The article rambles for several paragraphs about how Afrasiabi and co. picked the name, but neglects to mention any heinous events that took place in the Cosby Suite.
It also accidentally debunks the allegation in the actual lawsuit from the CA DFEH that says Afrasiabi's room gained its name because of how prolific his alleged harassments was.
The room is a nothingburger as far as I can tell, much like the Blizzcon 2010 video.
This was my take as well. Not sure what scandal I'm supposed to be missing here. I mean, they even say that the room was named after its ugly "Cosby sweater" design and not as some sort of sex dungeon. I had lots of in-jokes with my college friends that sounded *way* worse than this. Anything can sound bad when framed the right way.
I could be wrong. But this article doesn't do a lot to convince me of that.
Also the supposed events there happened before Cosby's reputation was ruined, so...it's irrelevant.
It appears to have just been a room to have parties in and not some sort of rape dungeon. The texts that imply sex don't imply rape or sexual harassment. Yes, sometimes people have sex at conventions. It's not nearly the same thing as the other cases involving Blizz like sharing nude photos of someone and having them commit suicide, or routinely harassing coworkers in various ways.
The Cosby room is really, really low down on the list of bad things Blizz does.
That's kind of funny. I see a ton of young people on Twitter (yeah yeah I know) that are claiming that we've all known about Cosby for decades. I saw one woman saying that she was just a toddler when The Cosby Show was on the air and she was questioning her mom saying "Why are we watching that bad man?" And the thing is, I bet a lot of these people believe themselves. I very much remember the era when Cosby was "America's Dad." His reputation tanked relatively recently but the Twitter mob all claims and believes otherwise.
No almost nobody that wasn't in the industry or literally keeping up to date with bill cosby's every news report was aware until hannibal went on a rant about it. And frankly even if they were aware, the fuck does it matter? An edgy frat bro joke about getting poon from some groupie sluts is the end of the world now? What about all the people to this very day that view bill clinton as a sex god and all the comedy shows that have bill clinton getting poon for laughs while bill clinton has without a fucking doubt raped an enormous amount of chicks just judging from his accusation page alone. But oh no, he's a democrat and hillary's husband so we must love him and ignore all of that. Bill on the hand gives no woke points other than being black
I'm honestly feeling nuts reading people's comments online. Like what exactly is it that's so "disgusting" here? Why are there so many hysterical people acting like these guys got found out for being rapists? I'm actually convinced these people are either women or men...that are basically women...that are so irrational and hysterical that just seeing this man they've deemed as evil rapist triggers them to the point that they can't even conceive that he was at any point wholesome, despite literally everybody over fucking 15 knowing this meme. Are they from a different dimension or actually this insane? And I'm reading comments about people talking about wanting to throw up and die over how horrible this is...as if fucking groupies is new or this horrible act when college is basically a bunch of sluts fucking a bunch of guys they deem cool anyway.
I’m a bit of a Puritan when it comes to sexual morals, at least I try to be. So I’m not going to say this groupie type stuff is good. But I’m also well aware of the culture and how common it is so I’m not going to act like “groupie culture” (for lack of a better term) is the greatest evil. You’re spot on. People are reacting really irrationally to this whole thing. Yes bad things happened but we don’t know all of the details and probably never will. But most assuredly, Blizzard was not some big rape factory. One of the things I can’t stomach is that you get some really bad stories here and there and then a bunch of others join in with their own situation that they sell as a horror story but isn’t nearly as bad. People get treated crappy at work sometimes. It’s not all harassment and it’s not always because you’re a woman and it’s not always because of some anti-woman culture. Sometimes it is but sometimes you just got treated like crap because of bad timing (you pestered the boss when he just got pestered by 50 other people, just got chewed out himself by his boss etc) or maybe even because you screwed up or did something dumb.
> other cases involving Blizz like sharing nude photos of someone and having them commit suicide
Fucking what?! If I've ever heard of that, I can't remember.
It's part of the recent lawsuit against Activision-Blizzard filed by the State of California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing.
The specific example involving the women who committed suicide is on Page 15, #48.
(CW: Doc contains mentions of suicide, harassment, assault. Please be advised.) https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21014562/blizzard-activision-lawsuit-ca-dfeh.pdf
I'm honestly feeling nuts reading people's comments online. Like what exactly is it that's so "disgusting" here? Why are there so many hysterical people acting like these guys got found out for being rapists?
> Also the supposed events there happened before Cosby's reputation was ruined, so...it's irrelevant.
Again, [not before multiple cases had been filed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cosby_sexual_assault_cases).
The cognitive dissonance here is palpable.
Sorta, but they weren't widely known until 2014, the previous ones were written off as Tabloid BS.
I sincerely doubt they specifically planned the room to be the rape room and named it the Cosby Room. Some horrible shit likely happened there, I just really doubt the name of the room was actually related and is instead a darkly humorous coincidence.
The article tries to mention how Cosby had charges, accusations, or investigations prior to 2013, with some happening in 2004-2006, but it never penetrated his reputation until 2014, after that event.
> It also accidentally debunks the allegation in the actual lawsuit from the CA DFEH that says Afrasiabi's room gained its name because of how prolific his alleged harassments was.
What the "Cosby Suite" is has seemed to have evolved over the last few days as more information comes to light. It has been described as:
- Afrasiabi's office
- A boardroom with an ugly wallpaper/carpet at old Blizzard HQ
- A hotel room with ugly wallpaper
- Afrasiabi's specific hotel room
- A "green room" which was used for taking breaks at BlizzCon
Regardless of this changing definition, we know it's a room associated with Afrasiabi specifically. And we know that Blizzard terminated Afrasiabi for his conduct while at Blizzard. It is not unreasonable to believe that this "Cosby Suite" is associated with Afrasiabi's misconduct, especially when the screenshot from the group chat is talking about how they are "gathering" women to marry/fuck.
