Leaked Internal Blizzard Memo: "Global Diversity And Inclusion Initiative" - Sensationalist Headlines

Sourced article: [url]https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/08/internal-blizzard-memo-details-efforts-to-hire-retain-more-women/[/url] article for quote: [url]https://www.gamespot.com/articles/blizzard-launching-global-diversity-and-inclusion-/1100-6452461/[/url] [QUOTE]Kotaku has obtained an internal memo from Blizzard in which the Overwatch and World of Warcraft developer announced a new "global diversity and inclusion initiative." The purpose of the campaign is to recruit and retain more women and minority groups that are currently underrepresented at the Irvine, California-based giant. Not only that, but Blizzard said in the memo that it wants to improve the work environment for women and underrepresented minority groups. Blizzard CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime said in the email that women make up 21 percent of Blizzard's workforce currently, while underrepresented minority groups stand at 14 percent. Female developers leave Blizzard "at a higher rate than men," Morhaime explained. The executive added that the percentage of female developers and how frequently they leave is in line with the industry overall.[/QUOTE] also theres no set gender quota or anything, but i am afraid of getting near copying the entire article so ill just say it here.

treat women better? [b]fuck[/b] that

I wish big game companies hired creative people instead.

As long as you are hiring competent personal and not just for the sake of hiring women (this should also be valid for men), then I see no problem with that.

[QUOTE=TheServer;52560763]I wish big game companies hired creative people instead.[/QUOTE] This just in: women can't be creative. Honestly, I don't see any issue with this. I don't really see why you could. That doesn't mean they will never hire another white dude again, it just means Blizzard wants to make sure they're including different perspectives.

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;52560768]This just in: black people and women can't be creative. Honestly, I don't see any issue with this. I don't really see why you could. That doesn't mean they will never hire another white dude again, it just means Blizzard wants to make sure they're including different perspectives.[/QUOTE] What he meant was that instead of choosing a worker purely because of gender/race, they should hire base on skill/talent

[QUOTE=TheServer;52560763]I wish big game companies hired creative people instead.[/QUOTE] [quote]Morhaime wrote that while the company [B] will not set "quotas" for hiring female job candidates, [/B] Blizzard is encouraging employees to refer more qualified women to open positions, and it's looking into ways to better recruit from women's groups, conferences, and universities... [/quote] I mean they're still hiring talented people, they're just going to be trying to make sure talented minorities and women come to them, which means they might get even more since they're reaching out more.

[QUOTE=J!NX;52560769]What he meant was that instead of choosing a worker purely because of gender/race, they should hire base on skill/talent[/QUOTE] Purely based on gender/race? I'm assuming that these employees have no qualifications in and of themselves then? If not, then it isn't purely based off of race/gender?

[QUOTE=Sumap;52560783]I mean they are still hiring talented people, they're just going to be trying to make sure talented minorities and women come to them, means they might get even more since they're reaching out more.[/QUOTE] This. I'm fairly certain most software companies these days do the same thing.

what if they intentionally leaked this to look good in comparison to the google memo Stay woke

[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;52560768]This just in: women can't be creative. Honestly, I don't see any issue with this. I don't really see why you could. That doesn't mean they will never hire another white dude again, it just means Blizzard wants to make sure they're including different perspectives.[/QUOTE] I'm not saying that women arn't creative, just making a jab at how triple A games don't do anything new. I don't see how creating a goal of hiring more women and minorities is going to change how manufactured AAA games are. Diversity shouldn't be based on gender and race, but on ideas, perspective, and creativity. And this would include everybody under sun.

Hiring based on skill or creativity is only really useful up until a point because for every position there's plenty of applicants who have the required skill/creativity to do the work (and well). After a point whoever is doing the hiring is going to be thinking about other qualities, which brings their personal biases into play. Which may mean that they gloss over women and minorities unintentionally because of their own predispositions. I don't think it is a bad thing to bring those tendencies to light in order to remedy them.

[QUOTE=Sumap;52560783][QUOTE]Morhaime wrote that while the company will not set "quotas" for hiring female job candidates, Blizzard is encouraging employees to refer more qualified women to open positions, and it's looking into ways to better recruit from women's groups, conferences, and universities...[/QUOTE] I mean they're still hiring talented people, they're just going to be trying to make sure talented minorities and women come to them, which means they might get even more since they're reaching out more.[/QUOTE] But that's the root of the problem here, these organizations don't pump out women and minorities in big enough numbers. You can't enforce diversity in employment when the qualified candidates aren't diverse in the first place. There's not waves of women and minorities going through education and training only to just not get hired. They're addressing the problem from the wrong end of the system. It begs the question where they're going to find these people in the first place without lowering their skill standards and overlooking more talented individuals who don't fit the diversity qualifications.

