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Riot Games Issues New Company Values In Wake of 'Bro' Culture Accusations (venturebeat.com) 344

An anonymous reader writes: Riot Games, the maker of the enormously popular League of Legends multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) PC game, has issued a new set of company values on its web site. They're the result of some soul searching after the company was accused by many of its own employees last year of having a sexist "bro" culture. The company said that these new values replace the company's Manifesto from 2012 and reflects conversations with more than 1,700 Rioters about "what we want our company to be."
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Riot Games Issues New Company Values In Wake of 'Bro' Culture Accusations

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  • SJW time (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @11:07AM (#57965870)

    Anything the SJW's touch turns to poison.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Get woke, go broke.

  • Wokness signaling (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sinij ( 911942 ) on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @11:11AM (#57965900)
    Wokeness signaling is not a no-loss proposition. Any gaming company has to realize that it also brings about:
    a. Content censorship. Be prepared to run all your content decisions by an unaccountable "committee" that will issue arbitrary decisions. Unlike law and religion, these people are not sufficiently organized or organizationally mature to have a set of rules or standards to follow.
    b. Departure from meritocracy in employment standards. One of the common demands is hiring higher number of minorities and women, while great as a principle without available qualified candidates the only way to meet targets is to hire unqualified candidates.
    c. Gamers generally don't appreciate political messaging in games, as these groups repeatedly attacked and abused gamers in the past (i.e. gamergate)
    • Re:Wokness signaling (Score:4, Interesting)

      by XXongo ( 3986865 ) on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @11:33AM (#57966030) Homepage

      ... One of the common demands is hiring higher number of minorities and women, while great as a principle without available qualified candidates the only way to meet targets is to hire unqualified candidates.

      Actually, there's a lot to be said for gaming companies to hire both women and minorities; these are both groups that it would be valuable to have as customers, but which aren't very well served.

      • by RedK ( 112790 ) on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @11:46AM (#57966106)

        Actually, there's a lot to be said for gaming companies to hire both women and minorities; these are both groups that it would be valuable to have as customers, but which aren't very well served.

        How sexist do you have to be to believe women and minorities need "special" games and can't just play what everyone else plays.

        • How sexist do you have to be to believe women and minorities need "special" games and can't just play what everyone else plays.

          How clueless do you have to be to believe games targeted at young white men may contain things that turn off other groups?

          • by RedK ( 112790 ) on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @11:55AM (#57966198)

            How clueless do you have to be to believe games targeted at young white men may contain things that turn off other groups?

            Can you explain to me what the difference is between a "young white men" game vs a say "young black men" game ?

            Or how the presence of a "Young men" game makes it so "Young female" games can't exist ?

            Clueless is the proper word, you just aimed it at the wrong target.

            • Or how the presence of a "Young men" game makes it so "Young female" games can't exist ?

              The fact that you think a game can not be made that appeals to both genders is an indication of where the cluelessness resides.

              "Our story says that _____ are all dumb and useless. How odd that _____ doesn't like our game".

              • by RedK ( 112790 )

                The fact that you think a game can not be made that appeals to both genders is an indication of where the cluelessness resides.

                The fact a "Young male targetted" exists, a "Young female targetted" game also exists, doesn't preclude a 3rd game, "Young people, both genders" from also existing.

                Again, I don't get what "special games" you need to exist that don't currently exist. You seem under the impression that 1 of thousands of games targetting a particular demographic means that people of all races, genders, sexualities can enjoy the same crop of games we currently have.

                What is so gender specific about Civilization VI ? The Sims 3

                • he fact a "Young male targetted" exists, a "Young female targetted" game also exists, doesn't preclude a 3rd game, "Young people, both genders" from also existing.

                  And that fact is what some people are trying to change. There's no particular reason to actively work at driving away one gender from your game.

                  • by RedK ( 112790 )

                    And that fact is what some people are trying to change. There's no particular reason to actively work at driving away one gender from your game.

                    Sounds sexist, but that's all in your head.

                    What if, get this, no one is actively working to drive away any gender from particular games.

                    What if what is actually happening is that people make games, and based on certain characteristics of gender, some people of a given gender prefer one type of game, and people of another gender prefer different games ?

