Activision Blizzard Sued by the state of California for Sexual Abuse being Commonplace and “Frat Boy Culture” after “Tone Deaf” response by Executives

Sexual Assaults’, Rape Culture, Gender Based Pay Inequality, Drunk “Molestation” and Harassment Cultivated at the Blizzard Campus

It’s been a while since we put Activision – Blizzard under a microscope. However, our gripes about Warcraft Expansions and the nightmare that was Warcraft III Reforged or the logistics nightmare that was the modernization of Diablo II and the whiplash of thematic disparity in Diablo II all pale in comparison to what’s been covered in this legal document HERE. The abridged version is not short as many would hope but here’s a snippit of it:

In the office, women are subjected to ‘cube crawls’ in which male employees drink copious amounts of alcohol as they ‘crawl’ their way through various cubicles in the office and often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees. Male employees proudly come into work hungover, play video games for long periods of time during work while delegating their responsibilities to female employees, engage in banter about their sexual encounters, talk openly about female bodies, and joke about rape.

Page 4-7 of the legally submitted documentation

While this is unacceptable anywhere you’d think the Companies that banned someone demanding “Freedom for Hong Kong” and fired the interviewing E-Sports Streamers would actually step forward to protect those oppressed, beaten down, and otherwise considered “Second Class”. However, the disparity in pay for female workers and their treatment shows the company with the “Rainbow Logo” isn’t really that progressive. This doesn’t bode well for the fleeing former ex President Mike Morhaime.

I failed (women) at Blizzard.

Mike Morhaime

It’s not NEW News by any means. We have had a dozen former and current female employees that have spoke on the matter. The writer of the ARTICLE even encountered hiring bias due to “Being too innovative” but we’re going to use 3rd party quotes rather than personal experience until the end.

The early 2000s had the “guys” treating the office like a boys club. HR didn’t do anything when I reported being groped or verbally abused. Not a single “Write up” happened and I had left and came back twice in the two decades since I had first been there. I was actually told “not to stir up trouble. When I got a chance to “Work at Blizzcon” I wasn’t paid and I was treated like meat for working some insane 41 hours over the weekend. I’ve moved on but I can’t imagine going back a third time.

Former Employee

Ok, like, please don’t name me and don’t be specific. I worked in three different departments at an average of 35 hours a week just slightly above “Industry minimum wage” and found I could make more at In-And-Out after 2 years of having to live in a house with 6 other women and I wasn’t the only one doing it. I had to do Uber on the side JUST to have enough money to make ends meet and pay for the gas from -redacted- to Irvine every day and that’s another thing I wasn’t alone in. Later, months in, I found it wasn’t just the other girls but there were guys living at the house of -redacted- in Tustin just to have enough money to come in and say they “Worked on Warcraft” while they were sharing rooms because the cost of living per person was about nineteen hundred a month and they were only making twelve.

Former Employee

I was made fun of for my condition. The world “Bullied” doesn’t describe it. I’d get to my cubicle with hotdogs sliced in half on a plate with katchup mounded on top. Human Resources said on multiple incidents “Plenty of people bring food to their desks and you’re just overreacting” but I know what’s what. My three years there was something I wish I could cherish but it was Hell. Two Production Managers made sure my name was not on two of the three products I worked on while I was pulling 40+ hours a week so I had given my three week notice after seeing my name left out at the end of a release. There are dozens if not hundreds of names “Left out because the contributions are not significant”. The payment was utter trash too.

Former Employee

I’m not worried but leave my name out. They’ll know me when I testify and bring in the copies of the text messages but I’ll leave their names out too. I worked at Blizzard long enough to have the Shield and the Ring. I was a a fresh “Token Girl” hire in the earlier years of WoW and I worked various roles and departments. I dealt with it all – Chair jousting where someone poked me so hard on my gluteal while they were “drunk playing around” that they were sent home (for a day) and I was given unpaid time off to heal because I couldn’t sit down where I got a contusion from someone trying to practically shove a broomstick up my behind. I’ve had to drive multiple “coworkers” home after they get stoned and drunk circa 2004 and up while they would reach over and fondle and grab me without consent. They moved me around to keep me away from people that “Had issues with me” which was HR’s way of saying “(they)were permitted to treat other women like that without repercussion but when it came to me I made too big of a deal out of it”. Blizzcon was a whole new level of weird because it started exposing folks in the esports communities to some of the drama. The company room parties were just as bad as the ones held in Asia minus the sex workers and I saw other ladies make the mistake of coming dressed in dresses and skirts only to get abused in front of everyone. When I left it was on “Fair Terms” but let me tell you – others didn’t. Some took the only way out they could and their blood is on the hands of HR and all of the executives and middle management that stood by for years and did nothing.

