LEVEL TOXICITY: WOMEN, VIDEO GAMES, & MISOGYNY by BeautifulB12

LEVEL LEVEL TOXICITY TOXICITY Women, Women, Video Video Games, Games, & & Misogyny Misogyny

By: Isabella Szeman

LEVEL TOXICITY: Women, Video Games, & Misogyny

TABLE TABLE OF OF CONTENTS CONTENTS

Introduction Level 1: Background

8 12

•

Mindmap

•

Questions

Level 2: Research

TOXIC SCANDALS + CONTROVERSIES •

#1reasonswhy

•

#gamergate

•

Riot Games Sexism Lawsuit

•

Blizzard/Entertainment Vs The State of California

OTHER ISSUES IN THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY •

“Crunch”

•

Lack of Diversity

•

Lack of Mainstream Media Awareness

Level 3: Project Developement

•

ideas

•

sketches

Level 4: Final

References

INTRODUCTION 8

Hello Reader, are you ready to learn about how the culture of the video game industry is toxic, and misgyonstic towards females?

If you are then, I should inform you that there will be a variety of sensitive topics mentioned

throughout this book including

sexual assault, rape, suicide,

and much more. So if you don’t think that you can handle it or at any point you feel

uncomfortable you are obligated to look away and stop reading. Otherwise,

read at your own risk.

START

LEVEL 1:

BACKGROUND 12

In the summer of July 2021, I stumbled across news/videos on social media along with mainstream media news reports from CBS2 News (New Jersey/New York Area), and The New York Times all reporting about how a video game company named Activision/Blizzard Entertainment was being sued by The State of California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing claiming that the company fostered a “frat boy’ workplace culture.” where it alleges that a variety of issues including female employees being “subjected to constant sexual harassment” were all part of a two-year long investigation into the company.

That lawsuit became the inspiration for this thesis project.

That lawsuit is just one of many lawsuits over the years that has reflected on how the video game industry as a whole is reckoning with a HUGE problem that involves women in all corners, from gamers to game developers. This male-dominanted “bro-culture” has stigmatized the industry as being a “breeding ground” for toxic, and misogynistic behavior that has been swept under the mainstream media’s eyes. But this issue steams deeper than just lawsuits detailing sexual harassment and misogyny, It’s filled with all sorts of issues ranging from r**e, to federal laws that make video game companies get away with crimes.

to be clear,

I AM IN NO WAY TRYING TO SAY you should stop playing video games whatsoever because of these reasons. What I am trying to get across in this thesis is “It would be great if gamers and people in general are educated about how the video games we play to relax is built on a misogynistic environment where “bro-culture” negatively affects females physically, emotionally, and mentally.

GENDER DISCRIMATION

Mindmap

DOXING

FEMALE GAME DEVELOPERS

TOXIC VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY

RAPE

FEMALE EMPLOYEES THAT WORK AT VIDEO GAME COMPANIES

PROBLEMS FEMALES EXPERIENCE

SUCIDE MISGYONY

LAWSUITS + CONTROVERSIES

SEXUAL

FEMALE GAMERS

HARRASMENT/ ASSAULT THREATS OF VIOLENCE

#1REASONWHY

LAWSUITS + CONTROVERSIES

GAMERGATE

BRIANNA WU RIOT GAMES SEXISM LAWSUIT (2018)

ZOE QUINN

THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA’S DEPARTMENT OF FAIR HOUSING AND EMPLOYMENT VS ACTIVISION/BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT (2021)

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS (I.E: TWITTER, & YOUTUBE) REPORT ON THESE CONTROVERSIES BUT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA LACKS IN COVERING THESE NEWS. WHY?

This is the lawsuit that the mainstream media started bringing attention to the dark side of the video game industry

There’s something called “forced arbitration”. They’re defined as mandatory agreements that require employees to go through a form of private dispute resolution outside the court system.

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS (I.E: TWITTER, & YOUTUBE) REPORT ON THESE CONTROVERSIES BUT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA LACKS IN COVERING THESE NEWS. WHY?

Video game companies have their employees sign NDA’S that prevent them from speaking out

simply, it’s not a big story to be reporting on

Enacted Stereotypes Lack of Diversity

OTHER ISSUES IN THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY

“Crunch”- a term used in the video game industry to describe employees working at video game companies overtime and not usally getting paided.

