Comment by ev1 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ev1 | Hacker News Reader

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> I do find it interesting that the DFEH has lawsuits against both Riot Games and Blizzard for similar issues

Yes, because Riot's C-level executive was literally dry humping interns and shoving their ass into faces and still has their job? Clearly "visibility" has not worked past creating PR articles.

Does DFEH have the same problem with any other major game studio there that isn't embroiled in this type of behaviour?

I've played League before. The player base is ludicrously, absurdly toxic, and if they are hiring anything from there, then, well...

Sexism:

[2018] https://kotaku.com/inside-the-culture-of-sexism-at-riot-game...

[2018] https://twitter.com/MiniWhiteRabbit/status/10269232332814213...

[2019] https://www.vice.com/en/article/evyz7p/over-100-riot-games-e...

COO specific:

https://www.businessinsider.com/riot-games-suspends-coo-scot...

- tbh just google riot games farting

CEO specific:

[Feb 2021] https://www.wired.com/story/riot-games-ceo-culture-complaint...

[Mar 2021] https://www.dailyesports.gg/alienware-has-terminated-its-spo...

DFEH is a California entity, so I don't think it's fair to talk about all other major game studios. Most of the articles you posted are all stemmed from the same start: The Kotaku article. The wired article is from the same author noting that COO was not fired (and other employees that are employed by CEO have had complaints).

It looks like EA is based in LA and isn't under investigation by the DFEH, but Riot and Activision/Blizzard are two of the biggest game studios in CA, right?

Yes, the C-level executive that dry-humped employees, "ball-tapped" employees, and any other inappropriate behavior should be removed... but that actually isn't included in the DFEH lawsuit, IIRC.

2K, Disney, Niantic, Unity, WB, Roblox, Marvel are some others that are CA based that I can name off the top of my head.

The parent post does make a decent job of pointing out that it's pretty rotten, from the top to the bottom.

The players at the bottom are terribly toxic, the C-levels are allegedly just as bad.

I am curious if this is more about culture - I would imagine EA and Niantic for example to have a relatively boring office, just normal cubes and meetings. Just engineers and designers going to work.

Riot and Blizzard both have large flagship franchises that they practically decorate their offices around, statues and all. When I was talking to recruiters in the past, Riot stood out as one of those "don't bother applying if you aren't absolutely shitting passion for our games out of every hole" as culture fit.

I think Roblox is as big based on revenue, Unity has a very different development model, but the others seem a lot smaller than Riot/Activision-Blizzard.

My point about the C-Levels is that it is primarily 1 C-level who is being spoken about: The COO. While there was an allegation against the CEO earlier this year, it was found to be unsubstantiated and thrown out because the claimant was proved to have stolen money/scammed Riot and falsified the claim. I am not sure if it's fair to group all of the other executives into the same bucket as the COO.

I can see how the culture is playing a part in it. Riot has softened up on the "need not apply if not a gamer" in the past couple of years, but many of the people who started that are still there. I guess my big question is: Why Riot/Blizzard? Are they the worst companies in California right for sexual harassment and inclusion? These have been the two prominent DFEH cases against tech companies in the past couple of years.

I can't find anything about "thrown out because the claimant was proved to have stolen money/scammed Riot and falsified the claim"; the closest was Wired in March ('The three-person special committee, a part of Riot’s board of directors, is made up of Youngme Moon, a professor at Harvard Business School and the only publicly-named member of Riot Games’s board. She is joined by two male C-Level executives at the Chinese tech giant Tencent, which owns Riot Games. The company declined to name these members of the special committee.', which seems really one-sided)

I'll agree on Unity, apples to oranges, but 2K/T2 as a company is 3b revenue. EA is 5.5b revenue. Nexon is ~3b revenue. FrontOfficeSports and several other sites says League of Legends property was 1.75b for 2020 - both Niantic and Roblox exceed that as single games. Disney and Lucasgames are massive. Why aren't these lined up for DFEH suits or repeatedly being complained about by ex employees?

It is in the court filings, they are spread out and hard to find sometimes. In particular there is a link https://www.invenglobal.com/articles/13558/riot-games-ceo-fi... which outlines evidence of witness tampering, and other actions of the plaintiff. I believe some of the other filings have more information.

I honestly don't know, but I do think there is something with Riot/Blizzard culture that might make this type of behavior "normalized?". I guess my questions are more surrounding DFEH and tech in general. I don't know if Riot/Blizzard are the worst companies in the state, or are they?

> Riot and Blizzard both have large flagship franchises that they practically decorate their offices around, statues and all. When I was talking to recruiters in the past, Riot stood out as one of those "don't bother applying if you aren't absolutely shitting passion for our games out of every hole" as culture fit.

I interviewed at Riot when I was trying to move back to Saint Louis. I could not muster up very much enthusiasm for League, and you could just feel the room shift into "just get through this interview ASAP" mode.

Can't help but feel I dodged a bullet.

> literally dry humping interns and shoving their ass into faces

statements like this are why i have no interest in investigating allegations of sexism because neither of these things are sexist.

is your starting point that we're supposed to assume this is only being done to women? assuming women are being treated differently is a poor premise for proving women are being treated differently. or are you implying that doing the same thing to men and women is sexist to women? either way, its a very poor argument and calls into question your judgement.

You're the first person to mention 'sexism' in this comment chain. Why is an investigation predicated on sexism? Why is sexual harassment not sufficient to warrant an investigation?

> You're the first person to mention 'sexism' in this comment chain. Why is an investigation predicated on sexism?

...i actually have no idea. i was gonna say maybe i read it in another comment, but i dont see any other comment talking about sexism.

i dont know what im on about. sorry folks!

I appreciated the honest fault acceptance. That was refreshing. Thanks!

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