California sues Blizzard for "Widespread Harassment Of Women"

[noxiousdog]

And that's putting it mildly.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-lab ... oy-culture

A two-year investigation by the state agency found that the company discriminated against female employees in terms and conditions of employment, including compensation, assignment, promotion, and termination. Company leadership consistently failed to take steps to prevent discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, the agency said.

There's a reddit thread that is really enlightening as well.

As an example, from the court documents:

In a blatant example of Defendants' refusal to deal with a harasser because of his seniority/position, Alex Afrasiabi, the former Senior Creative Director of World of Warcraft at Blizzard Entertainment, was permitted to engage in blatant sexual harrassment 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. Afrasiabi would also call females derogatory names at company events. Afrasiabi's conduct was known to Blizzard Entertainment's executives, who took no effective remedial measures. J.Allen Brack, President of Blizzzard Entertainment, allegedly had multiple conversations with Afrasiabi about his drinking and that he had been "too friendly" towards female employees at company events but gave Afrasiabi a slap on the wrist (i.e. verbal counseling) in response to these incidents. Subsequently, Afrasiabi continued to make unwanted advances towards female employees, including grabbing a female employee's hand and inviting her to his hotel room and groping another woman.

By "former" this was last year. He was the creative director on Shadowlands.

And while generally I like to get two sides of a story, an Activition Blizzard response was every bit as belligerent as the accusations.

They rushed to file an inaccurate compliant ... We are sickened by the reprehensible conduct of the DFEH ... It is this type of irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State's best businesses out of California.

They go on to say "we're different now" which admits there is truth to everything, but without apologizing and instead blame the State for shining a light on it.

After an untold number of hours with Diablo, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft; I can't see myself playing another Activision Blizzard game ever. I cancelled my subscription and my heart goes out to anyone who suffered under their management.

[Chraolic]

Wow. I can't even comprehend how someone does not get immediately fired if their supervisors have to physically stop them from sexually assaulting women. That ought to be as near automatic as any termination of a contract could be.

[noxiousdog]

The more I read, the worse it gets.

Chris Metzen's response. - It's an apology and an acknowledgement that this went on.


A clip from 2010 Blizzcon. - A female fan loves the fact WoW has strong female characters, but bemoans they look like they should all be in a Victoria's Secret catalog and then gets booed by the fans, and mocked by the panel.

Mike Morhaime (former President of Bliz) - Apologizes, but acknowledges it happened.

[Blackhawk]

Are there any game companies left that haven't done something like this?

[LordMortis]

Not to make light but Crosby? In a court document?

[noxiousdog]

Are there any game companies left that haven't done something like this?

I think this is the first one where someone has died because of the culture.

[jztemple2]

Not to make light but Crosby? In a court document?

Did someone mean Cosby, not Crosby? Or did David Crosby do something I haven't heard about?

[Blackhawk]

Are there any game companies left that haven't done something like this?

I think this is the first one where someone has died because of the culture.

Perhaps, but that wasn't intended as a blow-off of this. It was just a comment on the fact there there have been so many of these complaints coming out of the gaming industry lately. Blizzard may have done wrong, but the entire AAA industry needs an enema.

[noxiousdog]

Are there any game companies left that haven't done something like this?

I think this is the first one where someone has died because of the culture.

Perhaps, but that wasn't intended as a blow-off of this. It was just a comment on the fact there there have been so many of these complaints coming out of the gaming industry lately. Blizzard may have done wrong, but the entire AAA industry needs an enema.

Maybe it's because I'm closer to it, but this feels worse.

[NickAragua]

Not surprising in the least. I'm about 90% sure this lawsuit will result in a "without admission of guilt" settlement of some kind where the company will pay what, to a normal person, is an astronomical amount of money (mostly to lawyers), but to them is like a day's worth of income, and they'll be required to hold some anti-harassment webinars and get a stern talking to. Sucks, but that's the world we live in.

