Other League Of Legends Developer, Riot Games' Employees Walkout

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Just Read on Riot Games employee's protest, discrimination, and sexual harassment, from dualshockers and kotaku:

After employees at Riot Games threatened a walkout of the company’s offices last week in protest of forced arbitration, it seems like those threats of a walkout will today become a reality.

Employees at Riot will be walking out of the offices today in an action that is meant to show that changes are being demanded at the company. The walkout is said to last from 2:00pm PST until 4:00pm PST and a representative from Riot has stated that the company is supporting the actions of those participating. “We respect Rioters who choose to walkout today and will not tolerate retaliation of any kind as a result of participating (or not),” said an email received by Kotaku from a Riot representative.

Over the past year, multiple reports have stemmed from Riot Games stating that the internal culture at the studio has been overwhelmingly negative with the root cause of many of these issues coming from discrimination. This problem has only been amplified even further when Riot moved to block lawsuits related to said discrimination within the past month due to forced arbitration. Many who work at the company feel these policies preventing these lawsuits need to be rectified immediately, hence today’s planned walkout.

“I’m walking out as a symbolic action to signal to leadership that I care about this issue,” said one current employee. “I hope leadership takes the time to seriously listen to the issues.”

100 employees will be participating in today’s walkout, which appears to be the first in game dev history.

Women currently and formerly employed by Riot say they have been passed up for promotions that men received, repeatedly questioned about their gamer credibility, hit on often, regularly insulted or talked over in meetings and, in general, systematically disadvantaged by cultural ideas of what an ideal Riot employee looks and acts like. Employees’ career ascension at Riot is, in theory, guided by an ideal of meritocracy that, employees say, looks more like nepotism and cultural curation. (Riot’s two co-founders, three top bosses and 21 out of its 23-person senior leadership team are men.)

Four former Riot employees have alleged that one male employee in a position of leadership has a recognized history of making sexual comments about or in the presence of colleagues. One former Riot employee alleges he sexually molested her outside of work hours.

According to four Riot employees, the worst-case scenario for today’s walking isn’t getting fired, a common fear for protesting workers. That’s because Riot has said it will not retaliate against employees who participate. Their least-desired outcome is not feeling heard. “The worst-case scenario is that leadership does not budge from their current position and continues to maintain that there will be a ‘future commitment’ about current Rioters,” said one walkout organizer.
 
There are some pics now, over 150 Riot Employees protest/walkout :
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Read an update from dualshockers and bloomberg, the company's response:

“Ultimately, given the complexities of ongoing litigation, we will not change our employee agreements while in active litigation. We know not everyone agrees with this decision, but we also know everyone does want Riot to continue to improve.” Riot Games plans to create a council on diversity and inclusion, and has invited “a diverse group” of employees to take part in reviewing aspects of its code of conduct.

Employee walkout leaders response:
Riot Games employees Indu Reddy, Ronnie Blackburn, and Jocelyn Monahan — the three leaders behind last week’s employee walkout — released their own statement this past Friday. “We’re disappointed leadership doesn’t seem to be considering any major changes to their active policy.” The employees, however, stated that they have been “blown away by the passion, solidarity and vulnerability that workers who support the walkout are showing.” They plan to share more on their next steps later this week.
 
Read some updates on the matter from Kotaku:

On Tuesday, Angela Roseboro, Riot’s new Chief Diversity Officer, posted a blog on Riot’s website describing tangible progress the company has made to detoxify its internal culture: bringing two more women onto the 11-person leadership team (for a total of three), helping oversee 12,000 hours of diversity training, launching employee discussion groups for marginalized demographics, partnering with Girls Who Code and the Reboot Representation Coalition and adjusting Riot’s philosophy toward job titles. Job interviewee pools now must include people from several demographics (sources who conduct interviews say that nearly all interviewees ask about sexism at the company). Riot will even give new employees the option not to sign arbitration clauses—an immensely controversial practice among employees, who even staged a walkout over them.

“We have a lot to fix, and we have done some things,” Riot’s Angela Roseboro, who started at Riot in March, told Kotaku. “The goal for us is to remove barriers.” Roseboro says that Riot is now 22 percent female—a three percent climb over the last year. Interview training, compensation reviews, a code of conduct, internal investigation processes—these corporate-speak word medleys are, in fact, representative of real quality-of-life changes Riot employees are experiencing, sources say.

Uniformly, Riot employees speaking with Kotaku for this article are enthusiastic about Roseboro’s efforts. “Angela is a godsend,” said one current Riot employee and advocate for female employees. “We have made huge steps forward.” Said another, “Angela is doing a lovely job in terms of being stern and also trying to drive some changes in the company.”

When asked what major challenges she’s faced in her six-month-old position, Roseboro cited implementing more structured hiring processes appropriate to Riot’s size and the fact that she did not play League of Legends prior to becoming Riot’s Chief Diversity Officer. Several sources for Kotaku’s original report had alleged that job interviewers’ obsession with hiring avid League of Legends players skewed their company demographics toward men.
 
Read More Updates, from kotaku and Riot games' website:

Riot Games will pay out a huge $10 million proposed settlement collectively to every woman who has been employed by the company at any time over the last five years. The settlement is one of the largest in California history for a gender discrimination suit, says the plaintiff’s lawyer.

The payout, which was first reported by the Los Angeles Times, marks a sweet moment of justice for women at Riot, who have been systematically disadvantaged working at the giant gaming company according to a 2018 Kotaku investigation. Our report described rampant sexism at Riot, manifesting in its hiring and promotion practices and “bro” office culture, which sometimes encouraged harassment and gender discrimination. The suit, filed November, 2018, also describes how women at the League of Legends publisher were paid less than men in the same or a similar position.

From Riot Games' website:

"We are pleased to share that we’ve finalized the proposed settlement agreement to resolve the class action case against Riot, and settlement paperwork has now been filed by plaintiffs’ counsel. While this is another important step in our journey, it is important to note that the settlement agreement is preliminary and is subject to the Court’s oversight and approval. We look forward to the final resolution of this case and continuing on our path forward."
 
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