                    Like you can try to make Need for Speed appealing to women all you want (I wouldn't even know where to begin and what to change), but what you're most likely

                    • by XXongo ( 3986865 )

                      And that fact is what some people are trying to change. There's no particular reason to actively work at driving away one gender from your game.

                      Sounds sexist, but that's all in your head.

                      What if, get this, no one is actively working to drive away any gender from particular games.

                      OK, so what you're saying is that you didn't read the article, which gave many examples of women being harassed.

                      Got it.

                    • by RedK ( 112790 )

                      OK, so what you're saying is that you didn't read the article, which gave many examples of women being harassed.

                      Got it.

                      Riot Games is a general cesspool. That Male Ally Feminists are actually rapist creeps in backrooms is not surprising to me or anyone paying attention. Trying to depict it as "Bro culture" is daft. Trying to generalize them to the whole of gaming culture is dishonest.

                      Those allegations also have nothing to do with making games that women and minorities enjoy. There's plenty of those on about every gaming platform out there.

                      No amount of women hires is going to make DOOM Eternal palatable to a majority of w

              • And you certainly have some kind of example of such a game, right?

              • by sinij ( 911942 )

                The fact that you think a game can not be made that appeals to both genders ...

                Sure, it probably could be made, but must every game be made so it appeals to both genders? Why is it not OK to make products that just appeal to one gender?

                • but must every game be made so it appeals to both genders?

                  You'd have to demonstrate there is a benefit to actively trying to exclude one first.

                  • by sinij ( 911942 )

                    but must every game be made so it appeals to both genders?

                    You'd have to demonstrate there is a benefit to actively trying to exclude one first.

                    Are makers of makeup actively trying to exclude male audience? Maybe if they made all makeup in pale gray or dark blue colors they would stop actively alienating men and would have more inclusive makeup scene?

                    Obviously, the above argument is absurd. Knowing and targeting your audience and trying to exclude other audiences is no the same thing.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by HornWumpus ( 783565 )

            Makeup targeted at young women may contain things that turn off other groups. They should sell makeup targeted at normal men...and go _broke_.

            WTF is wrong with making games enjoyed by gamers? It's called knowing your market. 'Derpression Quest' is a terrible game that nobody plays non-ironically.

            • by RedK ( 112790 )

              'Derpression Quest' is a terrible game that nobody plays non-ironically.

              I much prefer the reboot, Doki Doki Literature Club.

            • Makeup targeted at young women may contain things that turn off other groups. They should sell makeup targeted at normal men...and go _broke_.

              There are an enormous number of skincare and beauty products marketed to both genders.

              It's not like the "for men" products from Proctor and Gamble are actually different than their "for women" products.....sorry to shock you.

              WTF is wrong with making games enjoyed by gamers?

              What indeed? Why exclude a large number of gamers so that you can feel like you're sticking it to the fembots?

              • Both genders? You heteronormative CIS pig! You'll pay for that with your career. (Post where you work.)

                'Candy Crush' exists. Nobody complains, they just don't play that game. It has its niche.

                The large majority of game dollars is spent by young males. The market reflects this.

                The large majority of beauty product dollars are spent by other than straight males. The market reflects this.

        • How sexist do you have to be to believe women and minorities need "special" games and can't just play what everyone else plays.

          Nice unspoken assumption there that young white males are the norm that others must conform to, and anything that caters to other audiences is special consideration.

          • Nice unspoken assumption that games actually target certain demographics instead of, ya know, ALL people.

            And yes, such games actually exist. But they are a tiny minority because, guess what, game makers want to appeal to as many potential customers as possible. Why do you intrinsically assume they want to cater only to one particular target group?

      • Thats the dumbest shit i have ever read. Im a bisexual immigrant. I dont need my game avatar to be a recreation of myself. Thats why im playing a fucking game, to experience worlds and stories that arent a copy of my life.
      • by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @12:25PM (#57966398)
        The problem is a mismatch between expectations and reality. SJWs believe without qualifications that men and women are equal. But it's been empirically proven that they're wrong - men and women prefer different types of games [quanticfoundry.com]. So it's not at all surprising that a culture at a company developing games with a primarily male audience (90% of MOBA players are male) will be skewed towards silly male behavior. Just like I'd expect the culture at a company developing games with a primarily female audience would be skewed towards silly female behavior.