I'd like to say that I'm voting with my wallet, but I honestly haven't bought a Blizzard product since the Protoss campaign for Starcraft 2 went on sale, and that was several years ago. And haven't played WoW since maybe 2005 or 2006? I guess they also make Overwatch (?), but I don't play that either.

I still reserve the right to replay Blackthorne/Lost Vikings on the SNES emulator and the Starcraft/Warcraft games I already own, though.

[Sudy]

It's a gross generalization, but I suspect a geek/nerd fraternity atmosphere prevails most studios that weren't diverse from the get-go. It might very well be a case of bad apples surrounded by decent ones, but misconduct goes ignored and unaddressed for too long in these situations. (But of course I've felt that pressure in any less professional, male-dominated workplace/industry. I'm sure it's there in professional ones too, and obscured all the more. Or brazenly not.)

At the moment I don't see this affecting my buying decisions, though I'm willing to reconsider. Blizzard games continue to be a huge part of my entertainment life, and this is extremely frustrating and disappointing no matter how common or expected it may be.


I didn't follow up on the bit about the woman who got booed for the Victoria's Secret comment, but I've always wondered and been frustrated by the same thing. The female art is certainly accomplished, but it's always struck me as the Disney version of pin-up art. I can't imagine it would be very welcoming for many women... or at least, it would be found eye-rollingly mundane. Interestingly, they replaced a couple of the more sexualized pieces of Hearthstone card art a year or two ago. But I suspect their motives were more financial than inclusivity-minded. But that's a different thread.

[noxiousdog]

I didn't follow up on the bit about the woman who got booed for the Victoria's Secret comment, but I've always wondered and been frustrated by the same thing. The female art is certainly accomplished, but it's always struck me as the Disney version of pin-up art. I can't imagine it would be very welcoming for many women... or at least, it would be found eye-rolling mundane. Interestingly, they replaced a couple of the more sexualized pieces of Hearthstone card art a year or two ago. But I suspect their motives were more financial than inclusivity-minded. But that's a different thread.

To be fair to Blizzard, they have made an effort to be more diverse in the game. They have changed many of the character models including Sylvannas. They have two openly trans characters; I'm not sure about homosexual.

However, the issue we the clip (and it's from 2010) is that the panel openly mocked the questioner. The main guy was the aforementioned Alex Afrasiabi. This indicates that it clearly has been the culture for a long time and nobody did anything about it until California was well into it's investigation.

So, taking that into account along with Activision/Blizzard's official response, makes me think they are still awful.

[Sudy]

To be fair to Blizzard, they have made an effort to be more diverse in the game. They have changed many of the character models including Sylvannas. They have two openly trans characters; I'm not sure about homosexual.

That's true, they've shown more growth than I remembered. If nothing else, there's obviously been someone in more recent times beginning to steer them in a new direction on this level at least. Which I guess makes these news items seem worse because it's so hypocritical.

[Smoove_B]

I guess I hadn't been following this very closely and I'm just catching up now. I share in the interest of helping to promote.

[Lorini]

The problem is all across publicly traded video game companies, so unless you want to go 100% indie you are going to be aiding the companies that are doing this. What's really stupid is that it's completely and totally illegal to allow a hostile work environment. Period the end. Yet these clueless yahoos feel that with the promotion/receipt of the job comes the women. And that they are (as usual for these types) entitled to behave like depraved assholes without any consequences. Well MAYBE the rest of the tech industry (and yes it's tech especially as tech has so many men) might have gotten the clue that at least California is not going to stand for this shit. Blizzard is taking a BEATING right now, to the point where the WoW team has stopped working altogether, the Hearthstone reveal seems to be off the rails and their playerbase going ballistic.

So so avoidable and so so stupid. They initially talked about how they were going to fight the charges but they'd be out of their friggin minds to allow all of the people who have been affected by this shit to get up on the witness stand and describe what happened to them. I guess they are trying to figure out how to (effectively?? nothing they've said has been effective) do damage control.

