Blizzard in the news again

Quote from ThunderKeil

17 minutes ago, ThunderKeil said: Was the response inappropriate? Maybe, but her question was snarky and she completely set herself up for that kind of reaction.

"As a female player of WoW, I would prefer if there were less sexualized female character designs available for us, as opposed to the eye candy designed to cater to the male players." - would have generated a very different response. Or, at least, if a similar response had been given then, it would have been entirely on them for souring the interaction, which I don't find to be the case as it stands.

I think these QA sessions are a bad idea because these aren’t trained media people or from the looks of it, very bright dudes when it comes to speaking with the public in person.

I would have a simple ground rule: just be sincere in your answers, don’t try to be a fucking comedian, that’s not what we pay you to do.

”Great question, we will pass it on to our character design team” — all his dumbass had to say

The reason female characters look hot (most of the time) is the same reason male characters are ripped (most of the time). We are cranking up perks of each gender. Nobody wants to look at regular people in fiction same way nobody wants to see fat dudes in porn (most of the time).

It wasn't an unreasonable question at all. The answer to it is pretty easy too. Its "yeah we will aim to do that in future".

Quote from Buddy

1 hour ago, Buddy said: The reason female characters look hot (most of the time) is the same reason male characters are ripped (most of the time). We are cranking up perks of each gender. Nobody wants to look at regular people in fiction same way nobody wants to see fat dudes in porn (most of the time).

What a ridiculously silly take, but then again you have shown your hand a few times in the thread already.

Quote from spa

On 7/24/2021 at 3:02 PM, spa said: Secondly it doesn't sound like anyone's getting "fired" and replaced. From the article: " In large part, companies appear to be complying with the law either by filling an empty seat with a woman or by adding a seat and giving it to a woman."

I'm not a huge fan of quotas like this in general, but I recognize that it can be necessary, maybe only temporarily, to grow a more healthy and balanced culture.

I can't think of anything more offensive to a female - to only have a job because of a quota.

Just hire the best person for the job, and the let the DICE fall where they may.

It was a critical question, not rude. It’s bad enough you’ve got a million sweaty nerds booing her for asking a critical question, then they had to yuk yuk instead of taking a minute to answer her.

Quote from ThunderKeil

8 hours ago, ThunderKeil said: Was the response inappropriate? Maybe, but her question was snarky and she completely set herself up for that kind of reaction.

I think you always have to be the bigger person, no matter what’s being thrown at you.

Quote from ThunderKeil

11 hours ago, ThunderKeil said: Was the response inappropriate? Maybe, but her question was snarky and she completely set herself up for that kind of reaction.

The issue there is, even if the question may be snarky, when you are an important figure like, for this exemple, dev of one of the most important game of the era with a room full of fans and with probably millions of people watching this conference, don't act like a fucking rockstar. You are giving the message to player that it's normal to act like jerk with women gamers.

But, ho well, I should not be surprised from a country where you just need to "grab them by the pussy".

Quote from Mitch Mitchell

7 hours ago, Mitch Mitchell said: I can't think of anything more offensive to a female - to only have a job because of a quota.

Just hire the best person for the job, and the let the DICE fall where they may.

I'm against quota, I think it would make it worse, for reason like the one you mention. But you can't deny this industry is too much dude sided. Early from the nineties, advertising for video game were massively oriented to guys. Small example : Lara Croft was sexualised as fuck, I don't think it was intended by its creator.

If you want to have more women in the industry, just show them that they have a place there. But how do you do that with all the shits that happen ?

Quote from Buddy

14 hours ago, Buddy said: Heartbreaking? Brave?

L O L

Dude, explain to me why women I know who plays Overwatch are too afraid to use the voice chat ? Because gamers are a fucking nighmare, of course she needed to be brave to ask stuff like that !

Quote from ElectroSheep

4 hours ago, ElectroSheep said: (...)Dude, explain to me why women I know who plays Overwatch are too afraid to use the voice chat ? Because gamers are a fucking nighmare, of course she needed to be brave to ask stuff like that !