Former Employee

Ok so I want to make this quick because I was only there for a few months before they moved everyone I knew to Texas before firing them with the GM Automation. We had big sexy nelfs painted on the wall. -redacted- ran a pretty tight shift but that didn’t stop people from other parts of the building from coming in and poking us or inviting us to their place or section and whatnot. I spoke to a nice guy GM and he told me how much he was making an hour after 4 months and it was four dollars more than me per hour and my ticket resolution rate per hour was up there where his was something like half what I did. When I took it to Head GM -redacted- he basically told me “He’s been here for longer and handles more account-centered tickets” which I knew was a lie. I moved to Squaresoft later and mentioned I worked at Blizzard and they started me at the very amount the guy had after working at blizzard as long as he did.

Former Employee

I’ve reported what has happened to me to HR and my division lead multiple times. Usually, someone got lectured. However, my job was on the line for the contributions I made. They had a phone line you could call for legal but it only ever got ME moved.

Current Employee

“Speak up” was this gimmick they had to “reduce backlash against those whom report abuse” but that’s just a dodge for liability. This started before Diablo. They even harassed the voice actors “playfully” during recordings for Warcraft: Orcs Vs Humans. The “Beer Culture” has ALWAYS been there since Chaos Storms Studios or whatever it was named before Blizzard with people drunk under their desk and puking in their trash cans while screaming for their lady co-workers to clean it up. The culture is there. My personal life and professional life do NOT mix but I know if I started acting the way I feel inside and showing it outwardly I’d probably leave within a few months of doing so.

Current Employee

We banned people using slurs. Racial slurs, Gender Slurs, Preferential Slurs… anything spicy. However, it flew through the air everywhere in the office. Why do you think they shoehorned in the “Gay Romance” with Flynn and Shaw with the Golden Novellas? To cater to the LGBTQAL+ Minority while games like Guild Wars 2 have an open lesbian relationship between a hero and a villain as primary content reflected on the players even if they are “sexy plant ladies” as the writers were clucking about when design meetings were had over what Christie Golden could put in her novel.

Former Employee

The Digital Picket Line and Employee Solidarity Walk out of 7-28-2021

After Activision – Blizzard department heads insisted that “People join the walk out in sign of support” the “Fire Control” and “Legal Department” were in full swing to wrangle the narrative by “Removing Problematic NPCs from the game” (which will only be a symptom and reminder – not the CAUSE of the sexual misconduct and inequality) and having a “Third Party team review all contracts and protocols to then put solutions in action” as it were. The only issue with all of this: The Damage has been done. A woman committed suicide after a “Business Trip” with her supervisor after he passed images of her genitalia around at a party. Dozens of men and women have reported to HR the harassment and disparities over a two decade time line with zero change. People lost their jobs over crunch time while department heads were “cubicle crawling”. People’s careers began only to catch fire and end at the Blizzard offices in both Irvine and Austin a few month in. Artists at Blizzard stole none Blizzard Intellectual Property from Deviant Art accounts and even 3rd party TTRPGs only to issue automated rejection letters from the original artists and writers due to conflicts of interest. We’ve not forgotten that’s for sure.

The list goes on and on. You need to look no further than the speedrun arcade grindfest that Diablo III has become, the low quality shoddy workmanship of Warcraft 3 Reforged and the lacking in actual viable content full retail releases of World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands expansions. It’s only a matter of time before the whole truth comes out and over a dozen former employees are made to take to a stand in the eyes of justice. Justice any true Paladin would be proud of.