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Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

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Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#311

Post by input_sh »

username90 wrote: post #288
input_sh wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speculation? Her former boyfriend wrote a blog post detailing their relationship (and lying that she slept with a game journalist, something he later said had no evidence of), someone posted it on 4chan, they tried to spin it as "ethics in game journalism" discussion (which never made any sense since he never reviewed any of the games she worked on). That's all there is to it, and it's pretty well documented.

You speculated about the motive of the harassers, not the actual chain of events. Nothing you say here says that the harassers attacked her for being a woman instead of attacking her for cheating the game review system.

I didn't speculate shit, I read those threads as they were happening. You know what they've boiled down to? She was a woman (with a couple of feminist takes), this dude made allegations against her, therefore let's doxx her.

> instead of attacking her for cheating the game review system.

Again, he never reviewed any of her games, so unless your argument is that no game journalist should ever date any game developer under any circumstances, what system was she cheating exactly?

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#312

Post by thereddaikon »

bagacrap wrote: post #15
runlevel1 wrote: post #6

> Why it matters: Walkouts are a drastic measure for developers in a largely non-unionized field, a testament to just how angry employees currently are. It sends a message, but I wouldn't say it's _that_ drastic considering the demand for developers and difficulty hiring in the Orange County area.

Yeah I don't think Blizzard is going to be able to bring in scabs to replace software devs. This comment reveals how poorly the industry is understood by outsiders, or at least this one journo.

I don't think any dev would have a hard time finding fresh out of school devs who are willing to be abused at the chance for a job at a big name in an over saturated industry. That's the sad truth about it. Too many people want to develop games for game developers to have much if any bargaining power. Dispelling notions of how cool or glamorous working in the industry is may help with that.

Last year, or was it the year before? COVID messes with my perception of time, they had another big walkout over the events in Hong Kong and a big name gamer in one of Blizzard's tournaments refusing to tow the party line in regards to the CCP. I'm curious how many of the employees who walked out then are still around today and how many that are will also be walking out now.

I think it would be very telling about a good many things. Did Blizzard sack them all for contributing to bad PR? Did they retain them but threaten them if they stepped out of line again? Or do they feel empowered and walk out both times?

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#313

Post by username90 »

crooked-v wrote: post #303
username90 wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You speculated about the motive of the harassers, not the actual chain of events. Nothing you say here says that the harassers attacked her for being a woman instead of attacking her for cheating the game review system.

She didn't cheat the game review system.

I didn't say she did. Hate mobs can attack people for things that aren't true, happens all the time. There is a reason why we don't use hate mobs in the justice system.

For example, lets say a twitter mob attacks a man for something he didn't do. Is that misandry? No, they did it thinking he actually did it.

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#314

Post by elliekelly »

pmarreck wrote: post #56
yosito wrote: post #16

Does anyone have any more specific information aside from "widespread sexism"? It would be good to know exactly what is prompting this walkout, and exactly what changes they're hoping to achieve with it.

Honest question: Guys often "rib" each other, it's part of the culture among males. When you throw women into the mix and they get "ribbed" (perhaps for being "one of the guys," as it were) does this often become sexual harassment? Perhaps the culture of "ribbing" needs to go away for everyone, or at least from the workplace, but it has always been the case for me that a close friend or acquaintance typically only "r…

Women can and do participate in “ribbing” and understand things like jokes and context but sexual harassment is not the product of women misunderstanding or misinterpreting men ribbing them. The difference between ribbing and sexual harassment is pretty clear: the things that are said aren’t said in good fun. They’re said to intimidate, embarrass, and demean.

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#315

Post by 908B64B197 »

munk-a wrote: post #120
Daishiman wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's debatable. CS was overwhelmingly male and wasn't prestigious until recently. We're talking about the same career that's been known as a money-printing machine for the past 25 years?

And fifty years ago it was incredibly female dominated - the "male shift" in CS is easy to observe and pretty handily defeats any of those false claims you'll see about "men's brains being wired" for programming. It's important to remember that men muscled women out of programming initially once the field became seen as something more than a secretarial position.

> once the field became seen as something more than a secretarial position.

It's not just perception; "Computers" used to refer to employees performing calculations manually for numerical methods. Then "Computer Operators" were secretaries translating assembly instructions written on paper into the correct octal code to punch on cards to feed the machine. They got the instructions from engineers. The teletype made their work obsolete, but you can still see the demographic shift in "Computer Related Occupations" as aggregated on government data.

