WoW will take away ‘inappropriate references’ following California lawsuit | Engadget

The official World of Warcraft Twitter account has announced that it’ll take fast motion to “remove references that are not appropriate for [its] world.” While it did not elaborate on what these references are, they could pertain to in-game components linked to its senior artistic director Alex Afrasiabi, as Kotaku has famous. Afrasiabi was singled out within the lawsuit filed by California authorities accusing Activision Blizzard of fostering a “frat boy” tradition that is turn out to be a “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.”

According to the lawsuit, Afrasiabi is understood for hitting on and touching feminine workers inappropriately in plain view of different male workers who would attempt to intervene and cease him. He apparently has such a infamous popularity inside the firm that his suite was nicknamed the “Crosby Suite after alleged rapist Bill Crosby.”(The lawsuit has misspelled Bill Cosby’s identify.) In addition, executives allegedly knew about his habits however “took no effective remedial measures.” Blizzard President J. Allen Brack talked to him a number of instances, the lawsuit reads, however gave Afiasiabi a slap on the wrist for the incidents.

Activision Blizzard denied the accusations within the lawsuit and stated it “includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past” in its preliminary response. Executive Vice President Fran Townsend informed workers in a memo that the lawsuit “presented a distorted and untrue picture of [the] company, including factually incorrect, old and out of context stories.”

A gaggle of over 800 Activision Blizzard workers decried the corporate’s response to the accusations as “abhorrent and insulting.” They wrote in an open letter: “Categorizing the claims that have been made as ‘distorted, and in many cases false’ creates a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims.” At least 50 workers working within the firm’s predominant workplace in California are actually planning a walkout on Wednesday to protest the corporate’s actions and to demand higher working circumstances for girls.

In WoW’s announcement, it stated the choice to take away inappropriate components was made with the intention to rebuild belief. It admitted that it should earn folks’s belief with its “actions in the weeks and months to come,” although it did not say what different steps the corporate intends to absorb response to the lawsuit’s allegations. 

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