Poll of the Day > The State of California is suing Activision Blizzard

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papercup
07/22/21 7:50:25 PM
#1:


https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/activision-blizzard-sued-by-california-over-frat-boy-culture
For harassment, discrimination, retaliation. A female employee was sexually harassed so bad she committed suicide.

Fuck Blizzard.

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Mead
07/22/21 7:52:05 PM
#2:


Fuck places with that kind of culture. Its bullying and harassment at the very least and adults should not have to put up with that kind of childish bullshit.

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Entity13
07/22/21 7:58:48 PM
#3:


I'm sure Blizz needs this kind of publicity after the failure of WoW's 9.1 and the insane burst of new players in that critically acclaimed other MMO that mustn't be named but offers a free trial up to level 60 and the end of the first expansion. I'm sure this will go over very well for Blizz.

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funkyfritter
07/22/21 8:03:14 PM
#4:


I was reading up on this last night, gross stuff. I was on the fence about getting the d2 remaster later this year, but this made that decision much easier.

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lihlih
07/22/21 8:05:46 PM
#5:


When someone posted this on the Xbox Series X board, some fucking lunatic defended Blizzard by saying that sexual harassment at work is a normal thing.

How can people even think like that?
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papercup
07/22/21 8:07:51 PM
#6:


What the hell? What kind of creep could possibly defend this?

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Lokarin
07/22/21 8:08:30 PM
#7:


Only suing? why not criminal charges?

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Entity13
07/22/21 8:11:16 PM
#8:


At this point, such behavior has two defenders:

1) People who've been beaten down into submission so they accept this sort of thing, even if it happens to them or someone they care about.
2) Monsters who would totally do this sort of thing if they had an opportunity to do it, especially if such a thing was somehow acceptable (it's not, nor should ever be).

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Zareth
07/22/21 8:13:11 PM
#9:


Everyone good at Blizzard left a long time ago

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Clench281
07/22/21 8:13:51 PM
#10:


lihlih posted...
When someone posted this on the Xbox Series X board, some fucking lunatic defended Blizzard by saying that sexual harassment at work is a normal thing.

How can people even think like that?
Earlier today someone posted about a city council member using the N word, and we had someone come and seemingly defend the act of using slurs by questioning how an adult could "cry over mean words"

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Gaawa_chan
07/22/21 8:21:24 PM
#11:


lihlih posted...
When someone posted this on the Xbox Series X board, some fucking lunatic defended Blizzard by saying that sexual harassment at work is a normal thing.
How can people even think like that?
That's how they want the world to be, so they get made when victims don't lie down and take it.

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InfernalFive
07/22/21 8:23:13 PM
#12:


There's been a bunch of horror stories about Blizzard over the years. Too many to be laughed away honestly. Someone definitely needs to investigate

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adjl
07/22/21 8:39:54 PM
#13:


This seems like a good time to remind everyone that Ubisoft spent decades covering up widespread sexual harassment and assault issues to an extent comparable to the Vatican and continues to employ known abusers in high-level positions. These companies don't deserve your money.

Gaawa_chan posted...
That's how they want the world to be, so they get made when victims don't lie down and take it.

It's more an effort to reconcile the cognitive dissonance between wanting to keep enjoying the games the company sells and not wanting to support companies that do bad things. By pretending the companies aren't doing bad things (by whatever means are necessary), they get to keep enjoying the games. It's not so much an actual philosophy as a one-off comment that satisfies that need well enough for them to go back to ignoring the issue.

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DirtBasedSoap
07/22/21 8:41:58 PM
#14:


papercup posted...
What the hell? What kind of creep could possibly defend this?
I bet Zeus has a really good take on all of this

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Lokarin
07/22/21 8:52:01 PM
#15:


DirtBasedSoap posted...
I bet Zeus has a really good take on all of this

Maybe it'll be something like "well, they make a lot of money so obviously degeneracy is good for the economy"

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Metalsonic66
07/22/21 9:05:25 PM
#16:


Coincidentally, I started playing Overwatch again the other day

I was sexually harassed by a teabagging Hanzo

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Cruddy_horse
07/23/21 12:25:45 AM
#17:


How can you no quote the best part of the article?

