#384 - Into the Nexus: “#ActiBlizzWalkout”
• Garrett • Kyle
Tracking Link:
https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/
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Intro: Welcome to Into the Nexus! The Heroes of the Storm podcast!
Today’s episode is our support of the Blizzard Walkout. We will be covering the lawsuit and accounts of harassment against Blizzard the same as we would any other news regarding Blizzard and Heroes of the Storm.
We are not ending Into the Nexus and plan to be back next week with Heroes news, but this week is our support of the Blizzard Walkout. After the news we will be having a fun chat as always… but about non-Blizzard games. Think of it as a Weeksauce revival.
If you wanna hear my more emotional reaction to all of this alongside Jocelyn and RidiculousHat definitely check out this week’s Angry Chicken as it too covers this.
We recommend visiting our show notes for all the links to the stories we’re covering roday.
News
#ActiBlizzWalkout #TimesUp
We want to begin this rundown with a quote from prior-Heroes animator Lana Bachynski:
This industry will continue to generate trauma like this until we choose to remove individuals that harass, instead of justifying harassment based on their perceived usefulness. - Lana Bachynski
The State of California Files Lawsuit Against Blizzard
DFEH - Department of Fair Employment and Housing
Allegations aimed specifically at Blizzard, not Activision
Two year investigation conducted by the state of California
Allegations include:
Major allegations include:
Ask yourself: What about any of this work environment helps make a good game?
Links
The Last 9 Days
Jason Schreier: https://twitter.com/jasonschreier
Yesterday, July 28th
July 28 | Employees walk out and denounce Activision Blizzard's sexist culture
July 28 | Kotaku reveals information on the "Cosby Suite" mentioned in the complaint
Links
Putting these last 9 days into chronological order
Account of sexual harassment dating to 2006
Imagine being told you're a trophy hire all the time, only to be laid off when Blizzard thinks it's time to cut the budget. The imposter syndrome was overwhelming. - 5 Years 10 Months
July 9, 2008, Activision and Blizzard announced that stockholders had agreed to merge.
2016 - Ben Kilgore is investigated
2016 - JAB Meets with WoW Team Women
June 2020 Alex Afrasiabi Quietly Levels Blizzard
Recent History Reference
Links
Employee Reviews from Women & Men
As Kyle researched publicly viewable employee reviews, questionable practices and worse come up from all genders. Stating things like:
Multiple Reviews for reference (not reading in full on air)
Indeed.com
Service Representative - May 2011
However, if you're looking for enough money to actually advance your personal life goals, then look elsewhere. Additionally, management slots are extremely rare and based more on politicking, rather than merit.
Quality Assurance Analyst - June 2012
I was not allowed to be a family man. My life consisted of going to work coming home sleeping and repeating the process again. This continued from Monday through Saturday or Sunday through Friday depending on which one we were assigned or got to choose from.
Advancement is available if you know the right people. You really have to luck out by getting a good manager. One of the horrible things about working for Blizzard today is that doing a fantastic job doesn't mean much. Management is hit or miss on the quality of the manager. There are some great managers there, but also some really poor ones.
I'm really sad for the path the company chose to take. The quality of life at Blizzard today is extremely low and the pay just doesn't compete with the costs of living in and around Irvine, CA.
I saw a good friend get let go in March of this year, along with a few others, because he had to take quite a few sick days to take care of his child. Curiously, other people who got let go were parents too.
What I learned - That with hard work and dedication, you're only as valuable as the numbers you produce and how much can adhere to the attendance policy
Senior 3D Artist - August 2014
Ends up just being about how much your lead likes you and not about work performance. Has a high school like culture based on popularity and butt kissing
Customer Service Representative - September 2014
Promotions are based on how much your senior/tm likes you and not about work performance, skills. Basically your popularity and butt kissing takes gets you a promotions. If you don't have that, you are targeted and suffer retaliation.
Customer Service Supervisor - April 2015
The turn over on "policies" and job titles is about 6 months, meaning your job fundamentally changes every 6 months with little to no upper level change management.