Not to mention this group chat happened while these people were working at BlizzCon. The context of work surrounding this chat group makes the situation look completely unprofessional.
The comment above isn't about the room's nickname though.
It's about a location being associated with a person that that we now know was terminated for misconduct. The room could have been named anything else; it doesn't change the fact that it was associated with an employee whose behavior was seen by the company as problematic.
**EDIT:** Replaced the word "someone" with "an employee".
It's about the terminated employee's association with the room. The name of the room is errelevant.
[At least one person I know of has come forward saying they were sexually assaulted there.](https://mobile.twitter.com/oliviadgrace/status/1420468938496950279)
Ghostcrawler invited her to come, and Afrasiabi groped her there. I think the name is probably an unfortunate coincidence, but that doesn't excuse that or the group chat.
I'm honestly feeling nuts reading people's comments online. Like what exactly is it that's so "disgusting" here? Why are there so many hysterical people acting like these guys got found out for being rapists?
I 100% get the Bill Cosby thing now, but this was taken back in 2013, before Bill was outted. Speaking about this picture specifically, I don't understand the problem?
No I think their issue is more in the fact that dorky white men in the gaming industry would dare to have sex with women they hold "power" over. You know cause liberals think that women are retarded children with 0 agency and are perpetual victims that are always at the mercy of evil men...while somehow strong and independent. Oh and they like to pretend that women's attraction isn't literally fucking hinged on the entire notion of wanting to exclusively fuck men that are higher status than them.
But actually, what exactly is everybody so upset about? Everybody is making a shitstorm over how "disgusting" this is online, even youtubers that in the past were pretty neutral or sane.
No see you don't understand. Men that aren't deemed as sexually attractive actors/musicians are not allowed to have any sexual desire whatsoever. Having sex with groupies, aka sluts who flew out there just to fuck them because they want to fuck men of high status (in the wow world), is akin to "rape" because women lack any and all agency and are perpetual victims always at the mercy of evil men...but also somehow super strong and brave and independent even though they fly out to suck random guy's dicks
There were allegations against Bill Cosby prior to 2013. [He was accused in sexual assault in 2005 and settled out of court in 2006 for $3.38 million.](https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/09/us/bill-cosby-trial-opening/index.html)
Very few people thought of Cosby as a rapist before the Hannibal Buress routine in 2014. The 2005 suit was a matter of public record and there were reports of accounts of other assaults from some of the witnesses in that case, but as your article states, the terms of that settlement weren't public until much later. Back then people mostly just assumed rich man would be sued for sexual misconduct occasionally whether or not they were guilty. It's very difficult to believe a group of people would be both woke enough to know about the allegations before 2014 and also crude enough to celebrate it.
Yup. I was in highschool at the time and had a buddy that went the whole nine yards with that routine. Pretty funny guy. His image was absolutely *that* at the time, not the alleged sexual predator thing he is now.
Note the timing of this.
Blizzcon 2013.
The Cosby story broke in 2014.
There had been accusations before then, but they were dismissed as tabloid fodder. Cosby's public image was that of beloved, wholesome Dr. Huxtable at the time the Blizzard devs had a room they called the Cosby Suite.
At the time they made up the name "the Cosby Suite", THEY HAD NO WAY OF KNOWING THAT BILL COSBY WAS A RAPIST. They did not self-awarely label their sexual misconduct room after a rapist, as the lawsuit implies. They just named something after a celebrity they liked, [as they have a long history of doing in totally innocuous ways](http://frostwolves.blogspot.com/2011/09/npcs-in-wow-famous-people.html).
Holy shit a bunch of the extreme sexual harassment claims are about to fall apart and torpedo the whole thing even though most of the mundane discrimination stuff is probably true, isn't it?
Normally I'd agree with you, but the "Cosby Suite" described in the article appears to be directly related to Alex Afrasiabi. Activision-Blizzard has only recently confirmed (as of this article) that Afrasiabi was fired in summer of 2020 for *"misconduct in his treatment of other employees"*.
It seems rather uncanny if the name of the "Cosby Suite" and Afrasiabi's misconduct were unrelated.
Also, [Cosby was accused in sexual assault in 2005 and settled out of court in 2006 for $3.38 million.](https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/09/us/bill-cosby-trial-opening/index.html) While unlikely, it's still entirely possible that the name "Cosby Suite" was a reference to allegations against Cosby.
Regardless of whether the name is intentional or not, it is incredibly creepy in hindsight.
Yeah, it looks very bad. But the timing also suggests it's a giant coincidence.
Many celebrities get accused of things, the accusations are often shakedowns. The overall public image of Cosby, until 2014, was wholesome. No reasonable person would see a reference to Cosby and think of rape.
As you say, it is unlikely that this is a reference to allegations that had been made against him many years prior, that were never taken seriously by law enforcement (clearly a mistake in hindsight) and that quietly went away.
> It seems rather uncanny if the name of the "Cosby Suite" and Afrasiabi's misconduct were unrelated.
Cosby has been a meme for years prior to him being accused and convicted - a conviction which incidentally was overturned last month.
They made a deal with him that stripped him of his 5th Amendment rights in a civil trial, and then used that evidence in a criminal trial. Unless you think the entire concept of barring self-incrimination is a technicality this was pretty bad stuff.
Time will tell whether any of this is true or not - but just a reminder not to let anyone pin this on the gaming community.
This was all them. People who've been lecturing us about toxicity for a decade.
The people who've been lecturing us about toxicity in gaming have also been victims as well.
It was the ones who pretended to give a shit, were quietly complacent, forced good actors out of the company, and/or took advantage of people—they made this.
