Blizzard's President is Stepping Down Amid Culture Scandal (protocol.com) 95
Activision Blizzard President J. Allen Brack is stepping down from the company after Blizzard was sued by the state of California last week for discriminating against women and fostering a "frat boy" culture that entailed sexual harassment and discrimination. He will be replaced by two executive vice presidents, who will serve as co-leaders. From a report: Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra, the former executive vice president of development and the former EVP and general manager of platform technology, respectively, will take the helm at Blizzard and share responsibility for development and operational accountability. The company is continuing to face an outpouring of stories of misconduct, and workers who organized a walkout have demanded a set of new rules for handling reports of sexism, harassment and discrimination.
Culture Scandal? (Score:5, Insightful)
Culture scandal? Wow what a euphemism for condoning sexual harassment of women. But the PR machine has to avoid using terminology that makes the president look guilty. Nice avoidant bafflegab. Blizzard gets a new meaning in the company name.
Rather like "servicing the target" or "terminally inconvenienced" from the military, the former to bomb a target, and the latter dead.
JoshK.
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Somebody's butthurt...
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I'm a different person, mocking your bullshit.
Misusing holocaust comparisons is offensive to jewish people. I was just commenting on the state of your specific butthole, which must be hurt for you to have done such an evil, terrible, horrible thing.
I suggest you do something about that speech impediment, the acne, and the yellow smegma oozing from your pores. There's nothing wrong with you that proactive contraception wouldn't have fixed, and by far the most valuable thing about you is the shit that came
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Well the brain damage is obvious.... I was nice and didn't mention the micropenis or the smell
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I think you meant that for Dimko, but if not, let me know
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Re:Culture Scandal? (Score:4, Insightful)
Well there is a line below Sexual Harassment.
Over a decade ago, I was leading a group of developers. One of the developers was a very attractive woman (she could be making more money modeling attractive), but she was also a really good developer (Fast Turnaround time, Easy to read code, followed the specifications and requirements, rarely needed help). For the most part most of the other guys on that team, knew to keep our hormones on check, and treated her as just one of the guys, but there was one developer, who I was listening into their conversation was trending into the creepy territory. He didn't get to anything that I felt would be worth going to HR about, however to keep the professional culture for the workplace, I was sure not to put him on projects that she was working on, to limit the interactions.
They are a lot of things that can happen that can degrade culture, and doesn't need to reach towards sexual harassment. But just cases where someone doesn't feel part of the team, because of some sort of non-work related attribute. I also had to help correct a similar issue between an Atheist working with an Evangelical where it both parties were really being aggressive towards each other, so for that I allowed them to have different work schedules (by implementing flex time) as one was an early bird, and the other was a night owl.
A good culture is about balancing professionalism, with general freedom to be comfortable. Blizzard sided too far away from professional behavior, in which created a scenario where people who were talented were not feeling comfortable working with the other people.
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There are photos of the "Cosby Suite". It's got an actual portrait of the guy. This is well above whatever line you just drew.
https://kotaku.com/inside-bliz... [kotaku.com]
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I'll take your word for it, you two were kind of on different topics anyway.
This is directly related to the Blizzard incident this Slashdot thread is about.
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Just when you think you can't be shocked any more. And the person Blizzard hired as Head of Compliance in March (company legal and ethics) is ok with sending people to dictatorships to be tortured.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=... [bing.com]
They literally hired someone who is ok with torture as their ethics head, FML. I hope there are lots of prosecutions.
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> but there was one developer, who I was listening into their conversation was trending into the creepy territory. He didn't get to anything that I felt would be worth going to HR about,
Do tell what this behavior was specifically. These days just about anything beyond losing a game of rock, scissors, paper is worthy of going to HR about.
I'm having a hard time deciding what exactly could be non-HR worthy but also "creepy territory". Maybe you have a really impersonal and antiseptic idea about what profe
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As I stated it was about 10 years ago, but I believe it was a comment like "You are an attractive woman, why stick with your husband?" From a guy twice her age, who was recently divorced.
