Activision Blizzard’s Toxic Underbelly Exposed with State of California’s Lawsuit; Details of Workplace Harassment and “Frat Boy” Culture
By: Sean Duffy, Content Writer with VotingSmarter
On July 20th of this year, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard that alleged a toxic “frat boy” culture had permeated throughout the corporation. Sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and abuse were targeted at women for years within its offices. Activision Blizzard, who are a publishing giant within the video game industry, is at the head of games like “World of Warcraft,” “Overwatch,” “Candy Crush,” and the “Call of Duty” franchise. Even if you have never played video games, it is very likely that you might have some passing knowledge of Activision Blizzard. For years, Blizzard was seen as the industry darlings. They had released only the best in quality, with bonafide classics to further cement a legacy of greatness. Yet, that greatness has slowly crumbled at their feet. Pure incompetence and malice have exposed the toxic underbelly that is video game development and the tech industry as a whole. This lawsuit exemplified the unaccountability or indifference by leadership to change their own toxic culture and became so heinous the government needed to step in.
In this section, I believe it is incredibly essential to specifically highlight what these accusations entail, as “frat boy” culture might actually underplay how awful it was. Also, before we deep dive into this, it is salient to point out that Blizzard and Activision used to be separate companies, with the two merging in 2008 and with the allegations against Blizzard dating to before the merger. To be clear, this is not to downplay Activision’s role in this situation and their mishandlings.
(Content Warning: harassment, rape, and suicide)
The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing’s investigation of two years culminated with various examples of unwarranted and despicable workplace behavior, all of which have been pulled directly from their filing. One such example was the frequent “cube crawls.”
“In the office, women are subjected to “cube crawls” in which male employees drink copious [amounts] of alcohol as they “crawl” their way through various cubicles in the office and often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees. Male employees proudly come into work hungover, play video games for long periods of time during work while delegating their responsibilities to female employees, engage in banter about their sexual encounters, talk openly about female bodies and joke about rape.” (page 4)
“Female employees are subjected to constant sexual harassment, including having to continually fend off unwanted sexual comments and advances by their male co-workers and supervisors and being groped at the “cube crawls” and other company events. High-ranking executives and creators engaged in blatant sexual harassment without repercussions.” (page 4)
Women were also continuously given lower pay and promoted more slowly than their male counterparts.
“These discriminatory practices began at hire when women were offered lower compensation and less lucrative job assignments and opportunities than their male counterparts.”The” Defendants paid female employees significantly less in starting pay than their male counterparts at hire.” (page 11)
“The pay disparity continued throughout employment for female employees.”The” Defendants paid female employees significantly less than their male counterparts after hire.” (page 11)
“…a female employee who worked for Blizzard Entertainment was assigned to a lower level, denied equal pay, and passed over for a promotion despite multiple factors that suggest she earned it: (1) highly rated performance reviews; (2) she generated significantly more revenue in her marketing campaigns than her male counterpart; and (3) she ran almost twice as many campaigns as her male counterpart. Despite her accomplishments, her male counterpart was invited to have monthly or weekly one-on-one meetings with the Vice President. She was not afforded these same opportunities and unsurprisingly was passed over for a promotion in favor of her male counterpart.” (page 12)
“…A newly promoted male supervisor delegated his responsibilities to his now female subordinates in favor of playing Call of Duty. Other male supervisors would refuse to communicate with female employees, going to their male counterparts for information.” (page 12)
One of the most heinous accusations resulted in a female employee taking her own life.
“In a tragic example of the harassment that ”the” Defendants allowed to fester in their offices, a female employee committed suicide while on a company trip due to a sexual relationship that she had been having with her male supervisor. The male supervisor was found by police to have brought a butt plug and lubricant on this business trip. Another employee confirmed that the deceased female employee may have been suffering from other sexual harassment at work prior to her death. Specifically, at a holiday party before her death, male co-workers were alleged to be passing around a picture of the deceased’s vagina.” (page 15)
Alex Afrasiabi, one of the only people mentioned by name in the lawsuit, was the former Senior Creative Director of World of Warcraft at Blizzard Entertainment. His allegations are so pervasive that it spans years, with many higher-ups having active knowledge of his misdeeds. Yet, they kept letting it slide. One such example was his “Cosby Suite.” This Kotaku article covers how Afrasiabi and friends had their own suite, which they proudly dubbed after Bill Cosby, even having a framed picture of the convicted actor. Afrasiabi was also notorious for being very “handsy” toward women at conferences, enough so that others would warn female employees to stay away from Afrasiabi. Yet, he was never reprimanded. After numerous HR complaints against him, spanning years and interventions by superiors, and still, Afrasiabi exhibited inappropriate behavior.
The culture of Blizzard was and is exemplary of a broader issue in the business and tech industry. Places like Uber, or fellow gaming giant Riot Games have been accused of similar scenarios. The gaming industry is notorious for terrible working conditions and a toxic culture that thrives on taking advantage of people’s passions. They know that many designers strive to make video games, a passion for many, only to be churned out by a terrible work culture. While this culture has been allowed to fester for decades, this incident could be the final linchpin that changes the industry for the better.
Blizzard employees staged a walkout on July 28th, with their letter of intent calling out the higher-ups and demanding change. With this walkout came overwhelming support by others in the industry and by the mainstream at large. Talks of unionization have also sprung up between Blizzard employees. Although executives did not take these rumors lightly, one of the few actions taken after the lawsuit dropped was to hire the same union-busting firm that Amazon employs to deter workers from unionizing. Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision, also finally spoke out, decrying previous responses and assuring that things would change. Coincidently, this statement came after Activision Blizzard’s stock began a downward trend. It is also important to note that Kotick lost a sexual harassment lawsuit back in 2010. But he’s very sorry for his subordinates' “tone deaf” response and promises to change an issue that had been known and prevalent from the top-down.
This behavior will only change with structural change. The way the industry is handled needs to change radically, and one way is for employees to band together. Unionization has been at the forethought for years, yet this theoretical straw could bring about real action towards that. This is not something that can be handled individually. Exemplified by this exact story; with individual action being actively swept under the rug by HR and higher-ups at Activision Blizzard. It is unacceptable that sexism, discrimination, and grueling working conditions are still present within many budding industries. A toxic culture can only be remedied from the top-down.
Activision Blizzard is far from the only offender, and numerous other female developers have had the courage to come out after these most recent allegations with their own stories of abuse. Hopefully, this brings about industry change, because no one deserves to be taken advantage of, and companies must recognize the unstable and toxic environments they have created.
