Activision Blizzard: The Bill Cosby Suite
A picture emerges...
Screenshot: Kotaku1
Employees at BlizzCon are pictured in the “Bill Cosby Suite” here in 2013, in a picture that emerged thanks to Kotaku. In the picture, the men pose with an actual framed picture of Bill Cosby while smiling and laying on a bed.
It struck me recently that this whole Cosby suite thing may actually be the most mild thing they could find to throw out as a red herring. What if these guys were engaged in far worse behavior than this?
According to the Kotaku article:
Based on photographs and screenshots of Facebook posts obtained by Kotaku, it’s clear that people beyond Alex Afrasiabi—the man named in the lawsuit, and a long-time World of Warcraft developer—were aware of the “Cosby Suite” mentioned in the lawsuit. That was apparently a nickname for Afrasiabi’s BlizzCon 2013 hotel room, and seemingly a reference to the name of previously convicted rapist Bill Cosby.
Afrasiabi worked on World of Warcraft beginning in 2004, designed some of its biggest quests, and eventually became a creative director on the 2016 Legion and 2018 Battle for Azeroth expansions. He is also the only person, outside of Blizzard President J. Allen Brack, outright named in the lawsuit—a fact that’s made it easy for many to try to distance themselves from Afrasiabi’s actions.
This makes it highly unlikely that the leadership at the company “weren’t aware” of what was going on. This is one if their main developers and he is doing this at every BlizzCon event. He is literally bringing in a framed picture of an (alleged) rapist. The article goes on to mention something extremely problematic:
But the “Cosby Suite” was more than just a nickname or a joke. Based on images and comments Afrasiabi posted on his Facebook supplied to Kotaku by a former developer at Blizzard, it was reportedly a booze-filled meeting place where many, including Afrasiabi, would pose with an actual portrait of Bill Cosby while smiling. It was also a hot spot for informal networking at BlizzCon, three sources told Kotaku, where people looking to make inroads at the company would go to meet and hang out with some of its top designers.
When they mention that the “Cosby suite” became a “hot spot” for “informal” networking where people looking to make inroads at the company would go to hangout, could this be referring to a sort of “casting couch” type of situation?
Screenshot source: Kotaku
The chat log obtained by Kotaku doesn’t look good for Blizzard or Afrasiabi. They had a group chat that was called the “BlizzCon Cosby Crew” which can pretty much only be in reference to Cosby’s alleged rapist activity. In the chat the men are discussing gathering “hot chixx” for the “coz”, I presume the “Cosby suite” Alex responds to bring them up. A guy named Dave says “you can’t marry ALL of them Alex” so they knew about him groping girls telling them he wanted to marry them and having to be pulled off them by other guys. Jesse McCree responds to Dave and says “you misspelled fuck”, so obviously the word “marry” was a euphemism for “fuck”. When Alex told girls he wanted to “marry” them, this is what he was really talking about.
Joshua Mosqueira, one of the men featured in the image has published a Medium post2, where he tries to add “context” to that image and claims that it was not referring to Cosby’s alleged rapes. Joshua wrote about himself in particular and how he feels about what is unfolding at Blizzard and he does make a good point:
I would rather keep this anonymous but I appreciate the opportunity to comment on this. Right now I think we need to listen and amplify all the voices that are really hurting during this time. The last thing they need is another male voice explaining what happened.
I am not defending these images, but I do want to offer context, as I attended that party at the “Cosby” suite. There must have been close to 100 people at the party, Blizzard employees and also their spouses, friends, and even family. Back then, in 2013, the suite was named after Cosby because of the hideous carpet that reminded us of his sweaters and not, as we would all find out a year later, the allegations leveled against the actor that once played Dr. Huxtable.
The image of that actor on that poster once stood as a beacon of my childhood. Someone I knew could make me laugh during my awkward high school years in the 80s. But Cosby hid a terrible and dark secret. Once I became aware of his history of rape, the image of him from my childhood was gone, replaced by something immeasurably dark.
That picture disgusts me now. Looking at it feels like a punch in the stomach, I can only imagine what it feels like for others. That is no longer Dr. Huxtable and his trademark sweaters on that poster, but a rapist. The following year the theme was changed to a dinosaur, but the sadness of the previous year lingered in all of us.
I feel confident that none of the dozens of men and women in those photos knowingly held up a picture of a monster for a photo op, beers in hands, silly smiles on their faces. I am not denying there were problems. Was it professional to have a giant suite party, with alcohol, where fans mixed with devs and family? Definitely not. Some of the pictures in the series have women holding up the poster, but a lot of them do not. Too many of them do not. In the best cases we were not inviting and including their voices, in the worse cases we were actively destroying them. Were there systemic problems at Blizzard? Absolutely. The stories are horrifying. I am glad we are pausing to reflect, reevaluate, and listen — something we should have been doing all along.
The one good point he makes is that this is not just a Blizzard issue, its not just a Riot issue or Ubisoft. This is an industry wide issue and its a people issue. As an Orthodox Christian, I firmly believe we all have the capacity for evil. That evils exists within the hearts of each and every single one of us. Given the right pressure and incentives you and I both are capable of tremendous evil. That is because we are fallen, without God’s grace we cannot be saved.
R3Z on Twitter has taken up the OSINT challenge of naming and shaming these men.
This is a video from 2010 that shows a female fan discussing the “Cosby suite” and the BlizzCon guys blowing it off and basically ignoring the concerns.
Greg Street, former Blizzard employee was bragging about this on Twitter back in 2013. That is the same year the picture with the guys in the suite was taken.
Afrasiabi posted this image back in the day showing the kinds of preparations they would make for the “Cosby suite”, including lots of booze. Alex has not addressed the allegation publicly and he has done dark on social media, deleting most of this posts and internet presence.
I tend to be very cautious when dealing with these sorts of stories that turn into a bizarre leftist virtue signaling thing about putting women and minorities on a pedestal. Many people wanting to get in on the virtue signaling to go viral and gain sympathy and social credit post about things they have no information about or personal experience with. This makes it harder for investigators and researchers to sift through the information to find legitimate sources with real personal experience at the company. It also drowns out to voices of the real victims and prevents their stories from coming to the forefront and gaining traction.
I try to be fair and present all sides of the story. As a Christian, I also believe in redemption, in the saving power of Jesus Christ. No one is beyond the possibility of being redeemed and turning their life around. Our modern society has abandoned these morals, and has turned to a dark “cancel culture” that dehumanizes people. This culture is based on moral and intellectual feelings of superiority, envy and revenge. It creates virtual lynch mobs with puritanical undertones. These types of people like to pretend they are virtuous and beyond reproach and everyone who isn’t exactly like them is literally evil. They act like if you have ever done one thing wrong in your life, you should be expelled from society and erased from the internet. This is as if these people are flawless and have never done something stupid or something they regret. These folks, in my opinion are usually attempting to cast suspicions on others so people don’t look too deeply at their dark pasts.
I want to stress that while the Blizzard scandal is hideous and disgusting and I suspect much darker than what has come to light to date, these people are still human beings. They deserve to have their day in Court and have their side of the story told. Due Process is really important and I do not believe in trying cases in the court of “public opinion” which has NO forensic and evidentiary threshold.
We need to cover these stories while remaining objective and humble. If these men come forward, admit what they did and repent, we should support that. We need to understand that we are just as capable of doing what they did are far worse. We are all equally sinners.
https://kotaku.com/inside-blizzard-developers-infamous-bill-cosby-suite-1847378762
https://medium.com/@jmosq/blizzcon-2013-the-cosby-suite-76e27cff6e4e