Blizzard's Dumpster Fire Keeps Getting Fuel Added
The poor ghouls at Activision Blizzard just can't catch a break. One week saw so many people leaving World Of Warcraft for Final Fantasy XIV, that the people at Square Enix ran out of copies of FFXIV to sell -- even digital ones. The following week, the company had to deal with a lawsuit accusing the head honchos of pretty much running the company's engine on workplace abuse. In a sadly unsurprising turn of events, it seems like bro culture had been running rampant, with the women at the company seemingly having had to endure all sorts of harassment for who knows how long now.
Probably, safe to assume it's been since 2010, at least.
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Fans got so pissed at the company that even its bosses (present and former) came out of their James Bond villain lairs to try to sway the public opinion via bland-ass statements. "To the Blizzard women who experienced any of these things, I am extremely sorry that I failed you. I hear you, I believe you, and I am so sorry to have let you down," says ex-boss Mike Morhaime, again proving that, boy, Blizzard's writing really is on its last legs.
Words are cute, but fans naturally wanted action. A nice and easy action to take would've been to remove NPCs made as a reference to employees with shady past -- you know, like how we're doing in the real world. Weirdly, despite addressing all of the (known) abuse, the company ignored the presence of various in-game NPCs and items named after one of the abusers for pretty long.
Activision Blizzard
Even Asmongold, the biggest WoW streamer on Twitch and leader of the mass WoW Exodus, had some harsh things to say about Blizzard. At one point, he remarked that what he felt when finding this out must have been on par with what fans of Bill Cosby felt when they found out about, well, everything.
And, because you just can't make this shit up, it was later revealed that Blizzard staff allegedly used to share a party suite dedicated to none other than Bill Cosby. Weird? Sure, but better than people walking into Blizzard's breastfeeding room to just stare at the mothers breastfeeding their babies, which, yeah, was also reportedly a common practice.
This whole mess gave birth to Walkout for equality, an initiative where fans, streamers, and Activision Blizzard employees alike got together to boycott the company and help marginalized groups. To end on a nicer note, let's maybe give hope a chance and allow Activision Blizzard to learn something from thi-- oh, wait, they instantly hired professional union-busting firms apparently in an attempt to crush the rebellion.
Top Image: Activision Blizzard
