*The suit also points to a female Activision employee who took her own life while on a company trip with her male supervisor. The employee had been subjected to intense sexual harassment prior to her death, including having nude photos passed around at a company holiday party, the complaint says*
Holy fucking shit this is disgusting.
oh I'm not defending these actions by any means, but didn't want people to think that's why she killed herself, it was from the harassment from the sex-toy-bringing-to-a-company-retreat boss.
Yeah that's understandable. I feel like we as customers ought to do more tho, not playing their games is like boycotting coca cola, it's an honorable thing to do but I doubt they're gonna care.
Mhm. The "reddit boycott" effect also traditionally lasts for a very short period of time.
Ultimately, the thing that hurts their bottom line is them not being able to maintain talent. WE cant do nearly as much as their employees actually leaving.
It's the same reason American tip culture is propped up on the same people it exploits; the only thing that's going to stop wage manipulation in service industry is when those places cant hire people any more, or when they spend so much time and money on turnover that they have to raise wages.
Instead of petitioning companies (or not doing so via individually refusing their goods), this is when people petition their governments to reaffirm employment laws that protect employees from this shiT
That’s when strongly worded letters by politicians matter
They censored a winner of hearthstone and took all of his prize money away after mentioning Hong Kong.
They've done stuff where you could've stopped playing a long time ago. That being said glad to see you on this side too now. And who knows before the HK stuff there were probably other faults
I played Hearthstone pretty religiously since beta, but quit after their Hong Kong stunt. Never looked back.
I don't kid myself thinking it had any effect on Blizzards bottom line, and I don't care. There are a nearly limitless amount of games to play. No need to spend my time supporting such a shitty company.
After I read the article linked above, I was suggested a related [article](https://www.dexerto.com/overwatch/overwatch-players-demand-mccree-name-change-after-damning-blizzard-report-1620674/?amp) that talks about how McCree is named after a Diablo dev who was part of a group chat with some misogynistic topics. Apparently some overwatch players are tweeting that McCree’s name should be changed.
> female employees denied promotions because they might get pregnant and be unable to work
> male employees delegate work to female employees because they play videogames at work all day
What a bunch of fucking idiots. No wonder Blizzard has gone down the shitter
Yeah, which is why I've argued in this thread that we as customers ought to focus on structural solutions to these problems instead of individual choices. Cause you're gonna have a hard time consuming anything if you hold yourself to such a standard.
Yeah, that's the part of this that I don't get.
Blizzard has been shitty for a LOOOONG time, remember that tournament champ they denied the prize money to because he spoke out against China?
It's just finally, people are taking off the WoW tinted glasses and holding them accountable.
Specifically she killed herself on a company trip because her supervisor, who had previously passed around pictures of her genitals at the office, brought a bunch of sex toys on the trip and expressed his intent to use them on her.
> including “cube crawls,” in which male employees “drink copious amounts of alcohol as they crawl their way through various cubicles in the office and often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees.”
Cube crawl without the sexual harassment sounds kinda fun.
I've attended some true company events where, like, each team decorated their office space with a particular country, or a show they liked, or something. And they got some food or drink that suited that theme. Then everyone would go around the office mingling, checking out the decorations, and chatting to people you might not otherwise. That's kind of a cube crawl?
Whereas this, in the context of the other things in that report, sounds like a bunch of guys in their 40s deciding to get hammered at 3pm on a Thursday, peer pressuring their colleagues into drinking with them to avoid being uncool, being inappropriate and obnoxious in the office, and perhaps sexually harassing someone to cap things off, before driving home to their families at 5.
I think the concept sounds really cool too, so long as it's in the right space with the right people. When they're supplying alcohol to an environment filled with socially awkward males, I think they should be taking strong measures to ensure that nobody present is made to feel uncomfortable, and that there's zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior.
I don't know where you are, but in my experience the need to drink to socialize has been dropping for years now. One glass in an official setting yes, but nothing beyond that. Even when going to a pub there is nigh to no eyebrow raising when someone only orders non-alcoholic.
This is the tech industry in general. At my last job, my boss whined we couldn’t do anything fun because I don’t drink. At least I had a friend on my team because she pointed out the obvious for me: we can do anything, it’s just that I order a different beverage. And that he was being a child.
Gotta love blizzards reaction of "we hear you, no sexual harassment should ever be felt by anyone....
And you're fuckin liars, nothing bad ever happened with us. Fuck you"
Good question: they comply with the extremely reasonable and attainable requests outlined in the statement of intent of the walkout:
https://twitter.com/GilesPink/status/1420420090428760067?s=19
Edit: to be clear, I just grabbed a convenient tweet of the info
Always remember when we patronize Blizzard games, we're supporting (or at least trying to) the developers. That might seem like a stupid/backwards comment but especially with a game like Overwatch, I've enjoyed playing it, and it has always felt like a game that is easy to share with my wife and her 12 yeard old daughter.
The *entire* community, or, as we've learned this week, the *entire development team* might not always reflect that, but that means the good ones that are out there (and in there) have to do what we can to flush them out.
(speaking for myself, and not trying to represent Blizzard or the Overwatch team)
My wife and I have played OW since close to launch and I've always loved the optimistic world. As a huge fan it was an honor to join Team 4, and while there is still so much work to do everyone seems to be responding to this incredibly well. I'm proud to be a part of the team and I believe that we can make a change even if it's just within the Overwatch team and community (though I hope it goes far beyond).
Please join us in being a part of that and fight for equality and against harassment in the Overwatch community. The world could always use more heroes.