Find Evidence Through Statistics

As I work on this thesis project here are some questions that I have thought of that’ll help guide me....

Questions

1) Why Is The Industry So Harsh On Females? - Towards Females That Work At Video Game Companies, Gamers on Streaming Sites (i.e: Twitch Discord, etc), & Female Game Developers? - Why are they subjected to this sexism, verbal & physical abuse, sexual assault, stalking, etc?

2) What Kind Of Gender Stereotypes Do Video Games Perpetuate- if any?

3) How Far Back Has This Problem Existed For?

4) What Are Other Issues Prevalent Happening In The Video Game Industry?

5) How Can This Topic Be Communicated Through Design?

6) Why Hasn’t The Mainstream Media Covered This Topic- Until Now?

LEVEL 2:

RESEARCH 20

throughout my research, I’ve come to learn that there are a variety of factors, as well as events that have occured that have made the video game industry transform into a misogynstic, toxic environment towards females. But for me to truly understand, I decided that the best way to start is by answering this question,

How Far Back Has This Problem Existed For? And what I’ve uncovered, let me know, that these issues stretches back to the 2000s. (Even though video games have been around since the 1970’s and have evolved since then) The early 2010s is when social media started to slowly bring attention to this problem.

I’ll start of this portion of my thesis book by mentioning few events that I managed to dig up that have stirred controversies and/or scandals within the video game industry. Later on, I’ll mentioned other factors that I also researched about that’ll follow up to another question that I had...

What Are Other Issues That Are Prevalent Happening In The Video Game Industry?

2012: 2012: 24

#1reasonwhy #1reasonwhy 25

#1reasonwhy was a twitter thread that exposed sexism, and misgyony that female game developers, and employees who have worked in the video game industry experienced. It all began on Nov 26th, 2012 when Luke Crane, a Kickstarter employee who specializes in role-playing games, tweet out a simple question asking,

“Why are there so few lady game creators?”

Courtesy of Twitter, Luke Crane (@Burning_Luke). 12:50PM

Afterwards, women started sharing short stories on Twitter ranging from male employees being prejudiced to others, to being groped, some shared they were too afarid to speak out otherwise they would be fired from their jobs, #1reasonwhy didn’t recieve as much mainstream media attention but it did unveil a conversation that had been quietly kept under the shadows of the video game industry.

2014-2015: 2014-2015: 28

#gamergate #gamergate 29

#gamergate was a year-long online campaign centering around sexism and anti-progressivism that sparked a culture war over the ethics of video game journalism and gamer identity. It was fueled by the hatred of male gamers- who felt “threatened” by the increasing rise of feminism influence in the video game industry, which exploded into a firestorm that led to a degrading, and downright sexist smear campaign (that took place on anonymous messaging forums like 4chan, 8chan, Reddit, etc) against females in the video game industry. Even though there was no official leader from this sexist campaign, it did have a social, cultural, and political impact from the events that occurred. These events began on August 27th, 2014 when Zoë Quinn- an american game developer, became the subject of intense harassment, after her ex-boyfriend, Eron Gjoni posted a lengthy blog called The Zoe Post, where he details the relationship he had with Zoë Quinn backing it up with screenshots of images, personal chat logs, and text messages between the two. Amongst other allegations, Gjoni in the blog also accused Quinn of having a sexual relationship with a Kotaku News Reporter, by the name of Nathan Grayson in exchanged for positive reviews on her 2013 independent game, Depression Quest. Trolls used Gjoni’s blog as a weapon to personally attack Zoë Quinn. Exchanging threats towards Quinn, including doxing her personal information, wishing death upon her, and sending r**e threats! All while accusing Quinn of exchanging sex for professional gain. Zoë Quinn from that point on became the face of #gamergate by being the number one enemy male gamers hated. But it was only just the beginning. Canadian-American Feminist Media Critic, Anita Sarkessian, and American Game Developer Brianna Wu, were also targeted.

