Castle Super Beast Clips: Blizzard On Fire

[@kip_c]

I feel like Pat and Woolie both represent the Id and the Superego of the human brain. It gives the podcast this weird internal monologue energy

[@StellaStarfall]

That’s so on the nose. It’s also a dice roll on a story-by-story basis who’s who

[@just_matt214]

Woolition and Pat-Light

[@bazzjedimaster]

Except the times when they don't agree and the podcast suffers a schizophrenic attack.

[@Kango234]

@@bazzjedimaster I'll never forget the "Do combo" vs "Big number" debate that Indivisible spawned. Not because that isn't a fun concept, but more so because it came up because they both had these weird and arbitrary rules about what makes an RPG and if Indivisible was one. They seemed to have forgotten that Tales games have been action based for decades. They were just going in circles for like an hour. Truth be told that whole thing was more a symptom of people clinging to outdated genre names, but that's a whole different discussion.

[@JayceCH.]

And it reads like some newspaper headlines shit.

[@tylergregoire1763]

Every voice matters, except the ones we don’t like.

[@blueblazer9991]

Fuck Blizzard at any rate, but Every Voice Matters is a naive statement anyway, because many voices contradict each other. Now it's not hard to pick which voices not to listen to and yet somehow Blizzard fucked that up and is listening to all the wrong ones and ignoring all the ones they should listen to

[@Toxic_Korgi]

Except the ones that will testify.

[@FrozenOver0]

Unless those voices are speaking out against China.

[@xsoultillerx]

i'm always overly cynical of any type of PC/SJW/woke/inclusive nonsense because almost everyone i've seen who touts that party line (especially anyone with a level of clout or influence) tends to secretly be either a sex pervert or a piece of shit who was never really genuine about what they preached.

[@mikecampos1193]

Only Bobby and China money matter it explains our time.

[@Rikuo86]

F is for Felonies that they do together U is for Unionize with me N is for Not letting them get away with this shit Down in the Games Industry

[@jaydixon9837]

F is for fondling all of the women U is for consensual. Un. N is for “No one did anything wrong”, Down here in the industry.

[@Zayindjejfj]

@@jaydixon9837 The Un with the U fucking sent me...

[@ApexGale]

you say this but people will eat up overwatch 2 and stop caring because gamers don't care

[@sasaki8765]

As someone who's part of a union, they don't do shit. They'll maybe do something for about a year until the company gets a bunch of plants and yesmen being paid to screw the workers just as bad running it. There's not the checks and balances people seem to think there are in a union. Eventually it's just as corrupt, and will not do anything for the workers. The only people the Union helps are the corrupt ones at the top being paid under the table by the company to play nice, and sapping money from all the workers under them in the guise of it funding the union.

[@Americanbadashh]

@@sasaki8765 Your union =/= every union

[@robinmansions2884]

You *know* those top positions are super vital and definitely deserve to be paid all those millions when one of them can quit and no one notices for 3+ months...

[@masterxl97]

Things with Blizzard have straight-up devolved into an Animal Farm Scenario: Rule #1: -All voices matter,- but some voices matter more than others.

[@Agent789_0]

And Big Bobby’s voice matters most of all.

[@Mr.Faust3]

Bobby sneaking out at night in a trench coat and cartoony mustache to vaguely change the rules

[@happymate8943]

And the important voices is the money from China

[@zgSH4DOW]

Not with the BlitzChung situation, NOW it's bad?

[@bobobsen]

@@happymate8943 scratch the "from China". Money matters, no matter where it comes from

[@Jgt612]

So it’s Schrödinger's Assault then? It simultaneously happened and they’re very sorry but it also didn’t happen so they’re not? You can’t use thought experiments as legal defence ActiBlizz that’s why you’re in a lawsuit. This is day one stuff, or day 1/-1 to use a term you’re familiar with.

[@jcrosenkreuz5213]

"I never borrowed your pan, and if I returned it to you it wasn't broken and if it was you lent it to me that way."

[@jcrosenkreuz5213]

Alternatively, as ActiBlizz's new masters would say: "We aren't interring people in camps and if we are they're being treated nicely and if not they deserved it"

[@adams3627]

Yeah so it turns out that all the people who said "there's nothing weird going on at Blizzard, people are quitting games all over the industry" were totally talking out of their ass, huh?

[@Mr.Faust3]

When someone says “nothing weird’s going on” something weird is going on it’s even worse the more people say something like that

[@TheJamacaneseNerd04231996]

@@Mr.Faust3 there is not a single statement in human history that has drawn more suspicion than: Nothing weird is going on here.

[@Mr.Faust3]

@@TheJamacaneseNerd04231996 every lie has some truth to it, everytime I hear a company like blizzard say anything I have doubts

[@oracle_8947]

"There is no war in Ba Sing Se."

[@Mr.Faust3]

@@oracle_8947 “here we are safe”

[@SapphicFurry]

out of desperation for art jobs, I applied for a Blizzard storyboard position like a week before all this came out. Needless to say, if they actually call me back I ain't fucking taking it.

[@rudeboyspodcast]

Keep your chin up, I hope you find people who appreciate your talents and get some good work in the future!

[@Celestialbeing21]

You should start a Patreon and maybe try developing short visual novels. It will be rough but if you can get a customer/fan base going and you set and meet your expectations, you can do decently well. It's not for everybody, but think about it.

[@mikecampos1193]

Do find something with your skills fam.