[QUOTE=CakeMaster7;52560785]Purely based on gender/race? I'm assuming that these employees have no qualifications in and of themselves then? If not, then it isn't purely based off of race/gender?[/QUOTE] Yeah man, they're totally basing it purely on race and gender and nothing else at all that isn't really meant to be wording that is taken totally and completely literally so idk what you want me to say. Obviously its unrealistic to think this is really like that.

Whenever I hear about internal memos in companies, I always think about the amount of time I've sunk into reading stuff in terminals in the Fallout series

To be honest I disagree with this. If it's more positions that are opened just solely for that, then it's one thing - but I wouldn't find it fair to apply to a job and lose it someone else just because they are a woman/minority. Especially if said person is less qualified/same qualifications. It should be fair across the board.

They should care more about getting people who can actually do their job well, it doesn't matter what they look like/if they're some minority

[QUOTE=Snowmew;52560837]But that's the root of the problem here, these organizations don't pump out women and minorities in big enough numbers. You can't enforce diversity in employment when the qualified candidates aren't diverse in the first place. There's not waves of women and minorities going through education and training only to just not get hired. They're addressing the problem from the wrong end of the system. It begs the question where they're going to find these people in the first place without lowering their skill standards and overlooking more talented individuals who don't fit the diversity qualifications.[/QUOTE] I think there's some merit to this strategy. Not to say I think this is [I]the[/I] solution, but I think it does address a core issue. A lot of these minority groups, and women, suffer from a desperate lack of representation -- there are really no role models in a lot of fields (in this case, game development) for anyone besides... well, white guys. Gabe Newell, Peter Molyneux, Kojima, Sakurai, Garry, Notch -- you have a ton of big-name men in the industry, people that are often cited as inspirations for other aspiring game designers. Of the ones I just said, all of them are white besides Kojima and Sakurai hailing from Japan, which is not exactly a minority group in gaming. What I'm reading here isn't that they want to enforce affirmative action and turn down qualified candidates because they aren't unique enough. I'm reading "let's create a better environment for underrepresented people so we can give them a fair chance at earning their place in the industry". And I'm not reading very deep to see that -- [quote]The purpose of the campaign is to recruit [B]and retain[/B] more women and minority groups[/quote] [quote]Blizzard said in the memo that it wants to improve the work environment for women and underrepresented minority groups.[/quote] [quote]Female developers leave Blizzard "at a higher rate than men,"[/quote] This is a good thing.

[QUOTE=aussiedropbear;52560870]They should care more about getting people who can actually do their job well, it doesn't matter what they look like/if they're some minority[/QUOTE] what if they care about getting good people and also have a preference that they are minorities or women because they're underrepresented or something???

[QUOTE=TheServer;52560817]I'm not saying that women arn't creative, just making a jab at how triple A games don't do anything new. I don't see how creating a goal of hiring more women and minorities is going to change how manufactured AAA games are. Diversity shouldn't be based on gender and race, but on ideas, perspective, and creativity. And this would include everybody under sun.[/QUOTE] You say this as though it's the dev teams' faults, but it almost always isn't. A great team, filled with completely competent people who work in total cooperation and understanding, can still be led to produce absolute garbage if the management is awful.

[QUOTE=Lonestriper;52560892]what if they care about getting good people and also have a preference that they are minorities or women because they're underrepresented or something???[/QUOTE] Nobody should be passed over based on their race/gender, regardless if you're male/female, white/black/asian/etc.

women leave more frequently than men because of reasons like having a god damn baby, or taking care of said baby no shit they leave more frequently.

[QUOTE=LAMB SAUCE;52560925]women leave more frequently than men because of reasons like having a god damn baby, or taking care of said baby no shit they leave more frequently.[/QUOTE] Typically that's paid maternity leave, I'm sure they factored that out of their statistics, especially cause said woman can come back.

[QUOTE=Lonestriper;52560892]what if they care about getting good people and also have a preference that they are minorities or women because they're underrepresented or something???[/QUOTE] If they can meet the same standards as everyone else then it's fine, but if they don't and their talent is lacking compared with everyone else then they probably shouldn't still hire them solely because they're a minority. When you're a triple A studio like Blizzard I really doubt you should be lowering your standards of your employees just because they are a minority. I doubt you should ever be lowering your standards in an industry like this.

[QUOTE=LAMB SAUCE;52560925]women leave more frequently than men because of reasons like having a god damn baby, or taking care of said baby no shit they leave more frequently.[/QUOTE] How did the 1950's get an account on Facepunch?

