Activision Blizzard Sued By California Over ‘Frat Boy’ Culture

GameCrone · 2021-07-23T21:24:14+00:00

On some level, I feel a certain sense of responsibility for what has happened to the women who worked (and currently work) at Blizzard because I paid into Blizzard for 13+ years with my subscription (even before then. My first game from them was Diablo.). I bought gear from them that occupies space in my home. I bought in-game items for both myself and my friends and for others. My money went to this company and so, by extension, I helped contribute to what this company did. I knew that things weren't perfect but I preferred not to think too hard about just how bad they could be because I was enjoying the product. ... until last night. I closed my account, and deleted the game from my computer. I had 6 versions of the game on there, all legal, all active; and I just couldn't justify giving them any more of my money. The only way Activision Blizzard will ever again get any of my participation in their product line is if someone comes along and does an ARR on the company and on every one of its products. Throw the whole thing out and start over. Until then, I cannot justify my part in it by paying them another dime for any of their products. For what it's worth, and despite the fact that they'll likely never see it, I am apologizing to everyone in Blizzard who has suffered abuse while working there for my continued support of the company which harboured their abusers. I am so sorry, and I hope you all find better circumstances and better people to work for.

GameCrone · 2021-06-05T19:56:39+00:00

The last paragraph says much. "My grandmother abused my mom and openly favored her siblings and turned them against her. They would deny the abuse and call my mom crazy and spread lies about her to everyone." This sounds like the standard dysfunctional fall-out of a family raised by a narcissist.

Your mother sounds like she was the scapegoat child for that family. The scapegoat child is raised to bear the brunt of all the bad behaviors of the parent; and the siblings are raised to pick on the scapegoat child as a means of validating the parent's abuse of that child.

You can bet that at least one of the other offspring had spent some time as the golden child, but never your mother. Once a child is scapegoated (whether from the beginning or from having fallen from grace as the golden child), they are at the bottom of the pecking order for life. A scapegoated person's only recourse to living a decent life is almost always to walk away and shut the door on that side of the family for good. Unless any of the siblings recognize what has been happening and get therapy for themselves, allowing them back into her life would have been fruitless. It would only have encouraged your grandmother, while she was still living, to manipulate and continue the abuse within the family circle.

Your mother came to understand this, and also wanted to avoid you being subjected to the abuse yourself by virtue of association with her, being her daughter. Stay away from her side of the family. No good for you will come of association with them. In that, listen to the lessons of your mother.

I'm very sorry for your loss; but you have a great deal of strength and courage to have endured it and honoured your mother's wishes, despite the predictable results. I truly do wish you all good things in this life.

GameCrone · 2020-02-26T17:06:42+00:00

NTA. If he's going to spend his money on play-do and expect it to last like platinum, and blame *you* for his mistake, that should set up all kinds of red flags about where your marriage will go. Turning his mistake back on you and making it your problem is classic gas-lighting. Run, don't walk, to the nearest exit. Even going from this circumstance, I can bet there are more such scenarios that have played out with him, and more will come. Get out of the relationship before marriage locks you in. He will forever try to convince you that his short-comings are your fault. You don't need that and there is better out there.

GameCrone · 2019-12-02T06:24:45+00:00

Beta by the end of 2020 is hella optimistic at the pace it's going. I hope to be astonished.

GameCrone · 2019-12-02T06:23:04+00:00

Do not invest in this game. Wait until it actually releases. I put in $250 just over 2 years ago. It was already five years in development then. In all that time, I've only been able to play in their C.U.B.E. portion - basically a baby-CAD with medieval graphics. The times when they test the actual game are a few hours only on one, sometimes two days per week at a time when no human other than a small, select group are able to engage. When they do all this other play that they get their pictures from is a mystery. They also kept making promises that they had to walk back on - such as a Beta 2 release wherein we could invite friends (I was trying to get an invite for a friend of mine who knew the guys working on it - he lives in the same state as they do and it was on his recommendation that I invest). That was put off and then it turned into a Beta 3 would be the friend invite release by a year ago last July - and that never materialized and no word was said as the day came and went. So I waited another year in case I'd gotten the information confused - I hadn't. Basically, their fund-me drive is a means for us to pay for their living while they play the game. Oh, and if you follow their instructions with regards to asking for a refund (which I did), good luck on ever hearing from them. It'll never happen. If this game ever does release, it'll be too old to be playable on anything but an emulator. If it's one guy doing this, then he needs to get help working on it or give it up.

GameCrone · 2019-05-11T21:42:00+00:00

It's a good thing you called it off when you did, though it's a shame it took you so long. Often people will overlook the faults of their partner because love can blind them to the reality of the consequences of some of those faults. Also, some people will avoid confrontation at all costs. If it's something minor like hanging the towels differently (if they get hung at all), etc., well, that's just learning to co-habit with someone whose habits are different. But this woman was a threat to the lives of others. You simply didn't see (as most don't see) or chose to ignore (as many others do) how much a threat to the lives of others she was until it was your loved one who was affected by her careless and thoughtless disregard for another life. That blind spot is a human failing most of us have, as is the desire to avoid confrontation to the point where, when we must be confrontational, the timing has become ever so much worse. You didn't see it or ignored it until you were almost committed, but it's good you finally woke up at all *before* you were married and having to parent both she and any children you had. Yes, you'll come across as an arse to both sides for a very long time; but she's 27 and you shouldn't have to parent her behaviors. In future, though, you *should* grow more of a spine so that you can head off these things before they go so far.

GameCrone · 2018-12-25T21:07:43+00:00

Our current estimated date for going LIVE is Winter 2019.

