I have worked in the industry for over a decade and the idea that a modern studio of a couple of hundred people working in all disciplines would recruit solely from the Maths Club, The Chess Club and the RPG Club is frankly as outdated as harassing Gay guys because they happen to be Gay.
Games studios - especially in the UK where Ethnic Minorities are still true minorities - are mostly a collection of thirty-something white males. While great strides have been taken in making the workplaces in the industry more welcoming to females, not much has been done to integrate openly homosexual people.
We're gamers, first and foremost. A lot of us grew up calling things 'teh ghey' too.
If this guy was harassed in a sustained and organized manner - especially if it went beyond verbal and was written into game builds or photoshopped jokes - then MS ought to have stopped it, because their discipline leads and producers ought to have been aware of it. Once he complained to the HR department, it ought to have been resolved VERY quickly - even if the XBOX LIVE team had no specific policy. For god's sake - how long does it take a company based in Washington to phone up a lawyer and gin up an anti-harassment section to the employment contract? They could use the same guy who wrote the language into the XBOX LIVE EULA and TOS...
Stress is very real - and working in the industry is ALREADY more stressful than the average workplace. Throw in sexual discrimination and the guy has an argument.
As some have said, it's a shame that this has undoubtedly cost him his career in the Games Industry. Word of mouth will ensure that nobody hires him - simply because he'll be seen as a troublemaker.
Frankly it's that attitude that has created some absolutely piss-poor software this generation. So-called "Indie Developers" seem to think you should be able to create a game on four different platforms by developing a PC title and making about three weeks worth of tweaks.
Newsflash - that only works for PC to XB360 ports. The other two platforms have very different architecture. Want to know why most 'multi-sku' games have looked like warmed over turd on the PS3 compared to PS3 exclusives? It's because they're effectively ignoring the PS3's custom architecture.
Well duh. About six years ago when five of the six studios in my local city collapsed due to a financial crunch in the UK, and I ended up getting a job in Europe rather than simply sending my CV around locally, I knew this would end up coming back to bite the UK Industry in the ass.
Short of a few oblique references during the 'Cool Britannia' campaigns, the UK government has never been interested in the games industry in the past and is unlikely to change its mind in the near future. Finance, Law and Manufacturing are the only industries that penetrate the haze of fog around Westminster.
Firstly, what you have there is a mechanism, not a form of gameplay. Change it how? Change it why?
Secondly, it's technically unfeasible - change it whilst people are using it? How does THAT work? Also, unless you have a RATIONALE for those changes, you might as well use a random number generator as a skilled professional - so what rationale are you going to use?
Chance makes a poor motivator. People like to see cause and effect, which is the reason why your last paragraph is nonsense.
Well, the problem is that most games come out with a limited set of content at launch and then add to it as they go along. That's just what WOW did.
However, WOW was competing in a marketplace that can most kindly be described as stagnant when it launched. Every MMO that is launched is competing, day 1, with some VERY stiff competition.
WOW now has very stable code, a graphics engine old enough to work on the majority of PCs and years and years of iterative add-ons and expansions.
In my mind the only MMO that has survived the WOW-factor is Eve - which does so by having manageable costs, lots of smaller updates and incredibly differentiated gameplay.
Whether Warhammer can prove that there is room for more than one huge AAA fantasy MMO or not remains to be seen.
Even if she HAD taken a degree in Archaeology, if she hadn't specifically focused on Egyptology as a specialty she STILL might not have known that Tutankhamen question.
After all, an Archaeologist is likely to know more about Tut when he was pharaoh, not about what happened when Lord Caernarvon dug him up.
Even a refresher course in Archaeology might not have covered this, and it was a bone move to expect her to know what. What she SHOULD have done is ask him a bunch of questions about the career of H. L. Mencken and Seymour Hersh.
Dave Perry's piracy solution: Be better than free
Apr 22nd 2009 7:48AM (Joystiq)Frankly, they're the kind of micropayment online games that you couldn't get anyone to pay for out of the box, anyway.