[@SapphicFurry]

Wasn’t expecting the words of encouragement but thanks everyone! Animation jobs just tend to be “right place, right time” if you don’t already have a lot of connections/experience, unfortunately. Even harder when you don’t want to move to Cali. I’m still trying tho and slowly working on my own projects (this is a side account btw), so hopefully I’ll get past a 2nd interview sooner rather than later lol

[@Timey254]

Believe in the 3 Bs, guys! The future of the gaming industry! BioWare, Bethesda and Blizzard!

[@DeadMau5Bran]

Bungie: 😢

[@TheFoxClaws]

The laughter of all 4 of them just completes that clip. Even better is that they make sure to ask what year Liam heard it

[@Rio..o7..]

goddamn...

[@Toxic_Korgi]

So far nothing like this has come out about Bethesda, but I'm still on the theory that Todd Howard is a lich.

[@MrStath1986]

@@Toxic_Korgi I mean, let's be honest, it's going to be like the guys suggested - this will be happening at most companies with the severity relative to company size.

[@JJMomoida]

I graduated from med school a few months back. Currently applying to the 2022 cycle and... whenever I hear stories like these, I can't help but think of like... 13-year-old me wanting to make video games. What a shit fucking industry. Dodged a bullet.

[@vistea1]

Same. Wanted to be a video game designer growing up, but besides my inept skills at coding and math, the toxic culture of the gaming industry left me bitter and cynical.

[@TheCvl25]

Congrats on graduating!

[@adams3627]

Congrats. Now you get to save lives, instead of ruining your own.

[@leithaziz2716]

Well, congrats anyway on the graduation. I'm studying in (im not sure about the ENG equivalent of this as a non-native ENG speaker) Engineering, but I doubt I'll work in the game industry if this is how my work enviroment will be made up of.

[@ATMOSK1234]

That's the real issue, how much talented people are turned off by this? How much lost productivity is incurred by this juvenile behavior? Frat boy work culture is simply bad for buisness.

[@woobaloo3956]

Honestly the saddest part of these types of cases is even when the offending company loses and the court finds them guilty, usually the sentencing is just that they pay some number of dollars in fines and compensation, which to a NORMAL person would be devastating, but to giant companies like this its just a drop in the bucket and the machine just keeps grinding away and they make back the fine in less than a week.

[@ShermTank7272]

Way back when, they would've gotten away with it scot free, so it's not much but it's better than nothing. One can only hope that eventually their accountability will scale to their size. Hey, if "corporations are people" after all, maybe one day they'll also be forced to serve jail time?

[@DR3ADER1]

@@ShermTank7272 Nope, because as the comedy of errors that was the "Blizzard Protests" proves that those who claimed to be the "most affected" by these allegations (fun fact: there's no evidence of a woman's suicide being reported in the lolsuit, in the United States, there's always a record for missing people AND most, if not all police reports are open to the public, making the omission of the alleged victim's name very strange and suspicious to anyone with a pair of eyes and half a brain cell) are also the most tribal, anti-consumer and pathetically sanctimonious losers you can ever conceive AND is more proof that you CAN'T hold others accountable when YOU DON'T HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE(which also proves what my main man OG homie, Benny Franklin was trying to teach people in the first place). Furthermore, consider that this is California we're dealing with. The same state that allowed one of their finest human rights lawyers in the State's Legal Bar, Tom Girardi to embezzle money from his clients for over 30 years. Additionally, the fact that Acti-Blizz's HR department are alleged to have destroyed most of the alleged evidence is proof enough that the fine for destroying evidence is lower than the settlement fee.

[@ThatWolfArrow]

Corporate personhood was a mistake

[@paytonkilmer1920]

@@ThatWolfArrow I’ll believe corporations are people when the state of Texas legally executes one.

[@Noxshade]

NBA Jam announcer: They're on fire! Me: Let them burn.

[@falsehero2001]

T O A S T Y !

[@god47398]

ive literally never been so happy to see a company in flames, i love warcraft but i hope warcraft 4 never comes out, i hate overwatch and hope overwatch 2 never comes out, i like hearthstone but i hope i never hear about it ever again. fuck blizzard, fuck activision and fuck blizzard activision.

[@antthefool7637]

LET IT ALL BURN

[@francescolombardi3438]

at this point, Hell has no idea on what the weather should be

[@atdrawn]

Very good quote. You wrote it yourself or from somewhere else?

[@francescolombardi3438]

@@atdrawn meself. although, it's kinda hard to be original so late in the "game", so to speak

[@nahuel3433]

I think hell is in an a good mood for a blizzard. Although given the info of these allegations hell might be tired of the blizzards by now.

[@atdrawn]

@@francescolombardi3438well you still should be proud for it. It's an apt quote for the how continuously depressing the fuckmess of corpo giants is.

[@LtSprinkulz]

Who could've seen it coming. One of the biggest giants in gaming history thought they were invincible and could get away with anything? Oh there were gropey frat scumbags in the workplace? Wow it's almost like they never came out of the 90s and have no idea what modern trends are, from gaming, to office culture, to legal tactics! _Shocker._ Edit: Please tell me the "don't you guys have phones?" Person was caught up in this.

[@Dunkin0nut]

That was the beginning of the end. How many loot boxes did Pat open for Overwatch?

[@SuperInsanewolf]

i don't think Wyatt Cheng is wrapped up in this whole thing, so far.