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I attended an extended training that included people from multiple companies, Blizzard was one of them
The Blizzard workers were of two different flavors, artistic/developer talent that was completely uncontrolled, spewing f-bombs and making repeated lewd comments and Managers who were largely LDS, that were tight lipped and never made any verbal statement (including never reigning in their staff)
My thoughts were that neither group would be "welcoming" to female staff, and time has proven that out
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I guess my problem here is the lack of an objective, identifiable standard for what constitutes "creepy behavior". I think this helps everyone identify it, avoid it and deal with it, especially within official channels.
Surely you can appreciate that we have codified many other misbehaviors and can clearly and objectively identify when they happen.
IMHO the big problem is we rely way too much on vague social and emotional notions of "creepy behavior". It seems easy to tilt towards "victim" perceptions here,
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It's not an euphemism: it actually highlights that the issue was worse than merely "condoning sexual harassment" since it was so ingrained in the culture of the company that it had basically become normalized behaviour.
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They were sexually harassing some men too. And not just co-workers. Their own customers have never been safe from targeted harassment, both sexual and violent in nature.
Seems legit. (Score:2)
It sure sounds like there are a whole lot of employees complaining about these problems, not just a few problem-makers. That inclines me to believe that the claims have merit.
Of course, I am not a judge and am not in a position where my opinion of this has any impact, so I am not expending very much effort in its formation. I would exercise more diligence in fact-gathering if my opinion actually mattered.
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It doesn't have to be a lot of people complaining, in terms of a business, if this culture hinders a few good employees then it is a problem.
This Sounds Like (Score:2)
A Tough Blizzard Management Moment...where you didn't live up to the high standards you set for yourself....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I'm sure you're getting a golden parachute; please retire to a beach somewhere. when Jim Sterling [youtube.com] and Upper Echelon [youtube.com] both agree that Blizzard is rotten to the core, you know that there's no way they're getting out of this one with a carefully crafted non-apology.
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>you know that there's no way they're getting out of this one with a carefully crafted non-apology.
Depends on who their customers are.
So? (Score:5, Interesting)
We have a company which by the reports coming out amidst legal actions and historical allegations is thoroughly permeated with misogyny and abuse. So the president steps down and two men even closer to the systemic problem take over?
If such a thing as a tech culture exist, how can those of us in it settle for less than the complete replacement of the entire management team from outside?
The fact that this has persisted as long as it has, with none of the management team blowing the whistle to stop it, demonstrates that the entire management team is unfit to lead people. To change a culture you have to do more than remove the figurehead and shuffle the insiders underneath.
I look around and see a lot of noise and "me too" but when the dust clears some rich people have changed places but no one has actually been hung up as an example of our society holding people accountable for their actions.
When I see ex millionaires living in mobile homes doing minimum wage jobs because society will no longer tolerate them holding authority over anyone, and their fortunes have actually been taken from them to recompense the victims of the abuse, then I may believe there has been change. Until then I see lawyers and PR firms making lots of money, and millionaires at worst taking their millions somewhere else and going on as normal.
In almost all cases these presidents and CEOs are allowed to step down and take their full severance packages with them. This is not accountability. This is whitewash.
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He had to go because ultimately he was the boss and it happened on his watch.
Who else also has to go remains to be seen. If they were involved in it then it's hard to imagine they can stay on now.
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It's irrelevant whether he was aware or not. If he was aware he willfully refrained from taking due action, if he was unaware he failed in his duties of oversight of the company.
Basically it's either malice or incompetence: one way or the other he had to go.
Re:So? (Score:5, Informative)
We have a company which by the reports coming out amidst legal actions and historical allegations is thoroughly permeated with misogyny and abuse. So the president steps down and two men even closer to the systemic problem take over?
One of people taking over, Jen Oneal, is female. She only became EVP of development at Blizzard Entertainment in January, when Vicarious Visions was merged with Blizzard Entertainment [pcgamesinsider.biz].
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even though you were downvoted to 0, have a reply
HR in every company is bullshit. They're like the company's legal team that doesn't have to say they're a legal team. They don't exist for the benefit of the workers. Keeping that a secret is one of their primary jobs. Their mandate is to protect profits / avoid lawsuits / avoid bad press.
