What should the IGDA be? | This Week in Business
Brendan Sinclair
Managing Editor
Friday 11th February 2022
This Week in Business is our weekly recap column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Check back every Friday for a new entry.
Earlier this week, GamesIndustry ran an investigative piece by Marie Dealessandri covering the International Game Developers Association and its failure to live up to its own standards when presented with harassment complaints and conduct violations of people within the organization.
Let's start with one of the quotes from the original article.
QUOTE | "I don't think they don't care, I just feel like there is definitely that thing of keeping a very positive outlook, even in how they word their emails. Everything's very positive, there's nothing negative. So when you bring up things that are negative, they're always addressed in a positive way. Sickeningly positive." - A person who spoke to us as we looked into the IGDA's handling of these complaints.
This sentiment was echoed by a number of others on social media, including some with first-hand experience within the IGDA.
QUOTE | "The older I get, the more I find that the IGDA is a nice way to have pats on the back and act like a problem is being solved on the surface, but if you dig even slightly deeper, it's just 'not our problem.' The problem is, you can only say 'not my problem' so many times." - Former IGDA Lafayette chapter chair and Raconteur Games dev Nick Laborde in a Twitter thread.
Laborde likewise emphasized that there are well-meaning people in the organization trying to make a positive impact, that the IGDA could serve its purpose and actually help developers,
Read more on gamesindustry.biz
