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Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

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Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#251

Post by milkytron »

__john wrote: post #184
cletus wrote: post #148

The Steve Jobs quote on why Xerox failed [1] strikes again. The finance people have taken over Acti-Blizzard and they've been coasting for 10+ years on their original franchises. All we have is annual CoD releases and Blizzrad coasting on their old properties where Blizzrd hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years. This effort seems like it's part of the ruthless approach to controlling costs that slowly…

> Blizzrd hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years A quick search tells me that Overwatch has 6M players, which seems significant.

Haven't played Overwatch myself, but isn't it very similar to the other games that came before it?

From a layman's perspective, it seems like a copy of Paladins, TF2, etc.

Upon it's release, it didn't seem like something original (at least not to me), but rather something to compete with the unique games other studios had already created.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#252

Post by r00fus »

leereeves wrote: post #171
r00fus wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they just advise what internal tactics to use, and where to hire said external resources.

> they just advise...where to hire said external resources [mercenaries] Do you have some evidence for that allegation or are you just making things up? That would be quite serious, and illegal, if it's true. If it's true.

Modern companies rarely use [mercenaries] as you put it.

Instead it's reputation management firms for the alleged perpetrators and investigators that dredge up personal info about the victims who reported abuses.

It's a well known approach.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#253

Post by aftergibson »

bakuninsbart wrote: post #212
kelnos wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand this attitude, or line of reasoning, or whatever you want to call it. Sure, if a company does something that you find reprehensible, not giving them further money (or attention) is certainly a reasonable -- and honorable! -- thing to do. But if you've already purchased a standalone[0], non-subscription product from that company, and that company doesn't gain any benefit from your further use…

Some of the best fiction was written by people with absolutely despicable opinions like Francois Céline or Knut Hamsun. You can see it in their art, but their art isn't limited to it, and still holds a lot of value. Friedrich Nietzsche's opinions on women and politics are plain dumb, yet his other thought can be extremely compelling, and he is rightfully one of the most influential thinkers of modern times. Going bac…

Celine and Hamsun aren’t getting engagement activity from their in-app analytics. They also can’t respond to all of the legitimate criticisms against them. Activision can and they’ve decided to bring in the Pinkertons.

At the end of the day, another player booting up an Activision game is another (tiny) data point that says whatever activity Activision/Blizzard is engaging in is a-ok with that player. It’s not revenue driving right now, but in 6-12 months, this has blown over and enough of the tiny subset of temporarily outraged players will eventually start to generate revenue. That’s what they’re banking on.

Decide what you care about or don’t, but at least accept/own the impact of your decisions and don’t conflate the situation with century old authors.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#254

Post by akudha »

donmcronald wrote: post #172
kelnos wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand this attitude, or line of reasoning, or whatever you want to call it. Sure, if a company does something that you find reprehensible, not giving them further money (or attention) is certainly a reasonable -- and honorable! -- thing to do. But if you've already purchased a standalone[0], non-subscription product from that company, and that company doesn't gain any benefit from your further use…

Maybe it’s just a normal thing as you get older, but knowing the company mistreated people sucks the fun out of it for me. I’m not completely against playing the stuff I’ve already paid for, but they won’t get another penny from me. I’d like to have a database that tracks the C-Suite employees. I’d personally boycott any company that hires any of them. Their careers should be over IMO. I wish we could take away Bobby…

This app has been around for a while https://www.buycott.com/campaign/browse I do not know how good it is.

We should totally not give our money to shitty companies. But global commerce is so intertwined that it would quickly become very difficult to buy anything if we start closely looking at every company we give money to.

I don't know what the solution is. Boycotting is a start.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#255

Post by dogorman »

Gracana wrote: post #204
dogorman wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 paragraphs? That's your standard? What a joke! The Exxon Valdez only gets three sentences on Exxon's wikipedia page. It costs peanuts to bribe a wikipedian editor to manage your corporation's reputation and suppress controversies on wikipedia. This is standard practice. How anybody thinks a corporation's wikipedia page is neutral territory is beyond me.

That paragraph calls it "one of the worst oil spills in American history," and links to an entire article about it. What underhanded editing do you think has happened here?

