Published , by Sam Chandler
Published , by Sam Chandler
Activision Blizzard has recently come under fire following a lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. According to one developer, Activision Blizzard’s response to these allegations has caused the development of World of Warcraft to stop.
Senior System Designer Jeff Hamilton took to Twitter on July 25, 2021 to express his thoughts and feelings concerning Activision Blizzard’s response to the DFEH lawsuit. According to Hamilton, the general morale of developers working on World of Warcraft is low, with workers being “mad and traumatized” to the point that they’re “rendered unable to keep making a great game.”
A lot of statements have surfaced over the past few days, though it’s likely the one reported on by Jason Schreier is what caused the most consternation for the workers.
The statement, linked above in Schreier’s Tweet, is from a spokesperson who says the Department of Fair Employment and Housing’s lawsuit includes “distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past.” The statement goes on to claim the DFEH “rushed to file an inaccurate complaint” which Activision Blizzard will “demonstrate in court.” The statement also says, “We are sickened by the reprehensible conduct of the DFEH,” in regards to the firm’s mention of a previous employee who committed suicide.
Hopefully today’s statement by Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will help improve the morale of the team, though more work and action will invariably need to be taken. The official Warcraft Twitter account also released a statement claiming that in-game changes will be occurring to “remove references that are not appropriate for our world.” Bryant Francis of Gamasutra writes that it could be the removal of NPC Field Marshal Afrasiabi, who is named after Alex Afrasiabi, a former lead designer on WoW who was named in the DFEH lawsuit.
This will no doubt be a long process, so anticipate updates on this moving forward. You can keep up to date on the situation via Shacknews’ Activision Blizzard page.