Editor’s Note: A lawsuit has been filed against Activision Blizzard by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which alleges the company has engaged in abuse, discrimination, and retaliation against its female employees. Activision Blizzard has denied the allegations. The full details of the Activision Blizzard lawsuit (content warning: rape, suicide, abuse, harassment) are being updated as new information becomes available.
Content warning: The following article and links contain references to rape, suicide, verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and harassment.
Players of Overwatch want character Jesse McCree to be renamed or removed after evidence arose that his apparent namesake, a Blizzard level designer, was seemingly involved workplace misconduct. Overwatch is the most recent of the developer's games to attract online attention following the filing of a California government agency lawsuit against Activision Blizzard.
Some Activision Blizzard employees and executives came under increased scrutiny once details of the lawsuit surfaced, which has also led players to more closely analyze the publisher’s games. It’s commonplace for assets, characters, and more to be named after a game’s real-life developers, but in light of the allegations leveled against Activision Blizzard leadership, some of these references now seem in poor taste. Blizzard recently announced the removal of inappropriate references in World of Warcraft after the game’s former creative director, Alex Afrasiabi, was named in the lawsuit.
Overwatch could be altered next, as Dexerto reports players are requesting McCree’s name be changed or the character be removed. Along with that of the playable Overwatch character, Jesse McCree is the name of World of Warcraft's lead level designer. As documented by Kotaku and later shared on Twitter by Overbuff, McCree appears to have been involved in the "BlizzCon Cosby Crew," an alleged club within Blizzard accused of perpetuating sexual misconduct at the company. In a group chat screenshotted and posted to Facebook by former WoW creative director Alex Afrasiabi, former Blizzard designer David Kosak said, "I am gathering the hot chixx for the Coz." Afrasiabi replied, "Bring em," to which Kosak responded, "You can’t marry ALL of them Alex." McCree then said, "You misspelled f[**]k."
Click here to see Overbuff's tweets.
Despite reported work stoppages, slowdowns, and the July 28 Activision Blizzard employee walkout, Blizzard's communications about removing offensive developer references in WoW indicate similar changes could come to its other games soon. It's possible McCree could be removed or changed in the game's sequel, as Overwatch 2 character redesigns have already been confirmed. However, Activision Blizzard could also feasibly do so via updates before the undated sequel's release.
Overwatch players, of course, aren't the only ones who want to see meaningful changes at Activision Blizzard. Since the lawsuit's filing, some of the company's former and current staff made their opinions on their workplace and its leadership heard. Prior to the walkout demonstration, nearly 1,000 Activision Blizzard employees signed an open letter calling for greater corporate accountability and reworked policies after official Activision Blizzard responses to the lawsuit's allegations failed to meet their standards.
Source: Overbuff/Twitter (via Dexerto), Kotaku
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