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

(+) Yeah! (+)

BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

which as I understand it is the main reason that the gap exists.

I am going to confidently state that this is not correct.

But by all means, lets see a source.

---

BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

which as I understand it

Contradictory statement

---

GuessMyUserName posted...

As a Canadian, I'd very easily say other Canadians have an incredibly tilted view of our country believing our shit doesn't stink because we're not as bad as Americans, and it's definitely an important mindset to shift out of.

case in point, BT is canadian

---

BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

I don't see how someone can identify "gender pay gaps" without accounting for all the factors that result in the "gaps" to begin with. On the surface women make less money on average, but that doesn't account for women that take extended leave for maternity leave, which as I understand it is the main reason that the gap exists.

Believe it or not, people do studies on this sort of thing that break down all these factors.

So they can be and are identified. This is part of my field.
---

explaining shit to BT is pointless, he's just going to ignore you guys and then in a few months he will spout the exact same "the wage gap is because of maternity leave!" crap in a different topic.

---

Can someone link to one of these studies that actually controls for all the mitigating factors (maternity leave, women being less agressive in negotiations, etc)

---

No but you can buy one for like $15,000 or so.
---

A walkout with a majority or possibly even all employees is interesting

On one hand its good that a significant employees feel strongly about this and that these issues need to be addressed

But also.... wouldn't a lot of the people doing this at least be people who tacitly enabled all this shitty behaviour, with a decent amount actually being the people doing the shitty behaviour?

---

CoolCly posted...

But also.... wouldn't a lot of the people doing this at least be people who tacitly enabled all this shitty behaviour, with a decent amount actually being the people doing the shitty behaviour?

yes, which is why it is significant and good that they are now taking actual action towards accountability

---

I doubt it's the case that anybody is going to hold *themselves* accountable. I'm sure everybody is just like "yeah, those harassers are real bad news. i wish they didn't harass anybody. i feel bad that happened and i didn't stop them but it certainly wasn't me!"

there's an imposter among us

---

Nanis23 posted...

I am also wondering about the performance of Activision Blizzard stock the past two days
It seems...unaffected by this, at all. Not even a scratch

But why? if it turns out they are guilty, won't it hurt them financially? I mean, they might have to pay compensations
And the worse thing - they public image of the company was hurt a lot by this. It might affect sales of future games

Stock is down 8% in the last two days. Maybe it finally affected it. Maybe not

---

GuessMyUserName posted...

As a Canadian, I'd very easily say other Canadians have an incredibly tilted view of our country believing our shit doesn't stink because we're not as bad as Americans, and it's definitely an important mindset to shift out of.

Yea I definitely think that with what has come out about the residential schools that Canadians really need to give our heads a shake and realize that we aren't squeaky clean and that our country has skeletons in the closet. That doesn't mean we need to be ashamed of who we are, but we need to take a second and reevaluate our history and try and right the wrongs that have been committed and that are still being committed.

---

CoolCly posted...

I doubt it's the case that anybody is going to hold *themselves* accountable. I'm sure everybody is just like "yeah, those harassers are real bad news. i wish they didn't harass anybody. i feel bad that happened and i didn't stop them but it certainly wasn't me!"

there's an imposter among us

Person A joins the protests and asks for more accountability because everyone is doing it.

Blizzard decides to fire some people as a show that they're being more accountable.

Person A is one of those fired because he was one of the harassers.

How is this a bad thing?
---

CoolCly posted...

I doubt it's the case that anybody is going to hold *themselves* accountable. I'm sure everybody is just like "yeah, those harassers are real bad news. i wish they didn't harass anybody. i feel bad that happened and i didn't stop them but it certainly wasn't me!"

there's an imposter among us

The demands include an end to forced arbitration (victims can now seek legal action against the perpetrators) and to hire a third party to oversee the HR reporting on harassment claims. So no it's not a literal mea culpa but any abusers standing in solidarity with these goals are helping themselves get owned. There's always gonna be shitty people in any movement, this entire thing is about being able to do something about that.