Specialist Game Master - June 2015
The internal workings of Blizzard CS are much like that of a raid group. For those outside of MMOs, that means that you have to know the right people, have the right perception pieces, and above all, be quite lucky.
Senior GNOC Technician - August 2016
My department was restructured about 3 times in 9 months.
Management was constantly being rotated in and out, promises for job advancement were made and then never provided.
Arrogant managers, directional challenge directors and VP is the foundation. It is the passive aggressive you expect from the cliche movies. Managers don’t know how to motivate, mentor(makes them look bad), or manage people. The workers spend 75% playing than actually working because the company pays you 75% of the job market. HR has to send out reminders to all employees of hygiene requirements.
Experienced engineers were required to punch a time clock. Management was completely inept, poor treatment of women, extremely low pay, high turnover. Managers haze new employees and will yell in meetings. Human resources is NOT an advocate for the employee. Long hours and NO recognition for the work done.
There are often Staff that cry on the job from the sheer amount of abuse that they take from customers and because we have to sweet talk even the most meanest customer for a better survey rather than tell them what actually needs to be said, you have to ignore the constant fight or flight instinct telling you to either run from this customer or fight back. I do not care how mentally strong you are, you ignore this for too long, and your body and your mind will strike back at you.
If they find out you don't fit their worldview they will attempt to manage you out, if that fails they let you sit in stagnation with no opportunity to move up or transfer to other departments.
They are one of a number of companies who treat people like equipment. They're also the kind of company to judge people by superficial demographics instead of merit or character.
Morale is low, every manager was essentially demoted and forced to work tickets on the floor. The company doesn't care about its customer service department or most of its developers. Benefits are okay, but constant fear of layoffs and constant hiring freezes keep everyone with a negative outlook. You essentially get paid in Blizzard swag and then its taxed as taxable income.
In 2020 it all started to go downhill due to constant changes and overreach from Activision. It sounds good on paper: they are trying to streamline things across the global company but the vision is unclear and implementation is horrendous. Certain decisions coming from the top (c-suite) make no sense with no explanation and I’ve seen it drive people out in droves. It’s heartbreaking for me to note that everyone I know at the company has left or is actively looking for a new job. And these are people who bleed blizzard-blue and never dreamed of leaving! And don’t get me started on the horrendous practice of hiring everyone as a contractor and extending their contract every three months with the promise of conversion. Contract life is cruel when you are forced to work 18+ months without access to benefits or PTO. No matter how you try to beg/convince upper management that you need to convert someone, it can never be done. And those who are hired as full-time are paid insultingly low. It’s impossible to hire great talent if we are unable to pay them competitive rates.
This is an absolutely horrible place to work. Unless you are willing to go out drinking with the managers after hours or publicly berate others or simply keep quiet when you see people doing unsavory things, you would not fit in here.
The pay is not commensurate with professional experience, but instead, experience with either flirting with senior directors or going to party with them. If you are willing to wear tight clothes, you might be promoted.
Inhersight.com Reviews - A woman-based employer review site.
2016
Reviews in 2016 range from passive sexism to questionable hiring practices from managers
2017
Reviews in 2017 are quite damning from nursing and pregnant women working in CS. Bullying with no response from HR. And one quote that stuck with me: “Sexism at Blizzard is not malicious, it is just there as a point of fact. I advise women to accept a position at Blizzard if they receive an offer, but go into it knowing that you have to fight for your voice to matter.”
2018
2018 reviews paint a picture of passive sexism as an extension of “gamer-culture”.
Heroes of the Storm Alumni have spoken out
Lana Bachynski - Prior HotS animator - Tweet Chain
Our friend Adam Jackson shared his thoughts
Adam also put out a second thread explaining why he took part in the walkout
Wisdom Media’s (CCL) Statement
https://twitter.com/WisdomMediaGG/status/1420469008235642888/photo/1
Other Departments - Short Version
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft Statement - where they said they will
“Remove references that are not appropriate for our world.”
