A Letter From CEO Bobby Kotick to All Employees

[Straga21]

There's just been a funny correlation between more and more diversity and worse and worse games, so yeah.

Don't forget movies, and series as well. Diversity and inclusivity are the death of creativity.

[TrollHunter3000]

Maybe it's hard to have faith in claims of more equitable hiring practices when so often it's used as a PR stunt. I hope you're right, though. I don't think positive discrimination (for a lack of a better term, I know people are going to take issue with it, but whatever) is a good way to go if you want to approach the neutral ground that is "hire anyone for their qualifications and don't worry about what they look like."

One of the most common recommendations we make to improve equity in the hiring process is to separate the decision maker from the applicant as much as possible. This is done through a verity of methods. Most commonly, structured blind interviews are conducted and typically done so by someone who is an expert in the subject matter but not directly working with the ultimate decision maker. There is evidence that this alone helps reduce bias as the person evaluating the candidate is likely to be influenced by their potential biases when they know they're not selecting someone to work for them. We also recommend, when possible, to have the option of providing written responses. This is a common choice by those with certain disabilities that would be apparent from a live interview. At the end of the day though, one of the most common problems identified is just having very ill-structured and inconsistent interviewing methods that vary greatly from one applicant to another. So the number one recommendation is just being more consistent in their process. This also helps better narrow down where potential issues may exist.

I just wanted to provide some examples of the type of thought that goes into these issues. It's far from how most posters in this thread describe them as just being "hire more of X!".

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I'm basing this off the CS being a white male dominated study and video games being a white male dominated hobby, provided we're not including mobile. Together this makes it more likely that white guys apply for these positions than anyone else.

The weakness in all of this are the recruiters. If applicants need to reflect the people who get hired then companies still have means to skew the people who get to apply. Tricky.



Because fewer women apply for senior positions than men do. This means that for Nike to suddenly receive more female applicants it would require to be a fluke. You ought to know this considering you claim this is your field.

Why are you assuming they're suddenly receiving more female applicants? Maybe they were receiving that proportion of applicants the entire time.

You're the one here making weird assumptions about things you can't possibly know.

[Sluvs]

Yes and a 100 she would say stuff like that if winning the lawsuit meant they can buy a house for themselves for no effort at all.

Just so I can understand your position, you believe Afrasiabi to be innocent and all the women that came forward with allegations to be lying for some ulterior motive, when Afrasiabi himself did not come forward and said he was innocent.

[Video Games]

Don't forget movies, and series as well. Diversity and inclusivity are the death of creativity.

Yeah. Japan, which has no diversity except some women, still make good games. Very weird.

[uuuhname]

Diversity and inclusivity are the death of creativity.

just say you hate things you aren't familiar with lmao. this is so pathetic.

[TrollHunter3000]

Getting paid for doing something doesn't mean you are being paid for something senseful. In fact, I've been witness to a lot of programmes, state funded ones, that are simply syphoning out a lot of money that could objectively be used for better things.

whatever you say.

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There's just been a funny correlation between more and more diversity and worse and worse games, so yeah.

Where? You have proof of this?

[uuuhname]

Where? You have proof of this?

their ass. is my educated guess.

[Straga21]

just say you hate things you aren't familiar with lmao. this is so pathetic.

Please point me where I've said that.

[uuuhname]

Please point me where I've said that.

as if you've provided any sort of nuance or explanation of your position, I'm going off what you say, not what's in your head.

[Video Games]

whatever you say.

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Where? You have proof of this?

Have you played any western game recently? Huge backlash to almost all of them because they're just bad, buggy and/or unfinished all while all these companies say diversity and inclusion is paramount to the company

[Magnagarde]

their ass. is my educated guess.

World of Warcraft.

[Nimin]

Don't forget movies, and series as well. Diversity and inclusivity are the death of creativity.

Technically it's ideology who's the death of creativity, because the moment your start putting up fences and banning stuff "you can't do or say" because they go against the dogma then you automatically limit yourself and thus end up creating a shittier product than someone else who is free.

[uuuhname]

Have you played any western game recently? Huge backlash to almost all of them because they're just bad, buggy and/or unfinished all while all these companies say diversity and inclusion is paramount to the company

so, first you fall for the obvious propaganda of thinking any corporation cares about any position they take beyond the assumption it will bump up sales, as is what you do under capitalism. and then you think that, and that alone is why western games are crap? like, this is beyond childish.

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World of Warcraft.

yeah cuz one character being trans or whatever is the sole reason why WoW sucks. do you people ever listen to yourselves?

none of you seem to really grasp that it's not "inclusivity" that kills creativity, it's capitalism, it's the desire to acquire more money and for as little cost as possible. like you cannot tell me inclusivity is why some Blizzard employees are paid so little they have to skip meals.

[Straga21]

Technically it's ideology who's the death of creativity, because the moment your start putting up fences and banning stuff "you can't do or say" because they go against the dogma then you automatically limit yourself and thus end up creating a shittier product than someone else who is free.

Yep, and they did just that. Check Disney's response where they say that if a writer comes to them with a story where the main characters are white and the inclusivity comes from supporting characters they pass on them. And they are proud of that. Or how most of the new Marvel shit has SJW writers that have not once opened a comic book, whilst nerd that spent all their lives reading them have no chance to ever get a job like that cause they are the wrong skin color ( white) or god forbid they are straight and male.

[Mylura]

Have you played any western game recently? Huge backlash to almost all of them because they're just bad, buggy and/or unfinished all while all these companies say diversity and inclusion is paramount to the company

I believe the Angry Videogame Nerd has made an entire series on the countless number of shitty games made in the so called golden era of gaming. Shitty games have always existed and there's probably no more now than there were then relative to actual good games. The bad always vastly outnumbers the good in gaming. And this is all very subjective. There was a lot of backlash for Last of Us 2, for example, and I thought it was an amazing game. Some people agree and some don't and that's the case for Every game. Say any game you think is flawless and I assure you I can find at least one rant about how it's actually a terrible game no matter how popular the opinion might be overall.

[Katchii]

Don't forget movies, and series as well. Diversity and inclusivity are the death of creativity.

I don't think it's creativity that's dying though, as with more diversity you do get more ideas, it's that those ideas all get hamstrung for pushing boundaries and for possibly being offensive, so everything gets boiled down to only the most basic, simple, non-groundbreaking, non-boundary pushing, non-offensive things which get released which pleases no one.

South Park covered this years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no8RJpC0nn4

[Ivarr]

yeah cuz one character being trans or whatever is the sole reason why WoW sucks. do you people ever listen to yourselves?

Only the correlation was being pointed to. That you're jumping to what you think is its cause is on you.

[Alamhaoingaturlife]

Then you arent diversity hiring, but hiring the most qualified person. by definition, a diversity hire is just someone you took to fill your quota. It is a made up twitter snowflake word that didnt exist until relatively recently.
My point stands.

BUT PLEASE, do go on screeching about how merit based society is rayceest, troglodyte.

Also, unrelated but i find this highly amusing.

Wow started pandering to transgender people, and then subsequently lost 41% of its subscribers. Jogs the nogging doesnt it.

[Straga21]

Have you played any western game recently? Huge backlash to almost all of them because they're just bad, buggy and/or unfinished all while all these companies say diversity and inclusion is paramount to the company

But don't you see you bigot? the fact that Dark souls now removed the male/female option and it has body type a and b was the greatest invention of our time. Also the people who created these changes could not make their own game that is successful so they have to remake games that weren't SJW cancer and put the cancer in it themselves.

[fwc577]

"United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement"

So, basically this guy got paid to sit on his ass and do nothing?