Think we are about to see another wave.

[Kes13a]

Enormous company-wide meetings at both headquarters this morning.

Though for entirely different reasons. One discussing clean-up, another preparation.

and likely a fair bit of "who talked?????"

[Ftail]

Can we not make jokes about this topic please? I know these jokes are well intentioned since they are mocking Activision Blizzard. However, this is one of the most abhorrent circumstances I’ve witnessed in a long while.

For Bill Cosby people can write it off as just one evil person abusing his power who needs to get punished.

But the fact a woman at Blizzard was sexually harassed to the point she committed suicide is nothing to joke at. Her nudes were spread around the office during a company retreat for her to be humiliated in front of everyone. Her supervisor was found to have sex toys at the company retreat she committed suicide at.

This can’t just be written off as one guy being evil, there are so many people involved, I feel physically ill just thinking about it. I’m holding back tears for the poor girl.

[ReynTime]

I feel sorry for the people at Blizzard who aren't like this but I hope they take a massive hit with the lawsuit and boycott. Bobby Kotick is a freaking parasite and deserves to fall.

[Breakbeat]

But the fact a woman at Blizzard was sexually harassed to the point she committed suicide is nothing to joke at.

This isn't a fact, and it's the kind of jump people shouldn't be making. This person committed suicide at some undefined point in the future after being on this company trip.. details of which beyond the photos (the "items" brought with may be of no significance at all) haven't been examined. This person could have been suicidal before the trip, could have been suicidal after the trip, could have been suicidal for reasons outside of the trip, or any number of a million different reasons.

Nowhere has it been reported that this person definitely became suicidal and committed suicide specifically because of the events on that retreat. We should leave it at that until we know more facts.

[twixelstix]

I'm ready for the new wave of sprouts to poke their head into the game and explore.

On a more darker note... it really sucks to know that there's such a horrific, toxic environment behind the curtain of a game that I used to love playing daily since 2004.

[Shougun]

Agree. I read about Madeleine Roux lately and you are right, it is funny how reverse discrimination is accepted by Blizz. If she were targetting other colors and minorities in her tirade she would be all over the news etc. Sad state of racial harmony in corporate America at the moment.

From what I'm hearing coming out about the likes of some of the tech giants, they're little better. In fact many companies seem to have ingested this nonsense. Maybe they'll end up choking on it.

In my experience those that seem the most obsessed about things, just in general, but in this context that 'woke' was brought up, things like race, sex, inclusivity, seem to be the worst ones to represent the ideas themselves. Very much a do as I say not as I do, rules for thee not for me sort of thing. With limbo magic logic in order to suggest their fire is holy and they're part of a holy war that must be fought to the last crisp solider. You see it with people making massive simplifications and manipulations of the paradox of tolerance concept, often passed around social sites like twitter, reddit, and imgur, where they say "ey scientist says that it's okay to be intolerant if it's against the group I don't like! I'm only being logical, I follow the science (that I read only the title of)" meanwhile if they read it the author of that paradox gets very specific in what they think would justify such a situation (like physical harm, and that debates of ideas should be done openly and earnestly, and not shut down whenever possible).

"We need to make a safe and welcoming environment!" <-... sure okay.. I mean we don't want bubble boy but there is certainly room we might make things generally smoother for everyone, improve social blending, and that's good.

Next thing you read from that very person things like:

"And that's why this race / gender is not allowed ask questions, I don't call upon them, I find them a danger to society, I don't like them and they're not my friends, I will not allow them to speak at the podium, I've organized this session so that group x needs to stand in the back, and hear me complain about how ALL my problems are because of them, every single one of them, also their tears are delicious and theirs lives don't matter" (Awkwardly I've vaguely seen this argument used by not just one 'side', whenever used it's embarrassing. . )

Now of course that's a more extreme example, there is a lot of variation and nuance, that I'm sure some that are sincerely interested in the general topics find annoying to be lumped together, and boy do people love lumping the extremes in with the less extremes to make their points seem better, but it reminds me of the whole sports thing in the end. With this unfortunate consistent trait where the most active sport team is lead by the worst actors, after watching everyone long enough you just get this sense that the people making the biggest deals about anything are not worth listening to, if anything you don't want to do what they suggest because they clearly have no idea what they're talking about. "This will solve it guys! I will be your radiant savior" says the guy who is doing everything wrong.

Apathy is unfortunately non-shockingly very appealing- all the wolves leading the 'sports' teams making issues that may have had important elements to learn become blood wars instead that often hardly focus on the actual issues at hand. It's a coliseum and we're all signed up for something lol . . .

[Xathyr]

Honestly, this breaks my heart, I've been waiting to replay TBC since 2009, the TBC classic announcement made me kinda happy and i was willing to just forget all the shit that has been happening since a long time ago (you guys don't have phones, china professional player banned, warcraft 3 reforged, bots, the list is infinite) just to reexperience one of the best games I've ever played.

But there's a point where we just need to draw a line and do not accept certain things, this, is one of them.

We should always have some consumption ethics and not just because of "hey i'm just buying a game is not my problem what the company does" means we should just turn a blind eye and be part of the problem because it's only me (yeah, it's only you and that train of thoughts is shared with thousands of other people around the world, what did you expect?) that it's buying a game, what could 40$ dollars more or less do to the cause? Well, plenty actually.

I don't like FF14 as much as i do wow back in his good days, but, I'll rather support someone like Yoshi-P than a bunch of greedy pieces of shit.

[Ayuhra]

I'm ready for the new wave of sprouts to poke their head into the game and explore.

On a more darker note... it really sucks to know that there's such a horrific, toxic environment behind the curtain of a game that I used to love playing daily since 2004.

Horrific, toxic work environments in AAA studios are sadly not uncommon but I am glad that people aren't willing to just accept it anymore. "People" here being the gaming culture in general. It's something worth being angry about.

Watch "The Dark Side of the Video Game Industry" episode of Patriot Act on Netflix if you can, it goes into it.

I grew up in the industry myself and have heard the horror stories but luckily the studio I currently work for is half women. (edit: As am I. That might be relevant here. I am a woman.)

[Xlantaa]

To be honest. Activision Blizzard is a big company. Probably will get a sanction and move on. Maybe some "clean" and that. They will not "die" or even the reputation will be damaged. People have fish memory. In months they will forgot and return to pay for their products. And a lot of people is not aware of this kind of stuff unless they follow videogame press. Which is not too many anyway. May lost some players, sure, but not massively.

[Puremallace]

Enormous company-wide meetings at both headquarters this morning.

Though for entirely different reasons. One discussing clean-up, another preparation.

Yeah I can imagine the damage control meetings are very big and Yoshi P is trying to figure where to buy more servers lol