Riot Games… This just pisses me off.

God Damnit

You know what, if that company falls apart, I won’t shed a tear. Sure, I’ll feel bad for some portion of the workforce that needs to find a new job, but at the same time it’s abundantly clear that an unacceptably high percentage of the workforce there are toxic and unprofessional. The continued existence of the company makes me ashamed for my industry. And it didn’t have to be this way.

Riot’s problems are generating headlines all over the place, drawing out testimonials of people who have experienced harassment on every level, from dismissing voices in the company to enabling doxxing and death threats, and pretty much everything else just short of violent assaults. Why does this happen? Because it is the atmosphere that top management has intentionally cultivated.

Hiring is important

Anyone remember Ion Storm hiring people based on how many downloads their created maps got? There wasn’t much concern for professionalism, team cohesion, or maturity. That’s a misguided hiring guide. The team and the product suffered for it. Daikatana is still a punchline!

Riot’s guideline is “Gamers First,” eh? Guess that depends on what you define as a “gamer.” Let’s face it, MOBAs are not known for their patient and welcoming user bases. Generally, they have the reputation for being angry, bigoted places where racism, misogyny, and harassment are pretty rampant. Riot took into their hiring consideration how well people thrive in that environment. When that is a guideline for hiring, you CAN NOT act surprised, or disappointed, when your workplace becomes toxic, misogynistic, and rife with harassment.

Look, I’m not going to get into the details of each testimony here. Those brave workers who post their first hand experiences speak louder than I ever can. Attempting to speak for them is a disservice to the pain they have and continue to go through. What I can talk to directly, though, is how utterly abysmal the hiring practices at Riot have to be to allow this to develop, how complicit the HR department must be to allow the company to take on this kind of legal exposure, and how there are apparently no adults in charge at that company. This is the games industry, and we aren’t a stuffy bunch. That doesn’t mean we don’t care if someone disrespects us. The leadership at Riot don’t care if they disrespect the people who work for them, or if there is any disrespect shown between people at the company.

THEY DO NOT CARE

Focusing hiring on people with more investment in their product as players has a only veneer of validity, and only in so far as it indicates how energetic someone would be when working on the project, or how much ownership they would take of their work. Beyond that, it can only be destructive. Baking this into hiring consideration limits your perspective, limits your pool, and creates a closed, insular feedback loop. When toxicity is inserted into that, it’ll be very difficult to get rid of it.

Essentially, they have a toxic player base and strongly prioritize hiring from that player base, increasing the odds of toxic hires. Don’t act surprised when your work environment becomes toxic as well.

Riot Games is serving to drive talent AWAY from the industry, and I, for one, would never work there. I’m sorry for anyone who worked for them with stars in their eyes only for that to be abused. I’m embarrassed to work in the same industry as these immature, unprofessional jack-asses.

Tune in to the next Behind the Line Radio for a discussion about this insanity. I think that format might be a bit more conducive to venting my rage at this situation.

Kynetyk is a veteran of the games industry.  Behind the Line is to help improve understanding of what goes on in the game development process and the business behind it.  From “What’s taking this game so long to release”, to “why are there bugs”, to “Why is this free to play” or anything else, if there is a topic that you would like to see covered, please write in to kynetyk@enthusiacs.com or follow on twitter @kynetykknows