California’s Department of Fair Housing and Employment has sued Activision Blizzard for willful, malicious, and intentional propagation of discrimination and harassment at the global video game publisher.

As the company seeks to react to the news and control the messaging around it…they elect to take a number of different approaches.

Do they feel your pain? Is everything fine? Are they the victims of a witch hunt? And even if any or all of those things were true, is their messaging convincing to their own people?

Activision has a lot to talk about…in Virtual Legality.

#California #Activision #Lawsuit

***
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PATREON – https://www.patreon.com/VirtualLegality
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***
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
02:11 Activision’s Initial Response (People’s Republic of California)
09:24 Presidential Responses (I Feel Your Pain)
18:51 Activision Doubles Down (This is Fine)
30:51 Losing Your Employees
33:33 “Shocked” Ex Leaders
38:33 Conclusion

***
Discussed in this episode:

“California vs Activision Blizzard: A Legal Look at the Lawsuit (VL513)”
YouTube Video – July 22, 2021 – Hoeg Law
https://youtu.be/GMHRl5pd-Y4

DFEH (California) vs Activision Blizzard et al
Filed July 20, 2021
https://aboutblaw.com/YJw

“Activision Blizzard Sued by California Over Allegations of ‘Frat Boy Culture’ And Sexual Harassment”
IGN – July 21, 2021
https://www.ign.com/articles/activision-blizzard-sued-by-california

“Activision Blizzard executives can’t decide whether allegations of abuse are ‘disturbing’ or ‘meritless'”
PC Gamer – July 23, 2021
https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-blizzard-executives-cant-decide-whether-allegations-of-abuse-are-disturbing-or-meritless/

“Blizzard president J. Allen Brack sent out an email to staff last night…”
Tweet – July 23, 2021 – Jason Schreier
https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1418512291218264065

“Activision president Rob Kostich emailed employees yesterday…”
Tweet – July 23, 2021 – Nicole Carpenter
https://twitter.com/sweetpotatoes/status/1418574814101614594

“Activision Blizzard executive Fran Townsend…”
Tweet – July 23, 2021 – Jason Schreier
https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1418619091515068421

“Activision Blizzard employees denounce corporate statements: ‘We are here, angry, and not so easily silenced'”
PC Gamer – July 23, 2021
https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-blizzard-employees-denounce-corporate-statements-we-are-here-angry-and-not-so-easily-silenced/

“Bungie is built on empowering our people no matter who they are…”
Twitter Thread – July 22, 2021 – Bungie
https://twitter.com/Bungie/status/1418317048380149762

“My Thoughts”
Mike Morhaime – July 24, 2021
https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srp1ie

“This is later than it should have been…”
Tweet – July 24, 2021 – Chris Metzen
https://twitter.com/ChrisMetzen/status/1419076394546470913

***
“Virtual Legality” is a continuing series discussing the law, video games, software, and everything digital, hosted by Richard Hoeg, of the Hoeg Law Business Law Firm (Hoeg Law).

CHECK OUT THE REST OF VIRTUAL LEGALITY HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1zDCgJzZUy9YAU61GoW-00K0TJOGnPCo

DISCUSSION IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS LEGAL ADVICE. INDIVIDUALS INTERESTED IN THE LEGAL TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS VIDEO SHOULD CONSULT WITH THEIR OWN COUNSEL.

***
Twitter: @hoeglaw
Web: hoeglaw.com

***
DESIGN WORK
Joe Ellis (Logo Design)
Chris Leroux (Motion Graphics)
For more information: contact Chris at @Chrisleroux on Twitter.

PODCAST VERSIONS ALSO AVAILABLE

We apologize, the walkout was on the 28th, not the 24th. Thank you for watching.

Our sources:
Activision/Blizzard Sued by California
https://tinyurl.com/tsf2pxwb

2000 Employee Signed Letter
https://tinyurl.com/33j4xuss

Employees Petition Article
https://tinyurl.com/fcys6k2k

Mike Morhaime Response
https://tinyurl.com/ym54d657

Chris Metzen Response
https://tinyurl.com/5fa7ttzj

CEO Bobby Kotick Response
https://tinyurl.com/yu8jvtwm

“Bill Cosby Suite” Article
https://tinyurl.com/ya2jf5wr

Walkout on 7/28/21
https://tinyurl.com/22upfpt6

Blizzard Hires Union-Busting Firm Article
https://tinyurl.com/n9ddbnzr

Charities to Donate
https://blackgirlscode.com/
https://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/
https://girlswhocode.com/
https://rainn.org/
https://womeninanimation.org/
https://getwigi.com/

The Activision Blizzard Misconduct Lawsuit Explained | The Dr. Demonic Show

Recently, there was a massive lawsuit filed against Activision Blizzard by the state of California. Let’s talk about it and events that followed.

