A Message from the World of Warcraft Team

[Ivarr]

Can Blizzard just shut the hell up and fix this? I'm sick of the apologies...

Yeah there's nothing they can say or do that will improve this. It's going to feel either insincere or insufficient. I hope the victims get their justice in court. Beyond that there's no point to any of these statements.

[Timester]

Some people seem that dont know that there are dozens of references to Alex Afrasiabi in game...

[Aradur]

Can you just stop now? The whole fucking frontpage is full of "messages from x because of female harassment at blizzard".

Yes. Harrasment exists and is a bad thing, but it's not like it was just discovered and has to be talked about 24/7. Im interested in the game itself and i come to this place for news or informations about the game, not to read fivehundred messaes from people i dont know or care about, about something that happens to people i dont know or care about.

It's enough.

[gcsmith]

They can't fire people? What are you smoking? Do you really think JAB does all the hiring and firing? Jon Hite and Ion absolutely, 1000% have the ability to hire and fire, as well as people under them, like leads.

This is a meaningless gesture, because it doesn't address the real problem - their employees, especially the executive office and HR, and the drunken gropey boys who work there. It's not all they can do. Not by a long shot.

The average developer does not have the ability to fire someone. And right now, you can bet your bottom that no one would be fired blindly, because that will lead to far more law suits. They likely will be trimming some members of staff soon, but I guarantee not without proper investigation.

[pandasrus]

Can you guys STFU and do your fcking job?! We are paying monthly, you imbeciles, do your fcking job or get replaced. Don't you dare implement WOKE BS into the game. There are only 2 genders. Don't bow down to the mentally ill freaks

[Queen of Hamsters]

Players like to screech about their lost trust in the company and how the company's going to have to WORK HARD to gain it back, yet somehow the game beats sales records and keeps growing its playerbase AND its profits with every year... After WoD? Sales through the roof. After Legion? Same thing. After BfA, "universally hated"? Record profits.

If people could actually ACT upon their outrage and properly vote with their wallets, then perhaps the people making the most money off of this and other games might actually feel the threat. As it stands, they've got historical facts that say no matter how much they fuck up the game and disrespect the players, they can rake in at minimum 800k USD on a bad year.

I was not surprised by the news of a lawsuit and the prevalence of bro-dude culture at a gaming company.
I was not surprised by the social media outrage and grandstanding.
I am not surprised by their "Message" and I will not be surprised once things continue as normal, as they always do once the social media dust settles.

One of the largest Twatter grandstanders in my circles has already started playing again. Gee, what a stand he took!

Edit

I feel like declaring however that I am NOT on the side of the manchildren currently crying about "woke culture" and other alt-right buzzwords, I'm on the side of people actually voting with their wallets rather than just pretending to do so. If they remove every NPC based on Afrasiabi, I couldn't care less.

[Count Zero]

Meanwhile, Bobby Kotick and his C-suite warriors are vowing to fight the lawsuit, and standing by the allegations being old, wrong, or misunderstood. So which is it, guys? Did Morhaime, Metzen and the others apologize for no reason, or are the allegations real and credible?

ATVI's usual hilariously inept PR and messaging. They've blown off one foot, and are squinting and taking aim at the other. And now Team 2 is steadying their elbow.

It's possible that, both, those people apologized for good reason and the leadership is not legally responsible for what happened.

[Timester]

Can you just stop now? The whole fucking frontpage is full of "messages from x because of female harassment at blizzard".

Yes. Harrasment exists and is a bad thing, but it's not like it was just discovered and has to be talked about 24/7. Im interested in the game itself and i come to this place for news or informations about the game, not to read fivehundred messaes from people i dont know or care about, about something that happens to people i dont know or care about.

It's enough.

Except this affects the game directly, either you care or not.

[Dorfadin]

Get woke go broke, seems to be coming, would rather they give us details of patch 9.2

[Gadzooks]

The average developer does not have the ability to fire someone. And right now, you can bet your bottom that no one would be fired blindly, because that will lead to far more law suits. They likely will be trimming some members of staff soon, but I guarantee not without proper investigation.

You claimed that devs can't fire. That's simply not true, but here you are shoving the goalposts to the side.

[zorkuus]

we also want to take immediate action in Azeroth to remove references that are not appropriate for our world.

Oh boy, here we go. What does this accomplish?

[Muxtar]

Oh yeah, lets add ton of gay/genderless characters and NPCs into the game, it will fix everything! Woke game will be so good to play (not at all). This is just another shot in the leg after that 'you're part of the problem' meme. Blizzard just cannot understand that all that twitter/forum crying is made by tiny minority of players, so called 'knights of solidarity and progressiveness', while the vast majority remains silent because they don't care about this drama. And if/when they will add all that woke shit into the game, trying to somehow fix it, they will see more and more players unsubbing. Because not every their player lives in California and sees him/herself as pure progressive and liberal woke-champion. And this propaganda and censorship annoys more and more people every day.

[Wekko]

Blizzard is like every other cringeworthy guilty party: constant talk, constant apologizing. Meanwhile, a whole lot of NOTHING is happening behind the scenes. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me with the moves they made in 2020 that included Afrasiabi, they may think they're already done. Fuck em.

[gcsmith]

You claimed that devs can't fire. That's simply not true, but here you are shoving the goalposts to the side.

Not moving goal posts at all, just clarifying since you seemed to ignore the obvious intent. But sure, expect people to be fired left and right during this... that wont cause any issues at all.

[Mandible]

"we also want to take immediate action in Azeroth to remove references that are not appropriate for our world"

I have a bad feeling about this.

Yes, not being able to differentiate between a fantasy world and reality is usually a bad sign. Not to mention it gives the picture that they think games make people violent.

[Wekko]

Oh boy, here we go. What does this accomplish?

Their game made them hurt women, DUH..................................

[EyelessCrow]

"People are leaving in droves and sick of us as a company, what can we do...?"
"Burn more bridges with the playerbase?"
"Brilliant!"

[Cosmic Janitor]

I just checked in Classic. He's still there.

The field marshal?

[Wekko]

"People are leaving in droves and sick of us as a company, what can we do...?"
"Burn more bridges with the playerbase?"
"Brilliant!"

"Let's keep opening our fucking mouthes and make people cringe at blue text anywhere they see it!"

[noremorze]

Look at all the deplorables coming out of the woodworks the past few days.