[@TheMilhouseExperience]

Even in the 90’s, these people would get punched out. Something current day trends frown upon. Everybody is polite when they know there’s danger that can happen if you don’t act appropriately.

[@aganaom1712]

It's like watching wolf of wall street in real time. And here I thought I wouldn't see a sequel get made

[@buckmoonmedia5113]

It's an on-going series, the likes of "Hannibal" or "Fargo," at this point

[@burnout02urza]

Remember when Activision / Blizzard was complaining about Gamergate? Turns out sex predators like to blend in with their prey.

[@gamma00crucis]

The streak continues lol

[@solomon9655]

32:30 The thing about Blizzard hiring fanatics is 100% real and I witnessed it firsthand a few years ago when I was going to art college. There were Blizzard reps checking out portfolios and I figured I’d check it out (not a blizzard fan, but I figured I’d give it a go). I went in to a meeting with a Blizzard art director with 2 other people. First of all, he didn’t even bother looking at our work. He didn’t give a sh*t. I don’t remember what set him off, but he started talking about his hiring process. He said he browses ArtStation and looks for Blizzard-style art, sometimes he even hires people through this process. He went into some detail on how they look for FANART to scout talent especially. I could write an essay for why this is WEIRD. Blizzard bleeds their talent and resorts to hiring dedicated copy cats. There’s a pretty big difference between training able artists through art direction and collecting fanart generators. Some of them are talented, sure, but it’s an unsustainable cannibalistic process. When the veteran talents left, Blizzard was left with little more than fans operating the boat, and the few competent employees are tortured by the rest. My heart goes out to everyone affected by this horrible Blizzard stuff. Immediately after my uneventful meeting with the Blizzard guy a lot of the modern Blizzard drama was hitting its peak, which was fascinating to witness within an art school setting to say the least.

[@mikecampos1193]

Just don't be a calart or Tumblr artist man learn new art love hentai hate censorship love manga and most importantly don't be woke.

[@trustytrest]

@@mikecampos1193 ok weeb

[@NegaRenGenX2gay2lift]

@@mikecampos1193 you need to touch grass

[@Atzros]

The first time I heard of this, the story referred to the 'sex toys' as 'buttplug and lubrication', while the mention of post-mortem photo sharing was also mentioned. I guess articles have sort of toned down this to either protect the dignity of the deceased, or because they were factually incorrect?, but it really did paint a horrific picture of what was going on.

[@roetheboat1]

I think that there were a lot of various bits of information flying around that made it difficult to parse what was a literal action or a metaphorical one (ie was "Cube Crawling" literally them crawling or more like "Pub Crawls"). Additionally, the lawsuit being done by the DFEH (Department of Fair Employment and Housing) was a "civil lawsuit" and not a criminal one. The report described her having a "physical relationship" with her supervisor. From what I read, she had been the victim of bullying and abuse by people at the company for quite a while. This involved pictures of her genitals being shared around at a company Christmas party (which happened before she committed suicide). At an official company event later on, this employee committed suicide at the hotel she was staying at. As a result of this suicide the police were called, and in the course of their investigation discovered that her supervisor had brought various sex toys that included lube and butt plugs.

[@FullCircleTZ]

I swear Pat was like 1mm away from just saying "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" by the end of this segment.

[@rankestdweller4239]

You predicted the future looking at their most recent podcast when they brought this subject up again.

[@God_gundam36]

@@rankestdweller4239 I'm gald most people are actually starting to realise how bullshit modern working conditions are

[@Necrikus]

Man, I had to stop buying/playing anything from Activision-Blizzard when the whole Hong Kong thing happened. So now I can't actually do much of anything to protest this whole debacle.

[@jordanetherington1922]

You can spread messages of support for the workers trying to unionize

[@chadrageus]

I stopped when they made diablo 3 always online for reasons. Fuck blizzard.

[@Roronoa2zoro]

You can keep sticking to your guns. As more people abandon ActiBlizz their business is bound to suffer in the long run. "Number go down" is ultimately the only thing that will change anything.

[@MisterVeeg]

they have to invent *new* negative numbers for how unsurprising this is.

[@kronos1794]

In my experience, the people at the top and those who want to be on top are the people who shouldn't have access to power. The most qualified and capable tend to avoid those positions because they're smart enough to recognize what those positions take.

[@platypuspracticus2]

16:34 that initial messaging period is important to pay attention to because it's the one where they may not all have their gameplay in place and you may actually find an accidentally honest response.

[@Cen21000]

I haven't been able to ethically play blizzard games since the Blitzchung thing when he said free Hong Kong. Btw, #FreeHongKong

[@Spootnik]

Honestly, there is an extremely few game companies you can "ethically" buy from. The vast, vast majority of companies have gross or shady things happening in the background since that's the tried and true way to make the most profits. I wouldn't worry about it too much considering you need to support anti-human corporations like Amazon or Walmart to survive in this day and age, so it's impossible to be entirely guilt free as a consumer. They should still be called out still, but you will starve to death if you avoid all ethically bad companies. Life's too short and boycotts don't work, so just enjoy yourself until another form of attack or reproach is possible, assuming it ever is.

[@Cen21000]

@@Spootnik I've never bought necessities from Amazon, so yes I can live life without giving them money, and theres a local grocery store I go to that has better prices and selection than walmart, so yes, yes you can live life without giving money to big box, international chains, you're just weakwilled.

