Recently, there have been continuous disturbances around Activision Blizzard, and Blizzard’s game Overwatch has also been implicated. Blizzard recently decided to modify the name of the cowboy hero Jesse McCree in the game, only because the name was named after a former Blizzard employee who was involved in allegations of sexual harassment.
Matthew Mercer has always been McCree’s voice actor in the game, so he should have a say in this role. In a recent interview, Mercer expressed his views on the name change incident, saying that this is should be done and that employees who have been abused by Blizzard should not be forgotten.
I know this is small comfort, but it is also something that should be done so that many people will not feel uncomfortable with the story of Overwatch and the characters. Everyone has different attitudes towards renaming. Some people will say This is just a name because it is too ridiculous to change, but this name is connected with the abuse and suffering of many people. If we have a chance to fix it, then we should let this name stay in the past. So that the character no longer bears these, so I can only support them.
But without his consent, Blizzard could not make this decision. Blizzard once contacted him and asked him for his opinion. This kind of etiquette surprised him because in general, voice actors do not have that much power to decide on the role.
He said: They called me and asked me if I knew the situation. I said, ‘I know too much.’ They said, ‘As part of handling this matter, we want to take this role out of this bad environment. Strip it out and find a chance to fix it all. This is just a small part of the many things that should be done. We called to tell you and want to know if you have any comments on this,’ and I said, ‘Thank you for telling me, so fine’.
Mercer does not yet know what name this character will be changed to, but he is concerned about the effect of the name change, not the name itself. He said: If they only did this thing, it would definitely not be enough. But it is actually just one aspect of their internal attempts to correct a large number of mistakes. Many people in the company have been treated unfairly, many A victims of abuse of power and status. After hearing these things, I feel very sad.
This role is also very important to Mercer. He expressed the hope that the entire industry will pay attention to this series of terrible events and use this as an opportunity to carry out reforms and protect the interests of employees.
Mercer said: This role is very important to me. The whole experience of Overwatch has a very important meaning to me. I have only experienced positive experiences in the limited cooperation time with Blizzard, and I have seen these things now. Things make me feel very depressed. I hope that there will be very, very important reforms in the industry.
This kind of large-scale abuse, mismanagement and abuse of power is the shame of the industry, but if it is to be positive, it is these incidents. The industry can be reorganized. People should re-examine the operation of development studios and distribution agencies so that the interests, dignity and space of employees are protected.
In real life, Jesse McRae is one of the core figures of Activision Blizzard’s sexual harassment. It is precise because of this that there is a call for Blizzard to change its name. The Overwatch league commentator even spontaneously no longer commented on the name McCray and replaced it with a nickname. Blizzard said that the name change will take some time because of the need to modify the background, but they are advancing this process.
