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Multiple Industry-Leading professionals criticizing Activision Blizzard

Oh, I was thinking it was when he stepped down as CEO in 2000 and cocaine enthusiast Ballmer took over.

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RafterXL

Member
if you're a saint, you and your department have no dirty laundry, sure yeah go ahead, try to score some brownie points from the woke crowd....

but if you're not, just remember, what goes around comes around......
Imagine describing being a decent human being as a "saint" or that only the woke crowd cares about being decent.

Way to out yourself as being a shit person. And, no, what goes around doesn't come around because most of us aren't out here sexually harassing, covering up rapes, and threatening to kill our employees.

This should be a 100% no brainer, agreement thread, but half of you are deflecting and pulling the "glass houses" shit, it really shows how stunted, as human beings, many of you are.
 

FStubbs

Member
I said it regarding Jim Ryan and I'll say it here. Phil better hope all the people in his little piece of Microsoft don't have a history because he just indicated to the world that they're all squeaky clean.

It's like whack-a-mole. Pop your head out and pop it back in the hole before you get the hammer. The moles that pop out and start waving their arms for attention are going to get the hammer.
He didn't indicate that at all. What he indicated was "if we find out about it, we'll deal with it appropriately." We'll see if that's true or not.
 
S

SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Holy shit, is that grand theft auto the definitive edition gameplay?
lol the animation is way too good for that. 80 year old dumbo still has better animation than GTA: Trilogy Definitive Edition.
 

Fare thee well

Neophyte


I hate parroting videos, but Asmon always gets it imo. I won't let my cynicism and apathy lead to ever trying to do nothing about it though

If money is the medium we have all decided upon to designate value, worth, and support, then I personally choose to not give ActBlizz any money ever. But if the common rabble doesn't care, I can't stop that. But I refuse to give into apathy and I will always give a damn about who I support.

Apathy is death!
 
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I really looked through black friday sales today, and Activision makes Ubisoft look like a prolific publisher of quality titles.

I only maybe wanted Tony Hawk, which should be 15 by now, but Activision has got no games.
 
OK sure. the justice system is not perfect, so back to mob justice and hanging witches, much better.
I mean if the shoe fits? Activision obviously has a work place culture that is toxic as fuck, and it starts at the very top with Bobby K. It’s not like people are going after some innocent guy on the street that will be wrongfully be placed in jail.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
banning Hong Kong players for supporting Hong Kong protests: *crickets*

sexual harassment: DEAR GOD

The thing about this is... while these two things are not in a vacuum just because people are wrong not to do anything about X should not be a reason they should do nothing about Z.

If the fact they did nothing about the Hong Kong issue really irritates you, then people who instigated that lack of response rolling for anouther reason should be a good thing.
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'


Another story on this topic:


Consider the consequences. Hmm. Better working conditions, higher pay, greater benefits. That, or business as usual? What a difficult choice. Gee.
 

Fare thee well

Neophyte
Another story on this topic:


Consider the consequences. Hmm. Better working conditions, higher pay, greater benefits. That, or business as usual? What a difficult choice. Gee.
You see what Kelloggs owners did too? Fucking gross. I would actually rather die than work for a company that treated me so low. And it pays to be discerning. I love my career and the people I work with after battling for it.
 

Reallink

Member
Another story on this topic:


Consider the consequences. Hmm. Better working conditions, higher pay, greater benefits. That, or business as usual? What a difficult choice. Gee.

You see what Kelloggs owners did too? Fucking gross. I would actually rather die than work for a company that treated me so low. And it pays to be discerning. I love my career and the people I work with after battling for it.

Assuming there aren't enough college kids or aspiring indies to take those jobs off their hands though, Korea, China, and work Visa's will gladly replace them. Coastal US salaries are by far the highest in the world. Kellogg's should similarly have no problem finding people to package cereal starting at $42,000/year with full benefits and climbing to $73,000+ with seniority.
 

laynelane

Member
God it just gets so worse.


The manchilds that work there. Blizzard deserves every minute of shame and mockery.