        If you ignore the evidence and use the fantasy that the two are equal as your guiding principle, you end up with employment environments which are inferior for producing both types of games (those preferred by men, and those preferred by women). Because you've stripped away part of the development culture which makes the games "click" with their audiences. You gotta be careful to limit your remedies to target actual problems - harassment, demands for sex, withholding promotions based on gender (which to be fair seems to be most of the criticism leveled at Riot). When you start to targeting innocent "male" behaviors like nerf fights in the hall, or the gender ratio of your developers matching the pool of job applicants rather than being 50/50, you've gone too far.

        Disclaimer: I have nothing against female gamers or female game developers. One of the most influential video game developers [wikipedia.org] in the genre I preferred when I was growing up (adventure games) was a woman. And I think she was instrumental in breaking home computer games away from the stereotypical shoot-em-up genre popular in arcades. But even she recognized that men and women have different interests [adventurec...gaming.com].
        • by RedK ( 112790 )

          People seem to think gaming is a dude's world. Roberta Williams was great but I personally preferred Quest for Glory, which was made by Lory Ann Cole and her husband (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coles#Lori_Ann_Cole)

          It's funny to see the new generation of "We need women in gaming!" ignore all the great women made games we had growing up, where the gender of who made the game didn't matter so much as the fun we had playing it. No one cared that Roberta or Lory Ann were women, we cared that Sierra's ad

        • ... One of the common demands is hiring higher number of minorities and women, while great as a principle without available qualified candidates the only way to meet targets is to hire unqualified candidates.

          Actually, there's a lot to be said for gaming companies to hire both women and minorities; these are both groups that it would be valuable to have as customers, but which aren't very well served.

          The problem is a mismatch between expectations and reality. SJWs believe without qualifications that men and women are equal. But it's been empirically proven that they're wrong - men and women prefer different types of games [quanticfoundry.com].

          You just made my point.

          If men and women prefer different kinds of games, a gaming company that hires almost entirely men is missing half the market

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Wokeness signaling is not a no-loss proposition.

      Tell that to DICE. According to the comments yesterday about Battlefield 5, the poor sales which are now causing major problems at EA are entirely down to them pandering to SJWs. Surely after seeing such a disastrous outcome to being woke other corporations will not follow in their missteps.

      Or maybe they had a genuine problem and either didn't want to get sued or, and I realize this is an outlandish theory, actually cared about fixing it.

      • by RedK ( 112790 )

        Tell that to DICE.

        Pretty sure that's what he just did. He's not saying anything different than what was said yesterday : Get woke, go broke.

    • a) All content is "censored" in some way, in the sense that you choose to include whatever fits your values, and reject the rest. Also they say creativity thrives with constraints.
      b) That presupposes that there won't be enough qualified candidates coming from minorities and/or being women.
      c) Speak for yourself. The origin of this trend was that there was a very real shortage of commercial video games with diverse characters in prominent roles, with the stereotypical character overwhelmingly being the strong

      • by sinij ( 911942 )
        a) You have "maybe we shouldn't include graphic dismemberment" and you have "there aren't enough visible minorities and female characters in a game about medieval Northern European military orders" type of censorship. Sure it is about values, but diversity taken to absurd levels isn't a shared value across gaming population.
        b) Yes, it presupposes that. Care to show that this inaccurate in any way?
        c) Shortage implies unmet demand, can you show that anyone outside of numerically insignificant activist gro
    • You forgot to explain why religion is any more or less relevant than SJW "feelings". I mean, I can at least understand that hurting the feelings of someone who actually exists matters, but with gods it kinda eludes me.

      • by sinij ( 911942 )
        I was speaking mainly on consistency. Religions tend to be somewhat consistent when compared to SJWs. With religion, if you do X, for a known set of values, then you are heretic and religious people will go after you.

