California sues Blizzard for "Widespread Harassment Of Women"

[Jaddison]

I read the full Atlantic article. It has nothing about snitches being beat up.....in fact it is about the absolute opposite of that. The real snitch in the article ruined people who had done nothing wrong and had only sought advice and yet they were implicated in non-existent sex parties.

Got no idea what happened at Acti-Blizzard but it isn't about beating the shit out of snitches.

[El Guapo]

I read the full Atlantic article. It has nothing about snitches being beat up.....in fact it is about the absolute opposite of that. The real snitch in the article ruined people who had done nothing wrong and had only sought advice and yet they were implicated in non-existent sex parties.

Got no idea what happened at Acti-Blizzard but it isn't about beating the shit out of snitches.

The issue is not really with the article itself but with a corporate executive tweeting out an article criticizing the whistleblower process while her company is in the middle of a massive sexual harassment scandal. It creates the optics of "the real problem is people telling on us".

[Zaxxon]

J. Allen Brack is out.

[LawBeefaroni]

Money keep on talkin'.

I'm in ATVI when it hits $45.

[Zaxxon]

Money keep on talkin'.

And talkin'...

[Lorini]

No surprises there. Their Corporate Affairs head is a piece of shit and needs to go. Hopefully that'll happen now that there's new leadership.

[Lorini]

The lawsuit is correct as well, Blizzard had to disclose that they were permitting sexual harassment (of course they'd never do that but under SEC rules they have to) because it (is!!) has an effect on their profits.

[Zaxxon]

Money keep on talkin'.

And talkin'...

...and talkin'...

[LawBeefaroni]

By the way, they report earnings today. Link to live conference call is the first item here. Might be a bit dry at first but they'll have to address the elephant in the room at some point. Q&A at the end should be fun.


If you've read or posted in this thread, probably worth a listen. Unfortunately I'll be in a meeting.

[Zaxxon]

Oh, I plan to listen...

[LawBeefaroni]

If anyone gets on for a question, be sure to say, "Hi, I'm [your name], from Octopus Overlords OIC..."

[Zaxxon]

Oh, I plan to listen...

Lots of corporate-speak BS amounting to 'we're going to fix things until the money stops talking.'

[Zaxxon]

Head of HR also out.

[malchior]

Blizzcon 2010 clip resurfaces

I don't know if this was posted here prior but I thought the story and clip really shows how they demonstrated misogyny in public. Brack was on stage mocking her in the clip.

Xantia doesn’t spend much time on Twitter, so she learned that California was suing Activision Blizzard for years of alleged sexual harassment and discrimination a couple days late. She also had no idea she’d become the face of discussions about Blizzard’s questionable past with women until a friend messaged her on Facebook with a link to the video and a GIF of Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV screen.

“It’s really weird seeing this whole thing getting press coverage for a question that I asked 11 years ago,” Xantia, who preferred to go by her World of Warcraft handle to protect her privacy, told Kotaku in a phone interview. “It was just surreal.”

The clip of an all-male panel of World of Warcraft developers condescendingly mocking and dismissing a question by Xantia at BlizzCon 2010 resurfaced around July 23, partially as a response to a staff email sent by Blizzard president J. Allen Brack. In it, Brack called the recent allegations against the company “troubling,” going so far as to express shock and dismay at the idea the company might have a history with sexism. But then people started circulating the footage of the panel, where instead of calling out his coworkers or pushing back against the boos from the audience against Xantia, he just joked and chuckled along with them.

While the video was new to some, for many it’s emblematic of a rotten culture at the heart of Blizzard that’s been there for years—if not proof of gaming’s ambient hostility to women.

[Lorini]

I agree with all of this in its entirety. I will emphasize the pushback on the choice of law firm because of previous discussion.

https://www.axios.com/activision-blizza ... 2f1e.html

The announced review by Wilmer Hale is deficient in a number of ways: this firm has a sterling reputation as a defender of the wealthy and connected, but it has no track record of uncovering wrongdoing, the lead investigator does not have in-depth experience investigating workplace harassment and abuse, and the scope of the investigation fails to address the full range of equity issues Mr. Kotick acknowledges."

