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[Amused]

It's unfortunate, but honestly nothing to do with GA. Blame the game publications/websites.

That depends on how you see it. To me it started having something to do with the GA the moment it became clear that what we are getting are winners of the white males games of the year, and not games of the year. In that respect it became the GAs problem today.

They are not the root of the problem, but that does not mean they shouldn't do what they can to secure legitimacy for their show. And as far as that is concerned, blaming the websites is not really going to help.

This being an industry wide problem I totally agree with by the way.

 

[viveks86]

If you want to get semantic then you need to acknowledge that the word "jury" has multiple semantic indications.

Also when you are talking about something like a social equality, it's sort of quantum locked. Every individual instance can be dismissed as a non-issue when viewed in isolation. It's funny that way.

You have to point out multiple instances and show a pattern. This is one instance. There are plenty of ways that you can try to dismiss it, many of which are already on display in this thread, but that doesn't make it a non-issue.

Well said

 

[Xander Crews]

I wonder what the gender makeup of Neogaf members is? If the ratio is male skewed, maybe they should stop approving all male signups until there are an equal number of women. Make all races even as well.

I don't agree with this. Just making a point.

 

[stufte]

The thing that surprised me is them having Breitbart on the eSports advisory board.

Next year Enquirer?

They didn't have Breitbart, they have a professional eSports journalist of 10 years who happens to work for Brietbart.

 

[MadScientist]

Maybe the reason for the low percentage of women in gaming is that women generally are not as interested in gaming as a major hobby compared to men? Is that really that unlikely?

It might not explain all, but I believe it is a greater cause for the gender gap than prejudices or condescending behavior.

 

[Amused]

Just making a point.

Not a very good one, in case you were wondering.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

I wonder what the gender makeup of Neogaf members is? If the ratio is male skewed, maybe they should stop approving all male signups until there are an equal number of women. Make all races even as well.

I don't agree with this. Just making a point.

A false equivalence isn't a point

Although it is pretty obvious from this thread that Gaf skews heavily male

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

I wonder what the gender makeup of Neogaf members is? If the ratio is male skewed, maybe they should stop approving all male signups until there are an equal number of women. Make all races even as well.

I don't agree with this. Just making a point.

I didn't know Neogaf members were being approved on the merit of their qualifications so far.

 

[Hyoukokun]

Here are the gender breakdowns for each site (at least of those I can find)

AusGamers - 12 men/1 woman
Electric Playground - 6 men/2 women
Game Informer - 16 men/1 woman
Gamespot - 29 men/10 women
Gamesradar - 15 men/6 women
GiantBomb - 9 men/0 women
IGN - 62 men/9 women
PC Gamer - 13 men/0 women
Polygon - 17 men/5 women
US Gamer - 6 men/1 woman

Adding to this - RockPaperShotgun appears to have 4 men / 2 women on staff. They have an additional 7 women contributors (and 24 male contributors) on a freelance basis. Better than the average here, but still nowhere near a 50-50 balance.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

They didn't have Breitbart, they have a professional eSports journalist of 10 years who happens to work for Brietbart.

That's still a Breitbart affiliation.

 

[Deleted member 126221]

I wonder what the gender makeup of Neogaf members is? If the ratio is male skewed, maybe they should stop approving all male signups until there are an equal number of women. Make all races even as well.

I don't agree with this. Just making a point.

What point were you making?

 

[brau]

Adding to this - RockPaperShotgun appears to have 4 men / 2 women on staff. They have an additional 7 women contributors (and 24 male contributors) on a freelance basis. Better than the average here, but still nowhere near a 50-50 balance.

RPS is awesome. My to go site for news and impressions for sure.

 

[gabagool]

People love finding things to complain about.

 

[Lime]

Geoff & co. need to realize that he has the power to do something about this issue by highlighting it. Otherwise he just becomes an apathetic pawn that reproduces the marginalizing states over and over again. There are so many interesting people and sites out there who are not necessarily the default hegemonic identity and all people in this system needs to do something about it. This is the second year!

 

[viveks86]

I wonder what the gender makeup of Neogaf members is? If the ratio is male skewed, maybe they should stop approving all male signups until there are an equal number of women. Make all races even as well.

I don't agree with this. Just making a point.

And what point is that?

Edit: Beaten. Lol

 

[Deleted member 126221]

People love finding things to complain about.

Yeah, people throwing a fit every time inequalities are pointed out is pretty embarrassing.

 

[D i Z]

I wonder what the gender makeup of Neogaf members is? If the ratio is male skewed, maybe they should stop approving all male signups until there are an equal number of women. Make all races even as well.

I don't agree with this. Just making a point.

This doesn't make any sense.

