Activision Blizzard has now admitted that it actually fired the Creative Director of the MMORPG World of Warcraft, Alex Afrasiabi, in 2020. He was named in the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard. He is alleged to have sexually harassed women. The focus appears to be primarily on BlizzCon 2013.
This is the situation:
- Alex Afrasiabi was the Chief Creative at World of Warcraft and was considered the story chief and successor to Chris Metzen in this position. He had been with Blizzard since 2004, serving as the Creative Director for Legion and Battle for Azeroth. In 2020, he left Blizzard and the WoW team without much fanfare. There was no statement regarding his dismissal.
- In the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, Afrasiabi is one of only 2 individuals mentioned by name: he is accused of serious sexual misconduct. It is said that his room at BlizzCon was known as the “Cosby Suite,” named after Bill Cosby, who was accused of being a rapist.
- Now Activision Blizzard admits: Alex Afrasiabi did not voluntarily leave the company in 2020; he was fired after an internal investigation.
These were the allegations in the lawsuit against Afrasiabi:
The lawsuit stated: Activision Blizzard allowed Afrasiabi to engage in “extreme sexual harassment.” He reportedly faced “light or no consequences” for his actions.
During BlizzCon, Afrasiabi:
- made advances on female employees
- told women he would marry them
- attempted to kiss them
- tried to put his arms around them.
- harassed women in his hotel room, which was known as the Cosby Suite.
- gave women “demeaning titles” at company events.
As later revealed, the incidents reportedly revolve around BlizzCon 2013.
The lawsuit claims that Blizzard was aware of his behavior. The head of Blizzard, J. Allen Brack, had several conversations with him about his drinking behavior and that he was “too friendly” with female employees at events, but Brack only gave him a slap on the wrist, meaning a verbal reprimand.
Therefore, Afrasiabi continued to pursue women without their consent. This included holding a woman by the hand and inviting her to his hotel room or groping another woman, according to the lawsuit.
“I’m collecting the HOT CHIXX for the COZ”
These new details have now come to light: The US site Kotaku (via Kotaku) has published a report about Afrasiabi’s hotel room, the “Cosby Suite.” There are pictures showing a lot of alcohol; in another photo, male employees pose with a large picture of Bill Cosby.
The juicy part are chat messages where WoW developers talk about bringing “Hot Chicks” to the “Coz,” that is, to the Cosby Suite.
Afrasiabi is then quoted saying “Bring them!” – when he is pointed out that he cannot marry all of them, he says: “Of course I can! I’m from the Middle East.” Another developer then points out that he surely didn’t mean “marry,” but “f*ck.”
It is also concerning that someone like “Greg Street” appears in the chat, who had previously distanced himself from this culture at Blizzard publicly.
This is what Activision Blizzard says: In a statement to Kotaku, Activision Blizzard now states:
“An employee brought the incidents from the event in 2013 to our attention in June 2020. We immediately launched our own investigation and took corrective action. By the time of the report, we had already completed a separate investigation into Alex Afrasiabi and had terminated his employment due to his misconduct towards other employees.”
This aspect of the lawsuit seems to be valid. Blizzard might be in a better position now if they had admitted this in their first statement concerning the lawsuit. However, in their initial statement, they claimed that the lawsuit contained a “twisted, often false representation of Blizzard’s past”:
Activision Blizzard’s response to the sexism lawsuit was terribly wrong
