iconmaster
Banned
Hoo boy, I know I'm stepping on several land mines here. But I'm gonna trust you guys to be civil and reasonable. I believe in you!
Cecilia D'Anastasio of Kotaku has spent months investigating reports from current and former Riot Games employees -- male and female, on the record and off -- about a culture of sexim at Riot Games and the ramifications for its female employees.
Inside The Culture Of Sexism At Riot Games
This report is, in my humble opinion, really good reporting, which is why I'm braving this thread at all. Please read the whole article with an open mind.
Some of the accounts are fairly heartbreaking.
BTW I really appreciate getting anyone to speak on the record about these things, it adds a lot of credibility in my eyes (and I realize the potential for blowback makes it difficult). So, props to Jes Negrón.
I have minor quibbles with the article. D'Anastasio points out that insisting on gamer creds for hires in the areas of "office managers [and] finance specialists" is unnecessary; but it's pretty clear the author's real concern is with female game devs. For those, it seems reasonable to me to expect some gaming experience. You could argue, as the author does, that Riot takes even this too far and defines "gaming experience" along very narrow lines, and I can see that argument.
I know a woman who used to work at Riot Games -- she loved her time there, but doesn't find these stories hard to believe -- so my interest in the article is not 100% objective.
Anyway, if you'd like to discuss any of this, I humbly suggest you read the whole article first. Again, it seems like solid journalism.
Thanks...
Cecilia D'Anastasio of Kotaku has spent months investigating reports from current and former Riot Games employees -- male and female, on the record and off -- about a culture of sexim at Riot Games and the ramifications for its female employees.
Inside The Culture Of Sexism At Riot Games
This report is, in my humble opinion, really good reporting, which is why I'm braving this thread at all. Please read the whole article with an open mind.
Some of the accounts are fairly heartbreaking.
One day, Lacy conducted an experiment: After an idea she really believed in fell flat during a meeting, she asked a male colleague to present the same idea to the same group of people days later. He was skeptical, but she insisted that he give it a shot. “Lo and behold, the week after that, [he] went in, presented exactly as I did and the whole room was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing.’ [His] face turned beet red and he had tears in his eyes,” said Lacy. “They just didn’t respect women.”
Three months into her time at the company, one former Rioter was feeling frustrated by her manager’s poor performance, she said. She decided to pick up her manager’s slack. (He was later demoted.) Abiding by Riot’s motto, “Stay hungry,” she stepped up to become the team’s de facto leader. She mentored new hires. She led meetings. She updated work processes and led new programs’ rollout. At the same time, she says, she did her own job. She tells Kotaku that a manager said she was slated for the promotion, which a former colleague corroborated. Then, one day, at a party, she says a Riot superior came on to her. When she evaded him, she says, things changed for her at work. Although she was already doing her manager’s job, “a man who probably had three years less experience than me,” ended up getting that promotion. That man was a close friend of the Riot superior who hit on her.
A week after she was told she was an important asset to the team, she said, “I was no longer welcome.” When she sought feedback, nobody could tell her what she did wrong, she says, and those people were similarly in disbelief, which Kotaku corroborated with a former colleague. She was eventually fired, in 2017. “They walked me out like a criminal. They wouldn’t even let me get my bag.”
Jes Negrón said that she took on the responsibilities of her boss who left six months into her new job. Nearly a year after that, she felt she deserved the title and pay bump for doing that work. She had been asking her superiors about making the job official, she said. Negrón’s manager gave her open feedback about how successful she was in that role, and a former colleague corroborated to Kotaku that she was being groomed for the position.
Instead, Negrón was never even interviewed for the position, which three different men were given chances to fill. When she asked for feedback on why, she recalls being told that she didn’t do enough to “take” the role, and they wanted to give the man who eventually took it an opportunity to take on more responsibility. “I had to sit in a room of 50 people to announce the other guy was leading the team. It was probably one of the most embarrassing moments in my whole life,” Negrón said.
BTW I really appreciate getting anyone to speak on the record about these things, it adds a lot of credibility in my eyes (and I realize the potential for blowback makes it difficult). So, props to Jes Negrón.
I have minor quibbles with the article. D'Anastasio points out that insisting on gamer creds for hires in the areas of "office managers [and] finance specialists" is unnecessary; but it's pretty clear the author's real concern is with female game devs. For those, it seems reasonable to me to expect some gaming experience. You could argue, as the author does, that Riot takes even this too far and defines "gaming experience" along very narrow lines, and I can see that argument.
I know a woman who used to work at Riot Games -- she loved her time there, but doesn't find these stories hard to believe -- so my interest in the article is not 100% objective.
Anyway, if you'd like to discuss any of this, I humbly suggest you read the whole article first. Again, it seems like solid journalism.
Thanks...