According to the complaint, filed Tuesday in the Los Angeles Superior Court, female employees make up around 20% of the Activision workforce, and are subjected to a pervasive frat boy workplace culture, including cube crawls, in which male employees drink copious amounts of alcohol as they crawl their way through various cubicles in the office and often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees.
The agency alleges male employees play video games during the workday while delegating responsibilities to female employees, engage in sexual banter, and joke openly about rape, among other things.


There's no way this is real, the seems way too absurd to be the full story.
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ParanoidObsessive
07/23/21 12:30:39 AM
#18:


I'm kind of surprised that this is happening at all, considering people have known about a lot of that corporate culture in multiple major studios/publishers for years, and yet have done absolutely nothing to curtail it.

I'm also curious to see how far this goes, because it wouldn't be the first time that attempts to improve corporate workplace environments surge up only to falter and die not long after (see also, every time people online get their undies in a bunch over crunch-time).



Entity13 posted...
At this point, such behavior has two defenders:

1) People who've been beaten down into submission so they accept this sort of thing, even if it happens to them or someone they care about.
2) Monsters who would totally do this sort of thing if they had an opportunity to do it, especially if such a thing was somehow acceptable (it's not, nor should ever be).

3) People who don't give a shit because they've been conditioned to be apathetic, and who are essentially being asked to choose between people they don't know and a company that has actively brought joy into their lives.


Like it or not, most humans find it very easy to marginalize tragedy or crime that happens to "strangers". We also have a strong instinct to identify with things outside of ourselves, and in the last century or so that's become tied to brand identity and corporate loyalty (see also, Cola Wars, Console Wars, etc). People attacking a company we like feels like they're attacking us, so we tend to immediately become defensive and dismissive.

When it comes to video games, you also get a lot of "Fuck those whiners, I'd kill to have a job in video game development!" from people who have no real idea what video game development is actually like, and who really only see the fun side of things. So complainers can come across feeling like oversensitive ingrates.

Humans basically live in a series of concentric rings expanding outward from our own experience. The farther away a ring is, the less we tend to care about it (or anyone in it).

It's the same underlying premise behind the idea that "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic." Just with the added variable of how well you know the one man.
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BlackScythe0
07/23/21 12:32:18 AM
#19:


Lokarin posted...
Only suing? why not criminal charges?

Only poor people get in trouble. Blizzard will probably get fined less than a month of earnings (assuming they actually lose)

Cruddy_horse posted...
How can you no quote the best part of the article?

There's no way this is real, the seems way too absurd to be the full story.

Given how garbage the games Activision makes are I believe they are doing literally anything but working on games.
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Mead
07/23/21 12:32:31 AM
#20:


Cruddy_horse posted...
There's no way this is real, the seems way too absurd to be the full story

unfortunately theres no bottom to the levels of immaturity and depravity that some people engage in as soon as they feel like they can get away with it

you are lucky if youve never encountered it, but it is very real

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ParanoidObsessive
07/23/21 12:41:11 AM
#21:


BlackScythe0 posted...
Lokarin posted...
Only suing? why not criminal charges?

Only poor people get in trouble.

It's more that civil cases are easier to win than criminal ones (and criminal liability would be very difficult to prove in a case like this, where physical evidence would be mostly lacking). And when you're dealing with corporations, the punishments are generally the same anyway (loss of revenue to a lawsuit or fines, enforcement of regulations - and you can't really put a corporation in prison).
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Lokarin
07/23/21 12:41:41 AM
#22:


ParanoidObsessive posted...
It's more that civil cases are easier to win than criminal ones (and criminal liability would be very difficult to prove in a case like this, where physical evidence would be mostly lacking). And when you're dealing with corporations, the punishments are generally the same anyway (loss of revenue to a lawsuit or fines, enforcement of regulations - and you can't really put a corporation in prison).

However, the victim is already dead so losing costs nothing... double down and go full criminal

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ParanoidObsessive
07/23/21 12:52:25 AM
#23:


Lokarin posted...
However, the victim is already dead so losing costs nothing... double down and go full criminal

That's not actually what the case is about specifically. It's just a smaller piece of the larger puzzle.

