Activision Blizzard Appoints Kristen Hines as Chief DEI Officer

[Raven]

Maybe hire good devs that actually make a effort in making a good product.
All these pointless positions only cost money and add nothing to the games that they make….

No but it makes a better workplace for those that work there, and a better work places means increased chance to hire "good" devs.

[Relapses]

Exact same reason others argue there are poc sitting on their couch crying because the didn't get a job because they are not white.

But that's not really what was said. The people not getting the job right now aren't getting it because they don't know the job exists or that they're potentially qualified for it. Blizzard isn't disqualifying white guys, they're just making sure more diverse groups of people are aware that jobs at their company exist. The net result may be the same: A bunch of white dudes working at Blizzard; but at least Blizzard is trying to get the word out there. And no, it's not in the name of virtue signaling or anything else. It's just hiring practices. The politicization of this has been heavily due to people reading (either deliberately or out of ignorance) the wrong message from what Blizzard is attempting to achieve.

[Lumineus]

Maybe it's because we've seen how it works in other companies with a cushy HQ in San Fran, and we don't want ActiBlizz being run by a room full of obtuse lesbian wine aunts like Marvel Comics.

[Lord Pebbleton]

Diversity has no place in determining if one is fit for a role. Only skill and experience should do that.

[Relapses]

Exactly. If I advertise for an engineer and 90% of applications are men, that's not a recruitment problem. In fact, it's arguably not even a problem at all. 90% of nurses are women, not because of some systemic 'problem', but because guys just aren't all that into it.

It's a mistake to think that every workplace ought to be a perfect microcosm of society. To attempt to do that is to force something artificial.

Blizzard is a company with thousands of employees whose job descriptions are far more diverse than what a nurse would typically do. (And even then, the societal stigma against male nurses has been eroding over time as well.) A perfect microcosm isn't being forced. They've made commitments not quotas. But even said, they are at least trying to ensure there are people on the team whose diverse cultural backgrounds may help better develop the game for the diverse group of players in the game.

I don't get why this has a tendency to immediately devolve into bickering over perceived identity politics. It's mostly PR but it doesn't have any measurable downsides and can potentially reap massive rewards by allowing the games Blizzard develops to have the widest potential audience possible.

[Nephod]

Just hire the best person for the job. Reading this post just made me sad.

[FuxieDK]

Generally harder for a white person to fully understand the experiences and nuances of people of non-white backgrounds

Except, it MANY countries, the racism from colored towards white is greater than white towards colored.

Only, white people are not "allowed" to say, they experience racism.

[Irian]

Maybe she can teach them how not to molest their female workers.
Either way, doesn't matter to me as long as they actually make games. I think people in these comments seriously overestimate the power and influence something like this has, don't mald over what basically amounts to someone making sure women and minorities aren't completely pushed out of the game development scene. White dudes are still being hired and will still be the majority.

[ClassicPeon]

But that's not really what was said. The people not getting the job right now aren't getting it because they don't know the job exists or that they're potentially qualified for it. Blizzard isn't disqualifying white guys, they're just making sure more diverse groups of people are aware that jobs at their company exist. The net result may be the same: A bunch of white dudes working at Blizzard; but at least Blizzard is trying to get the word out there. And no, it's not in the name of virtue signaling or anything else. It's just hiring practices. The politicization of this has been heavily due to people reading (either deliberately or out of ignorance) the wrong message from what Blizzard is attempting to achieve.

This is possibly the worst excuse i've ever heard.

If you dont know what you are qualified for and arent good enough to look for actual jobs - and at the same time if you are preferebly non white/male/straight - Blizzard will now help you get over your own inadequacies???

Why would a bunch of white dudes know the job exists but not a bunch of black ladies?

[Varodoc]

What a useless position.

[MoanaLisa]

Diversity has no place in determining if one is fit for a role. Only skill and experience should do that.

Exactly how does that apply to entry-level positions which are an excellent place to start walking the walk instead of endlessly talking the talk.

