9-Year Veteran Game Designer For World Of Warcraft Fired, Alleges It Was Over Dialogue That Joked About Corporate Greed

They were not prepared.

According to Eric Covington, an ex-game designer for Activision Blizzard, the company fired him for including lines in World of Warcraft that made fun of corporate greed. Specifically, he wrote dialogue for the Venture Co. loot goblin, who said gems such as, “Let's call this a cost of living adjustment,” “No profit sharing,” “Looks like another yacht for me,” and, “Time to go back to the office.” The words were even approved by Activision Blizzard, and promoted on the official World of Warcraft Twitter account.

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.

Because of their embarrassment, I’m no longer at Blizzard. https://t.co/jrPmKnGig4 pic.twitter.com/EqspeWGXCQ

— Eric Covington (@covingtown) May 31, 2023

However, after the lines were implemented in the game, Covington — who worked at the company for nine years — was fired. The termination, according to documents obtained by Gizmodo, was due to "inserting inappropriate non-game related content into a game.” He sent a formal email to HR and leadership expressing his concerns with the situation, but remains terminated from Activision Blizzard.