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Blizzard president J. Allen Brack leaving Activision Blizzard

CGiRanger

Banned
That's the asshole of the void and insulting "we can do better" speech after the Blitzchung issue, isn't it?

Good fucking riddance.
I guess citing the revered Gloria Steinem wasn't enough woke to keep the woke employees from calling for his head. :p

Hoeg Law was up early to analyze both investor and public facing statements:


Again the highlight is how both Mike and Jen were hired or specifically joined Blizzard very very recently, so they weren't part of the management under Mike Morhaime when these issues allegedly went down. But yeah, JAB gets a mere footnote in the investor statement that "he's gone".
 
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Coolwhhip

Neophyte
You guys are really reaching here. Jesus. If she had made that tweet, okay it would be one thing, but she didn't. And those games in the screen shot aren't bad, and Vicarious Visions has been around forever.

Reaching how? I posted that because it's funny that Activision is CELEBRATING women in 2018. -If- this lawsuit turns out to be something that's going on, it's just a funny tweet.
 

Tschumi

Member
Glad i secured og copies of their good games years and years ago and so am insulated from everything they do now
 

Braag

Member
I hope things change for the better for Blizzard. Time will tell I guess, but this is a good start.

p3scR3Z.jpg



Yeah.... Blizzard will be ok..


RIP

Why'd you crop the list short?
 

kiphalfton

Member
Reaching how? I posted that because it's funny that Activision is CELEBRATING women in 2018. -If- this lawsuit turns out to be something that's going on, it's just a funny tweet.

Not really that funny. The award itself seems kind of cringy, as are most awards, but who cares. If that's the worst you could find by googling her, then that's pretty good.

I hope things change for the better for Blizzard. Time will tell I guess, but this is a good start.



Why'd you crop the list short?

They were probably trying to push some sort of stupid narrative.
 
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AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
So many people stanning for a guy that thought D:Immortal was a good idea and doubled down on BFA with SL.

Diablo Immortal is a good idea, it will make them money hand-over-fist overseas. The stupid part was having it at Blizzcon in the way that they did, it should have been a footnote to a D4 reveal and that's all.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Oh yeah, any excuse to post this is a good excuse.




Meanwhile Classic is an absolute cash cow regardless of how much snobs like me complain about it being scuffed.
 
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A.Romero

Member
I'm really interested in who would some people think could be good choices...

I mean, what is the objective? The company needs to change pretty fast, some of the allegations are pretty serious even without the wokeness factor. At least in my opinion, that should be the main focus.

Regarding games output, companies like this are no longer what they used to be and will not return to form ever again. Still, shit like Diablo sells so there is a great amount of people interested in their output. Do all companies have to serve enthusiast's interests? I mean, there are thousands of other companies producing games that enthusiasts like...
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
The main worry is more that these 2 will just be figure heads, puppets of Kotick. More so than any of their predecessors.

There's a very good reason they're now "co-leaders" where Brack was president. Bigger slice for Bobby.
 

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
There's a very good reason they're now "co-leaders" where Brack was president. Bigger slice for Bobby.
Bobby was already on thin ice with investors even before this whole shit storm. Depending on how this lawsuit goes, I wouldn't be surprised if he "voluntarily steps down" as well.
 

DragonNCM

Member
About time some one changing things B Blizzard ......
I honestly don't know how can giant like Blizzard drop so low, developer with much respect in gaming community.
They literally lead industry with games like Warcraft, Starcraft & Diablo games.
Hope this will turn on better !
 
And the new leadership will probably come with a woke bingo statement soon.

Brack is the sacrificial lamb to appease the court of public opinion.

Hmm looks like this is the end of whatever independence Blizzard had. Vicarious Visions has worked with Activision side for years and Mike while he did great job at xbox is also relative fresh hire so both will be probably Bobby Kotick extension there.

Indeed, this concludes Kotick's power grab.
 
It was rumoured since the merger that Vicarious Visions was is taking control of the ship. They were actually running an efficient machine while Blizzard was wasting resources on shit.
The transition was perhaps accelerated by the lawsuit.
 

McCheese

Member
I met Mike Morhaime once at a GSL tournament a few years back, I recognised him sitting a few seats along an spoke to him between games for a bit and about broodwar and the early warcraft titles, he seemed genuinely happy chatting with fans, and you could tell by how articulated he was that he just fucking loved these games and was super proud of them. He was saying that they were having a hard time getting e-sports to take off overseas (i.e. outside of Korea) and so he was having Blizzard sponsor the tournaments for a bit so they could increase their production values and promote it more, essentially investing Blizzards own money to help grow e-sports.

Compared to this new chap who couldn't even be bothered to learn his lines for that pre-recoded blizcon non-apology. He gutted the entire e-sports division within Blizzard a few months back as it was just "barely profitable" - what a dick, I find it hard to believe Mike had any input in choosing this asshat, glad he's out of there.
 