I just finished reading some articles on that. Apparently this was a known issue for HR and they did nothing about it. Wonder what fuckery will be revealed next and agreed on the shame and mockery being deserved.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member

For once Jason S makes a good point.

But the typical non-union office worker have no idea how unions work. I bet all these game makers wanting to unionize think it's a big easy peasy win and being unionized means management can never boss you around.

As the Activision memo said, that exec is right. If someone signs over and agrees to be part of a union and it wins, it's not like those workers now have freedom to do what they want, demand wages how they want etc.... It comes down to what's in the agreement and both parties are supposed to live by it..... working conditions, pay, pay bumps etc.... I've never known a union where it's members pay zero dues too. So for all the gaming employees claiming to be dead broke and Activision are the cheapest people on Earth, that's fine. But get ready to pay probably about $500/yr in dues whether or not the union agreement is good or not.

If a member has a beef with management, you dont go rogue against them or get into Twitter battles with them hoping to score personal perks for personal gain, while the rest get nothing. It's more about everyone is in the same boat. You go through the process instead of being loudmouths on social media.

If it goes through, we'll have to see how much these loud liberal gaming employees adhere to union process and rules or not. Because right now they use social media as the wild west of ranting against anybody and anything at the company.

It would be hilarious if a union forms and management and the union rep agree to rigid tiers of pay like a blue collar factory. Where pay is based on years of work and not how great you do your work.
 
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Fare thee well

Neophyte
For once Jason S makes a good point.

The typical non-union office worker have no idea how unions work. I bet all these game makers wanting to unionize think it's a big easy peasy win and being unionized means management can never boss you around.

As the Activision memo said, that exec is right. If someone signs over and agrees to be part of a union and it wins, it's not like those workers now have freedom to do what they want, demand wages how they want etc.... It comes down to what's in the agreement and both parties are supposed to live by it..... working conditions, pay, pay bumps etc.... I've never known a union where it's members pay zero dues too. So for all the gaming employees claiming to be dead broke and Activision are the cheapest people on Earth, that's fine. But get ready to pay probably about $500/yr in dues whether or not the union agreement is good or not.

If a member has a beef with management, you dont go rogue against them or get into Twitter battles with them. You go through the process instead of being loudmouths on social media.

If it goes through, we'll have to see how much these loud liberal gaming employees adhere to union process and rules or not.
Yep. I mean we all want worker rights, better wages, and better job environments, but there is no simple fix or cure. Unions can become complacent and corrupt.

Still some industries need something. Having no collective bargaining across the business world would probably be less balanced than a few unions becoming corrupt or complacent.
 

laynelane

Member
For once Jason S makes a good point.

But the typical non-union office worker have no idea how unions work. I bet all these game makers wanting to unionize think it's a big easy peasy win and being unionized means management can never boss you around.

As the Activision memo said, that exec is right. If someone signs over and agrees to be part of a union and it wins, it's not like those workers now have freedom to do what they want, demand wages how they want etc.... It comes down to what's in the agreement and both parties are supposed to live by it..... working conditions, pay, pay bumps etc.... I've never known a union where it's members pay zero dues too. So for all the gaming employees claiming to be dead broke and Activision are the cheapest people on Earth, that's fine. But get ready to pay probably about $500/yr in dues whether or not the union agreement is good or not.

If a member has a beef with management, you dont go rogue against them or get into Twitter battles with them hoping to score personal perks for personal gain, while the rest get nothing. It's more about everyone is in the same boat. You go through the process instead of being loudmouths on social media.

If it goes through, we'll have to see how much these loud liberal gaming employees adhere to union process and rules or not. Because right now they use social media as the wild west of ranting against anybody and anything at the company.

It would be hilarious if a union forms and management and the union rep agree to rigid tiers of pay like a blue collar factory. Where pay is based on years of work and not how great you do your work.

From what I've read, people are looking at getting a Union for job security (the common lay-offs) and also as an element of protection given the atmosphere of abuse and the inaction of management regarding it (and protection of abusers in some cases).
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Yep. I mean we all want worker rights, better wages, and better job environments, but there is no simple fix or cure. Unions can become complacent and corrupt.

