If you haven't heard, Green Ronin recently announced a Talent Search for a female author to pen the The Lost Citadel dark fantasy roleplaying game.

In the article, it is clearly mentioned;

Quote from: Talent Search Article"Not to worry, fellas, we have some other opportunities for you coming up later in the year, as well, but this talent search is just for the ladies."

However, the outcry was swift, vitriolic and loud.

The thread on the news article on ENWorld was closed.

The RPG.net thread started snarky but cooled out and is till open.

There are a couple threads on Reddit as well.

So, now on to some real discussion in a place known for it's civil discourse. :-D

My opinion:

First, I applaud the cause. There is a decidedly horrible shortage of female game designers followed only by the slightly-less-but-still-horrible shortage of female tabletop roleplayers. It's getting better. I've seen more women sitting at tables in the cons up here in the great wet north, but improvements are always welcome.

Second, it's a Talent Search/Contest, not an offer for full time employment. It will result in a contract for freelancing as I read it. So all the hilarious claims of law-breaking discrimination or law-breaking in general seem desperate and childish.

Third, With the lowest possible barrier to self-publishing that has ever existed in the history of the industry (hobby), why does it fucking matter? Did you believe you're so awesome that GR was going to just hire you - penis unseen - for a quickie freelancer contract on a project because #meritocracy? I'm astonished. Seriously. Kevin Crawford has posted How To Publish Shit Yourselves You Fucking Whiny Near-Do-Wells on so many forums so many times how in the FUCK SAUCE did you miss it? Just search the GOOGLES. Dudes. Seriously. It's been 7 fucking days! You could have had your first book on OBS by now!

However, this does bring up some interesting debate AND also perhaps some suggestions on how the industry (hobby) might do better at recruiting, or developing, or encouraging female designers/authors/creators to get more involved? Also, perhaps we could research and post some links to both works and bios of current female authors?

Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you - theRPGsite.

I interviewed the crew making Talislanta: Savage Lands (transcript coming soon!) - and Desi Conrad was one of the writers and is also an artist with Khepera Publishing.

Quote from: trechriron;956550If you haven't heard, Green Ronin recently announced a Talent Search for a female author to pen the The Lost Citadel dark fantasy roleplaying game.

Yeah, the last thread on this here was just closed.

QuoteThere is a decidedly horrible shortage of female game designers followed only by the slightly-less-but-still-horrible shortage of female tabletop roleplayers. It's getting better. I've seen more women sitting at tables in the cons up here in the great wet north, but improvements are always welcome...

...However, this does bring up some interesting debate AND also perhaps some suggestions on how the industry (hobby) might do better at recruiting, or developing, or encouraging female designers/authors/creators to get more involved?

Well, we could start with ditching the revisionist history that women roleplayers and game designers are some unusual and rare occurrence that is only now "getting better."

True, there are important women designers almost immediately making RPGs and sometimes the way people talk erases them and their contribution.

Quote from: Voros;956555True, there are important women designers almost immediately making RPGs and sometimes the way people talk erases them and their contribution.

That's right, it's all about erasure! Speaking of which... let's listen to their wisdom why "It Doesn't Have to Be" like that:

[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AwsT4HuALcM[/youtube]

I don't know where this idea that you can discriminate in hiring for contractors is coming from. Go ahead, post "Hiring Straight White Men Only, Temp Work" and see how long until the gov't lights up your ass.

And if the gov't doesn't, your customers sure will.

Nobody should be posting discriminatory hiring whatsoever (except for the bona fide exceptions). No "girls jobs" and "boys jobs". No white jobs, black jobs, gay jobs, straight jobs. Just post the damn job and invite everyone to apply.

Wasn't THAT the liberal dream of equality?

I know this is nigh-impossible to understand, but the word "everyone" even includes women!

Also, this idea that the junk in your shorts somehow determines the quality of your writing is absurd. Its 1950s stupidity reversed for 2017's morons. Good writing doesn't drip off dicks or squirt from pussies. Dracula and Frankenstein or LotR and Harry Potter don't get better if you switch the authors' junk.

And you want to hire more women? Great, you gotta pay more. Because in 2017, if a woman can find her ass with both hands, she has plenty of fumbling panderers looking to virtue signal to their customer base.