What you're actually seeing with Blizzard is the dumpster fire after years of rot, and there is no way to fix it, which is why everything seems so confusing.
Think of it
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Nah dude. This guy's overblown ego was even ruining the game design. He was a cancer on the company from the beginning; a walking conflict-of-interest who would actually shit up the game design just to exact personal grudges borne from a massive inferiority complex. Nobody who actually dealt with him directly would question that he was the primary instigating factor in an entire corporate culture founded on hostility and incompetence. They really cut the head off the dragon here. It might not be enough
Re:Serious question: (Score:4, Insightful)
Can someone enlighten me?
No, because if you really are yet to read a "news" article detailing what the actual facts we have are, you are deliberately avoiding enlightenment.
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why is our job to cater to your ignorance? go read the articles. your attitude is a major part of the problem and how cultures like the one at Blizzard thrive and fester. so way to go bud.
Re:Serious question: (Score:5, Informative)
Is this culture of misogyny a proven fact or are just enough people bleating the war cry?
To review, the state of California after 2 years of investigation has sued Blizzard. There are the base facts. By proven fact what do you require? Do you need a court to decide the merits of the case before the lawsuit was filed? Does that seem impossible to do?
So far, I know of a lot of allegations but I have yet to read a "news"article detailing what actual facts we have.
There are plenty of articles [bloomberglaw.com] that share details. Perhaps you should read other articles or the lawsuit filing itself.
Were there any independent third-party investigations done into this?
Again I am not sure why you need such a high level proof before the state of California filed suit. That is like saying you need independent, third party forensics be done before a state tries someone for murder.
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Any level of "proof" would do.
As I stated above: "To review, the state of California after 2 years of investigation has sued Blizzard." What part of this is unclear?
Testimony from the accuser trying to make $$ is not proof. duh. Proof is actual evidence. Is there any?
Let me understand you correctly, the state of California is suing Blizzard, so that the ACCUSERS (plural) can make money? Is that your assertion and accusation? Did you read the filing by California or are you saying since you do not know, there must be zero facts against your viewpoint?
Re:Serious question: (Score:5, Informative)
I read your article, it mentions the following allegations: getting kicked out of a booked conference room when pumping milk, overhearing crude jokes, workplace drinking/partying that made some people feel excluded, and allegations of denied promotions over maternity/pregnancy leave. Is this the entirety of scandal or is there more?
There are 10 paragraphs in the article.
The second paragraph: "A two-year investigation by the state agency found that the company discriminated against female employees in terms and conditions of employment, including compensation, assignment, promotion, and termination. Company leadership consistently failed to take steps to prevent discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, the agency said."
The fourth paragraph: " and joke openly about rape, among other things"
The sixth paragraph: "Female employees working for the World of Warcraft team noted that male employees and supervisors would hit on them, make derogatory comments about rape, and otherwise engage in demeaning behavior, the agency alleges."
The seventh paragraph: "he 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."
By "I read", you seemed to just ignore anything that did not suit your narrative.
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A very quick skim of the first few pages of the bloomberglaw article you cited mentions allegations of
-rape jokes (numerous)
-constantly being hit on (sexual harassment)
-and nude photos of a female employee being passed around an office party, subsequent to which she took her own life
-WoW team as a big part of the problem, esp rape jokes
So that's straight up sexual harassment, psychological abuse, and I'm pretty sure the photo thing breaks multiple laws, depending on the exact circumstances.
That guy arguing
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I've been personally threatened and harassed multiple times by people claiming to be members of their staff who demonstrated server level access and knowledge of my billing details.
Re:Frat boy culture? (Score:5, Insightful)
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The goal of frat parties is to get girls to consent to sex that they wouldn't normally consent to. Is it evil? Maybe not. But it sure doesn't look good when that shit comes out at a senate confirmation hearing. This is the part where you get all butt-hurt and pretend you've never heard phrases such as "liquid panty remover", but c'mon man...
More fundamentally, fraternities are typically 100% male, and include a lot of behaviour like jokes and topics of conversation that are really only acceptable when only surrounded by other young men.