Quebec law outlaws English-only titles if French versions exist [update]
Apr 3rd 2009 12:26AM (Joystiq)Lionhead Studios graphic designer sues Microsoft for harassment
Mar 25th 2009 4:42AM (Joystiq)Games studios - especially in the UK where Ethnic Minorities are still true minorities - are mostly a collection of thirty-something white males. While great strides have been taken in making the workplaces in the industry more welcoming to females, not much has been done to integrate openly homosexual people.
We're gamers, first and foremost. A lot of us grew up calling things 'teh ghey' too.
If this guy was harassed in a sustained and organized manner - especially if it went beyond verbal and was written into game builds or photoshopped jokes - then MS ought to have stopped it, because their discipline leads and producers ought to have been aware of it. Once he complained to the HR department, it ought to have been resolved VERY quickly - even if the XBOX LIVE team had no specific policy. For god's sake - how long does it take a company based in Washington to phone up a lawyer and gin up an anti-harassment section to the employment contract? They could use the same guy who wrote the language into the XBOX LIVE EULA and TOS...
Stress is very real - and working in the industry is ALREADY more stressful than the average workplace. Throw in sexual discrimination and the guy has an argument.
As some have said, it's a shame that this has undoubtedly cost him his career in the Games Industry. Word of mouth will ensure that nobody hires him - simply because he'll be seen as a troublemaker.
Wanted's Wanat considers Wii development a 'narrow market' [Update]
Mar 23rd 2009 5:10PM (Joystiq)Newsflash - that only works for PC to XB360 ports. The other two platforms have very different architecture. Want to know why most 'multi-sku' games have looked like warmed over turd on the PS3 compared to PS3 exclusives? It's because they're effectively ignoring the PS3's custom architecture.
Tiga: 85% of UK developers want tax breaks, programmers not easy to find
Mar 3rd 2009 3:28AM (Joystiq)Short of a few oblique references during the 'Cool Britannia' campaigns, the UK government has never been interested in the games industry in the past and is unlikely to change its mind in the near future. Finance, Law and Manufacturing are the only industries that penetrate the haze of fog around Westminster.
Dear former Midway employee asking about unpaid wages, here's your answer:
Feb 25th 2009 5:02PM (Joystiq)World of Warcraft: So easy, a caveman can do it
Feb 18th 2009 10:35PM (Massively)Firstly, what you have there is a mechanism, not a form of gameplay. Change it how? Change it why?
Secondly, it's technically unfeasible - change it whilst people are using it? How does THAT work? Also, unless you have a RATIONALE for those changes, you might as well use a random number generator as a skilled professional - so what rationale are you going to use?
Chance makes a poor motivator. People like to see cause and effect, which is the reason why your last paragraph is nonsense.
Yakuza 3 dated for Japan, bundled with Ceramic White PS3
Dec 2nd 2008 11:39PM (Joystiq)For the Dragon of Dojima, I just might...
Funcom confirms Age of Conan layoffs
Nov 25th 2008 4:55AM (Joystiq)However, WOW was competing in a marketplace that can most kindly be described as stagnant when it launched. Every MMO that is launched is competing, day 1, with some VERY stiff competition.
WOW now has very stable code, a graphics engine old enough to work on the majority of PCs and years and years of iterative add-ons and expansions.
In my mind the only MMO that has survived the WOW-factor is Eve - which does so by having manageable costs, lots of smaller updates and incredibly differentiated gameplay.
Whether Warhammer can prove that there is room for more than one huge AAA fantasy MMO or not remains to be seen.
Lara Croft claims to be an archaeologist
Nov 8th 2008 5:14AM (Joystiq)After all, an Archaeologist is likely to know more about Tut when he was pharaoh, not about what happened when Lord Caernarvon dug him up.
Even a refresher course in Archaeology might not have covered this, and it was a bone move to expect her to know what. What she SHOULD have done is ask him a bunch of questions about the career of H. L. Mencken and Seymour Hersh.