 

[Brakke]

People love finding things to complain about.

Did you love making this complaint?

 

[PBY]

People love finding things to complain about.

You're right, social injustices and systemic gender bias, nothing to see here.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

I wonder what the gender makeup of Neogaf members is? If the ratio is male skewed, maybe they should stop approving all male signups until there are an equal number of women. Make all races even as well.

I don't agree with this. Just making a point.

You tried so hard too. I bet you were super proud when you hit that "post" button and everything.

 

[QuantumBro]

That's cold, brah ;_;

https://twitter.com/NickCapozzoli/status/535505033899806722

That's awesome you brought it up last year when it happened, but if all you have is a tweet, then it wasn't very talked about. Look at this year, we have an eight page GAF thread and several articles on the subject within a week of the jury getting announced. The issue is getting noticed this year and people are not happy about it.

But, if people want this to change next year, they need to remember to bring it up in August/September when preparations are underway for the 2016 awards.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

I wonder what the gender makeup of Neogaf members is? If the ratio is male skewed, maybe they should stop approving all male signups until there are an equal number of women. Make all races even as well.

I don't agree with this. Just making a point.

What point is that?

 

[BlastProcessing]

I wonder what the gender makeup of Neogaf members is? If the ratio is male skewed, maybe they should stop approving all male signups until there are an equal number of women. Make all races even as well.

I don't agree with this. Just making a point.

If you want to make a point, make it. Clearly.

They didn't have Breitbart, they have a professional eSports journalist of 10 years who happens to work for Brietbart.

Do they also just have a professional games journalist of 20 years who just happens to work at Giant Bomb?

Even the Game Awards themselves highlights the publications of their judges to garner credibility. If the Game Awards themselves think that it matters, we can as well.

People love finding things to complain about.

People also love finding ways to make themselves feel above it all.

 

[massoluk]

I wonder what the gender makeup of Neogaf members is? If the ratio is male skewed, maybe they should stop approving all male signups until there are an equal number of women. Make all races even as well.

I don't agree with this. Just making a point.

I'll be totally ok if there are more girls on NeoGAF, fyi.

 

[aeolist]

They didn't have Breitbart, they have a professional eSports journalist of 10 years who happens to work for Brietbart.

association with breitbart as an organization should immediately cast doubt on someone's journalistic credentials. it's basically the same level as working for the national enquirer.

 

[ExVicis]

I wonder what the gender makeup of Neogaf members is? If the ratio is male skewed, maybe they should stop approving all male signups until there are an equal number of women. Make all races even as well.

I don't agree with this. Just making a point.

The point is these kind of comparisons don't work right?

 

[Xander Crews]

You tried so hard too. I bet you were super proud when you hit that "post" button and everything.

Ha, honestly asking with no hostility here. Neogaf is the biggest video game forum on the planet. Is there not a duty for it to be evenly represented? If we are heavily skewed, could it be said that people applying for jobs at game journalism sites will also be heavily male skewed (and therefor more men on the GA jury)? We are asking them to reach out and find more women, yet we we are presumably mostly male.

 

[Syriel]

Probably freelance.

It's kind of crazy, the women with the most powerful voices and the most pointed views towards video games are all freelance. It's actually incredibly difficult to come up with a short list of people who work in games journalism full time, on payroll, in an editorial fashion. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there's ever, in the history of modern video games, been a female EIC in games journo.

You are wrong.

 

[Silent Chief]

That depends on how you see it. To me it started having something to do with the GA the moment it became clear that what we are getting are winners of the white males games of the year, and not games of the year. In that respect it became the GAs problem today.

Aren't most of the reviews on metacritics coming from white men?

When's the black females games winners announced?

 

[Ashadur]

It needs to be diverse in my opinion. More women judges and judges from other ethnicities. It would help bring different views, even if they're not that qualified.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Sometimes I just wonder about people. Do they have sisters? Mothers? Daughters? Girl friends? Wives? Do they just not interact with women at all? Like how does the "best qualified" argument ever even reach your head?

 

[RobNBanks]

I agree with this wholeheartedly, The "diversity for the sake of diversity" business never sat well with me.

Why is it that anytime it's not a white male it's "diversity for the sake of diversity"

It's this way for everything. When people asked for minority main characters in games, it was met with that statement. Want more female jurors? Met with that statement. Company hires a black guy over a white guy? There's that statement again.

So either

A) White males are normal. everything else is being different for the sake of being different
B) White males are the only ones qualified for everything.

 

[James93]

The more I look at this the worse it gets. How do these places get away with this?

62/9? 16/1?

I mean, sheesh. Even if you don't consider yourself particularly fervent about this issue, some of these numbers are frightening.

