Blizzard announces tool to measure diversity: Ditched By The Employees

The opposite of good is well-intentioned, as is well known, and Blizzard must now experience that too. Because the developer, once so respected, has been able to spot new blunders with astonishing precision over the years – and now it was that time again. Because Blizzard, developer of megahits such as Warcraft, WoW, Diablo and Overwatch, has had a lot to do with dealing with a discrimination and harassment scandal in recent months.

They promised improvement and wanted action to prove that the incidents, some of which had been swept under the rug for about a decade, would not happen again. They also want to fundamentally renew the entire corporate culture, including the external impact. This is certainly also the background of a new “Diversity Space Tool” that Blizzard recently introduced. The idea behind it was probably a common one: they wanted to draw attention to the diversity of the numerous Blizzard characters and presented an internally used tool that should help to equip games or their characters with every conceivable attribute of alleged minorities or to measure this up.

Now heavily edited blog post It has been and will be explained that diversity is “measured” in categories such as ethnicity, age, ability, body type, gender identity, sexual orientation, and culture. This tool is also said to have been used by the developers of Call of Duty: Vanguard and Overwatch 2. But it has been criticized fiercely: Blizzard resorted to pseudoscientific methods rather than employing people who actually belong to such minorities. Many believed that such an instrument was inherently racist and discriminatory.

Employees distance themselves

Blizzard employees immediately reacted with shock, denying that the tool was being used by them. Melissa Kelly, Character Artist at Overwatch, said: “God I swear, our own company is trying so hard to destroy the goodwill of the developers who made the game. Overwatch doesn’t even use that creepy, dystopian tool our writer’s Eyes have.” The artists: have eyes. Producers, directors, etc. all have eyes as far as I know.”