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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

#371

Post by planet-and-halo »

shadowgovt wrote: post #38
dleslie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they'll introduce "scabs" simply because it would be a marketing _disaster_. However, I work in the industry, and I think you'd be shocked by how replaceable American developers are. Huge amounts of artistic labour _is_ done cheaply, and in relatively decent quality, oversees in countries like South Korea, China, Japan, and to a lesser extent, Thailand. Here in Canada, we have a thriving industry that i…

To my mind, the hardest part of scabbing a game studio is picking up where dev teams left off. Game engines and pipelines are savage beasts, and often heavily customized and under-documented (everybody using them "just knows how they work;" internal cultural knowledge and on-the-job training are the standard operating procedure). You'll need a particular type of developer or artist to come up to speed quickly on the…

Someone on HN recently posted a Jonathan Blow talk, "How to Save Civilization," that argues the normal evolution of technology is not a linear progression upwards, but actually slow degradation due to loss of knowledge and maintenance. I think this is a perfect example of why.

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

#372

Post by nineplay »

Kiro wrote: post #342
nineplay wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want to make a point about "culture fit" "culture fit" is one of the biggest causes of workplace discrimination and I still see it pushed in 'hiring training' as perfectly valid criteria. Things I've seen teams consider "culture" - will the candidate go to our weekly study session at the micro-brewery? - will the candidate stay after work to play multi-player games with us? - is the candidate entertained by all t…

Is it discrimination if I own a company and only hire my friends who are into the same things as me? Serious question because I don't understand how that's different, if it is.

Are you hiring them because you know them and you trust them? That is not discrimination. Are you hiring them because you want to win the tech-company beach volleyball tournament? That's discrimination.

You could probably get away with it. Would you feel good about yourself? Would you feel pissed if you found out that you didn't get a job you really wanted, only because another company was trying to fill out their rugby team?

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

#373

Post by ffffwe3rq352y3 »

masterof0 wrote: post #110
ffffwe3rq352y3 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got bills to pay.

Blizzard is not the only company in CA.

True. If they all quit I'm most could find jobs relatively quickly. However, that isn't true for everyone. Is it really worth the risk of not being able to find a job and or getting worse pay?

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

#374

Post by fxtentacle »

pseudo0 wrote: post #146
fxtentacle wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess would be the poster is referring to The Last of Us Part 2, where criticism of the storyline was presented by most mainstream media as people hating the female lead character. But one could also easily argue that it's the actions taken in the story that cause people to hate her.

Most people I know took issue with the bait and switch, as anyone watching the promotional material would have expected something quite different than Abby... playing golf. It reminds me of a similar tactic film journalists used with The Last Jedi, deflecting to complaining about fans' alleged bad behavior rather than taking a hard look at whether the criticism is merited. It's a lot easier to find a handful of the d…

Agree. The official story trailer suggested that it would be quite similar to the first game, but then it wasn't.

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

#375

Post by xbar »

colinmhayes wrote: post #67
FanaHOVA wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some extracts from the lawsuit: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/activision-...

> The suit also points to a female Activision employee who took her own life while on a company trip with her male supervisor. The employee had been subjected to intense sexual harassment prior to her death, including having nude photos passed around at a company holiday party, the complaint says. Wild

It really is the element in the complaint that stands out.

First, pay and promotion discrimination are widespread and are less shocking. Acceptable? No. I like DFEH's authority to go hard after companies to get this addressed, but I somehow shrug and say "Let the lawsuit parade begin. Ok, Blizzrad can go first."

Second, some of the anecdotes in the Blizzard complaint come off as problematic but not shocking. "Cube crawls" which seem like "get drunk at work" parties that led to sexual harassment: getting drunk at work is a management-stupid recipe for trouble. DFEH Lawsuit worth? Less obvious.

Third, the named executive who was a creep comes off as a problem for that creep. He was let go quietly and management didn't otherwise change. It's hard to tell if this is worse than average for creep executives. Lawsuit worthy by DFEH? Unlikely on its own: management acted to address the issue.

