A Formal Thread about Activision/Blizzard

[thebobmaster]

I don't boycott companies lightly. In fact, there are only two companies in the game industry at this point that I refuse to give my money to. Ubisoft, and Activision-Blizzard. All of the stuff is allegations, true. However, they are allegations being made by the STATE OF CALIFORNIA, which lends quite a bit of weight, after a two year investigation. Even discounting the harder to verify/more extreme accusations, what you are left with is still a work environment that is toxic at best, and downright malignant at worst.

Do I think my boycotting will affect AB or Ubisoft at all? Hell no. I'm a fucking drop in the ocean. But I would not feel right with myself saying that this doesn't matter as long as they make the games I want. Nothing is worth this.

 

[Adam Jensen]

The mere fact Kotick hasn't made a statement yet is baffling

Eh, not really. He's a perfect example of a corporate high functioning sociopath.

 

[Gordon_4]

Eh, not really. He's a perfect example of a corporate high functioning sociopath.

And you know, nothing he says is going to be helpful. As I’m sure his lawyers have advised him. In fact I’m of the opinion that the best thing he could possibly bring to the situation is silence.

 

[laggyteabag]

Fuck that shit. They are all equally terrible and worse than scum in my opinion.

BTW, I aw the part with Insomniac, so now they're on my shit list too.

I mean, at this point, it really is a discussion of "which shit company is the shittiest of them all", but I would definitely argue that corporate greed - and even crunch - are lesser offences than literally assaulting your workforce.

Like hey, Anthem may have been a failed soulless cash-grab of a game which exploited its workforce, but at least no one who made it was attacked.

Don't get me wrong though, all of these companies deserve what is coming to them, and EA could definitely stand to go through a change of leadership of its own - but one is shitty business, and the other is literally illegal.

 

[Agema]

As if one guy at the top should be aware of everything his 1000's of employees do.

In a sense, he should - at least in terms of a big picture awareness. A company that has a lot of sexual harassment is likely to have a lot of sexual harassment complaints lodged with managers or HR. That information should be filtering up to executives, because it risks substantial damage to the company. They can then choose to deal with it, or ignore it.

We could perhaps understand there might be a institutional failure where such information is not passed to the board. That is perhaps some defence that executives didn't know, but then it's still their fault that they hadn't set up robust systems to ensure they would know. Given all the stuff that's gone down over the last 10-20 years, you'd think every smart corporate board of major companies would pro-actively be trying to find out whether they had any problems with sexual abuse/ harassment and ensuring anti-harassment policies were solid.

Generally, I think it not should be a shock that an industry which has been so male-centric since its inception right up to the modern day might have something of a problem with women. And perhaps given the industry leaders will have themselves grown up through and become used to that environment, we might understand that they may be more likely than many corporate bosses to have a blind spot.

 

[Agema]

And you know, nothing he says is going to be helpful. As I’m sure his lawyers have advised him. In fact I’m of the opinion that the best thing he could possibly bring to the situation is silence.

Kotick is probably too busy working on what his exposure to this mess is, and if it's bad enough working out the best strategy to save his job.

 

[Samtemdo8]

Like hey, Anthem may have been a failed soulless cash-grab of a game which exploited its workforce, but at least no one who made it was attacked.

As far as you know....

 

[Gordon_4]

Kotick is probably too busy working on what his exposure to this mess is, and if it's bad enough working out the best strategy to save his job.

His personal and professional exposure is negligible. While Activision is the parent, and they mandate certain things (KPIs mainly) to Blizzard they do not in any meaningful way run Blizzard in its day to day operations. That would be down to (I think) J. Allan Brack and former execs like Chris Metzen and Mike Morehime. You know, they guys every Blizzard tragic has hoped and dreamed would come back and save it from Bobby's machinations and return the company to its former glory.

The glory that apparently has resulted in about 90% of the complaints being investigated, up to and including driving one poor soul to suicide. And occurred long before being assimilated by the least charismatic Borg collective ever.

As far as you know....

Its utterly depressing that you can say that to be honest.

 

[BrawlMan]

Like hey, Anthem may have been a failed soulless cash-grab of a game which exploited its workforce, but at least no one who made it was attacked.

They were attacked mentally and constantly gaslighted. Not as bad as the rape and sexual assault, but only barely a super small fraction better. EA still has racial discrimination, so yeah, the assholes at top don't get any sympathies from me.

Don't get me wrong though, all of these companies deserve what is coming to them, and EA could definitely stand to go through a change of leadership of its own - but one is shitty business, and the other is literally illegal.

