how about holding them to the same standards, they hold others to? other people who had NPCs in the game had them removed when they faced similar allegations.
Also, none of those things attributed to AA are hard to avoid doing.
Blizzard’s response to this suit was actually hilarious, in that they expected to be told everything before hand and they themselves very often suspend people or ban people and won’t even tell them even after they have that done what they did wrong.
To me, the gameplay is separate from the guy. To me, he was a good writer and gave us some great stuff, but that doesn’t mean I condone what he did or support him.
I still play Fallen Order for the same reasons, as well. Same with Borderlands.
Pointless posturing, it’s like abandoning a house you’ve been living in for 15 years, only leaving because some guy on the painting crew is a socially awkward pervert. Get over yourself first, then learn to ignore the guy who isn’t even part of the company anymore. Go make angry tweets at the guy or something with actual substance.
I’m still waiting for them to say sorry to Swifty.
They likely won’t, as the reality of that situation is that the allegations were never disproven. Swifty claimed that he didn’t do what he was accused of and others backed him, but Blizzard isn’t a court of law and they don’t have to, at any point, follow the “innocent until proven guilty” rule.
They can, as the creators of their game, take any action that they feel is warranted, including distancing themselves from any potential abuser and having any references to them removed from their games. They don’t need to justify it, they don’t need to apologize later if it turns out that the accusations are in fact false. This is their game, and it is their decision.
Is it hypocritical now that they have removed Swifty’s NPC and replaced Kael’thas’s VA, things that were done immediately before any court case, but haven’t touched any of Alex Afrasiabi’s references? Yes. Absolutely. That should be called out, but not with the expectation that these actions be undone because they won’t be. Rather they should be called out because Alex Afrasiabi’s characters in the game and references should also be removed just as Swifty’s NPC and Kael’s VA work was.
I agree there, I just chose the example of someone who was already long dead because I don’t feel like dealing with all the white knights and political andys that would probably get offended if I mentioned someone that was alive today.
He said while using a computer made by slaves from a Chinese death camp.
Funny you should say that. About 20 years ago, Afrasiabi was guild leader of Fires of Heaven, a world first EQ guild. His character name was Furor Planedefiler. He was very well known for posting drunken, expletive-ridden rants about Sony’s game design (among other things).
There was some event in Las Vegas and members of his guild allegedly sexually assaulted a girl working there. She played on my server and thought it would be cool to meet them. She posted about it on our server forums, had her reputation drug through the mud, and was called every name under the sun.
So your point is that repeating false information is bad?
So join my crusade. Every time someone says something factually wrong like “Flynn was investigated and found innocent” remind them that no investigation was ever conducted.
Your story about a family being ruined was powerful. just goes to show how dangerous predators and liars can be. But if we work together we can make the forums a more truthful place one post at a time
Go see a therapist.
I’ve seen many links to tweets about this topic and they all seem to be locked now…this concerns me.
You seem determined to believe he is guilty despite the lack of evidence that he did anything wrong in the first place.
I pray you never upset the wrong person and find out first-hand how far reaching and permanent a completely false allegation can be.
If someone said now that you touched them inappropriately a year ago. There is absolutely no way you can physically prove otherwise. It comes down to your word versus theirs and since they are the victim in the allegation they will be believed by people just like you.
I’ve personally seen hundreds of cases which prove that not doing anything even remotely inappropriate in your life isn’t enough to protect you from being accused of it.
Edit: Anyway, we are getting way off topic. All I was trying to say is your example doesn’t belong in comparison with this situation. That was a case of he said-she said with a side of her being proven to have stalked and harassed him and his family.
This scenario is the result of a two year investigation by a third party that is subject to being investigated itself if it goes around making allegations it cant back up with evidence.
Blizzard will get its day in court as is its right, but I don’t envy their lawyers at the moment.
I agree that everyon is innocent until proven guilty.
But the fact that he left Blizzard a long time ago with not even a ‘goodbye Alex’ doesnt speak too good. Most of the times leaving by the back door with no farewell is because something bad happened.
I think that we will see where all this is going in a few months or years. I just feel sad about how they vanished Swifty and the Kaelthas voice actor.
I wasnt talking about Alex in that quote you cited. That was about the Kaelthas voice actor, as someone else brought it up in comparison.
Alex quietly leaving under a cloud and the subsequent 2 year investigation results does not look good for him at all. To mention nothing of all the other things the investigation found.
My bad bro. Seems we are on the same page.
But as Asmongold said, it’s very sad that they deleted Swifty’s NPC withing 48 hours of an unconfirmed allegation while they had decades of this things going on in the office. Same for kaelthas guy.
Totally agree.
Once they do a knee-jerk reaction to so much as an allegation they are painted into the corner of keeping that pace with all subsequent allegations or being viewed as supporting one person over the other.
While I understand that one is an npc representation of someone external to the company and separate to that worlds creation, the other being someone who’s image and fingerprints are all through the product that the powers that be in Blizzard have known on some level for a long time.
Even something as simple and symbolic as removing or renaming the NPC’s named after him. That would take seconds for anyone to do.
The other stuff might take a while longer and considering what the dev and creative team are going through currently, can probably be left for a later date when people have had some time.
I’d personally be reluctant to force any of my employees to spend too much time working on content that mentioned a traumatic or at least distressing topic. Devs get put through enough without adding emotional content to it.
But the name or npc removal is a keypress and would go a long way to showing the public their stance rather than just talking about it.
I didn’t bring Flynn up someone else did. I just pointed out he wasn’t investigated so people shouldn’t say he was proven innocent.
I didn’t say I believe he is guilty. I said no one has investigated him so people need to stop saying things like “he was found innocent”. The man was presumed innocent not found innocent.
yep Blizzard also needs to get investigated but with their upcoming court case actually about the sexual harassment and possible pay crimes they will surely have an investigation alongside the court case. (some might even say they already did a 2 year investigation!)
Yea this clown should be removed asap
Yeah my response was to the guy thinking this was all about the dude putting his arm around some women and saying he would marry them. This…wouldn’t be at the level it was if it was that, and wouldn’t have taken 2 years to investigate if it was how he stated it. I also like how he ignored the fact that unwantingly touching a woman, putting your arm around her, etc…is also harassment…
Thankfully posts like this one getting way more likes than all these cancel posts makes me very happy.