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p3scR3Z.jpg



Yeah.... Blizzard will be ok..


RIP

She's a studio head. Not a freaking game designer.

Her promotion is as a consequence of her management of the people employed by the studio. Studio managers aren't actively involved at all in the creative design of video games. And thank fuck they aren't.

Why on earth would you think a studio manager has anything to do with game design?... WTF?!?
 


- Brack was too nice and lacked leadership abilities
- Ybarra is a real gamer
- Seniority leadership didn't work out for Blizzard
- Kotick is a shark but investors love him
- Bobby emphasizes on the scandal to take over Blizzard
- Brack got shafted by Bobby
 

Nobody_Important

“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
Right on cue.
What was he directly involved then?
He never properly disciplined Afrasiabi. The lawsuit said that he only gave him slaps on the wrist like "verbal counseling" despite what he was doing to female coworkers. You can't have that level of inaction for such a serious issue. It only leads to more problems.


That's not including all the other shit that has happened under his watch. The guy was likely on his way out soon before any of this came out.
 
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Barakov

Gold Member
Brack is gone? Thank god. After the Blitzchung thing, he deserved all the hate he gets. I don't dare to hope that things will magically improve over night at Blizzard especially since they're still shackled to Activision.

At the very least, Blizzard will have leaders that re-right the ship and quality of their games will improve.
 
He never properly disciplined Afrasiabi. The lawsuit said that he only gave him slaps on the wrist like "verbal counseling" despite what he was doing to female coworkers. You can't have that level of inaction for such a serious issue. It only leads to more problems.

You can't just nuke long-standing company leadership over a few insensitive remarks. He tried talking to him first, which is what every sensible human would do. When things didn't get better, he fired him last year. What more do you want?
Being too benign is a far cry from being "directly involved" in the harassment.

That's not including all the other shit that has happened under his watch. The guy was likely on his way out soon before any of this came out.

Shifting goalposts already?
 
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Blizzard will be fully rolled into Activision soon anyway probably, the name forgotten and Bobby remaining Boss of all and getting all the money.

Unfortunately, Kotick is an even bigger as*hole. Dude fired a company flight attendant for not putting out:

Madvig alleged sexual harassment and wrongful termination. She allegedly refused to be Berg's "arm candy" at dinners and other events. The lawsuit said that Berg compelled her to clean the plane's toilets repeatedly while "leering" at her.
She claimed that after complaining, she was fired by Kotick, who allegedly told her: "The guys are unhappy with the hostile environment."

But whatever, the online-mob doesn't care and neither do investors so long as stock is climbing.
 


Do we really need Asmongold's opinion on every topic about Blizzard? Dude makes so much money just playing videogames, this grift of simping for Zepla and trashing Blizz at every opportunity is entirely unnecessary. Especially considering all the ignorant and dumb shit he's said over the years, it is pretty funny seeing him "ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED" by the alleged actions by Blizzard employees. It's literally just commentary from a WoW player. We have plenty of those here, what makes these videos necessary to post?

I like watching his channel sometimes but this cucking for him is getting out of hand. You're better than that, SH.
Glad Brack's gone though.
 

DragonNCM

Member
Brack is gone? Thank god. After the Blitzchung thing, he deserved all the hate he gets. I don't dare to hope that things will magically improve over night at Blizzard especially since they're still shackled to Activision.

At the very least, Blizzard will have leaders that re-right the ship and quality of their games will improve.
You are wrong, they sold their soul as soon Activision got their hand's on Blizzard's neck. From there all things got downhill.
I doubt leadership at Blizzard was the real problem......................
 

Nobody_Important

“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
You can't just nuke long-standing company leadership over a few insensitive remarks.
You are intentionally trying to downplay it because of your own personal viewpoint on this kind of stuff. Go read the lawsuit again. It was more than a simple "few insensitive remarks". There was a clear pattern of behavior and multiple incidents and complaints. So Brack being in the position that he was could have and should have done more. Afrasiabi being there a long time doesn't magically shield him from something like this. Harassment is harassment. Full stop. It doesn't matter who does it. He was in the position to actually do something and he had every right to given what was going on. And he didn't. That's on him. By all accounts he was not a bad person or anything. So I am not trying to paint Brack as some loathsome individual like the other people mentioned in the suit and the surrounding stories of harassment. He just seemingly lacked the initiative and the backbone that someone in that kind of position requires. He didn't wanna be the "bad guy" by the sounds of it.


And it's not "moving goalposts" to mention the other stuff that has occurred under his watch since he got there while we are talking about him getting fired. Him being involved with the Afrasiabi situation is the biggest problem obviously, but it was not the only one. It would be shortsighted to ignore everything else.
 
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