It's a common problem for tech startups, often 100% male (or close to), to develop frat boy culture. And as they grow rather than try to move past it they instead try to preserve it as part of what makes them "special".
Re:Frat boy culture? (Score:5, Insightful)
The goal of frat parties is to get girls to consent to sex that they wouldn't normally consent to. Is it evil?
If girls line up to go to parties whose purpose is to get them to consent to sex that they normally don't consent to it seems like some other culture is the problem
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If girls line up to go to parties whose purpose is to get them to consent to sex that they normally don't consent to it seems like some other culture is the problem
Yes the culture of peer pressure and social ostracisation is just as toxic as the culture which underpins it. But yeah, she went to the party so she *wanted it*.
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To have peer pressure you need to be in a peer relationship. This is not the case if one of the parties has a position of authority over the other, making him a superior and not a peer, e.g. a manager with his/her subordinates.
When such positions of authority are involved, "consent" can be trickier to determine and the other party explicitly saying "yes" might actually not be enough to be in the clear.
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having seen frat boy culture and sorority girl culture, i recognize them as distinct things that are worthy of referencing. i also see frat boy culture, the frat boy culture i am familiar with anyway, as being generally bad. is it stereotypical? i suppose, but when i have witnessed it, what i see is a bunch of kids of rich people destroying a house drinking, womanizing and then after school settling in to a firmly upper middle class life as a result of their access to opportunity and social networks.
it real
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sorority girl culture
This is the culture of 90% of the USA.
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this post is so incredibly ignorant and stupid. nobody is saying women don't exist. you are just absolutely completely ignorant on this topic. you're starting from a position of ignorance and bigotry, so of course your conclusions are garbage.
if you want to enlighten yourself, there's a whole internet with which to do so. nobody intelligent is going to waste their time on your garbage ass. if you want to improve, it's up to you. i have zero faith you are interested in that. you will be a miserable bi
Re: Serious question (Score:5, Insightful)
Sexual harassment laws cover one person sexually harassing another person regardless of gender/sex or whether it's same or different sex.
Unfortunately if a woman sexually harasses a man, it's seen as funny, or it is greatly downplayed. Like when a man gets assaulted in the nuts it's funny, but the same thing happening to a woman causes the pitchforks and torches to appear.
This double standard has existed almost forever.
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You must be a child because you think forever is a few decades... although even most adults think something that is 30-50 years old has always been the case... which is why repeat history so much.
You must have been raised to think the sexes are completely equal... which brings up all sorts of problems for you since they are fundamentally different with almost as much DNA difference as the closest male primate to male human. Not that this matters much because people are so stupid they can not handle RACE w
Re: Serious question (Score:2)
"You must be a child because you think forever is a few decades"
44 years is not a child age, and your attempt to belittle someone who disagrees is really lame. Sort of childish, don't you think? And take your pseudoscience rhetoric elseware.
Playing slap ass was never acceptable in the workplace, and the uproar over it began at least as far back as the 1960s.
If you feel the desire for sexual relations with someone in the workplace and the other person agrees, then get a room.
How hard is this for people to un
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This double standard has existed almost forever.
Well when the playing field is even we can start treating both cases easily. But I get it man. I just hate walking around having women wolf whistle at me and make constant unwanted sexual advancements. I'm more than just walking set of balls to be stared at.
Said nearly no male ever.
Re: Serious question (Score:2)
It is possible for more than one double standard to exist.
Work is just that, work. All of the sexy stuff need not take place in the workplace as it causes problems no matter who is doing it or why. Even workers who have nothing to do with the 'relationship' have to deal with the effects of this. Do I want to see unwanted slap ass going on? NO. Do I want to overhear raunchy and likely unwanted and inappropriate comments directed at other employees as I try to concentrate on my work? NO. Do I want to see empl
Re:Serious question (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure men and women don't exist as categories if you base your opinions on the most sensationalist online activists and the reactionary culture war news sources that obsess over them.
Meanwhile in the actual real world the rest of the 99% of us recognize those categories exist while accepting that culture and perceptions do change but it actually happens pretty gradually in the real world. We also recognize sexual harassment and discrimination does exist and I as a "white guy fossil" myself also recognize that my own demographic is in fact responsible for a fair amount of it and the repercussions of it as Blizzard may be finding out now can be serious.
