Riot Games has been sued by one current and one former employee and has been accused of "endemic gender-based discrimination and fostering a "men-first" environment."

Loading

Loading

Loading

As reported by Kotaku, the lawsuit follows another investigation by Kotaku that delved into a sexist culture at Riot Games, the publisher of titles such as League of Legends. The class-action lawsuit filed against Riot Games states that, "like many of Riot Games’ female employees, Plaintiffs have been denied equal pay and found their careers stifled because they are women. Moreover, Plaintiffs have also seen their working conditions negatively impacted because of the ongoing sexual harassment, misconduct, and bias which predominate the sexually-hostile working environment of Riot Games."Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that Riot "violated California's Equal Pay Act and law against gender-based discrimination at the workplace" and the employees involved are seeking "compensation on unpaid wages, damages, and other penalties, with an exact amount to be determined at trial."Kotaku's report in August detailed a culture of sexism at Riot and told the story of 28 current and former employees who dealt with a "bro culture" that "in some instances, rewards behaviour that disadvantages women."Following Kotaku's report, Riot Games responded to the allegations and claimed they have a "zero tolerance policy on discrimination, harassment, retaliation, bullying, and general toxicity."They continued their message on Twitter and said that they would "share the immediate and long-term actions we’re taking to enact real change for women at Riot."While Riot has appeared to have removed many of the people involved in creating this sexist culture, according to several and former employees of Riot, there are still a few on board who are "key alleged perpetrators of abusive behaviour," according to Kotaku's reporting.Jessica Negron, one of the two plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said that shortly after she was hired, her manager quit and she took on her job duties but did not see an increase in her compensation of job title.She said that even though she spoke up and asked to make her change official, "three men were hired into the role one after another," and she was never interviewed or had her voice heard.Furthermore, Negron claimed that "in just one month, she counted that her male colleagues at Riot used the word "dick" over 500 times," and one of Negron's supervisors said that "diversity should not be a focal point of the design of Riot Games’ products because gaming culture is the last remaining safe haven for white teen boys."The other plaintiff, current Riot Games employee Melanie McCracken, has been working at Riot since 2013 and spoke up about her experiences with the sexist culture and claimed that "HR failed to keep the meeting confidential and leaked the information to her supervisor."She took a new position in 2015 and her former supervisor was then promoted to a senior position in 2016. She was then said to have been "given a five-month countdown to find a new position or ‘be fired.'"

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN and hopes that this sparks some change that should have happened a long time ago. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst.