Bad working states in the video game industry are unfortunately not uncommon, from excess crunch in studios such as Rockstar Games or Naughty Dog to complain against Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard for harassment, discrimination and more.
For some fans, of course, the question arises as to how they should react themselves and what influence they can take as consumers on the development studios and publishers. For some, the logical consequence of the boycott of these companies is. Last but not least, in recent months, HoldubiSoftAccountable and bycottblizzard on Twitter, fans called for each other not to play or buy the games of said companies. This should set a sign of protest against existing states. The idea behind it often: profit is the only thing that great publishers and development studios hear.
However, that not only has the effect of harming the company financially (and is often less effective than hoped) - even the employees themselves are often affected. And usually much harder.
It hurts the people working there
In July 2021, Activision Blizzard was sued by the State US Authority Dfeh for sexual discimination against employees. Specifically, there were allegations of sexual harassment, uneven payment and retaliatory measures against those women who would defend themselves.
In the meantime, the publisher also sees itself even a lawsuit of its own employees to accuse the activision Blizzard union puncture and intimidation.
Since then, the Blizzard boss J. Allen Brack has left the company, Luis Barriga (Diablo 4-Director), Jesse McCree (Diablo 4-Lead Designer) and Jonathan Lecraft (World of Warcraft Designer) followed. The hashtag boycottblizzard landed again in the trends on Twitter through vibrant fans and should not motivate others to play games like Oververtch and World of Warcraft.
In response to the protest, Tami Sigmund, Senior Producer at Blizzard, explained in a Twitter thread that they could understand why people do not want to support a company that does not match their morals. At the same time, she drawn attention to the fact that employees were directly affected when people do not spend more money for games:
If people spend a money for our games, my profit and the height of my bonus is affected. This action could mean that in March, when my maternity leave ends and my child has to care for child care, I do not get the bonus I need To pay child care.
Link to Twitter content
With this statement Sigmund does not seem to be alone. The magazine Axios has spoken with other employees of Activision Blizzard, which do not want to be named namely. Several of them reaffirm that boycotts would harm employees more than the company. Not only do boycotts were therefore ineffective, as simply too few people would attend to worry companies and investors - most of all, positions in developer teams of failing profits are endangered, as a person explains:
It hurts the people who work there, which put their lives in the game and the determined, from Studios [Note d. Red.: Activision Blizzard] and all the game studios to make better places. We can not solve the problems When we are fired and we can not support women when we boycotted all the work they created and create.
boycottblizzard does not get for the first time
Of course, Gamesboycott is no novelty and boycottblizzard is not trying for the first time on Twitter and Co.
Already in October 2019 there was an incident that had triggered negative reactions in the community. Short remembrance: The E-Sportsman Chung Flight Chamber NG Wai had pronounced himself after a victory during a Hearthstone tournament with the Chinese words freed Hong Kong, the revolution of our time for the protests in Hong Kong. Blizzard then imposed a barrier of one year, the flashing to participate in Hearthstone tournaments banned and rejected him the prize money of just under 14,500 euros so far.
Blizzard harvested for this approach a lot of criticism, both of our own employees, as well as fans, who described the boycott of titles like World of Warcraft and Overwatch, as our sister s side Gamestar reported. The strong reaction seemed to show an effect: flashing barrier was reduced to six months and he still got his prize money.
Whether and to what extent the Boycott had part of it (in addition to the negative media attention), of course, can only be speculated. What remains is the question of how for fans of ethical consumption of video games and how they can support the affected developer teams of their favorite games without harming the false people. A simple answer there is probably not. At least in the case of Activision Blizzard, the employees themselves chose the Hashtag actibliwalcout as a sign of their protest, unlike the bycott Blizzard used by fans. So, at least, it is obvious to support the initiatives chosen by those affected, because after all, the protest will ultimately benefit them.
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