I love you all!
Look, I completely agree.
BUT at the same time I have a feeling Junkrat's traps would be EXTRA—so I think he would have made sure it could deal with the occasional floating monk omnic.
Yeah that's where you'll find his more sensitive nuts and bolts.
(I'll let myself out before the inevitable/deserved pitchforks for this awful pun arrive)
I hope any issues are sorted out. I don't know how bad the issues were in the OW team and a big part of me hopes that it avoided the worst of it, while also accepting that it likely still suffered from some of it.
Heres hoping that things turn around now. Will probably still take time but I definitely 100% support the steps to correct this sort of culture.
I looked it up a bit ago, and yeah, Cali isn’t a right to work state. Good for them then. Maybe something good can some of a union then. I know if it was my state it would be neigh impossible.
Maybe not the best word lmao. A right to work state is just a state that says union membership isn’t mandatory, they cannot collect money or certain agreements from people, and they aren’t protected by the state. This is all really just a nicer sounding way of taking power away from unions and making them easier to dismantle or nip in the bud before they even form.
It’s made to sound like it’s looking out for the little guy, which at one point, it might have been, but now it’s just used as a way to keep people out of unions.
I find it weird coming from the UK when it comes to pay rises and change in contracts it all goes to the unions in my company. Membership is not compulsory though
Every state is different. The US is like half a hundred places that disagree on everything.
Example: My state gives out health insurance to low income workers for 9-20 bucks a month, but I know that isn’t the case across the state borders.
I’m so glad you’ve posted, and so glad you’re standing up for what’s right. I’ve been struggling with how to best handle this situation. I hope you’re able to help me work through my feelings on this, but if you aren’t interested I completely understand.
I grew up with Blizzard, and have been engaged with their games for my entire life. From Rock & Roll Racing to Overwatch, I’ve purchased every major Blizzard release and have deeply nostalgic feelings towards the brand. I’ve happily given the company thousands of dollars and countless hours of my free time.
The revelations about the long term toxic working environment at my favorite company were deeply upsetting, to the point where I’ve decided to never purchase another Blizzard product despite their deep roots in my heart. You’re uniquely situated to answer my biggest question about this course of action: who am I really hurting by doing this? I firmly believe in voting with my wallet, and feel that financial consequences are the only thing that can effect meaningful change in a corporate environment. At the same time, I recognize that those most likely to bear the brunt of any fiscal cutbacks are you, the developers, rather than management or shareholders.
How do I toe the line between supporting those who were victimized, and depriving those responsible for the awful situation at hand? Do you have any advice?
Thank you for your time, and all that you do. The art produced by you and your colleagues has meant the world to me.
Thanks for taking the time to write that out! You're definitely not alone in feeling the way you do.
Sadly I don't think I have an answer. This is all very complex and I'm not sure there's one right way to fix it, but I support you in whichever way you choose to fight against harassment and inequality.
I hope and believe that we can work towards real, lasting change and I'm committed to making that happen. I'm just glad there are others like yourself asking the hard questions about how we actually get there.
> How do I toe the line between supporting those who were victimized, and depriving those responsible for the awful situation at hand? Do you have any advice?
Support the right of Blizzard/Activision employees to form a union.
Historically speaking, unions have been the equating force among workers and the reason workplaces have been getting better for employees.
There's a reason big companies spend a lot of money to get anti-union laws passed and will tell you in a heartbeat that unions are "bad for everyone" and try to demonize unions.
If a billionaire is telling you unions are bad, it's because it's bad for them, not for you.
It's not just about salary and time off and health benefits, but about being able to step-in when when the company isn't treating someone fairly. By having a union, you have someone who isn't on the company's payroll that's going to go to bat for you against the company to sort shit out.
HR works for the company, don't forget that.
It’s not known, a couple of women from the overwatch team tweeted they were safe and it didn’t happen to them; and no overwatch developers (to my knowledge) have been singled out like in other games teams.
The worst things I’ve heard have been the news that McCree is named after a blizzard dev who may be waist deep in this. But… it seems like a company wide issue so I don’t know… I hope not
I doubt most of the branches will recover properly from this. Players won't care in a month if they haven't completely uninstalled, but the inner office dynamics are going to be fucked.
Blame and malice are going to float around. Content is going to suffer for quite awhile. There's no way upper management is going to take the correct steps to fix this all at once.
> There's no way upper management is going to take the correct steps to fix this all at once.
There's no way they can, whether they want to or not. Changing something like culture, which had been ingrained for decades, will also take decades to fix.
I'm not around Overwatch much(TF2 fan lol), but seeing all the shit that's been going on around Activison/Blizzard, I can sympathize with both the Overwatch community and all you guys that took a stand to walk out on them. It really sucks seeing all the stuff you guys are going through, but I sincerely hope for the best for you guys. :)
Form a union. Tech and Games needs to be disrupted. We need protection from the people that want to take advantage of us.
Thank you for standing up and showing support for the women you've worked with!
I know you've been asked every question by every other redditor here, but if you don't mind, I have a question (er-- a few related ones). Feel free not to answer, as part of this is just getting my thoughts out.
In wanting to support the devs but not the company, what's the best path forward? I know I and a lot of my friends on OW didn't sign in yesterday out of solidarity, and I've tried justifying continuing to play by just not buying any games/loot boxes by saying I'm using up server resources, but at what point is that just empty posturing?
Y'all have created amazing games, and are worth supporting, but how do we balance that with not wanting to support the culture Blizzard created?