Ah, this was probably taking place in the middle east where she can get stoned to death for asking a question. Right??

I was just pointing out that words like 'brave' and 'heartbreaking' should be reserved for things that are actually brave and heartbreaking lol.

Why is everyone so soft all of the sudden? Hoping for that pity f*ck?

Everyone's a victim on twitter, unless you go against the woke crew, then you're some type of phobic and an oppressor of such and such demographic.

Real bravery was the red shirt guy at the blizzcon 18' diablo panel.

Quote from ElectroSheep

5 hours ago, ElectroSheep said: I'm against quota, I think it would make it worse, for reason like the one you mention. But you can't deny this industry is too much dude sided. Early from the nineties, advertising for video game were massively oriented to guys. Small example : Lara Croft was sexualised as fuck, I don't think it was intended by its creator.

If you want to have more women in the industry, just show them that they have a place there. But how do you do that with all the shits that happen ?

Talented females know where to work and not to work, they ain't dumb - Blizzard have lost (probably forever now) the chance to hire a lot of talent, and that is their loss.

Blizzards' loss and ineptitude will do a few things:

1) Create an inaccurate mindset that the video games industry is a sleezetown of pussy grabbing frat boys, no matter which company it is or, which country that company is in.

2) Open the door to smaller companies who had trouble hiring quality female staff, only to now have more options on their desks than they ever dreamed of having for hiring people.

3) Create a vacuous media-frenzied narrative, to whit "All men working in the video games industry are, pussy grabbing frat boys". This is the same narrative as "All lesbians are butch, head shaved flannel-shirt-wearing and militant".

As for your dude-sided comment...this is because there are more men who want to program than women. Women in the games industry lean more towards artistic endeavours than mathematical, plus, the administrative elements of video games (especially in publishing, like Blizzard) also including marketing and sales which hold something like 84.6% female led (Got that stat from GDC).

So you want more women in the video games industry? I want more more equality of opportunity, without forcing the equality of outcome, because - if you FORCE women to work in coding, or FORCE companies to have 50% women in coding, and to IGNORE lots of male applicants, purely based on their gender, AND if you make an arbitrary decision to FIRE 34.6% of women in marketing alone, to try and find talented marketeers - games would not be made to the current levels, so...

Good luck with that.

As for Lara...I think the bank balance of the creators was not complaining, and it would be no different than an overly sexualised man in the box art - which has also been the case since the early days of the 8-bit wars:

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Hate to nullify your point, but, the reasons for the above have nothing to do with the video games industry, because...84.6% of the marketing department (in the 1980's) would've had to have gone through lots of male models to find the one they chose to be on the box of this game

Like I say, women ain't dumb, and will now NOT work at Blizzard (and possibly Ubisoft) Yet, I would be remiss if I did also not point out the obvious:

Some women will stay, because they have a combination of the sunken cost fallacy, plus, they know there is a big chance for them to get promoted regardless of whether they deserved it or not.

Quote from Buddy

5 hours ago, Buddy said: Ah, this was probably taking place in the middle east where she can get stoned to death for asking a question. Right?

Man, stop the whataboutism. So she should shut up because at least she can vote here ? ?

And Mitchell, I aggree with you with most of your points. I'm not saying it should be 50/50 it's impossible. I repeat, i'm against quotas. But on my team it's 0/100 ans it's not for the good reasons.

Never feels great or safe to have a room full of probably 200-300 people booing you and some dudes with authority on a stage mocking you as well. I know we’ve spent a while on this tangent of the blizzcon panel, but people seem to think it’s a useful window into what other women, who were in the company, faced from some of these same individuals, so it might not be a waste of time to look at it carefully

I agree with @ElectroSheep that the whole vibe is off because the panel seems to be about these dudes’ egos instead of what everyone actually came together for, which is the games. It’s tough when you get elevated to that kind of a stage and platform, especially if you don’t do it much, to start to think it’s all about you and how great you are, and aren’t you funny and special. I think that’s what all the dumb jokes are about as well, people who have forgotten that any one of them could be replaced and World of Warcraft would still be World of Warcraft without them. None of that is happening because of them specifically, but they’re acting like rock stars or something. Absurd

