Sunday, September 2nd 2018
Riot Games Gaffe Results in Sexism Allegations at Pax West 2018
In what ended up overshadowing most of the news coming out of PAX West 2018, Riot Games delivered a masterclass in how not to handle things in a politically-correct environment. The situation in question concerned a series of sessions that were targeted to, and I quote, "women and non-binary folks" which was well intended and meant to be more of an acknowledgement of the minorities in the gaming industry.
Unfortunately, this wording and then poor-execution and follow-up from their part meant that things quickly turned sour. People at the event were quick to notice that the room reserved for these sessions appeared to have volunteers attempt to keep them away. What was intended to be a support session then turned into allegations flying all around, and social media lit abuzz with what seemed to be discrimination against straight men by the company.These sessions were targeted at increasing the gender diversity in the gaming industry by offering resume reviews, interactions with women employees of Riot Games and were scheduled to be held throughout the event from 10 am to 6 pm. When asked for clarification, a Riot Games recruiter made things worse by saying men were allowed but only after 2:30 pm which was quickly turned into fodder for the ever-growing fire that now added segregation allegations as well. Making things worse were more Riot employees using their social media accounts to double down on this stance by invoking the privilege argument, and calling out some of the complainers as "manbabies". These were primarily targeted at members of the League of Legends subreddit who in turn were, in the author's opinion, extrapolating things beyond reason but ended up being another case study example of how not to handle things. Riot Games ended up having to provide a statement late last night local time, which did little to assuage those who felt that anyone who paid for an event ticket should have received the same treatment as others. This has since resulted in many people, game journalists and industry personnel alike, taking sides and opening up a can of worms that, in this author's opinion, both sides need to acknowledge and work towards a resolution sooner than later.
[Update, September 7 2018: Two Riot Games employees, including one referenced above, have since been let go by the company as reported by The Verge]
Unfortunately, this wording and then poor-execution and follow-up from their part meant that things quickly turned sour. People at the event were quick to notice that the room reserved for these sessions appeared to have volunteers attempt to keep them away. What was intended to be a support session then turned into allegations flying all around, and social media lit abuzz with what seemed to be discrimination against straight men by the company.These sessions were targeted at increasing the gender diversity in the gaming industry by offering resume reviews, interactions with women employees of Riot Games and were scheduled to be held throughout the event from 10 am to 6 pm. When asked for clarification, a Riot Games recruiter made things worse by saying men were allowed but only after 2:30 pm which was quickly turned into fodder for the ever-growing fire that now added segregation allegations as well. Making things worse were more Riot employees using their social media accounts to double down on this stance by invoking the privilege argument, and calling out some of the complainers as "manbabies". These were primarily targeted at members of the League of Legends subreddit who in turn were, in the author's opinion, extrapolating things beyond reason but ended up being another case study example of how not to handle things. Riot Games ended up having to provide a statement late last night local time, which did little to assuage those who felt that anyone who paid for an event ticket should have received the same treatment as others. This has since resulted in many people, game journalists and industry personnel alike, taking sides and opening up a can of worms that, in this author's opinion, both sides need to acknowledge and work towards a resolution sooner than later.
[Update, September 7 2018: Two Riot Games employees, including one referenced above, have since been let go by the company as reported by The Verge]
192 Comments on Riot Games Gaffe Results in Sexism Allegations at Pax West 2018
And when has anyone said the same to a black person or a gay person? Come on, stop with this "white privilege" garbage. It's even more painful to read such drivel when you're watching endless supplies of gansta dudes with dem golden chainz and Ferarriz with bitches. Or endless supplies of black actors and black sportsmen who earn millions a year. If that's how oppression looks like, I want some of that oppression too as a middle class white dude. But that's not how it works isn't it? They earn that cash in the millions because they have other qualities or skills one way or another and skin color is just something they happen to have because that's something we don't have any power over (unless you're Michael Jackson)..
So this thread degenerated fast..
No one should be airing too much of the dirty stuff anyways. That's what families are for (of course, many people don't seem to have one anymore. Might be the thing that depresses me more than other issues).
No, this was not the largest percent, but the point stands that it wasn't all transcription. Also, knowing how these old machines operated, I'd be surprised if the majority here could even manage to open a word processing application on one. I'd suggest trying being black or gay for a moment before you can claim to have a clue on that front. I do know the majority of blacks and gays do claim to have been discriminated against in their lifetime at some point. That's probably not a bunch of lies, and pretending your certain it is oozes ignorance.
I acknowledge my privilege, and no I'm not going to change my stance on that. It's just how it is. Jee whizz Rej, blacks in general must be RICH! The stats could've fooled me, though.
money.cnn.com/2016/06/27/news/economy/racial-wealth-gap-blacks-whites/index.html
That was in 2014, and it accounted for the excessively rich too (on both sides). Because a couple black or gay people made it? No, on average Rej, you don't. Quit your bullshit (Actually, that's a good reddit for this, but I'll hold off for now). Either that or start donating ~40% more of your income to charity and you can simulate it.
