gaming simply attracts broken people who want to escape the bad world outside. Many are refugees whose characteristics are not accepted everywhere. The Internet has been a safe haven for frustrated people for decades.

As much as a certain nerd culture can bring lost souls together, it can also divide. Instead of leading by example, so-called "fans" tear each other apart with radical ideas about society, economics, religion, and sexuality.

People who work for Blizzard today come from this cultivation. Many of them have grown up with the Internet and have experienced the communities as they are. In this sense, the community is really part of the problem and does not manage to reflect their responsibility.

When I play today, this alpha-macho posturing makes me sick. Everyone f00cks each other's mothers, dck sizes are compared, women are all whores, yet there are simps and incels, humiliation is ok. And all this is not only explained by puberty. There are grown up people doing it.

sometimes the community reminds me of a bunch of hooligans, who explicitly chose this hobby to let off steam in the masses. the main thing is to break something and ruin the day for others. Cynical, self-righteous and always provocative and self-absorbed.

Anyone who actually believes that the community exists outside of the game companies is mistaken. game companies ARE the community, and a large part of the employees come from it. So it's no wonder that the problems inside and outside are identical.

If we really wanted to change something, we would have to start with ourselves first. Throw all the radical crap overboard and start talking to each other in a civilized way.

[Farora]

Just handle the lawsuit and go back to work. My god, the amount of virtue signalling and people with genders in their bio crying is insane. Oh and fire the neon hair coloured chicks and people with their gender in their bio. They fuck up your company.

[Darth Vowrawn]

Just handle the lawsuit and go back to work. My god, the amount of virtue signalling and people with genders in their bio crying is insane. Oh and fire the neon hair coloured chicks and people with their gender in their bio. They fuck up your company.

After all of the fat, dumpy, neon-haired crowd of toxically feminine screechers have ruined so many companies, you'd think companies like Activision would just start firing all of these retards. If I was Bobby, everyone who signed that "statement" would be on the short list to get a pink slip. Over "redundancies" of course.

[Farora]

After all of the fat, dumpy, neon-haired crowd of toxically feminine screechers have ruined so many companies, you'd think companies like Activision would just start firing all of these retards. If I was Bobby, everyone who signed that "statement" would be on the short list to get a pink slip. Over "redundancies" of course.

Haha indeed. I think recruiters need to start making a red flags list for new employees. Because once you have enough of these unstable people, your company is fucked and drama is bound to happen.

[Darth Vowrawn]

Haha indeed. I think recruiters need to start making a red flags list for new employees. Because once you have enough of these unstable people, your company is fucked and drama is bound to happen.

Especially when they are so easily triggered by being told to be "less emotional" or "do a better job". Most of this lawsuit reeks of dangerhair. It should serve as lesson to never hire people from the political Left, especially in a big city. They will burn down your company, and then blame the customers for starting the fire, just look at Star Wars. All people wanted was respect for Han, Leia, and Luke. Instead, they turned Han and Leia into deadbeat parents and Luke into a milk-sucking pussy who was going to murder his nephew in his sleep because of bad dreams.

[Timester]

[Stormwolf64]

Are you referring to Alex Klontzas's comment?

Yeah, he is 100% right you are part of the problem, if the first think that pops into your mind is "but what about the content?". And please, you are not sympathizing with anyone, and even completely fail to realize this hostile work environment, where someone recently took her own life no less, is not a fertile ground for good content you seem to crave.

Yes, your prioritization is fucked.

Think what you want, but i believe the same for you. It's trendy to blow your lid atm and why not join the wave! I just play the game, and if that is problematic for them then they can quit their jobs and find something else to do, as they don't seem to value customers

[Tsarez]

O
"The problem" is toxic work environments in general, and customers coming out to publicly say they care more about the product than the well-being of the people making that product does indeed help perpetuate "the problem". This isn't something specific to Blizzard alone.

People also seem to misunderstand exactly what it is they're paying for. You pay a monthly subscription for nothing but access. That's it. You don't own anything on your account and you are not entitled to updates and patches. Nothing on Blizzard's end of the transaction has changed, so why would you expect free game time? I'm not saying that would be a bad thing, but it would just be a good faith gesture. Certainly not something that should be expected. If you want to lump the expectation of future content as a reason to sub, then that's on you and you really shouldn't be getting 6 month sub bundles since there's no guarantee that you'll get exactly what you want over that time.

That's a bad take on the things most people say though. Other than blatant trolls, I doubt anyone really said that they don't care about the issues at Blizzard and would rather have them continue daily business to deliver content. The sentiment is that there is an expecatation that business continues since payment continues.

Imaigne this:

I work at a company that delivers a maintanence service for a website.
I stage a walk out because our internal issues demand that. Things must change.
My clients will 100% be behind me for a good cause.
The whole company doesn't work for a day, thus no service provided to our clients.
The end of month arrives, and I send an invoice to my client for the day of the walk out.

