I’m sorry what? That’s a take if I’ve ever seen one. China has a ton of developers and an equal ton of gamers, as does India, or this little known place called Japan. There is also a burgeoning indie scene in Africa and South America. Saying that people of color aren’t interested in the gaming industry is about as far off as Pluto is to Earth.
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I think India will be a big force in the gaming industry in the future, hopefully ather regions will follow. It would be very interesting to projects coming from different regions like Middle East (my region), Africa, Latin America etc.
Are you serious?! I’m sorry but this already started out from a bad-faith argument brought by you, but asking for evidence when there’s decades upon decades of socioeconomic evidence to the racist structures of this society, including its hiring practices, is by definition bad-faith.
Gee, I wonder why. You’re just jumping to conclusions that non-white people aren’t applying for those jobs.
I suggest you do research and provide some proof that they’re not doing so.
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Why would you want a British company to hire a person from another country?
Proof? I’ve worked in this industry for the past 20+ years and I’ve been black far longer then that. I have all the proof I need, even looking outside this industry. Take it or leave it.
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I worked as a software consultant for over 20 years and have seen a lot in some of the biggest software houses in germany. I can’t remember a single company, where woman where even 20% of the devs. Its a systemic issue and still the case.
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If you tell someone to go hire the best person they will hire a white guy. It’s been shown time and time again. Theres years of it to set right and you can’t do it without targeting diversity hires.
Also companies like MS are not doing this out of pity or shame. They are doing it because a diversified workforce is absolutely the best way to be successful.
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The proof is in the OP. If there was no inherent bias, Phil wouldn’t feel the need to make comments like this. Just because you don’t see it, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Edit:
BTW no one, including Phil, is saying to hire diverse people for diversity sake. The message here is to NOT ignore diverse people for these leading positions.
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What if I told you that companies already do this…?
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I would never advocate for hiring a less qualified person solely because of the color of their skin. I don’t think that does anyone any good. Perhaps there are things that can be done on the talent acquisition side to help push diversity, like attempts at having a diverse candidate pool for leadership positions. The NFL has a rule where at least one candidate for a GM or Head Coach position has to be a minority. We have something similar at my job for leadership roles.
There are hundreds of studies on this, it’s like asking for proof that the world is a sphere and not flat.
If you’re a team lead and are involved with hiring people and you aren’t aware of this, I suggest spending the next week doing your research on the matter before doing another interview. There’s no excuse in being this oblivious.
The issue isn’t a lack of qualifications. The issue is skin colour being a barrier to being hired.
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Just hire the best artists. Just hire the best story tellers. Just hire the best coders. Just hire the best graphic designers.
Let the talent talk.
If my car is broken, I want the best mechanic to fix it, regardless of who that is.
This is just wishful thinking. In a perfect world yes we could just hire the best people, but this world isn’t that. Bias is a real thing as is privilege and we need to do a better job of righting those wrongs. Too many people have been denied opportunities, due to the color of their skin, gender, sexual orientation, or religious beliefs.
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Too bad this isn’t how it works.
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We need more GOOD LEADERS. Regardless of race or gender, sexual orientation or background
More Vince Zampella’s Less Bonnie Ross
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Okay, so given your previous comments about Bonnie Ross this stinks of sexism; otherwise, why not mention a definitively poor leader like Randy Pitchford?
You want to know all the qualities that make Bonnie Ross a great leader that doesn’t deserve a fraction of the vitriol I’m starting to see seep into this great forum? She took over one of the most behemoth franchises in gaming whilst building a new team and still managed to produce a highly-rated, high-selling entry to said franchise. Additionally, let’s take a look over the years:
- Despite what the online community would have you believe, MCC and Guardians sold in droves and still have very active communities despite their age.
- Bonnie made the decision to stick with MCC and has spent three years, and who knows how many labor hours/dollars, to not only fix the original issues but improve and add to the title well beyond the original promised scope. You could argue that maybe MCC was a bit too ambitious, but good on Bonnie for taking responsibility and making it arguably one of the greatest collection titles in gaming history. The fact that they decided to stick with the title cannot be overlooked when we live in an industry that will often ditch titles at the first sign of issues/dropped population; I could easily make you a list of over a dozen titles from Sony, and plenty of other devs/publishers, that we’ve seen servers killed and support dropped entirely not more than a year after a release.
- Instead of doing what most developers would do by releasing a quick sequel or side-story title, Bonnie listened to her team and sold the idea of building a new engine to Phil. It’s yet to be seen how the results will fair but the fact that the head of the studio listened to the feedback of her team is something that should not be overlooked (as someone who works in an enterprise software development/management environment).