After publishing an episode of one of her commentary series, Tropes vs Women In Video Games on the website Feminist Frequency, Anita Sarkessian recieved such disturbing tweets that it led to her being “forced out of her house because of specfic, detailed, threats against her and her family.” (Paul, 72)

^ Courtesy of Twitter, These Tweets Above Are Just Some Examples Of Hundreds Of Tweets Sarkessian Received

In October of 2014, Sarkessian was scheduled to appear at Utah State University for a lecture, but ultimately was canceled due to threats aimed towards her including an email that was recieved by several people- including Utah State University’s Center for Women and Gender Director, promising a mass shooting to occur, and bring death to anyone who attended, as well as Sarkessian’s safety being at risk because guns would be permitted at the lecture if it wasn’t canceled. (sidenote: the guns being allowed at the lecture is due to Utah’s relaxed open gun carrying laws that “prohibits Utah’s universities from enacting policy that “in any way inhibits or restricts the possession or use of firearms.” (Alberty). The email was later confirmed to be affiliated with #gamergate.

^ provided by The Standard ExaminerUtah State University’s own newspaper

2018: 2018: 34

RIOT GAMES GAMES RIOT SEXISM SEXISM LAWSUIT LAWSUIT 35

On Nov 5th, 2018, two woman filed a class action lawsuit against the video game company, Riot Games (based in West Los Angeles, California) for gender discrimination, and fostering a misogynistic “bro-culture” towards women at Riot. This lawsuit came three months after an scathing expose called, “Inside The Culture Of Sexism At Riot Games”* written by Cecilia D’Anatasio, a senior Kotaku news reporter, came out reporting similar issues that are mentioned in this lawsuit. The two woman that filed the lawsuit were Jessica Negron and Melanie McCracken. Both had worked for Riot Games between seperate time periods. With McCracken working at Riot Games between Oct 2013-June 2020, and Negron working at Riot Games from April 2015 - April 2017.

Images Taken By Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times

Insert Picture OF Lawsuit

Jessica Negron’s Allegations According to the lawsuit, Jessica Negron alleges that 6 months after she started working at Riot Games in April 2015, she didn't get a salary raise within her new position, for when she filled in for her manager who left the company. It continued to go that way for a year and when asked about it, the plantiff alleges that her supervisor, Geoff Chandler, "had no intention of actually promoting Ms. Negron. Instead, Ms. Negron was never even interviewed for the position, while three men were hired at various intervals for the position." (p.10, McCracken & Negron v. Riot Games) Plus she was told by upper management that, "she didn't do enough to 'take' the role and they wanted to give the men who eventually took in an opportunity to take on more responsibility." (p.10, McCracken & Negron v. Riot Games). With Jessica realizing that Riot Games was never going to promote her or even pay her the same "salary for the work she was performing”, she resigned around April 7th, 2017. Aside from her complaint about unfair salary wages and getting pushed aside by men, Negron was also given a very bizarre pep talk from her supervisor. Chandler is alleged to have told Negron, “Diversity should not

be a focal point of the design of Riot Games’ products because gaming culture is the last remaining haven for white teen boys”. (McCracken & Negron v. Riot Games).

Melanie McCracken Allegations Melanie McCracken, another plantiff, in the lawsuit alleges she witness and endured discrimination based on her gender on two separate occasions. The first happened approximately from early 2014 to March 2015, and the second occasion occurred in June of 2018. She was currently working at Riot Games when she filed this lawsuit. McCracken alleges that around September 2014 she expressed to her supervisor, Jin Oh that she was looking for a new position within a new department at Riot Games. Upon learning that Ms. McCracken did, Mr. Oh “chided her” and “demand she find a suitable replacement to his liking before she would be “released” to another team”. Out of fear of being retailated against, McCracken sought out a member of Riot Games human resources team to not only discuss her supervisors gender discrimination towards her but also requested to keep her complaint annoymous. Unfortunaly that human resources team member failed to do, and Jin Oh, eventually found out about it and confronted Melanie. As a result,

“Ms. McCracken

was petrified and angry and terrified that she had no one to trust at her own company.” (p.12, McCracken & Negron v. Riot Games). In June of 2018 Ms. McCracken endured gender discrimination again when she got blamed for spreading “gossip” about two other employees at Riot Games China (where she had a different position this time). This “gossip” contained a video of the two employees at a strip club with scantily-clad women in Shanghai.

