This entry will not be about lore or story. We have something more important to talk about. Growing up, we spend a lot of time looking back on our past and putting it into perspective. I know I wouldn't enjoy being friends with the silly, ambitionless twerp I was ten years ago who spent way too much time being happy about escaping his bullies and not enough time getting his shit together.
We also look back on our favorite movies and books and realize that, they were kinda dumb. Like the Star Wars movies or the Harry Potter books. Now adding to our old shames we need to consider that perhaps some of our favorite games were made by sex offenders.
I am of course talking about the allegations against Activision Blizzard by the state of California. Now officially these are still just allegations. However this isn't just some Karen suing the manager. This is the freakin government filing a lawsuit after a two year long investigation. And the defendant is a gigantic corporation paying a lot of tax to said government. They probably wouldn't do this if they weren't absolutely sure.
And the allegations themselves aren't just small things either. This isn't just a few instances of catcalling or one random drunk employee grabbing an ass at the company Christmas party. We are talking about mysogyny and abuse ingrained in the system that has been going on for decades. Women were payed three times less than they should. Afrasiabi was such a creep that employees unironically named his hotel rooms after a well known rapist. We even know of a woman who commited suicide due to the constant harassment.
You might be asking, if this was so bad why haven't we heared about it before? Well, for instance, fear. Even know, years after me too, following a two year long investigation and dozens of public testimonies you can read on twitter, there are still people in denial who claim this is fake or that thin skinned people are attacking white men. As a white man I say to that, fuck you with a fucking anchor. Don't involve me in your conspiracy theory. They would rather believe a company so out of touch with its costumers it is practically a meme. Naoki Yoshida can make more sincere apologize for making the game so popular the servers cap, than Blizzard executives for political blunders. You have to ask yourself. Back when Blizzard was still independent, beloved and had its peak with WoW during Wrath of the Lich King, would you have risked being the only one willing to speak out? All alone against the dream team of the video game industry? Of course you wouldn't. Not when you have a family to feed and nowhere else to go. As Javik, our old friend from Mass Effect would tell you, honor means fuck all if you want to survive. Furthermore a former employee shared a document everyone had to sign which said whatever happens you can't go to court. As if they knew there were things you should have gone to court for.
Response from Blizzard were mixed. The official corporate response was that these allegations are false and nothing like this ever happened. Hmmm, you guys still remember what happened when the voice actor for Kael'thas Sunstrider was accused of sexual harassment? He was immediately recast and all his voicelines re-recorded. No benefit of doubt or innocent untill proven guilty. Just complete erasure. Incidentally he turned out to be innocent. Funny that. Another Activision executive who has only been in the company for four months, says that she hasn't seen anything wrong, so it has to be a lie. There were a lot of unofficial responses as well though. Some public, others internal emails that got leaked. Being the absolute tool that he is, Jay Allen Brack of "you think you do, but you don't" fame gave a weird response that is a mix of acknowledgement, ignorance of the scope of the problem and lots of self congratulations. We have dozens of former employees saying things along the lines of "I saw it happen" or "it happened to me". And there are people like former CEO Mike Morhime or present employees like Christie Golden or Steve Danuser who while not flat out saying that it is true, respond in a way that suggests they treat it as true. Concerningly as of writing this blog post, the only response from Chris Metzen is a weird tweeting of his own name suggestinng he was trying to look up himself in the allegation report but instead accidentally sent a tweet.
So what to do know? We have a 99.9% confirmed allegation of the worst kind. What do we do? How do we respond? Who do we blame? That is not an easy question to answer, as there are a lot of different people and a lot of different viewpoints to consider. First off, the only person explicitly named as an abuser is Alex Afrasiabi. Nobody else. So if you point at a random Blizz employee and call him a mysogynistic creep, there is a chance you accuse somebody completely innocent. All the executives claiming everything is alright and the government is just trying to go against legitimate businesses? Yeah, fuck them. They deserve a prison sentence. I wouldn't suggest harassing them cause unlike them, we are better than this. The people condemning the actions but saying they didn't know how bad it was? I can see that being true, honestly. Blizzard was a pretty big company even before the merger, which is why we like so much to joke about them being a small indy company, when they fuck up a release really bad. You can't be anywere all the time. Sure, Ion needs to know what's going on in the WoW team cause he is the director there. But he has nothing to do with the Diablo team for example. Brack should have been aware as the lawsuit does mention that he was repeatedly told about Afrasiabi, but all he did was give him a few stern talks. As I said before, very few people were actually named in the lawsuit, so condemning the work culture and the official company response is okay, but going after specific people is not.
What about players? Pretty much any response that isn't making fun of the victims is a valid one. Boycott Blizzard games as a protest? Go for it. Have prepayed subs that you don't want to go to waste so you organize an in-game protest with your friends that you can only contact in WoW? Sure. Continue playing as if nothing happened? Well now. Let's be honest this is a kinda meh response as nothing will change if you coontinue to give them money, But it is also true that if things aren't going well for a company financially, it is the little guys who are hurt first and most. If Blizzard goes bankrupt, Bobby will snort a little less coke off the butts of hookers. But the regular people down the line who may have suffered from the abuse mentioned in the lawsuit? They'll have nothing to eat and nowhere to go.
And here we have to take a look at content creators. First off, it is a legit job. You need to invest in proper equipment, promote yourself, be entertaining, keep up a schedule, and communicate with your audience. On chat, on reddit on discord, everywhere. And much like a job at Blizzard that may have involved relocating to another state, enrolling your children in local schools and making friendships there, changing your main game as a streamer is not easy. If you have been a WoW streamers for over ten years, you can't be expected to suddenly change. Especially not overnight. Yes, Asmongold broke his streaming record during his first day at Final Fantasy XIV. But he is the exception, not the rule. And also consider that even if he were to lose half his audience, he would still have a lot more than anybody else. Small streamers can't afford to take these risks. And also some people need to stay and talk about these issues, or there won't be a change. Yes, a few people might get fired to give the illusion of change, but if everyone just leaves there won't be anyone left to raise issues that need raising, and ask the questions that need asking.
So, yes. There are a lot of potential correct or at the very least understandable responses. So let's put down the pitchforks for a little bit longer and just wait and see what happens. This is absolutely and issue that needs to be talked about, has to be solved, and the abusers have to be punished. But if we just go balls to the walls withouth thinking, we might hurt the victims more. This is a delicate issue with a lot of traumatised people. And other who now have a crisis of conscience. Can I separate the art from the artist? Should I? I'm in the priviledged situation where I haven't enjoyed a Blizzard product in years. But if somebody is saaay a bullied school kid, who only enjoys himself when he does a few mythic+ runs with his guild mates, what are you supposed to do now? Definitely not endure harassment from keyboard warrior who don't personally know you. Let us show that we are better than Activision.
Also while the story in World of WarCraft is in an interesting situation right now with Sylvanas and the Jailer, I don't think I will be writing any Blizzard related posts untill this stiuation resolves itself in a manner I personally judge satisfactory.
