Do you have any idea how many organisms had to die in the 3 billion years it took your brain to evolve?
Jina. It’s degrees of separation.
Resetera forums has a thoughtful sticky thread on suggestions how to deal with this:
I appreciate everyone’s replies that have helped make my point to @tomchick. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism indeed.
No one has the high ground.
Yeah, we’re all free to indiscriminately consume! Rejoice!
Correct.
This makes me very sad, but I guess shouldn’t be a surprise. I just hoped things would have changed more. They have in some places. My husband is about to retire, but a manager at a tech firm HQed in CA. None of the things in this thread, including taking the bait on the shirt at the conference would fly at that company.
My sister though works at a major network company, and if you use their hardware and are a major customer and call in with an emergency down or breach, you might end up with her as your expert. Some of the sub-groups in her area of that company are very “bro culture” still.
There is some truth to there being a level at which you will put up with it to get the degree then paycheck, then resume, then hopefully promotions. But I remember hearing from several women I mentored into tech decades ago that many did think they just had to put up with all of it. Until they ran into me. Finding I had been generally successful at pushing back once it got past a certain point was a revelation back then. I’d also learned at puberty that “it can and will happen to me”, so I had that internal hurdle out of the way.
The thing that really bothers me about your post is the gaming industry as a whole. Back when I got an education, gaming specific degrees did not exist. If my expertise was useful in gaming, it was useful elsewhere. Now that is not really the case. Student debt is also often much higher.
Combine that with some women still thinking that the only option is to just take it if they want a career in that field. And well, I took a while to answer as that is just depressing. In gaming, right now, that may also be a correct statement. Which is an even more depressing thought.
The thing at Blizzard that gets me is where were the men who don’t think this is ok? In my career the bad guys were usually male, but so were the good guys, since usually everyone but me was male. That goes to the suit pointing out it was a cultural problem. Not just a few bad apples that got promoted unwisely.
Ha!
Most excellent.
Oh, is that what they were doing? Helping you make your point? Good thing they came along, huh?
Look, if you want to continue to support Activision, that’s your prerogative. But don’t pretend you don’t have a choice. That’s even more cowardly than backing out of a bet.
I’m still waiting for you to enlighten me. Maybe some of the people in the thread who helped you make your point can help you out here?
-Tom
The story very much makes it sound like the issue at Blizzard was an all encompassing, cultural one, while in other stories it’s more specific people.
@tomchick You don’t seem to understand what I said. There is no way for me to prove to you that everyone who made a game you’ve played in 2021 is some paragon of virtue. It is also true that I cannot prove they are not. People are shitty everywhere, and you often don’t know that until years after they’ve been shitty. And when thousands of people come together to make things, there are both shitty and non-shitty people among them. Your method is to say, “They all are awful! I will not give them my money!”
I simply say, “I like videogames and these are the ones I want to play.” I’m not “supporting” anyone. I’m just playing videogames. Yes, I could (and do) play others. I don’t think that my money is changing their culture or not if I don’t provide it, which is obviously in evidence by the amount of money the company continues to make.
As these stories have come out though, the company is being forced through lawsuit and public pressure to attempt some change internally, specifically where Blizzard is concerned. They also have the money and success to actually do that where many other companies wouldn’t. The positive side of the discussion here is that now the rock is turned over, this specific company can afford to revamp their policies and make it better, especially for all those people who are still there and have made and will continue to make great videogames.
But again, the reason I said what I did about a bet is that I already knew it’s unprovable. Until someone sticks their foot in their mouth on social media or in public at a convention or whatever, you just don’t know what your favorite videogame maker is like. And once you do know, you can choose your path or you can choose mine. I personally don’t see my path any more or less company changing than yours. I’m sure there are many folks making Call of Duty or Overwatch that are great people. How do you reconcile this?
I’m sure your glass house is made of the finest glass that can never be broken. I figured out for myself long ago that throwing stones eventually means mine gets busted no matter how strong the material. I make inroads where I can actually support people that I can reach. Years of coaching youth sports and supporting youth activities have been my primary place to encourage change, but when it comes to videogames, I already know this shit is everywhere. You can’t avoid it. Just play the games you want to and support the actual people if you know them that are taken advantage of.
The games in my mind are almost always better
I am interested in your stance on an Activision/Blizzard boycott.
Is it because of the recent allegations? Or other corporate business practices?
It’s definitely convenient how “ethical” is a binary state with no shades of gray in this formulation. That way everything’s equally bad and we can do whatever we want.
It was because of Blitzchung. He did a very informative video on it a year and a half ago.
Put me in the “we are all compromised, but that doesn’t mean we should always throw up our hands” camp.
we have red in our ledger?
IE, it’s easy to boycott developers of games I don’t play.
That’s the simplest option. Yes.
The first rule of the Boycott Club is that you don’t join the Boycott Club?