Blizzard activey supports Woman and minorities to get into the gaming industry

[Very Tired]

While there aren't really any actual barriers for women to get into the game industry, but due to the high percentage of men, it does put women off from entering it in the first place.
Now, this is merely anecdotal observations on my part, but the school I attended had a game development bachelor program, and when talking with girls who were interested in it, they did note that the overwhelming amount of guys already attending it put them off from enrolling.
Similarly, my current SO who attended that very same bachelor program mentioned to me that she didn't take an internship at a studio because there were no no female employees at the time.
After talking with my friends at the studio and the CEO, I got to know that they used to have female staff (which have gone to bigger studios) and that they'd love to hire women if a position opened up, but still picked the best qualified individuals.

So while there isn't an actual barrier that prohibits women and minorities to enter the game industry or specific companies, it's more so that the cultural perception that is the barrier. People still perceive video games to be very much a boys club despite it being very welcoming for people of any kind.In case of women, it can be very intimidating for someone to start a job, career or curriculum when a grand majority of the people you'll be working with are of the opposite sex.

Honestly that just seems like a horrible reason to not pursue a career. In no way should businesses enact practices to rectify that kind of reasoning.

[Uoyredrum]

You're simply gonna have less women in the industry in general. The gap is shrinking but they're still vastly outnumbered because there's just certain jobs women are less prone to do. Also, this stuff should always be merit based. Being a minority or a woman isn't a good reason to get a leg up, being good at what you do is.

Currently in school for game design. There's several women I go to school with who are very good at what they do, but I'm pretty sure they'd be more offended if someone offered them a job based on their gender and not their abilities. I know I would be.

[elaina]

This isn't equal opportunity. It's giving preference to minorities and ignoring those who have better qualifications if they don't meet the quota.

Article literally says no quotas. GG.

[Zython]

"Help wanted - White males need not apply"

*Grabs the world's tiniest violin*

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You're simply gonna have less women in the industry in general. The gap is shrinking but they're still vastly outnumbered because there's just certain jobs women are less prone to do. Also, this stuff should always be merit based. Being a minority or a woman isn't a good reason to get a leg up, being good at what you do is.

1. If that's the case, why did this gap not appear until the 80's.
2. Why do you assume that a merit-based system would benefit men over women?

[scmpoe]

Blizzard is making games for male whites in their 20's. That's it. That is the customer base. i cant see the advantage of hiring more women and members of ethnic groups to develope a diverse workforce. Another point could be that women in general are not interested in developing games... They study and gratuate in other fields. But thats are only my two white male cis gender cents...

Lol what. I guarantee you more Asians play blizzard games than whites.

[Zython]

Honestly that just seems like a horrible reason to not pursue a career. In no way should businesses enact practices to rectify that kind of reasoning.

Maybe they know something that you don't? Did that thought ever cross your mind?

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Once again I point to Fallout 4 and how utterly stupid this 'logic' is.

This is going to shock you.

But.

All Bethesda games are bad.

[Themius]

That right there is the problem. I have no problem with a goal intended to raise diversity, but blindly hiring anyone with no qualifications in order to hit some imaginary number that is deemed acceptable is ridiculous.

I wish people would shut up with this bullshit of "even if not qualified" because that's not the case.


Oh look a tech company hired a woman who clearly isn't qualified even though he has a portfolio and has been working in smaller tech companies already...oh look they hired a minority as an intern after he showed he had skills in development and wanted to get better, clearly he's not qualified! Like what?

White men are basically the only people spewing this "if it's not white and male then it's not qualified!" while that's not exactly what's being said whether someone is or isn't qualified seems to boil down to whether they're a white guy or not, if race != white|| gender != male { qualifications = "none"} that's basically how people function.

[Zython]

So you are one of them who think white people cant suffer of discrimination becuse one time in history they was on the top?

History
|
->Genocides
|
-> Genocides against white people
|
-> Genocides against people because they were white
|
-> /!\ This folder is empty

[elaina]

"Help wanted - White males need not apply"

Just means they'll have something less than "All the jobs".

[Stabbyfists]

Honestly - I am for Diversity of thought and idea rather than diversity of skin or gender. When we start hiring based on whether you have a certain skin pigment or your genitals happen to be on the inside rather than the outside it feels like you're not really valuing their ideas and simply trying to fill a quota.

Its a touchy subject to tackle but its an important one to discuss. Initiatives have been put into place that have seriously made me worried for our future as a specieis. For example, http://nypost.com/2015/05/03/woman-t...-fitness-test/ - I'm for my gender standing up and getting your dream job, but a Firefighter has a CRUCIAL role and testing is important because you need to be able to carry all that gear PLUS me out of a burning building and if you lag behind without ME then you risk MY life. This is an example of trying to get "Diversity" which in turn risks OTHER people's lives.

However in the Tech world, my conservative friends tell me they're afraid of speaking up of their ideas and suggestions because if they're found out to be conservative they will be outcast-ed and possibly lose their job. Diversity of THOUGHT and IDEA are not being encouraged and as a result, we are not growing from bouncing ideas off one another.

Hell I identify as a classical liberal and yet defending my values (Freedom of Speech no matter what is being said, Diversity of ideas even if I do not agree, Not judging people on Skin Color, not judging people on Gender, etc) are all becoming Conservative positions the more the outspoken left continues to lean further and further left.

Call me old fashioned but I thought hiring people based on gender, skin color, etc and not by their merits, and the quality of character was considered racist.

[Uoyredrum]

*Grabs the world's tiniest violin*

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1. If that's the case, why did this gap not appear until the 80's.
2. Why do you assume that a merit-based system would benefit men over women?

