In a tweet by Warcraft Senior System Designer Jeff Hamilton, very little people at Blizzard are working on anything related to World of Warcraft at the moment.
Hamilton stated the following:
OK. I’m still hopeful my team will make a statement, but Activision’s statement was terrible, so here’s what I believe. I know many of my colleagues believe this as well:
I believe strongly in equal treatment and equal protection. Regardless of gender or race, everyone deserves a safe and supportive environment in which to work and live.
Our society at large is often not equal, and people with less systemic power due to marginalization need more systemic protection to ensure their fair treatment. It is clear that Human Resources has failed at this systemic protection.
I am viscerally disgusted by the horrible trauma that has been inflicted upon my coworkers, friends, and colleagues.
I find Activision’s corporate response wholly unacceptable. I don’t stand by it, any of it. It is evil to usurp a victim’s story into a rhetorical bludgeon, and it is abhorrent to reply to these accusations with anything other than a well-thought-out plan to correct these abuses.
I don’t know what to do. I don’t have all the answers. I can tell you, almost no work is being done on World of Warcraft right now while this obscenity plays out. And that benefits nobody – not the players, not the developers, not the shareholders.
This is directly related to a recent lawsuit filed by California Department of Fair Employment and Housing against Activision Blizzard for alleged gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and a “frat boy” work culture.