[micwini]

Isn't this getting out of hand? In a few years, non white people and females will have identity crisis because they don't know if they got where they got because of talent or gender / color. White people with talent will blame them and that will generate even more racism.

- So, she was the best one for the job?
- No sir, there was 3 more qualified people but they were Caucasian males.
- Ok! Good job then.

Imagine this conversation 20 years ago.

This is the problem with all this diversity BS. Unfortunately for you, me and many others is that society just isn't there yet to understand this. We were born 100 years too early. RIP. There is a reason why the world is going downhill so fast. Hire because of gender/color correlates strongly with the downwards trend of the state of the world.

- - - Updated - - -

Exactly how does that apply to entry-level positions which are an excellent place to start walking the walk instead of endlessly talking the talk.

Education/school performance/certificats/etc? Like it always used to go?

[THEORACLE64]

It's really going downhill for this company

Ah, yes.. because a company trying to make an equal space and equality for their staff members is so bad

Seriously. Why MMO-champ chooses to enable comments on posts like these doesn’t nothing but expose the 4chan members here.

[MrLachyG]

Diversity has no place in determining if one is fit for a role. Only skill and experience should do that.

you're right but also diversity brings it's own set of experience. let's use the analogy of a survey; if you're conducting a survey over the phone and you want to get as close to an accurate portrayal of the community at large then you will want to interview many different age groups, ethnic groups etc to get a wide variety of viewpoints. Now bring that to Blizz (and other companies for that matter); they want a diverse workplace culture because it will lead to a wider range of ideas for their games as opposed to only hiring males between the ages of 21 and 30 would bring

also people keep bringing up that more qualified people are missing out because of this sort of stuff. that is impossible to actually know for sure and is pure speculation. it's not like so called diversity hires are being hired with zero experience (aside the ones hired straight out of college) they have experience at other companies before joining Blizzard.

[Skylarking]

ok but does this improve their games? probably not

so no one cares

[dariok]

Generally harder for a white person to fully understand the experiences and nuances of people of non-white backgrounds

How can a black person ever understand nuances of specific Asian cultures?! Thinking all non-white people are same is just super racist.

[Auburst]

I like how they go out of their way to rearrange the DIE acronym away from how people say diversity inclusion and equity. Almost as if it's a sign of what these neo-marxist policy positions mean for companies and industries at a whole.

No it's DEI. God of SJW.

[MoanaLisa]

Education/school performance/certificats/etc? Like it always used to go?

Skill and experience were the criteria proposed that I answered to. Neither is especially appropriate to new hires at entry level positions. Education/school performance/ and certs are one thing to look at. Being honest, in the IT shop I was a part of for nearly 20 years it was rare that book-educated developers from university or trade schools were always the best hire in retrospect. Lots of washouts when they were sent to work on COBOL or PICK BASIC projects (they still exist). Schools teach very specific things which are often not always that applicable to a shop that's been running for years. Maintenance of legacy systems and doing QA in those systems and languages is not much touched on.

It's a hard problem, there's no doubt. Some kids show up for an interview and you just know they're going to be fine. They're curious, fearless, greedy to pick up things they've never seen before and often middle-of-the-class for grades. Some of them, including POC, think they have something to prove. As often as not that's a better criteria for new hires.

[Beefhammer]

Isn't this getting out of hand? In a few years, non white people and females will have identity crisis because they don't know if they got where they got because of talent or gender / color. White people with talent will blame them and that will generate even more racism.

- So, she was the best one for the job?
- No sir, there was 3 more qualified people but they were Caucasian males.
- Ok! Good job then.

Imagine this conversation 20 years ago.

That is not what this is about. It has been discussed many times before. Qualified minorities have not been given a chance before. That is why this is needed.

[Lorgran]

That is not what this is about. It has been discussed many times before. Qualified minorities have not been given a chance before. That is why this is needed.

So because things was uneven and racist in the beforetimes, we should now make it uneven and racist in the other way in the future to balance things?
You can't solve racism with more racism. Solving inequality is giving everyone the same, it's not giving one side more because another side had more in the past.