Think we are about to see another wave.

[Vipes]

...I was recently threatened by their customer service...

I'm sorry, what now? Mind explaining a bit? Because if that happened, that's horrible.

[Penthea]

The other half are saying "nope, these allegations are lies and we agree, women need to be……."

Oh yes I'm sure the state of California spent a ludicrous amount of money to launch a two year investigation into one of the biggest gaming companies in the world, and are willing to spend even more in a legal battle against them just because some women are too sensitive and don't know how to take a joke. Totally not because there is a real problem with people abusing their power and money to the point of endangering lives...sure it's unheard of for that to happen, right?

Man, some people...I don't mean you of course, I mean those you speak of.

Anyone who thinks it's all lies are kidding themselves. No one gets investigated for two years by the state for no reason. You have to do something really big to earn that sort of attention. A massive wealthy company doesn't gets sued by the state purely because of baseless rumours. The state of California clearly have some proof if they're taking it this far.

And lets keep something very important in mind. This issue with severe mistreatment of female staff is not only two years old. Only the investigation is two years old. The issue would have to be far older than that to warrant that sort of attention. Never mind the fact that Alex Afrasiabi was internally known as Blizzard's Bill Cosby and he joined Blizzard in around 2004. He left Blizzard last year super quietly, unusual for someone so high up the chain, and it confused many people. Mystery solved I suppose.

[Alxyzntlct]

I'm sorry, what now? Mind explaining a bit? Because if that happened, that's horrible.

I don't know ElciaDeiLinus' specific circumstances, but it's not an uncommon occurrence.

Blizzard's Customer Support operates off of a copy/paste instruction system at this point where any issue brought up gets an immediate pre-programmed response in the hopes that it'll solve a problem and make the person go away. If it doesn't and the person responds, someone might take a few minutes to try and help. Usually it takes 2-3 iterations to get someone to actually pay attention to an issue and look into the details.

What this has lead to is if someone asking for assistance is pushy in any way, the customer support team will flag a sub-clause in their support instructions that if any players get belligerent with Customer Service, then the player could be banned from the game.

And they are quick to toss that out there if they feel someone is getting frustrated in any way.

The worst is when an issue gets flagged that is already known and Blizzard has decided not to do anything about. At which point if a player responds back even once to the CS team, they'll swing back with that clause immediately. Which is what the trend has become in the last couple of years.

One of many reasons why I'm glad to be done and away from anything and everything involving Activision/Blizzard. Only game company I know of that seems to actively despise their playerbase.

[Neoyoshi]

I really don't want to see a crap ton of people lose their jobs, but there is this part of me that would love to see Blizzard get shut down; but I do fight against that impulse; I don't wish to see hard
working people lose their livelihoods, but how on earth does one even begin to reverse the toxic nature and the culture that's plagued that company for years without putting a lot of peoples jobs at risk?

[rance-sama]

To think that Blizzard would sink this low. The memories of their decent games (Starcraft, Diablo 1 & 2 and Warcraft 1, 2 & 3) will remain, but it is really hard to see them like this.
Then again, Karma is a cruel mistress.

[Shinxwildflower]

I'm sorry, what now? Mind explaining a bit? Because if that happened, that's horrible.

There's, to be frank, more then likely other parts of the story being left out. Why do I say this? Because I help on the CS forum of wow. When folks come to there, saying they was threatened, it's more often then not because they kept opening tickets on matters because folks were unable to take 'No' for an answer. Yes, there had been folks whom damned to get X, Y and Z and think if they kept nagging them, they'd give in. So much so, there was a thread where the OP was basically spamming tickets basically insulting and wanting something from them in the same breath.

[Caitlyn]

I like to see how people stand up against sexual harassment and (Activition) Blizzard as a whole. If you got forced in such a working field, the product is cursed to get worse.

But unfortuneately, nothing will change.

Players are still too addicted to WoW, Overwatch and Diablo. After all these fails (Warcraft 3 Reforged, You dont have phones, China, WoW Shadowlands, mass layoffs, etc), there are still players who defend Blizzard. They may boycott it for a week and then return to it as nothing ever happend. Just wait for Diablo 4 or Overwatch 2 and everything is forgotten.

Even when Blizzard is guilty, they had to pay an amount where their CEOs will laugh about it. More employees got fired. WoW got F2P. And thats it.

The same thing did happen with Riot 2-3 years ago. Its just sad, that big companies will never face consequences.

I deeply hope, SE will never be like Blizzard.

[Wavaryen]

I like to see how people stand up against sexual harassment and (Activition) Blizzard as a whole. If you got forced in such a working field, the product is cursed to get worse.

But unfortuneately, nothing will change.

Players are still too addicted to WoW, Overwatch and Diablo. After all these fails (Warcraft 3 Reforged, You dont have phones, China, WoW Shadowlands, mass layoffs, etc), there are still players who defend Blizzard. They may boycott it for a week and then return to it as nothing ever happend. Just wait for Diablo 4 or Overwatch 2 and everything is forgotten.

Even when Blizzard is guilty, they had to pay an amount where their CEOs will laugh about it. More employees got fired. WoW got F2P. And thats it.

The same thing did happen with Riot 2-3 years ago. Its just sad, that big companies will never face consequences.

I deeply hope, SE will never be like Blizzard.

This is true, If my wife did not forbid me from going back. I would just sigh get mad about it, and move on. Social media taught me pretty well how to get over things quickly to the next problem.



I mean I still got some wow friends who msg me telling me that, No wonder the game is so bad right now. All the women working on it. So yaaaaaa, some people just don't care.

[TeraRamis]

J. Allen Brack issued a response to the ongoing issues:

https://www.wowhead.com/news/blizzar...lawsuit-323531

Holy crap is that Gloria Steinem name drop cringe.

*Edit* Also, this video kind of expands on what a scumbag this guy is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoRp1f0mpO0

[Rae88]

Uninstalled Battlenet yesterday. Won't ever be going back to WoW or any Acti-Blizz games. That company is utterly disgusting.