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.
Developers of Blizzard's WoW development team.
On July 21, California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) Activision Blizzard's games have gone silent on social media. Employees, both current and former, have began speaking up in earnest about their experiences with the company.
World of Warcraft Senior System Designer in-game protest, WoW players have already made their discontent with the allegations known, but Hamilton's response was among one of the first direct responses from a major WoW developer since the information was made public.
Hamilton's Twitter thread echoes what many of the female employees at Activision Blizzard have reportedly felt for years: helplessness. In the aftermath of the lawsuit, former and current female employees at Activision Blizzard have come forth with their own experiences with mistreatment and abuse. Prior to the lawsuit's filing, these victims may have feared losing their jobs or being blacklisted from the industry by the perpetrators of these crimes, who apparently remain in positions of power at Activision Blizzard.
Activision Blizzard has remained more or less silent as its workplace controversy has continued to unfold, and that silence is generating more questions than answers. It's currently unclear how the company will handle perpetrators named in the lawsuit or the legacy they've left behind, like former World of Warcraft creative director Alex Afrasiabi, who departed the company in 2020 but references to whom can still found in the game.
Source: Jeff Hamilton/Twitter
