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Activision Blizzard employees walk out over harassment and ‘frat boy’ culture

theguardian.com

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Re: Activision Blizzard employees walk out over harassment and ‘frat boy’ culture

#41

Post by jwilber »

elefanten wrote: post #9
jwilber wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an odd, blanket statement considering 1. The quality/longevity of their games 2. The variance in genres they produce games in. Comparing Starcraft to Candy Crush may help elucidate how off you are with the vape/fb comparison.

GP, while phrased a bit stridently, isn't totally off base here. Arguably, Blizzard led the charge in proliferating RPG systems into virtually all other genres and they proved the popular power of "grind" based systems. The original RTS games (Warcraft 1-3, Starcraft 1) did not really contain these systems. But virtually everything else Blizzard has produced (including Starcraft 2) has grinding & collecting in it. As…

Not disagreeing with your larger point, but what grinding exists in Starcraft 2? Been playing for a decade and can’t think of anything.

I’m not sure who invented loot boxes, but that’s another (unmentioned) issue entirely.

Re: Activision Blizzard employees walk out over harassment and ‘frat boy’ culture

#42

Post by oijasfpoi »

nielsbot wrote: post #3

Wouldn't forming a union help them better negotiate as a group? FTA: "Activision Blizzard employees are also calling for an end to mandatory arbitration in employee contracts, which prevent workers from taking conflicts with their employer to court, policies to improve representation of women and marginalized groups, the publication of salary data, and an audit of the company by a diversity, equity and inclusion task…

Have you ever dealt with an actual union in the US? The ones I've dealt with are incredibly sexist and racist. They work to protect harassers, and they prevent employees from taking their employers to court.

Re: Activision Blizzard employees walk out over harassment and ‘frat boy’ culture

#43

Post by dcow »

epicureanideal wrote: post #12

Is there a VC out there that can just throw a few tens of millions of dollars at these employees and literally just teleport them from Blizzard to NewBlizzard in the same roles in a new company with a culture they prefer? I'm actually surprised this isn't "a thing". If a large percentage of a well known, profitable company doesn't agree with a direction it's taking... why doesn't a VC or private equity just help fina…

I suspect it's also, in stark reality, not that many employees that would actually leave. Many people are willing to signal virtual. How many are actually willing to sacrifice? The article lists 3000 "current and former" employees. Let's assume 1000 are current and 20% are willing to leave. Blizzard losing 200/9500 of their workforce isn't that significant. Even if all 1000 would leave, that still is within bounds of a layoff. DHH's company seems to be doing fine.

Re: Activision Blizzard employees walk out over harassment and ‘frat boy’ culture

#44

Post by poisonarena »

From the article: "Just 20% of Activision Blizzard’s 9,500 employees are women, and leadership at the company, one of the largest video game makers in the world, is largely white and male."

I am 36 years old, white male. I imagine alot of the employees there are within my age range give or take 5-10 years. For me it just makes sense. in the late 90s and early 2000s if you asked me, an obsessed computer gaming white guy nerd teen, what company I would want to work for, it would probably be Blizzard(I was more of an Everquest fan but still). It makes sense those people would want the jobs and there would be mostly those type of people in the spots. I don't understand how this is a bad thing. I consider computer gaming a part of my culture or subculture, and yes there are other people that get into it, lgbt, women, trans, but I feel like this stuff was specifically marketed to young men.

Re: Activision Blizzard employees walk out over harassment and ‘frat boy’ culture

#45

Post by wonderwonder »

epicureanideal wrote: post #12

Is there a VC out there that can just throw a few tens of millions of dollars at these employees and literally just teleport them from Blizzard to NewBlizzard in the same roles in a new company with a culture they prefer? I'm actually surprised this isn't "a thing". If a large percentage of a well known, profitable company doesn't agree with a direction it's taking... why doesn't a VC or private equity just help fina…

What would those employees do there? They cant just start working on New World of Warcraft, its protected by copywrite. Companies get an idea and then scale as the idea is built out. They would need to come up with an idea but they would just hemorrhage money for years while it was built out. Small groups may break off and start working on something but it would be the seed of the idea and they would scale as they needed too.