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#316

Post by crooked-v »

madamelic wrote: post #145
blacktriangle wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about having female characters in games, that's never been a problem. It's about totally rewriting history to appease the modern woke sensibility that people were complaining about.

I didn't get that vibe, but can definitely understand that. I actually disliked it at first until I realized I was being lumped in with people who had an agenda I didn't have ("Women didn't fight in wars! Women avatars should only be allowed to play Medic!") I mean, Battlefield has never really been about super serious war simulator, it has always had a goofy undertone. Battlefield has always been a little wacky. The…

You can see how they're going all-in on the 'wacky' part with the trailers for BF2042. Driving away from a tornado in a tuk-tuk, a knives vs defibrillators battle, etc.

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#317

Post by madamelic »

bitwize wrote: post #262
amatecha wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are a few more... Battlefield: https://www.salon.com/2018/05/26/women-in-wwii-game-once-aga... Rust: https://www.vice.com/en/article/d7y7jj/this-game-is-forcing-... Outriders: https://www.reddit.com/r/outriders/comments/lyzmz3/srsly_so_... Horizon Zero Dawn: https://twitter.com/apexalphaj/status/1398826689992482819 Total War Rome 2: https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/total-war-rome-ii-female-cha... The Last Of Us P…

ITYM Horizon: Forbidden West. They changed Aloy's face to make it less attractive and feminine since the first game, perhaps to check some "anti-sexualization" checkbox on some designer's list. No one had a problem with her appearance in the first game, but the sudden Seth Rogenization of her face was offputting, like an actor getting plastic surgery and looking not only worse, but very not like themself.

I hadn't heard that. I had seen that controversy but took it as the same issue coming up and more people complaining she wasn't conventionally attractive, rather than the studio 'dulling down' her looks on purpose. TIL.

I guess I totally missed what Aloy looked like during the first game and didn't realize they had changed how she looked.

To be honest, I actually like how she looks now. She looks like you'd expect someone to look like in a post-apocalypse world and looks like someone you'd pass on the street.

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#318

Post by ahtihn »

t-writescode wrote: post #215
oceanghost wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't conflate "white men" with these assholes. I'm so tired of being blamed for the behavior of folks with the same genitalia/skin color as me.

I believe the common response here to this sort of comment is "yes, not all men, but too many men", and that it's the responsibility of men to call out the men they see being that kind of deplorable on their actions, to reduce the frequency of those men.

Yeah no, it's not the responsibility of men that do nothing wrong to call out other men.

If you said that it's the respinsibility of all black people to call out black criminals for their bad behavior, you'd rightfully get called a racist.

I don't see how this is different.

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#319

Post by Beached »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #246
gambiting wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, your "average gamer" won't know or care about any of this. I work in the industry and according to our own stats the "average gamer" is a 20-30 year old, owns a console, and buys exactly three games every year - fifa, CoD, and one other title that got the most advertising that year. I used to live with such guys at uni, had them as flatmates - you wouldn't catch them dead talking about video games, "ner…

Forgive me but that sounds... outdated? With the proliferation of e-sports and people making a living on twitch and all, it just seems a little unbelievable.

I'm not sure, the numbers on twitch don't even scratch the number of unique individuals who own consoles / buy games.

Re: Video game developers at Activision Blizzard say they'll walk out Wednesday

#320

Post by username90 »

input_sh wrote: post #311
username90 wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You speculated about the motive of the harassers, not the actual chain of events. Nothing you say here says that the harassers attacked her for being a woman instead of attacking her for cheating the game review system.

I didn't speculate shit, I read those threads as they were happening. You know what they've boiled down to? She was a woman (with a couple of feminist takes), this dude made allegations against her, therefore let's doxx her. > instead of attacking her for cheating the game review system. Again, he never reviewed any of her games , so unless your argument is that no game journalist should ever date any game developer…

You put way too much credit in the intelligence of hate mobs. People attack others for nonsense all the time. And I don't view gender bias as misogyny. Women are biased to believe women and men are biased to believe men, that is just natural. So men accusing women leads to male hate mobs, and women accusing men leads to female hate mobs. Of course male hate mobs are usually more vicious, but the workings are the same.
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