As my last post on gamescom was written before reading the abuse-publications on Twitter and Facebook over the recent two days, I´d like to add some thoughts so I´m understood clearly:
First of all let's call out bullshit when we see it, hear it, feel it, for not giving voice to people making the space toxic or negative for all. We have to make sure we create welcoming and safe spaces, changing the industry one conversation at a time, and especially for event organisers it's easy to fail, as we create some of the core mingling spaces of the industry.
To quote Astrid: "Don't invite them to your event or conference", "Don't signal boost their social media posts, calls for work, or collaboration. Don't refer them as industry buds when people ask for recommendations on who to work with. Don't give them copies of your game for feedback or review". As one bad apple is not only a bad apple, but enough to destroy the space for us all.
We can do a lot - will it be easy? Definitely no, as sometimes even people we felt close to and worked with over years are the ones making the space for others to hell. If you know it, don´t amplify their voices. And if I don´t know it let me know via PM. And if you feel you might be somewhere in a grey zone, maybe it´s time to grow up and consider what´s appropriate as professional in 2019. What you do legally in private is your thing and your responsibility to decide by your ethical and moral means, but consider how your actions during game events reflect on the professional domain and the space for all of us, and especially how the space feels for non-white cis-males, and which atmosphere we create together.
I have way more to write about this, as working behind the scenes for years to change what I can change at least in terms of stage representation. But also I´m not sitting on a high horse here: I often fail and failed to speak up or make my point clear or even failed to have a clear point when things are happening quickly - and if I speak up it is often frustrating as it feels to tell the same story over and over again -
BUT the important thing is: it can change only from within, from all of us.
As it takes a lot of work. For example one of my recent events was overshadowed by reports on one guy verbally harassing lots of women and LGBTQ guests on the awards evening, and it took us almost a week to iron out all reports - with the final result of sending a written letter to the board of directors of the company he is working for and he is now basically done in the industry (and as I heard today left the country). We hated to put the work in as we wanted to focus on the community and the event, but what is worth community if it´s not for all? And also honestly it took us a lot of extra-work as we weren´t 100% prepared for this ("it's an personal indie event, isn't it - what can go wrong?" How wrong I was. As I learnt it´s on the contrary- the more people trust you the more reports will you get. If you don't get reports, well then maybe everything is ok, or maybe nothing is ok. So check where your event stands, and how you neglect or report things you may see when going to an event) - in this case luckily people trusted us enough to report that guy right away in person to us, from many sources - so the decision to make was relatively "easy".
And also, what's the alternative to put in the work? As otherwise we are creating spaces where predators believe they can roam free and unharmed by moral and even legal rules.
On the practical side of course there are best practices what we can do: for example after the recent incident we had long conversations with Anita about what event organisers can do and should do, if you don´t already. Like setting up a committee of few people taught in standard procedures taking, checking and acting on the reports - as a) the bad apples might be close to event organisers or even sponsors to the event or "industry legends" invited on stage and also b) the workload to put on the organisers themselves during the event is not manageable - especially if shit hits the fan. Also c) to make sure there is no false identifications and things are done with a clear head, also super-important. As, as rare false allegations are, I´ve also witnessed one false identification once, when one person´s name was mistaken for another, so it's important to keep the cool while treating the victims appropriately with standard procedures set in place how to tackle reports, what to ask and what not, how to explain whats next and how you will progress etc. etc. And for many reasons more.
If I find the time over the upcoming weeks will create an article what I also learned from Celia couple of years ago, realistically it will be after Reboot Develop Red, as travel and vacation time is coming up again in two days, but to start somewhere: if you have good helpful links for best practices and good resources to share, please comment and share below.
So, hope we are working on this together - and all this shared stories and disheartening experiences lead to a rethinking and action on what we as an industry want to represent, as a workplace, as a creative culture, and as one of _the_ industries of the 21st century. I know the majority of us are great people and hence even more it's disheartening we are still not doing a better job in creating spaces which are professional, safe and welcoming to all of us all the time.
Let's help each other to step up our game! Thanks!
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Bei Games Industry wurden weitere Reaktionen aus der Branche zusammengetragen:
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