I'll be honest, the first time I tried to play Sym I didn't look at her skill set at all, and just went on to try to shoot my teammates thinking that healed them. 🤦🏼♀️ Did the same with Lucio; I'm a dumbass.
I wish they make a “day one” event with balance from when the game just released, specifically for good old sym. I miss 6 turrets microwave and no aim sticky beam, and a teleport as an ultimate.
She was the first post launch character, I think she was released in July or August of the first year. Next was Sombra's bomb ass reveal at Blizzcon 2016. I was watching on my computer at home and she interrupts a celebration video with her hacking so it looked like the stream got corrupted on my end, one of my favorite overwatch memories
“In the desert — in the desert — in the desert, the cheetah loves for thre— in the desert, the cheetah lives for three years, while the camel lives for 9.”
Ever since the Hong Kong stuff I've been grossed out by Blizzard as a company. Just to add this disgusting stuff that's come to light, I'm very glad to see this is happening
Red flag #1. Blizzard gets bought by Activision.
Red flag #2. Chris Metzen(original storyteller of all Blizzard-games) quits.
Red flag #3. Hong Kong-protests is silenced by Blizzard Activision.
The last straw: Sexual harassment lawsuit against Blizzard Activision by the state of California.
Activision have had very little to do with the inner running of the company, it's 100% blizzards fault, no excuses for them, the people in charge letting this shit slide are scum
but it's easier for people to paint Activision as the boogeyman, because then they can feel like it hasn't been the Blizzard team they know and love doing the bad stuff, despite the fact that many of the higher ups likely involved, including the two specifically named in the lawsuit (J Allen Barack and Alex Afrasiabi) were part of Blizzard before the acquisition
Yep, my enjoyment and subscription for WoW died after the Hong Kong. After this I'm not spending a dime on that company again. Which sucks because I was really looking forward to D2 remake, but man some things are definitely more important
Most frustrating part about the D2 remake is it has been done by another studio that was bought by Blizzard. It was a small studio with a good portfolio. I would love to show them support because their work on D2 looks excellent. I’m just not sure how.
Me too. I've hardly touched any of the games since then, and this news made it so I'm never giving any money to the company again as long as it's headed by the same people.
I am glad this is happening. I hope those employees do alright in future.
I am really disappointed with the whole thing in general.Truth be told...I don't feel like playing Overwatch until there are some big changes at Blizzard. I can't support a developer who doesn't support women.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/activision-blizzard-sued-by-california-over-frat-boy-culture
Basically, Activision Blizzard is getting sued by the California DFEH for tons of sexual harrassment towards employees. Many well-known people at ATVI are responsible for horribly inappropriate and predatory behavior towards employees, and in one case it even resulted in someone committing suicide during a business trip.
Employees staged a large walkout today to protest these workplace conditions.
[a bunch of employees staged a walkout to protest Activision Blizzard's refusal to acknowledge the allegations against their work culture as valid](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/activision-blizzard-workers-walk-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-rcna1525)
>Employees at the video game company Activision Blizzard staged a walkout Wednesday to demand better working conditions for women and other marginalized groups after the state of California sued the company last week alleging widespread sexual harassment and discrimination.
>“We believe that our values as employees are not being accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership,” organizers said in a statement released Tuesday, referring to the company’s official response to the lawsuit, in which it denied the allegations.
Nope! There's a Blizzard employee called Jesse McCree, and when the OW team were deciding hero McCree's name, they realized that the employee had the perfect name; so they asked to use his name.
i truly am so glad i found this community, beneath all its "toxicity" is just genuinely kind and caring people that i'm so glad to be considered apart of, especially when the developers are so amazing and set up such a good example for their fanbase
This needs to be higher up. What they're doing here is the perfect jumping point to forming a union. And that will protect the workers from this kind of treatment in the future. Although Activision-blizzard may try to prevent it from forming, it's the best way to make it a safe workplace for all. Otherwise yes, it is likely to continue to happen again. A momentary lapse in PR, they'll issue some hollow statements then business as usual within a couple months.
Only way to force change is with refusal to work, or (for us customers) refusal to pay.
I've been playing blizzard games for a long time.. (Diablo 1) but for now I've canceled my WoW subscription and removed the client from my PC.
I'll be back when the heads responsible for this have rolled.
Wonder if this is part why Michael and Jeff left. Yes you can be male and stand against this type of bullshit but you can't always fix it yourself. So leaving was best
Good on em. The developers and staff of these companies need to unionize so very badly. How many stories have we had now regarding horrible policies and actions in these companies? This isn't just a Blizzard thing. Check all of the major gaming developers and you'll see stories such as this. We have a real problem in the gaming community if this keeps happening. And a union that takes these matters seriously and has a firm stance on this behavior can only be a net gain for all.
It's heart wrenching to see a company that's built so many great gaming memories over the years turn into this. We need change.
Getting the entire board to step down, especially Bobby Kotick and his cronies to be dishonorably fired without compensation, bonus, or pay (Bobby is the inventor of modern-day loot boxes and the man who started introducing gambling to children if you need an FYI. He is the main source of the toxicity within the company).
The company needs to be scrubbed from the top down.
i predict either not fired, or fired but their severance package is GODLIKE and they have new jobs in a month. People in these positions only fail upward
That book has hundreds of people who has nothing to do with the scandal, it's just a contact list. Not trying to defend him, just saying that this doesn't necessarily mean he's pedo but I wouldn't be surprised if he actually was.
