Over the past 4-5 years, I've seen a lot of experienced game devs--both men and women--dismiss the idea that we need to take an objective look at our work culture, and the way it welcomes (or discourages) diverse candidates.
A lot of the resistance comes from devs who've been in the industry for 10+ years. It's easy to label that "defense of the status quo" but I think there's a bit more going on.
Folks who have been pro game devs for at least ten years know how different the business was back then. Think it's hard to get a job in game dev now? Try 10, 12, 15 or 20 years ago!
For example, it wasn't that long ago when "game designers" didn't even exist. Game development wasn't even considered a "real" career until around 10 years ago. It wasn't even considered a "real" JOB 20 years ago.
I'm not having a "get off my lawn" moment here. The reason I'm saying all of this is because what we had to do to be career game devs 10, 15, 20 years ago is wildly different from what folks do today... and that radically skews the diversity conversation.
If you've been a game dev for more than 10 years, I'd be willing to bet you feel driven to be in your line of work. If you've been a dev 15-20 years, I'd almost guarantee it. You can't imagine doing anything else. It's a calling.
Sure, that's partly because you made it here at all--you were willing to put up with all the bullshit that comes with game dev. You survived. But it's also because that's how you felt all along. Making games is what you were MEANT to do.
It was so very hard to find a way into game dev, to find a way to make a living at it, to find a way to make it a career, and then to stick with it that being a game dev with more than 10 years of experience means you HAD to have that level of drive.
Fast forward to today, and you see the ripple effect of that all over the place in our culture. It's in the "this is a passion industry" and "cultural fit" reference points. It's in the tendency to crunch. And it's in our hiring practices.
We never stop to think about the fact that, today, game development as a career is more established. There are a LOT more options for both career paths and employers and game genres. It's a new world.
And that new world presents many, many exciting opportunities to new talent. Tech is everywhere. Apps are everywhere. There are lots of fun and exciting ways to use your art, programming, design and production skills.
So when folks who've been devs for 10+ years might have think back on how driven they were to have this career... applying that assumption to today's candidates isn't helpful and can be damaging to your recruitment efforts.
It is entirely possible today for a young, super talented, diverse candidate to interview at Google, a hot tech start-up, a toy company, and a game dev and think, "That game studio was brotastic. I would be MISERABLE. No thanks."
Back in the day, it was make games or code on enterprise software or work in advertising or be a tech writer for an insurance company. Ha! Thanks, but I'll take whatever nonsense I have to take to work in games.
But now? Young folks with talent have a lot of choices that are GENUINELY exciting and creative and fulfilling. We no longer corner the market on "cool." If we maintain our outdated culture, we lose talent. Period.
So even if you won't recognize the clear, compelling business benefits to increased diversity, take a second to contemplate how your company culture might be drastically limiting the talent you can attract.
