I'd put that behind a spoiler tag. Its a bit too graphic for open posting IMO. Also some posters might be disturbed by it.
California sues Activision/Blizzard for employment discrimination because of sex, retaliation, discrimination & harassment, unequal pay
- Thread starter Seri
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Well... yeah? Since when are frat houses anything other than exactly that?
When I see that language I immediately think of toxic masculinity and its worst aspects.
I would not want to be Activision/Blizzard's attorney right now thinking of how you answer these charges in your answer... or god forbid a cross-complaint
I know frat members will dismiss this but I doubt there's a single frat house in America (talking the greek animal house kinda frats) that haven't had at least one sexual assault committed in them. Frat Culture is repulsive. I'm embarrassed I went to multiple parties at some (was never a member)
I know frat members will dismiss this but I doubt there's a single frat house in America (talking the greek animal house kinda frats) that haven't had at least one sexual assault committed in them. Frat Culture is repulsive. I'm embarrassed I went to multiple parties at some (was never a member)
Yeah, I think you are right. It's definetly better to describe what happen than to just write "frat boy behavior". I'll think about it.
I'll field the same question I did earlier: would you describe Harvey Weinstein's behavior as "frat boy" behavior? As a society we don't actually take seriously either what goes on in fraternity houses, for a lot of people that headline is going to make people think of young troublemaking teens, not adults who viciously abused their co-workers systemically.
If they do get deplatformed, thats fine, its certainly earned.
If I'm not mistaken, isn't this the same description of Ubisoft, Rockstar and Riot who also had crappy work cultures and mssive abuses ns harassment? Why do so may game companies have this sort of culture? Wouldn't surprise me if Activision had thier staff meetings at strip clubs like those other three.
What the hell.
Indeed and totally shifts the personal blame for the deliberate, knowing abuse and gaslighting towards a more nebulous "going along with the rest of the boys which may have got out of hand" reason.
Like you say, avoids giving the events their proper "weight" Blizzard abused someone to the point where she felt the only option left available to her was to take her life, they don't get to minimise that given the systemic issues in the culture there.
Lamptramp , the one thing I'm concerned about with a total ban is something like the Steisand effect happening. If Era bans all discussion of them Activision is still going to be opening, they're still going to be announcing multi million selling games, they're still going to be releasing them. At which point, Era becomes a bit worse of a gaming information resource, which may encourage people to go to other websites that aren't enacting any kind of policy and which Era can't force to cooperate. It also reduces the opportunity to spread information on their abuse if we aren't talking about them at all.
A total blackout can have the biggest potential effect on Activision's bottom line and would probably be easier for site moderation. But if we have minimal, news-only threads, along with forcing them to be packaged with the information about Activision's abusive culture and consistently aggressive moderation towards drivebys trying to push gameplay-only discussion, that might be better for colouring the discussion around Activision.
I'm personally fine with either approach as long as it's a strong one.
A total blackout can have the biggest potential effect on Activision's bottom line and would probably be easier for site moderation. But if we have minimal, news-only threads, along with forcing them to be packaged with the information about Activision's abusive culture and consistently aggressive moderation towards drivebys trying to push gameplay-only discussion, that might be better for colouring the discussion around Activision.
I'm personally fine with either approach as long as it's a strong one.
Honestly I think this is an intersection of two problems: software/tech culture and industries that until recently have been heavily dominated by men. Look at video game ads until like...10 years ago. Tons of really embarrassing, sexist brodude shit. And tech culture attracts a lot of really... I don't know how else to say this, cruel and uncaring people. So it's just a recipe for disaster overall. Then you throw in a highly unregulated, relatively new yet rapidly growing industry that works its laborers overtime without pay regularly, and it starts to paint a picture.
Or "rehabilitation centres" which are basically just a short vacation.
I know someone working at Ubisoft. Basically they got the staff to watch a supposedly "laughable" video on workplace etiquette and that was it, job done.