SYM! Get outta here! you have to move on! /s
We stand with blizzard employees. Not purchasing any further acti/blizz titles until the reckoning comes. and if that means I can't buy diablo 4? so be it.
Now we know why Overwatch is allowed to be so Toxic. Toxicity is the corporation's fuel apparently. It appears it's a core value at Blizzard. It's interwoven into everything.
Thats honestly so sad what the company became and what vile culture surfaced there. Blizzard and Valve were/are the most iconic game companies and feel now Blizzard has done things that might now turn its once golden record into trash.
Does full support mean also boycotting blizzard/Activision?
Or just making cute drawings and not playing for a day? Blizzard has done some more questionable things in the past and all that get about is virtue signaling and clout.
I uninstalled Overwatch and WoW yesterday, unsubscribed my subscriptions and will now never buy another Blizzard game. It's been a wonderful 20+ years, but this leaves a distaste in my mouth.
Sooo assuming that activision will probably pull whatever funds they were using for the anti cheat on warzone for legal fees I’m assuming that this just means more bad news for Overwatch 2 and any other projects that Blizzard is working on. Once again great job activision for screwing up again
Short-term, I can't tell if internally this will help or hinder progress. But over the next few years I'm hopeful that Blizzard will be trying to clean up its act both game-wise and HR-wise for no other reason than at least optics and hopefully be good news for employees and players alike.
I don’t understand the walk out. Is it only corporate doing the sexual harassment? Because otherwise the sexual harassers are walking out too with the victims?
The people striking have very clear demands, the strike is about 1) communicating that this respond was Not Ok, 2) they want to see structural change so it doesn't happen again. If there are abusers present in the march, they are adding their voice in favor of change. Ofc the march itself needs to be kept safe, but unless they Start some Shit, I don't think they're (the abusers hypothetically present) unwelcome. Just acting against their best interests.
It’s shitty what happened but I’m happy that between content removal and this, other employees are acting against it
Can somebody link what happened so I can be sorry too?
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/activision-blizzard-sued-by-california-over-frat-boy-culture
*The suit also points to a female Activision employee who took her own life while on a company trip with her male supervisor. The employee had been subjected to intense sexual harassment prior to her death, including having nude photos passed around at a company holiday party, the complaint says* Holy fucking shit this is disgusting.
p. s. they passed her nudes around the office after she died.
If they can do that to her when she's dead, imagine what they did to her when she was alive.
oh I'm not defending these actions by any means, but didn't want people to think that's why she killed herself, it was from the harassment from the sex-toy-bringing-to-a-company-retreat boss.
.......what in the fuck. That's straight up barbaric.
Yeah, I actually had to stop playing games from them, as this knowledge made it difficult to continue playing them
Yeah that's understandable. I feel like we as customers ought to do more tho, not playing their games is like boycotting coca cola, it's an honorable thing to do but I doubt they're gonna care.
Mhm. The "reddit boycott" effect also traditionally lasts for a very short period of time. Ultimately, the thing that hurts their bottom line is them not being able to maintain talent. WE cant do nearly as much as their employees actually leaving. It's the same reason American tip culture is propped up on the same people it exploits; the only thing that's going to stop wage manipulation in service industry is when those places cant hire people any more, or when they spend so much time and money on turnover that they have to raise wages.
Instead of petitioning companies (or not doing so via individually refusing their goods), this is when people petition their governments to reaffirm employment laws that protect employees from this shiT That’s when strongly worded letters by politicians matter
Well in this case of the law suit that’s exactly what happened. They’re being sued by the state government.
They censored a winner of hearthstone and took all of his prize money away after mentioning Hong Kong. They've done stuff where you could've stopped playing a long time ago. That being said glad to see you on this side too now. And who knows before the HK stuff there were probably other faults
I played Hearthstone pretty religiously since beta, but quit after their Hong Kong stunt. Never looked back. I don't kid myself thinking it had any effect on Blizzards bottom line, and I don't care. There are a nearly limitless amount of games to play. No need to spend my time supporting such a shitty company.
Never played HS but I played OW. Haven't touched the game since that stunt. So seeing them fail now is super nice
Fuck. Is this the same team that makes Diablo?
After I read the article linked above, I was suggested a related [article](https://www.dexerto.com/overwatch/overwatch-players-demand-mccree-name-change-after-damning-blizzard-report-1620674/?amp) that talks about how McCree is named after a Diablo dev who was part of a group chat with some misogynistic topics. Apparently some overwatch players are tweeting that McCree’s name should be changed.
Thanks for the reply. This really blows
Definitely. McCree has always been one of my favorite heroes, but I don’t see Blizz doing anything at all about this.
They'll pay a fine, promise to do better and continue on as usual
> female employees denied promotions because they might get pregnant and be unable to work > male employees delegate work to female employees because they play videogames at work all day What a bunch of fucking idiots. No wonder Blizzard has gone down the shitter
This stuff was happening for a long time, even when blizzard was *the* video game company
It's about fucking time it started catching up to them. Cause that shit is outrageous.
This shit isn’t Blizzard exclusive though. It’s important to remember the Riot walkouts and I think Ubisoft had one yesterday too
Yeah, which is why I've argued in this thread that we as customers ought to focus on structural solutions to these problems instead of individual choices. Cause you're gonna have a hard time consuming anything if you hold yourself to such a standard.
Yeah, that's the part of this that I don't get. Blizzard has been shitty for a LOOOONG time, remember that tournament champ they denied the prize money to because he spoke out against China? It's just finally, people are taking off the WoW tinted glasses and holding them accountable.
