We remember what preceded the grandiose scandal.
In our turbulent times, few news manages to shock and amaze, however news that the corporation Activision Blizzard acts as a defendant in a high-profile trial, it succeeded. For decades, both the senior company and its subdivisions year after year earned billionsowning the largest, legendary franchises: Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, Candy crush, eventually. Thousands of people worked in its offices, many of whom the community knew not only by name, but also by sight, and bright annual festivals BlizzCon contributed to their popularity.
Now work on Overwatch and World of warcraft actually stopped, WoW audience conducts sit-ins in Oribos, former studio employees, under the guise of an apology, confirm with might and main that the kingdom has long been rotten from the inside, but still operating issue ultimatums leadership. What happened to a company that was once unsinkable? Are the current cataclysms sudden? Let’s try to delve into history to understand exactly when Activision Blizzard began to lose public respect.
You can be sure that a great many people on Earth are familiar with the projects of Activision Blizzard, or at least have heard about them
Women don’t belong here
Let’s start with the main thing – the recent lawsuit. The California Department of Fair Housing and Housing conducted an investigation for two years, collecting evidence and evidence, and finally formed a solid package of charges. As it turns out, Activision Blizzard has for a long time had a culture of “student brotherhood” – well, when white guys consider themselves better than others because of their involvement in a particular community. And the “bros” from Activision Blizzard demonstrated their superiority on everyone who came across their arm, – most often, on the studio employees. Moreover, the lawlessness occurred almost with the tacit consent of management at all levels: the fact that women were less likely to receive promotions, they were paid less for the same job than men, and were much more willing to be fired for any mistake, fit into the company’s policy.
The daily lives of employees were poisoned by their colleagues, who played video games during working hours, leaving boring duties to neighbors, or strolling between booths with drinks in their hands, joking about sex and rape. Women of color had a particularly hard time, but management did not accept their formal complaints, instead resorting to repression: victims were removed from work on the project, transferred to other departments, or simply laid off.
In the photo, Alex Afrasiabi, Dave Kosak, Greg Street, Jesse McCree, Corey Stockton, Jonathan LeCraft, Josh Mosqueira and Paul Cazares happily pose with a portrait of Bill Cosby, convicted of mass rape.
Blizzard has denied women pay increases on the pretext that they might get pregnant. They were reprimanded for rushing to pick up the child from kindergarten. They were kicked out of the breastfeeding rooms to hold business meetings there. During corporate events, they were treated like pieces of meat: tellthat one of the employees committed suicide after her nude photos from one of the parties went around the company. This is not to mention the sexual harassment, in which the leaders were especially zealous – calledin particular the name of Alex Afrasiabi, former World of Warcraft Senior Creative Director.
However, for the people, the company tried to maintain the most radiant image. Blizzard has over thirty offices around the world, but the public has always had available primarily an exemplary headquarters in California, Irvine. This is a real town or at least a campus: several impressive buildings with gyms, canteens and cafes for every taste, slot machines and video game rooms, a swimming pool, sauna, bathhouse, its own museum and even a cinema. And on the territory there is a beach volleyball court, football and golf courses, an outdoor gym and an extensive park area where employees take their pets: They are allowed and even recommended to be brought with you to work to relieve stress. In general, everything looks so good that any fan of the company’s games would agree to work there (and generally live) just for food.
The tourist area of the Blizzard office is not accidentally furnished in such a way that any geek would want to settle here.
As practice has shown, it is really possible to work in this way, but not for long. In 2019 It revealedthat many Blizzard employees are unhappy with their salaries, which barely cover the cost of living, and the promised increase did not correct the situation: in most cases it did not even reach 10%. It is important to bear in mind here that life in California is more expensive than in many other states, and the amount that someone from Russia may seem like a fortune, in practice, is often entirely spent on household expenses. True, employees are given alternative bonuses: free play time in Blizzard projects, virtual money in Battle.net, game keys and special honor points that can be spent in the company’s store. But what about those who don’t play World of Warcraft? Alas, one can not count on any other compensation.
Rumors that things were not very smooth inside the company several years ago were supplemented by stories of layoffs. Let’s recall the most massive one: in 2019, they lost their jobs about 800 people, mainly those who were involved in esports and public relations. And soon after that Blizzard announced about recruiting community managers for Hearthstone instead of the loose ones. The corporation’s decision was criticized on Twitter by Kristina Mikkonen, a former employee of the studio – after a while her husband, Janne “Savjz” Mikkonen from Team Liquid, statedthat in revenge he was not allowed to participate in Hearthstone tournaments for a long time.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of Blizzard headquarters
And a little earlier, around 2016, Blizzard began to lose key employees who, in the eyes of a significant part of the public, were the face of the company. The first high-profile event was the departure of Chris Metzen, one of the creators of Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft, whose voice was spoken by Thrall. By itself, this fact does not mean anything, especially since Metzen really burned out so badly at work that he only recently decided to return to creating games – now desktop… And in 2018, co-founder and president of the company, Michael Morheim, gave way to Jay Allen Brack; Morheim was followed by another Blizzard co-founder, Frank Pearce. More recently, Jeff Kaplan has also left the team, in fact the personification of Overwatch. And these are only the loudest, irreplaceable losses: how many professionals have gone during this time, whose faces and names we do not know? It is clear that layoffs, transfers and the opening of their own studios are quite common events in the gaming industry. But when people who have devoted a huge part of their lives to the team leave one after another, it is difficult to write off this as a routine.
