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Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

wsj.com

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Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#101

Post by CheezeIt »

etchalon wrote: post #63
CheezeIt wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The U.S. Bill of Rights [1] protects giving negative references. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights

Personal references are protected, to the extent that liable and slander laws would apply. Any HR person / lawyer will tell you providing a negative review of an employee, let alone with amount of detail, opens you up to liabilities that aren't worth it. As an employer, I've been told that, if called, I should only provide the date a person started with the company, the date a person left, their starting and ending s…

Will they give you a magnitude attached to those liabilities? Anybody can falsely sue for defamation, so you need an average cost value beyond the mere possibility of lawsuit to get a true representation of the problem.

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#102

Post by CheezeIt »

C19is20 wrote: post #85
intunderflow wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if its the same in the USA, but in Europe there are massive legal liability issues to giving a negative reference - most places give no reference or a standard set of terms because of this

Specifically which parts of Europe? It's a big place, and I have given negative references with no fear of liability. And that includes across EU borders, including the UK.

In Germany I’ve read recommendations range from meekly positive to very positive, and that encodes the actual recommendation.

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#103

Post by pm90 »

speedgoose wrote: post #76
sydthrowaway wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except there’s an overlap in low level perf tuning in AAA game engines and improving cloud workloads. These folks could easily get a job at FAANG

Working a at FAANG is not as attractive to most when you don’t know about the issues in the video games industry. There is a reason why FAANG companies pay well and video games companies don’t have to. I met zero people who told me they dreamed about working in a FAANG since childhood.

Microsoft owns Xbox and a multitude of game studios…

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#105

Post by lmm »

Byteflux wrote: post #98
virtue3 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would violate freedom of speech. Which is the first amendment of the bill of rights of America. And blizzard being an American company this really irked a lot of us. "The First Amendment guarantees freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. ... It guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely."…

Like individuals, businesses also have an inalienable right to free speech. Whether you like it or not, censorship among private individuals and businesses is an exercise in free speech. It's within my right to free speech to set the terms of your speech in my home, in my businesses or anywhere else on my property. Your right to free speech is not violated by private censorship. Although the concept of free speech ca…

> Like individuals, businesses also have an inalienable right to free speech.

Nonsense. Humans have inalienable rights. Businesses exist on our sufferance, they don't have an inalienable right to anything.

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#106

Post by rndgermandude »

2pEXgD0fZ5cF wrote: post #40
jimbob45 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because he’s led some of the highest growth of any company of the last two decades and there’s extremely limited evidence that he knew what was going on at just one of his subsidiary companies (and the least profitable one at that). Blizzard games don’t hold a candle to the money CoD, Madden, or Skylanders bring in. If Blizzard lets him go, someone else will snatch up his genius immediately.

> extremely limited evidence that he knew What makes you say that? Every piece of info I encountered on the case suggests the opposite [1][2] In addition to that Kotick himself has been involved in such cases before and is no stranger to getting rid of victims [3] [1]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/activision-videogames-bobby-kot... [2]: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-11-16-activision-bos... [3]: https://www.…

>In addition to that Kotick himself has been accused of sexual harassment in the past and lost a legal case over it [3]

I am not trying to defend Kotick, and am not saying his behavior then or now was alright. But the article you linked did not say he was accused of sexual harassment. And he did not lose a sexual harassment case either.

Instead the article says that a guy named Berg, with whom Kotick co-owned a private jet, was accused of sexual harassment by a former stewardess. Kotick was named in the suit because he co-owned the company that owned the jet and he was the one who eventually fired the stewardess, and that was alleged to have been wrongful termination out of retribution for reporting Berg's alleged misconduct. Kotick himself, unlike Berg, was not accused of sexual harassment in this case. (It seems the entire thing was settled out of court eventually).

The suit that was actually lost as per the article was a case brought by a former attorney for him and Berg, who sued them for non-payment of legal fees relating to the original sexual harassment case.

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#107

Post by gjvc »

gonzo41 wrote: post #97
mysterydip wrote: post #3

And the CEO remains the CEO.

Leadership starts and ends at the top. Sometimes it never starts. I do wonder if the games industry is close to wide-scale reckoning on working conditions. It really does just sound brutal and even more exploitative than Hollywood. I've personally suffered mild enterprise ERP burnout, but the kind of stuff I read about in the game industry is just next level.

Leadership starts and ends at the top. Sometimes it never starts.

Yes, and gets imitated all the way down the org chart.

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#108

Post by pm90 »

WaxProlix wrote: post #65
fareesh wrote: post #39

I really wouldn't boycott anything over workplace culture. If their product is good I will buy it. In the case of Blizzard their products haven't been good for a long time. I'm ok with supporting a company that's evil. I am consuming petroleum, plastic, the news media, etc. all the time. Anyone who suggests otherwise comes across as somewhat delusional and a little self obsessed to me. Blizzard would be the least of…

This is a pragmatic approach in some regards, but misses nuance. I can't really live my life as a part of society without some of these 'sins', and I don't think my opting in or out of plastic consumption on a choice-by-choice basis will move any needles. My choices will not effect the behaviors of these corps. But I can live without buying the next loot box, and I can still be a productive member of society without…

> But I can live without buying the next loot box, and I can still be a productive member of society without the new Call of Duty game.

You could live on slurried nutrient paste instead of regular food. Yet we choose to pursue good food because it gives us happiness and satisfaction. To a lot of gamers, video games offer happiness and fulfillment.

What Blizzard folks did was terrible, and I reduced willingly spending on them. But when they released Diablo 2 remastered, I bought it immediately and relived my childhood experience. I don’t regret it.

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#109

Post by seattle_spring »

jimbob45 wrote: post #29
mysterydip wrote: post #3

And the CEO remains the CEO.

Because he’s led some of the highest growth of any company of the last two decades and there’s extremely limited evidence that he knew what was going on at just one of his subsidiary companies (and the least profitable one at that). Blizzard games don’t hold a candle to the money CoD, Madden, or Skylanders bring in. If Blizzard lets him go, someone else will snatch up his genius immediately.

> Blizzard games don’t hold a candle to the money CoD, Madden, or Skylanders bring in

You might be right that Blizzard game don't make as much pure profit. However, COD and Madden are prime examples of the bastardization of the video games industry, where companies are putting profits far ahead of making actual enjoyable games. Kotick is a pioneer in this respect, being the best in the biz at making games unfun reskinned garbage and making a mint while doing it.

IMO keeping someone like Kotick around for his money making prowess is extremely short sighted. One of these days people are going to pick up on the ruse. You can already see it with Blizzard's waning fanbase for games like Overwatch and WoW.

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#110

Post by pm90 »

vsef wrote: post #92
MangoCoffee wrote: post #88

Blizzard, Ubisoft and gaming industry in general seem to be plagued with sexual harassment problem. is this the result of Silicon Valley bro culture?

It is a cultural problem but the game industry is not SV based. Blizzard Activision is SoCal, Ubisoft is French (with studios in many locations). I worked at a studio owned by Activision (in SoCal) in the early 2000s and the culture was certainly toxic. I just find it funny how often commenters here assume all broism originates in SV.

To be fair most broism does originate in SV though doesn’t it?
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