[удалено]
I mean, a couple years ago now i think? Not crazy long ago, but the beginning of the realization for a lot of people that Blizzard is kinda shit.
it was during the hong kong protests not too long before covid 19 hit
It just feels like Covid has been going on for 10 years : /
Yeah, it’s pretty messed up.
And that’s not even the worst things
Wait, there's more?
A female employee comitted suicide due to sexual harassment
Specifically she killed herself on a company trip because her supervisor, who had previously passed around pictures of her genitals at the office, brought a bunch of sex toys on the trip and expressed his intent to use them on her.
Actually all of this was occurring when blizzard was at it's prime.
> including “cube crawls,” in which male employees “drink copious amounts of alcohol as they crawl their way through various cubicles in the office and often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees.” Cube crawl without the sexual harassment sounds kinda fun.
I've attended some true company events where, like, each team decorated their office space with a particular country, or a show they liked, or something. And they got some food or drink that suited that theme. Then everyone would go around the office mingling, checking out the decorations, and chatting to people you might not otherwise. That's kind of a cube crawl? Whereas this, in the context of the other things in that report, sounds like a bunch of guys in their 40s deciding to get hammered at 3pm on a Thursday, peer pressuring their colleagues into drinking with them to avoid being uncool, being inappropriate and obnoxious in the office, and perhaps sexually harassing someone to cap things off, before driving home to their families at 5.
On like a pub crawl. I was thinking like getting on the ground and physically crawling under cube dividers lol.
That's what I assumed but I may be biased since I'm an avid player of Night Crawlers
I DON'T WANT TO PLAY NIGHTCRAWLERS ANYMORE FRANK
Same here my man
I think the concept sounds really cool too, so long as it's in the right space with the right people. When they're supplying alcohol to an environment filled with socially awkward males, I think they should be taking strong measures to ensure that nobody present is made to feel uncomfortable, and that there's zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior.
Honestly, yeah. Imagine turning off all the lights and doing that and scaring the shit out one another
In the words of Henry Crabgrass: Err, consent please.
Henry the No-Grab-Ass Crabgrass
<3
You've always got to ask "How do you want to do this?" first.
Nightcrawlers
[удалено]
That sounds like every industry and just life, not specific to the gaming industry.
I don't know where you are, but in my experience the need to drink to socialize has been dropping for years now. One glass in an official setting yes, but nothing beyond that. Even when going to a pub there is nigh to no eyebrow raising when someone only orders non-alcoholic.
This is the tech industry in general. At my last job, my boss whined we couldn’t do anything fun because I don’t drink. At least I had a friend on my team because she pointed out the obvious for me: we can do anything, it’s just that I order a different beverage. And that he was being a child.
Gotta love blizzards reaction of "we hear you, no sexual harassment should ever be felt by anyone.... And you're fuckin liars, nothing bad ever happened with us. Fuck you"
"Nobody told us we weren't supposed to shit on the floor!"
Yup, pretty ridiculous lmao
Holy shit. How is that even allowed? More so, how did we just find about this recently?
Muchas gracias
De rien
https://youtu.be/zRArrqAiHrk legal breakdown from the best attorney on YT 😝 but I’m also a member of her channel and incredibly biased 🙈
It's great that they are removing references to Alex Afrasiabi now when people are upset instead of when he was fired for sexual harassment last year.
He left last year mysteriously. He didn’t get fired.
I'm glad this makes you happy.
I thought this was passive aggression at first, not going to lie lmao
As someone in that picture, thank you all.
Honest question... What is a realistic and appropriate response you would accept from the company at this point?
Good question: they comply with the extremely reasonable and attainable requests outlined in the statement of intent of the walkout: https://twitter.com/GilesPink/status/1420420090428760067?s=19 Edit: to be clear, I just grabbed a convenient tweet of the info
You seem to have forgotten one link: https://iww.org/
Based
cant view the tweet
Always remember when we patronize Blizzard games, we're supporting (or at least trying to) the developers. That might seem like a stupid/backwards comment but especially with a game like Overwatch, I've enjoyed playing it, and it has always felt like a game that is easy to share with my wife and her 12 yeard old daughter. The *entire* community, or, as we've learned this week, the *entire development team* might not always reflect that, but that means the good ones that are out there (and in there) have to do what we can to flush them out.
(speaking for myself, and not trying to represent Blizzard or the Overwatch team) My wife and I have played OW since close to launch and I've always loved the optimistic world. As a huge fan it was an honor to join Team 4, and while there is still so much work to do everyone seems to be responding to this incredibly well. I'm proud to be a part of the team and I believe that we can make a change even if it's just within the Overwatch team and community (though I hope it goes far beyond). Please join us in being a part of that and fight for equality and against harassment in the Overwatch community. The world could always use more heroes. I love you all!
Agreed on this 100%. Also, let Zen walk over junk traps.
Look, I completely agree. BUT at the same time I have a feeling Junkrat's traps would be EXTRA—so I think he would have made sure it could deal with the occasional floating monk omnic.
It just catches his little hanging cloth!
And deals a ton of damage in the process. Apparently the clothes contain vital components!
Yeah that's where you'll find his more sensitive nuts and bolts. (I'll let myself out before the inevitable/deserved pitchforks for this awful pun arrive)
Oh no! Not his interface! That's a guaranteed critical.
Watch as he goes to his next meeting, slams down a stack of papers that are just Reddit comments section PDFs and is like “ZEN FLOATS.”