[noxiousdog]

So so avoidable and so so stupid. They initially talked about how they were going to fight the charges but they'd be out of their friggin minds to allow all of the people who have been affected by this shit to get up on the witness stand and describe what happened to them. I guess they are trying to figure out how to (effectively?? nothing they've said has been effective) do damage control.

This is the key to me. It's one thing to come out apologize and say we're going to do better while making obvious visible changes. It's another to blame California for investigating at all.

My only way to change things is to vote with my dollars. If that means I stop playing video games. Then that's what happens. But let's be real. There's standard discrimination that most people deal with. This Blizzard stuff is on a whole other level.

[Alefroth]

Not to make light but Crosby? In a court document?

Maybe Cosby's lawyers got to them.

[Lorini]

I only play Hearthstone and I haven't spent a dime on the game in two years and will probably never need to in order to have a couple of top tier decks. Do I keep playing? I'm not sure, still processing.

Note also that I don't really consider stuff that happened before #MeToo to be relevant to decisions that I've made. But after #MeToo you should have known better. Not to say that any of it is excusable in the least, just that I do want to support people/companies that have changed since they became aware of the issue.

[El Guapo]

Not to make light but Crosby? In a court document?

Maybe Cosby's lawyers got to them.

I was going to say that must just be a typo in the article or reddit thread but no, it's in the court document. Crazy.

Good on DFEH for pursuing this against a wealthy and ornery defendant.

[LawBeefaroni]

To be fair to Blizzard, they have made an effort to be more diverse in the game. They have changed many of the character models including Sylvannas. They have two openly trans characters; I'm not sure about homosexual.

What they do to fictional, digital characters is irrelevant as long as they treat real people like shit. It's a top down culture issue and they haven't changed the top. They've just told some artists and PR people to make some token changes.

I'm not saying an unwelcomed advance at a company party is the end of the world, in and of itself. But allowing it to happen again and again and never doing anything about it, ignoring victims, that crushes souls and ruins lives.

Something bad happens. You can either try to make it better or you can actively make it worse. Bliz and ATVI have consistently worked diligently to make it worse.

[noxiousdog]

Surprising nobody, Mike Morhaime is getting called out:

“‘If I’d known this was happening I would have stopped it’ says the man who was told repeatedly that it was happening and did nothing to stop it.

“I’ve refrained from giving my own comments on the situation at Actiblizz because frankly, there are more important people you should be listening to right now. But that statement from a certain former leader was 100% bullshit and I’m furious about it.

“He knew. He did nothing. Don’t get me wrong, current leadership is fucking up hard right now too. But please don’t believe for a second that the culture that allowed all of this to happen for the last couple of decades was somehow built by the guy who’s been in charge for 3 years.”

[Lorini]

Surprising nobody, Mike Morhaime is getting called out:

“‘If I’d known this was happening I would have stopped it’ says the man who was told repeatedly that it was happening and did nothing to stop it.

“I’ve refrained from giving my own comments on the situation at Actiblizz because frankly, there are more important people you should be listening to right now. But that statement from a certain former leader was 100% bullshit and I’m furious about it.

“He knew. He did nothing. Don’t get me wrong, current leadership is fucking up hard right now too. But please don’t believe for a second that the culture that allowed all of this to happen for the last couple of decades was somehow built by the guy who’s been in charge for 3 years.”

At the end of the day, he got his golden parachute and it doesn't matter what the hell he says. I don't know why he even opened his mouth. The question is to determine what if anything has changed since he left, and to show a commitment to true inclusion and a safe working environment. I suppose if it can actually be determined that he allowed a hostile work environment, he can get sued. But no one cares about that except him.

[gbasden]

Yeah. Just killed all of my subscriptions. That's horrific.

[noxiousdog]

At the end of the day, he got his golden parachute and it doesn't matter what the hell he says. I don't know why he even opened his mouth. The question is to determine what if anything has changed since he left, and to show a commitment to true inclusion and a safe working environment. I suppose if it can actually be determined that he allowed a hostile work environment, he can get sued. But no one cares about that except him.