---

New letter to employees from Bobby Kotick where he admits their initial response was "tone deaf"

https://investor.activision.com/node/34326/pdf

---

Okay now I believe heads are rolling.

---

What are the "in-game changes" and what does it even have to do with any of this? And who is even gonna do it if the employees are walking out, lmao

---

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

What are the "in-game changes" and what does it even have to do with any of this? And who is even gonna do it if the employees are walking out, lmao

Likely, but not confirmed, to be related to Afrasiabi content in WoW:
https://kotaku.com/world-of-warcraft-removing-inappropriate-references-to-1847373517
---

The funniest part about this is that I remember GameFAQs board members from 10-15 years ago swearing up and down that Blizzard was the best game company ever.

---

Rango posted...

The funniest part about this is that I remember GameFAQs board members from 10-15 years ago swearing up and down that Blizzard was the best game company ever.

I mean 15 years ago it produced some amazing things. 25 years ago we loved Bill Cosby. Get over yourself lol

---

thriller is still one of the best albums ever.

annie hall is still one of the best movies ever.

etc.

---

Also it's a company. It can very naturally go from great to terrible over time, or vice versa.
---

Rango posted...

The funniest part about this is that I remember GameFAQs board members from 10-15 years ago swearing up and down that Blizzard was the best game company ever.

Blizzard would have had a similar culture of any gaming company back then but also was producing some of the highest quality games on the market while being far ahead of the curve on fostering a loyal community.

Not to mention providing solid support to the games you bought for 10+ years.

DoomTheGyarados posted...

25 years ago we loved Bill Cosby

WELL

https://twitter.com/Kotaku/status/1420451554478460929?s=19

---

UshiromiyaEva posted...

WELL

https://twitter.com/Kotaku/status/1420451554478460929?s=19

I know

---

DoomTheGyarados posted...

I mean 15 years ago it produced some amazing things. 25 years ago we loved Bill Cosby. Get over yourself lol

ABOUT THAT

https://kotaku.com/inside-blizzard-developers-infamous-bill-cosby-suite-1847378762

Apparently this reeeeeally bad looking picture is from 2013, one year before allegations against Cosby were extensively covered by the TV media. Still (and please correct me if I'm wrong here), but weren't the rumors about him quite rampant well before the mainstream media started picking it up?

So basically yeah, I doubt that pic is an innocent homage to their favorite 80s family sitcom.

---

Dammit all

Oh well, it's damning enough to warrant multiple consecutive posts. How fucking sleazy do you have to be to proudly take that picture.

---

Ehhhhhh, this was over a year before any of the Cosby shit came to light, this might just be an example of REALLY unfortunate timing. It's absolutely hilarious though

---

Yeah, reading up on this some more, they named it the Cosby suite because they had a meeting room where the carpet looked like Cosby's sweater. I'm going to officially call bullshit on this Kotaku tripe, unless they have a picture from after the Cosby sexual assaults came to light

---

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/9acb85d348b577cfd2864f39f40cb196.jpg

---

So people drinking and hanging out at a convention is now against the law? This Alfasrabi guy sounds like a total fucking creep, and most likely deserved to be fired, but I don't understand how one creep bag justifies starting a holy Kotaku Social Justice Crusade

---

yikes

---

sigh

---

It just amazes me the complete lack of critical thinking involved here, and the willingness to just full stop believe any random shit people see on the internet that suits their world view. People don't like Blizzard because it's a garbage country, so they see a completely baseless civil lawsuit and lose their shit over it. I agree with taking Blizzard down a peg, but it should be because they are a garbage company making garbage games, not because a few people in a company with thousands of employees were creeps and got fired for it.