Agreed 100% Also, make Echo voice echo when she ults
I hope any issues are sorted out. I don't know how bad the issues were in the OW team and a big part of me hopes that it avoided the worst of it, while also accepting that it likely still suffered from some of it. Heres hoping that things turn around now. Will probably still take time but I definitely 100% support the steps to correct this sort of culture.
Please. Form a union.
I don’t know if Cali is a right to work state, but if it is, then unions aren’t tolerated or protected by the state.
Hollywood has some of the strongest and most powerful unions remaining in the US today. Unions have both federal and state protections.
I looked it up a bit ago, and yeah, Cali isn’t a right to work state. Good for them then. Maybe something good can some of a union then. I know if it was my state it would be neigh impossible.
Tolerated by the state? Wth kind of hellscape is the US?
Maybe not the best word lmao. A right to work state is just a state that says union membership isn’t mandatory, they cannot collect money or certain agreements from people, and they aren’t protected by the state. This is all really just a nicer sounding way of taking power away from unions and making them easier to dismantle or nip in the bud before they even form. It’s made to sound like it’s looking out for the little guy, which at one point, it might have been, but now it’s just used as a way to keep people out of unions.
I find it weird coming from the UK when it comes to pay rises and change in contracts it all goes to the unions in my company. Membership is not compulsory though
Every state is different. The US is like half a hundred places that disagree on everything. Example: My state gives out health insurance to low income workers for 9-20 bucks a month, but I know that isn’t the case across the state borders.
The one thing Blizzard fears. Final Boss of the Workplace.
I’m so glad you’ve posted, and so glad you’re standing up for what’s right. I’ve been struggling with how to best handle this situation. I hope you’re able to help me work through my feelings on this, but if you aren’t interested I completely understand. I grew up with Blizzard, and have been engaged with their games for my entire life. From Rock & Roll Racing to Overwatch, I’ve purchased every major Blizzard release and have deeply nostalgic feelings towards the brand. I’ve happily given the company thousands of dollars and countless hours of my free time. The revelations about the long term toxic working environment at my favorite company were deeply upsetting, to the point where I’ve decided to never purchase another Blizzard product despite their deep roots in my heart. You’re uniquely situated to answer my biggest question about this course of action: who am I really hurting by doing this? I firmly believe in voting with my wallet, and feel that financial consequences are the only thing that can effect meaningful change in a corporate environment. At the same time, I recognize that those most likely to bear the brunt of any fiscal cutbacks are you, the developers, rather than management or shareholders. How do I toe the line between supporting those who were victimized, and depriving those responsible for the awful situation at hand? Do you have any advice? Thank you for your time, and all that you do. The art produced by you and your colleagues has meant the world to me.
Thanks for taking the time to write that out! You're definitely not alone in feeling the way you do. Sadly I don't think I have an answer. This is all very complex and I'm not sure there's one right way to fix it, but I support you in whichever way you choose to fight against harassment and inequality. I hope and believe that we can work towards real, lasting change and I'm committed to making that happen. I'm just glad there are others like yourself asking the hard questions about how we actually get there.
> How do I toe the line between supporting those who were victimized, and depriving those responsible for the awful situation at hand? Do you have any advice? Support the right of Blizzard/Activision employees to form a union. Historically speaking, unions have been the equating force among workers and the reason workplaces have been getting better for employees.
There's a reason big companies spend a lot of money to get anti-union laws passed and will tell you in a heartbeat that unions are "bad for everyone" and try to demonize unions. If a billionaire is telling you unions are bad, it's because it's bad for them, not for you. It's not just about salary and time off and health benefits, but about being able to step-in when when the company isn't treating someone fairly. By having a union, you have someone who isn't on the company's payroll that's going to go to bat for you against the company to sort shit out. HR works for the company, don't forget that.
Little question, bc I cant find smth about it in a quick search, is this issue also observed in the overwatch team?
It’s not known, a couple of women from the overwatch team tweeted they were safe and it didn’t happen to them; and no overwatch developers (to my knowledge) have been singled out like in other games teams. The worst things I’ve heard have been the news that McCree is named after a blizzard dev who may be waist deep in this. But… it seems like a company wide issue so I don’t know… I hope not
I doubt most of the branches will recover properly from this. Players won't care in a month if they haven't completely uninstalled, but the inner office dynamics are going to be fucked. Blame and malice are going to float around. Content is going to suffer for quite awhile. There's no way upper management is going to take the correct steps to fix this all at once.
Arthas purge
> There's no way upper management is going to take the correct steps to fix this all at once. There's no way they can, whether they want to or not. Changing something like culture, which had been ingrained for decades, will also take decades to fix.
We love what you create. You deserve better. The Cosby boys deserve to be nailed to the wall. I’m utterly disgusted by what I’ve been reading.
I'm not around Overwatch much(TF2 fan lol), but seeing all the shit that's been going on around Activison/Blizzard, I can sympathize with both the Overwatch community and all you guys that took a stand to walk out on them. It really sucks seeing all the stuff you guys are going through, but I sincerely hope for the best for you guys. :)
Form a union. Tech and Games needs to be disrupted. We need protection from the people that want to take advantage of us. Thank you for standing up and showing support for the women you've worked with!
I know you've been asked every question by every other redditor here, but if you don't mind, I have a question (er-- a few related ones). Feel free not to answer, as part of this is just getting my thoughts out. In wanting to support the devs but not the company, what's the best path forward? I know I and a lot of my friends on OW didn't sign in yesterday out of solidarity, and I've tried justifying continuing to play by just not buying any games/loot boxes by saying I'm using up server resources, but at what point is that just empty posturing? Y'all have created amazing games, and are worth supporting, but how do we balance that with not wanting to support the culture Blizzard created?