Changes that have already taken place
Jeff Hamilton - Senior System Designer on WoW
I can tell you, almost no work is being done on World of Warcraft right now while this obscenity plays out. And that benefits nobody - not the players, not the developers, not the shareholders.
Other departments have not given official statements
Diablo
Brandy Camel’s Blog - Associate Community Manager for Diablo and the woman who said “You will bleed Blizzard Blue for the rest of your life”.
https://wtbrecognition.blogspot.com/2021/
Overwatch
KyleThatKyle - Social Media Content Producer for Overwatch League
be loyal to people not companies. They don’t give a shit about you. A company is NEVER a family. The moment you have red in the column next to your name you’re gone. Even if the company is profitable.
Players are demanding McCrees name be changed after the Cosby Suite photo surfaced
Hearthstone
Cora - Hearthstone Associate Game Designer
I've had loads of bad experiences, just not in the last 2 years. I think I'm so quick to defend my coworkers now because I spent years being disrespected and lied to before that. I craved approval so fucking badly for so long.
Demands of the Employees at Blizzard
We’re going to end on the demands of the employees at Blizzard
Links
Future of this Show
Of all the Blizzard games, the community owns Heroes of the Storm the most.
We will continue to be a part of the Heroes community, making it better from the inside.
We are very fortunate to have such an awesome and welcoming community.
Outro
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Thanks to Gorath for our intro music and briangriffithmusic.com (@briangriffith) for our outro..
Personal Stuff
Garrett
Kyle
Around Blizzard - For Reference:
More Quotes
I witnessed my female colleagues being demoted for pregnancies and female-health related concerns because of their "inability to fulfill the requirements of the job". - 2 Year Employee
When the Riot article came out, some of my male coworkers at Blizzard came to me to ask if it was this bad where we worked too. Surely we are the good guys, they assumed! We had a very deep talk about the reality of being a woman in games. I hope it sank in. This is systemic. - 9 Year Employee
Going to HR wasn't an option. You only went to HR if you wanted your story immediately shared throughout the entire studio. On the handful of occasions when I tried to talk to someone about this, I was never taken seriously. - 3 Year Employee
Nobody in leadership is blameless, especially not the person in charge when all the bad shit in that lawsuit was actually happening. - 1 Year 3 Month Employee
The only difference I ever saw was more and more of my friends leaving, and seeing less and less women and inclusive supporters on teams - 5 years 7 months
I would be hard-pressed to find someone that wasn't witness to sex in the game lounges, coke in the bathrooms during a cube crawl, or a woman who wasn't sexually harassed at least once. - 1 Year 6 Month Employee
“Watch Mad Men. Yeah, its Kinda Like that” - 13 year Employee
Problematic people were “too senior” to do anything about it - 3 Year Employee
Huge list of Employee stories and posts
World of WarCraft
Only team to make an official statement
Jeff Hamilton - Senior System Designer on WoW
I can tell you, almost no work is being done on World of Warcraft right now while this obscenity plays out. And that benefits nobody - not the players, not the developers, not the shareholders.
Players have assumed that these references will be:
Alex Afrasiabi NPCs:
Items containing references to him and his Everquest characters
Changes that have already taken place
Links
Diablo
Brandy Camel’s Blog - Associate Community Manager for Diablo and the woman who said “You will bleed Blizzard Blue for the rest of your life”.
https://wtbrecognition.blogspot.com/2021/
Drugged at Twitch Pax Party
During my time as a Community Manager, I was very vocal about women not being left alone at events, regardless of if they were an employee or otherwise. I heavily advocated for a buddy system at events we travelled to, regularly disseminated information publicly on how to protect yourself at events, and pushed to make sure our female invitees to BlizzCon were provided a +1 ticket, always. Women do not feel safe at industry events, and for good reason. There were coworkers who would push back on this "special treatment." I noticed that, after I was drugged and went to to the emergency room during a party at PAX West, suddenly they were a lot less vocal about pushing back on this. It shouldn't require sharing my personal trauma to show that these situations are real threats.
