A Letter From CEO Bobby Kotick Regarding Progress and Commitments Made at Acti-Blizz

[deenman]

Unless you live in the middle east that isn't a thing.

idk in what progressive paradise you must live,but in the usa and eastern europe this is still very much the mentality,heck only in the 70's were women able to even take out loans withouth their husbands permition,this mentality doesnt just go away in a generation or two

also at an old job i used to have i was promoted over my more qualified and older female colleague and was told jokingly ''atleast you wont ever drop us for 9 months''

[mbit]

A few points:

1. The meritocracy argument that so many are relying on doesn't hold up when you're talking about recruits for entry positions. Those recruits looking to get their first job in development, art, music, whatever are going to be pretty much blank slates.
.

Grades exist.

[Dacia Ultan]

Not to get too far off-topic, but how can someone with a penis be misidentified as a male and vice-versa? You can't be misidentified as a male if you have a penis*.

You're conflating gender (a purely human conceit with more to do with metacognition than anything else) with anatomy (i.e. whether someone's crotch is an innie or an outie). You get the benefit of the doubt this time.

idk in what progressive paradise you must live,but in the usa and eastern europe this is still very much the mentality,heck only in the 70's were women able to even take out loans withouth their husbands permition,this mentality doesnt just go away in a generation or two

also at an old job i used to have i was promoted over my more qualified and older female colleague and was told jokingly ''atleast you wont ever drop us for 9 months''

See, a lot of people operate off of the notion that "discrimination is illegal" means "discrimination is nonexistent."

[Noblia]

There is a very easy solution to the whole thing, no pictures, no direct interview, just the qualifications and boom hired.


I very much doubt it

Are you saying that people hand in their resumes via some sort of centralized database that removes all references to your gender, age, race etc. and that you would only be hired based on your qualifications and synergy with the company(i.e. Sports apparel company hiring people that play sports regularly)?

That would be fair and logical! OMG! that would surely make all the SJWs and their sexist, racist agendas(hard quotas for females and minorities) melt like the witch in the Wizard of Oz.

[Combatbutler]

Are you saying that people hand in their resumes via some sort of centralized database that removes all references to your gender, age, race etc. and that you would only be hired based on your qualifications and synergy with the company(i.e. Sports apparel company hiring people that play sports regularly)?

I am actually quite surprised such a thing doesn't exist yet.

[MoanaLisa]

I very much doubt it

That will be the most difficult thing to change, no doubt. If Kotick gets his way about a non-retaliatory workplace it could happen. I've seen it elsewhere. It's a mistake to say that HR departments are only there to represent management. There has always been a part of the job where HR serves to organize and in some cases adjudicate employee disputes with each other and management. That only requires a strong leader in HR and a few departmental employees to bring off. It's difficult to change corporate culture but the one advantage Blizzard has is that the primary creators and representatives of the existing culture—the one that got sued and needs to change—are mostly all gone.

It never works without a bloodbath at the top. They've had that with resignations, firings and retirements.

- - - Updated - - -

Grades exist.

Grades matter less than you think. It varies from industry to industry but a college or trade school education sets the recruit up for having to unlearn more than anything. Submitting a portfolio created during your years in education or whatever practical street experience you've gathered through a blind screening is much, much better. A portfolio of your creative work either as an artist, musician, coder, developer, creative game designer is 100% applicable to what Blizzard does and can be judged without the team leader having any idea who the applicant is.

[Rozz]

Working at Blizzard must be nervewracking if you have to expend a tremendous amount of mental energy trying to dance around the thought police and refusing to interact with other people because all it takes is for someone who doesn't like you to lob an accusation at you and then you get fired. Must also be extremely frustrating for the vets if they're having to work with incompetents who were hired just to fill a quota. Little wonder why all of the old guard have bailed out of the sinking ship.

They're the incompetents that resulted the suit, wtf lmfaoo

[MoanaLisa]

That would be fair and logical! OMG! that would surely make all the SJWs and their sexist, racist agendas(hard quotas for females and minorities) melt like the witch in the Wizard of Oz.

