I have heard that ageism is an issue in the games industry, and that it does make it harder to find work. Would you agree or disagree?

I have learned how dangerous it is to extrapolate from “I never see this” to “Therefore it must not happen.”

Overall, this industry does struggle with a diversity problem, so it wouldn’t surprise me to understand that older people are part of that.

I will say that I am older than almost all of my colleagues, and this has been true for most of my career. I definitely feel old a lot. I try to feel young. I try hard to stay informed and connected. I don’t think it’s okay to say “I don’t understand or care about this thing that young people are talking about” (assuming young people are a significant part of your audience).

Where companies go wrong, and honestly Riot was not immune from this several years ago, is to think “I need employees and colleagues who are excited by our mission and values” but then to act as if “Therefore, I need employees and colleagues who look and act like everyone already here.”



What Riot has tried to do is shift to looking for people who champion our mission of caring deeply about players, and worry much less about how many hours of League someone has played. (Caveat: if you are going to work directly on key parts of League, you really need to understand the needs, desires and pains of LoL players.)



11/15/2019