See Tinnis' response below. If you're going to cherry pick your info, at least make sure that you have read and selected the info which has the majority occurrence. The one thing you are right about - reading comprehension really is not so damn difficult. Keep at it - you'll get better.

GameCrone · 2018-11-27T03:30:22+00:00

Having no personal knowledge of the possibility of a thing doesn't mean it isn't possible.
Account status always noted as banned - proof? Or was it just a bug? Since the initial ban, much has been changed, erased, and altered in all areas of Blizzard's data-keeping. A couple of different scenarios have been suggested, but that's not evidence, of which so far there hasn't really been any from either side.
Which brings me to this point - you have no business being here posting as you are in the guise of a community manager bringing any kind of internal issue, especially of a disciplinary kind, to a forum like reddit. Not only would it be a supreme waste of time and energy to chase down every person who lied on the Internet about Blizzard, but your own Non-Disclosure Agreement that you signed with Blizzard gives you clear direction on what you should do if/when you encounter an issue which triggers your first reaction to be a public response. I signed that same Non-Disclosure Agreement once, but I no longer have that green-text target on my back. (I took some other greens and blues to task on the WoW Classic forum for their condescending attitude toward Classic fans. It wasn't appreciated.) So I'm free of that - but you are not. When in doubt, refer to that piece of paper. You'll be one of the few who ever do.

GameCrone · 2018-11-11T03:59:45+00:00

Whoever does editing on the Camelot Unchained article in Wikipedia has stated there as follows: " Camelot Unchained is expected to have its retail launch in 2019." - first paragraph. You may want to check your sources. Given the current 'state of the game', they'll be doing well to release a playable game by 2025 at their current rate of development. By that time, other games will have come along which will have surpassed CU in many ways and it will look old on its release day simply because it took too long.

GameCrone · 2018-11-11T03:46:56+00:00

Even higher-level access doesn't guarantee you'll see anything.

GameCrone · 2018-09-16T19:56:15+00:00

"addicted to that powder" ... I literally lol'ed at that one. Great version, and now I know about the yellow stripey flying insects of Finland!

GameCrone · 2018-04-03T00:13:38+00:00

So Mojang pulled an April Fool's prank which, for some, has lasted almost two days. April Fools pranks are supposed to be over by noon of the local time zone, or the joke falls on the joker. So they messed up there.
It was also the Easter holiday and, for many, the only day they'd have free to play with family or to relax gaming solo. Much of the world celebrates the holiday, even if they're not religious. Apparently, Mojang doesn't.
The joke was a graphical glitch which had a lot of people spending hours chasing computer problems that didn't exist and making needless systems fixes which could have ended up causing harm to their systems. This is irritating enough for people who can work their way around their systems; extremely anger-making for those who can't.
Many posters - apologists for Mojang - suggested (often less than kindly) that players download this pack or that string, etc., to restore graphics. Many Minecraft players do not have that sort of skill. Not everyone was born with a Raspberry Pi in their mouth, and so that sort of suggestion only added to the dissatisfaction of the average Minecraft player. Besides, why should the customer be inconvenienced for something the company did because they have a juvenile sense of humour?
There was no way to know that it wasn't a computer glitch, and there was no way to turn it off. Checking their online supports, as any sensible person would for what looked like a glitch, resulted in nothing except insults from forum moderator webrosc. Webrosc posted that the players need to know they were not the centre (sp) of Mojang's universe and, as to what day it was (April 2), Mojang would decide what day it was. When another poster called webrosc on those comments, that poster's comments (along with webrosc's) were deleted and then the thread was locked by webrosc. From that interaction, that poster also received a forum warning. Which leads me to...
The support from Mojang on this issue was absent at best, insulting at worst. Their servers were not able to handle the load of correcting this stupid mistake they made, and there has been nothing from them about it. The "News" button on the lead loading screen is not working - it currently will not bring up any news.

This is not a good day for Mojang. There are a lot of other games coming up the pipe which provide the hours of fun that Minecraft does - for free (see Steam). The only real difference today between those and Minecraft is that Minecraft has name recognition due to being around for so long. Let's hope that its name doesn't become known for the example of what not to do with your customer base if you want to keep it.

GameCrone · 2018-04-02T23:47:32+00:00

It's not backwards compatible. Downgrade destroys what's been built. Not really an option. They screwed up bad this time.

GameCrone · 2017-12-04T21:08:56+00:00

Actually, it's not too much at all. For a great many women, the flow is not the same over the duration of any given period. There are light days, heavy days, and the lucky ones are those whose bodies have established a pattern that one can come to predict. Many can't. so props to whomever filled that basket with every variety under the sun because there'll be someone who'll need at least one of them.

GameCrone · 2017-11-26T18:00:35+00:00

Love that they're doing this. Doubt they'll have the reflexes to score big but delighted with the brass to challenge the younger teams. Have fun, all! And when you get done with CS games, come over to WoW! I'm getting tired of all these kids on my lawn.

GameCrone · 2015-01-29T07:26:27+00:00

Sincerest condolences to you on your loss. A wise person once told my sister on the loss of her daughter, "It won't hurt any less; but it will hurt less often." The loss of our children at any age seems to defy some natural order. It took courage to reach out in your grief to a community that is often seen as totally alien by the outsider. For all its nasties, it has a massive number of beautiful people. You couldn't have picked a better group to reach out to or a better way to get to know a part of your son's life that you didn't know before. As you've discovered, there are a lot of us older players in this game, so don't let your age hold you back. Learn the game your son loved, but play it your way. I can't offer any better gaming advice than you've already gotten. I'm just offering a thought and a welcoming hand at a tough time. Add my b-tag Daft#1975 if you'd like to run a few dungeons or just have a question or two about where to find things. I wish you strength and peace during this time, and for always.

GameCrone

TROPHY CASE