A Letter From CEO Bobby Kotick Regarding Progress and Commitments Made at Acti-Blizz

[Sialina]

Hey, being a woman and/or a POC doesn’t mean you can’t be racist, sexist, or stupid. “Diversity can fuck right off” definitely puts you in at least one of those categories.

You, like many of the other posters in this thread regurgitating the same reactionary bullshit, simply don’t know what diversity even entails. You don’t understand how these initiatives tend to work, how they help, or why they’re needed. IF you’re under the impression that flawless, highly qualified, 140 IQ white male candidates are being kicked to the curb just to hire mediocre minorities then you have no idea what’s actually going on anyway.

On top of that, the idea that diversity hiring practices make people suddenly start assuming that all minorities are unqualified is fucking LAUGHABLE. Those people were already racist/sexist to begin with. Same fucking people who 20 years ago would have said “See that chick over there working IT? Probably just here cuz she sucked the boss’ dick, she won’t know shit”. But hey, if diversity hiring helps to out them then at least those zero-tolerance policies can be put to use.

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That’s not what “discrimination” means. No one is saying that being white or male makes someone less qualified. People really need to stop with this bullshit idea that having a diverse workforce means you’re discriminating against people you want included in your diverse workforce. White males are part of a diverse workforce. It’s not discriminatory to try to bring other sorts of people in as well.

Oh, so you are a racist, I get it.

Tell me how you are going to suck the bosses dick with blind hiring? Come on, at least think before you let your fingers hit they keyboard.

I also didn't say anything about white men, you did, maybe you think you can tell women and others what to do? The racism of low expectations on full display here.

I've seen how your great diversity initiatives tend to work, for example I need higher average grades to get into most schools because I'm Asian if I go to your country, how does that not equal letting people with lower grades take the same spots an Asian person with higher grades could've had?

Cut it out with your white superiority narrative, it's sickening.

[Nocontest]

This is why WOW is dying.

Right person for the Job. it's that simple.

its not about making an amazing game anymore, its about pushing peoples agenda and impossible to make an amazing game. you can make a game sure, maybe even a good game, but never something amazing.

this is 100% why you have lost the community.

[Rootsbum]

Christ,
"Im sorry Samantha, we are looking for someone who had to transition to become a woman, not a CIS person. We have enough CIS women now, If you let us call you they or him, contact us and we will hire you on the spot"

The thought behind it is great, but the purging and headhunting feels weird after all the fked up stuff that happened at BLizz.

[Kumorii]

Hey, he took a pay cut!

That matters zero when he's been earning millions upon millions for years. He has more than enough money for himself and his family and heirs to live on for a very, very long time. Total symbolic gesture. But it looks good on paper (or in blue text).

What I found odd was that there apparently is a law how low a CEO can go with his salary.
I mean going down to lowest possible is unexpected and actually I commend him for it. But why is there a law about that? O.o

[Raelbo]

This would be much more harmful for the people like racism and bias all together. Removing our "natural" part is VERY dangerous. Big no no...

You really need to pull yourself out of this prehistoric mode of thinking.

Let me be clear. Gender roles are not "natural" at all. They are a societal construct created by people for a number of reasons. Sometimes these reasons were that it was vital for the survival of society. In other cases it was people acting in their own self interest. What I can say with utter conviction is that there is absolutely no necessity or excuse to persist with gender roles of the past in modern society, especially given how they continue to oppress and disadvantage women

You like to argue that it is "dangerous" to go against the so called "natural" order and yet you fail to understand that we have been doing this for millennia, and that the status quo which you're seeking to protect was the result of exactly this.

The problem is that you confuse the term "bias". We are not robots, or androids. We have feelings. There are jobs that girls prefer. There are jobs that boys prefer. That is how it works.

No. The problem is that people like you don't understand that the things we prefer based on gender are determined by society and what we're taught to prefer. In short, we're indoctrinated into it from the day we're born, and once we're part of the system, we tend to act to perpetuate that system, especially if we perceive that we benefit from said system.

Look at a country like Saudi Arabia. Most westerners are appalled at the way they clearly discriminate against women. Yet if you speak to most Saudi women about their situation, they will tell you it is the natural order. Furthermore the majority of women in that society perpetuate the system and pass it on to their daughters. The irony of course is that those same westerners who are quick to point fingers at the Saudis fail to see that we're not exactly perfect ourselves. We suffer from exactly the same inability to recognise the flaws of the system we're stuck in and continue to perpetuate.

The sad thing is that this advocacy has led to a vast majority of negative change. Equality have never been achieved, but quite the opposite. The effort to combat bias achieved nothing but created another (even bigger) bias by force and deepened even more inequality. it's all violent, unnatural.

Equality hasn't been achieved, but we are certainly closer to it than ever before. Many "privileges" that girls and women enjoy today were not allowed even a few hundred years ago. But yeah, I guess that was all "negative change"

But yeah I get it. If you happen to be in a position of privilege in an unequal society, of course the idea of change will be threatening. And of course it's in your own self interest to resist such change. But that doesn't make it right. It just makes you a selfish douche - even if you can't see it.

[Pendragon]

Non-binary? Lmfao sweet lord

[Hellobolis]

what a surprise when you live in a patriarchy that tells women their role is housekeeping and raising kids,its amazing women have had a hard time getting in to these spaces

what are you talking about. there were already programs to get more women into technological universities when i was there and that was 20 years ago. even that time when CSI was super popular didn't help much.

[Raelbo]

Just hire talented people, stop it with the gender and diversity crap, no one cares, we just want good and passionate games. It doesn’t matter who a person is as long as they’re talented. Everyone should be given an equal chance regardless of gender/race/etc. and full stop.