Re: Activision Blizzard employees walk out over harassment and ‘frat boy’ culture

#46

Post by runawaybottle »

I just saw the Kotaku article about Blizzard devs having their own ‘Cosby Suite’:

https://kotaku.com/inside-blizzard-developers-infamous-bill-...

You know, I’m not condoning or excusing anyone, but it might be time to stop drinking together as coworkers. You cannot come up with this kinda shit if your sober.

Keep the beer out the office, keep the parties an hour long at most. We can’t handle it, it’s obvious.

Re: Activision Blizzard employees walk out over harassment and ‘frat boy’ culture

#47

Post by coldacid »

mr_toad wrote: post #23
elefanten wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GP, while phrased a bit stridently, isn't totally off base here. Arguably, Blizzard led the charge in proliferating RPG systems into virtually all other genres and they proved the popular power of "grind" based systems. The original RTS games (Warcraft 1-3, Starcraft 1) did not really contain these systems. But virtually everything else Blizzard has produced (including Starcraft 2) has grinding & collecting in it. As…

> To be fair, you can't blame Blizzard entirely for spreading these design choices. Many would blame Activision. And not a few would say that Blizzard sold out. To me they seem to be mostly milking the cash cow, and they’re hardly alone in doing it.

Blizzard was already creatively going downhill before Activision bought them, but they could have recovered. Joining with Activision was the death of Blizzard.

Re: Activision Blizzard employees walk out over harassment and ‘frat boy’ culture

#48

Post by wonderwonder »

epicureanideal wrote: post #18
mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That VC would need a lot of confidence in the team to be willing to fully fund them with no revenue, clients, or IP.

Sure, but to whatever extent the human resources are the engine that drives creation of revenue, clients, and IP, it would seem that taking a large chunk of an existing working machine would have better odds than some other startup, right?

I don't think they are. I think at most companies most people are replaceable. Each company has a few key players that are truly cornerstone employees. Almost everyone else can be swapped out as needed. Not saying losing a key Sr. wont cause a set back but with the right hire (and they are not that scarce) they are back on track in a bit. Most of us think we are super valuable and that a company will suffer when we leave but reality is that it rarely happens; there are of course exceptions. Blizzard already the has the IP, everything else is just cogs.

Re: Activision Blizzard employees walk out over harassment and ‘frat boy’ culture

#49

Post by ErikVandeWater »

smnrchrds wrote: post #25
ditonal wrote: post #6

Did the walkouts at Google change anything? Not only did Sundar enable the disgusting, predatory behavior of Vic Gundotra and Andy Rubin, but as far as I can tell, he’s still a darling of the press. Even on HN Sundar and Google get the kid gloves despite the abhorrence of the culture they created. Walkouts are pointless. True Employee organization and collective bargaining is the only answer to holding execs accounta…

A major global publication has written an article about it. Spotlight is shone on Activision Blizzard's culture. We have seen that the only way to get any sort of customer support out of big tech companies is making noise on social media. And it works when enough noise is made. This is the next level of that: making noise in publications with global reach. The management will be wise not to ignore it.

I don't think an article on the side of the front page of a foreign newspaper remotely compares to what the NYT center front page or NBC Nightly News spotlights would mean.

Re: Activision Blizzard employees walk out over harassment and ‘frat boy’ culture

#50

Post by wonderwonder »

nemo44x wrote: post #31
epicureanideal wrote: post #12

Is there a VC out there that can just throw a few tens of millions of dollars at these employees and literally just teleport them from Blizzard to NewBlizzard in the same roles in a new company with a culture they prefer? I'm actually surprised this isn't "a thing". If a large percentage of a well known, profitable company doesn't agree with a direction it's taking... why doesn't a VC or private equity just help fina…

Why would you put up your investors money to take your competitors problem off their hands?

Coinbase agrees with you. Cost them a few bucks to offload anyone that was not truly committed to their cause and only their cause.
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