First of all, let me state I am 100% on board with the walk-out. Blizz employees deserve better and hopefully they get it soon. My problem is with the sentiment that the indefinite development hiatus is necessary and no player that supports the victims should be upset.
If a few weeks off of developing the game was like waving a magic wand and suddenly everyone got their due dignity, respect, wages and safe working environment, let’s do it. If the employee walk-out is coordinated and lasts weeks, stopping development as a side-effect, 100%, y’all do what you have to do. But I can still support the employees while being salted that an already content sparce expansion is going to be dragged out longer, and with less content.
I’m not sure what the employees position was who said that our priorities were misplaced, only that he worked for Blizz. To say the game is more important than someones human right to work and live and be free from systemic bullying and harassment would be a problem, but I don’t think that’s what people are saying.
Customers pay for product. Although I am concerned for the safety and welfare of Acti-Blizz employees, I shouldn’t have to be. It should be a given. I should be worried about what my transmog is gonna be next week, not whether a company is treating their employees with basic dignity and respect. Companies shouldn’t need to go on indefinite hiatus from product development to meet the bare minimums of legally required working conditions. They then shouldn’t attack the player base online for pointing this out.
The answer is really easy to a difficult problem. Fire those who they know are doing/have done wrong, apologize to your customers and talk about the changes you’re going to make in your company and in game. Communication is more important than anything now, a field that ActiBlizz has always struggled in.
We won’t see that though. The current team doesn’t know how to be humble. The only way Blizzard will change is with a complete overhaul with those in higher positions.
This is where I’m worried most. Communication has been the WoW team’s biggest failure, and given that it’s their team especially (though not exclusively) being investigated, communication within the realms of what they can say is very important right now.
And it shouldn’t matter how high up the cancer has spread; fire anyone that was involved with this. I’m just worried they’ll try and take the Ubisoft path instead.
I agree, but honestly, except for a few loud mouths, everyone here has been supportive of whatever choice people make - as long as they’re not swearing and getting over dramatic about it.
So, I don’t know if this is other social media platforms you’re talking about.
The problem isn’t, or shouldn’t be, that you are salted if development time is extended. The problem is (and if you take a look around the forums you will see) that some people are taking the “I don’t care, not my problem, make my game!” position. While yes, they have every right to feel that way, the rest of us also have the right to point out it’s pretty gross to only care about a video game in light of these allegations.
Ideally, ABK will get their head out of their hind end ASAP, and make the necessary changes and we can all go back to slaying dragons instead of attempting to verbally slay each other. That said, if it doesn’t happen, then the walkout will just be the start of it and we, as players, have to decide where to go from there.
I fully support whatever measures they need to take to fix this issues/ensure that they stay fixed. It will suck if the game has to get benched for a while, but if that is what I have to accept, then so be it. It shouldn’t be that way and I know it shouldn’t be that way, and no one is wrong for saying it shouldn’t be that way, but we live in the world of what is, not what should be.
edit: To address the “you are part of the problem”, not to put words in the guys mouth, but the problem I believe he was referring to was society’s lack of care for certain people, and the players that are part of that are those I mentioned above - the I don’t care make my game people.
Well the CEO of Activision has already hired a law firm, Wilmer Hale, that is known for union busting, the same law firm that Amazon is using in their relations with labor. Not a good sign.
They will probably lobby for more H1B visas where if the workers say anything about how the company is run, Blizzard can just threaten to send them back to their country of origin.
If your workers dont bow down, just replace them with people who you can make bow down. If the public complains, try to make it a racial issue so they cant complain.