Board 8 > Activision Blizzard being sued California for a toxic work environment.

(+) Yeah! (+)

The "`smart" people have been jumping ship out of there for months. They knew this was coming. Hostile dismissal of any accusations probably feels like their only play because the case against them is likely very strong to have come out this openly. Really though, they harassed an employee into committing suicide on a company trip. Good luck cleaning that up.

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RikkuAlmighty posted...

EDIT: as a career defense attorney with an inherent defense bias, Nanis needs to stop being dumb about the wage discrepancy thing.

Nanis actively refuses to learn, and has said the same sort of things for years. You are better off ignoring/blocking him rather than explaining to him for the 50th time why what he said was wrong.

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I think the best thing out of all this, is given Blizzard's history of immediately distancing themselves from past employees that have had unfounded accusations levelled against them, they then turn around and pretend that they are innocent until proven guilty.

You can't have it both ways. You can't virtue signal when it is convenient and then try to fall back on reason when its your head on the chopping block.

Blizzard deserves their day in court, and while I'm sure a lot of the stuff in there is embellished or untrue, there is no doubt in my mind that their workplace is a toxic cesspit being led by the worst kind of petulent man children.

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Whoopsie Poopsie

https://twitter.com/POCGamer/status/1418229945659117573?s=19

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My friend at Blizzard had no clue about this lawsuit until I sent him the article. Sounds like there's going to be a lot of chatter in the office today.

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Also lol

https://twitter.com/HBJohnXuandou/status/1418237274077028352?s=19

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Ya, their response is pretty tone deaf. It blows my mind a company that big didn't have proper PR vetting to say "Hey man, let's not go into a political rant in our statement about unrproven, but serious accusations". Even if everything in the suit is false, this is the exact wrong thing to do. Especially given the type of people that latch on to these stories to fuel their social media content.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

Also lol

https://twitter.com/HBJohnXuandou/status/1418237274077028352?s=19

Ehhhhh, if I was in his position I would be searching my name too. Stories like these have a habit of snowballing as other people see $$$ and try to get in on the action

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

Also lol

https://twitter.com/HBJohnXuandou/status/1418237274077028352?s=19

Matt Damon.

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https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1418209849133969408?s=19

Only tangentially related but what incredible timing for this specific Schreier deep dive

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BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

Ehhhhh, if I was in his position I would be searching my name too. Stories like these have a habit of snowballing as other people see $$$ and try to get in on the action

Yeah, I'm in the same boat.

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I never understood the drama behind WC3 reforged, it was a perfectly cromulent remake. I guess I'm not at the l33t g0su level to notice minor engine differences, but it was great to have that game be accessible in 2021, like the BW remaster.

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I'm sure Ubisoft is plenty happy to have their foot out of the fire for once.

There was literally a new Ubisoft story yesterday and nobody cared next to this juggernaut of a case.

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LinkMarioSamus posted...

A slow-motion trainwreck, wow.

Activision or Nanis?

(I love you nanis)

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got him
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UshiromiyaEva posted...

I'm sure Ubisoft is plenty happy to have their foot out of the fire for once.

There was literally a new Ubisoft story yesterday and nobody cared next to this juggernaut of a case.

The one about the pirate game? That was a good read. More interesting than the Warcraft 3 one but more people are gonna see this now.

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@UltimaterializerX this is your topic

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Always ahead of the curve

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Yikes. I wonder if it'll actually change anything or will the flames subside with time and things get settled quietly.

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They'll probably put out a "We're sorry and we are to work hard to change things" and then nothing will happen.

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Grand Kirby posted...

They'll probably put out a "We're sorry and we are to work hard to change things" and then nothing will happen.

This is a couple steps beyond a situation where that will work imo.

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The public apology usually works when it's a suit brought on by employees.

When a state department comes after you, it's a little harder to brush aside

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GTM posted...

Activision or Nanis?

