EA Wants More Diversity in Game Development

...Why does it matter what sex a person is?

But I really like white males...

This is still a thing? I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but I've always thought development teams and whatnot had a good amount of women among them. I've seen plenty of behind the scenes features and there's usually a decent amount of ladies, unless this is just new for EA.

@thatguyEZ

Exactly my thoughts. This is just more agenda-pushing bullcrap. Man, woman, doesn't matter to me as long as said person is capable.

In University all my comp-sci classes were 98% male, with a token girl somewhere (who needed tutoring, as it happenned). All the psychology classes were the exact opposite where me and one other guy were the only men in the class (We both were working on the same comp sci w/ psych degree). Even now, many years later, most of the actual programmers are men. The team who listens to the business units and documents the requirements is mostly female. QA teams are almost all women. There are women involved in development, but often in subservient roles. I'm glad to say my organization is very diverse and accepting, and well represented in management, but if you look at what people actually do, the problem is not solved.

And of course we still have the problem that developers are pressured to sell more copies of games by changing the women in the game to be objectified two dimensional sex objects.

Oh right, and the problem that women who tried to speak up about this were driven from their homes because of death threats (#gamergate)

I think....

I think diversity for the sake of diversity is just as bad as discrimination. Because now you are replacing capable people with others that might not be as capable simply so you can boast "We're diverse! Hurrah!"

The reality is different sexes have different interests, and it does not strike me as odd that there are more men doing some jobs and more women doing others. Life is not equal. So why make it a point to make everything equal?

Let people apply for the jobs they want and give it to the person who is most qualified! Be it a man, woman, sheepdog or Martian. But forced equality only results in one thing- less qualified people getting jobs over the more qualified, simply because of their sex.

But it sounds good! Right?

@JaxonH the problem is bias. People who immigrate from foreign countries with exceptional qualifications - but heavy accents - often end up working in cabs instead of their field because people hear their accent and assume they are stupid or not qualified. Everyone like it or not has a natural tendency to be biased towards people of similar ethnicity and geographic origin as themselves. The diversity quotas are meant to combat that, raising a red flag if you have a disproportionate under-representation of a certain type of person compared to the available candidates.

Mass Effect 3's whole gay thing.. The complaints about women in FIFA...

I could go on, but the industry will only move forward at the same speed that those whinging and complaining will allow them to...

So as far as Peter Moore is concerned, less chat, more work mate. Having more of anyone, whether it's down to sex, colour, religion or sexuality won't by default, make a better product behind the scenes..., you just need to get on with it and make diversity natural, like it should be.

And as for using the fact EA have loosely tacked on female teams to FIFA, doesn't make you a spokesman on this subject, unless all of a sudden there are more than 12 female teams added to your cash cow and there are more than one or two modes that said teams can be used in.. .

And that in itself is the problem, someone or some company makes a little effort, albeit a half-a*sed one to be more inclusive (which is never a bad thing) and they cannot stop talking about it.... Just get on with it, inclusivity means we all get treated the same surely?. Not "oooh look, ladies on a football pitch, aren't we clever." besides EA. ya not the first to do it either....

@Mega-Gazz
I understand it's done with the best of intentions. But even the road to hell is paved in good intentions.

I think any person in a position to hire another human being, should be truly interested in the best candidate because it benefits them in the end. Not to say there won't be some bias here and there, but to label every person with the decision to hire as "naturally biased" is in itself, biased. Most people have enough common sense to look past exterior factors like skin color or sex.

Artificially enforcing "equality" doesn't bring equality at all- quite the opposite actually. It comes with a high price tag, and only brings the appearance of equality, not equality itself.

I only want good games, caring about the sex of who makes them is retard and sexist on it's own.

what about Asian males... JK....... back when I was a kid my favorite game creators were women like Roberta Williams and Jane Jensen... they didn't get to create games because they were women, they got to create games because they were great at it... if a woman is talented and you don't give her a chance because she is a woman that's stupid, but its also stupid to try to force someone who doesn't cut it into a senior role just because she is a woman

Peter Moore likeable. I will have a laugh every time you guys write that.

