
Ubisoft CCO Serge Hascoet resigns in wake of sweeping allegations - zeristor
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/07/ubisofts-most-powerful-creative-force-resigns-in-wake-of-sweeping-allegations/
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dijit
Weird to see this here.

I have limited knowledge on these things; FD: I work for Ubisoft in their
Massive Studio.

Ubisoft itself is incredibly silo'd; each studio and each function operates
like a loosely coupled bundling of companies.

You can think of it like:

* Marketing has offices (or colo's in some offices) but has a completely seperate reporting structure all the way to Yves.

* (same for other business functions such as server hosting, exchange administration etc;)

* Studios operate with an entirely different culture from HQ.

* Studios develop games, those games are submitted for "stage gates" which is when Editoriale can say if something is fun, or if something needs to be cut or added.. Editoriale in HQ can only speak during those times (big milestones). Otherwise the Studio doesn't really talk to HQ. (save: marketing, I guess)

I can say that Massive is incredibly progressive, this isn't just a result of
being Sweden, even some (not all) of the Swedes who work here think we're
overcorrecting for progressiveness. We had Sarkeesian on site a few times to
consult on games (and paid her handsomely for the privilege)

However.. and this is a big however:

There is also a culture of partying in the upper echelons, self-promotion,
congratulatory/promotional incest and an "untouchable ego" that a lot of the
upper management seem to have, this means that people at the top stay there,
enrich themselves and keep others out. This doesn't apply to Yves himself,
strangely, I've met him many times and is a fantastically humble, down to
earth and generous guy. In fact he's made many moves that are directly against
enriching himself in order to ensure that nobody can get the idea of
shuttering a studio and putting people out of a job- and has actively worked
(personally) against crunch culture.

\--

What I'm trying to say is that: each "head" is responsible for the culture
they create; and some people are given the freedom to abuse that culture.

Yves see's that ability to abuse as a failure of HR and that's why (I
speculate) that Cecile has been let go.

As far as I understand Serge has had no allegations levied against him;
however it's unconscionable how much power he had- and it would have been easy
to abuse accidentally (an off-hand comment/joke being taken as an
instruction). Not saying he's not guilty of anything but that kind of power
should not have been levied.

Notably the Editoriale team (gatekeepers for games) was recently expanded to
be more diverse.. that diversity was all middle-aged white french guys who
came from the same school and had worked in that department before.. so.. not
very diverse.

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consolenaut
I was just thinking "Huh, I used to work with someone who went to work for
Massive" until I realized you were the same someone :) Interesting to hear how
the Massive/Ubi editorial relationship works from the inside

~~~
dijit
Oh interesting! Hello friend! it's a small internet!

Now I will wonder who you are for weeks! xD

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SuoDuanDao
I seem to recall Ubisoft working with a number Sarkeesian-type consultants in
the years following gamergate. Seems like a case of the guiltiest being the
first to accuse if I remembered that right, but I don't recall where I got the
idea. Does anyone here know where I might have got that impression?

~~~
amp180
I don't think Sarkeesian could even possibly be the problem if Ubisoft HR
changed their definition of harassment to allow sexual harassment and non-
gamer journalists are reporting on it.

Companies have "woke" consultants in to make speeches all the time but it's
performative and it never changes anything.

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SuoDuanDao
I'm more wondering about the value of woke consultants as an indicator - if a
company is very concerned about making such performances, could it be an
indicator of a guilty conscience?

~~~
dijit
I can only speak for my admittedly hyper-progressive studio: We brought
Sarkeesian in to find our blind spots. (there was also the fact that the
studio wanted to fund her work on a more personal level).

But if you consider that roughly 86% of the studio at that time was male, it
would have been easy for something to slip through that could have been
perceived as anti-women.

A great example is in the game Hitman; there is a moment where you're
infiltrating a strip club and an option exists (although, is penalised) for
murdering a scantily clad stripper. This was caught by Sarkeesian and used as
an example of poor game development that allows for the objectification of
women. (or, women as background objects)[0]

We didn't want that.

[0]: [https://youtu.be/4ZPSrwedvsg?t=603](https://youtu.be/4ZPSrwedvsg?t=603)

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alitoiu
M

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drevil-v2
I am deeply troubled that we have normalised public executions on the basis of
allegations. No person or group should have that power to effectively end
someone’s career on accusations alone.

~~~
rbg246
I'm more worried about the 95%+ of sexual assaults that perpetrators get away
with.

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drevil-v2
Citation needed for that “95%+” claim. And While you are at it, can you spell
out what exactly you mean by “sexual assault“? It seems to me that the meaning
has been corrupted in order to further political and ideological aims of the
accusers and executioners.

~~~
rbg246
Yes no problems it's all out there.

19% of women report sexual violence to police. (1)

10% of those reports result in a conviction. (2)

So actually I was being conservative, it's actually

98%+ get away with it based on these two sources.

And we haven't even got to child sexual assault conviction rates.

(1)
[http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/056...](http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/056A404DAA576AE6CA2571D00080E985/$File/49060_2005%20\(reissue\).pdf)

(2) [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-14/why-do-so-few-
sexual-...](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-14/why-do-so-few-sexual-
assault-result-in-convictions/10492256)

~~~
throw_m239339
> 98%+ get away with it based on these two sources.

Your first stats are 15 year old and are only applicable to Canada. You can't
make broad generalizations like that. Different countries have different
culture and very different legal systems.

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rbg246
Thanks for your reply.

I'm not sure who you were replying with as the cited data was not from Canada
and was not 15 years old.

If you have a more nuanced reply with better data sources please do so.

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robinduckett
Can people not just work somewhere without sexually abusing staff please?

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robinduckett
Apparently not, according to the downvotes. I've noticed the quality of
commenters and submission decline on this site of late. Keep it coming /s

~~~
DangitBobby
The downvotes I don't think indicate others believe that it's okay to just
sexually harass people. In fact, I'd venture to say that people here would be
in nearly unanimous agreement that it's not okay. With that in mind, your
comment to me appears to either be seeking in-group approval ("does anybody
else?" When yes, almost everyone else) or is an attempt to be funny. All this
to say, neither of those things are really valued here. Hence, downvotes.