Conclusion the case was somewhat settled in 2019, when Riot Games agreed to pay $10 million in total, but specfically they paided both Jessica Negron, and Melanie McCracken around $10-$20,000. This was in result of pressure from employees who staged walkouts and dozens of other women filing lawsuits against Riot Games. But this lawsuit would sadly still continue to be on-going.

Update- (As of March 10th, 2022, 10:48PM): There is now another lawsuit filed last year in Jan 2021 this time the Los Angeles Court has ordered 6 of the now 7 Plantiff’s, to have their claims heard in arbitration.

2021: 2021 42

Activision/ Activision/ Bizzard Bizzard Entertainment Entertainment Vs The The State State Vs Of California California Of 43

On July 20th, 2021, another video game company this time, Activision/Blizzard Entertainment was slammed with a lawsuit by the State of California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing claiming that the company fostered a “frat boy’ workplace culture.” Similar to the Riot Games lawsuit, this lawsuit also alleges that a variety of issues were too happening at this company, including gender discrimination within the hiring and employment practices, Executives allowed and often times “encouraged” sexual misconduct to takeplace. This was all part of a two-year-long investigation into the company, However, unlike the Riot Games lawsuit, what is alleged is more disturbing then previously suggested.

“male employees drink copious amounts of alcohol as they “crawl” their way through various cubicles in the office and often engage inappropriate behavior towards female employees.” “talk openly about female bodies, and joke about rape”. (Department of Fair Employment and Housing v. Activision Blizzard, Pg. 4)

“a female employee committed suicide while on a company trip due to a sexual relationship that she was having with her male supervisor.” (Department of Fair Employment and Housing v. Activision Blizzard, Pg. 15)

Because this lawsuit is still on-going as we speak, I am going to be putting together a timeline of all the main events that have occured since the filing of the lawsuit.

July 23rd, 2021- A video clip From BlizzCon* 2010 surfaced on Twitter, that was posted by the username, @chrisbratt where it shows a woman asking an all-male panel if they could stop sexualizing their female World of Warcraft Characters. Only for the male panel to mock and sarcastically shrug off that question in response.

July 21st, 2021- Activision/Blizzard

That same day, emails from both the President

Entertainment puts out a statement

of Blizzard Entertainment, J. Allen Brack, and the

in response to the lawsuit.

Activision/Blizzard Entertainment Executive, Fran Townsend were leaked on Twitter by Jason Schreier-

A Reporter For Bloomberg News.

July 26th, 2021- more than 2,000 Activision/ Blizzard Entertainment employees sign a letter condemning the allegations of the lawsuit, and calling for Activision/Blizzard Entertainment

July 27th, 2021- CEO of Activision Bobby Kotick

Executive, Fran Townsend to step down within her

broke his silence by putting out a statement on the

position (following the email that was leaked).

official Activision/Blizzard Entertainment Website.

Fran Townsend’s email that was sent out to the Activision/Blizzard team. Courtesy of Twitter, Jason Schreier (@ jasonschreier). 1:08PM

July 28th, 2021- Reputable Video Game News Website, Kotaku publishes details on the disturbing inside scoop of “The Cosby Suite” that was mentioned in the lawsuit. In It, it’s is described as the “booze-filled meeting place” (Gach) were many male game developers, including Alex Afrasiabi, would sexually harass females. Kotaku also manage to dig up old images and a group chat conversation between various game developers on Alex Afrasiabi’s Facebook account before he deleted them.

L-R: Greg Street (Blue Shirt), Cory Stockton, Alex Afrasiabi (Black T-Shirt In The

Front), Paul Cazarez (Blue Plaid Shirt), David Kosak- (Black Shirt In The Back),

Jonathan LeCraft (Green Plaid Shirt), Jesse McCree (Red Plaid Shirt) and Josh

Mosqueira.

That same day Activision/Blizzard Entertainment employees staged a walkout (both in-person and virtual) as they protest and demand change in improving working conditions for women and other

marginalized groups including people of color and LGBTQ+ people.

