Think we are about to see another wave.

[Roeshel]

in all honesty... not much will change.

will people leave? of course

but the unfortunate reality is... mmo's are a drug, and WoW has dedicated addicts, as does FFXIV, but already their forums are full of deniers, and the typical "lesson here is dont hire women" which one expects one their forums. I dont foresee a huge hit to their population. the people really leaving are fed up with the game, this just provides an extra reason to leave maybe a bit sooner than they would have. some will return, some will bounce in and out less frequently, but it is hard to just set aside that much time and emotional investment. I know, I have been there

if little else, this just reaffirms why I parted ways with them. sad to see failure at this level, but then, I am no longer invested there. I do hope they change, and survive, but really, deep down, I can honestly say, I dont care that much either way. as people say, they made their bed....

According to your logic then:

1) Work is a drug
2) Internet is a drug
3) Shopping is a drug
...
∞) Anything that you can get addicted to is a drug

The reality is that games are games and drugs are drugs. Both can lead to addiction. However, this doesn't mean that both are the same thing.

[Vovoen]

Just sent in a request to delete my Battle.net account, I was done with WoW anyway but this is the nail in the coffin.

[Liam_Harper]

but the unfortunate reality is... mmo's are a drug, and WoW has dedicated addicts, as does FFXIV, but already their forums are full of deniers, and the typical "lesson here is dont hire women" which one expects one their forums. I dont foresee a huge hit to their population. the people really leaving are fed up with the game, this just provides an extra reason to leave maybe a bit sooner than they would have. some will return, some will bounce in and out less frequently, but it is hard to just set aside that much time and emotional investment. I know, I have been there

That's mainly their vocal toxic group, they have a good number who are shocked and it's hard to gauge how many are silently leaving in disgust. Normally I'd agree that not much would happen over the usual Blizzard scandals, but this is rather big, on top of a mass exodus and massive streamer influence and at a time when multiple new MMO's have launched. I doubt the company will collapse or anything, but it's going to have a big impact.

[Kes13a]

That's mainly their vocal toxic group, they have a good number who are shocked and it's hard to gauge how many are silently leaving in disgust. Normally I'd agree that not much would happen over the usual Blizzard scandals, but this is rather big, on top of a mass exodus and massive streamer influence and at a time when multiple new MMO's have launched. I doubt the company will collapse or anything, but it's going to have a big impact.

oh, I agree certainly, people will cut the cord in regards to this, either vocally or silently. and it is a good time for that. I just dont see it killing off the game to the extent people think. it might, but THAT I would find surprising

[Theodric]

I don't doubt that there will be those who leave in disgust, though personally I'd wonder why the previous controversies did nothing to persuade them to do so.

[Xathyr]

I don't doubt that there will be those who leave in disgust, though personally I'd wonder why the previous controversies did nothing to persuade them to do so.

Because it was something more forgivable than what just happened, simple as that, allowing bots to run wild or microtransactions or bad story has not the same weight and seriousness as sexual harassment.

[Theodric]

Because it was something more forgivable than what just happened, simple as that, allowing bots to run wild or microtransactions or bad story has not the same weight and seriousness as sexual harassment.

As mentioned earlier on in the thread, this isn't the first incident of discrimination taking place within the company in question. Who knows? Maybe some of this harassment could have been caught and dealt with sooner had those employed by the company previously caught using Twitter to attack men and Caucasians been disciplined appropriately.

Instead, nothing was done about the matter and that was a far more visible and public incident than the ones outlined in the legal case.

I'm against all discrimination, personally - not just selectively and I hope this won't turn into another one sided investigation where only one aspect of rot within a company is exposed and dealt with, leading to doubling down on troubling trends and the formation of convenient scapegoats. Certainly, a portion of the Twitter sphere is attempting to paint it as such!

At any rate, here's hoping FFXIV doesn't veer in a similar direction in terms of controversies. I suspect it won't, though.

[Xathyr]

As mentioned earlier on in the thread, this isn't the first incident of discrimination taking place within the company in question.

But it is indeed the first time it is made public after a 2 years investigation of the state agency, so is no longer rumors or accusations made by employees, made trending and happened just in a good time after some other recent stuff, this news had the perfect timing and sustended credibility to make most people realize what's going on.

[Bright-Flower]

Gamer boycotts don't tend to actually be effective, but who knows. Blizzard's reputation may already be damaged enough at this point for this to be significant, but I'm not expecting any real longterm impact from this. I'm not excusing the things done, but most people are generally unaware of or don't care enough about these issues so long as they're getting their games. Ubisoft wasn't exactly shut down after the allegations came out regarding their employees etc. Unless this piggybacks/combos hard off of people being dissatisfied with blizzard after shadowlands etc I don't think it will have a huge impact on their numbers.

[Lauront]

I'm against all discrimination, personally - not just selectively and I hope this won't turn into another one sided investigation where only one aspect of rot within a company is exposed and dealt with, leading to doubling down on troubling trends and the formation of convenient scapegoats. Certainly, a portion of the Twitter sphere is attempting to paint it as such!

That's the thing, taking it and turning it into some attempt to lecture from a pedestal to people who aren't inclined to behave in this way in the first place and subject them to more self-righteous rants on the topic is exactly the wrong response to it, assuming the allegations are true.

Personally I would've thought their very public and rather poor taste handling and white knighting of a very large state actor regarding a province it had its eyes on would be the breaking point, but I suppose it was not.

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 . . .

It's almost like it's a chameleon effect for such people. A way for the predator to conceal its fangs and claws.