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WoW Will Remove 'Inappropriate References' Following California Lawsuit (engadget.com) 82

Posted by BeauHD from the impending-changes dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: The official World of Warcraft Twitter account has announced that it will take immediate action to "remove references that are not appropriate for [its] world." While it didn't elaborate on what those references are, they may pertain to in-game elements connected to its senior creative director Alex Afrasiabi, as Kotaku has noted. Afrasiabi was singled out in the lawsuit filed by California authorities accusing Activision Blizzard of fostering a "frat boy" culture that's become a "breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women."

According to the lawsuit, Afrasiabi is known for hitting on and touching female employees inappropriately in plain view of other male employees who would try to intervene and stop him. He apparently has such a notorious reputation within the company that his suite was nicknamed the "Crosby Suite after alleged rapist Bill Crosby."(The lawsuit has misspelled Bill Cosby's name.) In addition, executives allegedly knew about his behavior but "took no effective remedial measures." Blizzard President J. Allen Brack talked to him a few times, the lawsuit reads, but gave Afiasiabi a slap on the wrist for the incidents. In response to the lawsuit and the company's "abhorrent and insulting" response to the accusations, some 800+ Activision Blizzard employees are staging a walkout on Wednesday, July 28th.

You can read the full message from the Warcraft team here.
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WoW Will Remove 'Inappropriate References' Following California Lawsuit More

WoW Will Remove 'Inappropriate References' Following California Lawsuit

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  • whats racist? (Score:3)

    by ixidor ( 996844 ) on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @09:18AM (#61629545) Homepage
    i haven't been to azeroth in awhile .. i don't remember anything particularly sexist/racist/*ist... anyone have an example?

    • Re: whats racist? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by e3m4n ( 947977 )
      I fail to see what in-game elements have anything to do with a culture of behavior in an office environment. Are they literally saying the in-game animation turned them into sexual predators? Isnt this the same people that insists violent video games DONT make you commit real life violence? So sexually suggestive video games turn you into a rapist but simulated blood and gore doesnt turn you into a violent person. Got it. How do these fucking people look at themselves in the mirror and not see the hypocrit

      • Nothing, but WoW was already hemorrhaging subscribers badly. This is the execs throwing anything at the wall in order to keep the problem that was already there prior to these charges from getting worse.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tragedy ( 27079 )

        They don't specify what in-game details. It's entirely possible it could be things specifically intended to harass specific women at Blizzard.

      • I have nothing but doubt regarding these accusations. How can I possibly believe that a degenerate frat boy culture decided that Jaina was showing far too much cleavage or that the Succubus was far to sexualized to allow it to remain in hearthstone? Every contest they have is bathed in woke bullshit.
        Either the accusations are lies or these are the most woke frat boys imaginable.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sinij ( 911942 )
      Haven't you heard, killing orcs is racist [nationalreview.com], so Blizzard better remove them.

    • Re:whats racist? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Myrv ( 305480 ) on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @11:38AM (#61630161)

      My guess is they're likely just planning to remove any references to Afrasiabi from the game. From wowpedia:

      There are many references to Afrasiabi, and his characters Furor Planedefiler and Kariel in Warcraft, usually referencing "Foror". "Tigule" is a reference to Jeffrey Kaplan, whose alias is Tigole. Afrasiabi and Kaplan were both members of high-end EverQuest guilds, explaining the many references to "Tigule and Foror".

      Pathstalker Kariel, Skeletal Remains of Kariel Winthalus ( [Libram of Rapidity]), [Alex's Ring of Audacity], [Peep's Whistle], Foror's Compendium of Dragon Slaying, Foror's Eyepatch, [Foror's Crate of Endless Resist Gear Storage], [Foror's Wipe Neutralizer], Tigule and Foror's Strawberry Ice Cream, Autographed Picture of Foror & Tigule, Fras Siabi's Advertisement, Alliance Field Marshal Afrasiabi, Mob Fras Siabi (The Great Fras Siabi, Siabi's Premium Tobacco), Neutral Lord Afrasastrasz, Fras Siabi's Postbox Key, Fras Siabi's Smoked Cologne, Fras Siabi's Cigar Cutter, Fras Siabi's Barely Bigger Beer, Brain Freeze

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        These are the two guys Blizzard hired for WoW after being big-time end-game players on EverQuest. The name "Tigole" comes from his original EverQuest character name, "Tigole Bitties" - maybe a hint of their level of respect for women.
  • Lol, the misspelled Bill Cosby, that's just glorious!

  • "alleged rapist Bill Crosby" (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @09:37AM (#61629649)
    That's Bing Crosby, the guy that Microsoft's search engine was named after, you insensitive clods!

    • Re:"alleged rapist Bill Crosby" (Score:5, Funny)

      by lazarus ( 2879 ) on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @09:55AM (#61629741) Journal

      The most amazing comment I've read on Slashdot since Neil Diamond set foot on the moon.

