6 ms·

From the article: "Just 20% of Activision Blizzard’s 9,500 employees are women, and leadership at the company, one of the largest video game makers in the world

From the article: "Just 20% of Activision Blizzard’s 9,500 employees are women, and leadership at the company, one of the largest video game makers in the world, is largely white and male." I am 36 years old, white male. I imagine alot of the employees there are within my age range give or take 5-10 years. For me it just makes sense. in the late 90s and early 2000s if you asked me, an obsessed computer gaming white guy nerd teen, what company I would want to work for, it would probably be Blizzard(I was more of an Everquest fan but still). It makes sense those people would want the jobs and there would be mostly those type of people in the spots. I don't understand how this is a bad thing. I consider computer gaming a part of my culture or subculture, and yes there are other people that get into it, lgbt, women, trans, but I feel like this stuff was specifically marketed to young men.

meristohm 5y ago
Why would a publicly-traded company not want to appeal to as many potential gamers as possible?
- poisonarena 5y ago
  Thats not my argument, I just think the whole thing is silly, yes men and women should get paid the same according to their position and value to the company, but the idea that there should not be a company with "too many white men" seems crazy.
- lmm 5y ago
  Because a fanatical niche audience is more profitable than a barely-interested mainstream one? Games are fundamentally cultural objects, especially in these days of multiplayer and streaming, but also because the medium demands it; Blizzard's breakout hit was a barely-disguised knock-off of a barely-disguised knock-off of a barely-disguised knock-off of Lord of the Rings, and could only succeed because it was part of that cultural fabric.
- georgeburdell 5y ago
  Some of those gamer groups are more profitable than others, even if it comes at the expense of other groups. Consider why there are so many women-specific clothing stores.
- ThePadawan 5y ago
  That is exactly what the heads at ATVI are thinking. That's why they're censoring Hearthstone cards worldwide because it appeals to China. That's why they punished a Pro gamer for voicing his support for Hong Kong in 2019, because it appeals to China [0]. That's why they're releasing a mobile-only Diablo! And that's why the customers are saying "Blizzard isn't what it used to be". Because at no point does anyone still care about the quality of the product. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzchung_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzchung_controversy
goldenManatee 5y ago
You identify with dev and gamer culture and feel that it reciprocates a sense of belonging. Therefore you have no reason to protest; all your interests align and not protesting is the path of least expended energy. The people complaining do so because they too identify with a culture of devs and/or gamers, however they feel there is an overwhelming majority that identifies its members who are alike and yet does not accept them specifically as part of that culture. So these protesters are not foreign aliens - you could think of them as a version of yourself that enjoys the games and tech but is not fully accepted as being “in” no matter how long you hang around the “in” people. Are we to respond to those people: “Why are you complaining about things being this way or for change - when you knew this has always been who we are, and that this culture is created predominantly by us, for us.”?
- poisonarena 5y ago
  I totally agree with you, at least the first part. I think female gamers on the EQ servers were actually treated better than the male gamers and were often 'twinked'(maybe they weren't really females).. I dont think there is anything wrong with a bunch of middle aged white men doing what they want, making a game they wanted to play when they were younger. If these 'others' (who I think are included in gaming/gamedev circles actually),are so unhappy with the state of affairs, why wont they make their own franchise. I would not be angry if a bunch of Japanese women made their own MMORPG for THEM. I think there is nothing wrong with that. What is stopping anyone from creating their own games, their own mmorpgs, their own franchises? The tools and resources are there and ready. Why shit on others work?
  - nientedev 5y ago
    This is weird, but I am actually a developer (and a woman) who works on EverQuest. MMOs are quite difficult to make. There is a reason the most successful MMOs to date are quite.. old. FFXIV is the newest very successful MMO, but suffered greatly at initial release, which is it's own story. EQ, and WoW, both benefit from the 20+ years of development into their current architectures that don't need to be written today, just maintained. Adding something to these games now is building on top of a very established game which already has many features people want in a new game. Most new MMO projects fail. In fact, the Amazon MMO project New World which was one of the game projects Amazon didn't cancel recently, has many former EQ developers. The MMO development world is small. Aside from that, going off and starting your own game company, getting funding, building all the technology needed to run a game (payment, logins, account use, etc) is a lot of work and investment which these existing companies have built decades ago and maintain. It may also interest/surprise you to know that women generally do not get much VC funding (see https://hbr.org/2021/02/women-led-startups-received-just-2-3-of-vc-funding-in-2020 https://hbr.org/2021/02/women-led-startups-received-just-2-3...), so I am not sure this idea works out that well in reality.
908B64B197 5y ago
I love these stats because it doesn't account for age and CS graduation rates. If all senior leadership has ~20 years of experience in the industry, it makes sense that it would be pretty representative of the graduating class of 20 years ago.
- watwut 5y ago
  Majority of people who work on games are artists and such. Not CS graduates.