—–SOURCES—–
https://aboutblaw.com/YJw
https://www.ign.com/articles/activision-blizzard-sued-by-california
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/22/1019293032/activision-blizzard-lawsuit-unequal-pay-sexual-harassment-video-games
https://kotaku.com/activision-blizzard-sued-by-california-over-widespread-1847339746
https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-blizzard-employees-denounce-corporate-statements-we-are-here-angry-and-not-so-easily-silenced/
https://kotaku.com/ex-blizzard-boss-mike-morhaime-to-women-i-failed-you-1847354746
https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srp1ie
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/07/24/activision-blizzard-employees-are-unhappy-with-the-corporate-response-to-the-harassment-lawsuit/?sh=113f79af16b4
https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1418619091515068421
https://www.forbes.com/sites/avivahwittenbergcox/2020/08/28/gaming-industry-please-waitgender-balance-loading/?sh=7060585ed304
https://20-first.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/200825-2020-Global-Gaming-Scorecard-Web.pdf
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Jeremy_Feasel
https://www.activisionblizzard.com/leadership/frances-townsend
https://www.polygon.com/22595703/activision-blizzard-employee-protest-walk-out-lawsuit
https://www.polygon.com/22594765/activision-blizzard-open-letter-harassment-lawsuit
https://www.polygon.com/22594406/activision-blizzard-lawsuit-sexual-harassment-discrimination-chris-metzen-mike-morhaime-apology
https://investor.activision.com/node/34326/pdf
https://twitter.com/Megan_Nicolett/status/1420410776666443778
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/28/1021828155/activision-blizzard-workers-are-walking-out-after-the-studios-sexual-harassment-
https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/28/22598508/activision-blizzard-cosby-suite-sexual-harrassment-allegations
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1508273/jeffrey-epsteins-little-black-book-redacted.pdf (p31)

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Why are you still reading this?… you think I’m gonna leave something interesting down here? Well you’re wrong. Now go outside and read a book or something.

There have been all manner of reactions to the recent lawsuit filed by the state of California against Activision Blizzard for the alleged discrimination and harassment of women. The general public is shocked and horrified by the details of the filing, but Activision Blizzard executives are holding the line, blasting the investigators for a “distorted” and “rushed” lawsuit, and extolling the inclusionary policies they say they’ve adopted at the company. This, in turn, is infuriating many past and present employees there, who are speaking out publicly and privately about both the allegations and the corporate response. But there’s also a different category of response, the corporate bosses that are no longer with Blizzard, but are former icons of the company, and in charge when much of this was going on. They are not with the company now, so able to speak more freely, and as such, they are actively issuing apologies. Two of the most high profile instances of this are from Chris Metzen, intimately involved in creating Blizzard’s iconic Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo franchises, and Mike Morhaime, the co-founder and former president of Blizzard who left in 2018. Metzen and Morhaime both have their own studios now, Warchief and Dreamhaven respectively. Both issued apologies on Twitter this week which struck similar tones. Here’s Metzen:“We failed, and I’m sorry. To all of you at Blizzard – those of you I know and those of you whom I’ve never met – I offer you my very deepest apologies for the part I played in a culture that fostered harassment, inequality and indifference.”“I realize that these are just words, but I wanted to acknowledge the women who had awful experiences. I hear you, I believe you, and I am so sorry to have let you down. I want to hear your stories, if you are willing to share them. As a leader in our industry, I can and will use my influence to help drive positive change and to combat misogyny, discrimination, and harassment wherever I can.”Reaction to these apologies have been…mixed. While many, including former or current Blizzard employees, appreciate the sentiment which goes well beyond what current Activision Blizzard leadership is saying, there’s an ongoing question of how much each man knew about the culture at the company, and what they ignored or were genuinely unaware of at the time. It’s not clear what role each might have to play in California’s lawsuit, as it stands to reason they could be called to appear to talk about their time there, as the scope of the investigation certainly covers their tenures. The difference between Morhaime and Metzen’s tone compared to current president J. Allen Brack and CCO Fran Townsend is because current leadership there essentially will not apologize for what happened, given that it would effectively be an admission of guilt.

All data is taken from the source: http://forbes.com
Article Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/07/25/chris-metzen-and-mike-morhaime-apologize-in-the-wake-of-activision-blizzard-allegations/

#blizzard #newscnn #cnnnewstoday #newstodayheadlines #newstoday #newsworldbbc #