Riot Games One Year Later: My Reflections

[Deleted member 18944]

To our Players, Friends, & Fans,

It's been six months since I joined Riot and it's been a whirlwind to say the least. Joining a company in the midst of changing leadership, rapid growth, and organizational shifts is never easy. And, it's even harder when it happens on a public stage.

When I was exploring the prospect of joining Riot all those months ago, my friends and colleagues questioned why I would even take the interview. Riot's lawsuits were public by that time, and everything seemed to signal troubled waters. But I'm never one to back away from a challenge, so I took the interview anyway, if only out of curiosity. Having read the infamous Kotaku article, I knew this was a moment that could either catalyze or paralyze, and I was intrigued to know which path Riot would take.

The vetting process took an intense four months. I had many candid conversations with Riot's senior executives, leaving nothing on the table, as we both assessed whether this was the right place for me and if I was the right person for them. It didn't take long for me to realize the integrity of the company I was dealing with. Throughout this time, I came to have a deeper appreciation of their motivations, their vision, and their genuine desire to make Riot a place that they, and all Rioters, could be proud of. In so many words, I saw the heart of Riot, and I was hooked. Clearly a little weathered by the months that preceded my joining, I knew that Riot was ready for a transformation. I was ready, and eager, to help lead them in that charge.

Shortly after joining Riot, I stood at my first town hall and essentially asked Rioters to give me 90 days. I needed time to talk with Rioters one-on-one and to review our processes and systems. My goal was to not only create a true "North Star" or vision that would provide an anchor for our diversity and inclusion work, but I also wanted to have a solid foundation for a multi-year roadmap with tangible actions, accountability, and measures to monitor our progress.

Listening to the stories and insights of Rioters, it was clear that the last six months took its toll. Rioters were hurt, conversations were sometimes divisive, and tensions were high. But even in the midst of all of this, Rioters never lost their love for this company and they wanted (demanded) us to be better. It was with that sentiment in mind, and with the voices of actual Rioters, that we created our forward-looking vision and plan for diversity and inclusion, which we shared with Rioters last week.

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Source

 

[Messofanego]

This person is joining Riot, "the company that is crushing it on the sexism leaderboard". Are the people who said "Diversity should not be the focal point of design of Riot Games' products because gaming culture is the last remaining safe haven for white teen boys" and the COO who farted on other men when the women weren't around still at the company?

[13:30]

 

[huggyhomer]

This person is joining Riot, "the company that is crushing it on the sexism leaderboard". Are the people who said "Diversity should not be the focal point of design of Riot Games' products because gaming culture is the last remaining safe haven for white teen boys" and the COO who farted on other men when the women weren't around still at the company?

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Maybe read the actual blog post, and see that they are making meaningful changes and are continuing to change before just dismissing it.

 

[bluexy]

Maybe read the actual blog post, and see that they are making meaningful changes and are continuing to change before just dismissing it.

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It would have been meaningful to fire the executive that groped and farted on other employees. It would have been meaningful to remove the forced arbitration contract so that those women could get justice. The same people, the same, culture, the same structures exist within Riot. Workshops, analysis, education are important starting points for future change, but they are not necessarily immediately meaningful.

Will Riot get better from here? You obviously hope so, but an infographic and a blog from someone who has a vested interest in making it sound like huge leaps have been made is not proof of anything. There's no transparency here.

That said, short of another investigation, there's really no way for us to know what's going on in the company.

 

[ZugZug123]

Maybe read the actual blog post, and see that they are making meaningful changes and are continuing to change before just dismissing it.

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If the top people that were the harassers have not been fired, then any "change" they are doing is just window dressing. The top people's behavior dictate the culture of the company.

The place I work for fired a CEO based on credible harassment reports, Riot can do the same.

 

[HamCormier]

I just have to say that it's extremely rare for the Outside world to have access to D&I in a company when you're not a shareholder. Most companies aren't proud of their program, because they're usually pretty bland and boilerplate (most of them are motivated by government agencies and not internally motivated like Ubisoft or Riot). That blog post was fascinating.

Good job on all of those involved! Let's hope the future is brighter for diversity at Riot.

 

[HamCormier]

If the top people that were the harassers have not been fired, then any "change" they are doing is just window dressing. The top people's behavior dictate the culture of the company.