[@gamma00crucis]

@@Spootnik ok no in what world do you NEED amazon or walmart products to survive? i get what you're saying its not possible to be 100% ethical in all consumption all the time, but does that mean we shouldn't even try? that's defeatist and irrational. if you want to live in your bubble where you are able to justify supporting a shitty company that you could easily and conceivably not support (here its blizz), be my guest. but know that you are lying to yourself. it's more effort to go local/ethical, and it's a process. sometimes its more expensive and not conceivable all the time for everyone. but through trial and error (and the Cool New Invention known as the Internet) you can break off from supporting a whole host of unethical corporations. also, any amount of money spent at a local store is supporting local stores. so that's always a win in my book, even if its not doing anything to "directly harm/attack" unethical companies or whatever.

[@NobleNomad]

White imperialist op is going to white imperialism. Fuck NED, Fuck the State Department and fuck US and Britain who want to take away the democracy of Asian people in Hong Kong so as to maintain neolib austerity and reintroduce psuedo white western rule again that it had prior to 1998.

[@joebin3106]

@@NobleNomad Whatever commie

[@yukaiyami]

I go through podcasts slowly so I’m officially 20-ish episodes behind the most recent one, but hell, I HAD to listen to the latest one just for this segment I knew you guys had to talk about. Man, what a mess. I hope Acti-Blizzard employees unionize (or just quit and let the company die. Both sound swell)

[@exodosthesoulbanish]

They're being sued which is a start. The perpetrators need blacklisting and more.

[@YouCalledForTheDoc]

Acti hired a union busting firm yesterday

[@danielmccoy8440]

Fuck yeah we don't need Cod or WOW. They can be replaced

[@mikecampos1193]

Bobby's going to come out of it unscratch he going to move the company to Texas and everyone who was involved in the lawsuit is going to get fired that's probably the most realistic of the situation.

[@mikecampos1193]

@@YouCalledForTheDoc it means Bobby is going to flatten everyone involved in his lawsuit.

[@TheDeclanRowe]

Back here from the future to let everyone know that the punishment the Bobby Kotick received was getting his Mega company getting acquired by another Mega corporation, receiving a golden parachute, and generally getting everything he wanted.

[@Shadest]

Crazy that almost two years later, they still haven't put out any of those fires

[@nonbinarysunset555]

ive never been a religious person but reading up on this entire situation i never have wanted people to go to hell as much as i do some of these people at blizzard jfc

[@aggronmaster1]

One of the most disgustingly fascinating parts to me is that IF any of this lawsuit and related horrible abusive behavior makes it's way into the general public mainstream than the VAST MAJORITY of people still won't care. I can't say how many times I've had actual conversations that came down to actual people downplaying and COMPLETELY excusing this EXACT behavior because "oh well, that happens everyday. Who cares what companies do."

[@Densoro]

And they say répe culture isn’t a thing…

[@partymantis3421]

So true. Hate when people do that, dismissing horrible behaviour of companies because "it happens all the time" Yeah it does! And thats why we need to call them out for their shitty behaviour every single time

[@RocRolDis]

Ubisoft plus death, plus state lawsuit, plus rumored shareholder lawsuit

[@thelaughingrouge]

The guys that make call of dudebros have a frat house mentality? I'm shocked SHOCKED, well not that shocked. Or was it the blizzard side of the house, the guys that made Overwatch, the game that exists for "fan art" in that case I'm equally "shocked".

[@ZeOHKay]

I'm pretty sure most of the investigation is referring to the Blizzard half of ActiBliz.

[@CappuccinoSquid]

With how much hollow virtue signaling Overwatch does for brownie points, I'm not surprised in the slightest.

[@michaelhegwood9977]

Damn, Blizzard has been on a roll for years with just every controversy out there

[@Mr.Faust3]

There’s a poster in the blizzard offices With “0 days without controversy”

[@BTM8109]

Evidence sounds so damning that this is a slam dunk. Let's see how the industry manages to screw it up.

[@2deep5u]

~It all returns to nothing~

[@boxtank5288]

~It all keeps tumbling down~ ~Tumbling down~ ~Tumbling dooown~

[@vistea1]

~It all returns to nothing~

[@conorgleeson2453]

Instrumentality is looking better every day.

[@MillenniumDays]

'All I want to say is I'm sorry, we are looking to improve. This will never happen again... so we'd like to announce Overwatch 3 and Diablo 5' - Blizzard CEO for 'non-specific issue no. 903'

[@admcleo]

Its nice, after years of having to react playing devils advocate because of twitter accusations with little to no evidence, I get to see a nice official state investigation leading to legal action so I can just reach for the pitchfork like everyone else for a change.

[@steventylertriesit897]

Here's your complimentry torch and juicebox

[@largetea8475]

Assault accusations with actual evidence and legal action taken in current year? Well I guess there's a first time for everything.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

Pass the lighter mines getting dim (OK to be completely fair trials are how guilt is supposed to be decided but in a culture of "said it on Twitter so its true" the standards are a bit low)

[@Ilovevidgames123]

You really never had to play devil's advocate. You chose to do that.

[@admcleo]

@@Ilovevidgames123 I'm pretty sure I had to. But maybe you know how I think better than I do.

[@bradp366]

This is the best thing the California government has done In years.

[@mikecampos1193]

Bobby's going to pay off Gavin Newsom and he's going to walk away just you wait.