- Say whatever you want, but given the rampant crunch in the industry, Bonnie looking out for her people by increasing gestation times, and putting a stand against crunch before it was a hot topic anywhere. Even delaying the title was a fantastic leadership move because it put her people first, instead of the needs of keyboard warriors on the internet who still ignore the world-changing implications of worldwide pandemic.
- Good leadership inspires those to follow, or want to follow, in your footsteps; Bonnie has done incredible work for Women in STEM and has dedicated thousands of hours to providing education, opportunities, and mentorship to young women in STEM schools. Those young girls and women will go through life knowing now that they have real opportunities in the workforce, and that they may one day manage something as influential as Halo. REPRESENTATION MATTERS PEOPLE.
- Finally, a good leader knows how and when to take responsibility. Bonnie spent much of 2017-2019 taking full responsibility for the issues with MCC, for the length in time between releases, and then some. She didn’t just make those statements in blog posts either, she made them on stage and in dozens of press junkets. I know some of us live in a country where we have a leader that doesn’t represent any of those leadership qualities, and perhaps it’s even more important to highlight those leaders that DO.
While I’m on a rant here, and I’ll try not to repeat myself too much, but I’m seeing several comments about “hire the best, skin color doesn’t matter”. I’m not sure how many of these comments are coming from adults in the workforce but if you are, I’m simply going to say that you’re part of the problem. Especially in the US, where we have a myriad of peer-supported studies about the effects of systemic racism/sexism, it’s far more common for a white male to be elevated than an equally qualified, or more so, person of color or female. And that is just pinpointing the inherent bias in the workforce, and not even beginning to tackle the socioeconomic inequalities and barriers that men and women of color have to overcome that white people (again, I’m white) will never have to even think about. Qualification has never been the problem, and imagining we live in a world where we “let the talent talk” is part of that same problem.
Anecdotally, I have recommended seven different individuals of color to my specific division in the lab where I’m employed, and not a single one has been hired. From the top to the hiring decider in my division are only white males, and the individuals I recommended were at least more qualified, if not completely overqualified; instead the positions have all gone to white people, in two cases women, but all due to “the good-ole boy” system as they were either Air Force buddies with the hiring individual or children of friends of the hiring individual. This type of thing happens all of the time, and to highlight that I’m not bitter about my preferred candidates being hired, these were all IT positions where my referrals had anywhere from 5-15 years of experience in the respective sector and those that were hired ranged from one year to none.
Only when you can recognize that the problem actually exists will you stop being part of the problem. Besides, all of us should want as many diverse voices that we can in a creative industry, as it’s the only way we’ll get new stories instead of the same ones we’ve seen ad nauseam for decades; not to mention, we should want the same empowerment that we feel when we see Superman for the kids/adults when they see Black Panther, Miles Morales, Storm, Kamala Khan, Jubilee, etc.
/rant over.
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Randy is horrible too, I’m not as invested though because i don’t play Borderlands and have no interest in Gearbox games. I do have a vested interest in Halo thus Bonnie’s leadership directly affects me
Agreed, and for the record, I’ve worked with a few women in software development and they are as good at the job, if not better, than most of the guys I’ve worked with in my career. They’ve certainly been more mature than some of the guys.
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Hiring more black leaders does not equate to hiring less qualified people. The fact that a lot of people have drawn that comparison helps highlight the problem. It’s sounds great on paper to say “hire the best person regardless of race, sex, etc” however if you’ve spent any time in corporate America, you know this has never happened. People hire who they like. Who they think they can best work with. There is an unconscious bias. This is why if you’ve ever had any worthwhile interview training, they will flat out F’n tell you to be likable. Be someone that interviewer likes and will feel comfortable working with. If it didn’t matter, they’d have a machine hire you based on resume and taking tests. Unfortunately if you are from mostly white upper middle class neighborhood who graduated from an expensive college like Michigan, you are less likely to connect with someone from Detroit city who was the first in their family to go to college.
Being more proactive in promoting minorities and women is telling higher level leadership to get out of their comfort zone and don’t always hire the same type of people they’re comfortable working with. There are benefits to businesses when their executives are forced to move beyond their comfort circles. It’s complicated and hard to explain without getting into a lot of studies but bottom line is if you aren’t proactive in pushing your leadership to actively look for highly qualified minorities and women, their human nature pushes against it.
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