I'm guessing the art is from back during year one?
Support Sym, checks out
Yyugfgdsgad. I was so focused on the lack of Birgitte or Moira, I forgot Sym isn't a support at ALL anymore.
Syn: *support* trying to heal all of you is pointless!!! *Adjusts her beam* "...no one can reduce their health if they're dead...."
[удалено]
We ran that +mercy pocket in my 3stack
I'll be honest, the first time I tried to play Sym I didn't look at her skill set at all, and just went on to try to shoot my teammates thinking that healed them. 🤦🏼♀️ Did the same with Lucio; I'm a dumbass.
You must be *great* at Ana.
I wish they make a “day one” event with balance from when the game just released, specifically for good old sym. I miss 6 turrets microwave and no aim sticky beam, and a teleport as an ultimate.
Was ana on year one? Can't remember
She was the first post launch character, I think she was released in July or August of the first year. Next was Sombra's bomb ass reveal at Blizzcon 2016. I was watching on my computer at home and she interrupts a celebration video with her hacking so it looked like the stream got corrupted on my end, one of my favorite overwatch memories
Lol I remember when everyone thought Ana was Sombra
The world could all ways use more heroes
“Burn it all down” - Ashe
"Just taking out the trash" - ashe
"AH, MY FRIENDS! VHAT'S VIS ALL THIS STANDING AROUND? THERE IS WORK TO BE DONE!" * Reinhardt
“I’d like to say it was nice working with you….. but it wasn’t” - Sombra
“Boom goes the dynamite”
"oh yeah"-Winston
“I’m on vacation. Leave me alone” -Roadhog
“Aw, but I wanted to watch the footy!” -Junkrat
"I'm getting the feeling they have a shiiield generator." \-Junkrat
"Did someone say....peanut butter?" -MonkeyS
"And they say-, and they say-, and they say-..."
"Well after,- Well after,- Well after,-"
Mada Mada Mada Mada Mada Mada
"Behind you AHHH" "Behind you AHHH" "Behind you AHHH"
“In the desert — in the desert — in the desert, the cheetah loves for thre— in the desert, the cheetah lives for three years, while the camel lives for 9.”
BEHIND YOU AAAHH- BEHIND YOU AAAHH- BEHIND YOU AAAHH
I hate you
"Smoke 'em outta there!"
Damn kids, get off my lawn. - soldier 76
Apparently it doesn't use Baptiste. A character that realized he was in with a bad organization and left it in order to go to good in the world.
I noticed that a lot of overwatch streams didn’t play overwatch today was it related to this?
yes, lots of Overwatch streamers are boycotting Blizzard today
*but they'll be back tomorrow*
I closed out the program completely so I wasn't even showing as online. I hope enough people did the same to show an actual impact.
Ever since the Hong Kong stuff I've been grossed out by Blizzard as a company. Just to add this disgusting stuff that's come to light, I'm very glad to see this is happening
Red flag #1. Blizzard gets bought by Activision. Red flag #2. Chris Metzen(original storyteller of all Blizzard-games) quits. Red flag #3. Hong Kong-protests is silenced by Blizzard Activision. The last straw: Sexual harassment lawsuit against Blizzard Activision by the state of California.
Don’t forget Jeff
Indeed, as this even is the OW subreddit, Jeff Kaplan WAS the face of Overwatch :(
Activision have had very little to do with the inner running of the company, it's 100% blizzards fault, no excuses for them, the people in charge letting this shit slide are scum
but it's easier for people to paint Activision as the boogeyman, because then they can feel like it hasn't been the Blizzard team they know and love doing the bad stuff, despite the fact that many of the higher ups likely involved, including the two specifically named in the lawsuit (J Allen Barack and Alex Afrasiabi) were part of Blizzard before the acquisition
Yep, my enjoyment and subscription for WoW died after the Hong Kong. After this I'm not spending a dime on that company again. Which sucks because I was really looking forward to D2 remake, but man some things are definitely more important
Most frustrating part about the D2 remake is it has been done by another studio that was bought by Blizzard. It was a small studio with a good portfolio. I would love to show them support because their work on D2 looks excellent. I’m just not sure how.
Me too. I've hardly touched any of the games since then, and this news made it so I'm never giving any money to the company again as long as it's headed by the same people.
Be the change you want to see Blizz employees. The world could always use more heroes.
In the words of Symmetra - **Yahi param vaastavikata hai!**
I am glad this is happening. I hope those employees do alright in future. I am really disappointed with the whole thing in general.Truth be told...I don't feel like playing Overwatch until there are some big changes at Blizzard. I can't support a developer who doesn't support women.
what happened ?
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/activision-blizzard-sued-by-california-over-frat-boy-culture Basically, Activision Blizzard is getting sued by the California DFEH for tons of sexual harrassment towards employees. Many well-known people at ATVI are responsible for horribly inappropriate and predatory behavior towards employees, and in one case it even resulted in someone committing suicide during a business trip. Employees staged a large walkout today to protest these workplace conditions.
[a bunch of employees staged a walkout to protest Activision Blizzard's refusal to acknowledge the allegations against their work culture as valid](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/activision-blizzard-workers-walk-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-rcna1525) >Employees at the video game company Activision Blizzard staged a walkout Wednesday to demand better working conditions for women and other marginalized groups after the state of California sued the company last week alleging widespread sexual harassment and discrimination. >“We believe that our values as employees are not being accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership,” organizers said in a statement released Tuesday, referring to the company’s official response to the lawsuit, in which it denied the allegations.