[LordMortis]

reserving at least one board seat for a nominee selected by current employees as their representative."

That really does seem like the way to go and such a simple move forward that it's weird it wasn't just put up front. I mean, ND saw it from all the way over here.

[El Guapo]

I agree with all of this in its entirety. I will emphasize the pushback on the choice of law firm because of previous discussion.

https://www.axios.com/activision-blizza ... 2f1e.html

The announced review by Wilmer Hale is deficient in a number of ways: this firm has a sterling reputation as a defender of the wealthy and connected, but it has no track record of uncovering wrongdoing, the lead investigator does not have in-depth experience investigating workplace harassment and abuse, and the scope of the investigation fails to address the full range of equity issues Mr. Kotick acknowledges."

At the end of the day the rot is with the company. Wilmer is a big expensive firm, which means that only wealthy people & entities can hire them, which means that they're rarely on the side of the angels. However, if Activision truly wanted to uncover all the rot at the company, then Wilmer would happily take their money to do that, and would do a great job of it. But I doubt that Activision wants that.

Truly fixing the company would necessarily begin with a full replacement of senior leadership, because only outside people would have a full incentive to dig up all the misconduct.

[Lorini]

I agree with all of this in its entirety. I will emphasize the pushback on the choice of law firm because of previous discussion.

https://www.axios.com/activision-blizza ... 2f1e.html

The announced review by Wilmer Hale is deficient in a number of ways: this firm has a sterling reputation as a defender of the wealthy and connected, but it has no track record of uncovering wrongdoing, the lead investigator does not have in-depth experience investigating workplace harassment and abuse, and the scope of the investigation fails to address the full range of equity issues Mr. Kotick acknowledges."

At the end of the day the rot is with the company. Wilmer is a big expensive firm, which means that only wealthy people & entities can hire them, which means that they're rarely on the side of the angels. However, if Activision truly wanted to uncover all the rot at the company, then Wilmer would happily take their money to do that, and would do a great job of it. But I doubt that Activision wants that.

Truly fixing the company would necessarily begin with a full replacement of senior leadership, because only outside people would have a full incentive to dig up all the misconduct.

Well the article is saying that the lead investigator of Wilmer is not qualified, which is concerning. The CEO and head of HR have resigned. Is that enough? I don't know. The shareholder discussing this wants more than Kotick is offering. We will see how this goes. As mentioned in the response to the lawsuit, they did finally fire the WoW director who was directly participating in the harassments/hostile work environment. It took them seven frigging years which is ridiculous, and is probably the basis for CA going ahead with the lawsuit. They apparently have also previously fired others who were creating a hostile work environment, referring to the placement of cameras in bathrooms and the subsequent firing of that person.

There has to be an outside investigation for Blizzard to have any credibility in both the ongoing outside and inside discussions. Otherwise no one will believe that they have fixed the rot in the company. I do wonder if there are other law firms who have had success with that. Given the number of lawsuits similar to this I'd think there were others? But I don't know.

Who did Riot Games hire? Anyone know?

[Skinypupy]

More firings today, including the Director and Lead Designer for Diablo 4

https://kotaku.com/jesse-mcree-diablo-4 ... 1847469113

[noxiousdog]

Unless Kotick goes, it's not enough. He's gotten the salary, he has the accountability. You expect me to believe ALL these executives knew and he didn't?

[Zaxxon]

Unless Kotick goes, it's not enough. He's gotten the salary, he has the accountability. You expect me to believe ALL these executives knew and he didn't?

I find your ideas intriguing and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

[Daehawk]

Unless Kotick goes, it's not enough. He's gotten the salary, he has the accountability. You expect me to believe ALL these executives knew and he didn't?

I find your ideas intriguing and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

It's full of ads to local businesses.

[Lorini]

Unless Kotick goes, it's not enough. He's gotten the salary, he has the accountability. You expect me to believe ALL these executives knew and he didn't?

