On Thursday, July 22, after a two-year investigation, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit (here is the official document in full) against the gaming company Activision Blizzard.
The lawsuit alleges employee gender discrimination, wrongful retaliation, recognition of discrimination, workplace harassment and unfair remuneration. The gaming media has summed up the morale and behavior of male employees – sadly including executives – in the English slang term “brotherhood culture”, which can roughly be translated as fraternal but with a very negative connotation, emphasizing the sexist and predatory practices of the robust male workforce.
Examples of specific allegations in litigation:
- Suicide of an employee on a business trip due to sexual blackmail by a colleague.
- A woman with double the result of work, but a lower salary than her colleague, was subsequently promoted.
- Drunk men crawling under desks in workplaces are linked to harassment of women.
- Discrimination against women is not only based on gender, but also on race or sexual orientation.
- Men play during working hours, delegating work to subordinate women.
- Public commenting on the appearance of colleagues in the workplace, jokes about rape.
- The unwillingness of some bosses to communicate with women.
In the case of the most serious allegation of suicide, it is worth noting that there is relatively strong evidence and testimony – the perpetrator allegedly shared nude photographs of the victim and carried sexual devices with him on a business trip.
Additional behind-the-scenes report on the development of Warcraft III: Reforged
On the same day, Jason Schreier also released an account of the painful development history of the failed remaster. The gist of the information was that the project was vastly underfunded during development and thus resulted in an unresolvable situation on the part of the development team, which was still largely disbanded three months after the remaster’s release. Those who stay suffer from depression, anxiety and exhaustion for more than a year.
Answers from Activision Blizzard
1. Challenging the claim, the threat of moving the company
An Activision Blizzard spokesperson sent a full statement to reporter Jason Schreier, calling the lawsuit “misrepresented and largely false.” At the same time, the statement contained a not very hidden threat to state organizations that the company would move to another country with its tax deductions:
“This is exactly the kind of irresponsible behavior by elusive government bureaucrats that many of the state’s best companies are kicking out of California.”
2. Internal investigation and confirmation
Later that night, Blizzard President J. Allen Brack sent an email to employees, calling the lawsuit “very disturbing” and promising to meet with many employees to get answers to questions and discuss how to proceed:
3. Inner defense and denial
On the same day, CCO Frances Townsend (a former security adviser to President Bush from 2004-2007 who joined Activison in March of this year) also sent a very different email, in in which she described the events of the ten-year-old lawsuit and expressed her opinion that the current Activision Blizzard does not suffer from such problems:
Apology from the former head of the company
Former Blizzard executive and co-founder Mike Morhaime also commented on the incident on Saturday, writing among employees: “I hear you, I trust you and I apologize for disappointing you.” Morhaime left the company in 2018 and subsequently founded a new studio called Dreamhaven.
The reaction of the public and employees
You probably won’t be surprised that employees didn’t like the company’s reaction. Many former employees, the industry and the gaming community as a whole have also reacted to the case. Many players have deleted the company’s games from their computers and vowed not to buy anything from them again. Some World of Warcraft players strike to protest the game, putting the characters in place instead of the game:
A get-together to show that we stand for change and support the people we have harmed. #Military craft! pic.twitter.com/0skHtbhRIF
– 💙Archdruid Jordan (Aurorra) 💙 (@AurrorraGaming) July 22, 2021
As one of the memories of the sexist behavior of some Blizzard representatives during the peak of their fame on the Internet, this video where a fan asks at a conference if the heroines in Blizzard games could not be more dressed – the answer is such a sexist joke:
This is a problem for many other companies in the industry.
Games journalist and developer Alana Pierce was one of many who pointed out that very similar issues are affecting a large group of tech corporations that employ mostly men. For example, in recent weeks, Kotaku published a very similar report on sexist practices at Ubisoft’s Singapore office.
Open letter from 1000+ employees, strike, demands
More than a thousand employees subsequently signed an open letter addressed to the company’s management, and also announced a strike (scheduled for today). The letter expresses clear disagreement with the position of the company, as well as with the statement of Frances Townsed. Employees formulated 4 requirements:
- Repeal the prohibition on litigation that employees have in their employment contract.
- Improving the recruitment and promotion process to avoid discrimination against women and minorities.
- Payroll disclosure at all levels of the company.
- Hiring a third party to oversee equity for the company.
Today’s CEO Bobby Kotick’s Promise
In response to the situation, Bobby Kotick today sent an open letter to employees promising:
- Expanded employee support from HR teams.
- Listening session with a third party
- Re-evaluation of all senior positions and managers in the company.
- Hiring diversification guide.
- Remove problematic content from released games (probably references to the names of the perpetrators, mind you. Red.)
The official social networks of the company broke the silence
In the same vein, after several days of silence, the social networks of individual games began to express themselves, at least for the moment World of Warcraft:
Among other things, the company’s stock is expected to fall, and sales of the Diablo II remake in September are under threat.
Source :Indian TV
