Cold Suit

I would have shrugged off this story before revelations came up. When it comes to sexual allegations, I have a hard time wondering if people are telling the truth. There's no defending Blizzard for this. It has reached Bloomberg, The New York Times, many other news organizations and websites. Stunned to know that this was a couple of years in the making in California suing them for the way they treated employees. Plenty of bad things that you would think was unimaginable.

The company has been accused of being a "frat boy culture." One of the big stories was one of their female employees committing suicide after harassment and a trip when a guy brought butt plugs and lube. Rather heinous. Stories of guys goofing off while women were doing their work. That one sounds like something from a different period of time. Offensive jokes and I would have to guess many other inappropriate things were to have been said. I wouldn't think it's all the guys working at Blizzard, but the ones creating the toxicity might have sunk this company.

If this is two years in the making for California, there has to be much more stuff that went down at Blizzard beyond that period. People that got screwed over. More than just the women. Burnt bridges, regardless of who was in charge. I believe the head of the company made a response about not being aware of it and that caused more ire. So much that many current and former employees signed their names to a statement, blasting the head's thoughts. One of the results was a walkout.

There's a lot that probably will get brought up at some point. This is following a trend of controversies involving gaming. You got the Super Smash Bros. fandom from last year with their tournaments. EVO from last year. Stories of Ubisoft and one of their studios. This can happen to either gender, but the death threats towards several actresses that were in The Last of Us Part II. It has evolved a lot more from what was seen way back in the 80s. There is still that stereotype of being a bit exclusive to guys, but I'd have to imagine there is a decent amount of women playing that you wouldn't have seen 40 years ago.

This is a burn it to the ground and rebuild thing. Blizzard stands to lose a lot in reception and commercial profit. The only thing you can do is boycott if you want to stick it to them. Your choice. But this will take a long time to repair their image. I'm not a legal expert, but I anticipate heavy damages.