The place I work for fired a CEO based on credible harassment reports, Riot can do the same.

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You seem to be really aware of corporate structures to be able to make such claims -- do you have anything to back you up when you say that 'the top people's behavior dictate the culture of the company'? Because that's basically what D&I teams are supposed to be doing. When a company gets very large (1000 + employees), the culture is something less tangible than a few individuals, I believe (from experience).

 

[Mesoian]

I just have to say that it's extremely rare for the Outside world to have access to D&I in a company when you're not a shareholder. Most companies aren't proud of their program, because they're usually pretty bland and boilerplate (most of them are motivated by government agencies and not internally motivated like Ubisoft or Riot). That blog post was fascinating.

Good job on all of those involved! Let's hope the future is brighter for diversity at Riot.

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I mean, this is what happens when you show your ass so hard that literally every gaming publication and many national ones label your company as the one that has the most toxic work environment in the industry.

They needed to do this. They need as much PR showing that they aren't problematic as possible right now.

 

[bluexy]

You seem to be really aware of corporate structures to be able to make such claims -- do you have anything to back you up when you say that 'the top people's behavior dictate the culture of the company'? Because that's basically what D&I teams are supposed to be doing. When a company gets very large (1000 + employees), the culture is something less tangible than a few individuals, I believe (from experience).

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You made your point, but you also have to acknowledge that in Riot's specific case its been made abundantly clear that Riot's culture was heavily dictated by its leadership. That they had direct influence over the hiring structure that's become Riot as it exists today. And that, given that those same leaders remain at the head of Riot and how directly involved they were enforcing that culture in the past, it's difficult to trust forward movement.

 

[metalslimer]

Meh the fact that they still have leadership that groped people still in place makes this seem more for PR than anything

 

[ZugZug123]

You seem to be really aware of corporate structures to be able to make such claims -- do you have anything to back you up when you say that 'the top people's behavior dictate the culture of the company'? Because that's basically what D&I teams are supposed to be doing. When a company gets very large (1000 + employees), the culture is something less tangible than a few individuals, I believe (from experience).

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All I have is my own experiences, working in a tech industry that is more mature than gaming for 20 years and on multiple companies. They all have core values written down, but when management does not model those values you can see it permeate all the way down to the individual contributors who might not end up being harassers but will def turn a blind eye to issues cause they know it will go nowhere. On companies where the top level at least make an effort to stick to the core values, you see more engagement from employees and people willing to even ask tough questions on All Employee meetings and such because they know someone will at least try to address them. All of them have D&I departments, but you can see which ones are just window dressing to look good on paper and which ones are engaging with employee groups to actually improve things.

Given Riot:
- Does not seem to have fired the bad actors
- Seems overeager to tell the outside world how great they are doing on D&I
My personal opinion is they are just doing this as window dressing and nothing fundamental is changing in their company.

 

[Velocity:Design:Comfort]

You seem to be really aware of corporate structures to be able to make such claims -- do you have anything to back you up when you say that 'the top people's behavior dictate the culture of the company'? Because that's basically what D&I teams are supposed to be doing. When a company gets very large (1000 + employees), the culture is something less tangible than a few individuals, I believe (from experience).

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So hes ignorant, but at the same time we should take your word at face value despite likely having no more insight into Riot either?

Im gonna echo a lot of other posters here: seems like a very calculated move to try to take credit for solving a problem (if they even did solve it) one was the root cause of. And thats not even including the fact they didnt punish anybody.

 

[HamCormier]

So hes ignorant, but at the same time we should take your word at face value despite likely having no more insight into Riot either?

Im gonna echo a lot of other posters here: seems like a very calculated move to try to take credit for solving a problem (if they even did solve it) one was the root cause of. And thats not even including the fact they didnt punish anybody.

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I think you may have been used language I've never used --- I never said he was ignorant, I was questioning his experience to put his post into context. I merely responded in similar ways. This is how I'd like to debate about this -- in a polite manner without passion or ad hominen attacks.

