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Comment by post_break | Hacker News Reader

The problem I see with them is the brain drain if the influential people leave. They have options at other companies, and if enough people leave Blizzard they may be stuck. But this is just me looking from the outside in. This also signals they are scared of them unionizing.

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I know we don't want to say this but there might be a possibility some of the talent secretly are indeed sexist (wouldn't surprise me in the gaming world) and thus actually prefer to stay at a place that preserves the male dominated culture. That might be part of the strategy behind activisions anti walkout move here. Just a thought (I don't know).

I already heard several lead devs have left + took their teams with them to start new studios.

I'm really interested to see what happens here. Amazon busted the efforts of people with few options, people who could be threatened with bullshit/propaganda. I wonder if big law is sufficiently aware of the substantial impact that the recent years of ethical discussion have had on the gamer and game dev psyche. No matter the individual ethical stance of an employee, this sub-culture has had practice critiquing words and ideas.

It looks like the employees are almost universally on the equality end of the ethical spectrum (given how widespread the walkout was), which is even worse news for union busting.

Shouldn't influential people push for better working conditions with all their influence?

They absolutely should, I should have clarified that my "them" is Activision/Blizzard the company, not the employees.

Are there any influential people that might be on the receiving end of the frat boy culture?

Sorry I don't understand your comment, can you expand on it?

Why would influential people leave as a result of such scandals? They built that culture and will benefit from its proliferation.

You seem to be equating "influential" with "culture leading".

To what extent are the people acting out the same people who command enough respect to leave and take an elite team with them?

I would be surprised if there was more than, say, 30% overlap. IME people who act out generally aren't the most productive and generally don't command the most respect from the most productive people.

Because they wouldn't want to work for a company that tries to cover up and ignore culture that is sexist? It might lead to trying to find other jobs and seeing Blizzard on a resume in a negative connotation. Oh you worked for Blizzard? We need to do a check to see if you were one of the people supporting the Bill Cosby hotel room.

I'm a software developer, not trying to brag because I have serious doubts about my skills but right now I'm in a great job and have a few serious offers with great pay and benefits.

I've done some research and the claims people are making about the bad environment at Blizz are not without merit - can't say they are real because IDK but too strong to just dismiss. I would not even consider a job there without real and verifiable proof that my worries are unfounded. I'm probably not going to consider them over the many other viable offers I have.

Why wouldn't there be? Gamergate generally? Also remember the example of Ellen Pao at reddit. Influential people can lose.

Ellen Pao was always meant to be temporary. She didn't lose only played the role she was brought on to do.

> only played the role she was brought on to do

How is that different from losing? Just because she was set up to lose?

No more than a contractor with a fixed length term loses at the end of the contract.

Hmm, do contractors also normally get hung out to dry to cover for their employer's failures?

A lot of contractors are hired to be a lightning rod for the blame that should have gone to management of the employing company, yes.

You don't have to be the recipient of bad behavior to sympathize. I, for example, have never worked for Blizzard, yet I find these allegations to be appalling, and would not want to work with Blizzard until I knew the allegations were false or that the problem was properly dealt with.

Influential people can dislike the culture, and leave so their reputation is not besmirched by the much Blizzard is currently being dragged through.

Influential people book the Cosby suite.

https://kotaku.com/inside-blizzard-developers-infamous-bill-...

Yes. I'm extremely influential at setting technical direction where I work (not Blizzard) but I'm not a manager so I can't discipline people. I can only attempt to advocate for the culture I want to see, or vote with my feet.

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