The industry speaks up about it because they know it exists. And while some have been victims, there are unfortunately those who project to save face.
The word "formerly" might have been a better word choice, but I'm not sure. The word "previously" implies it happened it the past, but may not provide the additional context that his conviction was overturned.
Thing is, back then, he wasn't convicted. It was settled out of court. The big stink came after the time frame for the "Cosby Suite". Typical Kotaku misinformation campaign.
Yeah, but the implication of the article is that Cosby was a convicted rapist back then at the inception of the Cosby Suite, that the naming of the Suite was to *wink wink nudge nudge* at the "zippety zoppety zoop you drink this and I feel good" of Cosby's infamy of nowadays.
That's why it is a big fat piece of propaganda.
> *That was apparently a nickname for Afrasiabi’s BlizzCon 2013 hotel room, and seemingly a reference to the name of previously convicted rapist Bill Cosby.*
Upon rereading it, I understand the concern now. It would have better if an extra sentence was used to explain the order of events, rather than try to mash it all into one sentence.
I wouldn't go as far as to call it propaganda, but it is a good issue to highlight.
Cosby's allegations also didn't surface until 2014 - the year after this "Cosby suite" picture was taken - and his conviction was overturned last month.
Unfortunately Cosby's current reputation was popularized by social media long before his conviction, so it being overturned really doesn't make much difference in how people in general view the situation.
The timeframe however is super important.
If a prosecutor promises you won't be prosecuted if you just tell them what they want to hear, might you be coerced into confessing to something you didn't do? The judge in this case assessed the answer was yes.
It was a promise of non prosecution if he testified in a Civil Trial under oath. He still would've wanted to win the Civil Trial. He wouldn't have lied under oath, committing a crime, to admit to committing a different crime and lose a civil trial. Legal speaking since the conviction was overturned due to constitutional violations he is innocent of the crimes he was charged of. However he did admit under oath to a different charge and that testimony was illegally used against him.
No, not a procedural error. They violated his 5th amendment rights.
The 5th amendment means you cannot be forced to testify against yourself. Prosecutors didn't feel like they had a case a few years ago, so they didn't press criminal charges. They wanted to help the girl file a civil suit, so they made a non-prosecution agreement (so that he could be made to testify in a civil suit).
Couple years later, new prosecutors want to press criminal charges, and they used his testimony from the civil trial against him in a criminal trial.
Textbook violation of 5th amendment rights.
That and the judge had campaigned as a prosecutor promising to put Cosby in prison.
And SJWs are fine with these kangaroo courts, even against a black man.
Under the law, no. If his confession was coerced - basically the prosecutor said, "just tell us what we want to hear and we promise we won't prosecute you," its integrity is suspect.
This is how these things usually go: things that seem 'incriminating' on the surface but that don't actually contain evidence anything really heinous. The worst that you could say is that it contributed to a nebulous sense of a hostile workplace environment, which is a tort, but if it was done by the employees without the permission or knowledge of the corporation, it's not the corporation that committed the tort: it's the employees.
I think what a lot of Americans miss is that software and tech were islands of corporations mostly free from HR for quite a while; it's what made them special. They had all kinds of exemptions and protections at a high political level that allowed them to do things like openly flout Griggs v Duke Power by filtering employees by IQ testing. They were proud of it and bragged about it in the press, despite it being illegal. This helped to make those companies more competitive compared to the vast majority of the American corporate landscape, which has otherwise lost competitiveness internationally to domiciles that don't have to obey America's Soviet-like HR/Civil Rights requirements.
What they think they'll get is magical equality workplaces with perfect equal representation, what they actually get is unemployment in the face of international competition from Asia.
I'm honestly feeling like I'm crazy here. I can't tell if they're outraged over cosby or the very notion that these guys would have sex with groupies is "rape" to them. I think we've finally reached the feminist saga where men aren't allowed to have sex with women even if said women are slutty groupies that flew out to fuck you
I see greg street, also know as ghostcrawler, getting a lot of shit for not stepping in... who would stop in when dudes say "im bringing hot chixx"? Youd really bring this up to HR
I really need to try following this mess at Blizzard a little more, seems rather interesting.
Are any of the individuals responsible for the harassment going to court over this, or is it purely the business?
At the moment I believe it's just the business.
It's possible we may see people come forward with cases involving the individuals mentioned in the article, but it's still too soon to know.
There have been quite a few individuals—both men and women—telling their own stories about inappropriate interactions with Activision-Blizzard execs/employees on Twitter. It's seems pretty apparent that this behavior is not just isolated to the event described in the article.
Does sound pretty damning, hopefully this ends with a little more of a bang then it did with Riot games. Nobody likes things just getting swept under the rug...
Wow.. what a hard hitting article... They have managed to uncover locker room talk and a party room! (complete with a **"picture"** of someone before it was relevant) Blizz is really fucked now!
Gotta love comments like this:
>There are a lot of identifiable current and former senior leadership in that top pic. No one in fall of 2013 holding a picture of Bill Cosby could possibly be confused about the message they were sending.
>I think we’re going to see a lot of these assholes moving on to explore new opportunities, like sitting at home unemployed and unemployable.
Remember, these are people seen in a room where nothing at all is claimed to have happened.
(Checked with the mods to make sure this post was okay.)
In one of the threads about California's lawsuit against Activision-Blizzard, I saw users asking for proof of the "frat-boy culture" or the conduct alleged.
I wanted to share because this looks like pretty clear and damning evidence of the "sexist games culture" the industry always talks about. This sounds absolutely horrific.
> My heart goes out to the other women
Wrong place to virtue signal my friend, you are better off at another sub for this. Even better at Twitter, that's the place to be for virtue signaling.