Still some industries need something. Having no collective bargaining across the business world would probably be less balanced than a few unions becoming corrupt or complacent.
From what I've read, people are looking at getting a Union for job security (the common lay-offs) and also as an element of protection given the atmosphere of abuse and the inaction of management regarding it (and protection of abusers in some cases).
If some of these gaming companies have historically awful corporate culture, I dont see why the employees just dont go to the state/province labour board. Activision head office is in California. Unless Cali has the worst labour boards in the world doing nothing, the point of them is to investigate shitty companies if there are people complaining.

Think of it like restaurants. If there's junky restaurants, every city has inspectors that come in and evaluate evidence of a lousy business and the owner gets grilled if it's bad.

If a manufacturer has an on-premise accident or the public finds out some products on shelf are tainted, government gets involved.

I see tons of articles of workers complaining about gaming companies and bosses being shitty to work for. Have any of them ever went to their state's labour board and see what their findings are?
 
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laynelane

Member
If some of these gaming companies have historically awful corporate culture, I dont see why the employees just dont go to the state/province labour board. Activision head office is in California. Unless Cali has the worst labour boards in the world doing nothing, the point of them is to investigate shitty companies if there are people complaining.

Think of it like restaurants. If there's junky restaurants, every city has inspectors that come in and evaluate evidence of a lousy business and the owner gets grilled if it's bad.

If a manufacturer has an on-premise accident or the public finds out some products on shelf are tainted, government gets involved.

I see tons of articles of workers complaining about gaming companies and bosses being shitty to work for. Have any of them ever went to their state's labour board and see what their findings are?

California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Activision Blizzard over its treatment of women and sexual harassment so it appears people did take that step.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Activision Blizzard over its treatment of women and sexual harassment so it appears people did take that step.
Ya. And probably likely because some employees finally complained.

If Activision has been a hotbed of inappropriate behaviour as an old boys club for decades, this should had been initiated 20 years ago. But what probably happened is nobody really did anything except the last few years where it's finally become a big deal.

Labour boards wont get involved unless there's complaints.
 

laynelane

Member
Ya. And probably likely because some employees finally complained.

If Activision has been a hotbed of inappropriate behaviour as an old boys club for decades, this should had been initiated 20 years ago. But what probably happened is nobody really did anything except the last few years where it's finally become a big deal.

Labour boards wont get involved unless there's complaints.

I agree that this should have been initiated years ago, but figure there's reasons why it wasn't. Maybe people were afraid of losing their livelihood, or they wouldn't be believed, or they would be in danger for doing so (eg. the report about Kotick threatening via voice mail to have a female employee killed). And I don't just mean the people on the receiving end of abuse - those that didn't participate in the abuse but knew about it, any non-corrupt managers and HR personnel, etc. It's really hard to say, but it seems to be a common occurrence with these situations. Work place abuse come to the light and it turns out people endured it for years. I see your points with Unions, but think it's something people are hoping could protect them from things ever getting so bad again.
 

Yoboman

Member
For once Jason S makes a good point.

But the typical non-union office worker have no idea how unions work. I bet all these game makers wanting to unionize think it's a big easy peasy win and being unionized means management can never boss you around.

As the Activision memo said, that exec is right. If someone signs over and agrees to be part of a union and it wins, it's not like those workers now have freedom to do what they want, demand wages how they want etc.... It comes down to what's in the agreement and both parties are supposed to live by it..... working conditions, pay, pay bumps etc.... I've never known a union where it's members pay zero dues too. So for all the gaming employees claiming to be dead broke and Activision are the cheapest people on Earth, that's fine. But get ready to pay probably about $500/yr in dues whether or not the union agreement is good or not.

If a member has a beef with management, you dont go rogue against them or get into Twitter battles with them hoping to score personal perks for personal gain, while the rest get nothing. It's more about everyone is in the same boat. You go through the process instead of being loudmouths on social media.