If everyone had been given an equal chance (and I am not just talking about when it comes to recruitment, but from the day we are born), there would not be a massive disparity in the gender representation at Blizzard. It's that simple.

What Kotick is talking about here is recognising that the whole system is basically rigged against women from the start and trying to do something to help address that. Their solution isn't just about hiring more women, it also clearly recognises that there is a problem in the industry at large and they're doing stuff to address that.

[Nuggsy]

So stupid. Have fun tanking your company into the ground. Keep hiring based on gender and not on actual ability to perform in your job. Maybe thats why you cant get shit done. Keep hiring lazy people who check off boxes on your stupid stat sheet. See how far it takes you.

I can't help agree to this. Never turn someone down based on gender/sexuality/identity but this AWFUL push to ensure they have a balance of all genders/sexualities/races/etc is foolish. Hire based off talent and ability, not race/gender/sexuality/race. It's fine and dandy to have all views/inputs but when you start hiring to fill check boxes instead of skill/ability the products suffer.

[Hellobolis]

If everyone had been given an equal chance (and I am not just talking about when it comes to recruitment, but from the day we are born), there would not be a massive disparity in the gender representation at Blizzard. It's that simple.

What Kotick is talking about here is recognising that the whole system is basically rigged against women from the start and trying to do something to help address that. Their solution isn't just about hiring more women, it also clearly recognises that there is a problem in the industry at large and they're doing stuff to address that.

i bet if you look inside of blizz there aren't actually all that many odd men/women (or black/white/etc) splits. the tech departments will probably be male dominated, HR is probably female dominated, maybe theres a few more mexicans in the caterer/janitor staff, etc. who knows maybe that kinda info will end up in one of the public lawsuit documents sometime down the line.

honestly i think the whole thing is much easier explained with nepotism than sexism.

still good that they are taking some steps to get more women into male dominated fields, but honestly having 23% women in a technology company already sounds pretty good to me.

[mbit]

If everyone had been given an equal chance (and I am not just talking about when it comes to recruitment, but from the day we are born), there would not be a massive disparity in the gender representation at Blizzard. It's that simple.

What Kotick is talking about here is recognising that the whole system is basically rigged against women from the start and trying to do something to help address that. Their solution isn't just about hiring more women, it also clearly recognises that there is a problem in the industry at large and they're doing stuff to address that.

Men and women have different interests. There are studies even with babies on this. Try to cope how newborns got shaped by society.

[Vasilisa]

No, it means you recruit fairly, not giving the white guy automatic preference because you think "guys make better developers" or because your recruit knows someone at a desk on the 3rd floor offices.

The fact is the current system, as history shows and many are admitting, has been discriminating against everyone else in preference of white males.

Discrimination goes in all ways, like when I was working in women's magazine. After 5 years of work I got refused a promotion because "women have better taste and it's better to promote woman graphic designer then me". I quit shortly after. People are assholes, accept that. Making rules that a company has to attain some % quota of non-binary / people of color or whatever their criterion is won't change that. It will only make both sides hating each other even more. We need education, not forced law.

[deenman]

Sure that definitely happened /s

wow,personal incredulity and denial of reality is surely going to fix discrimination /slowclap

oh and btw,my situation isnt even unique,i have known one more dude that had the EXACT situation and conversation happen

[Sughs]

One thing I disagree nowadays tho is employing new people because they are women or whatever gender. What happened to contracting the most capable person for the job?

[deenman]

what are you talking about. there were already programs to get more women into technological universities when i was there and that was 20 years ago. even that time when CSI was super popular didn't help much.

trying to put out a raging forest fire with a spoon isnt gonna go to well to quick

[Kralljin]

trying to put out a raging forest fire with a spoon isnt gonna go to well to quick

Trying to make it rain 24/7 to prevent any forest fire in the future will however also have unintended side effects.

[ClassicPeon]

No, it means you recruit fairly, not giving the white guy automatic preference because you think "guys make better developers" or because your recruit knows someone at a desk on the 3rd floor offices.

The fact is the current system, as history shows and many are admitting, has been discriminating against everyone else in preference of white males.

Thats not what it means no.

Not giving the white guy automatic preference means looking objectively at applicants - not "with an eye towards diversity".

Doing it with "an eye towards diversity" literally implies giving diversity hires preference.

I've still yet to see any info on how blizzard apparently preferred to hire white males. it sounds like an asspull

[deenman]

Trying to make it rain 24/7 to prevent any forest fire in the future will however also have unintended side effects.

well lets focus atleast on no longer letting the fires burn down the village

[mbit]

It used to be that having the right qualifications for a job was the important thing all other considerations aside. Now it seems that you may have the perfect CV but not get the job because you are white male. Blizzard is going beyond stupid to prove how "reformed" they are after so many horrible incidents at their HQ. Problem is they still don't get it that the problem could simply be resolved by not even asking the race/gender/sexual preferences of anyone in the first place and simply putting such personal matters aside in the work place.

And what the fuck does "under-represented" mean? Are Amazon rainforest tribes and indigenous people represented in/by Blizzard? Will they recruit some employees from these tribes? I mean if we want to really be inclusive then here you go.

On a personal level you just do it like blizzards CM, put on a pink wig and say you are trans. All they did is make lying mandatory. The entire culture is build around normalizing lying and play pretend as adults.

[Hellobolis]

trying to put out a raging forest fire with a spoon isnt gonna go to well to quick

if you consider a couple decades of increasing financial investments merely a spoon, then what do you suggest instead?

simply forcing women into technical education? promising them a free house or something if they graduate? maybe forcing young girls to play with boys toys at an early age?

theres only so much you can do in a free country.