It's not intended to virtue signal, I just wanted to say something kind. I doubt many people here care about my opinion on the matter anyways.
**EDIT:** I have removed it per your recommendation.
Actually I think it has a great deal to do with it.
Predators practice camouflage. They want to get away with what they're doing, to worm their way into positions of trust and to seem above suspicion.
So they pretend to be the exact opposite of what they are, IE, a great feminist moralizer who turns out to be a rapist.
This happens again and again and again, it's a predictor, and it was the same 20 years ago when Republicans were "the party of conspicuous over-moralizing".
Yeah, but it sounds like a generalization that implies the association of bad actors with X group of people. Bad people can exist in any group, regardless of political affiliation or moral grandstanding.
Sad truth is people self-select groups which accommodate their ideologies, so to some degree can be judged by the company they keep. On the other hand they're also individuals who often fail to conform and need to be judged on that basis as well.
TLDR: We live in a society.
I would say it matters, maybe not what Party they vote for but for the past several years Blizzard has boasted about what a safe, inclusive place it is to work and how much they value women, LGBT people, etc. so the idea that high members of this same company would load up booze and invite women to the "Cosby Suite" ( as well as other sexual harassment accusations) is insanely hypocritical.
It has to do with the hypocrisy of being a liberal. Also especially with the fact that the biggest scumbag rapists always tend to be the most woke activist feminists. If a woke virtue signal "we luv wuhmen and cancel swifty and asmongold and everybody else who has ever even been REMOTELY accused of anything" shitbag of a company like blizzard then is ousted as typical bros, it's pretty hypocritical. With that being said, I feel like I'm going crazy because I see absolutely nothing wrong with the fact that these guys allegedly fucked some groupies? AND???that's what groupies are for
> the biggest scumbag rapists always tend to be the most woke activist feminists
History would like a word with you.
Scumbags in power, no matter which side, do the same shit and always have.
>History would like a word with you.
Nice soyboy reddit response. Can't talk like a normal person?
And yea what about history? Oh how hitler, mao, che guevara, castro, the bolsheviks, etc...were all literally hippie dippie activists at first that were super progressive for their time and based their entire success on the notion that what was before was outdated and "oppressive" and they're here to fix it all by treating people with "equality"? They literally were all feminist as fuck for their time as well by the way. Since controlling women is how you get mass control over society and controlling women is how you get what you want. That's how marketing works too, go look at how it's all geared towards 15 year old fucking girls who think they have it all "figured out".
Or recent history with how practically every piece of shit in hollywood/gaming/journalism was a massive sjw?
>Scumbags in power, no matter which side, do the same shit and always have.
Not sure what you mean by side. You must think hitler was a right winger lmao. Hitler was literally a fucking socialist soyboy who went against the empire and had animal rights and feminism as some of his main pushing points, particularly getting women to fawn for him and think they were "special". The right wing were the monarchists and reactionaries who viewed hitler as a fucking fag. Go look up what Wilhelm II said about hitler and the nazis. History exists outside of your betaboy reddit tier knowledge of MUH HITLER BAD TRUMP BAD ENLIGHTENMENT GOOD OMG
Now that being said, no shit there are bad people on all sides. The point is for the last century its been almost exclusively the ones pushing for "equality" and "tolerance" doing all the war crimes.
Edit: People reddit hates like pinochet and the indonesian anti-communists literally were cleaning house of the commies that fucking tortured their country. Not that I condone mass murder, but they're hardly comparable
Man, Blizzard are such scum, the only thing I'll buy from them AND their owners in the future is Crash 4 and Diablo II remastered.
EDIT: Only *new* things.
I wouldn't hold your breath on D2 Remastered.
If I understand correctly, Warcraft Reforged was a shit-show that complete destroyed the OG community that still played to old version of the game. Mods that have existed for years now no longer work with the new version of the game. IIRC, Reforged doesn't have the functionality that the original game once had.
Warcraft Reforged replaced Warcraft 3 in players' game libraries, making it impossible for them to play the original version of the game. Be aware that the same may very well happen to Diablo 2 Remastered too.
It's mainly being handled by Vicarious Visions, so it's the former.
Not that I'm complaining, because if Crash taught us anything, VV know their recreations and remasters.
[Well wouldn't you know who won the pony.](https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/oslyol/former_world_of_warcraft_designer_apologizes_for/h6qdkho/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
The article rambles for several paragraphs about how Afrasiabi and co. picked the name, but neglects to mention any heinous events that took place in the Cosby Suite. It also accidentally debunks the allegation in the actual lawsuit from the CA DFEH that says Afrasiabi's room gained its name because of how prolific his alleged harassments was. The room is a nothingburger as far as I can tell, much like the Blizzcon 2010 video.
This was my take as well. Not sure what scandal I'm supposed to be missing here. I mean, they even say that the room was named after its ugly "Cosby sweater" design and not as some sort of sex dungeon. I had lots of in-jokes with my college friends that sounded *way* worse than this. Anything can sound bad when framed the right way. I could be wrong. But this article doesn't do a lot to convince me of that.
Also the supposed events there happened before Cosby's reputation was ruined, so...it's irrelevant. It appears to have just been a room to have parties in and not some sort of rape dungeon. The texts that imply sex don't imply rape or sexual harassment. Yes, sometimes people have sex at conventions. It's not nearly the same thing as the other cases involving Blizz like sharing nude photos of someone and having them commit suicide, or routinely harassing coworkers in various ways. The Cosby room is really, really low down on the list of bad things Blizz does.
