Lupi

hi everyone i'm not sure if i'm officially married now that i've signed and dated the paperwork or if i have to drop it off at city hall first but: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

"Writing this piece has been difficult because it feels like Kotick [will] get away with it. That he will ultimately be praised for bringing a historic acquisition in for a landing, and either exit the company and pivot into some form of executive consulting, set for life by financial rewards for the deal, or somehow stick around at Activision Blizzard and reap the benefits of an improved partnership with Microsoft."

If you've been paying attention to the reports of workplace abuses coming out of Activision Blizzard the past few years, Variety's recent profile of Bobby Kotick doesn't square with the facts, says senior editor Bryant Francis. In this opinion piece, he explains why he was stunned by the CEO's continued defense of himself and the company and what it says about Kotick's perception of reality.

Read all about it over at Game Developer.

I think I may unfortunately have to disappoint a couple of my friends and not join them in Diablo 4 until Kotick is no longer associated with ABK. I would love for it to be a resign in disgrace, but I'll take golden parachuted the fuck away from the company. (can't expect better under capitalism, really.) One thing is clear, ABK cannot be trusted to have addressed any of the employee complaints while the CEO is screaming defiance from the rooftops that anything was worth complaining about, and it was those damn unionizers trying to destabilize the company who made all this happen!

I wanted you to know, when you post images that say "KILL YOURSELF", what kind of person is forced to see that message.

On May 29, I used this post to tell you my story,that of being hounded with the constant
feeling of suicidality, despite not being the sort of person who will ever actually commit it.

My story went through my history with child abandonment and child neglect, child rape, bullying, attempting suicide, overcoming autism, living with PTSD, difficulties to accept my trans identity exacerbated by the absence of local community and the difficulty to fit in online communities.

I do not consider this story a secret, but I do not wish to leave it on Cohost for archival. I prefer to share it in a better context, on a site that does not have an adversarial relationship with me.

I appreciate everyone who took the time to read my story since I shared it. I understand it might come a bit as a surprise to people who followed me for a long time and mostly saw me posting about building hardware synths and saying a lot of swear words about computers. It was nice to post with you for the last six months.

I urge you to also read the stories of others who struggled, some stories I have reposted on my page.

I received an e-mail from a staff member about the issue. It was phrased more like a personal e-mail than a corporate e-mail, and thus, isn't something I should simply copy-paste here.

In addition to confirming that it's OK to tell ideological enemies to commit suicide, it suggested that I should do what is best for my health, including leaving Cohost if I must.

If you read my story, you know what it means for me to take my meds: the prescription that has kept me alive and thriving is comprised of solidarity, compassion, kindness, and community.

I leave you with a simple question: since Cohost isn't for us, for whom is it?

we think people have learned valuable lessons, which is actually a really important way that culture works.

we saw a lot of rumination about how it's not possible to set culture top-down, and, from another angle, how it's not possible to control or predict what might happen in a public space. we agree with both of those but neither is the full picture. we didn't weigh in on that because our full thoughts on that topic are lengthy and it took a while to sort through and find the important part

the important part is

it is possible to set culture bottom-up

we are all doing it, every day

we all have the ability to be leaders - without any sort of power or authority - in deciding what our collective culture is like

the hardest part is convincing yourself it's true

that's really all that needs to happen, that we all remember the lessons we've learned over the past few days, and commit to being part of building something better, together

(edit: left out a period. too many times reworking the paragraph, sorry)