Quote from FMPONE

6 hours ago, FMPONE said: Never feels great or safe to have a room full of probably 200-300 people booing you and some dudes with authority on a stage mocking you as well. I know we’ve spent a while on this tangent of the blizzcon panel, but people seem to think it’s a useful window into what other women, who were in the company, faced from some of these same individuals, so it might not be a waste of time to look at it carefully

I agree with @ElectroSheep that the whole vibe is off because the panel seems to be about these dudes’ egos instead of what everyone actually came together for, which is the games. It’s tough when you get elevated to that kind of a stage and platform, especially if you don’t do it much, to start to think it’s all about you and how great you are, and aren’t you funny and special. I think that’s what all the dumb jokes are about as well, people who have forgotten that any one of them could be replaced and World of Warcraft would still be World of Warcraft without them. None of that is happening because of them specifically, but they’re acting like rock stars or something. Absurd

Blizzards loss is everyone else's gain - but you have highlighted a very astute point: even a fool can wear a crown and pretend to be the king.

Over 1,000 Activision Blizzard Employees Sign Letter Condemning Company's Response To Allegations

https://kotaku.com/over-1-000-act…r-co-1847364340

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/LtMbzKF.gif]

Gaming has become too big for itself. Let's go back to modding and indie development.

Quote from Radu

15 hours ago, Radu said: Over 1,000 Activision Blizzard Employees Sign Letter Condemning Company's Response To Allegations

https://kotaku.com/over-1-000-act…r-co-1847364340

Quote from Mitch Mitchell

On 7/26/2021 at 8:59 AM, Mitch Mitchell said: Like I say, women ain't dumb, and will now NOT work at Blizzard (and possibly Ubisoft) Yet, I would be remiss if I did also not point out the obvious:

Some women will stay, because they have a combination of the sunken cost fallacy, plus, they know there is a big chance for them to get promoted regardless of whether they deserved it or not.

What's the backslash forum command for someone who can make the claim that, they were the one who 'called it' ?

Also, looking at those other topic titles from Kotaku, who only seemed interested in the 'old white guy' graphics that Epic Games have for demonstrating their UE5 tech recently, I think another of my predictions is also bearing some fruit:

Quote from Mitch Mitchell

On 7/26/2021 at 8:59 AM, Mitch Mitchell said: Talented females know where to work and not to work, they ain't dumb - Blizzard have lost (probably forever now) the chance to hire a lot of talent, and that is their loss.

Blizzards' loss and ineptitude will do a few things:

1) Create an inaccurate mindset that the video games industry is a sleezetown of pussy grabbing frat boys, no matter which company it is or, which country that company is in.

2) Open the door to smaller companies who had trouble hiring quality female staff, only to now have more options on their desks than they ever dreamed of having for hiring people.

3) Create a vacuous media-frenzied narrative, to whit "All men working in the video games industry are, pussy grabbing frat boys". This is the same narrative as "All lesbians are butch, head shaved flannel-shirt-wearing and militant".

So, I think this is going to only be interesting to see how my 3 points stack up with the liberal media, but alas, anyone could have called this.

You might say my foresight had some insight, in the light of hindsight.

A group of roughly 300 employees across Activision Blizzard are spearheading the initiative, asking for several internal changes such as an end to mandatory arbitration clauses in all employee contracts.

"Arbitration clauses protect abusers and limit the ability of victims to seek restitution," their statement reads.

Staff are asking Activision Blizzard to adopt new recruiting, hiring and promotion policies to improve representation across all employee levels. They are also asking for transparency around compensation and promotions, and an external audit of Activision Blizzard’s company’s reporting structure, HR department and executive team.

Every form of internal communication has been overtaken with talk of the lawsuit, according to two sources at the company who spoke to Axios anonymously.

One said that some Blizzard leaders have been vocal about supporting employees, but that top executives are still directly in "PR mode, crisis management, trying not to commit directly to things."

https://www.axios.com/activision-bli…a086119e04.html