Experience shows it wouldn't. It's a better more fair process and eliminates the 'bros' who apply because they have a contact in the company. Symphony orchestras now do this as a matter of course. Applicants for a position in an orchestra audition behind a screen for a panel of would-be peers. Selections are made purely based on how competent they are. And guess what: Most professional symphony orchestras are no longer bastions of exclusively male players. This would work for IT development as well.

[mbit]

Grades matter less than you think. It varies from industry to industry but a college or trade school education sets the recruit up for having to unlearn more than anything. Submitting a portfolio created during your years in education or whatever practical street experience you've gathered through a blind screening is much, much better.

Didnt you just argue they are blank slates? now they suddenly can be rated?
Seems either way you can rank them which defeats the initial point that they couldn't be ranked.

[Combatbutler]

That will be the most difficult thing to change, no doubt. If Kotick gets his way about a non-retaliatory workplace it could happen. I've seen it elsewhere. It's a mistake to say that HR departments are only there to represent management. There has always been a part of the job where HR serves to organize and in some cases adjudicate employee disputes with each other and management. That only requires a strong leader in HR and a few departmental employees to bring off. It's difficult to change corporate culture but the one advantage Blizzard has is that the primary creators and representatives of the existing culture—the one that got sued and needs to change—are mostly all gone.

It never works without a bloodbath at the top. They've had that with resignations, firings and retirements.

Office politics make it pretty much impossible to work out as smoothly as they hope, you always get cliques, with a us vs them mentality to varying degrees, whether team A doesn't really like team B or C etc.

[MoanaLisa]

Didnt you just argue they are blank slates? now they suddenly can be rated?
Seems either way you can rank them which defeats the initial point that they couldn't be ranked.

Blank slates as far as professional experience. Meritocracy based on previous experience doesn't really apply in this case. The argument I see is "Women will be hired over far more experienced males just to meet quotas." That doesn't need to apply in the case of new hires and entry-level positions.

[Poppincaps]

Grades exist.

As someone who works in game development, your grades don't mean anything really. Due to Game Design being a relatively new major in college, most programs are terrible and you'll have to just learn everything on the job anyways. Also a college degree isn't required for most game dev positions anyways.

[MoanaLisa]

Office politics make it pretty much impossible to work out as smoothly as they hope, you always get cliques, with a us vs them mentality to varying degrees, whether team A doesn't really like team B or C etc.

Of course. But that doesn't need to descend into abuse, sabotaging of other's work, sexual harassment or any of the other things the lawsuit is about. Where conflicts interfere with projects there needs to be something in place where employees can state their issues without fear of being 1) moved to another team or fired because they are complaining or 2) relegated to pointless tasks by a team leader that resents having their judgement called into question.

Sure, it's hard. It's doable though.

[Thage]

How about diversity for the sake of diversity - never?

I mean why? Why would that ever be a thing? Only ever hire people based on merit. Thats it.

Not sure what that has to do with anything I said but I also really don't care because that's a whole conversation that isn't going to see any meaningful resolution on a video game fansite of all places when it still sees debate in legal circles among people who actually know what they're talking about.

[Coniferous]

A few points:

1. The meritocracy argument that so many are relying on doesn't hold up when you're talking about recruits for entry positions. Those recruits looking to get their first job in development, art, music, whatever are going to be pretty much blank slates. Othewise it wouldn't be an entry position. It's likely that a lot of the balancing will be done at this level.

2. Recruiting will be wider and more formalized. That's a good thing. Moves internally should be put up and applied for just like any other job including outside recruitment. A job bid is a job bid and should seek the widest possible range of applicants.

3. Hiring 'bros' of current employees will probably end.

The real takeaway from Kotick's memo is that better pay transparency and no forced arbitration are things that employees wanted. They won. Good for them. And, if they can manage it, there will be no more bullshit among what are supposed to be professional colleagues. That's good too.

To #1... umm, to be a developer you have to have development experience. Very few people get hired into a top tier company like Blizzard as a "blank slate". And less than 20% of computer science majors are female. So it's tough to get to 33% of your workforce as female unless you have lower standards for hiring women.