August 3rd, 2021- Blizzard Entertainment

August 11th, 2021- Jesse McCree- Diablo 4* Lead

President J. Allen Brack announced he’ll be

Designer, (Left) Jonathan LeCraft- World of Warcraft

stepping down from his position following the

Senior Game Designer, (Right) and one other game

allegations in the lawsuit.

director for Diablo 4 were all let go by Blizzard Entertainment.

September 20th, 2021- The U.S Government (Specifically, The U.S Securities and Exchange Commission) is now getting involved! Launching an investigation into how Activision/Blizzard Entertainment handled sexual harassment and abuse lawsuit allegations. The government also issued a subpoena to CEO Bobby Kotick.

November 16th, 2021- A bombshell report from The Wall Street Journal exposes Activision CEO Bobby Kotick for filth. Not only revealing that Kotick knew for YEARS about sexual misconduct allegations (and downplayed them) but also he failed to “inform

the board of some reports, including alleged rapes”. (Grind, Fritz and, Needleman).

Other Issues In The Video Game Industry

“Crunch” For all those non-gamers out there, “Crunch” is a term used in video game companies where game developers work overtime usually unpaid. This practice takes place during the final stages of creating a game (It’s to make sure that the game runs smoothly before they launch to the public). Major video-game companies including Epic Games, Riot Games, Rockstar, EA, Telltale, Activision/ Blizzard Entertainment, etc often have their employees “crunch”. However, “crunch” is one of the biggest other issues within the industry, that doesn’t seem to go away, it’s not just because of the extensive amount of hours developers put in and not getting paid for it, but it wrecks people, physically and mentally.

“During crunch or periods of long hours, 26% of respondents worked more than 60 hours per week, 29% worked 50-59 hours and 20% worked 45-49 hours.” (Coppins, Inceefe, Kumar, Kwan, Weststar)

Lack of Diversity It’s no surprise that the video game industry has always been male-dominated. Even though women are almost making up half of all gamers within recent years,

“Statistics show from a survey of game developers based on gender from 2014 to 2019 show more than 70% of males made up the majority of game developers, while women made up less than 30%.” In terms of diversity, however, the video game industry is far from achieving any progress.

An April 2021 survey based on ethnicity, White people overwhelmingly made up 75% of game developers, while the 25% rest of other game developers were broken down as follows- 9% Hispanics/Latino’s, 7% Asians, and only 4% of African-Americans & Indigenous people.

Lack of Mainstream Media Coverage

Social platforms such as Twitter, Youtube, and TikTok cover stories of the scandals, controversies, sexual assaults, and other news that take place in the video game industry but why does the mainstream media lack in reporting this news? Well, there are a variety of reasons. One can simply say that these issues aren’t newsworthy enough to report on, and while that could be true, I believe there’s a deeper reason why the mainstream media doesn’t report often on the toxicity of the video game industry.

Normally, most employers (in ordinary jobs) would often have their employees sign NDA’s agreeing to the terms of not sharing any personal information. But in video game company situations, particularly in the state of California, there’s something that I want to bring up that’s called “forced abbreviation”- there defined as mandatory agreements that require employees to go through a form of private dispute resolution outside the court system. Employers in the state of California will often force employees to enter into abbreviation agreements as a condition of employment. Both The Riot Games and Activision/Blizzard Lawsuit mentioned that they were some employees who went through forced abbreviation out either out of fear of being fired or they were pressured to go into abbreviation.

LEVEL 3:

PROJECT DEVLOPMENT 58

For my thesis project, I want to create something that’ll tie in with my thesis proposal, Below are some ideas that I came up with.

Thesis Project Ideas • A UI/Code Based Game For People To Play • Create A Video Sequence In The Format Of A Game - In The Video Have Female Protagonist Fight Off The Toxic Male Employees as Villains that symbolizes some of the problems in the video game industry • Create A Game Cover for a Fake Game • A Hoodie Design • Create 3D Video Game Figurines That’ll Reflect Female Representation In Video Games ^ the one highlighted in pink is what I went with.

After deciding what I wanted to do I first started with collecting some research by putting up two surveys in relation to my project ideas via social media. One survey analysis how male and females feel about female representation in video games, as well what they wanted to see in female video game characters, and the other survey focused on what design style people preferred.

Out of a total of 29 responeses collected, all responeses stated that they would prefer to see more female representation in video games, and the majority prefered to see charcters not in a way they’re sexualized or centered around unrealistic beauty standards.

