Editor’s Note: A lawsuit has been filed against Activision Blizzard by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which alleges the company has engaged in abuse, discrimination, and retaliation against its female employees. Activision Blizzard has denied the allegations. The full details of the Activision Blizzard lawsuit (content warning: rape, suicide, abuse, harassment) are being updated as new information becomes available.
Fans have begun criticizing online protests within World of Warcraft itself, adding to outcry from players and industry against Activision Blizzard.
This widespread protesting of the publishing giant began following a lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment & Housing, on the grounds of abuse and discrimination against the company's female employees. This lawsuit came following a two-year investigation into the company, revealing a pervasive "frat boy" culture and numerous examples of harassment, wage disparity, and inappropriate behavior.
The documentation for the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard included behaviors undertaken by Alex Afrasiabi, the former creative director for World of Warcraft who resigned from the company in 2020. Activision Blizzard has gone mostly silent on social media since the lawsuit was filed, but this has not stopped of the gaming community from weighing in. According to PCGamer, players want Afrasiabi’s World of Warcraft nods and references removed from the game. Some have taken to Reddit to express their disgust for Afrasiabi’s actions by wanting NPCs named after him to be removed from the game. mcmanybucks even posted themselves using /spit on an NPC in-game who was named after Afrasiabi.
Stormwind City’s Field Marshal Afrasiabi and Stratholme’s The Great Fras Siabi are a couple of NPCs that are references to Afrasiabi in WoW, and his in-game Everquest character, Furor Planedefiler, has plenty of his own callouts in the game. However, it’s possible that these could be patched out of the game soon. PCGamer points out that Blizzard has removed references to people from World of Warcraft in the past because of misconduct allegations. With Blizzard’s recent silence, it’s hard to know when, if ever, these elements of the game will be removed. World of Warcraft is currently coming off the release of the Shadowlands update, but it is unclear what the future holds for the MMO.
Afrasiabi left Blizzard in mid-2020, while the DFEH's investigation was ongoing. There is no evidence to suggest that his departure was related to the investigation. Another notable departure from Activision came in 2019, when developer Bungie split with the company, taking full ownership of the Destiny franchise in the process. Even though it's disconnected from Activision and the recent lawsuit, Bungie did respond to the lawsuit by promising to address toxicity in its own workplace. As the lawsuit develops, more major changes in the industry may follow.
Sources: PCGamer, mcmanybucks/Reddit