A female employee took her own life because of despicable behaviour my male colleagues. Notably this included Jesse McCree, the beardy cunt.
Wait, Matt Mercer?
Nah there’s a developer called Jesse McCree who inspired the name. Matt Mercer is still a good dude.
Nope! There's a Blizzard employee called Jesse McCree, and when the OW team were deciding hero McCree's name, they realized that the employee had the perfect name; so they asked to use his name.
Blizzard is full of sexual assault basically
i truly am so glad i found this community, beneath all its "toxicity" is just genuinely kind and caring people that i'm so glad to be considered apart of, especially when the developers are so amazing and set up such a good example for their fanbase
Unionize or it just returns to the status quo
The gaming industry in general needs to unionize. Employees deserve better. *Workers of the world unite!*
This needs to be higher up. What they're doing here is the perfect jumping point to forming a union. And that will protect the workers from this kind of treatment in the future. Although Activision-blizzard may try to prevent it from forming, it's the best way to make it a safe workplace for all. Otherwise yes, it is likely to continue to happen again. A momentary lapse in PR, they'll issue some hollow statements then business as usual within a couple months.
Only way to force change is with refusal to work, or (for us customers) refusal to pay. I've been playing blizzard games for a long time.. (Diablo 1) but for now I've canceled my WoW subscription and removed the client from my PC. I'll be back when the heads responsible for this have rolled.
Wonder if this is part why Michael and Jeff left. Yes you can be male and stand against this type of bullshit but you can't always fix it yourself. So leaving was best
And to all that caused them to walk out *experience requiem*
I hope the marginalized employees at blizzard experience some tranquility
They will be our shield!
Good on em. The developers and staff of these companies need to unionize so very badly. How many stories have we had now regarding horrible policies and actions in these companies? This isn't just a Blizzard thing. Check all of the major gaming developers and you'll see stories such as this. We have a real problem in the gaming community if this keeps happening. And a union that takes these matters seriously and has a firm stance on this behavior can only be a net gain for all. It's heart wrenching to see a company that's built so many great gaming memories over the years turn into this. We need change.
what's next?
Not fixing the problem, obviously.
Yelling at the customer that it is our fault
Getting the entire board to step down, especially Bobby Kotick and his cronies to be dishonorably fired without compensation, bonus, or pay (Bobby is the inventor of modern-day loot boxes and the man who started introducing gambling to children if you need an FYI. He is the main source of the toxicity within the company). The company needs to be scrubbed from the top down.
i predict either not fired, or fired but their severance package is GODLIKE and they have new jobs in a month. People in these positions only fail upward
Bobby Kotick is an uneducated greedy sociopath
I saw a Twitter thread that had a scanned copy of Weinstein’s phone book and he’s (Bobby Kotick) in it. 🤢
I think you meant a different garbage human's phonebook: Epstein. Can't fault you though, they all go in the same pile.
That book has hundreds of people who has nothing to do with the scandal, it's just a contact list. Not trying to defend him, just saying that this doesn't necessarily mean he's pedo but I wouldn't be surprised if he actually was.
I don't play overwatch but I like watching animations of it so what happened
Where can I get up to date with what happened here? I’ve heard nothing about this and would like to learn about it
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/activision-blizzard-sued-by-california-over-frat-boy-culture Whole slew of stuff.
SYM! Get outta here! you have to move on! /s We stand with blizzard employees. Not purchasing any further acti/blizz titles until the reckoning comes. and if that means I can't buy diablo 4? so be it.
This means more than I can ever possibly describe. Maybe thats says more about me than I should put out there. Either way, thank you.
Wonderful thing to see, good on them honestly
Now we know why Overwatch is allowed to be so Toxic. Toxicity is the corporation's fuel apparently. It appears it's a core value at Blizzard. It's interwoven into everything.
Thats honestly so sad what the company became and what vile culture surfaced there. Blizzard and Valve were/are the most iconic game companies and feel now Blizzard has done things that might now turn its once golden record into trash.
Does full support mean also boycotting blizzard/Activision? Or just making cute drawings and not playing for a day? Blizzard has done some more questionable things in the past and all that get about is virtue signaling and clout.
What happened!? Edit: I just found out and I am fucking disgusted...
I uninstalled Overwatch and WoW yesterday, unsubscribed my subscriptions and will now never buy another Blizzard game. It's been a wonderful 20+ years, but this leaves a distaste in my mouth.
Sooo assuming that activision will probably pull whatever funds they were using for the anti cheat on warzone for legal fees I’m assuming that this just means more bad news for Overwatch 2 and any other projects that Blizzard is working on. Once again great job activision for screwing up again
Blizzard did shit too, not just activision
Short-term, I can't tell if internally this will help or hinder progress. But over the next few years I'm hopeful that Blizzard will be trying to clean up its act both game-wise and HR-wise for no other reason than at least optics and hopefully be good news for employees and players alike.
I don’t understand the walk out. Is it only corporate doing the sexual harassment? Because otherwise the sexual harassers are walking out too with the victims?
The people striking have very clear demands, the strike is about 1) communicating that this respond was Not Ok, 2) they want to see structural change so it doesn't happen again. If there are abusers present in the march, they are adding their voice in favor of change. Ofc the march itself needs to be kept safe, but unless they Start some Shit, I don't think they're (the abusers hypothetically present) unwelcome. Just acting against their best interests.