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Esports Information UK editor Dom Sacco pens some ideas from the center following the information that the California Division of Honest Employment and Housing is taking Activision Blizzard to courtroom over sexual harassment and its therapy of girls within the office (content material warning: sexual harassment, grownup content material and suicide).
“This IP will carry his stain on it. Every thing within the present lore and setting derives from Alex. Every thing is tainted.”
I’m studying by way of the WoW boards, by way of tweets, by way of weblog posts and information tales following the information this morning. I don’t know what I’m in search of – I’m attempting to digest this terrible story I suppose.
I seek for Alex Afrasiabi on Google, I bump into this specific discussion board thread about him departing Activision Blizzard instantly, quietly, this time final 12 months.
Others have carried out the identical as me. Just a few new posts on the backside of the thread by Warcraft gamers say what I’m considering.
“So that they undoubtedly knew what was up. Tried to clean it away. Wow.“
One other says: “Every thing within the present lore and setting derives from Alex. Every thing is tainted.”
Alex was a quest designer for WoW earlier than turning into inventive director for the Warlords of Draenor and Battle for Azeroth expansions. He has NPCs named after him, like Area Marshal Afrasiabi, and gadgets, comparable to Fras Siabi’s Cigar Cutter axe. He designed the legendary Thunderfury questline.
When you step foot in Azeroth it’s nearly unimaginable to disregard his affect.
Alex was additionally one of many harassers named within the lawsuit.
Stephanie Krutsick, one of many victims of harassment who was beforehand working at Activision Blizzard, wrote an important Twitter thread about her expertise.
She stated: “Most of my coworkers have been great, proficient individuals who cared about high quality video games. And a few weren’t. The issue was the dearth of accountability.”
Within the lawsuit, it’s alleged that J. Allen Brack, president of Blizzard Leisure, had a number of conversations with Alex Afrasiabi about his behaviour in the direction of feminine workers at firm occasions, “however gave Afrasiabi a slap on the wrist (i.e verbal counselling) in response to those incidents”.
“Subsequently, Afrasiabi continued to make undesirable advances in the direction of feminine workers, together with grabbing a feminine worker’s hand and alluring her to his lodge room and groping one other girls.”
That is clearly not okay. Stephanie is true – we don’t have sufficient accountability on this trade.
So sure. WoW is tainted. It’s arguably been tainted for some time now following Activision Blizzard’s different despicable actions – the poor pay situations that noticed some staff skipping lunch as a result of they couldn’t afford it, the CEO’s absurd bonuses, the large job layoffs, the sudden culling of the HotS esports scene, the checklist goes on – and now at present’s information.
I stupidly booted it up once more final evening earlier than the information broke, and logged right into a lifeless Basic WoW server. I don’t even know why. Nostalgia in all probability. Right now I’ve cancelled my subscription once more – that was in all probability the stupidest manner I’ve thrown away £10.
WoW for me was some of the magical recreation experiences after I performed it religiously as a scholar again in 2005-2007. And I’ve performed it on and off over time. However I’m unsure I can play it once more.
The sport simply jogs my memory of the behaviour of Activision Blizzard. And this downside is after all not unique to them. Ubisoft, Riot Video games and others have been accused of comparable behaviour, with these publishers producing the likes of Rainbow Six Siege and League of Legends respectively.
As a journalist I nonetheless have to cowl the esports developments in these video games (it’s been a wrestle masking the Sanctum of Domination Race to World First after this story broke), however I don’t neglect the actions of the publishers, I don’t neglect wrongdoing, and I’ll proceed to deal with it. I hope you do the identical.
So let Warcraft act as a reminder of Blizzard’s actions. Let it put you off taking part in it. Let it remind future recreation builders and others on this trade that there isn’t any place for sexual harassment. Let it immediate publishers to alter their office practices and produce better accountability sooner or later. That’s the least their victims deserve.
Additional studying: 5 tweets from the UK gaming group
Content material warning: Sexual harassment, grownup content material and suicide
Additional studying: Discovering the braveness to talk out about harassment in esports
Dom is an award-winning author who graduated from Bournemouth College with a 2:1 diploma in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
A eager League of Legends and World of Warcraft participant, he has written for a variety of publications together with GamesTM, Nintendo Official Journal, trade publication MCV in addition to Riot Video games and others. He labored as head of content material for the British Esports Affiliation up till February 2021, when he stepped again to work full-time on Esports Information UK and as an esports advisor serving to manufacturers and companies higher perceive the trade.
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