Outside and inside politics
In 2019, the outskirts of the Anaheim Convention Center were covered with umbrellas, helmets, impromptu barricades and handwritten banners waving by people in May and Winnie the Pooh suits. Thus, the players, dissatisfied with the position of the company, greeted the opening of the BlizzCon festival: they did not like how the studio reacted to the incident with Ng “blitzchung” Wai Chung. In an interview after the end of the Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament, the Hong Kong esportsman shouted “Freedom to Hong Kong!”, After which the stream ended abruptly, and the troubles had just begun. The player was stripped of all prize money (about three thousand dollars) and suspended from any official Hearthstone competitions for a year. And the commentators who took the scandalous interview were fired altogether.
The scandal fell on the peak of protests and demonstrations for the freedom of Hong Kong. After Jay Allen Brack from the stage of the convention admitted that the leadership was wrong and apologized for the “hasty decision”, the wave of popular discontent began to subside, but the damage was already done. We analyzed in detailfor what reasons Blizzard made this ill-fated decision. For now, we will only note that, despite Wai Chung’s controversial actions, the studio could well have done with an official warning or reprimand. By going to extreme measures instead, the company only exposed its vulnerability. She showed the whole world that she is panicky afraid of financial losses and at the slightest threat acts reflexively, not having time to calculate the consequences. There are certain parallels here with what happened to Christina Mikkonen’s husband: the punishing sword fell where it could reach, just to quickly find the culprit and demonstrate the power of the corporation.
Money is money, rubbish
In fairness, the average consumer began to ask questions about the course of development of Blizzard and without any political scandals: just look at what she once earned her brilliant reputation – games. In 2013, Activision, which has been associated with Blizzard since 2008, bought back the company’s remaining shares from Vivendi, with the result that the creators of Warcraft completely moved under a new roof. This moment can be considered the end of the era of single-player games, whose legacy still feeds the studio’s projects. Since then, Blizzard Entertainment’s main commodity has been game-based services that generate more stable profits, a cutting-edge phenomenon at the time, barely out of the marketing offices. The policy change resulted in the cancellation of the second supplement to Diablo iii, termination of support Starcraft 2, who ruined all hopes for the third part, and the closure of the project Ares, which was called “Battlefield in the StarCraft universe. ” Even the incredibly popular Overwatch is built on the bones of the project. Titanwhich once promised to be a brand new IP in the company’s portfolio.
Heroes of the storm – one of the games that was sacrificed on the way to a brighter future
Yes, by themselves, these cancellations still do not confirm anything: by according to Morheim, only half of Blizzard’s projects make it to release. But what did we get in return? At BlizzCon 2018, Developers Hinted At A Sensational Diablo Announcement – Series Fans Hoped That It Will Be Diablo 4… Unfortunately, instead of her, Blizzard announced with incredible pathos Diablo immortal – a role-playing action movie with online elements for iOS and Android, which in addition was created by the forces of the Chinese NetEase… And it’s not even about the quality of the game, which did not cause any complaints: the surprise was, to put it mildly, not what the fans were expecting. In addition, the older contingent of players still remembered a similar situation with the “new part” Command & Conquer, which also turned out to be a mobile game.
In the same year, fans of the classics were pleased with the announcement Warcraft III: Reforged… A remake of one of the best games of the same good old Blizzard could restore the company’s tarnished reputation in one fell swoop, but in reality everything turned out quite differently: the release of Reforged was known as one of the biggest failures in the industry. The original eighteen years ago was superior in almost every respect to its own updated version. Cause of failure are called not only disgusting management, but also meager funding: Activision began to tighten their belts tighter, and the single-player strategy certainly would not have brought impressive profits. So they did it rather on a leftover principle, and even then they did not finish it to the end: all promises to improve, fix, bring to mind and fix are still promises. Meanwhile, on the horizon already looms Diablo II: Resurrected, whose fate also does not inspire optimism.
The pretentious announcement of a mobile game was one of the first reasons to think: does Blizzard even understand who it is working for?
