Sad to say, toxicity is far too frequent in video games these days, not just from the people who play games but those who make them too, and far too often this toxicity is aimed directly at women. It’s a problem that, in many cases, is still in the process of being acknowledged as something that needs to be addressed, but in the case of League of Legends developer Riot Games, things appear to be moving in the right direction at the very least.
Folks may recall that last year, reports made their way online detailing a culture of serious gender discrimination at the company. Female employees were denied equal pay and advancement opportunities next to their male coworkers, on top of dealing with some gross examples of sexual harrassment and retailiation for calling it out. This led to a couple of lawsuits, and eventually, a settlement between Riot and the employees suing it in August.
Back then, the details of the settlement weren’t shared, on account of having not yet been finalized by the courts, but new information has come out courtesy of the Los Angeles Times. In its report, the Times, citing court documents filed this week, revealed that Riot Games will pay out $10 million to the roughly 1,000 female employees who worked at the company between 2014 and when the settlement was reached this summer. Just how much each employee and former employee will receive will depend on how long each one worked at Riot and whether they were working there full-time or as contractors.
The court documents also make note of the commitments Riot has been making to clean house in the wake of the lawsuit, including efforts to improve hiring and payment practices, set up programs for reporting sexual harassment, and create groups capable of overseeing how the company is faring in these efforts.This follows up on Riot’s previous committment to address its toxic studio culture from last year, where it vowed to “leave no room for sexism or misogyny” in the workplace.
“We’re pleased to have a proposed settlement to fully resolve the class action lawsuit,” said a Riot spokesperson in a statement. “The settlement is another important step forward, and demonstrates our commitment to living up to our values and to making Riot an inclusive environment for the industry’s best talent.”
It’s going to be interesting to see where things go from here. On one hand, Riot does appear to be genuinely trying to clean up its act. But on the other, earlier this year the company tried to end the lawsuits through force arbitration, resulting in Riot employees staging a massive walkout in protest. It’s hard to tell how committed Riot’s upper management truly is to fixing its core problems, but now that those problems have cost it millions, maybe we’ll start seeing some real change from here on out.
Source: Los Angeles Times