After the recent announcement of California suing Activision Blizzard over its culture, many employees, former employees, fans, and more have taken to Twitter to talk about what this means for the future of the company and gaming. And based on some of those Tweets, it looks as though World of Warcraft fans may suffer for it.
Activision Blizzard is currently being sued by the state of California for what was called “pervasive frat boy culture” and its alleged poor treatment of female employees in the past. The developers are known best for AAA titles like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and other big-name games. But it is making headlines for a whole different reason right now, leading WoW players to protest Blizzard in game, as well as boycotts. And all of this has lead to what Senior System Designer Jeff Hamilton says is almost a complete halt in work.
In a lengthy collection of Tweets, Jeff Hamilton wrote that while his experience at Activision Blizzard has been a great one, that it is "DAMNINGLY OBVIOUS that that experience has not been universal." He stated that "Activision’s response to this is currently taking a group of world-class developers and making them so mad and traumatized they’re rendered unable to keep making a great game," after letting fans know that almost "no work" is being done on World of Warcraft at this time.
After the allegations became public, Activision's Executive VP for Corporate Affairs Fran Townsend sent a company-wide email to employees stating that the lawsuit was "a distorted and untrue picture of our company, including factually incorrect, old and out of context stories — some from more than a decade ago." This response has upset several Blizzard and Activision employees according to Jason Schreier, a reporter for Bloomberg.
With many teams unhappy with the company's response as well as the allegations themselves, it seems that work at Blizzard has come to almost a complete standstill, making it almost impossible for fans to expect any new content to be coming their way for either World of Warcraft: Shadowlands or The Burning Crusade Classic. "And this benefits nobody - not the players, not the developers, not the shareholders," Hamilton Tweeted.
Another set of Tweets, sent out by Blizzard Co-Founder Mike Morhaime, stated that he was "ashamed" and blamed himself for the culture devolving to its current state. "Harassment and discrimination exist. They are prevalent in our industry. It is the responsibility of leadership to keep all employees feeling safe, supported, and treated equitably... I am so sorry to have let you down." The lawsuit is still ongoing between Activision Blizzard and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing; it came after a two-year investigation into the treatment of women at the gaming company and the culture that allegedly allowed these abuses to occur.
It is currently unknown when World of Warcraft developers will return to working at normal on the game's updates. It also unknown if this may alter Blizzard's recent announcement of the Phase 2 release of PTR for TCB Classic slated to be released sometime next week.
World of Warcraft is available for PC.