Sketches Once I collected the data from the surveys this is where I started to skech out my ideas based on people’s respones.

Character Design Inspiration

Character Designed on Adobe Illustrator

LEVEL 4:

FINAL 66

Overall I’m happy with the results of how the hoodie design turned out, it took some time to create but I believe it paid off big time. I should note that this example your seeing is one version, out of two. The other version is with a different character. (At the time of writing this it was not completed, but it will be featured in my thesis blog when it comes). So stay tuned. Who knows I might even actually want to screen-print the designs onto an actual hoodie later on.

REFERENCES 72

ARTICLES + BLOGS •

Alberty, Erin. “Anita Sarkeesian Explains Why She Canceled USU Lecture.” The Salt Lake Tribune, 16 Oct. 2014, https://archive.sltrib.com/articlephp?id=58528113&amp;itype=CMSID. Accessed 14 Oct. 2021

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Browning, Kellen. “Activision Blizzard Is Sued By California Over Workplace Culture.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 July 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/business/activision-blizzard-california-lawsuit.html.

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D’Anastasio, Cecilia. “Inside The Culture of Sexism At Riot Games.” Kotaku, 7 Aug. 2018, https://kotaku.com/ inside-the-culture-of-sexism-at-riot-games-1828165483. Accessed 14 Oct. 2021

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Gach, Ethan. “Report: Activision’s Bobby Kotick Didn’t Just Know, He Also Was Shitty To Women [Update]” Kotaku, 16 November 2021, https://kotaku.com/report-activisions-bobby-kotick-didnt-just-know-he-al-1848066600. Accessed 5 Dec. 2021

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Gach, Ethan. “Inside Blizzard Developers’ Infamous Bill ‘Cosby Suite’.” Kotaku, 28 July 2021, https://kotaku.com/inside-blizzard-developers-infamous-bill-cosby-suite-1847378762.

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Gjoni, Eron. The Zoe Post, 16 Aug. 2014, https://thezoepost.wordpress.com/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2021.

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Grind, Kirsten, Fritz, Ben, & Needleman E. Sarah “Activision CEO Bobby Kotick Knew for Years about Sexual-Misconduct Allegations at Videogame Giant.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 16 Nov. 2021, www.wsj.com/articles/ activision-videogames-bobby-kotick-sexual-misconduct-allegations-11637075680. Accessed 5 Dec. 2021

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Raja, Tasneem. “Why It Sucks to Be a Woman in the Video Game Industry.” Mother Jones, 28 Nov. 2012, https://www. motherjones.com/politics/2012/11/women-video-game-industry-twitter-1reasonwhy/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2021

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Thomsen, Michael. “Why Is the Games Industry so Burdened with Crunch? It Starts with Labor Laws.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 24 Mar. 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/03/24/crunch-laws. Accessed 13 Nov. 2021

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Zwiezen, Zach. “Everything That Has Happened since the Activision Blizzard Lawsuit Was Filed.” Kotaku, 18 Nov. 2021, kotaku.com/everything-that-has-happened-since-the-activision-blizz-1847401161. Accessed 13 Oct. 2021* ^ this is a timeline summary of the events that have occured since the lawsuit was filed against Activision/Blizzard Entertainment on July 20th, 2021. The author did not write all the other articles that are associated with this source.

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Zwiezen, Zach. “U.S Government Now Investigating Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick Subpoenaed.” Kotaku, 20 Sept. 2021, https://kotaku.com/u-s-government-now-investigating-activision-blizzard-1847710889. Accessed 5 Dec. 2021

BOOKS •

Paul, Christopher A. The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games: Why Gaming Culture Is the Worst. University of Minnesota Press, 2018.

COURT + LAW DOCUMENTS •

California Superior Court, Los Angeles County. Department of Fair Employment and Housing v. Activision Blizzard. California Superior Court, Los Angeles County Court Records, 2021, pp. 1-29. https://aboutblaw.com/YJw. Accessed 14 Oct. 2021

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California Superior Court, Los Angeles County. Rosen Saba. LLP. McCracken & Negron v. Riot Games. California Superior Court, Los Angeles County Court Records, 2018, pp. 1-37. https://www.scribd.com/document/392530487/Complaint. Accessed 14 Oct. 2021

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Overtime Exemption for Computer Software Employees, Cal. Labor Code § Section 515.5, 2012. https://leginfo. legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=515.5.

