World Of Warcraft Writer Claims Blizzard Fired Him For Writing Capitalist Jokes

[Scumstation]

A former Blizzard employee said he was fired for making jokes about corporate greed for World of Warcraft. However, the jokes were written in-universe and were only appropriate for the character that spoke them.

Eric Covington was let go from Blizzard last month after nine years with the studio. A writer and designer on the World of Warcraft quest team, Covington wrote throw-away dialogue for some of the game's NPCs. For the Venture Company Loot Goblins, he wrote generic jokes about corporate greed. Fans of the game probably wouldn't think anything of it as the Venture Company is a cartel of goblins that are essentially toxic capitalists who will do anything for profit, from illegal clear-cutting to arms dealing to animal smuggling.

According to Covington, his termination came after management discovered these jokes and mistakenly believed he was making them at their expense.

https://twitter.com/covingtown/statu...98815458951168

"I wrote jokes lampooning generic corporate greed for a Venture Company loot goblin (very in character), but then leadership walked face first into the joke after string lock while my focus was getting the patch done," explained Covington in a Twitter thread. "Because of their embarrassment, I’m no longer at Blizzard."

The jokes themselves make no mention of any persons or companies. Lines include "let's call this a cost of living adjustment," "looks like another yacht for me," "no profit sharing," "another record quarter of revenue," and my personal favorite, "time to go back to the office!"

One could easily imagine any of these statements being made by Activision Blizzard management, which has become almost cartoonishly anti-worker in recent years. In fact, Covington's thread came in direct response to the recent Variety interview with Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick where he claimed to be in favor of unions.

"Nine years of service," wrote Covington. "Up in smoke without question because someone looked at an innocuous joke and saw a reflection."

Studios at Activision Blizzard have been attempting to unionize for the past year, with varying degrees of success. While Raven Software's QA team and Blizzard Albany have successfully voted to form unions, it was reportedly against anti-union efforts from management. Those union-busting efforts proved successful with Proletariat after what would have been Activision Blizzard's third union withdrew its petition after CEO Seth Sivak "held a series of meetings that demoralized and disempowered the group, making a free and fair election impossible."