I don't know. Do remember that he's not at Blizzard in Irvine. Fairly sure he's in Santa Monica. Everyone who has been terminated has been from the Irvine campus. Shareholders don't seem to be calling for his head atm.

[noxiousdog]

Unless Kotick goes, it's not enough. He's gotten the salary, he has the accountability. You expect me to believe ALL these executives knew and he didn't?

I don't know. Do remember that he's not at Blizzard in Irvine. Fairly sure he's in Santa Monica. Everyone who has been terminated has been from the Irvine campus. Shareholders don't seem to be calling for his head atm.

He knew about all this - at the very least - during the 2 year investigation. He got rid of Morheim and Afrasiabi. His public and private response? Hire a tone deaf executive in February. He's a major part of the problem.

[Lorini]

Blizzard and Activision are two separate companies. The only thing Kotick care(d)s about is how much money Blizzard is making. He would not have been involved in any HR activity. WoW has been bleeding subs for years and that's almost certainly why Morhaime left.

Call of Duty is still huge, and that's his baby. Thus there haven't been any calls for him to resign by the shareholders, not even the activist ones. Yes, there's been statements and a couple of lawsuits, but it'll take a lot more than that to get rid of Kotick.

Maybe they did hire the corporate affairs person to show how they cared about women? But this is why (it's a pet peeve/big issue for me) you don't use labels, even gender labels, to accomplish anything.

[noxiousdog]

Blizzard and Activision are two separate companies. The only thing Kotick care(d)s about is how much money Blizzard is making. He would not have been involved in any HR activity. WoW has been bleeding subs for years and that's almost certainly why Morhaime left.

Call of Duty is still huge, and that's his baby. Thus there haven't been any calls for him to resign by the shareholders, not even the activist ones. Yes, there's been statements and a couple of lawsuits, but it'll take a lot more than that to get rid of Kotick.

Maybe they did hire the corporate affairs person to show how they cared about women? But this is why (it's a pet peeve/big issue for me) you don't use labels, even gender labels, to accomplish anything.

They are not two separate companies. Blizzard is a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. All the financial reports come from Activision Blizzard of whom Kotick is CEO.

[Lorini]

Blizzard and Activision are two separate companies. The only thing Kotick care(d)s about is how much money Blizzard is making. He would not have been involved in any HR activity. WoW has been bleeding subs for years and that's almost certainly why Morhaime left.

Call of Duty is still huge, and that's his baby. Thus there haven't been any calls for him to resign by the shareholders, not even the activist ones. Yes, there's been statements and a couple of lawsuits, but it'll take a lot more than that to get rid of Kotick.

Maybe they did hire the corporate affairs person to show how they cared about women? But this is why (it's a pet peeve/big issue for me) you don't use labels, even gender labels, to accomplish anything.

They are not two separate companies. Blizzard is a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. All the financial reports come from Activision Blizzard of whom Kotick is CEO.

They act as two separate companies ND. They are not co-located, they do not use the same set of creative employees. Some of the admin might be shared, but as we have already seen, they at least have a separate head of HR. Subsidiary in this case doesn't mean 'run by' it means Activision bought Blizzard. It's been very clear in these revelations that they do not apply to Activision. Of course Activision is indeed responsible for what Blizzard does, positive and negative, but it's not like they are the ones running Blizzard on a daily basis.

Whether or not Kotick was aware of the harassment we'll probably never know. He's not on the campus, he wouldn't have seen it. I don't know why the Blizzard CEO would inform him of that actually, because from a pure liability point of view, Kotick would have put a stop to it.

[noxiousdog]

If they are such separate companies, why is Activision Blizzard named in the lawsuit?

[Blackhawk]

Activision is the publishing arm (for both in-house and contract titles), Blizzard is the mainstream development arm, King is their social media gaming developer, MLG is their esports division, and Activision Blizzard Studios is their film company (working on potential WoW, Call of Duty, Overwatch films, etc.)

The overarching parent company is Activsion-Blizzard.

[Lorini]

Activision is the publishing arm (for both in-house and contract titles), Blizzard is the mainstream development arm, King is their social media gaming developer, MLG is their esports division, and Activision Blizzard Studios is their film company (working on potential WoW, Call of Duty, Overwatch films, etc.)