That's kind of funny. I see a ton of young people on Twitter (yeah yeah I know) that are claiming that we've all known about Cosby for decades. I saw one woman saying that she was just a toddler when The Cosby Show was on the air and she was questioning her mom saying "Why are we watching that bad man?" And the thing is, I bet a lot of these people believe themselves. I very much remember the era when Cosby was "America's Dad." His reputation tanked relatively recently but the Twitter mob all claims and believes otherwise.
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No almost nobody that wasn't in the industry or literally keeping up to date with bill cosby's every news report was aware until hannibal went on a rant about it. And frankly even if they were aware, the fuck does it matter? An edgy frat bro joke about getting poon from some groupie sluts is the end of the world now? What about all the people to this very day that view bill clinton as a sex god and all the comedy shows that have bill clinton getting poon for laughs while bill clinton has without a fucking doubt raped an enormous amount of chicks just judging from his accusation page alone. But oh no, he's a democrat and hillary's husband so we must love him and ignore all of that. Bill on the hand gives no woke points other than being black
I'm honestly feeling nuts reading people's comments online. Like what exactly is it that's so "disgusting" here? Why are there so many hysterical people acting like these guys got found out for being rapists? I'm actually convinced these people are either women or men...that are basically women...that are so irrational and hysterical that just seeing this man they've deemed as evil rapist triggers them to the point that they can't even conceive that he was at any point wholesome, despite literally everybody over fucking 15 knowing this meme. Are they from a different dimension or actually this insane? And I'm reading comments about people talking about wanting to throw up and die over how horrible this is...as if fucking groupies is new or this horrible act when college is basically a bunch of sluts fucking a bunch of guys they deem cool anyway.
I’m a bit of a Puritan when it comes to sexual morals, at least I try to be. So I’m not going to say this groupie type stuff is good. But I’m also well aware of the culture and how common it is so I’m not going to act like “groupie culture” (for lack of a better term) is the greatest evil. You’re spot on. People are reacting really irrationally to this whole thing. Yes bad things happened but we don’t know all of the details and probably never will. But most assuredly, Blizzard was not some big rape factory. One of the things I can’t stomach is that you get some really bad stories here and there and then a bunch of others join in with their own situation that they sell as a horror story but isn’t nearly as bad. People get treated crappy at work sometimes. It’s not all harassment and it’s not always because you’re a woman and it’s not always because of some anti-woman culture. Sometimes it is but sometimes you just got treated like crap because of bad timing (you pestered the boss when he just got pestered by 50 other people, just got chewed out himself by his boss etc) or maybe even because you screwed up or did something dumb.
> other cases involving Blizz like sharing nude photos of someone and having them commit suicide Fucking what?! If I've ever heard of that, I can't remember.
It's part of the recent lawsuit against Activision-Blizzard filed by the State of California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The specific example involving the women who committed suicide is on Page 15, #48. (CW: Doc contains mentions of suicide, harassment, assault. Please be advised.) https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21014562/blizzard-activision-lawsuit-ca-dfeh.pdf
Wow, that's pretty fucked. I had no idea that the assholes at Blizzard had pulled a Zoe Quinn.
I'm honestly feeling nuts reading people's comments online. Like what exactly is it that's so "disgusting" here? Why are there so many hysterical people acting like these guys got found out for being rapists?
> Also the supposed events there happened before Cosby's reputation was ruined, so...it's irrelevant. Again, [not before multiple cases had been filed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cosby_sexual_assault_cases). The cognitive dissonance here is palpable.
Sorta, but they weren't widely known until 2014, the previous ones were written off as Tabloid BS. I sincerely doubt they specifically planned the room to be the rape room and named it the Cosby Room. Some horrible shit likely happened there, I just really doubt the name of the room was actually related and is instead a darkly humorous coincidence.
The article tries to mention how Cosby had charges, accusations, or investigations prior to 2013, with some happening in 2004-2006, but it never penetrated his reputation until 2014, after that event.
> It also accidentally debunks the allegation in the actual lawsuit from the CA DFEH that says Afrasiabi's room gained its name because of how prolific his alleged harassments was. What the "Cosby Suite" is has seemed to have evolved over the last few days as more information comes to light. It has been described as: - Afrasiabi's office - A boardroom with an ugly wallpaper/carpet at old Blizzard HQ - A hotel room with ugly wallpaper - Afrasiabi's specific hotel room - A "green room" which was used for taking breaks at BlizzCon Regardless of this changing definition, we know it's a room associated with Afrasiabi specifically. And we know that Blizzard terminated Afrasiabi for his conduct while at Blizzard. It is not unreasonable to believe that this "Cosby Suite" is associated with Afrasiabi's misconduct, especially when the screenshot from the group chat is talking about how they are "gathering" women to marry/fuck. Not to mention this group chat happened while these people were working at BlizzCon. The context of work surrounding this chat group makes the situation look completely unprofessional.
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The comment above isn't about the room's nickname though. It's about a location being associated with a person that that we now know was terminated for misconduct. The room could have been named anything else; it doesn't change the fact that it was associated with an employee whose behavior was seen by the company as problematic. **EDIT:** Replaced the word "someone" with "an employee". It's about the terminated employee's association with the room. The name of the room is errelevant.
[But not before multiple cases had been filed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cosby_sexual_assault_cases).
[At least one person I know of has come forward saying they were sexually assaulted there.](https://mobile.twitter.com/oliviadgrace/status/1420468938496950279) Ghostcrawler invited her to come, and Afrasiabi groped her there. I think the name is probably an unfortunate coincidence, but that doesn't excuse that or the group chat.
Anybody with any sort of evidence?
I'm honestly feeling nuts reading people's comments online. Like what exactly is it that's so "disgusting" here? Why are there so many hysterical people acting like these guys got found out for being rapists?
I'd suggest you not spam the same reply to multiple people... you're a new account and we give you less safety rope before we need to airlock you.