Or even worse, I tell my clients we have to stop working for a month, but then invoice them regardless.

You know what would happen? The support would turn into a mail from my client's lawyer.



We have a fundamental difference of understanding what the payment fee is for. If you don't mind to point me towards the passage that says that the fee is only for access and that content updates and continuous service to the product we've bought (don't forget, every addon also costs extra money on top of the monthly fee) are explicitly not part of the bargain, I will stand corrected and instantly cancel my subscription.

[MoanaLisa]

If you don't mind to point me towards the passage that says that the fee is only for access and that content updates and continuous service to the product we've bought (don't forget, every addon also costs extra money on top of the monthly fee) are explicitly not part of the bargain, I will stand corrected and instantly cancel my subscription.

If you accept and comply with the terms of this Agreement, Blizzard will grant, and you will receive, a limited, revocable, non-sub licensable, and non-exclusive license to use the Platform”

Read the End Users License Agreement. You own nothing. They promise nothing and what you have is access to the platform followed by a number of rules, limitations and statements that essentially say they can do what they want with your account any time they please. This is not really unusual for online games.

https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/legal...ense-agreement

[Darth Vowrawn]

If you accept and comply with the terms of this Agreement, Blizzard will grant, and you will receive, a limited, revocable, non-sub licensable, and non-exclusive license to use the Platform”

Read the End Users License Agreement. You own nothing. They promise nothing and what you have is access to the platform followed by a number of rules, limitations and statements that essentially say they can do what they want with your account any time they please. This is not really unusual for online games.

https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/legal...ense-agreement

That means nothing. WoW would instantly die if there was no new content. They know it and we know it. Otherwise, nothing would have been released after the base game of 1.0.

[noctim2]

I wonder why everyone on online forums seems to be an ultra-brutal capitalist hardliner when it comes to supposed obligations and payments. The same goes for many "disruptive" disasters in the last decade or two, like Covid, immigration, and other things that trigger the more right-leaning folks. Eat or die is an extremely crass and heartless position.

I don't know how it works in the U.S., but in Germany, if something really bad happens to you, you can leave work for a few days until you feel better, or you can use the time to take care of some things, like funerals, hospitalizations, or taking care of people who have had big problems.

The company still pays me and sometimes you even get further support. For example, I was once in a clinic for 10 weeks and my bosses helped me a lot afterwards. They didn't stop "caring" or "paying" for me, the day I left.

So it's not wrong to let your inner "Karen" rest for a few days when you see that serious problems are obviously being tackled. A little empathy for the employees is not wrong. Everything else is highly selfish, entitled and cold.

It's a give and take. Maybe in your country, across the pond, the working conditions are just as sick and brutal that you are not allowed any time to organize or recover. I find that toxic and inhumane. In this case, I wouldn't be surprised if you also put others on a hard leash and think that this is normal. But it is not.

[Kralljin]

I don't know how it works in the U.S., but in Germany, if something really bad happens to you, you can leave work for a few days until you feel better, or you can use the time to take care of some things, like funerals, hospitalizations, or taking care of people who have had big problems.

I'm not sure what you are referring to, but if it's to the "No work is being done" drama, then i will point out that it's the tone and insuation that creates the drama here.

Rather than asking for understanding and patience for the current situation, where it's understandable that a lot of people may not be able to do work, it's absolutely atrocious to blame the customer, which he absolutely did when he said "You are part of the problem".

Because that's the crux, he blames paying customers, that they are responsible as well for the sexual harassment inside Blizzard and that's frankly disgusting.
Customers are not responsible when internal affairs destroy your production capabilities.

[DingDongKing]

I wonder why everyone on online forums seems to be an ultra-brutal capitalist hardliner when it comes to supposed obligations and payments. The same goes for many "disruptive" disasters in the last decade or two, like Covid, immigration, and other things that trigger the more right-leaning folks. Eat or die is an extremely crass and heartless position.

I don't know how it works in the U.S., but in Germany, if something really bad happens to you, you can leave work for a few days until you feel better, or you can use the time to take care of some things, like funerals, hospitalizations, or taking care of people who have had big problems.

The company still pays me and sometimes you even get further support. For example, I was once in a clinic for 10 weeks and my bosses helped me a lot afterwards. They didn't stop "caring" or "paying" for me, the day I left.

So it's not wrong to let your inner "Karen" rest for a few days when you see that serious problems are obviously being tackled. A little empathy for the employees is not wrong. Everything else is highly selfish, entitled and cold.

It's a give and take. Maybe in your country, across the pond, the working conditions are just as sick and brutal that you are not allowed any time to organize or recover. I find that toxic and inhumane. In this case, I wouldn't be surprised if you also put others on a hard leash and think that this is normal. But it is not.

It’s mainly anger that no one apparently gives them the same privilege. When in reality they get it, but they think it’s ‘less’ of them to focus on wellbeing and such ‘soy boy’ stuff. Fuck knows, mate.