The overarching parent company is Activsion-Blizzard.

Blizzard doesn't work directly on Call of Duty. If you don't believe me, read the credits.

Blizzard publishes its own games.

Blizzards main campus is in Irvine https://careers.blizzard.com/global/en/locations

As I said, Activision is in Santa Monica https://www.activision.com/company/loca ... %20Finance.

[Blackhawk]

Blizzard doesn't work directly on Call of Duty. If you don't believe me, read the credits.

That's not quite what I said. Blizzard Entertainment (game design company) does not work on Call of Duty. Blizzard Studios (a film company) is working a potential Call of Duty movie.

Blizzard is a subsidiary of Activision-Blizzard. Activision is also a direct subsidiary of Activision-Blizzard. They are part of the same company under the same management. Call of Duty is made by a variety of studios who are direct subsidiaries of Activision (and indirect subsidiaries of Activision Blizzard.)

It is normal in many lawsuits to name the person responsible, then everybody (or company) above them.

[Blackhawk]

And one correction there was right - Activision is Acti-Blizz's publisher, but Blizzard is the exception in that they publish their own stuff.

[noxiousdog]

All of this is irrelevant.

Kotick is the CEO of Activision Blizzard who as far as any state entity is concerned owns blizzard. He's responsible to both shareholders and the state for Blizzard.

I am very familiar with these setups as I'm a long term investor and close follower of Berkshire Hathaway. When David Sokol did some unethical stuff at a Berkshire subsidiary, he was immediately released from his duties by Buffett.

[Blackhawk]

I agree. Liability runs up to the top. If you did something wrong, it's your fault. If your supervisor knew (or should have known) and didn't stop you, or company policies didn't prevent it, or you weren't properly trained in those policies, it's your fault and his, and his boss's for not ensuring he was doing his job, and the person in charge of training for not doing their job, and the person in charge of making sure the training department was doing their job, and so on. And it just keeps going up until you hit the top.

Even if Kotick was unaware, he was in charge of how things ran, including training, supervision of supervisors of supervisors, of policy, and so on. If this kind of thing was rampant and well known at the Blizzard level, Kotick absolutely was responsible (both morally and likely legally.)

[Lorini]

He's absolutely responsible, no question there but I doubt he'll be forced out.

[hitbyambulance]

this sounds, sadly, pretty par for the course of working QA for large game studios:

https://kotaku.com/activision-blizzard- ... 1847473158

(short summary: it's low-wage, no-respect misery)

i will say, if nothing else, my time in the QA dungeons of various game studios has helped to give me enough experience to get out of gaming. my first non-gaming software QA job was _triple_ what i was scraping by with until that point. i will be starting a new job in a few weeks where i will be the first QA employee this startup has hired, and will be creating the QA department from almost nothing - this company actually _wants_ me there to help out. big change from <name redacted> where it felt like you were working in the 'untouchable' department.

[Blackhawk]

It's heartbreaking. Blizzard was one of my favorite developers for years. Hell, they made my #1 favorite game clear back on the SNES (Lost Vikings, back when they were called Silicon and Synapse), and it was Warcraft 2 that convinced me to get my first PC.

[Lorini]

this sounds, sadly, pretty par for the course of working QA for large game studios:

https://kotaku.com/activision-blizzard- ... 1847473158

(short summary: it's low-wage, no-respect misery)

i will say, if nothing else, my time in the QA dungeons of various game studios has helped to give me enough experience to get out of gaming. my first non-gaming software QA job was _triple_ what i was scraping by with until that point. i will be starting a new job in a few weeks where i will be the first QA employee this startup has hired, and will be creating the QA department from almost nothing - this company actually _wants_ me there to help out. big change from <name redacted> where it felt like you were working in the 'untouchable' department.

Yeah QA jobs are terrible in this industry. Too many people want to work in video games so companies can pay them pennies.

[Zaxxon]

SEC has entered the chat.

[Blackhawk]

...and down goes the stock.