Sure it does. With his and Chris Metzen's response, it's tacit admission that it took place. It gives them 0 points, but it makes the official response look even worse. It makes my decision to delete stuff even easier.

[Blackhawk]

Yeah. Just killed all of my subscriptions. That's horrific.

I hope you gave them a detailed reason. Enough people dropping subs and citing this reason will have more impact than the news stories if their profit line doesn't budge.

The thing is, we keep talking Blizzard and Blizzard games, but a lot of what's going on is Activision-Blizzard. That includes a lot more games than just WoW, Overwatch, Starcraft, and Diablo. It's not clear if this was just corporate ActiBlizz and Blizzard, or if any of the other studios under their umbrella were involved. If nothing else, Activision-Blizzard are the ones that collect every dollar from anything with the words 'Spyro', 'Call of Duty', 'Destiny', 'Tony Hawk', 'Candy Crush', and lots of others.

And then there is Riot Games from a couple of years ago, plus Ubisoft from last year (and that is anything with 'Assassin's Creed', 'Far Cry', or 'Tom Clancy's' attached to it.)

There aren't many publishers that don't feel oily anymore.

[Lorini]

Yeah. Just killed all of my subscriptions. That's horrific.

I hope you gave them a detailed reason. Enough people dropping subs and citing this reason will have more impact than the news stories if their profit line doesn't budge.

The thing is, we keep talking Blizzard and Blizzard games, but a lot of what's going on is Activision-Blizzard. That includes a lot more games than just WoW, Overwatch, Starcraft, and Diablo. It's not clear if this was just corporate ActiBlizz and Blizzard, or if any of the other studios under their umbrella were involved. If nothing else, Activision-Blizzard are the ones that collect every dollar from anything with the words 'Spyro', 'Call of Duty', 'Destiny', 'Tony Hawk', 'Candy Crush', and lots of others.

And then there is Riot Games from a couple of years ago, plus Ubisoft from last year (and that is anything with 'Assassin's Creed', 'Far Cry', or 'Tom Clancy's' attached to it.)

There aren't many publishers that don't feel oily anymore.

I think it's obvious why people are dropping subs right now, but yeah say so. Tech companies at this time are mostly male. It's nearly all males that are doing this shit. Too many video game companies don't understand the extreme risk they are taking with allowing this shit, it can and perhaps will destroy their companies under an extreme weight of lawsuits. The big tech companies know better and are active in eliminating this kind of behavior, not because they care or not, but because of the risk to the companies. So many of the video game companies started with just a bunch of guys, and they've not either listened to their lawyers regarding risk assessment, chosen to ignore them, or never had them in the first place.

They'll have them now. JPL used to be run by these types of yahoos until the lawsuits and NASA fines on lack of compliance changed Caltech's mind. Now all JPL employees undergo ethics/sexual harassment training every single year.

[LawBeefaroni]

Yeah. Just killed all of my subscriptions. That's horrific.

I hope you gave them a detailed reason. Enough people dropping subs and citing this reason will have more impact than the news stories if their profit line doesn't budge.

The thing is, we keep talking Blizzard and Blizzard games, but a lot of what's going on is Activision-Blizzard. That includes a lot more games than just WoW, Overwatch, Starcraft, and Diablo. It's not clear if this was just corporate ActiBlizz and Blizzard, or if any of the other studios under their umbrella were involved. If nothing else, Activision-Blizzard are the ones that collect every dollar from anything with the words 'Spyro', 'Call of Duty', 'Destiny', 'Tony Hawk', 'Candy Crush', and lots of others.

And then there is Riot Games from a couple of years ago, plus Ubisoft from last year (and that is anything with 'Assassin's Creed', 'Far Cry', or 'Tom Clancy's' attached to it.)

There aren't many publishers that don't feel oily anymore.

The news has shaved about $800M off their market cap today, last I looked. I'm guessing most of that is on legal cost and settlement risks. I don't think Wall Street is factoring in a huge sales drop. Wall Street can be, and is often, wrong. I took a small short position.