And having worked in a majority male, high stress job like this before - if they were really serious they'd be talking about work culture, the focus on "crunch" and excessive hours, the "eat, sleep, code" ethos. Many women (rightfully) are leery of working in a company like this because they want to have kids someday, and most of these companies in the US have a culture that's incompatible with having any type of family life. In my company we had a hard time getting women to apply, and those who did actually get a job tended to leave relatively quickly due to concerns about work/life balance. If you're a talented woman in computer science, there are a lot of doors open to you, and many will gravitate towards the jobs that let them be home by 6 and have the weekends off.

Personally, I'm a man and I wish more men behaved like the women, refusing to work ungodly hours at the whim of the latest corporate overlord. But in the US, the culture is that men work whenever needed, and women take the jobs with flex hours and work at home, etc. in order to have a career compatible with childcare duties (which in turn, drives most of the pay gap).

[Thor79]

I'm 100% for fair, meritocratic hiring processes. This is NOT that. Being a talented artist, programmer, data scientist, or animator should be gender / identity blind. Why on earth do they think making a quota is going to improve the talent of their workforce?

[Combatbutler]

Of course. But that doesn't need to descend into abuse, sabotaging of other's work, sexual harassment or any of the other things the lawsuit is about. Where conflicts interfere with projects there needs to be something in place where employees can state their issues without fear of being 1) moved to another team or fired because they are complaining or 2) relegated to pointless tasks by a team leader that resents having their judgement called into question.

Sure, it's hard. It's doable though.

People can be very petty, arrogant, vain, and most of all ambitious. The bigger the company the more of these type of people you get, so I expect them to fail, especially since their solution is not a good one in the long run.

[MoanaLisa]

To #1... umm, to be a developer you have to have development experience. Very few people get hired into a top tier company like Blizzard as a "blank slate". And less than 20% of computer science majors are female. So it's tough to get to 33% of your workforce as female unless you have lower standards for hiring women.

Even at Blizzard there are entry-level positions that start an employee on the path to development. QA is one of them. There are others including internships which should be aggressively and fairly recruited with an eye toward diversity. Some internships work out, many don't. But the opportunity should be handed out in a fair manner.

I have no argument with your comments on 'crunch' culture. It needs to go and it's acceptance in IT culture is more a manifestation of how badly projects are run, how unrealistic project target dates are, and the incompetence of team leaders, managers, and producers who should know better. As has been said earlier candidates that submit good portfolios of work likely have more value to the applicant than a computer science degree.

[mbit]

Blank slates as far as professional experience. Meritocracy based on previous experience doesn't really apply in this case. The argument I see is "Women will be hired over far more experienced males just to meet quotas." That doesn't need to apply in the case of new hires and entry-level positions.

Should be obvious that it's a fallback. If they have no previous xp you look at portfolio which comes close to previous work and if they haven't that grades. There is always a metric you can employ to rank people. Worst case you make one up. Whole point is after all getting the best candidate.

[Chilela]

A few points:

1. The meritocracy argument that so many are relying on doesn't hold up when you're talking about recruits for entry positions. Those recruits looking to get their first job in development, art, music, whatever are going to be pretty much blank slates. Othewise it wouldn't be an entry position. It's likely that a lot of the balancing will be done at this level.

2. Recruiting will be wider and more formalized. That's a good thing. Moves internally should be put up and applied for just like any other job including outside recruitment. A job bid is a job bid and should seek the widest possible range of applicants.

3. Hiring 'bros' of current employees will probably end.

The real takeaway from Kotick's memo is that better pay transparency and no forced arbitration are things that employees wanted. They won. Good for them. And, if they can manage it, there will be no more bullshit among what are supposed to be professional colleagues. That's good too.

On that third point, I think that part's key to ending systemic anything. So long as industries use the "Who-you-know" model, the people in an outgroup are always going to face an uphill battle, regardless of who is comprised of said group.

As someone who works in game development, your grades don't mean anything really. Due to Game Design being a relatively new major in college, most programs are terrible and you'll have to just learn everything on the job anyways. Also a college degree isn't required for most game dev positions anyways.

As someone who took one of said programs (but failed to get any long-term game dev, or even general tech position), I can confirm having to learn just about everything on the job. It gives a knowledge of fundamentals, at best. Even on the internship I did, it was 90% stuff I hadn't done before, so I sort of had to learn everything on my own.