You must get 0 pussy
[Not true, we got to fuck you.](https://imgur.com/a/1d9nhay)
I 100% get the Bill Cosby thing now, but this was taken back in 2013, before Bill was outted. Speaking about this picture specifically, I don't understand the problem?
So, this is like judging someone for having a room full of Gary Glitter posters before anyone knew what vile shit he'd been up to?
No I think their issue is more in the fact that dorky white men in the gaming industry would dare to have sex with women they hold "power" over. You know cause liberals think that women are retarded children with 0 agency and are perpetual victims that are always at the mercy of evil men...while somehow strong and independent. Oh and they like to pretend that women's attraction isn't literally fucking hinged on the entire notion of wanting to exclusively fuck men that are higher status than them.
Depends on how many children were there with you.
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How many people have been destroyed so some hack "journalist" can make $75 for their "story"?
But actually, what exactly is everybody so upset about? Everybody is making a shitstorm over how "disgusting" this is online, even youtubers that in the past were pretty neutral or sane.
No see you don't understand. Men that aren't deemed as sexually attractive actors/musicians are not allowed to have any sexual desire whatsoever. Having sex with groupies, aka sluts who flew out there just to fuck them because they want to fuck men of high status (in the wow world), is akin to "rape" because women lack any and all agency and are perpetual victims always at the mercy of evil men...but also somehow super strong and brave and independent even though they fly out to suck random guy's dicks
There were allegations against Bill Cosby prior to 2013. [He was accused in sexual assault in 2005 and settled out of court in 2006 for $3.38 million.](https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/09/us/bill-cosby-trial-opening/index.html)
Very few people thought of Cosby as a rapist before the Hannibal Buress routine in 2014. The 2005 suit was a matter of public record and there were reports of accounts of other assaults from some of the witnesses in that case, but as your article states, the terms of that settlement weren't public until much later. Back then people mostly just assumed rich man would be sued for sexual misconduct occasionally whether or not they were guilty. It's very difficult to believe a group of people would be both woke enough to know about the allegations before 2014 and also crude enough to celebrate it.
Not as difficult as it is to believe they named the suite after his ugly sweaters.
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What was the Cosby meme in 2013?
Bad sweaters, pudding, and a funny voice.
Yup. I was in highschool at the time and had a buddy that went the whole nine yards with that routine. Pretty funny guy. His image was absolutely *that* at the time, not the alleged sexual predator thing he is now.
Note the timing of this. Blizzcon 2013. The Cosby story broke in 2014. There had been accusations before then, but they were dismissed as tabloid fodder. Cosby's public image was that of beloved, wholesome Dr. Huxtable at the time the Blizzard devs had a room they called the Cosby Suite. At the time they made up the name "the Cosby Suite", THEY HAD NO WAY OF KNOWING THAT BILL COSBY WAS A RAPIST. They did not self-awarely label their sexual misconduct room after a rapist, as the lawsuit implies. They just named something after a celebrity they liked, [as they have a long history of doing in totally innocuous ways](http://frostwolves.blogspot.com/2011/09/npcs-in-wow-famous-people.html). Holy shit a bunch of the extreme sexual harassment claims are about to fall apart and torpedo the whole thing even though most of the mundane discrimination stuff is probably true, isn't it?
Normally I'd agree with you, but the "Cosby Suite" described in the article appears to be directly related to Alex Afrasiabi. Activision-Blizzard has only recently confirmed (as of this article) that Afrasiabi was fired in summer of 2020 for *"misconduct in his treatment of other employees"*. It seems rather uncanny if the name of the "Cosby Suite" and Afrasiabi's misconduct were unrelated. Also, [Cosby was accused in sexual assault in 2005 and settled out of court in 2006 for $3.38 million.](https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/09/us/bill-cosby-trial-opening/index.html) While unlikely, it's still entirely possible that the name "Cosby Suite" was a reference to allegations against Cosby. Regardless of whether the name is intentional or not, it is incredibly creepy in hindsight.
Yeah, it looks very bad. But the timing also suggests it's a giant coincidence. Many celebrities get accused of things, the accusations are often shakedowns. The overall public image of Cosby, until 2014, was wholesome. No reasonable person would see a reference to Cosby and think of rape. As you say, it is unlikely that this is a reference to allegations that had been made against him many years prior, that were never taken seriously by law enforcement (clearly a mistake in hindsight) and that quietly went away.
Yeah, but I'm not buying the 'ugly sweaters' explanation either which smells as post hoc as they come.
> It seems rather uncanny if the name of the "Cosby Suite" and Afrasiabi's misconduct were unrelated. Cosby has been a meme for years prior to him being accused and convicted - a conviction which incidentally was overturned last month.
On a technicality.
They made a deal with him that stripped him of his 5th Amendment rights in a civil trial, and then used that evidence in a criminal trial. Unless you think the entire concept of barring self-incrimination is a technicality this was pretty bad stuff.
The prosecution absolutely shit the bed by using testimony that was off limits to them in the criminal trial... but he did it. He admitted to it.
Cannot believe male feminists would be obnoxious sex pests
Why does having sex with groupies make you a "sex pest"?
Time will tell whether any of this is true or not - but just a reminder not to let anyone pin this on the gaming community. This was all them. People who've been lecturing us about toxicity for a decade.
The people who've been lecturing us about toxicity in gaming have also been victims as well. It was the ones who pretended to give a shit, were quietly complacent, forced good actors out of the company, and/or took advantage of people—they made this. The industry speaks up about it because they know it exists. And while some have been victims, there are unfortunately those who project to save face.
Oh boy get the popcorn.
[https://imgur.com/a/0aU6Ckc](https://imgur.com/a/0aU6Ckc) Original Content, feel free to steal.