That application is illegal.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that no one will be denied employment by sex, race, religion or creed.  What they are advertising is a U.S. Federal crime.  End of discussion.

I can't speak whether it's legal under US law in their location, either:).

But to me, what Green Ronin is the right thing given their stated objective of getting more women writers in the hobby to correct what they perceive -
 rightly or wrongly, I'm not going to comment - as a gender disparity in the industry. Besides, it gives them a more diverse pool of writers, which is good for a game company with diverse customers. (Maybe some people wouldn't believe it's important for a game company, but what you think is largely unimportant - you're not running their company;)).

Why do I think it's the right thing? Because they are doing it by hiring more women. That's called "putting your money where your mouth is".
Also, they aren't trying to get a man fired or censor his work. It's not a policy of not hiring men, it's doing what they believe is good for the hobby and for their company in particular.
For all we know, they might even be misguided regarding what is good for the hobby, but they're pursuing their stated goals, and doing so in a non-confrontational manner. I think more companies should follow that example:D!

Now, maybe they shouldn't have advertised it as a job "for women and transgender writers". But that's part of the legality of the situation, and I don't want to even touch that part, because as was proven to me as far back as this week, sometimes* it's a wholly different subject from doing what you consider right.

*I'm just going to state that it wasn't a matter of criminal law.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;956575That application is illegal.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that no one will be denied employment by sex, race, religion or creed.  What they are advertising is a U.S. Federal crime.  End of discussion.

Not quite the end of discussion. From your link:

Quote(b) The term "employer" means a person engaged in an industry affecting commerce who has fifteen or more employees for each working day in each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year

I'd be very surprised if Green Ronin fit that definition.

Quote from: AsenRG;956580I can't speak whether it's legal under US law in their location, either:).

They operate out of Seattle, Washington, and it's a FEDERAL crime, it's illegal anywhere, in any state.  That application request is breaking the law.

They can talent search in as shallow a pool as they like. After all is said and done they are still shitting on their customers by restricting potential writers to a specific pool. Instead of the best game that they could possibly produce, customers will be getting the best game that they could produce written by a woman. Why does a company who supposedly champions women insult them by effectively saying that they cannot compete with men on a level playing field?

I am not upset or outraged, just confused as to the purpose of this and the message that GR intends this to convey.

Having considered it, I think my response is threefold:

1. I am in favour of this being done.
2. I am against any and all self-congratulatory rhetoric about how awesome they are for doing it and how much everyone else sucks for not doing it.
3. Conversely, I am also against any and all vitriolic rhetoric about how horrible they are for doing it. Especially since 2 and 3 tend to form a mutual feedback loop and end up giving me a headache.

Come to think of it, that's pretty much my stance on pretty much all progressive initiatives I hear about...

Quote from: Voros;956555True, there are important women designers almost immediately making RPGs and sometimes the way people talk erases them and their contribution.

Is there a list of them? I'm curious because I honestly can't think of an early RPG written by a woman. Some modules (the first module was done by a husband and wife team), but not an RPG.

Quote from: Baeraad;956596Having considered it, I think my response is threefold:

1. I am in favour of this being done.
2. I am against any and all self-congratulatory rhetoric about how awesome they are for doing it and how much everyone else sucks for not doing it.
3. Conversely, I am also against any and all vitriolic rhetoric about how horrible they are for doing it. Especially since 2 and 3 tend to form a mutual feedback loop and end up giving me a headache.

I'm ofa very similar disposition, although slightly more to the apathetic side.

Quote from: trechriron;956550My opinion:

*snip*

That might all be well and good, but the exact same arguments can be made for the female whining etc. . So yeah, i agree with those who think stuff like that is unnecessary. If women want to get into gaming and/or game-writing, they very much can. And they don't need help (that often feels patronizing, btw).

That something like this gets lots of...heat...is not surprising. Because nowadays, especially in the US of A, minorities start to discriminate majorities just because they whine/cry louder than anyone else. I think there is a place for reasonable discussion about that problem, but the discourse i have seen online is often just fucking ridiculous and most often lead by some extremists who totally lost sight of any sane variant of "equal rights".