The Riot Games Walkout
On Monday, May 6th, over 150 employees of Riot Games, the massive game development studio behind League of Legends, walked out in protest of the company's forced arbitration policy, a policy that prevents employees from going to court should they be harmed or wronged by the company, with the issue being instead resolved internally.
This comes months after an expose was published August last year by gaming news source Kotaku, revealing rampant sexism within Riot's workplace. One employee, for example, recounted several sexist comments from her male colleagues, who would frequently ask her if "it was hard working at Riot being so cute", as well as implying that her position was as a direct result of her appearance. Three other women also told of being trained for promotions only to have the position suddenly given to a man who hadn't undergone any preparation instead.
In response to the article, Riot pledged to make changes to its work environment, implementing a roadmap for diversity and inclusion, which included promises to better train their employees on the matter as well as establishing new resource groups to create an environment with a better sense of security.
However, despite Riot's best efforts, little progress has been made since then. In December 2018, allegations surfaced that COO Scott Gelb had contributed to a toxic, work environment unwelcoming to women after "repeatedly farting on employees, humping them, and hitting their testicles". Despite his extremely inappropriate behavior, Gelb received a mere 2 month suspension without pay before being allowed to return to work -- a punishment that garnered much criticism for being a "tiny slap on the wrist".
More recently, Riot has also announced that they will give new employees the option to opt out of forced arbitration in their contracts. However, this new protection does not extend to current employees, so when the company recently tried to end two sexual discrimination lawsuits via forced arbitration. This decision sparked massive backlash, leading to the May 6th walkout.
This is the most recent walkout protesting forced arbitration at a major corporation after similar pressure from employees led to other tech companies, like Uber, Facebook, and Google, ending their own policies. However, this is the first protest of its kind to occur at a major game studio. As a result, it has the potential to create a massive ripple effect throughout an industry known for mistreating its workers poorly during beyond just forced arbitration.
The most notorious employment practice used by these studios is known as "crunch", where employees are forced to work extremely long hours in order to meet strict deadlines for a game's release. A recent example of this came late last year, before the launch of the highly anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2, when game developer Rockstar Studios came under fire after word got out that its employees were working 100 hour work weeks to finish the game on time.
But with the Riot Games walkout earlier this month, the industry's history of mistreating employees could be at an end, as the walkout there could inspire employees in other companies to protest their treatment. Only time will tell just how much of a lasting impact this will have, but for now, it looks like labor practices in the games industry could have a bright future.
Sources:
https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/riot-games-walkout-1203206306/
https://kotaku.com/over-150-riot-employees-walk-out-to-protest-forced-arbi-1834566198
https://www.riotgames.com/en/diversity-inclusion-and-culture/culture
https://www.businessinsider.com/riot-games-suspends-coo-scott-gelb-bro-culture-2018-12?amp;IR=T&r=DE&IR=T
https://kotaku.com/inside-the-culture-of-sexism-at-riot-games-1828165483
https://kotaku.com/we-were-working-100-hour-weeks-red-dead-redemption-2-h-1829758281
This comes months after an expose was published August last year by gaming news source Kotaku, revealing rampant sexism within Riot's workplace. One employee, for example, recounted several sexist comments from her male colleagues, who would frequently ask her if "it was hard working at Riot being so cute", as well as implying that her position was as a direct result of her appearance. Three other women also told of being trained for promotions only to have the position suddenly given to a man who hadn't undergone any preparation instead.
In response to the article, Riot pledged to make changes to its work environment, implementing a roadmap for diversity and inclusion, which included promises to better train their employees on the matter as well as establishing new resource groups to create an environment with a better sense of security.
However, despite Riot's best efforts, little progress has been made since then. In December 2018, allegations surfaced that COO Scott Gelb had contributed to a toxic, work environment unwelcoming to women after "repeatedly farting on employees, humping them, and hitting their testicles". Despite his extremely inappropriate behavior, Gelb received a mere 2 month suspension without pay before being allowed to return to work -- a punishment that garnered much criticism for being a "tiny slap on the wrist".
More recently, Riot has also announced that they will give new employees the option to opt out of forced arbitration in their contracts. However, this new protection does not extend to current employees, so when the company recently tried to end two sexual discrimination lawsuits via forced arbitration. This decision sparked massive backlash, leading to the May 6th walkout.
This is the most recent walkout protesting forced arbitration at a major corporation after similar pressure from employees led to other tech companies, like Uber, Facebook, and Google, ending their own policies. However, this is the first protest of its kind to occur at a major game studio. As a result, it has the potential to create a massive ripple effect throughout an industry known for mistreating its workers poorly during beyond just forced arbitration.
The most notorious employment practice used by these studios is known as "crunch", where employees are forced to work extremely long hours in order to meet strict deadlines for a game's release. A recent example of this came late last year, before the launch of the highly anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2, when game developer Rockstar Studios came under fire after word got out that its employees were working 100 hour work weeks to finish the game on time.
But with the Riot Games walkout earlier this month, the industry's history of mistreating employees could be at an end, as the walkout there could inspire employees in other companies to protest their treatment. Only time will tell just how much of a lasting impact this will have, but for now, it looks like labor practices in the games industry could have a bright future.
Sources:
https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/riot-games-walkout-1203206306/
https://kotaku.com/over-150-riot-employees-walk-out-to-protest-forced-arbi-1834566198
https://www.riotgames.com/en/diversity-inclusion-and-culture/culture
https://www.businessinsider.com/riot-games-suspends-coo-scott-gelb-bro-culture-2018-12?amp;IR=T&r=DE&IR=T
https://kotaku.com/inside-the-culture-of-sexism-at-riot-games-1828165483
https://kotaku.com/we-were-working-100-hour-weeks-red-dead-redemption-2-h-1829758281
I find this interesting in that it seems like a natural continuation of protests at Uber and other tech companies. Recently, there's been quite a bit of internal backlash featured in the news, related to sexual harassment, general overwork, and stress. I agree that the gaming industry in particular, just the way it's run, is geared toward those who mistreat and demean their workers, especially women. Given that, to me this sort of behavior is unsurprising, but I'm glad there is more being done by people who are sick of this treatment. However, to really create better workplace regulations for everyone, the public needs to think about it past the terms of the individual companies.
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