(I love you nanis)

Obviously Activision

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BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

I never understood the drama behind WC3 reforged, it was a perfectly cromulent remake. I guess I'm not at the l33t g0su level to notice minor engine differences, but it was great to have that game be accessible in 2021, like the BW remaster.

from what i can tell, the main complaint is that they completely broke ranked online play, like the ladders just don't exist anymore. not just in the remake, but for the original game as well

i think they introduced a bunch of random other bugs? i didn't super follow it, i'm more of a brood war/sc2 guy

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Grand Kirby posted...

They'll probably put out a "We're sorry and we are to work hard to change things" and then nothing will happen.

They already chose to put out a different message

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I dont need proof to know that Activision is loathsome regardless.
But geez, that loathsome?
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One of my friends from high school who's been a World of Warcraft subscriber the entire existence of that game canceled her subscription today because of the blizzard stuff

Now it's real

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Nanis23 posted...

@UltimaterializerX this is your topic

I have LTM blocked, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that. It seems really silly having Board 8 beef when the dude isn't even 0.1% as awful as the piece of trash working at companies like Blizzard and Ubisoft. There are people who deserve my ire; most Board 8ers are not on that list. I won't even be snarky and use old troll catch phrases and such. This is just legitimately awful behavior from Blizzard and "I told you all so" is just inappropriate. These people need to be sued, charged, and very probably jailed. A girl was bullied to death. That has to be murder in SOME degree.

And LTM I unblocked you on my main. I'm willing to be cool if you are and end this petty back and forth junk.

ShadowDoomBlaze posted...

It seems really silly having Board 8 beef when the dude isn't even 0.1% as awful as the piece of trash working at companies like Blizzard and Ubisoft.

I know, right? there are barely anyone who is actually really awful here compared to the type of people you can see IRL
And yet some people here have a zero tolerance to others, how weird is that

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ninkendo posted...

One of my friends from high school who's been a World of Warcraft subscriber the entire existence of that game canceled her subscription today because of the blizzard stuff

Now it's real

Blizzard has already been drowning in bad press while providing undeniably bad content for World of Warcraft.

I really do wonder if the end is coming. Wont be soon, but the loyal base is certainly dwindling.

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banananor posted...

from what i can tell, the main complaint is that they completely broke ranked online play, like the ladders just don't exist anymore. not just in the remake, but for the original game as well. additionally, i think you just stright up couldn't play online at all for a few weeks (?) but they fixed it

not to mention, the original game now also downloads the entirety of the remaster (even if you didn't buy it) and is like 10 times the size

i think they introduced a bunch of random other bugs as well. i didn't super follow it, i'm more of a brood war/sc2 guy

I don't know if they fixed any of it, but when Reforged came out in reminded me of WC3(I ddnt buy Reforged) and was like "you know what would be cool, hopping into some completely casual 4v4 RT for fun". Guess what completely didn't exist anymore?

They decided not only would they remaster WC3 and sell it as a new game, but in the process render the old game we paid for and were loyal to for a long time unplayable.

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So if Blizzard is so evil what's the deal with Allen coming up on presentations with a rainbow shirt/pin, pretty much screaming "we are a progressive company"

Is he actually a good guy surrounded by shit people or is it just a lie

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Are you really that thick, nanis
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KingButz posted...

Are you really that thick, nanis

Yes

He's just gonna keep doing this shit as long as you guys keep responding.
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oh boy, who's gonna teach nanis about rainbow capitalism?

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I have a couple friends who work there and I believe they still do. Blizzard is a megacorp so I'm sure there are plenty of teams that have an ok culture. But at the top, the culture is pervasive.

This is also not surprising or very unusual for the game industry. There's a 100% chance other game devs have committed suicide due to work harassment. And the drunk frat culture defined the tech industry for decades. What's surprising is how this culture stayed around so long as the company got so big. The higher ups must have been fighting to keep the status quo.

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red13n posted...

Blizzard has already been drowning in bad press while providing undeniably bad content for World of Warcraft.

I really do wonder if the end is coming. Wont be soon, but the loyal base is certainly dwindling.

Don't worry, half of these people will be back with the next content patch, and the rest with the next expansion

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foolm0r0n posted...

There's a 100% chance other game devs have committed suicide due to work harassment.

obviously, but on a company trip?

