For the week of August 6 – August 13, 2021, the allegations and response surrounding the ongoing Activision Blizzard lawsuit filed by the state of California's DFEH continue to be our focus. This week, Frances Townsend stepped down from her position within the company's Women's Network, and a new report alleges that staff from QA faced transphobic harassment and cruel indifference to reports that Blizzard's internal systems used their deadnames.
Frances Townsend Steps Down, Transgender Activision QA Testers Were Allegedly Deadnamed At Work
After tweeting out an article about the "problem with whistleblowing" and even nuking her Twitter account, former George W. Bush security advisor Frances Townsend no longer holds her position as the executive sponsor to Activision Blizzard's Women's Network. Reportedly having stepped down toward the end of July, Townsend relinquished her position after sending out her email that called the state of California DFEH's report "factually inaccurate", something that was later contradicted by other responses from the company.
Per the Washington Post, a call where Townsend listened to the grievances of women employed by Blizzard was supposed to be shared with those unable to attend her speech via Zoom that day, but that ended up not happening. The company made a blanket response of being "unable to send/share a recording of the Friday Women's Network call" which spurred ire from employees. It's not clear if this was the reason for Townsend stepping down.
A report from Kotaku followed later in the week, sharing stories from transgender QA staffers at Activision Blizzard. Allegations from those accounts included instances of employees repeatedly deadnamed and given unlivable wages while working for the company. One employee also recounted an incident where a colleague used a transphobic internet meme that is commonly used to harass trans and nonbinary people.
Kotaku's source also revealed that employees at the company are forced to use internal systems that"default to legal names," meaning transgender individuals would automatically be deadnamed. "HR is aware of the issue," an employee named Andrew told Kotaku, "and has supposedly been talking with others to get the issue fixed, but this has been going on for [at least] a year."
Twitch Streamer Gets Interrupted By Neighbor Breaking And Entering
In Russia, Twitch streamer girl__fighter was interrupted earlier this month as a neighbor broke into her apartment while she was streaming. Known for her skills in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and for being a rather accomplished pole dancer, girl__fighter, whose name is Victoria, was streaming with her friend when an unknown assailant broke into her apartment.
While clips have been removed from Twitch, the few remaining on other sites show the person (presumed to be her neighbor) saying, "I will hurt you," before Victoria's friend responds, "No, I will hurt you. Get out of here." Soon after, the intruder is maced right as he grabs the camera and cuts the stream short.
Thankfully, in the days since, Victoria has been streaming on Twitch and seems to be unharmed. It's still unclear if the intruder has been charged for the attack.
Niantic Confirms That Pokemon Heracross Has Been Removed From The Wild
Niantic is certainly batting 1,000 with Pokemon Go recently. After making headlines last week for reverting distance requirements for interacting with Pokestops and Gyms to pre-pandemic levels, Pokemon Go made the news again this past week for removing Pokemon Heracross from wild encounters. Not even directly confirmed by the company, Twitter user Nicholas Oyzon got in touch with the company and broke the news to players.
Reception to this decision hasn't been as volatile as last week’s change due to Heracross being raid exclusive in certain regions. For many players, their only course of action to catch a Heracross was to complete a raid battle, so the creature not appearing in the wild has no bearing. It is still a change that makes little sense, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic doesn't show signs of stopping anytime soon.
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The Last Of Us Set Photos Further Prove The Show Will Follow The Games Very Closely
Fans of Naughty Dog's acclaimed The Last of Us were pleased to see leaked photos from the set of the upcoming TV show last week. While we previously had a look in late July at some of the sets being used, this new patch of photos from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, reveals what looks to be a recreation of the Boston quarantine zone featured in-game. Fans of the game will know this is where protagonists Joel and Ellie first meet.
With previous photos featuring what looks like a recreation of Austin, Texas, it certainly bodes well for the prospects of this series. Video game-related media has definitely been increasing in quality over the last few years, so we may have a hit on our hands when it comes to The Last of Us on HBO.
Take-Two Has Three Unannounced Remasters Planned For 2022
Earlier in the week, publisher Take-Two Interactive revealed that it had three remakes/remasters planned for 2022. Said to be "new iterations of previously released titles," many were speculating that we'd see remasters of Grand Theft Auto, BioShock, and Red Dead Redemption. As it turns out, a few of those guesses may be exactly what is happening.
On Thursday, a rumor report from Kotaku started making the rounds that Rockstar was gearing up for a GTA PS2 Trilogy remaster. Containing classic titles GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas, it certainly follows in line with those plans for remasters. That same report started Rockstar would be using sales statistics from the GTA Trilogy remaster to produce a Red Dead Redemption remaster. Considering how popular both titles have been, these almost seem like a given.