So! Some of y’all might remember the Riot Games walkouts from a couple years ago. This time it’s Activision Blizzard. For those who are unaware, Activision Blizzard is being sued by the State of California for discriminatory practices. Content Warning for the link below for brief descriptions of sexual harassment, suicide, and rape mentions. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/activision-blizzard-sued-by-california-over-frat-boy-culture There is a full document that was released that I won’t be linking due to its contents but its bad at Blizzard. This isn’t just women. Minorities were also specifically discriminated against. Today, July 28th 2021, the employees of blizzard are staging a walkout, with specific demands. From Kotaku’s publishing of their statement of intent: Statement of Intent Given last week’s statements from Activision Blizzard, Inc. and their legal counsel regarding the DFEH lawsuit, as well as the subsequent internal statement from Frances Townsend, and the many stories shared by current and former employees of Activision Blizzard since, we believe that our values as employees are not being accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership. As current Activision Blizzard employees, we are holding a walkout to call on the executive leadership team to work with us on the following demands, in order to improve conditions for employees at the company, especially women, and in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups. 1. An end to mandatory arbitration clauses in all employee contracts, current and future. Arbitration clauses protect abusers and limit the ability of victims to seek restitution. 2. The adoption of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and promotion policies designed to improve representation among employees at all levels, agreed upon by employees in a company-wide Diversity, Equity & Inclusion organization. Current practices have led to women, in particular women of color and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups that are vulnerable to gender discrimination not being hired fairly for new roles when compared to men. 3. Publication of data on relative compensation (including equity grants and profit sharing), promotion rates, and salary ranges for employees of all genders and ethnicities at the company. Current practices have led to aforementioned groups not being paid or promoted fairly. 4. Empower a company-wide Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion task force to hire a third party to audit ABK’s reporting structure, HR department, and executive staff. It is imperative to identify how current systems have failed to prevent employee harassment, and to propose new solutions to address these issues. After the announcement of the walkout, the CEO Bobby Kotick made a half assed apology, and claimed he would bring in a law firm to improve practices. The devs have stated that his words do not address their demands, and will still be walking out. Those who work at offices are doing a physical walkout, while those working at home are not working today. If you are on Twitter, you can support the walk out by tweeting #ActiBlizzWalkout with a blue heart emoji, along with a message of support. The Kotaku link above also includes links to the organizations the strikers want you to donate to. So support these devs! Because its with walk outs and movements like this that game dev becomes a safer place for all! Which means more diverse and inclusive games! IMPORTANT NOTE: A lot of gamers have been sending messages of ‘don’t cross the picket line by not playing ActiBlizzard games’. To my knowledge, none of the Activision Blizzard devs have requested this. So it is up to you. Personally, I haven’t touched their games since they banned (then after backlash, suspended for six months) a Hong Kong esports player for activism. (Link to the Wiki Page on that Incident)