Will be interesting to see if this actually translates into real customer action.

[Paingod]

I suddenly don't feel so bad about not having bought a Blizzard title since Warcraft 3 & Diablo II.

I had assumed things on this scale would have been cancelled when #MeToo started burning things down. I was clearly wrong.

[Lorini]

Yeah. Just killed all of my subscriptions. That's horrific.

I hope you gave them a detailed reason. Enough people dropping subs and citing this reason will have more impact than the news stories if their profit line doesn't budge.

The thing is, we keep talking Blizzard and Blizzard games, but a lot of what's going on is Activision-Blizzard. That includes a lot more games than just WoW, Overwatch, Starcraft, and Diablo. It's not clear if this was just corporate ActiBlizz and Blizzard, or if any of the other studios under their umbrella were involved. If nothing else, Activision-Blizzard are the ones that collect every dollar from anything with the words 'Spyro', 'Call of Duty', 'Destiny', 'Tony Hawk', 'Candy Crush', and lots of others.

And then there is Riot Games from a couple of years ago, plus Ubisoft from last year (and that is anything with 'Assassin's Creed', 'Far Cry', or 'Tom Clancy's' attached to it.)

There aren't many publishers that don't feel oily anymore.

The news has shaved about $800M off their market cap today, last I looked. I'm guessing most of that is on legal cost and settlement risks. I don't think Wall Street is factoring in a huge sales drop. Wall Street can be, and is often, wrong. I took a small short position.

Will be interesting to see if this actually translates into real customer action.

Progressives don't rule as much of the world as it sometimes sounds like. I'm interested in their September quarterly, and especially their December quarterly. It's clear that even before the news, WoW players were mad about the latest patch and unsubbing and now FF XIV (warning: Japan is not exactly a bastion of feminism) is off the charts with new subs.

[El Guapo]

Yeah. Just killed all of my subscriptions. That's horrific.

I hope you gave them a detailed reason. Enough people dropping subs and citing this reason will have more impact than the news stories if their profit line doesn't budge.

The thing is, we keep talking Blizzard and Blizzard games, but a lot of what's going on is Activision-Blizzard. That includes a lot more games than just WoW, Overwatch, Starcraft, and Diablo. It's not clear if this was just corporate ActiBlizz and Blizzard, or if any of the other studios under their umbrella were involved. If nothing else, Activision-Blizzard are the ones that collect every dollar from anything with the words 'Spyro', 'Call of Duty', 'Destiny', 'Tony Hawk', 'Candy Crush', and lots of others.

And then there is Riot Games from a couple of years ago, plus Ubisoft from last year (and that is anything with 'Assassin's Creed', 'Far Cry', or 'Tom Clancy's' attached to it.)

There aren't many publishers that don't feel oily anymore.

The news has shaved about $800M off their market cap today, last I looked. I'm guessing most of that is on legal cost and settlement risks. I don't think Wall Street is factoring in a huge sales drop. Wall Street can be, and is often, wrong. I took a small short position.

Will be interesting to see if this actually translates into real customer action.

Progressives don't rule as much of the world as it sometimes sounds like. I'm interested in their September quarterly, and especially their December quarterly. It's clear that even before the news, WoW players were mad about the latest patch and unsubbing and now FF XIV (warning: Japan is not exactly a bastion of feminism) is off the charts with new subs.

I also think that there tends to be an implicit assumption among tech / nerd / gamer types that this shit is an issue with "them" - trogolodyte "bro" types - and not an issue with "us". So this can't be a big deal because we're harmless nerds.

[LordMortis]

Didn't have to find out what's up this morning. Drove someone to suicide? That's good enough for me. Activision hasn't seen a dime from me in a long time (Diablo II and multiple copies as that) but now that's moved from happenstance to official. I only hope all the smaller indie dev games I've bought don't contribute to such nonsense as these AAA publishers/Devs seem to be doing.