I'd love to find one for gay people too, since you know, that's actually the topic. The numbers would probably be better since it isn't as obvious, but I'm betting they are still worse off.
Those kind of idiots never realize that the effect is exactly the opposite of what they intend it to. Are you seriously asking this question?? And btw, your company seems like one of the shittiest and crappiest places a person can work in. Gender segregation, even special meetings for the retarded political correct "diversity topic", or even a special position for this retarded topic.
Congrats. That was the most idiotic and sad at the same time post that I have read in a long time. The sad part is that you actually agree with all this ridiculous nonsense.
But for a say, Rome 2 style unit? That'd just be silly. The units are more or less just piecemeal clones of one another. No one is asking them to do so. The idea is to provide a place to support those who wish to do so. Obviously riot games fucked this up pretty bad by excluding potential allies though.
Specifically, traditional male culture (or gender roles more generally, really) plays a significant part here. How? Men are generally (still) expected to be the primary breadwinners in their family, and this is more true in poorer demographic groups (which tend to lean conservative due to a myriad of factors). This imperative is not to be trifled with. If your partner, children, extended family and friends all expect you to be able to feed and clothe your loved ones, yet you're unable to - through no fault of your own or lack of trying - how would you respond? Reasoned debate and careful planning of how to move forward is not the default answer in situations like this - particularly as poor people are under such constant stress that they're essentially forced to make short-term judgements and bad decisions. This is a significant, if not the most significant cause for most petty (and a large amount of non-petty) crime. Non-serious drug crime is more common among poorer groups due to the mixture of overpolicing ("they're poor, so the data says they're more likely to be criminal, so we should search them more often" (not to mention the initial issues surrounding criminalization drugs and how they're classified, a system that's inherently both racist and classist)) and more significant need for an escape from shitty living conditions (not that poor people use more drugs than wealthy people - often quite the opposite - but the how and why is often different). Explaining the degree of violence in poorer societies/sections of society is more complex, but can still largely be accounted for by the mix of desperation, loss of sense of self/self-worth, and cultural proliferation of unattainable ideals of wealth and status. Or, more to the point, this is how patriarchy (as defined by feminist theory) harms men: by setting us up to compete with each other excessively, by linking our self-worth (and others' view of our worth) to factors entirely outside of our control (something not at all limited to men, but the factors in question are heavily gendered), by maintaining a culture in which it's seen as better for men to lash out violently to regain social status than to acknowledge problems and deal with them to the best of our abilities, by maintaining a culture where not being able to feed yourself or your family isn't just a physical problem but an almost insurmountable loss of face ("not man enough" and so on), by maintaining a culture where men are taught not to express (and thus not get access to help processing) their emotions - and the list goes on, and on, and on and on and on. By the way, this same analysis of social dynamics also fully explains the higher suicide rate among men, a key point among MRAs and similar groups who adhere to biological determinst explanations of behavior like yours, which biology definitely has no answer to. Oh, absolutely. I didn't say otherwise. I'm just saying that this alone is proof that genetics are a) not representative of or causal for human behavior to a significant degree, and b) in no way fixed or simple in how they relate to the physical world. Our genes provide a basis for our physical being, and our physical being is both what we experience the world and our lives through and what we use to interact with the world - but neither are in a deterministic relationship with personality, behavior or culture. There's simply too much in-between for that, in terms of upbringing, cultural influences and societal norms imprinted on us throughout our lives. With your extreme focus on biology, it sure seemed like that was what you've said. If that's not what you meant, you need to express yourself with more nuance. I agree that this is an extremely complex topic, but summing it up with "recidivism is huge so it's likely genetic" is ... not the treatment such a topic deserves. Sorry, but how is this different from tribes closing themselves off from others? Wasn't that also out of necessity? And no, the example you're talking about is not what I was talking about - I'm talking about fundamentally open and extroverted societies that welcome others and treat them as guests, often letting them live with them for prolonged periods. These have historically not been rare. Once again you're taking a highly complex subject - tribal behaviour patterns towards outsiders - and trying to boil them down to an oversimplified biologized rationale, without any actual foundation to build this on - and in this case, with rather obvious orientalist and colonialist influences on your thinking that are seemingly ignored, or at the very least not acknowledged. And you're mixing metaphorical and literal use of the word; linking attributes of real, historical literal tribes to metaphorical "tribes" (aka. social groupings). While there is a link between higher testosterone levels and higher levels of aggression, your argument is a classic oversimplification of correlation into causation. Your argument doesn't explain why these people have increased levels of testosterone (and it's well established that hormonal levels are significantly affected by living conditions both immediately and over time - in other words, socioeconomic conditions). It also doesn't explain how these exact high-testosterone people become violet offenders - there are plenty of non-violent, law-abiding high-testosterone men in the world, and also plenty of violent non-high-testosterone men. While the biological aspect here might point out an increased likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior overall, it's in no way a predictor of behavior outright. And in terms of crime rates, the correlation between socioeconomic background and crime rates far exceeds that of testosterone levels.