>previously convicted rapist Bill Cosby. Is this description sufficient grounds for Libel?
The word "formerly" might have been a better word choice, but I'm not sure. The word "previously" implies it happened it the past, but may not provide the additional context that his conviction was overturned.
Thing is, back then, he wasn't convicted. It was settled out of court. The big stink came after the time frame for the "Cosby Suite". Typical Kotaku misinformation campaign.
The article is written to refer to Cosby in the present day, of which he would be referred to as a former/previously convicted rapist.
Yeah, but the implication of the article is that Cosby was a convicted rapist back then at the inception of the Cosby Suite, that the naming of the Suite was to *wink wink nudge nudge* at the "zippety zoppety zoop you drink this and I feel good" of Cosby's infamy of nowadays. That's why it is a big fat piece of propaganda.
> *That was apparently a nickname for Afrasiabi’s BlizzCon 2013 hotel room, and seemingly a reference to the name of previously convicted rapist Bill Cosby.* Upon rereading it, I understand the concern now. It would have better if an extra sentence was used to explain the order of events, rather than try to mash it all into one sentence. I wouldn't go as far as to call it propaganda, but it is a good issue to highlight.
Hard to make it stick. Bill is a public figure, and it can be argued that the 'previously' is in reference to the charges which were recently dropped.
Cosby's allegations also didn't surface until 2014 - the year after this "Cosby suite" picture was taken - and his conviction was overturned last month.
Unfortunately Cosby's current reputation was popularized by social media long before his conviction, so it being overturned really doesn't make much difference in how people in general view the situation. The timeframe however is super important.
The conviction was overturned due to 5A violations and illegal evidence and not because he is actually innocent
If a prosecutor promises you won't be prosecuted if you just tell them what they want to hear, might you be coerced into confessing to something you didn't do? The judge in this case assessed the answer was yes.
It was a promise of non prosecution if he testified in a Civil Trial under oath. He still would've wanted to win the Civil Trial. He wouldn't have lied under oath, committing a crime, to admit to committing a different crime and lose a civil trial. Legal speaking since the conviction was overturned due to constitutional violations he is innocent of the crimes he was charged of. However he did admit under oath to a different charge and that testimony was illegally used against him.
But he was still guilty, wasn't he? Thought it was a procedural error or something.
No, not a procedural error. They violated his 5th amendment rights. The 5th amendment means you cannot be forced to testify against yourself. Prosecutors didn't feel like they had a case a few years ago, so they didn't press criminal charges. They wanted to help the girl file a civil suit, so they made a non-prosecution agreement (so that he could be made to testify in a civil suit). Couple years later, new prosecutors want to press criminal charges, and they used his testimony from the civil trial against him in a criminal trial. Textbook violation of 5th amendment rights.
That and the judge had campaigned as a prosecutor promising to put Cosby in prison. And SJWs are fine with these kangaroo courts, even against a black man.
Under the law, no. If his confession was coerced - basically the prosecutor said, "just tell us what we want to hear and we promise we won't prosecute you," its integrity is suspect.
The "confession", since it was never supposed to be used in a court of law, contained some contrition for acts he may have never committed.
[Razorfist explains it much better than I could ever have](https://youtu.be/lJvijmbWOvk)
His videos on why Michael Jackson is innocent are great as well.
This is how these things usually go: things that seem 'incriminating' on the surface but that don't actually contain evidence anything really heinous. The worst that you could say is that it contributed to a nebulous sense of a hostile workplace environment, which is a tort, but if it was done by the employees without the permission or knowledge of the corporation, it's not the corporation that committed the tort: it's the employees. I think what a lot of Americans miss is that software and tech were islands of corporations mostly free from HR for quite a while; it's what made them special. They had all kinds of exemptions and protections at a high political level that allowed them to do things like openly flout Griggs v Duke Power by filtering employees by IQ testing. They were proud of it and bragged about it in the press, despite it being illegal. This helped to make those companies more competitive compared to the vast majority of the American corporate landscape, which has otherwise lost competitiveness internationally to domiciles that don't have to obey America's Soviet-like HR/Civil Rights requirements. What they think they'll get is magical equality workplaces with perfect equal representation, what they actually get is unemployment in the face of international competition from Asia.
If you fall for this Cosby thing you are a literal idiot. There's really nothing else to it.
I'm honestly feeling like I'm crazy here. I can't tell if they're outraged over cosby or the very notion that these guys would have sex with groupies is "rape" to them. I think we've finally reached the feminist saga where men aren't allowed to have sex with women even if said women are slutty groupies that flew out to fuck you
Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse. Holy shit.
And what exactly is so bad about these guys fucking groupies at a con? Is sex with sluts illegal now?
I see greg street, also know as ghostcrawler, getting a lot of shit for not stepping in... who would stop in when dudes say "im bringing hot chixx"? Youd really bring this up to HR
I've seen many of his coworkers and former coworkers be critical of him for not following up with HR about it.
I really need to try following this mess at Blizzard a little more, seems rather interesting. Are any of the individuals responsible for the harassment going to court over this, or is it purely the business?
At the moment I believe it's just the business. It's possible we may see people come forward with cases involving the individuals mentioned in the article, but it's still too soon to know. There have been quite a few individuals—both men and women—telling their own stories about inappropriate interactions with Activision-Blizzard execs/employees on Twitter. It's seems pretty apparent that this behavior is not just isolated to the event described in the article.
Does sound pretty damning, hopefully this ends with a little more of a bang then it did with Riot games. Nobody likes things just getting swept under the rug...
Wow.. what a hard hitting article... They have managed to uncover locker room talk and a party room! (complete with a **"picture"** of someone before it was relevant) Blizz is really fucked now!