And since we’re talking about failures, how can you not remember World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor? The very first addition to the famous MMO, released after the merger with Activision, turned out to be so unfinished that it was not even repaired: the team simply left the players to figure out what happened on their own for several years. The credibility got better with the release of Legion: the next addon really came out great, and its development did not disappoint fans. However, later it became clear that Blizzard is clearly going to put a successful formula into circulation: two additions in a row have been created in the image and likeness of the “Legion”, but even on them the developers managed to save money. Shadowlands, under the pretext of novelty, brings to light long-forgotten names and events, and new scenario moves raise too many questions. The death of the main boss of Battle for Azeroth and one of the main antagonists of the Warcarft universe was not honored with any changes in the world, nor at least a decent movie… And the victory over Sylvanas creates the feeling that the writers themselves have reached a dead end, forgetting that they, in fact, wanted to tell her with a new story.
The story of the Old God N’Zoth was built brick by brick for fifteen years – and destroyed overnight
And, of course, Overwatch 2… The sequel to Blizzard’s most successful project will still not receive a clear release date, which in itself speaks of problems, but that’s not even the point. We still have not received an answer to the main question: why do we need a sequel at all, which in all respects looks more like an addition or a nextgen version of the original? Unsurprisingly, the community of players is increasingly perplexed about whether Blizzard as a whole understands what is expected of her and whether she is listening to her audience.
White Christmas
What’s going on with Blizzard now? Nothing good. The company again, as in the case of Hong Kong, missed the first reaction, either by underestimating the current mood of the community, or by rushing to report to investors that everything was under control. The result is predictable: it was not possible to hush up the scandal, they turned against the studio management from inside and outside. Employees write letters of protest and organize strikes from rallies: someone really wants qualitative changes in domestic politics, and someone, what is already there, hopes that the wind of change will carry him to a better place. It’s hard to revolutionize and work at the same time, so the World of Warcraft team doesn’t even try to pretend it’s okay. It’s easy to assume that roughly the same thing happens with other projects.
Sit-strikes have already taken place on the American servers of World of Warcraft: players buying a subscription decided to voice their dissatisfaction. Chaos is going on on the game’s forums: lore connoisseurs remembered how many items and NPCs are a reference to the same Alex Afrasiabi – and the seemingly innocent Jeff Kaplan, who just once played Everquest with Blizzard’s premier sexual predator. Part of Easter eggs already deleted from the game.
Screenshots from the rally in Oribos
Players, already not particularly eager to conquer the Maw and Torgast, leave the Dark Lands en masse. Many go to competitors: authors Final fantasy xiv had to limit the creation of new characters so that the servers can cope with the influx of newcomers. In particular, Asmongold, one of the most famous streamers of World of Warcraft, moved there some time ago. Then he claimedthat he just took a breather, but current events could seriously affect his future plans. Moreover, even before he left, he had a conflict with Blizzard manager Adam Holiski, who was outraged by his criticism of the company’s policy.
The cancellation flywheel is still spinning at low revs: on the boycott of Activision Blizzard products announced game edition The gamer, geek portal CineLinx and the popular YouTube channel GameXplain, and the famous publishing house Prima Games has suspended work on guides for future Blizzard games. Following Asmongold, streamers Madseason and Preach, as well as the hosts of the podcast Taliesin & Evitel, began their own boycott. It is possible that others will join them, especially if the company’s management continues to make mistakes. It is symbolic that the most “in the spirit of the times” were people who left Blizzard long ago. Mike Morheim, Chris Metzen, Greg Street, Mike Kern and others did not hesitate to declare their outrage, disapproval and withdrawal. It doesn’t matter that the corporate culture does not take shape in a couple of years, and what Blizzard is now accused of probably existed in cozy offices and with them – it just was not considered a crime then.
The name of Bobby Kitty, the permanent leader of Activision, and then Activision Blizzard, has long been a household name.
***
What happens to Blizzard when all the guns go off and all the accusers come forward? Most likely, nothing catastrophic: there are ships that are too large to sink even after meeting a dozen icebergs. Even though Activision Blizzard shares have fallen by a dozen dollars in recent days, their rate has already begun to gradually level out. Surely very soon the administration will adjust the policy and make a repentant appeal, sprinkling ashes on the hottest heads: Bobby Kitty is already assured, что работа над повышением инклюзивности начата, а активисты уже ответили, что этого мало. Пройдут показательные увольнения или понижения, на ближайшей пресс-конференции главные роли отведут новым менеджерам из уязвимых социальных групп, и Twitter отпразднует очередную победу правосудия.
Но мы не зря так подробно вспоминали о всех потерях и провалах. Каждый из них оставил зарубку на душе тех, кто считал Blizzard не просто студией, но дружной семьёй разработчиков, любящих игры и людей, которые в них играют. Сейчас старые шрамы заново вскрываются, иллюзии рассеиваются. Когда Йон Хаззикостас в следующий раз крикнет со сцены BlizzCon: «За Орду! За Азерот!», — сколько человек ему ответит?