I'm surprised this hasn't become its own thread and some of these outlets made to explain themselves.

Its the state of the industry and main industry in the US. But you can't blame diversty states when the people seeking these type are jobs are usually 90+ percent male. its the same way in investments and IT.

 

[Deleted member 126221]

Ha, honestly asking with no hostility here. Neogaf is the biggest video game forum on the planet. Is there not a duty for it to be evenly represented? If we are heavily skewed, could it be said that people applying for jobs at game journalism sites will also be heavily male skewed (and therefor more men on the GA jury)? We are asking them to reach out and find more women, yet we we are presumably mostly male.

I don't see what GAF's membership has to do with the composition of the jury, but either way, as far as I know, GAF doesn't ask your gender when you sign up, so it's pretty much impossible to get accurate stats. There's also the fact that threads like this doesn't make it exactly enticing for women to sign up. I know women reading GAF for their gaming news, but the tone of the conversation every time "women" is mentioned in a thread doesn't entice them to participate...

 

[DarkConfidant]

The sad thing is, I would have expected the awards to be homogeneous, regardless of whether I had read this news or not.

However, I'm even more disappointed that the community seems to have responded.

 

[Silent Chief]

The point is these kind of comparisons don't work right?

That's not the point at all.

We're OK consuming all that game media until we put all the journalists in the same room and suddenly we have a problem?

 

[cameron]

You tried so hard too. I bet you were super proud when you hit that "post" button and everything.

lol

 

[Amused]

Aren't most of the reviews on metacritics coming from white men?

Probably, and that is a problem that the GA is not responsible for doing something about - others need to tackle that.

The composition of the GA jury on the other hand, that is something the GA should take seriously.

 

[patapuf]

association with breitbart as an organization should immediately cast doubt on someone's journalistic credentials. it's basically the same level as working for the national enquirer.

Lewis is part of the e-sports thing, not the base jury, right?

there's really no credentials to question since he has been involved in the scene as a caster ect. for CSGO, he's not some guy that just writes about that stuff.

He himself has pointed out that women were underrepresented (though he has strange views as well).

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Anyone know the number of female employees at Gametrailers and how many in general are left there, I only know of Elyse Willems.

They seem to get smaller every time I go to their site.

 

[Ikuu]

Lewis is part of the e-sports thing, not the base jury, right?

He was asked for advice for the three esports categories.

 

[Shadoken]

It's not arbitrary though. It'd be a split chosen to represent the population of gamers, which is pretty much even

I mean the population of Male/Female Mobile Software users is also probably 50/50. But how many Females apply for mobile software jobs compared to males. The Ratio of the people in the industry rather than what the consumers' ratio is different.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Ha, honestly asking with no hostility here. Neogaf is the biggest video game forum on the planet. Is there not a duty for it to be evenly represented? If we are heavily skewed, could it be said that people applying for jobs at game journalism sites will also be heavily male skewed (and therefor more men on the GA jury)? We are asking them to reach out and find more women, yet we we are presumably mostly male.

People aren't screened for qualifications when they sign up for memberships to message boards or social media sites. It's open to everyone. That's not to say places like GAF don't have their own issues in dealing with female members and not making this place hostile for them to use.

 

[Xander Crews]

I don't see what GAF's membership has to do with the composition of the jury, but either way, as far as I know, GAF doesn't ask your gender when you sign up, so it's pretty much impossible to get accurate stats. There's also the fact that threads like this doesn't make it exactly enticing for women to sign up. I know women reading GAF for their gaming news, but the tone of the conversation every time "women" is mentioned in a thread doesn't entice them to participate...

I'd say this thread is heavily in favor of equal equality for women both in journalism and in the Game Awards. There is a lot of support within NeoGaf.

 

[MisterR]

What if not nearly as many women are interested in jobs in games journalism as men?

 

[Skux]

Forced diversity is just as bad. If they are the best critics that the media can offer then that's all that matters.

 

[James93]

Anyone know the number of female employees at Gametrailers and how many in general are left there, I only know of Elyse Willems.

They seem to get smaller every time I go to their site.

She the only one that works on content. There may be more working in other positions

 

[aeolist]

What if not nearly as many women are interested in jobs in games journalism as men?

why do you think that might be, if it is the case?

 

[Amused]

Forced diversity is just as bad. If they are the best critics that the media can offer then that's all that matters.

Best at what exactly?

 

[viveks86]

Aren't most of the reviews on metacritics coming from white men?

When's the black females games winners announced?

Love these tangential rhetorical questions that add nothing to the debate.

Metacritic isn't a governing body for reviews. They don't decide who reviews what. For TGA, Geoff does. So unlike metacritic, he can do something about it, if he chooses.