    • That's funny. What is even funnier is that law firms and/or spend a *ton* of money drafting these complaints. You're going to be submitting them to a judge and the judge's team. You want to look professional. You want to look like you know exactly what you are doing. Most judges try to be impartial, but mistakes like this start raising red flags in their mind. If it was a law firm submitting it, they'd have a team go over every line to make sure it all made sense.

      For an extreme example - a few years ago a l

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sheph ( 955019 )
        I have no doubt it was intentionally misspelled to avoid potential legal action from Bill Cosby.
  • I don't see any customers asking for this and I expect this company to crumble into dust like so many others that have done this kind of thing. No one wants this.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sinij ( 911942 )
      Stopping misbehaving executive is one thing, but I have zero doubt that response would be proportionate. This is Trojan Horse in GG war and "remove 'inappropriate references'" is a clear sign of the enemy action.

  • Weinstein, Afrasiabi & Co. need intense therap (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @09:46AM (#61629711)

    Listening to the accounts of Weinsteins rape victims has me astonished at how blind most people including feminists are when debating these issues. Weinstein is ugly as f*ck, had a perfect 10 wife (probably more for show than anything else) and behaved like an out-of-control immature teenager when clawing for the ladies in his inner circle. Any regular functioning big hulky ugly and obscenely rich and powerful man like him would've gotten themselves a pr0nstar (or two or three) as girlfriend, wife and mistress, had all the sex he could've ever wanted in his life, cancelled anyone in Hollywood who made a stupid remark about it out of their career (he had that power) and called it a day.

    What we have instead is a bizarre personality mix in hyper-competitive a-holes that are stoogy whiny wussies at the same time when it comes to ladies. Say what you will, and Weinstein may rot in prison for the damage he's done, but from a broader perspective these guys are mentally ill, need mental care and need to be sorted away from positions that enable them. ...
    I can't help but suspect these problems are a bit of a USA thing, given its puritan roots and the public sillyness involved everytime it's about the naked parts. ... That's just a suspicion though.

    So by and large things are going the right way, but pasting these sort of incidents on masculinity in general is flat-out retarded, given the mental state of these perpetrators.

    • Re:Weinstein, Afrasiabi & Co. need intense the (Score:4, Insightful)

      by prisoner-of-enigma ( 535770 ) on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @10:41AM (#61629945) Homepage

      Listening to the accounts of Weinsteins rape victims has me astonished at how blind most people including feminists are when debating these issues. Weinstein is ugly as f*ck, had a perfect 10 wife (probably more for show than anything else) and behaved like an out-of-control immature teenager when clawing for the ladies in his inner circle. Any regular functioning big hulky ugly and obscenely rich and powerful man like him would've gotten themselves a pr0nstar (or two or three) as girlfriend, wife and mistress, had all the sex he could've ever wanted in his life, cancelled anyone in Hollywood who made a stupid remark about it out of their career (he had that power) and called it a day.

      I think you misunderstand the psychology behind creatures like Weinstein. It is not about sex. Most rapists don't rape because they want sex. It is about power, control, dominance, and ego...all traits Weinstein relished in and was allowed by Hollywood culture to exercise in the open. Everyone knew what he was doing, but they pretended not to know because Weinstein wielded immense power in the Hollywood machine. Cross him and your acting career could immediately be ended, sort of a bizarre "cancel culture" effect but in the hands of one man.

      • Weinstein was also famous for re-editing films against the director's wishes, just look at this article from 2013 (well before the public accusations) [grantland.com].

        He thrived off of wielding his power over others, sex was just a particularly harmful way for him to exercise that power. I wouldn't be shocked if he enjoyed being unattractive around actresses since it was just more evidence of his power.

      • It is definitely at least partially about sex. Why don't they ever try to rape an ugly woman?
        • It's not as though sex is not involved at all, but sex as a motive is more of a front or excuse. A woman who is generally considered attractive by others represents power; to "have" (control) her is to be powerful in the eyes of others. Such a predator certainly will target an "ugly" woman if she also represented power in some way. In Lacanian psychoanalysis, the woman represents the phallus; the predatory man wants to control her in order to own his own corrupt concept of masculinity (as dominance and cont
  • The regional president for the company I work for is related to the founder. The company has had to settle tons of lawsuits around his behavior. While doing tech work for a sales agent once she wasn't happy with the company's policy on some minor thing. She say, just a minute and I'll call X. She whips out her personal phone and calls. Overall the policy didn't get changed, but it was of no surprise that the attractive, blonde, big boobed sales agent had a direct line to this guy (practically no other
  • It's been a while since I played WoW, but the only really sexual thing about the game that I remember was that, as armor scaled up in usefulness, the more skin it showed on females. -- But that was a staple in almost every MMO and fantasy game, and not something Blizzard-exclusive.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hawk ( 1151 )

      I think the novel Heroing that gave a matter of fact explanation of the full body protection offered by the chainmail bra . . .

      Actually, the whole book was kind of fun as it mocked such things.

  • In this age of information chaos, even if something is vaguely then true it can be used to absolutely destroy it.
    That's not truth at all and its not even close to justice.

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