All I have is my own experiences, working in a tech industry that is more mature than gaming for 20 years and on multiple companies. They all have core values written down, but when management does not model those values you can see it permeate all the way down to the individual contributors who might not end up being harassers but will def turn a blind eye to issues cause they know it will go nowhere. On companies where the top level at least make an effort to stick to the core values, you see more engagement from employees and people willing to even ask tough questions on All Employee meetings and such because they know someone will at least try to address them. All of them have D&I departments, but you can see which ones are just window dressing to look good on paper and which ones are engaging with employee groups to actually improve things.

Given Riot:
- Does not seem to have fired the bad actors
- Seems overeager to tell the outside world how great they are doing on D&I
My personal opinion is they are just doing this as window dressing and nothing fundamental is changing in their company.

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That sounds fair. Although I don't agree with your perception of over-eagerness -- it has been 6 months, and they're proud of their 90 days program.
As for the bad actors, I don't know. I literally don't know. Maybe there are internal investigations that might take longer? I assume they are higher ups, and maybe they need to build a bigger case to fire them?

 

[Messofanego]

Maybe read the actual blog post, and see that they are making meaningful changes and are continuing to change before just dismissing it.

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I had already read the blog post, which is why I asked the question that wasn't answered there. It's good they have implemented initiatives and getting better at diversity in leadership positions, but it doesn't say whether the most toxic members left. It's all well and good to have more diverse and inclusive teams but also to detail what consequences there are for bad actors.

 

[HamCormier]

I mean, this is what happens when you show your ass so hard that literally every gaming publication and many national ones label your company as the one that has the most toxic work environment in the industry.

They needed to do this. They need as much PR showing that they aren't problematic as possible right now.

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I don't think they 'needed' to do this as a corporate entities -- what's your metric to say that? Did they lose a significant amount of customers because of that story? Are they having issues hiring? I'll be honest, I haven't seen those be reported but I might've missed it.

 

[Mesoian]

I don't think they 'needed' to do this as a corporate entities -- what's your metric to say that? Did they lose a significant amount of customers because of that story? Are they having issues hiring? I'll be honest, I haven't seen those be reported but I might've missed it.

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I mean, other than the massive amounts of terrible pr, it sounded like they had a real problem with people leaving.

Regardless, you don't do these kinds of things if everything is hunkey dory. This is a public-facing expression of, "we are working to make things better," a gesture that was sorely needed, and will have to be expounded upon in the future.

But again, let me reiterate, if they didn't have to do it, they wouldn't do it.

They HAD to do this.

 

[Froyo Love]

I don't think they 'needed' to do this as a corporate entities -- what's your metric to say that? Did they lose a significant amount of customers because of that story? Are they having issues hiring? I'll be honest, I haven't seen those be reported but I might've missed it.

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They received a class action lawsuit. I think you would be very, very hard pressed to find an example of a company in a position of potentially paying damages for their conduct that decided it was unnecessary to change.

 

[Deleted member 13645]

Didn't know if it was worth it's own thread, but to add onto this Kotaku also posted their followup of one year later: https://kotaku.com/riot-games-and-sexism-one-year-later-1837041215

It sounds like actual good change is happening inside the company.

"If there's one message I really want to get out, it's that Riot is 99 percent people who give a shit," said one current employee. "The people who don't give a shit are few and far between. People care. They really, really do, and to watch individual Rioters band together to do better—people who care about bias training, people participating in our diversity and allyship channels, sharing with each other new things they've heard—it's really cool to see people participating in this conversation, especially people I wouldn't have expected."

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It seems like they're struggling with some culture change and there's still issues, but that big steps have been taken.

 

[Lil Peanut Brotha]

I don't speak for the whole company. But I'm personally part of the group that feels mixed about how they handled some things.

But overall I am seeing a lot of drives for change and respect/support for it. It really sucks to see some of the Blind app comments, but it makes sense a few people with those views might be there. Even they know the vast vast majority of the company sees these problems as real and important and want to eliminate them in the future. I guess it's important to highlight those people still exist, but it seems off for the article to give more weight to a small minority (who also would likely never speak that way non-anonymously from what I see).

The last quote is pretty solid to me. I do see a giant company full of people who care about each other and what we make. More than another place I've worked personally. If I didn't think we were making serious changes and real attempts to improve I might not still be here. I hope things continue to trend better, and hope other studios can learn from both our mistakes and solutions. And I also hope all of you keep advocating for the people who make games! We truly love and appreciate it when you stick up for us. You all make a big difference. Thanks!