Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ubisoft CCO Serge Hascoet resigns in wake of sweeping allegations

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 42 posts

Re: Ubisoft CCO Serge Hascoet resigns in wake of sweeping allegations

#11

Post by saos »

dijit wrote: post #4

Weird to see this here. I have limited knowledge on these things; FD: I work for Ubisoft in their Massive Studio. Ubisoft itself is incredibly silo'd; each studio and each function operates like a loosely coupled bundling of companies. You can think of it like: * Marketing has offices (or colo's in some offices) but has a completely seperate reporting structure all the way to Yves. * (same for other business function…

> What I'm trying to say is that: each "head" is responsible for the culture they create

So often people forget that leaders set the cultural.

> Notably the Editoriale team (gatekeepers for games) was recently expanded to be more diverse.. that diversity was all middle-aged white french guys who came from the same school and had worked in that department before.. so.. not very diverse.

This saddens me. I do wonder if tech will ever see a proper shift in diversity within teams and leadership. But, what exactly is diversity?

Re: Ubisoft CCO Serge Hascoet resigns in wake of sweeping allegations

#12

Post by rbg246 »

drevil-v2 wrote: post #9

I am deeply troubled that we have normalised public executions on the basis of allegations. No person or group should have that power to effectively end someone’s career on accusations alone.

I'm more worried about the 95%+ of sexual assaults that perpetrators get away with.

Re: Ubisoft CCO Serge Hascoet resigns in wake of sweeping allegations

#13

Post by SuoDuanDao »

amp180 wrote: post #3
SuoDuanDao wrote: post #2

I seem to recall Ubisoft working with a number Sarkeesian-type consultants in the years following gamergate. Seems like a case of the guiltiest being the first to accuse if I remembered that right, but I don't recall where I got the idea. Does anyone here know where I might have got that impression?

I don't think Sarkeesian could even possibly be the problem if Ubisoft HR changed their definition of harassment to allow sexual harassment and non-gamer journalists are reporting on it. Companies have "woke" consultants in to make speeches all the time but it's performative and it never changes anything.

I'm more wondering about the value of woke consultants as an indicator - if a company is very concerned about making such performances, could it be an indicator of a guilty conscience?

Re: Ubisoft CCO Serge Hascoet resigns in wake of sweeping allegations

#14

Post by drevil-v2 »

rbg246 wrote: post #12
drevil-v2 wrote: post #9

I am deeply troubled that we have normalised public executions on the basis of allegations. No person or group should have that power to effectively end someone’s career on accusations alone.

I'm more worried about the 95%+ of sexual assaults that perpetrators get away with.

Citation needed for that “95%+” claim. And While you are at it, can you spell out what exactly you mean by “sexual assault“? It seems to me that the meaning has been corrupted in order to further political and ideological aims of the accusers and executioners.

Re: Ubisoft CCO Serge Hascoet resigns in wake of sweeping allegations

#15

Post by kwistzhaderach »

rbg246 wrote: post #12
drevil-v2 wrote: post #9

I am deeply troubled that we have normalised public executions on the basis of allegations. No person or group should have that power to effectively end someone’s career on accusations alone.

I'm more worried about the 95%+ of sexual assaults that perpetrators get away with.

Yeah so to counter that, we should obviously dismiss everyone accused.

Re: Ubisoft CCO Serge Hascoet resigns in wake of sweeping allegations

#16

Post by goblin89 »

drevil-v2 wrote: post #9

I am deeply troubled that we have normalised public executions on the basis of allegations. No person or group should have that power to effectively end someone’s career on accusations alone.

Reports of harassment at Ubisoft include Hascoet’s actions and statements with witnesses, actions that his coworkers mimicked after him, and also matter of official record[0].

An “allegation” does not mean a groundless accusation. Any claim, even a very obvious and serious one, would be referred to in media as “allegation” until the accused is convicted.

The conviction does not always happen even in clear-cut cases, as the matter might not end up in court for various reasons unrelated to the truth of the claim.

The fact that measures were taken by the employer (some measures appear to be directly detrimental to the company, such as firing someone in charge of most of their products) shows that the allegations are likely firmly based in reality.

[0] “…a definition of workplace harassment that was updated in 2015 to remove the example of a manager sexually harassing a reporting employee”

Re: Ubisoft CCO Serge Hascoet resigns in wake of sweeping allegations

#17

Post by maroonblazer »

drevil-v2 wrote: post #9

I am deeply troubled that we have normalised public executions on the basis of allegations. No person or group should have that power to effectively end someone’s career on accusations alone.

Broadly speaking I don't disagree with you, but in this instance the evidence appears quite damning.

Re: Ubisoft CCO Serge Hascoet resigns in wake of sweeping allegations

#19

Post by loraa »

I remember when video games and gaming was great. Now it is a political circus where the object is to pretty much destroy every white male with any decision making ability.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a white male and I definitely understand the want to diversify, but all thes stuff recently is one big witch hunt to get rid of anyone who would still dare use alpha males as main characters.

Post reply on HN