Instead of removing over 6 dozen items, would it not have been a better solution to allow those that do not want to see them to have a toggle to turn them off?
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This is not about players, this is about the lawsuit.
So no, adding a toggle would do nothing.
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Yeah, in California they could have $400 million or more on the line…(based on the Riot case)
I doubt they are worried about a little ongoing controversy with the player base
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A toggle would show the differences in the old and new Blizzard mindset without removing anything from anyone 
The only reason I don’t buy the courts thing is I doubt the courts are gonna care what’s in the game. And if they wanted to show them they were curbing harassment, they could hire more people to hand down bans to those that serially harass. They could also take the lawsuits more seriously by adhering to other suggestions to fix to some of the other issues listed in the suits. And not destroy evidence and not hire a union busting firm.
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This was already suggested. If the devs don’t want those jokes in the game, they don’t want it for anyone.
They did this to get brownie points after the lawsuit and office stuff.
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Why? Why don’t you buy it? Blizzard is a corporation, the kind of idiots that think putting a rainbow filter on is fighting the good fight or showing a black screen is solidarity. So why would this be any different?
Well presumably that would be opt-in, rather than opt-out, if Blizzard is trying to curate the “default experience” of the game to be less toxic. You don’t have to turn PvP off to not engage in PvP, you have to turn PvP on to engage in it, etc.
Yes, it would have been better. It would have given players agency and allowed for consent. . . but it would also involve effort. So, we just get fewer jokes and flirts and never any new ones to replace them. I mean, this is still Blizzard.
Because I feel like this is just lipstick on a pig. I don’t think they really feel like this will get them out of hot water. They’ve said they are fighting this. So instead they are letting their lawyers handle all of that. I think this was an empty gesture to do the bare minimum to make workers feel more comfortable so they don’t walk out. It’s not exactly lawsuit related. It’s part of the union busting effort.
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I’d be fine with this.
The problem with removing the firts and emotes, IMO, is less about them being removed (although thats stupid) and more about it being a blatant attempt to distract from the real problem that is their toxic anti woman workspace.
Blizz has already been caught shredding documents to protect the abusers, they didnt fix things until they got caught, and have shown no good faith efforts that they get it and they’re dedicated to fixing it. Instead they remove harmless flirty jokes and emotes that were never the problem in the first place. By defenition anything funny is going to walk the line of risque or inapproriate. Otherwise it wouldnt be funny! These jokes are fine. Creating a toxic work environment for their female employees isnt.
But apparently that wouldn’t help the devs’ feelings when they’re at work playing the game. /s
To me this looks more like shredding evidence, but I’m no lawyer.