Two months ago certain people made the assertion that if Jessica Price was not a woman should would have not been fired for her rude and accusatory comments towards customers. I said all along that she was fired for being exceptionally rude to customers and not because she was a woman.
Guess what? Two male Riot employees were recently fired for the same exact offense.
(read the article, it is confirmed in there that Klein was fired). So much for the narrative that Price was fired because she was a woman. Being rude to your customers is not a good way to conduct business and should be met with corrective action. If you are going to call your customers mysognysts, manbabies, bimbos or towel-heads then expect to get fired regardless of your race, creed or sex.
They were trying to defend Riot’s moronic decision to have a PAX session where men were not allowed. How stupid was that idea? I understand Riot is trying to rehabilitate their image but promoting sexism is not a good way of fighting sexism. You cannot achieve equality by forced exclusion. Well intentioned sexism is still sexism and all it creates is backlash.
Speaking of which, how is it that Gaming Journalism did not run with this story about Riot excluding men from PAX West sessions? If they had excluded women or asians (and this would be equally as bad) it would be front page news. That is a shame because not only did Riot violate state law by doing so, true equality does not care about sex, political leanings or race. By not discussing this all they are doing is creating a situation where the next time something about racism or sexism hits Kotaku or Polygon it will be dismissed by many as simply “one sided reporting” because they chose not to run stories of on-the-nose sexism.
tl;dr version: Jessica Price, Riot and Gaming Journalism all in one post.
Wow, so its 2018 and gender segregation is now a thing in video games? what the fuck. I just want to build empires, slay dragons and zap aliens, can everyone leave the identity politics at the door? :(
When men have all the power in the industry, it’s not sexist or sexism to exclude them in order to have a place where underprivileged people can congregate.
Just like the dumb claims of “reverse racism” whenever non white people want to form support groups and the like.
I disagree for two reasons. (1) Men do not have all the power in the industry (factually incorrect) and (2) even if they did exclusion does not work for non-violent change. If one group has all the power, removing them from any discussion does not generally make that group feel more inclined to share said power.
Using Riot Games as an example of anything. Wow. There really are no words for that. Yeah everyone, this is what you should do, copy one of the most toxic developers out there and apply their judgment at your workplace. And yes, white guys get to say they want to leave identity politics at places because… well they’re the default. They will always be including.
Well maybe women just want to be able to ask questions like why can’t I play a character with a diverse body style without men telling them why women don’t want that. The fact that the toxic management at Riot Games doesn’t understand that since they couldn’t handle that feedback from their employees should surprise no one.
We can’t ask questions like these without men jumping down our throats and literally getting angry about it with the current environments available. We simply can’t. It’s horrific to even try and talk about these things, you might as well just asked to be mobbed and doxxed if you dare ask something like that, how come there are dozens of body types for the male characters and one for the female. Why can’t we have diversity and next thing you know, internet wars.
I apologize massively for having the cheek to be born white and male and the further outrage of being straight. I will try desperately not to infect video games with my existence…
You keep talking about exiting video games. No one is stopping you. Having other voices at the table, is not an affront to anyone. The current situation simply does not allow those voices to be heard very well, from employees or players.
You claimed that a man making similar statements would not be fired. That was shown to be false in, of all companies, your favorite target - Riot Games.
Now you want to justify exclusion, which I might add is in violation of state law, because an issue cannot be discussed? I outright reject that claim as the organizers could certainly ensure a moderated and rational discussion. You appear instead to be seeking an echo chamber where other opinions are not represented.
Simply put, Riot’s ham-handed attempt to exclude men is an example of the pendulum swinging too far the other way. It is symbolically no better or worse than their previous sexist culture. Sexism is sexism regardless of gender. Widespread prison rape is just as abhorrent as date rape. And when a company is almost certainly violating the law by excluding a race, gender or religion from a meeting then it shows how far askew they have gone.
Man you’re (edit: acting like a) really fucking shitty person (right now)
Unusual for me edit because that actually came of harder than I intended I’m struggling to deal with something dumb IRL and fired off from the hip, sorry
Just because I am fairly familiar with both of your views I think you maybe arguing past each other and I guess you both agree more than you might assume.
I happen to know that both of you believe games should be inclusive and allow women & men and people of all orientations & races to enjoy games. Playing as themselves , with interests related to them depending on the artistic decision of the game. There are however some regional cultural differences you may not be aware of.
@Nesrie
Cliffski thinks it is a step backward to have specific gender only meetings. IE: Its tough to have dialogue and improve matters when the people you want to change are dis-invited. To put in in an American context “separate but equal” you can fill in the rest as to why its a bad idea. An even worse idea when many men in the games industry (including Cliffski) are absolutely dedicated to equality and want to make games and games creation more inclusive. So ostracizing them seems counter productive.
@cliffski2
Nesrie rightfully took umbrage at the notion that identity politics is somehow a bad thing when it is literally a life and death subject for many people in the United States. Like me you are from the UK where its different. I assure you identity politics is not just some politically correct silly thing in the USA. It is a very real survival mechanism for a lot of people.
Apologies if I come across as patronizing to either of you. I just see two people I like & respect possibly not understanding fully where the other was coming from. Or I could just be wrong and stupid :)
No, it’s yet another example of Riot being completely tone deaf. (Hint: it lead to losing two employees in exchange for fuck all). You comparing one incident as a validation of your belief that it’s a made up problem is another.