[@falsehero2001]

That’s easy to do when the bar is set so low that Satan is tripping over it

[@JozefLucifugeKorzeniowski]

Decades even

[@PropaneWP]

I'd just like to mention something about what Pat says: "there's no such thing as indispensable". Unfortunately, sometimes there is. Well, ideally Pat's right, but realistically speaking, not so much. Because sometimes a company will allow one person so much access and so much responsibility that they're able to rig critical information and infrastructure to their advantage in such a way that they can critically harm an entire corporation, should they want to. There's many ways to do it, unfortunately. Blackmail, backdoors and so forth. And the more shortcuts a corporation takes, the easier it gets. I have seen people gain "immunity" this way, to the point where people have been doing whatever the fuck they want, like openly stealing expensive equipment, being exempt from company rules, etc.

[@grahamcarpenter5135]

So in other words: essentially a perfect parasite digging it's way into the body, taking over the brain, and controlling the entire nervous system to the extent that the host body is nothing more than a zombified meat puppet.

[@PropaneWP]

@@grahamcarpenter5135 That sounds very dramatic. To my experience, this is not about taking over or controlling a company. It's more about controlling one's own position by means of a pyrrhic defense. I.e. making it too costly to engage in conflict. "We can't fire Bob, we made him design the entire system and he didn't document anything. He could bring everything down around him if we piss him off. It would just take too much time and money to fix" - that sort of thing.

[@donniebell7887]

Let's not let ubisoft off the hook folks before they start the "at least we're not blizzard" argument

[@mikecampos1193]

Except they may have had real evidence in that case.

[@manticorephoenix]

We, people of the internet, may not all dance around these flames for the same reason, but we at least keep to the same beat

[@Mattyb-se4xb]

I saw the title and screamed “let’s go”

[@tencoth]

Fun update, Activision Blizzard is now hiring union busters!

[@alovekok9044]

What's a union buster?

[@jordanetherington1922]

@@alovekok9044 take the two words that make up the term and then look at the definitions

[@MrJustinArt]

@@alovekok9044 Essentially something that will make it hard for employees at Blizzard to unionize, i.e. stopping Blizzard from further treating their workers like shit.

[@jordanetherington1922]

@@MrJustinArt they generally have carte blanche to fire.anyone who is seen as sympathetic towards unionizing

[@MrJustinArt]

@@jordanetherington1922 That too. Shit's just bad all around

[@Gatsby3737]

As someone who used to work in a similarly toxic environment, I feel for those employees who were in a similar position as I was being not part of the issue but not in a position of power to combat it. However I hope as many employees as possible come forward about what they witnessed because I can say for certain that revealing to the abusers that you kept a record and gave it over to authorities is euphoric. It’s amazing how much these types of people reveal to you about their crimes just because you are also a male.

[@xsoultillerx]

i used to be friends with a guy who was OBSESSED with warcraft where it was a BIG part of his life. i wonder how he's feeling after this.

[@Densoro]

I get that. My buddy from junior high is a software engineer there and I’m _praying_ he was on the right side of this shit.

[@DaSquareful]

Thought I wasted my education on fine arts and digital media but every news cycle i feel less bad of doing that instead of game dev school.

[@oracle_8947]

Becoming a creative arts entrepreneur is looking better and better every day that goes by.

[@Dmartan]

That $155M bonus comes with a pricetag Bobby...

[@Dirtyboots3strikes]

The video game industry continues to stay cursed. It just keeps getting worse. And holy shit, the work culture at Activision-Blizzard really does sound like frat-boy culture(As it was mentions before in some article I can't remember.). I always felt bad vibes from Activision from before, and this kinda validates it. Ugh.

[@jordanetherington1922]

It was like this before Activision too

[@DudokX]

Cosby suit? That sounds as something from some edgy comedy skit, I can't believe its actually a real thing with photos and everything

[@falsehero2001]

Their claim that its because the carpet/wallpaper reminded them of Bill’s sweaters. Given that this was a full year (2013) before the major accusations became national news (2014), there may be merit to it just being a unfortunate coincidence.

[@TiaKatt]

@@falsehero2001 Well, there was the Andrea Constand suit from 2005/2006, too. I could see someone like Afrasiabi noticing that, and thinking that shit was hilarious, America's Grandpa being accused of actually being a skeevy predator. And a PoS like Afrasiabi would look at it as "lol, damn, Cos got game, who knew?" I'm sure the sweater story absolutely *is* what people who wouldn't think that was so funny (like Olivia Grace) were told, though. Inside jokes - particularly unsavory ones - often work like that. It's weird to me that everybody claims not to remember the Constand suit, though. *Bill Cosby* with his wholesome image accused of drugging and assaulting someone? Even though this was a civil suit and not criminal, how do so many just forget that until 2014?

[@MrStath1986]

This is just one of those things that's so depressing I can't even find an ounce of humour in it; I think Jim Sterling's report on the matter came along and kicked me in the teeth, and then the Bill fucking Cosby thing just pissed on my grave. It's immensely depressing when you've loved games since you were a kid and the people who make these things are capable of stuff like this.

[@MrStath1986]

@@NocturneJester True, very true. I think you can probably expand that to overall industry/companies in general.

