As there’s soon to be an Activision Blizzard-shaped hole in my heart due to the powers that be, let’s see what fresh hell is getting cooked up at Ubisoft!

A Better Ubisoft, a collective of current and ex Ubisoft workers to end abuse in the company and gaming industry, have posted criticisms of how a recent internal Ubisoft survey only discussed via summary video with few to no specific claims about employee satisfaction (the supposed goal of the survey). The video was shared internally amongst Ubisoft employees, narrated by Anika Grant.

“With the exception of participation and engagement scores, the talking points were delivered with no numbers […] there were vague statements like, ‘You told us…’ or ‘We heard from you..’ This gives no way of knowing whether the statement that ‘you have managers who are approachable and supportive’ means 95% feel this way or 51% — starkly different outcomes”. – A Better Ubisoft.

Why So Vague iBhard? Saying some issues in the survey were “above the external benchmarks for general industry” and then preceding to not elaborate in the slightest isn’t exactly the best look. Needless to say, this ain’t it chief Grant!

Ironic that you allegedly admitted the largest issues brought up in the survey were about transparency and accountability… And then didn’t give a single second of lip-service to the 4 key demands A Better Ubisoft has been making for the last 200 days. The key demands still haven’t been met and Ubisoft employee requests for the survey results are pending.

There have also been reports of past internal message threads with the company being ignored, even after times Ubisoft itself explicitly asked for worker feedback on things.

This Paragraph Was Written By A Racially Diverse Team Made Up Of Various Faiths, Genders and Orientations, So How Could We Possibly Be Bad? Said Ubisoft to literally any criticism of internal systematic racism, sexism, homophobia and harassment! In a world where the folks at PlayStation managed to fire a major figure at the company for attempted kiddy-fiddling within HOURS, there’s literally no excuse for abusers like Hughues Ricour, Tommy Francois or Adrien Gbinigie to maintain high positions of employment after allegations that would make Harvey Weinstein blush!

And don’t even get me started on the “female characters are more difficult and expensive to animate” debacle from a couple years back, but sufficient to say, it’s a lot less expensive when you divert your budget from jiggle-physics to internal networking to replace known abusers you should’ve fired years ago.

And with that legally mandated anti-corporate ventilation out of the way, it’s Product Poem time baby:

WW3, 2o22! Numerical spoonerism!

Gran Turismo 7. Vrewm. Shooty shooty bang-bang? Doom

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The post Ubisoft And The Suspicious Survey! first appeared on Get2Gaming.

🎵It’s a horrible day in the gamerhood, a horrible game for a gamer, would you be mine, could you be mine🎵

To briefly recap for any readers new to the saga of Activision Blizzard (trigger warning for brief discussion of sexual assault): It was revealed many of the higher-ups there regularly harassed and assaulted women and people of color, California took Activision to court over the allegations and worker misconduct, other concerns have been raised (to put it mildy) and investigations are ongoing. Also heard a particularly attractive and galaxy-mega-brained gamer boi wrote on why firing CEO Bobby Kotick would go a long way to undoing much of the issues with Activision. I mean, if the folks at Sony can fire someone a day after finding out they’re an alleged nonce, then this should be a piece of pudding!

Back to the news: One Activision employee known as Christine (her real/full name is hidden due to privacy concerns) discussed her work history at Activision Blizzard, describing her experiences of sexual harassment at the company to her attorney Lisa Bloom. Spotted by Dexerto, Christine’s discussion occurred at the Activision main offices.

Among her claims, Christine stated her dream was to work for the company and confirm she still continues to. She also discussed not wanting to come forward with her experiences at Blizzard, while recognizing that open conversation about the issues at hand is an important part of trying to change things for the better.

In Christine’s four years of work at Activision Blizzard, she has experienced:

• Unwanted sexual advancements and suggestions of casual sex from peers and superiors.
• Groping.
• Verbal abuse regarding her body.
• Forced to come on the company’s “cube crawls”.
• On reporting the harassment to other supervisors, being met with claims they were “just joking” and “just trying to be friends”.
• After the initial reports to her superiors, Christine was demoted and denied full profit-sharing and shares in the company.

I represent a Blizzard employee who alleges she's a victim of sexual harassment. Our press release for our press conference tomorrow at the Irvine headquarters where we will demand accountability for the victims who have been subjected to harassment at the video game company: pic.twitter.com/0PisZ1Zomr

— Lisa Bloom (@LisaBloom) December 7, 2021

After a press conference on December 8th, Lisa Bloom made three demands on behalf of harassed Activision employees.

1: Activision’s current piddly little legal fund of $18 million is chump change compared to the hundreds the higher-ups make! Raise the fund “in excess of $100 million”.

2: Victim advocates should “participate in setting the rules”, you know, because the same harassers being in charge of an anti-harassment workplace committee works better as a dark joke than a real solution!

3: Bring on a better apology to your harassed employees, none of that namby-pamby “what a mistaker-to-maker” bullhockey.

Not long after, an Activision spokesperson gave a statement praising Christine’s bravery and apologizing for the workplace culture that lead to the commonness of these harassment experiences at Activision. 

Bloom also suggested getting “a neutral third party” to gauge the career damages to Activision employees.

Key sources include Dexerto and Lisa Bloom’s official Instagram coverage of the press conference, which I recommend viewing. Follow the socials for A Better ABK and make your voice heard.

Happy Goneday folks!

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The post Activision Blizzard Employee Demoted For Harassment Report first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Comrade Australia? FINALLY, some good industry news!

Was not expecting a progressive move in the gaming industry coming from the country notorious for banning and overly-censoring its fair share of 18+ games, but hey, you win some you lose some.

Game Workers Unite Australia, formerly an advisory and support group, has now announced it will be forming a proper union as of 2021. Game Workers Unite Australia has also partnered up with Professionals Australia (an umbrella union also covering scientists and non-gaming related workers).

Now, the GWUA is now officially part of the international GWU movement, which was endorsed by Bernie Sanders during his election campaign. Considering the rise of issues in the gaming industry becoming progressively more recognized and discussed, Australia’s new union will hopefully be a step in the right direction for giving workers the ability to fight back against workplace abuse. Again, not to put too fine a point, but there’s a reason why a certain “Bobbert Kotique” and other similarly rich CEOs generally aren’t big on the idea of employees having a say in holding company individuals accountable.

Click here and follow the official Game Workers Unite Australia Twitter account if you want to keep up to date with the folks working there.

A couple days ago, Game Workers Unite posted an announcement which covers its GWU Australia policies, how it will work as a sub-division of Professionals Australia and a ‘tiered membership package just for game workers’. There is currently no confirmed timeframe for launch, but plans for official recognition are being arranged.

The announcement also promises the following:

• ‘Access to support, services and solidarity that will help you at your workplace’.
• ‘Take legal action to defend our members against underpayments, discrimination and bullying’ and ‘organise collective agreements at workplaces’.
• ‘Lobby governments and industry on an equal playing field with studio owners and publishers’.
• Continuing to provide the free advisory benefits it has been running up until now, even after becoming officially recognized as a worker’s union.

Game Workers Unite Australia currently provides support to people working in various game industry roles, including game developers, journalists, streamers, game marketing and PR, community managers, and pro players.

Product Poems:

There is no Street Fighter Five in Ba Sing Se. Shirt? What shirt? God, no!

How much clout could a Cloudpunk punk if a Cloudpunk could punk cloud… Try saying that three-times fast!

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The post Australia Launches It’s First Game Industry Union! first appeared on Get2Gaming.