Also, your biological explanation doesn't account for how aggressive women are derided and looked down on, and generally criticized for the same exact aggression that in your argumentation makes men more successful - and that's in identical settings. In other words, you're discounting how societal norms and gender norms shape people's response to aggression, which is just as significant as the aggression itself. Sorry, but that "argument" was thoroughly debunked by developers at the time of that silly "can't add female characters because of the cost" controversy. The key: it's entirely possible to re-use animations across male and female coded characters - in fact, there's no basis whatsoever to say that men and women in the same role, with the same training (say, soldiers, doctors, scientists, police) move more differently than the variance within men with different physiological traits. As such, reusing animations between genders is no problem whatsoever. Also, for some reason you're arguing from a basis where you're assuming the default is an already all-male game, seemingly not even considering that it's possible to include non-male characters from the very beginning of development. That says quite a lot of your outlook on these things. a) That statement is patently false, the internet is after all chock-full of extremism of all kinds.
b) If you're routinely banned for expressing your opinions, have you considered that perhaps those opinions are arguing for harming others, and have you possibly considered changing them? In general, non-harmful opinions are not policed anywhere online that I'm familiar with, at least.
c) Can you give me an example of a fact that you're not allowed to present? Or is this another case of "I picked this research article and took a statement or finding out of context, presented it as the ultimate proof of a discriminatory social structure being correct/natural/fair, and someone told me to stop taking things out of context, presented an argument as to why the context changes the interpretation of the finding, or just called me out for promoting discrimination"? 'Cause that's what it sounds like to me.
There's no "subjugated female", never was, it's an invention.
There's no "gender", never was, it's an invention.
Feminists are a mix of sociopathy/psychopathy/sexual perversion/Marxism disguised in the good intentioned "equality for all" propaganda (hence the original Fabian Society's coat of arms attached bellow: present yourself as a sheep until it's too late for your victim). It's evil, and it'll eventually be rooted violently, along with all other mischievous under the lefty/progressive umbrella.
We seem to be last on the priority list for any type of Government assistance, whether housing crisis, food etc. It has been stated that women are seen as more vulnerable, by a Government that has anti-discrimination laws in place, go figure.
Greer got protests because she doesn't believe Trans are women btw.. That's a no-no to modern feminism (ironic though.. it's anything but liberating for biological females. These trans folk are stealing women's thunder at this point. What exactly is feminist about a guy beating girls in sports, for example?).
"Safe spaces" are created by the feminists, for the feminists, because they're afraid of ideas that counter their own. You're forgetting all of the cases where daddy got sent to prison for drug dealing or murder where the mom is left home to fend for herself and her kids. Here's a lengthy article about this topic. A lot of good quotes on there but this one counters your statement best: Another one in regards to poverty: So you're telling me autism doesn't effect personality, behavior, or culture? You're quick to underestimate the importance of the building blocks of life.
I'm not saying experiences in life don't impact behavior because they do but to imply genders are equal is a blatant disregard a lot of peer reviewed psychological and sociological research out there that demonstrates otherwise. It's not an accident that most studies include gender as a reference point. No. Not immediately trusting strangers is a survival instinct. We see it all over the place in animal kingdoms (well documented in wolves). Strangers have to prove their worth before they'll be seen as a member by their peers. These societies don't exist in the real world. Countries may have open borders as a matter of policy but the tribes within that these people need to deal with generally aren't accepting unless they're already perceived to be members. For example, a Hispanic coming to the USA is likely to be invited to join a Hispanic tribe because it improves the survival odds of that tribe (they're surrounded by a sea of people more strange than the recent immigrant). Chinatown, Little Italy, etc. form because of tribalism.www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tribe
Before you think it's only the prisoner getting punished: It costs taxpayers too. At what point does being a hardass about this stop becoming worth it? The average prisoner costs $30k to house and feed. More in some places (California is $70k). The only people winning are the people who've gotten fat by building more prisons and set up the whole industry of privately run prisons we see everywhere. You're not winning or being protected. Society isn't winning. These guys are. And last but not least, all of this has a negative effect on families... which is why I brought this up to begin with.
I'm not a pothead or a drug user myself btw.. I hate drugs. ;) I'm not defending them because of this.
They can't "escape" from being bombarded with constant heterosexual content on TV and other media. You treat this meet like it's a dirty hookup. It's not. They just want to feel normal for a few minutes, not "escape." If you've felt alone your whole life, you want to "escape" about as much as jump in a pool of molten lava. Yep. And from the comments here I'd be afraid too.
"A concept is a brick. It can be used to build a courthouse of reason. Or it can be thrown through the window."
-Giles Deleuze