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BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

Don't worry, half of these people will be back with the next content patch, and the rest with the next expansion

Sad but true.

Except it's probably more than half.

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Honestly if we're talking about retention in WoW and people always coming back no matter what, this could not have come at a worse time for Blizzard.

An enormous number of players and very prominent and influential content creators and streamers have started taking up FFXIV due to the lack fo WoW content, and especially when the 9.1 patch dropped for Shadowlands like half a year late and was incredible underwhelming (possibly connected to all this honestly). Worse, a vast majority of them are having great experiences and expressed that it's been a much better time for them even though their in the part of the game generally accepted to be garbage by the community. Such an absurdly large front lapsed chunk of the game is completely free to play that it was completely effortless for fans of these large personalities to jump in right alongside them.

It's been such an extememe exodus that it's actually having a damaging effect on the game's servers, the devs already taking about how they're going to have to increase server numbers and have been implementing expansion launch day policies for logouts and queues at a time that's supposed to be the absolute slowest period for the game's cycle, with the final major content patch of Shadowbringers dropping over a month ago and Endwalker being 4 months away.

Of all the Blizzard properties, WoW is the one that's actually in the MOST danger from this lawsuit. This was the last thing they needed right now.

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WoW numbers have been in collapse for years now. Everyone comes back with the next patch/expansion is just not true.

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I'm honestly surprised this topic isn't already much longer. Seems to be a good thing though since there isn't a bunch of dumb arguing going on. Unlike that disaster of a Twitter thread geez. Stuff like this always brings out the worst.

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I have a few people that would have spiraled this topic out of control on full block so they can't even see it.

Apparently not all of them, but the heavy hitters at least.

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HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

oh boy, who's gonna teach nanis about rainbow capitalism?

KingButz posted...

Are you really that thick, nanis

Hmm kind of
I know about "virtue signaling" and "rainbow washing" so I know it can be a cynical use
But I am legit wondering about that guy because he is going out of his way to do that (and it's not like he is doing it in Pride month or something)

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LGBTQ rights are supported by the majority of our population. Corporations, seeing this as a chance to appeal to that majority as potential consumers, go all-out during pride month with flashy displays of support (rainbow flags on social media and whatnot) to let consumers know that they're the "good guys". I don't know exactly how effective it is, but Americans are pretty fucking gullible and naive with regards to marketing. But that's how you can have a dissonance between a corporation supporting LGBTQ rights while simultaneously being extreme assholes on multiple other levels.

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no shit. i don't think anyone with half a brain expects corporations to be people.

the point is to make enough progress that corporations are pressured into doing the right thing when possible, even if it's for the wrong reasons

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banananor posted...

no shit. i don't think anyone with half a brain expects corporations to be people.

the point is to make enough progress that corporations are pressured into doing the right thing when possible, even if it's for the wrong reasons

Oh, I know. I was just trying to explain the situation to Nanis. Don't know if you have him ignored or whatever. Believe me, when those Nike ads and aftershave ads started leaning more progressive, that's always a good sign. It shows that market research indicates that more and more people support the message those ads are going for. It's not the marketing itself, but what the target audience is.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

I have a few people that would have spiraled this topic out of control on full block so they can't even see it.

Apparently not all of them, but the heavy hitters at least.

The irony is that in this particular case Ulti probably wouldn't derail it that much.

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What the hell is
Nanis23 posted...

"rainbow washing"

?

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Inviso posted...

LGBTQ rights are supported by the majority of our population. Corporations, seeing this as a chance to appeal to that majority as potential consumers, go all-out during pride month with flashy displays of support (rainbow flags on social media and whatnot) to let consumers know that they're the "good guys". I don't know exactly how effective it is, but Americans are pretty fucking gullible and naive with regards to marketing. But that's how you can have a dissonance between a corporation supporting LGBTQ rights while simultaneously being extreme assholes on multiple other levels.

I think a lot of it depends on how public facing the corporation is. When I worked at Macy's, it was openly LGBTQ friendly in the stores. Dealing with tens of millions of people a day will do that.

I couldn't tell you anything about how corporate may have been, though.

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