[QUOTE=Lonestriper;52560892]what if they care about getting good people and also have a preference that they are minorities or women because they're underrepresented or something???[/QUOTE] Not knocking you but theres something about this train of thought that really kind of, i dunno, rubs me the wrong way, where the intent is for everyone no matter their background to be of equal standing and opportunity, which is good, but trying to fix it by going out of your way to look for people of that background specifically seems counter productive to the intended goal of nobody being judged by elements of their person that are outside of their control. Its still thinking of them as separate groups in a way, instead of individuals. I feel like its a situation where people keep trying to find an easy solution when there really isnt an easy solution.

A lot of people are saying they don't understand how "diversity" would effect the making of a game and that they should just hire good people. I get what you're saying but you don't seem to get what they're saying. Gaming is dominated predominantly by white men that are overrepresented in literally everything. It's a lot harder for women and minorities to get into fields like game design because of bias that leans more heavily towards white men. Women in the gaming industry often get heavily harassed by men within the company and men outside of it. It puts a gigantic pressure on them to outperform and their mistakes get them ostracized. A lot of leading female designers have dropped out of the field based purely on the treatment they get as a woman. Minorities also have a much harder time being represented because of racial bias, which leads to them suffering similar treatment. God help you if you're a female minority even because you're just at the bottom of the shitpile. This is moreso a program to fix it's inner structure to remove these horrible biased ideas that shut out women and minorities in favor of white men who get treated like their fairly mediocre work is amazing while these women and minorities have their amazing work get treated mediocrely. Also genuine diversity leads to a lot more creativity and ideas because you have different people from a bunch of backgrounds working on a project instead of a bunch of white dudes. Let's say a game project has some racial undertones in an attempt to show something wrong with how minorities are treated in America. A group of mostly white men can try to understand this concept and pull it off but in the end they'll usually end up with something shallow and stereotyped. A good example is Bioshock Infinite, which tried to show this but failed miserably with a shallow attempt that didn't really matter and was quickly abandoned. A group of more equally diverse people would have greater insight into how to do this. Minorities could show it through their own work and creativity and their colleague's will benefit from the interaction and learn from the greater pool of experience they have access to. tldr; it's a really good thing to do because it makes your games better through more diverse experience and helps people that arent represented in the field

I feel like it's important to make a distinction that they're not looking to fill a diversity quota, just encouraging it [QUOTE]Morhaime went on to say that Blizzard does not plan to have "quotas" for new hires. However, Blizzard plans to work with groups like Girls Who Code and other women's groups to find candidates.[/QUOTE] Neither source says anything pertaining to male hires, but that can still be an issue

[QUOTE=J!NX;52560769]What he meant was that instead of choosing a worker purely because of gender/race, they should hire base on skill/talent[/QUOTE] Yeah but that's an individualist notion, and you cant mask your resentment of meritocracy by claiming virtue in representing arbitrarily defined groups who you can claim are being oppressed from a neo-marxist oppressor/oppressed standpoint, with your only metric to support that claim being non uniform distribution in all facets of society. And the only way you can make that claim is by supporting it with the assertion that all groups of people are absolutely identical, and therefore the non uniform distribution of those groups is by nature an act of active oppression/exclusion by the oppressors. Even though to argue the benefits of adopting equity based social models, you make the claim that everyone is so different and defined by their arbitrary group status that they can contribute or bring unique experiences, ideas or patterns of behavior to the table that you couldn't get from anywhere else, because you know, they're the same as everyone else is. And god, i don't know how you can get through your day without doing that. It just feels so [I]good[/I] to claim a superior morale status while producing nothing of value for yourself or others, and also tearing down the concept of meritocracy which you resent because you're a useless schlub with no possible chance of succeeding in life. [QUOTE=Mentlegen;52561025] tldr; it's a really good thing to do because it makes your games better through more diverse experience and helps people that arent represented in the field[/QUOTE] See? This guy knows what's up

[QUOTE=Trilby Harlow;52561064]Yeah but that's an individualist notion, and you cant mask your resentment of meritocracy by claiming virtue in representing arbitrarily defined groups who you can claim are being oppressed from a neo-marxist oppressor/oppressed standpoint, with your only metric to support that claim being non uniform distribution in all facets of society. And the only way you can make that claim is by supporting it with the assertion that all groups of people are absolutely identical, and therefore the non uniform distribution of those groups is by nature an act of active oppression/exclusion by the oppressors. Even though to argue the benefits of adopting equity based social models, you make the claim that everyone is so different and defined by their arbitrary group status that they can contribute or bring unique experiences, ideas or patterns of behavior to the table that you couldn't get from anywhere else, because you know, they're the same as everyone else is. And god, i don't know how you can get through your day without doing that. It just feels so [I]good[/I] to claim a superior morale status while producing nothing of value for yourself, and also tearing down the concept of meritocracy. [/QUOTE] Ironman17? is that you?