meristohm 5y ago

Why would a publicly-traded company not want to appeal to as many potential gamers as possible?

poisonarena 5y ago
Thats not my argument, I just think the whole thing is silly, yes men and women should get paid the same according to their position and value to the company, but the idea that there should not be a company with "too many white men" seems crazy.
lmm 5y ago
Because a fanatical niche audience is more profitable than a barely-interested mainstream one? Games are fundamentally cultural objects, especially in these days of multiplayer and streaming, but also because the medium demands it; Blizzard's breakout hit was a barely-disguised knock-off of a barely-disguised knock-off of a barely-disguised knock-off of Lord of the Rings, and could only succeed because it was part of that cultural fabric.
georgeburdell 5y ago
Some of those gamer groups are more profitable than others, even if it comes at the expense of other groups. Consider why there are so many women-specific clothing stores.
ThePadawan 5y ago
That is exactly what the heads at ATVI are thinking. That's why they're censoring Hearthstone cards worldwide because it appeals to China. That's why they punished a Pro gamer for voicing his support for Hong Kong in 2019, because it appeals to China [0]. That's why they're releasing a mobile-only Diablo! And that's why the customers are saying "Blizzard isn't what it used to be". Because at no point does anyone still care about the quality of the product. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzchung_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzchung_controversy

goldenManatee 5y ago

You identify with dev and gamer culture and feel that it reciprocates a sense of belonging. Therefore you have no reason to protest; all your interests align and not protesting is the path of least expended energy. The people complaining do so because they too identify with a culture of devs and/or gamers, however they feel there is an overwhelming majority that identifies its members who are alike and yet does not accept them specifically as part of that culture. So these protesters are not foreign aliens - you could think of them as a version of yourself that enjoys the games and tech but is not fully accepted as being “in” no matter how long you hang around the “in” people. Are we to respond to those people: “Why are you complaining about things being this way or for change - when you knew this has always been who we are, and that this culture is created predominantly by us, for us.”?

poisonarena 5y ago
I totally agree with you, at least the first part. I think female gamers on the EQ servers were actually treated better than the male gamers and were often 'twinked'(maybe they weren't really females).. I dont think there is anything wrong with a bunch of middle aged white men doing what they want, making a game they wanted to play when they were younger. If these 'others' (who I think are included in gaming/gamedev circles actually),are so unhappy with the state of affairs, why wont they make their own franchise. I would not be angry if a bunch of Japanese women made their own MMORPG for THEM. I think there is nothing wrong with that. What is stopping anyone from creating their own games, their own mmorpgs, their own franchises? The tools and resources are there and ready. Why shit on others work?
- nientedev 5y ago
  This is weird, but I am actually a developer (and a woman) who works on EverQuest. MMOs are quite difficult to make. There is a reason the most successful MMOs to date are quite.. old. FFXIV is the newest very successful MMO, but suffered greatly at initial release, which is it's own story. EQ, and WoW, both benefit from the 20+ years of development into their current architectures that don't need to be written today, just maintained. Adding something to these games now is building on top of a very established game which already has many features people want in a new game. Most new MMO projects fail. In fact, the Amazon MMO project New World which was one of the game projects Amazon didn't cancel recently, has many former EQ developers. The MMO development world is small. Aside from that, going off and starting your own game company, getting funding, building all the technology needed to run a game (payment, logins, account use, etc) is a lot of work and investment which these existing companies have built decades ago and maintain. It may also interest/surprise you to know that women generally do not get much VC funding (see https://hbr.org/2021/02/women-led-startups-received-just-2-3-of-vc-funding-in-2020 https://hbr.org/2021/02/women-led-startups-received-just-2-3...), so I am not sure this idea works out that well in reality.

908B64B197 5y ago

I love these stats because it doesn't account for age and CS graduation rates. If all senior leadership has ~20 years of experience in the industry, it makes sense that it would be pretty representative of the graduating class of 20 years ago.

watwut 5y ago
Majority of people who work on games are artists and such. Not CS graduates.