[Zaxxon]

Horrific. I don't have any Blizzard subs, but will not be buying the D2 re-release now.

[Lorini]

Didn't have to find out what's up this morning. Drove someone to suicide? That's good enough for me. Activision hasn't seen a dime from me in a long time (Diablo II and multiple copies as that) but now that's moved from happenstance to official. I only hope all the smaller indie dev games I've bought don't contribute to such nonsense as these AAA publishers/Devs seem to be doing.

(Un?)fortunately most indie devs appear to be males.

[Skinypupy]

Horrific. I don't have any Blizzard subs, but will not be buying the D2 re-release now.

The D2 re-release was my most anticipated game for the foreseeable future. Missing that one's going to be painful.

I had been kicking around the idea of doing my yearly "play for a month then get annoyed and leave" foray into WoW again, but I'll definitely skip it now.

[Jeff V]

Didn't have to find out what's up this morning. Drove someone to suicide? That's good enough for me. Activision hasn't seen a dime from me in a long time (Diablo II and multiple copies as that) but now that's moved from happenstance to official. I only hope all the smaller indie dev games I've bought don't contribute to such nonsense as these AAA publishers/Devs seem to be doing.

(Un?)fortunately most indie devs appear to be males.

Indie? Blizzard is a 1000-lb gorilla, not a spider monkey. But I don't recall ever interacting with anyone sporting 2 X chromosomes there during my years in gaming media.

[Lorini]

Didn't have to find out what's up this morning. Drove someone to suicide? That's good enough for me. Activision hasn't seen a dime from me in a long time (Diablo II and multiple copies as that) but now that's moved from happenstance to official. I only hope all the smaller indie dev games I've bought don't contribute to such nonsense as these AAA publishers/Devs seem to be doing.

(Un?)fortunately most indie devs appear to be males.

Indie? Blizzard is a 1000-lb gorilla, not a spider monkey. But I don't recall ever interacting with anyone sporting 2 X chromosomes there during my years in gaming media.

What?? Where did I say Blizzard was indie?

[Paingod]

You never did, and I got what you meant. I even crafted an unworthy response about STEM programs and social media before I wrapped right back around on myself and found it all agreed anyway.

Jeff V was just looking for something to pick at.

[gbasden]

I hope you gave them a detailed reason. Enough people dropping subs and citing this reason will have more impact than the news stories if their profit line doesn't budge.

The thing is, we keep talking Blizzard and Blizzard games, but a lot of what's going on is Activision-Blizzard. That includes a lot more games than just WoW, Overwatch, Starcraft, and Diablo. It's not clear if this was just corporate ActiBlizz and Blizzard, or if any of the other studios under their umbrella were involved.

The names that keep getting thrown around are Afrasiabi and Morhaime as well as unnamed people on the World of Warcraft team. I certainly might have missed allegations against other studios, but there's more than enough there to cancel everything in my Blizzard subscriptions. I did give them a reason, and I'll do the same with Activision if the same kind of stuff is happening.

[noxiousdog]

The names that keep getting thrown around are Afrasiabi and Morhaime as well as unnamed people on the World of Warcraft team. I certainly might have missed allegations against other studios, but there's more than enough there to cancel everything in my Blizzard subscriptions. I did give them a reason, and I'll do the same with Activision if the same kind of stuff is happening.

It's activision too. They are the same company. Bobby Kotick already lost a sexual harassment lawsuit in which he was a direct participant.

[gbasden]

The names that keep getting thrown around are Afrasiabi and Morhaime as well as unnamed people on the World of Warcraft team. I certainly might have missed allegations against other studios, but there's more than enough there to cancel everything in my Blizzard subscriptions. I did give them a reason, and I'll do the same with Activision if the same kind of stuff is happening.

It's activision too. They are the same company. Bobby Kotick already lost a sexual harassment lawsuit in which he was a direct participant.

Fair. I don't have any subscriptions with Activision that I know of, but they will go on my blacklist.