Focusing on the death would likely make actual reform much less likely, because it wouldn't address the actual problem (and would probably be much easier to corporate lawyers to deflect).
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ArvTheGreat
07/23/21 12:52:37 AM
#24:


Did they just figure this out like the high level female armors wasnt enough hint

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bulbinking
07/23/21 1:00:40 AM
#25:


Entity13 posted...
in that critically acclaimed other MMO that mustn't be named but offers a free trial up to level 60 and the end of the first expansion

Is this the same game which has unlimited time free trial and can be played on ps4, pc, mac, and brand new enhanced hd ps5 version with a new expansion releasing on November 19th now available for preorder with bonuses to current game like an accessory boosting ex by 30% up to the current level 80 cap?

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Entity13
07/23/21 1:10:11 AM
#26:


bulbinking posted...
Is this the same game which has unlimited time free trial and can be played on ps4, pc, mac, and brand new enhanced hd ps5 version with a new expansion releasing on November 19th now available for preorder with bonuses to current game like an accessory boosting ex by 30% up to the current level 80 cap?

Mmaayybee...

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BlackScythe0
07/23/21 1:15:03 AM
#27:


bulbinking posted...
Is this the same game which has unlimited time free trial and can be played on ps4, pc, mac, and brand new enhanced hd ps5 version with a new expansion releasing on November 19th now available for preorder with bonuses to current game like an accessory boosting ex by 30% up to the current level 80 cap?

The game everyone is switching to enmasse because it's actually really good and a bunch of people never gave it a fair shake.
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bulbinking
07/23/21 1:24:24 AM
#28:


BlackScythe0 posted...
The game everyone is switching to enmasse because it's actually really good and a bunch of people never gave it a fair shake.

Started playing when it was 50% off with shadowbringer complete edition and its my favorite game now

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Zareth
07/23/21 1:26:38 AM
#29:


ParanoidObsessive posted...
and you can't really put a corporation in prison
If only

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Zeus
07/23/21 1:32:36 AM
#30:


Lokarin posted...
Only suing? why not criminal charges?

Why do you post such weird, stupid questions?

Cruddy_horse posted...
How can you no quote the best part of the article?

There's no way this is real, the seems way too absurd to be the full story.

Yeah, that feels more like satire than a real thing. Some of those are things no HR department would let companies get away with decades ago. Granted, if it's such a normal thing, I imagine they must have video and a ton of other documentation so it can't be that hard of a lawsuit.

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Gaawa_chan
07/23/21 2:29:04 AM
#31:


Cruddy_horse posted...
How can you no quote the best part of the article?
There's no way this is real, the seems way too absurd to be the full story.
You should talk to more women in the video game industry, or working class women in general. There are certain conditions in certain industries that outright facilitate abuse, and the video game industry is particularly notorious for having perfect conditions for it.

People in such industries will put up with a monumental amount of shit in order to keep a roof over their heads, and if the higher-ups who would normally be expected to prevent such things are actively participating in it, things can deteriorate to a great degree.

Zeus posted...
Some of those are things no HR department would let companies get away with decades ago.
No, HR departments are designed to protect the corporation, not the workers. HR departments will often outright facilitate or cover up abuse. You've failed to take into account that it is likely that the HR workers participated in the creation of the workplace environment.

I once worked in a place where the administration outright covered up the worst sort of abuse in order to prevent the company from being shut down. They did do the barest minimum and fired the perpetrator, but they hid the event from everyone else, including police, and the fucker went on to eventually assault several more people because the crime was never reported. Sure, there are laws about this, but when people have to choose between preventing abuse or job security... *shrug* Welcome to capitalism.

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LeetCheet
07/23/21 2:36:51 AM
#32:


Too bad most people are going forget all of these soon anyway.

Remember that lootbox controversy with EA a couple of years ago?

And all that shit with Gearbox and Epic games?

People tend to forget as soon as they get a new game from a franchise they like.
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BlackScythe0
07/23/21 3:11:58 AM
#33:


Holy fucking shit dude, I just saw a video on youtube that dug a bit into it. This is so bad, like apparently people from Europe offices would go to the US get harassed and shit.