The decision to only have three sentences about it. The decision to hide those three sentences under the "History" heading so there is no hint of it in the table of contents. The decision to not even have a "Controversies" section to the page. The decision to not have any photographs of the aftermath. Don't be so credulous. Wikipedians have been caught selling their PR services numerous times before, and doubtlessly get away with it even more often than that.

Contrast this with what BP's page looks like and it's obvious Exxon payed top dollar while BP's PR team cheaped out (gave up?). BP's page has a paragraph dedicated to the Deepwater spill in the introduction section, has a "Violations and accidents" section in the table of contents, and has "Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill" in the table of contents as well. And that section? It has a dozen or so paragraphs, not just three lame sentences. The page has several photographs of the aftermath. BP's page looks like an authentic wikipedia page, while Exxon's page was obviously bought and paid for by Exxon's PR. Exxon's page should look like BP's, but doesn't.

And since you mention the article dedicated to the spill, lets compare those too. The Deep Water Horizon page is 4 times as long. The Deep Water Horizon page gets prominent links from BP's main page, at the top of the section titled "Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill"

> Main article: Deepwater Horizon oil spill

> See also: Deepwater Horizon explosion, Deepwater Horizon litigation, and Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust

BP's page also has an infobox all about the spill: "This article is part of a series about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill"

Exxon's page? The link for the spill's dedicated page is hidden as the 4th link in one of the three sentences that page has about the spill:

> On March 24, 1989, in what is regarded as one of the worst oil spills in American history,[9] a tanker owned by Exxon, the Exxon Valdez, crashed into Bligh Reef, [[Exxon Valdez oil spill|spilling]] its cargo of over ten million gallons of crude oil into the Prince William Sound in Alaska

What an absolute fucking joke. I can't believe you defend this.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#256

Post by TaylorAlexander »

filereaper wrote: post #249

Funny that WilmerHale has diversity and inclusion as a "principle" while they actively undermine others and are paid to do so. >"Our commitment to diversity and inclusion starts at the top and cascades throughout the firm. WilmerHale is one of very few AmLaw 100 firms with a woman co-managing partner, and part of an even smaller number of such firms that have had both a woman and a person of color as a co-managing pa…

Sadly the whole industry is like that. They make a lot of noise about "doing better" but they still suppress any effort to gain worker power.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#257

Post by dmead »

brainfish wrote: post #26

I cut my teeth on Diablo, and played Diablo II for probably fifteen years after its release off and on as a way to stay connected with a friend who loved it similarly. More recently, I have consistently played Starcraft II since its release and enjoy a sense of mastery over that game unparalleled by my experience in any other. I haven't purchased new Blizzard products since the Hong Kong censorship debacle[1] and qui…

what the hell am i supposed to replace starcraft with?

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#258

Post by stephc_int13 »

Huge companies like Blizzard benefit from a tremendous inertia, so it can be difficult to see them declining, but I think they started doing so more than a decade ago...

At some point Blizzard was my dream video game studio, but the people did the hard work and built it are long gone.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#259

Post by Fordec »

LeSaucy wrote: post #187
__john wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Blizzrd hasn't had a significant original release in 10+ years A quick search tells me that Overwatch has 6M players, which seems significant.

A note that Jeff Kaplan the director of the title resigned in May. He was heavily involved from its inception and throughout the development of Overwatch 2, and was a huge part of the community.

As a former Overwatch player, you're right. But my (so far glad to say mostly unfounded) fear is that Jeff "Tigole Bitties" Kaplan was part of the problem we're seeing play out the past few weeks.

Re: Activision Blizzard Hires Notorious Union-Busting Firm WilmerHale

#260

Post by harpersealtako »

user-the-name wrote: post #226
bakuninsbart wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the best fiction was written by people with absolutely despicable opinions like Francois Céline or Knut Hamsun. You can see it in their art, but their art isn't limited to it, and still holds a lot of value. Friedrich Nietzsche's opinions on women and politics are plain dumb, yet his other thought can be extremely compelling, and he is rightfully one of the most influential thinkers of modern times. Going bac…

Terrible people can say good things, but there are a million good people out there saying good things that you could listen to instead. Why spend the limited time you have in this world on consuming the works of terrible people? There is more out there than you could possibly experience in a lifetime. Why not dedicate that time to people who are not awful?

There are a million authors worth reading if your standards are low enough, but there's only one Friedrich Nietzsche.
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