Future of Diablo Video
Some of you may remember the Future of Diablo video we released just prior to the Immortal announcement. I pitched and championed this video as well as wrote the original script, because I was extremely in tune with the community and confident as to what the reception would be. Every step of the way, this approach was questioned. Every step of the way, the script was changed until it was unrecognizable, because leadership (particularly Activision and their obsession with investors) did not want to "give up the surprise" that Diablo IV was being worked on. Nevermind the fact there were plenty of clues this was already the case, like "unannounced Diablo title" job listings on our website. Eventually, we landed on the video that went out, which just wasn't sufficient, and spokespeople like myself and the Immortal team were hung out to dry at BlizzCon.
Diablo Immortal BlizzCon
I was crowded and ganged up on by angry and upset fans. Security was not there to help me; I was on my own. Developers were able to exit safely via backstage; I was vulnerable on the show floor, amidst the crowd of attendees. I knew this reaction was coming and I deeply empathized with them, but still I hoped for the best and tried to be available to a very hurt and frustrated community. Instead, I was still harassed until I called in friends to escort me from the show floor.
Overwatch
KyleThatKyle - Social Media Content Producer for Overwatch League
be loyal to people not companies. They don’t give a shit about you. A company is NEVER a family. The moment you have red in the column next to your name you’re gone. Even if the company is profitable.
Hearthstone
Cora - Hearthstone Associate Game Designer
The people that I work with everyday are wonderful, and I'm confident that every single one of them would go to bat for me. I've never felt uncomfortable or disrespected in my time on Team 5. I'm really fucking sad that the same can't be said for other women on other teams.
Actually, screw it. I've had loads of bad experiences, just not in the last 2 years. I think I'm so quick to defend my coworkers now because I spent years being disrespected and lied to before that. I craved approval so fucking badly for so long.
The Old Guard
Mike Morhaime - Former Co-founder and Former CEO Blizzard Entertainment
I have read the full complaint against Activision Blizzard and many of the other stories. It is all very disturbing and difficult to read. I am ashamed. It feels like everything I thought I stood for has been washed away. What’s worse but even more important, real people have been harmed, and some women had terrible experiences.
I was at Blizzard for 28 years. During that time, I tried very hard to create an environment that was safe and welcoming for people of all genders and backgrounds. I knew that it was not perfect, but clearly we were far from that goal. The fact that so many women were mistreated and were not supported means we let them down. In addition, we did not succeed in making it feel safe for people to tell their truth. It is no consolation that other companies have faced similar challenges. I wanted us to be different, better.
Harassment and discrimination exist. They are prevalent in our industry. It is the responsibility of leadership to keep all employees feeling safe, supported, and treated equitably, regardless of gender and background. It is the responsibility of leadership to stamp out toxicity and harassment in any form, across all levels of the company. To the Blizzard women who experienced any of these things, I am extremely sorry that I failed you.
I realize that these are just words, but I wanted to acknowledge the women who had awful experiences. I hear you, I believe you, and I am so sorry to have let you down. I want to hear your stories, if you are willing to share them. As a leader in our industry, I can and will use my influence to help drive positive change and to combat misogyny, discrimination, and harassment wherever I can. I believe we can do better, and I believe the gaming industry can be a place where women and minorities are welcomed, included, supported, recognized, rewarded, and ultimately unimpeded from the opportunity to make the types of contributions that all of us join this industry to make. I want the mark I leave on this industry to be something that we can all be proud of.
Chris Metzen - former Senior Vice President of Story & Franchise Development at Blizzard Entertainment
As for Alex. I loved working with him and jamming in story meetings. He was someone I thought very highly of on the job, but we never interacted outside of story jams and such. I was never his boss. We never really interacted outside of doing the work or taking smoke breaks… we haven’t worked closely together sorry nice WotLK. I never heard a peep about him other than that he could be tough on his team or an asshole from time to time. So learning all this the past week has been just utterly shocking. Just reprehensible shit.
Russel Brower - Composer, Music Director, Conductor - World of Warcraft, Diablo III, StarCraft II.