But the suicide. The victim was exploited, harassed, and abused as an employee. The complaint insinuates that her traveling coworker had demeaning sex toys on hand. It's not obvious if she was the intended subject of the coworker toys, but it is implied. Her suicide seems to have been preventable and, therefore, tragic. More than anything else it suggests that the other elements of the complaint led her to a feeling of hopelessness in her work environment. It is not a stretch to imagine that she was not alone in that feeling as a result of that environment.

RIP, victim. The lawsuit will bring insufficient justice for you and negligible peace for your family. Perhaps it will begin some broader change.

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

#376

Post by SeanAnderson »

kryogen1c wrote: post #369
carlisle_ wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're the first person to mention 'sexism' in this comment chain. Why is an investigation predicated on sexism? Why is sexual harassment not sufficient to warrant an investigation?

> You're the first person to mention 'sexism' in this comment chain. Why is an investigation predicated on sexism? ...i actually have no idea. i was gonna say maybe i read it in another comment, but i dont see any other comment talking about sexism. i dont know what im on about. sorry folks!

I appreciated the honest fault acceptance. That was refreshing. Thanks!

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

#377

Post by dougmwne »

bennysomething wrote: post #344
nineplay wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want to make a point about "culture fit" "culture fit" is one of the biggest causes of workplace discrimination and I still see it pushed in 'hiring training' as perfectly valid criteria. Things I've seen teams consider "culture" - will the candidate go to our weekly study session at the micro-brewery? - will the candidate stay after work to play multi-player games with us? - is the candidate entertained by all t…

So if I'm hiring someone at what point am I allowed to use my own personal discretion? Am I allowed to dislike someone? Am I allowed to say I don't like them so please don't hire them?

No.

You better be able to articulate what job-relevant reason is behind your dislike and be able to express it in those terms. If you go with your gut feel alone, you could be easily selecting for physical attractiveness, extroversion, a nice smile or some of the many less acceptable biases. Maybe you have perfectly diverse personal discretion, but most people choose copies of themselves or attractive members of the opposite sex.

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

#378

Post by mensetmanusman »

dragonwriter wrote: post #355
Kiro wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it discrimination if I own a company and only hire my friends who are into the same things as me? Serious question because I don't understand how that's different, if it is.

> Is it discrimination if I own a company and only hire my friends who are into the same things as me? Yes, any time you make a decision which treats people differently on any basis, is it is discrimination. What you probably mean to ask is whether it is illegal discrimination. For which the answer is more complicated. It doesn't seem to be directly illegal discrimination, unless “into the same things” itself directl…

‘any time you make a decision‘ is a discrimination between choice A and B.

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

#379

Post by mensetmanusman »

UnpossibleJim wrote: post #354
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking from experience, the “culture” at Microsoft and Google (at least) definitely varies more between teams and divisions than between those two companies on-the-whole.

Fair enough. Nadella's hard push for the return is curious to me (I'm in the Seattle area, and close-ish to the campus with quite a few friends who work in a single team, so I'm a bit myopic, I suppose). They all seem to do well remotely, and I do also. I probably do work less hours, on the whole, but I produce more... so I dunno how that factors in. I can't speak to their quality of work, though.

It is strange, because the workers know that any slight uptick in productivity is going to be captured by Nadella and fellow 0.1%ers.

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

#380

Post by stale2002 »

pope_meat wrote: post #139
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If devs aren’t unionized, there’s no such thing as scabs right? Blizzard can just terminate all the disgruntled employees and hire other devs There is daylight between unions and anarchy. In that daylight are California’s general labor laws and the NLRA.

Putting unions and anarchy as polar opposites...you have no idea how pro-union anarchist are, because they're extremely pro-union. I gotta give the state props for that trick, made the word dirty with a flawed definition, a bit like how the CIA made the term "conspiracy theory" mean nutjob, and not "criminal conspiracy by those in power"

Nobody cares about the technical definition of an obscure political philosophy.

Everyone knew what they meant, when they were talking about "Anarchy". And we dont care about the irrelevant political movement.

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