Absolutely blows my mind that someone can objectively look at the typical Kotaku garbage "journalism" and say "Yep, I am going to put zero critical though into this and just take the writer's opinion and keep spewing it on the internet"

If there was any actual credence to the accusations in the California lawsuit, what they are accusing are very serious CRIMINAL charges, so why would they ignore that and file a civil lawsuit? It makes literally zero sense unless their goal is to take their boring beurocratic jobs and try to cash in on some Social Justice points

---

This all reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer gets accused of sexual assault. The Cosby Suite is Homer sleeping nude in an oxygen tent to give himself sexual powers

---

Alright, I full blocked BT so he won't be able to post in here anymore.

---

If not for my likely neurotic aversion to the block feature, he'd be the one person here who I would block. I'm surprised you held on this long.

---

Unlike other users on the list, people don't usually bite at BTs bullshit and just ignore him on their own wholesale, so there's rarely a time when it results in an actual chain of posts.

Only so much I can take though. Also he started posting in the FFXIV topic and I don't wanna see his face there.

---

Cosby allegations have been known for decades.

GuessMyUserName posted...

As a Canadian, I'd very easily say other Canadians have an incredibly tilted view of our country believing our shit doesn't stink because we're not as bad as Americans, and it's definitely an important mindset to shift out of.

This is absolutely right, this happens all over the world I was more rolling my eyes at one specific statement. However, I do think that poor US Labour laws are actually very relevant to this subject.

---

ghostcrawler no =(

i haven't' looked into it but from i've seen claims that there was Cosby stuff going around before that picture was taken. unless there was literally no Cosby stuff in the zeitgeist at that time i have a real hard time believing the sweater and ugly boardroom defense

---

Didn't you guys know that only after formal charges are filed can you assume someone might have done something bad?

Unless it's against a company. Then it still doesn't count.
---

In everyone else's defense, nobody was really responding to BT and he was just rambling like a drunk at that point. But yea better to keep him blocked

---

Yeah, we were really just shit posting in his general direction. Or at least I was
---

Oh naw I didn't mean to imply people in here were dropping the ball, I meant that I've reached my limit for his solo posts.

---

I don't think Cosby's misdeeds were in the general consciousness until after 2013, starting in 2014. Saying otherwise is historical revisionism.

---

PrinceOfKoopas posted...

I don't think Cosby's misdeeds were in the general consciousness until after 2013, starting in 2014. Saying otherwise is historical revisionism.

https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/bill-cosby-trial-complete-
timeline-happened-2004/story?id=47799458

---

red13n posted...

https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/bill-cosby-trial-complete-
timeline-happened-2004/story?id=47799458

Yeah, that... demonstrates what I said! Nothing went "viral" until 2014 and that's when a bunch of "fresh accusations" happened.

The stuff that happened 8 years before was... a lot more quiet. And settled. Reasonable that Activision people wouldn't think about it in 2013.

Edit: As proof of what I'm saying, I'll point out The Cosby Show was still being syndicated on TV until the 2014 fresh accusations.

---

I cant say for sure what the Activision people did or did not know about at the time, but the rumblings of Cosby stuff had definitely been their way into the mainstream by 2013

https://ew.com/article/2016/02/19/30-rock-bill-cosby-joke-carlock/

like yeah, not totally blown up yet, but certainly a thing you could be aware of by then

(Also this from around the time of the earlier allegations

https://slate.com/culture/2014/12/bill-cosby-rape-allegations-tina-fey-brought-them-up-on-saturday-night-live-s-weekend-update-in-2005-video.html)
---

Cosby stuff has been around for decades.

People just didn't give a damn until Hannibal Burgess said shit because the entire industry and consumers like to plug their ears.

Like, we shit on him now, but until he got convicted people would still have hate people for going after Cosby in the same way as if you were trying to go after Mr Roger.

---

Yeah, those sources are all, "didnt make waves at the time" and "30 Rock Called Out Bill Cosby Five Years Ago. We Just Missed It."

Activision sucks but it's plausible they missed it, too! (None of this excuses the allegations in the California lawsuit or what employees are saying now, but the Kotaku report using that photo in their head thing paints a picture that might not be true.)

---