        SJW have most elements of religion (dogma, zeal, attacks on heretics) but none of the consistency. One day it is X, other day it is Y that would get SJWs go after you.
  • by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @11:31AM (#57966016) Homepage Journal
    Time to grow up.
  • by TheZeitgeist ( 5083373 ) on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @11:39AM (#57966060)

    This company makes games featuring impossibly hot ladies in skintight yoga-pant jumpsuits and thongs swinging glowing swords among other weaponry.

    And the bosses had to take a survey to detect scent of a bro?

    Fire the management; they have no idea what games they sell, who their market is, or what kind of staff latitude it takes to crank out one more SI Swimsuit model with armored bra and a laser cannon. What do they think keeps the lights on over there?

    • The survey was about measuring their legal liability. If enough people felt discriminated against, that's expensive.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      This only applies to their offices. They had multiple problems with sexual harassment (of both men and women) in the work environment, leading to lawsuits and suspending one of their execs.

      One guy was apparently fond of touching his subordinate's balls. Honestly I think I'd make better games if the boss didn't try to touch by scrotum now and then.

  • Go Woke, Go Broke (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @11:40AM (#57966070)

    I buy a game to have to fun. I want to get away from my boring life and get some excitement. Being forced at gunpoint to agree to a hypocritical cancerous political agenda where people can be openly discriminated against, censored, attacked, fired or treated differently because a deranged political cult called SJW likes to ruin the lives or random people who didn't do anything is just EVIL. These people act just like Nazis and will always call their victims 'Nazis." These are professional victims who are in a state of unending outrage 24/7. They always attack relentlessly without empathy. They are sadistic and unforgiving. They are hateful and actively seek new victims to abuse. They ruin anything they take control of.

    I'm a liberal and I'll never support this evil cancer. I won't vote the left until they are purged. Even Trump doesn't make me this upset or angry.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Right now there are yellow vest/Leave Means Leave supporters outside Parliament in the UK. They switched from chanting "Soubry is a Nazi" to "There's only one James Goddard". Goddard has called for millions of people to be deported because of their religion.

      As for outrage, I checked Twitter and there isn't any. No SJW mobs, no long threads about it, nowt. Hop over to YouTube though and there are already dozens of hastily slapped together videos outraged about the imagined outrage.

      If you look at this very st

    • I buy a game to have to fun. I want to get away from my boring life and get some excitement. Being forced at gunpoint to agree to a hypocritical cancerous political agenda where people can be openly discriminated against, censored, attacked, fired or treated differently because a deranged political cult called SJW likes to ruin the lives or random people who didn't do anything is just EVIL.

      Pretty sure the manifesto is for the company's coders, not for the boys who play the game.

  • I'm dead serious. Who gives a fuck?

  • by SmaryJerry ( 2759091 ) on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @01:10PM (#57966744)
    First of all being sexist isn't being a 'bro.' Second of all, in case anybody forgot bro just means brother. It doesn't mean you are excluding anyone or treating people poorly. Even most 'nerds' and woman bro fist because it is a short handshake. Why can't people just call out individual sexist things when they happen than blame "culture." Seriously, let people do what they want and when it becomes a problem handle that one person that is being sexist or assaulting you. No matter where you are "culture" doesn't take precedence over the laws and the laws in the U.S. are pretty damn stringent. This just sounds like someone is upset that others are having fun (I assume having fun is what they mean by bro culture). SJWs always use "bro" as a negative. Remember calling people "Bernie Bros" if you were a man and like Bernie Sanders just because Bernie wasn't a woman like his opponent in the 2016 democratic primary. Now that I've beaten the word "bro" to death, how about we talk more about just sexist culture. Please don't tell me any group that consist of more men than women makes it sexist. This is generally what these journalist use to confirm sexism in tech. Just having a majority doesn't make the majority evil. Every single person who went to college in the 2000s can confirm that if you took a computer science class it was going to be 90% men. I'd bet woman are over-represented in tech based on college graduation rates in computer science, although I don't have statistics handy. My point is the reason for a majority has nothing to do with sexism and being a minority doesn't make you oppressed. Lumping people into groups based on sex or race is wrong, even against the majority.

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