Then there is this dude who always just kinda looked wimpy at Blizzcon

Alex Afrasiabi, the former Senior Creative Director of World of Warcraft at Blizzard Entertainment, was permitted to engage in blatant sexual harassment with little to no repercussions. During a company event (an annual convention called Blizz Con) Afrasiabi would hit on female employees, telling him he wanted to marry them, attempting to kiss them, and putting, his arms around them. This was in plain view of other male employees, including supervisors, who had to intervene and pull him off female employees. Afrasiabi was so known to engage in harassment of females that his suite was nicknamed the Crosby Suite after alleged rapist Bill Crosby.

Like holy shit there had been bad stories about the Blizzard culture for years but that...
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Sarcasthma
07/23/21 3:32:55 AM
#34:


Bill Crosby?

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Metalsonic66
07/23/21 3:34:26 AM
#35:


Sarcasthma posted...
Bill Crosby?
Yeah and his accomplices, Stills and Nash and Young

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Mead
07/23/21 3:34:29 AM
#36:


Sarcasthma posted...
Bill Crosby?

Bing Huxtable was his birth name

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BlackScythe0
07/23/21 3:40:55 AM
#37:


Sarcasthma posted...
Bill Crosby?

I don't know if the article mispelled it or not. TBH I wasn't paying enough attention and my mind just read it as Cosby.

Edit
Were assuming the DFEH meant Bill Cosby, but its not clear. A few even uglier things are described in the full complaint below, like how one employee committed suicide after extreme forms of sexual harassment.

Apparently it was in the lawsuit.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/22/22588215/activision-blizzard-lawsuit-sexual-harassment-discrimination-pay
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Nightwind
07/23/21 5:12:04 AM
#38:


Whelp, anybody who wants to move to ff14, I'll give you my referal codes so you can get goodies on joining.

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Sarcasthma
07/23/21 5:34:34 AM
#39:


Metalsonic66 posted...
Yeah and his accomplices, Stills and Nash and Young
Into the Darkness is a damn good song.

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adjl
07/23/21 8:28:30 AM
#40:


LeetCheet posted...
Remember that lootbox controversy with EA a couple of years ago?

A couple years ago? EA's still doing all the same terrible stuff with lootboxes. People have just stopped caring.

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MeteoricBurst
07/23/21 8:42:36 AM
#41:


LeetCheet posted...
Too bad most people are going forget all of these soon anyway.

Sadly this. Ultimately most people don't care because of the selfish greedy consumerist society we live in. As long as they get what they want. And also thats why some feel the need to dismiss such allegations, so they can feel better about their shallow selves. Guess what you're still awful people. Not caring is one thing, but being dumb enough to think this is unbelievable is laughable. People do all kinds of messed up shit in a culture of impunity. We know that from the Church, Hollywood etc. Impunity is one helluva drug. This is not hard to believe in the slightest and I seriously doubt people would waste their time on a two year investigation to bring such serious accusations, which would have huge legal backlash if they didn't hold up.

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LeetCheet
07/23/21 9:05:34 AM
#42:


adjl posted...
LeetCheet posted...
Remember that lootbox controversy with EA a couple of years ago?

A couple years ago? EA's still doing all the same terrible stuff with lootboxes. People have just stopped caring.


Exactly.
Many people made such a fuzz about when it happened.
Yet, EA continued to screw people over and now almost no one even cares about the whole thing.

As long as people get their latest FIFA game they're happy I guess.

Even though the game is almost literally the same damn thing as last year. Just play that instead you stupid fucks!

I mean, do they not realize the game is almost an exact replica of the previous game?
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SuperVergil
07/23/21 9:07:56 AM
#43:


On a human level, I'm more worried by the group of individuals that are automatically assuming all this is real, when the allegations have yet to be proven in a courtroom. Innocent until proven guilty is thrown out the window, what matters is picking sides. In other threads about this thing I witnessed users getting labelled as disgusting corporate shills for opting to maintain neutral stances and wait how things play out.
Did any of you bother to read the complaint filed, which is linked in that article?

https://aboutblaw.com/YJw

In case you can't be bothered, here:
Daybreak posted...
Read through it - its fucking claiming that a female employee offed herself out of sexual harassment and the only thing they have on the guy possibly hinting it is that he had an ass plug in his briefcase while on a holiday trip, on top of male employees supposedly passing around her nudes after she ate it. So the suit outright names a wealthy bigshot exec who groped women and made comments about their breasts, but the supervisor that raped a woman until she killed herself and was apparently investigated by police, giving him a possible arrest record to reference, is unnamed. This is either a straight grift or one of the sloppiest trial demands in the history of California.