I love indies as they never brag about this diversity thing. How many CEOs of big game companies are female? There goes your diversity BS.

Positive Discrimination is still discrimination no matter how you word it, the clue is the term. These people are so warped. Whatever happened to the right person for the right job...

Hopefully a female over at Sega can get to work on streets of rage 4, as the men have failed drastically.

I actually agree. I find myself being a bit annoyed how similar so many protagonists are to one another. It's starting to blend together too much. It's gotten better over the years, however. I joke about having more representation of fat people in games, but to be honest I'd actually like to see an obese protagonist be pulled off well.

Think on the big scale not the individual. If you have 1000 diverse candidates, and choose to hire 50 straight white males without accents or obvious ethnicity, you will have a hard time arguing it was just "the right person for the right job", all 50 times.

I am sure I'm unlikely to convince you all (because internet), but do think on that scale and I think you will agree that at the macro level it works.

@Mega-Gazz how would you have a hard time arguing that If those 50 candidates were the most qualified for the job that needing doing? That's how a meritocracy works. Overlooking a persons ability to fill a quota based on race & gender is racist & sexist. That's discrimination.

It would be the same if all 50 most qualified candidates were black females. You would still hire them all, instead of overlooking a few to add some whites to the mix for dat diversity, simply because they are the most suitably skilled for the job you need completing.

EA is always under a rock..... Diversity is not bad but if it's a bunch of women who may not meet qualifications and there are few men. It's a problem, also does it mean it's diverse? Sounds discriminate at the most. Bypassing a talented qualified person for a barely qualified substitute. It actually sounds like they are more into it for Intel's grant money...

Racial diversity for its own sake is equal to racism.
Mathematical proof:
If 10 White People < 5 White People + 5 Black People
10W < 5W + 5B
Simplifies to
10W < 5(W + B)
Then divide both sides by 5 and
2W < W + B
Then subtract W from both sides and
W < B
(White person is less than a Black person)
And that is racist.

Make love people not war

@Mega-Gazz You do realise that Gamer Gate has had nothing to do with those threats, right? In fact, many GGers are women (shock!) who are sick of people like Anita Sarkeesian - and corrupt sites like Polygon and Kotaku - for taking a real, serious issue like feminism and twisting it to their own, money-making desires. Of course, they have brainwashed a good number of the populace into think that Gamer Gate is made up of nothing but right-wing women haters - because they know they've been exposed as the liars they really are.

But hey, I guess I'm just a dirty misogynist for daring to speak against them, right?

On topic; talk is cheap, Peter. Sure, we have seen some diversity in lead protagonists over the years - but the vast majority are still white, gruff-voiced dudes. The industry crows on about how things need to 'evolve', yet the majority of them are too chicken to do it. Not just in terms of diversity, but in terms of innovative gameplay. It seems like a good 90% of 'triple-A' games are just clones of each other, with the same tired mechanics (guns! Regenerative health! QTEs! A cover system! Cinematic scenes!) and tropes. It's a big reason why I have zero hype for Uncharted 4 - it looks essentially like the same Uncharted from 2007, and I still feel like its existence is utterly unnecessary.

Still, I can't ignore the genuinely great, original titles that exist, like Tearaway, the Last Guardian and the intriguing Dreams. I'm so glad Sony is still giving these 'artsy' games a chance - not to mention the female hero of Horizon (but I wanna see more of the gameplay first).

So yeah, I think diversity will come naturally with original gameplay and stories - which is why you so many colourful characters on the indie scene. I remember when Jade Raymond said she wanted to make a game starring an elderly lady... I'd love to see that, but only if the game itself is creative, and not simply an obligatory vehicle for the character.

honestly im puerto rican and i have no problem with the way games are now. why does everything have to be put into the race or gender category? is it just to cause arguments or to make them look all high and mighty... one of the people in the comment said it best diversity for the sake of diversity is just dumb if your doing it cause the character design is like that then go ahead. but women cant be saying nothing about females in games cause there have been alot of them its not our fault that some of those franchises sucked... the only good ones were mirrors edge, tomb raider, and last of us... but no one talks about the other strong female roles in games. they only talk about it when it best suits them