If you really think most businesses in the world have achieved actual gender abolition you are the one living in some sort of weird reactionary worldview bubble.
The "culture war" is like the war on drugs or the war on terror. Unwinnable and ultimately pointless. Culture has and always will change and it's rather pointless to stop it. That said it changes a lot slower than those who fear it believe.
Surprising it's over this and not everything else (Score:5, Insightful)
Blizzard's last few years have shown some extremely bad management. And while the misogyny is quite bad, there's plenty of other reasons to dump the entire senior management team.
This article [pcgamer.com] is a decent summary about how they've set themselves up for some really bad times coming up as coasting on their cash cows gradually gets less and less effective.
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What this seems to be is the result of a successful coup within the company between two hidden sub-companies; the one in charge of this current WoW expansion (Shadowlands), and the one that was in charge of the previous few ones, starting with Cataclysm, which was easily the least popular one.
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Blizzard's last few years have shown some extremely bad management.
This really strikes me as having less to do with the California lawsuit and more to do with these past few years. The lawsuit gives them a convenient excuse to start firing senior management, but the article you linked lists just a whole bunch of missteps from Blizzard management, like the whole mobile Diablo game announcement.
A more cynical take would be that they're offering up sacrificial lambs to the players who are taking the current scandal as a reason to stop playing Blizzard games, but I think if ev
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All takes in corporate America must be cynical! A failure of cynicism is the first trap...
Blizzard's real creative talent walked out the door years ago. Frost Giant seems to be the bulk of the real talent behind the warcraft and starcraft franchises. It seems like when Activision swallowed up Blizzard it started a slow creep towards corporate failure. They have too many fans and dollars coming in to ever have a wakeup call moment when they realize they are no longer creative upstarts but derivative dino
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Indeed, I don't think this whole thing would have been quite the fiasco that it is without the player base being fed up to the breaking point. Tons of people loudly declared they were abandoning the company's games immediately when the news broke - they were clearly already simmering over other issues with Blizzard.
Ruh Roh! (Score:5, Insightful)
Can't play slap-ass in the 21st century, and they didn't get the memo?
Even in 1980, when the movie "9 to 5" with Dolly Parton came out, sexual harrassment was increasingly beeing seen as a big no-no.
Re: Ruh Roh! (Score:2)
Dolly Parton starred in it. Anyways, the whole bread and butter of the movie was the subject of sexual harrasment/discrimination which was still a very common problem when the movie came out.
Re: Ruh Roh! (Score:2)
Dolly Parton was in it, I never said she made it, moron.
Re: Ruh Roh! (Score:2)
Anyway, have you ever watched that movie? Do you know what the entire thing was about?
Yeah, great reference because it hit the subject right on the head, in a rather funny and revenge fantasy-satisfying way.
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Re:Blizzard's Screwed (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe 80 hour work weeks are bad no matter the circumstances or the people?
Maybe creating a work culture that allows everyone to feel accepted and appreciated is capable of making a good games and the idea they can't is unfounded and silly?
Maybe "the ways things have always been done" is a piss-poor excuse to continue bad behaviors and practices?
A company like Supergiant Games enforces 20 days off of work a year for their employees (forces them to take time off), has a "no work email after 5PM Friday" policy and overall seems like a fine inclusive place to work and they just produced Hades which won multiple game of the year awards and is nearing almost 2 million copies sold to near universal acclaim (and it is an excellent game).
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Nah, the stuff that made Blizzard special had already left the company by the 4th expansion.
They seem to have company. (Score:1)
On the news just now (USAToday)
ALBANY, NY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women in violation of state and federal laws as well as the executive chamber's own written policies, according to a long-anticipated report Tuesday from the state Attorney General's Office.
sounds bad to say, but (Score:1)
much is forgiven (ignored?) when producing greatness.
blizzard has soured for a lot of people, and said people are happy to play a violin as it burns.
Ybarra Shield (Score:2)
Ybarra Shield was a magic item in the original Bard's Tale.
Is this guy THAT Ybarra?
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