1. What data do you have showing that employment in this industry was even between both genders prior to the 80s?

2. I'm not assuming that. I'm saying that hiring people based on their gender and not their merit is bullshit, regardless of the industry. When you try so hard to be inclusive that you're pushing away qualified candidates, you're trying way too hard to pander to SJW nonsense. I have no problem with women in the gaming industry. I have a problem with employers hiring people based on their gender.

[Deleted]

Honestly that just seems like a horrible reason to not pursue a career. In no way should businesses enact practices to rectify that kind of reasoning.

Women and men tend to have different priorities and interests in life. It's why they enter different fields of study and employment, leading to gender domination of certain fields. Which in turn can turn others off from said fields or companies. In general, women tend to be less career driven than men either way, so while for a man, who his coworkers will be won't play a big part in his decision for accepting a job, for a woman, it will. You have exceptions either way tho.
I agree with you that businesses have no responsibility of evening out the gender disparity of their staff, the only thing they should do is offer equal opportunity regardless of race and gender and hire the best individual. If you want to even it out, then you really need to start way way earlier by trying to stimulate more young girls to develop and interest in IT or video games.

I completely understand my SOs decision tho. You're going to be spending 8-10 hours a day with your coworkers, and if you do not feel comfortable in a scenario where you're the only woman in the office, then it's almost counterproductive to accept the internship position. Especially if you have 8 other companies offering you one as well. She had a wide array of options, and the fact that this studio had an all-male staff was part of the decision of not going there.
In Uni you can always hang out or join another group of people in or outside the game dev curriculum when you happen to have a creepy neckbeard breathing down your neck (unfortunately these do exist and have a rather high saturation in IT and game dev/art curriculum). In a small game studio, you can't. And the internship was required in order to graduate, so you can't exactly leave either.

Maybe those women should stop being sexist then? Just a thought!

Funny, but you're missing the point.

[elaina]

I think there is clear intrinsic value in thinking that hiring a woman or under-represented minority might bring more to the table than having a 30th white guy on the development team.

I think that hiring underqualified should be avoided when possible (and there should be minimum mandatory requirements in addition to preferred/optimal) and under represented just means below what would be expected by average, so it's not even a lot (minus women).

I mean I don't want them hiring people just because they are a unicorn of three or more minorities/under repped groups. Gotta be able to still do the job.

[Livnthedream]

Funny, but you're missing the point.

Are you sure? Because I think your lack of self awareness is showing.

[Deleted]

Are you sure? Because I think your lack of self awareness is showing.

Fairly certain. Try reading again. Decision is not based on sexism, but more so on the negative stigmas attached to the kind of people that enrolled in the game development curriculum, which sadly, was rather justified. Even tho they were a minority overall, the curriculum had a rather high saturation of them compared to the other courses. Stereotypes exist for a reason.

You don't want to know the amount of highschool-esque drama and anti-social behaviour I've witnessed there purely due the fact that a large part of the student body were sheltered hermits for the entirety of their teens.

[Zeta333]

I think it's extremely important to hire women in story and design roles, even if not qualified. That type of diversity should be increased whatever the cost.

I don't think it's important to promote diversity in programming roles.

sorry but if your not qualified you shouldnt get the job due to your race, sex or religion.

[TheRainman]

And obviously that isn't happening.

And thankfully. But it's his (or hers) mentality that supports it that I was directing my response at.

[MonsieuRoberts]

I said this in the other thread that got closed; Hire the person who's best suited for the job.

If Blizz is taking steps toward equity so everyone has a chance at displaying their skills (if that's even an issue, I don't know) then I can't see everyone having the same chance being a bad thing.

[TheRainman]

Your hyperbole is intense. It obviously doesn't mean hire someone with no qualifications. It means that a diverse mindset has more value than is quantifiable by previous accomplishments and we aren't currently able to measure it.

It's not 'my' hyperbole. Did you bother reading the post from which I was quoting? Go do that.

I wish people would shut up with this bullshit of "even if not qualified" because that's not the case.

Same to you. Go read the post I was quoting. They were literally supporting hiring people with zero qualifications in order to boost diversity. My point is that's fucking absurd. You can boost diversity whilst hiring quality people who actually have the adequate qualifications.

I mean honestly people - If you're going to bother to think out a response to a post then at least know what the poster is talking about or referring to.

[dvaz]

While there aren't really any actual barriers for women to get into the game industry, but due to the high percentage of men, it does put women off from entering it in the first place.
Now, this is merely anecdotal observations on my part, but the school I attended had a game development bachelor program, and when talking with girls who were interested in it, they did note that the overwhelming amount of guys already attending it put them off from enrolling, leading to them choosing other programs that had shared some things with it (like interior design). It's only really the ones who are already big into gaming, the women who have already been exposed and come to terms with the male majority of the video game consumer-base and industry, that enrolled in it.

Similarly, my current SO who attended that very same bachelor program once told me that she didn't take an internship at a small AA game studio because there were no no female employees at the time she was offered.
After talking with my friends who work there and the CEO, I got to know that they used to have female staff (which have gone to bigger studios) and that they'd love to hire more women if positions opened up, but that they still pick the best qualified individual for the job.

So while there isn't an actual barrier that prohibits women and minorities to enter the game industry or specific companies, it's more so that the cultural perception that is the barrier. People still perceive video games to be very much a boys club despite it being very welcoming for people of any kind. For women, it can be very intimidating for someone to start a job, career or curriculum when the grand majority of the people you'll be working with are of the opposite sex.

tl;dr version

Im insecure.

World Change for me!