If it goes through, we'll have to see how much these loud liberal gaming employees adhere to union process and rules or not. Because right now they use social media as the wild west of ranting against anybody and anything at the company.

It would be hilarious if a union forms and management and the union rep agree to rigid tiers of pay like a blue collar factory. Where pay is based on years of work and not how great you do your work.
I work in Australia but I've never seen a unionised workplace where the employees are not significantly better off financially than the non unionised counterparts
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I agree that this should have been initiated years ago, but figure there's reasons why it wasn't. Maybe people were afraid of losing their livelihood, or they wouldn't be believed, or they would be in danger for doing so (eg. the report about Kotick threatening via voice mail to have a female employee killed). And I don't just mean the people on the receiving end of abuse - those that didn't participate in the abuse but knew about it, any non-corrupt managers and HR personnel, etc. It's really hard to say, but it seems to be a common occurrence with these situations. Work place abuse come to the light and it turns out people endured it for years. I see your points with Unions, but think it's something people are hoping could protect them from things ever getting so bad again.
Agree.

We're all on gaming boards so we see the worst of the industry. I'm sure there's other industries that are bad too but we never know it. You never know, maybe the coffin making industry is chock full of bad corporate culture. But we'd never know.

However, I've worked at 4 Fortune 500 kinds of companies, head office each time, tons of employees, some even had the warehouse as part of the building complex, and I'v worked with every office department you can think of. I cant speak for the blue collar shipping/warehousing department though.

I must be the luckiest guy ever because I've never seen this shit gaming companies are claimed to have. You get some bad bosses here and there. But as a whole, employees are chill, bosses are chill, nobody goes on Twitter ranting about everything. Nobody brings their politics or home life to work. Only time I saw a sexual abuse case was from a chick on the firing line and brought that up when getting fired, so it took months for people to investigate. I think about 10 people internally got involved and it turns out she lied! The accused was let go and kept his job and that asshead chick finally got fired.

She pulled that card out because she knew she was going to be gassed any day.
 
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laynelane

Member
Agree.

We're all on gaming boards so we see the worst of the industry. I'm sure there's other industries that are bad too but we never know it. You never know, maybe the coffin making industry is chock full of bad corporate culture. But we'd never know.

However, I've worked at 4 Fortune 500 kinds of companies, head office each time, tons of employees, some even had the warehouse as part of the building complex, and I'v worked with every office department you can think of. I cant speak for the blue collar shipping/warehousing department though.

I must be the luckiest guy ever because I've never seen this shit gaming companies are claimed to have. You get some bad bosses here and there. But as a whole, employees are chill, bosses are chill, nobody goes on Twitter ranting about everything. Nobody brings their politics or home life to work. Only time I saw a sexual abuse case was from a chick on the firing line and brought that up when getting fired, so it took months for people to investigate. I think about 10 people internally got involved and it turns out she lied! The accused was let go and kept his job and that asshead chick finally got fired.

She pulled that card out because she knew she was going to be gassed any day.

I'm glad you've never had to put up with a toxic work environment. They are out there, though. Recently was reading about the class action lawsuit our own DND settled with multiple people over sexual harassment, discrimination, etc. I'd like to believe the decent people outweigh the assholes and so many will never have to put up with an Activision Blizzard situation, but it seems that's a work in progress in some industries. As for the woman who made the false claim at your workplace, she and others like her just make it that much harder for others to step forward, to be believed. Pretty disgusting behavior, to be frank.
 

BlackTron

Member
Yes. As i mentioned in the other thread:

Probably doing this as PR until he himself gets in the crosshairs.
Hopefully that means that Xbox house is in order when it comes to this type of behavior.
Phil Spencer makes a brave tweet hoping to drown out the sound of bones rattling away in his own closet.
When you start saying these kind of things people start digging into your own past, lets hope this guy is as clean as he acts.

But he didn't say anything publicly or post on Twitter, right?

This was only an internal e-mail meant for employees. Unless I missed a part.

It doesn't seem outlandish to me.
 
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