[@chaffXgrenade]

I feel like these things are only gonna get *worse* before they start to get better... 😐

[@RavenCloak13]

But these aren't the same people from your childhood. These are different people who came in using the built up good will and brand name of a company that made things you like as a kid and costing on that till this stuff came out. Be glad this zombie has a chance to die and hope the consumers grow up and learn to hold companies accountable and actually want better for employees that can leave for better pastures because who wants to work in such a place for shit pay and shit work conditions. As well as for the CEO making a fuck ton of money while also laying off tons of employees before paychecks come in?

[@cyberninjazero5659]

@@RavenCloak13 In this case part of the story is that it was going on before the Activision buy out

[@RavenCloak13]

@@cyberninjazero5659 Again, the people that made Blizzard left way before this. They left like almost 10 years ago now. One guy came back who was a founding member but he left shortly before they really became a name brand to work at some casinos or something he had stakes in.

[@roetheboat1]

39:37 One of the really important things to note with WoW is that it was already bleeding players and content creators before the news about the lawsuit broke. It's not like this is AKB's first PR shitshow, and previous issues (Blitzchung, for example) may have caused temporary damage but were eventually forgotten. But the DFEH lawsuit came out at an exceptionally bad time for Blizzard in particular. Not only has Shadowlands been overall a rather lackluster expansion, but they've STILL not managed to fix the issues with Warcraft 3: Reforged. Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 have basically been forgotten and Overwatch has been put into maintenance mode for a while now. The only big news about Blizzard stuff was that Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 are still being worked on (although there have been multiple people leaving Blizzard who had been in important roles for those games) AND they announced a new thing for Hearthstone. It's pretty obvious that COVID-19 and transitioning to "work-from-home" has been difficult for the WoW team. They really should have delayed the launch of Shadowlands, and because they didn't it has ended up with a situation where the major patch updates have had to be delayed and the current content isn't satisfying. New MMOs like "New World" or "Ashes of Creation" have drawn attention for their potential when they release and a lot of other MMOs currently on the market have seen a big boost in player numbers. And then you have FF14 which is currently in what should have been its slow phase as we are waiting for Endwalker to be launched in November. But because of WoW and Blizzard have a meltdown there has been a huge influx of players AND prominent WoW content creators who have used the lawsuit as a reason for them to break ties with Blizzard. The most prominent would be Asmongold, who hasn't completely dropped WoW but has definitely switched his focus to FF14. You also have content creators like Bellular, Pyromancer, Captain Grim, and others who are now playing FF14. You even have the "World First" raid teams of Echo and Limit-Maximum playing FF14 on stream and working their way through Savage and Ultimate raids. Preach has completely dropped WoW and expanded out to playing other games, and is currently doing FF14 as a part of a charity stream. Even Taliesen & Evitel are doing FF14 videos. I don't know how Blizzard and WoW are going to fare in the future. Even if they somehow manage to completely fix their in-house issues and release a good expansion for WoW, they've already damaged their rep and lost so many content creators that it's going to be an even steeper climb just to get back onto being able to compete with the current MMO market.

[@breaksystembse]

BTW, that's why Kaplan "left". He was caught in it, too. :/

[@joewall8210]

Being a Amazon worker, I definitely feel like a slave.

[@XoftheTITANS]

Pat: "California gots this in the bag." Me, who lives in California: "you sure about that? If Activision pays big bucks, they will most likely lower the punishment. :

[@SBJ_Tube]

In that case, you can say they did the work necessary to get the bribe then...

[@mikecampos1193]

They're going to pay off the governor and the governor's going to clam the dogs but this only just the walk away to Texas.

[@abdulsadiq8873]

Big bucks no jitsu

[@kirbyfanprime]

@@mikecampos1193 I've never done a protest before, but I'll be the first in line if they try and set up shop here

[@toowingless9473]

I don’t think Cali has anything in the bag tbh

[@anenemystand5582]

Guys. I'm starting to think the video game industry might have some issues

[@shaggy2124]

Every (shareholder) voice matters!

[@falsehero2001]

Then buy a share yourself. Should be pretty cheap right now.

[@jordanetherington1922]

I'll be honest I think people overestimate how much the bad PR matters. I expect this to blow over in a couple months or maybe a year just because all that matters is how much money they make. I sure hope I'm wrong but I'm pretty jaded by now. Like Activision-Blizzard is super rich and rich people/entities gwt away with rape and shit like that all the time. Maybe they'll have to pay a fine then back to business

[@khamuratal1173]

I agree...but I think Blizzards in trouble anyway. Not because of the lawsuit from California, but because six...as of the time of this writing...law firms are targeting Blizzard specifically for securities fraud. Meaning that there's a very real possibility that Shareholders opt to hold no confidence in Blizzards executives and fire a class action lawsuit. The investors turning on them would eviscerate the company over night, doing far more damage then any sex scandel ever could.

[@figysmalls4872]

Thanks for your thoughts on the situation.

[@elkin2567]

41:25 is probably the funniest take on big Triple A companies being scumbags.

[@lolbuster01]

You gotta love how us at the bottom are shit on and called the worst of humanity when the reality is it's the top end that is projecting thier sins.

[@NurseValentineSG]

America needs unions. videogame developers need unions. every single industry needs unions. This shit cannot continue.

[@supremacistdawn]

*laughs in European*

[@mikecampos1193]

The problem with most unions they always associated with Communism and capitalist America will never respect unions we had to literally force one with the miners but long story short a lot of people died when it became a thing look it up.