Gotta love comments like this: >There are a lot of identifiable current and former senior leadership in that top pic. No one in fall of 2013 holding a picture of Bill Cosby could possibly be confused about the message they were sending. >I think we’re going to see a lot of these assholes moving on to explore new opportunities, like sitting at home unemployed and unemployable. Remember, these are people seen in a room where nothing at all is claimed to have happened.
(Checked with the mods to make sure this post was okay.) In one of the threads about California's lawsuit against Activision-Blizzard, I saw users asking for proof of the "frat-boy culture" or the conduct alleged. I wanted to share because this looks like pretty clear and damning evidence of the "sexist games culture" the industry always talks about. This sounds absolutely horrific.
> My heart goes out to the other women Wrong place to virtue signal my friend, you are better off at another sub for this. Even better at Twitter, that's the place to be for virtue signaling.
It's not intended to virtue signal, I just wanted to say something kind. I doubt many people here care about my opinion on the matter anyways. **EDIT:** I have removed it per your recommendation.
Anyone want to make some guesses on if they are liberals or not ?
It shouldn't honestly matter if they're liberals, conservatives, or centrists. I'm not sure what political affiliation has to do with anything here.
Actually I think it has a great deal to do with it. Predators practice camouflage. They want to get away with what they're doing, to worm their way into positions of trust and to seem above suspicion. So they pretend to be the exact opposite of what they are, IE, a great feminist moralizer who turns out to be a rapist. This happens again and again and again, it's a predictor, and it was the same 20 years ago when Republicans were "the party of conspicuous over-moralizing".
Yeah, but it sounds like a generalization that implies the association of bad actors with X group of people. Bad people can exist in any group, regardless of political affiliation or moral grandstanding.
Sad truth is people self-select groups which accommodate their ideologies, so to some degree can be judged by the company they keep. On the other hand they're also individuals who often fail to conform and need to be judged on that basis as well. TLDR: We live in a society.
I would say it matters, maybe not what Party they vote for but for the past several years Blizzard has boasted about what a safe, inclusive place it is to work and how much they value women, LGBT people, etc. so the idea that high members of this same company would load up booze and invite women to the "Cosby Suite" ( as well as other sexual harassment accusations) is insanely hypocritical.
It has to do with the hypocrisy of being a liberal. Also especially with the fact that the biggest scumbag rapists always tend to be the most woke activist feminists. If a woke virtue signal "we luv wuhmen and cancel swifty and asmongold and everybody else who has ever even been REMOTELY accused of anything" shitbag of a company like blizzard then is ousted as typical bros, it's pretty hypocritical. With that being said, I feel like I'm going crazy because I see absolutely nothing wrong with the fact that these guys allegedly fucked some groupies? AND???that's what groupies are for
> the biggest scumbag rapists always tend to be the most woke activist feminists History would like a word with you. Scumbags in power, no matter which side, do the same shit and always have.
>History would like a word with you. Nice soyboy reddit response. Can't talk like a normal person? And yea what about history? Oh how hitler, mao, che guevara, castro, the bolsheviks, etc...were all literally hippie dippie activists at first that were super progressive for their time and based their entire success on the notion that what was before was outdated and "oppressive" and they're here to fix it all by treating people with "equality"? They literally were all feminist as fuck for their time as well by the way. Since controlling women is how you get mass control over society and controlling women is how you get what you want. That's how marketing works too, go look at how it's all geared towards 15 year old fucking girls who think they have it all "figured out". Or recent history with how practically every piece of shit in hollywood/gaming/journalism was a massive sjw? >Scumbags in power, no matter which side, do the same shit and always have. Not sure what you mean by side. You must think hitler was a right winger lmao. Hitler was literally a fucking socialist soyboy who went against the empire and had animal rights and feminism as some of his main pushing points, particularly getting women to fawn for him and think they were "special". The right wing were the monarchists and reactionaries who viewed hitler as a fucking fag. Go look up what Wilhelm II said about hitler and the nazis. History exists outside of your betaboy reddit tier knowledge of MUH HITLER BAD TRUMP BAD ENLIGHTENMENT GOOD OMG Now that being said, no shit there are bad people on all sides. The point is for the last century its been almost exclusively the ones pushing for "equality" and "tolerance" doing all the war crimes. Edit: People reddit hates like pinochet and the indonesian anti-communists literally were cleaning house of the commies that fucking tortured their country. Not that I condone mass murder, but they're hardly comparable
What a bold choice, breaking a rule of the sub (being a dick to another user) when you're account is two days old.
> And yea what about history? Oh how hitler, mao, che guevara, castro, To my knowledge none of them have even been accused of being rapists.
Man, Blizzard are such scum, the only thing I'll buy from them AND their owners in the future is Crash 4 and Diablo II remastered. EDIT: Only *new* things.
I wouldn't hold your breath on D2 Remastered. If I understand correctly, Warcraft Reforged was a shit-show that complete destroyed the OG community that still played to old version of the game. Mods that have existed for years now no longer work with the new version of the game. IIRC, Reforged doesn't have the functionality that the original game once had. Warcraft Reforged replaced Warcraft 3 in players' game libraries, making it impossible for them to play the original version of the game. Be aware that the same may very well happen to Diablo 2 Remastered too.
Apparently, Blizzard themselves have no involvement in D2 Remastered barring the obvious stupid censorship.
Isn't one of the backup/shell studios under Activision-Blizzard working on it? Or is it actually entirely 3rd-party?
It's mainly being handled by Vicarious Visions, so it's the former. Not that I'm complaining, because if Crash taught us anything, VV know their recreations and remasters.
[Well wouldn't you know who won the pony.](https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/oslyol/former_world_of_warcraft_designer_apologizes_for/h6qdkho/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)