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Overtime Exemption for Computer Software Employees, Cal. Labor Code § Section 510, 1999. (Modified 1 Jan 2000). https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection. xhtml?lawCode=LAB&sectionNum=510.#:~:text=1999%2C%20Ch.,Effective%20January%201%2C%202000.)

SOCIAL MEDIA •

Chris Bratt. “Oh god, I’d not seen this before. It’s heartbreaking. Here’s a 2010 Blizzcon panel in which a fan was brave enough to ask a panel full of men, including J. Allen Brack (left) & Alex Afrasiabi (right) whether there’s scope for some of WoW’s female characters to be less sexualized” Twitter, 23 July 2021, 1:48 pm, https://twitter.com/chrisbratt/status/1418629194683125761?ref_ src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1418629194683125761%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_ url=https%3A%2F%2Fkotaku.com%2Fembed%2Finset%2Fiframe%3Fid%3Dtwitter-1418629194683125761autosize%3D1* ^ this is a short videoclip from 2010 at BlizzCon (Blizzard Entertainment’s annual convention that takes place in Anaheim, California).

•

Jason Schreier. “Blizzard president J. Allen Brack sent out an email to staff last night addressing the allegations from this week’s explosive lawsuit, calling them “extremely troubling” and saying that he’d be “meeting with many of you to answer questions and discuss how we can move forward.” Twitter, 23 July 2021, 6:04 am, https://twitter.com/ jasonschreier/status/1418512291218264065 ^ this is one of two emails in respond to the allegations from the Activision/Blizzard Entertainment lawsuit (this one is sent by former Blizzard President, J. Allen Brack) that the twitter user, Jason Schreier- an reporter for Bloomberg News tweeted out.

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Jason Schreier. “Blizzard president J. Allen Brack sent out an email to staff last night addressing the allegations from this week’s explosive lawsuit, calling them “extremely troubling” and saying that he’d be “meeting with many of you to answer questions and discuss how we can move forward.” Twitter, 23 July 2021, 6:04 am, https://twitter.com/ jasonschreier/status/1418512291218264065 ^ this is the other email following the first email mentioned that’s also in respond to the allegations from the Activision/Blizzard Entertainment lawsuit (this one is sent by Activision/Blizzard Entertainment Executive, Fran Townsend) that the twitter user, Jason Schreier- an reporter for Bloomberg News tweeted out.

STATISTICS •

Coppins, Inceefe, Kumar, Kwan, Weststar. “Developer Satisfaction Survey 2021 Summary Report.” International Game Developers Association. 13 Sept. 2021. https://igda-website.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/ uploads/2021/10/18113901/IGDA-DSS-2021_SummaryReport_2021.pdf. Accessed 13 Nov. 2021

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Kumar, Kwan, Weststar. “Developer Satisfaction Survey 2021 Summary Report.” International Game Developers Association. 20 Nov. 2019. https://igda-website.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/ uploads/2020/01/29093706/IGDA-DSS-2019_Summary-Report_Nov-20-2019.pdf Accessed 13 Nov. 2021

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IGDA. “Distribution of Game Developers Worldwide from 2014 to 2021, by Gender.” Statista, Statista Inc., 21 Jul 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/453634/game-developer-gender-distribution-worldwide/ ^ This data shows from 2014 to 2021 the statistics of game developers are based on gender. As you can see from 2014 to 2019 more than 70% of males overwhelmingly were the majority of game developers, and less than 30% of females were game developers. But this year in 2021 the number of male game developers shrunk by 10%. That’s a stark contrast to 2019 numbers.

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IGDA. “Distribution of Game Developers Worldwide from 2014 to 2021, by Gender.” Statista, Statista Inc., 21 Jul 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/453634/game-developer-gender-distribution-worldwide/. Accessed ^ This survey conducted in April of 2021 shows types of game developers based on ethnicity. 75% of game developers are white. This clearly shows a disproportionate amount of how the video game industry as a whole lacks diversity.