[@skaianDestiny]

You can blame Reagan for a lot of the capitalist hellhole that is our modern America. The fall of unions, minimum wage no longer being a living wage, "trick down economics", all that shit? That came from Reagan.

[@toowingless9473]

@@skaianDestinyalways funny to see people just blame reagan for everything without even understanding his policies

[@toowingless9473]

The issue with unions is their utility. Unions can just as easily be centralized as a business and no longer serve the workers but rather just siphon more money away from them. What we really need is to break up these massive companies and begin separating these massive businesses from the state. I’m sorry but when literally EVERY single huge corporation donates to a single president in 2020 while that president says he’s gonna make those corporations pay and give back to the people… you really have to wonder and begin removing corruption at the source.

[@DoctorThundah]

Corporations are not your friends, and they will always protect themselves - at your expense, if they feel it necessary - no matter how inclusive and progressive they claim to be.

[@mikecampos1193]

So these sjw fools things they can Johnny Silverhand Activision all these blinded fools.

[@Rudero3]

Pat's assessment, mention how CA wouldn't have tried this if they didn't have a 100% win chance, is probably true. I could see some major fallout coming from this. Like, if the government's attack is successful, that could open the door for multiple employees to sue for civil suits, and that could bankrupt a company fast. And mores so, Pat's assessment of Blizzard hiring only those who are fanatical about it, creates this problem, that also is what indirectly contributed to that lady's suicide. If we assume what Pat said is factual, then she was a super excited mega-fan who applied, got hired by her DREAM job. When your dream job turns out to be hell, then, that means there is no other job that won't also be hell. If your dream job, which was supposed to be paradise, turns out to be hell, well, there's a REAL good incentive for suicide because with that mentality, it is literally "all downhill from here."

[@vitaliybakal7356]

"Just hire guild members, they are fanatics" - worked with Kaplan i guess...

[@EvilWillYT]

All voices are equal, but some voices are more equal than others.

[@PlamoTherapy]

"No one is indispensable!" That's true. If anyone is indispensable then that is bad business practice because what the fuck are you gonna do if the indispensable guy becomes dispensed? Like for example, he came down with a sudden severe condition like death? This is the extreme logical conclusion, but this is the reason why I don't believe no one in a company is irreplaceable.

[@ProjectSudoku]

Tale as old as time, especially for Activision.

[@datonkallandor8687]

Note that this was going on at Blizzard long before the Activision buyout. The thing you can blame Activision for here is that they didn't stop it - but they sure as shit didn't *start* it. Hiring a legit War Criminal to defend it doesn't help obviously, but that's corporate america for you.

[@mikecampos1193]

@@datonkallandor8687 oh yeah that lady worked for the Trump administration oh yeah she did some questionable shit.

[@datonkallandor8687]

@@mikecampos1193 Bush Administration. Defended and implemented Torture.

[@TheChainsaw105]

man I bet Bungie has never been happier to not be associated with Activision anymore!

[@jasonwalker4003]

Instead of skeletons in their closet, blizzard has a literal portal to hell

[@TazTheYellow]

If I were sociopathic I'd joke that "the worst part about all this is," but we all know what the real worst part is: that they've gotten away with this for as long as they have. Their reputation for quality games is just as big a lie as their claim that a *government lawsuit* is unfounded. Reality is they've just been resting on their laurels from the first StarCraft, coasting by on sheer reputation and brand recognition alone, using their influence to wreck entire genres with crap.

[@sparkytepig]

The worst part about all this is they *will* get away with this. If the suit succeeds, I doubt it will remove all senior management, and instate new staff that 100% will not fall into the same vices as the previous ones.

[@TazTheYellow]

@@sparkytepig They will only get away with this as much as we let them. Even if all that comes of this is their inevitable fade into obscurity, I can think of no justice more poetic than that. . . . well, none that don't involve violence, anyway. Cute icon btw!

[@anenemystand5582]

@@TazTheYellow you're putting way to much faith into "we" maybe they'll suffer a hit. But there will be countless people who don't care or don't know and continue to buy every call of duty so they can play it with their friends. Even if the company broke up the same shitty higher ups would likely find refuge in some other scum riddled company. My point isn't that we should give up. My point is the video game industry is rotten to the core and there is extreme need of change from within. We can't just help by being good cosoomers and buying the right games. We need to push for laws and regulations that help these people and assist organized push back from developers. Maybe unionizing would be a good start.

[@Bigotsandwich1995]

OK let's take bets on which overwatch character is about to come out of the closet

[@SarpSpeaksSometimes]

Underrated comment

[@sparkytepig]

*”Blizzard announces that the entire cast of Overwatch is pansexual”*

[@Bigotsandwich1995]

@@sparkytepig all of them? now that is stunning and brave

[@averyaustin1]

Human decency and ethical morals are not that hard of a thing to have, it takes incredible will power and strength to practice both. But to hurt others, think only of yourself, and drive people into the arms of death for your own selfish, *EVIL* agenda........ humanity disgusts me to no end. I hope Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, and rest of these creatures burn for what they did. On top of it: I hope the day comes that real, great change comes, one that ensures this kind of practice can never be replicated ever again, but forgive me if i'm not holding my breath on that one!

[@Shadow6OO]

8:02 Well I at least agree with one of their statements then.

[@joewall8210]

37:29 there’s actually a video of what pats talking about btw

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

That low buzzing

[@DJBlastotron]

I saw this clip in my recommended vids, and I for real assumed it was from the latest podcast.