I get the point, but I could not give a shit at this point. They are all worthless in my eyes. Also, EA sold gambling to kids, teens, and adults with addiction problems, while trying to claim "it's not gambling!". That is too literally illegal, so they can fuck off.

 

[Dalisclock]

They were attacked mentally and constantly gaslighted. Not as bad as the rape and sexual assault, but only barely a super small fraction better. EA still has racial discrimination, so yeah, the assholes at top don't get any sympathies from me.

Wait, what? Could you point me to WTF Is up with that? I tried searching and keep getting articles on "Anti-Racism" measures by EA, which could be(probably is) standard Corpo PR shit.

I know EA is garbage but I hadn't heard that particular aspect of it before now.

 

[BrawlMan]

I know EA is garbage but I hadn't heard that particular aspect of it before now.

That one is more so, they won't allow blacks or races as CEOs despite having the qualifications or better. They allow a PoC to direct a sports game every once in a while or have a black/PoC athlete on the cover, but not much else. Because they know most other CEOs of those types would not allow such abuse or the assholes fear of being replace or not getting all the money in the world.

 

[CastletonSnob]

I watched the Jimquisition episode about Activision-Blizzard. Just burn the gaming industry to the ground, like how people used to burn houses to get rid of the plague. I really don't give a shit anymore.

And this isn't even about "cancel culture" or "being woke". This is about basic goddamn human decency.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Kotick is probably too busy working on what his exposure to this mess is, and if it's bad enough working out the best strategy to save his job.

The problem is the company is too big for that. Kotick can be made aware this is happening, issue order to fire people or have HR deal with the reprimand and move on. Think of all the employees in every fuck sub studio activision deals with. Kotick would not know of this most likely as the studio itself would try to keep it as internal as possible.

Even if he knew he probably did not know the severity to which it was happening until the lawsuit appeared. Rest assured he knows now, and he is probably remaining silent while the lawyers put together whatever plan of action they need.

If he does nothing and takes no noticable action then ill happily add him to the pile for the burn it all party.

 

[Samtemdo8]

His personal and professional exposure is negligible. While Activision is the parent, and they mandate certain things (KPIs mainly) to Blizzard they do not in any meaningful way run Blizzard in its day to day operations. That would be down to (I think) J. Allan Brack and former execs like Chris Metzen and Mike Morehime. You know, they guys every Blizzard tragic has hoped and dreamed would come back and save it from Bobby's machinations and return the company to its former glory.

The glory that apparently has resulted in about 90% of the complaints being investigated, up to and including driving one poor soul to suicide. And occurred long before being assimilated by the least charismatic Borg collective ever.



Its utterly depressing that you can say that to be honest.

What can I say, I follow a "never meet your heroes" logic.

 

[Dalisclock]

That one is more so, they won't allow blacks or races as CEOs despite having the qualifications or better. They allow a PoC to direct a sports game every once in a while or have a black/PoC athlete on the cover, but not much else. Because they know most other CEOs of those types would not allow such abuse or the assholes fear of being replace or not getting all the money in the world.

Can you post links? I believe it but I want to see sources on something this shitty.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

I'll wait for the court proceedings to start before making a judgement on this.

 

[BrawlMan]

Can you post links? I believe it but I want to see sources on something this shitty.

I'll see what I can find later. I do admit this one came from a Jim Sterling video way back. I don't remember which one. Feel free to look if you find anything before me.

 

[SilentPony]

I'll wait for the court proceedings to start before making a judgement on this.

Despite what is being alleged, I doubt this will make it to court. Things will go quiet for a few months, maybe a year, and then California will announce they're dropping some of the allegations in a deal where Blizzard admits no wrong, pays an undisclosed amount to parties who can no longer speak about what happened, Bobby Kotick will announce he's stepping aside to work on his charity Hot Tubs Without Borders, Jim Sterling will make a video about it, and people will move on once Starcraft 3 is teased.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Activision Blizzard Employees Plan Walkout Wednesday To Protest Working Conditions [Update]

Workers demand Activision Blizzard improve conditions for women and other marginalized groups

kotaku.com

Seems the employees are doing a walkout tomorrow. and now more than 2000 people have come forward about their experiences.

The more time passes the crazier this gets.

 

[Bedinsis]

Activision Blizzard Employees Plan Walkout Wednesday To Protest Working Conditions [Update]

Workers demand Activision Blizzard improve conditions for women and other marginalized groups

kotaku.com

Seems the employees are doing a walkout tomorrow. and now more than 2000 people have come forward about their experiences.

The more time passes the crazier this gets.

I hope this leads to substantive change. I suspect it's a fool's hope.

The article talks about when Riot Games had a similar walkout. What ever came of that?