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papercup
07/23/21 9:20:35 AM
#44:


SuperVergil posted...
On a human level, I'm more worried by the group of individuals that are automatically assuming all this is real, when the allegations have yet to be proven in a courtroom. Innocent until proven guilty is thrown out the window, what matters is picking sides. In other threads about this thing I witnessed users getting labelled as disgusting corporate shills for opting to maintain neutral stances and wait how things play out.
Did any of you bother to read the complaint filed, which is linked in that article?

https://aboutblaw.com/YJw

In case you can't be bothered, here:

Considering multiple former and current Blizzard employees already coroborated the claims in the lawsuit, I'm going to side with reason and say it's real.

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papercup
07/23/21 9:23:15 AM
#45:


Also, all the old bigshots that left the company in the last two years. They left because they knew this was coming, afterall the investigation has been ongoing since 2018. And this is Blizzard we're talking about. There have been stories before of things like this going on. There's really no reason to suspect this isn't real.

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RCtheWSBC
07/23/21 9:52:53 AM
#46:


SuperVergil posted...
On a human level, I'm more worried by the group of individuals that are automatically assuming all this is real, when the allegations have yet to be proven in a courtroom.
The only reason this had to be taken to court (and this is a civil action, not a criminal one) is because it's the last legal option the California state agency had to levy.




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RCtheWSBC
07/23/21 9:56:36 AM
#47:


papercup posted...
Also, all the old bigshots that left the company in the last two years. They left because they knew this was coming, afterall the investigation has been ongoing since 2018. And this is Blizzard we're talking about. There have been stories before of things like this going on. There's really no reason to suspect this isn't real.
I don't know what people mean to imply when they say "it isn't real". Like, the action is literally real and filed in court lol. And as you said, it's the result of a two-year state investigation. This isn't one individual taking another to court by serving them papers on a whim.

California has statutes in place to 1) investigate financial and sexual discrimination in the workplace and 2) to enforce penalties when companies are found in violation of said statutes.

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silvergokuZ
07/23/21 10:44:38 AM
#48:


I wouldn't say I ignore or whatever situations like this but I am so used to a lifetime of being ignored but then people who have something happen to them no matter how small get huge amounts of attention, and/or people who could have genuine issues get a lot of attention and support and if I ask for it I get told to man up.

It also made me think, that genuine or not we have nasty pieces of work of all genders, sexualities, races, religions etc but we are only allowed to talk about certain types.

I.e I have been in jobs where female higher ups have grabbed male colleages body parts and talked about what they want to do with them, talk about as they are older the guy can be their toy boy etc and the guys told to man up when they complain as they should be greatful a woman is attracted to them.

I have no doubt that theres jobs where if its male dominated they treat female employees bad, but I also bet they treat male employees who don't join in just as bad in their own way its just harder to notice as they are men too.

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Sarcasthma
07/23/21 10:53:07 AM
#49:


silvergokuZ posted...
I.e I have been in jobs where female higher ups have grabbed male colleages body parts and talked about what they want to do with them, talk about as they are older the guy can be their toy boy etc and the guys told to man up when they complain as they should be greatful a woman is attracted to them.
Did you go to HR to file a report?

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BlackScythe0
07/23/21 10:49:47 PM
#50:


SuperVergil posted...
On a human level, I'm more worried by the group of individuals that are automatically assuming all this is real, when the allegations have yet to be proven in a courtroom. Innocent until proven guilty is thrown out the window, what matters is picking sides. In other threads about this thing I witnessed users getting labelled as disgusting corporate shills for opting to maintain neutral stances and wait how things play out.
Did any of you bother to read the complaint filed, which is linked in that article?

https://aboutblaw.com/YJw

In case you can't be bothered, here:

As opposed to you who seems to be trying to argue it's all fake? Like they spent 2 years on an investigation just to make stuff up because they are butt hurt wow sucks now or something?

I'm not saying I'm confident everything there is true, but the accusations against them like refusing to promote women specifically citing the fact they may get pregnant or having issues with women for caring for their children are totally believable and just overtly illegal because of how common those practices actually are.
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