[@00shiba2]

Mega Corporate Cyber Dystopia

[@kyokusagani8869]

Not everyone that worked on these games are perverts; but i'd hope the lawsuit shows the people responsible they're not completely immune to being caught ! I'm still enjoying Diablo 2 while finding this behavior gross.

[@Triple-Four]

I guarantee things like this and worse happen in other large gaming studios but they havent been outed yet. This stuff has probably been in the business for 20 years just like hollywood for the last 100 years.

[@XShrike0]

17:53 I would be willing to bet the bulk of people that purchase Activision products don't care. As y'all pointed out this is essentially what happened with Ubisoft and I don't remember much happening to them.

[@RavenCloak13]

"Why game cost 70 dollar now?" *still buys 70 dollar game with microtransactions and pays for microtransactions* Nothing going to change with people like this buying without care.

[@youknowpomm]

You know what they say about people and places that desperately try to look "safe and accepting"

[@morganqorishchi8181]

The RPGmaker game scene saw an immediate influx after this news broke, and I can see why. It's easier to look into and vet one-man or tiny dev teams and know you're not supporting a sex criminal of some kind. As mentioned in the podcast, indie teams can still be toxic, but it's easier to avoid when you have more transparency. It's hard to be an ethical consumer of any media these days, but it's an extra layer of work in the gaming industry...

[@wolfen9113]

Considering the only media that's related to them that I consume is overwatch porn, I dont have much to boycott do i?

[@unfairtrout]

Have a word with yourself

[@themacewens]

I'm pretty sure I saw some article that said Blizzard HATES all the OW porn cause it over takes the search engines or something, so if anything, you are protesting Blizzard in your unique way.

[@sparkytepig]

@@unfairtrout It’s not his fault their games are crap, their business is abhorrent, and art is good.

[@KreuzDrache]

This cyberpunk future sucks. Can we get some solarpunk up in here?

[@mikecampos1193]

I hope you're ready for the hobo wars.

[@beepmoo8771]

Fr, I thought shit was gonna be like deus ex with like cyber arms and shit. Not this. This is just pain.

[@sparkytepig]

@@beepmoo8771 That’s Capitalism. ‘Why improve product when customers buy by the millions’? ‘Why treat employees like human beings when there’s hundreds if not thousands of future victims clamoring to join the dev-grinding machine’?

[@beepmoo8771]

@@sparkytepig as I said. Pain.

[@HeyItsHeavenly]

Pats slow movements, look up at camera and reaching for a drink after spilling the details of the lawsuit is fucking gold btw 3:23

[@gimligimlass5509]

Around 30:20 Woolie said sociopathic behavior. The word he was looking for was psychopathic. Sociopaths are actually able to be rehabilitated, have difficulty controlling their emotions, and they don't view their actions as unquestionable. Psychopaths do not share any of those traits (and arguably don't have emotions in the same way as most other people), and they also don't see other people as people. I feel this is an important distinction to make because a sociopath is capable of that rehabilitation, and these fucks Woolie's discussing clearly are not.

[@ngmajora6986]

*Yoshi P laughs his way to the bank*

[@StellaStarfall]

Damn right. At least Squenix is too incompetent to properly hide shit like this, so we can feel a little better about that. It’s like the dumb friend you know is always being real with you cause he’s too dumb to lie to you.

[@MrJustinArt]

I don't think Yoshi P of all people is laughing at any of this.

[@vaan_]

Why would he be laughing? Most of the money XIV makes just gets funnelled to other titles like FFXVI and failures like the Avengers game.

[@tailedgates9]

Holy fucking shit, Blizzard......

[@lordkeyblade1936]

I was born in 1996 and I was really thinking about going into making video games but even back in 2006 2007 etc shows like Inside gaming showed me. no video games industry by in large is an awful thing to work. So far ever since I decide not to do it company's and been proving to me more and more that my decision was the right because no amount of love for something excuse the bullshit unethical behavior their doing

[@Homodemon]

At this point they should just change names from Blizzard to Shitstorm

[@sirlenemodesto2665]

Hole thing is on fire!

[@VentWilsn]

THAT GUY WAS A FUCKING GUILD LEADER BEFORE HE WORKED AT BLIZZARD?!??!?!? FUCK EVERYTHING MAN

[@kyuboxincubox7556]

All voices matter, but some voices matter more than others

[@yukiminsan]

at least over there people actually care and talk and take this stuff seriously this stuff happens everywhere but over here in Asia you get nothing, and that will never change

[@Braxmegaman]

#LiterallyBurnBobbyKotick

[@hazardrider8317]

I had a female friend constantly tell me that it was all a conspiracy by Activision to take full control of Blizzard during all this. They were an avid WoW player so it makes sense they wouldn’t want to see the company who made the game they loved this horrible. Thankfully the longer it went on the more they realized that all of this was real and not fabricated. They’ve since moved to FF XIV after my recommendation and love it more then WoW at any point

[@Verdgilion]

Blizzard on fire? Worst weather imaginable.

[@Tyberes]

So this afternoon (morning on the worst coast) blizzard saw that their employees were organizing so they went in an hired the fucking union busting firm that amazon uses. What the fuck.

[@NOMADinteractive]

Looks like that timer pat was talking about went off in the because they had pizza video

[@nightmareeyes2083]

yoooooo updated thumbnails!!!

[@HoChiMints2007]

The Curse of Red Shirt Guy