It's a long read, but I encourage anyone with the time to do it to read it all the way through. ...thats just messed up. There is no way to defend behavior like that. What? How would anyone think...
It's a long read, but I encourage anyone with the time to do it to read it all the way through.
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,”
...thats just messed up. There is no way to defend behavior like that.
One woman saw an e-mail thread about what it would be like to “penetrate her,” in which a colleague added that she’d be a good target to sleep with and not call again. Another said a colleague once informed her, apparently as a compliment, that she was on a list getting passed around by senior leaders detailing who they’d sleep with. Two former employees said they felt pressure to leave after making their concerns about gender discrimination known. One former male employee said that Riot’s “bro culture” is more pronounced behind closed doors, and hurts men too: One of Riot’s male senior leaders regularly grabbed his genitals, the source said, adding, “If he walked into a meeting with no women he’d just fart on someone’s face.”
What? How would anyone think any of that is acceptable in a professional setting?
I have heard stories for years about how shitty of a company riot is to work for and this just backs all of that up.
I lost all respect for riot a few years back when my account was perma banned (after 5 years of playing and giving them money). The ban was unjustified, I had never received an infraction previously and I provided footage of the game record and testimony from the other players who I was playing with. The claim was that a teammate had reported me for harrassment, yet I was playing with all IRL friends who were on Curse Voice (so, not chatting in game at all) with me and had obviously not reported me. When I contacted support I was told that they recently have decided to make it easier to get perma-banned in an attempt to combat gamewide toxicity and they just go off of what the bot says no matter what. The support team even openly agreed with me that the ban was clearly not justified, but they have to go off of what the bot does. So I lost a 5 year old account, that I had spend $100s of dollars on over the years and had a good record of being a positive player all because a bot somehow thought I had been toxic. I will never touch League again, or any other product they make in the future.
When I spoke to their customer support they were rude and combative from the start. It was obvious they had no respect for their userbase and sadly, it seems, they have no respect for their employees either.
The game is a toxic cesspool of players and apparently that is just a direct reflection of the company behind it.
Jebus. Even if one accepts Riot's position that their staffing wasn't inherently discriminatory, the recounting here makes the interview process sound absolutely dysfunctional to the point where...
Jebus. Even if one accepts Riot's position that their staffing wasn't inherently discriminatory, the recounting here makes the interview process sound absolutely dysfunctional to the point where it's hard to imagine a sensible person being able to sit through it. Which I guess might explain some of the stories of Riot's workplace culture that've bubbled up over the years (prior to this article, obviously)...
The fact that everyone there needs to be "hardcore gamers" really exemplifies how boring all of those guys must be. This quote really speaks volumes: Do you really need to spend 12 hours a day...
The fact that everyone there needs to be "hardcore gamers" really exemplifies how boring all of those guys must be. This quote really speaks volumes:
“Here at Riot Games, we hire gamers,” he said in his talk to an audience of Riot employees, audio of which was obtained by Kotaku. “If you’re not a core gamer, you need to over-index in another area.” Whether it’s finance, development facilities, player support, he said, “I don’t give a shit. You’re better if you’re a gamer.”
Do you really need to spend 12 hours a day playing dota or overwatch to do payroll? Of course not. These are just a bunch of guys intimidated by anyone outside of their nerd clique, and it really sucks that they've gained positions of power.
Definitely. I've seen other women speaking about their experiences in the gaming industry as a result of this article and their stories are horrifying but, sadly, not shocking.
Definitely. I've seen other women speaking about their experiences in the gaming industry as a result of this article and their stories are horrifying but, sadly, not shocking.
It's a long read, but I encourage anyone with the time to do it to read it all the way through.
...thats just messed up. There is no way to defend behavior like that.
What? How would anyone think any of that is acceptable in a professional setting?
I have heard stories for years about how shitty of a company riot is to work for and this just backs all of that up.
I lost all respect for riot a few years back when my account was perma banned (after 5 years of playing and giving them money). The ban was unjustified, I had never received an infraction previously and I provided footage of the game record and testimony from the other players who I was playing with. The claim was that a teammate had reported me for harrassment, yet I was playing with all IRL friends who were on Curse Voice (so, not chatting in game at all) with me and had obviously not reported me. When I contacted support I was told that they recently have decided to make it easier to get perma-banned in an attempt to combat gamewide toxicity and they just go off of what the bot says no matter what. The support team even openly agreed with me that the ban was clearly not justified, but they have to go off of what the bot does. So I lost a 5 year old account, that I had spend $100s of dollars on over the years and had a good record of being a positive player all because a bot somehow thought I had been toxic. I will never touch League again, or any other product they make in the future.
When I spoke to their customer support they were rude and combative from the start. It was obvious they had no respect for their userbase and sadly, it seems, they have no respect for their employees either.
The game is a toxic cesspool of players and apparently that is just a direct reflection of the company behind it.
Jebus. Even if one accepts Riot's position that their staffing wasn't inherently discriminatory, the recounting here makes the interview process sound absolutely dysfunctional to the point where it's hard to imagine a sensible person being able to sit through it. Which I guess might explain some of the stories of Riot's workplace culture that've bubbled up over the years (prior to this article, obviously)...
The fact that everyone there needs to be "hardcore gamers" really exemplifies how boring all of those guys must be. This quote really speaks volumes:
Do you really need to spend 12 hours a day playing dota or overwatch to do payroll? Of course not. These are just a bunch of guys intimidated by anyone outside of their nerd clique, and it really sucks that they've gained positions of power.
A willingness to talk about how psycho these men are is a good step IMO. Gaming culture is filled with cancer.
Definitely. I've seen other women speaking about their experiences in the gaming industry as a result of this article and their stories are horrifying but, sadly, not shocking.