I'm sure other people can describe it better than I do, but I think it's a matter of where the culture comes from. A lot of the big gaming companies came from tech, and early tech positioned itself in sort of a libertarian outlook. The mindset viewed itself as the renegade to traditional business in that it tore down a lot of the stuffy rules, such as the overly complex hierarchies and dress codes that you'd find working in a bank or somewhere like that.
But they weren't tearing it down for ethical reasons. They were tearing it down because they thought by reducing these barriers they'd make leaner, more manueverable businesses. That's entirely true, but the thing is that a lot of these barriers existed for very good reason. You have standards of behaviour in a workplace to prevent the potential for harm, but the techbro mindset looks at it as equally unnecessary.
"We do our very best to enforce a good working culture and anti-toxic environment"
It's maddening.
Work culture in general is just toxic as all heck. I think its a rare thing to find a company in any field that isnt a complete trashheap, but these loathsome people are taking it to another level. How they can sleep at night is a total mystery to me.
Though one thing Im confused by is that they seem to use Activision Blizzard and Blizzard interchangeably? These are two different companies and its hard to parse whats happening where.
Though one thing Im confused by is that they seem to use Activision Blizzard and Blizzard interchangeably? These are two different companies and its hard to parse whats happening where.
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Man this is depressing as hell. It's systemic across writing / content creation and development from the sounds of it especially coming first hand from someone like Alannah who has been in all facets of the industry
They sleep very well since the type of behavior is just normal to them.
I mean its a good point, but at what point and after so many awful things that these companies do does someone do something with a little more "teeth" this is not the only time it has happened and not the only company.
We try and twist and try to do the best so that we can do the most good but this still keeps happening, we are helping no one.
What else can we do? We could deplatform them for anything but this kind of news, or (like its ever likely) news that they have improved like we do for Cyberpunk a "slap on the wrist". These companies never do anything and care even less and hope to distract and rely on the fickle nature of gamers. Even if a complete ban did have a "Streisand effect" it would at least make the reason why more visible every time the marketing and PR machine came around to distract us from the past.
And frankly people who would rather excitedly talk about CoD despite what the company behind it does, would end up on one of those "other sites" sooner rather than later anyway if thats what they care more about.
Absolutely despicable treatment, I hope these women find justice.
I also hope the games media and industry holds the company to account for this and this isn't going to be another Ubisoft where it gets swept under the rug with no changes at the top actually happening.
I also hope the games media and industry holds the company to account for this and this isn't going to be another Ubisoft where it gets swept under the rug with no changes at the top actually happening.
Partaking in the discrimination and abuse themselves, based on all the accounts.
HR is always an arm of the company. If they are operating ideally, they recognize that this type of behavior will ultimately cause irreparable damage (and they deal with it accordingly). Unfortunately, we have now seen multiple instances where harassment was enabled by the actions of HR (as they would do more to silence victims than to punish the cretins who were victimizing others).
Absolutely disgusting company. I wouldn't have a problem with them being shut down at this point.
Protecting the ass of the company, as every HR department is expected to do.
It is literally the language used in the complaint. The "frat boy" culture is likely used to elicit certain imagery and understanding in the judges mind.
Honestly, yeah. Like, I don't know how you reform this. This isn't a company with a few bad actors, or even one where people all agree to turn a blind eye to the actions of powerful people because they've been successful, this is a company where systemic abuse of women is basically at the core of who they are and how they operate as a company. It's part of the corporate DNA.
Like, even if there was a complete top-to-bottom change in leadership tomorrow, that wouldn't fix this. They are clearly like this to the core.
I'm honestly surprised by the generally positive and thoughtful responses in the comment section. People often say that YT community is a cesspool, but I guess her followers are of the good bunch.
As others have mentioned HR deal with employees as a Resource, hence "Human Resources."
If there is anything companies the world over have shown since the dawn of time is that they are more than happy to exploit and abuse the resources which give them the most profit, even (and especially) if by doing so it is eventually destructive to themselves, the business or the world.
Definitely worth watching for both her own experience and the underlining of the fact that it needs people other than the victims to speak up, for there to be any chance of a culture changing.
