Pay should go into people that can do the fucking job, and if the job means making a game, you do that job well.
This apply everywhere in the entertainment industry, but games have remained exempt for some reason. SAG/AFTRA exists, game devs need their own version of this. We're seeing the beginning steps.
If Gal Godot or Dwayne Johnson decides they're going to gain weight and put on pounds for a job either has to be in shape for, and their contract involves getting her in shape and paying for a personal trainer and making sure they put in work for that job so people aren't taken back by their physical appearance on-screen versus the role they're portraying, then they must make their best effort to do that because that's their fucking job.
Problems occur when execs make unreasonable decisions, and those under them have no recourse. That's exactly the problem with Blizzard, their exec level management is the issue and they haven't faced consequences as they think they're too fucking powerful to be held by the same standard as 'peasants' like the upper/middle management folks are. This isn't a result of non-exec worker's mistake, but instead a executive decision that resulted in more of the same problems they had before because the root of the issue was never addressed: they aren't paying workers across the entire company enough.
Bottom line:
Race, gender, sex, doesn't matter - if people are living in your parking lot in vans, you already fucking failed as a company.
Kotick should have been outed months ago. Morally, the board should be gone too, but that won't happen if it's snakes all across the board, which it sounds like it is.
Change will only happen when the rats jump ship, and it'll be too late by then.
This thing about Jen O'Neal not being paid fairly is directly because there was zero transparency about company pay there, until she asked how much Mike Ybarra was making, was told a reply, and the reply she heard was unfair to her and anyone with more than one functioning brain cell. She was forced into a situation where she has to either lie to her workers about what's actually going on, or take initiative and tell them off, and leave herself, and she'd be extremely fucking comfy anywhere she goes, because she has a reputation of success and integrity behind her, especially with her leaving Blizzard and tossing the 'untouchables' a reality check on the way out.
By the way - lower pay is pretty commonplace across the entire industry even for talented individuals. If I quit my job today, and went to go work in medical software and even took a position hit (ie; a mid/junior position vs staff/sr. engineer), I could be doing 1/20th the work for 3 times the salaried pay, have better benefits, etc. Many in games right now are choosing that before they get emotionally invested into a predatory market that shows no signs of improvement.
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