A former female employee told Kotaku that she was asked “How big is your e-peen?” by an interviewer who was questioning her over her gaming habits. Another former Riot employee, who is passionate about tabletop games, said she was told by an interviewer that her gaming preferences meant she wouldn’t be considered a “gamer” at Riot. Another woman, who was interviewing for a position far removed from games or game development, said she felt like she wasn’t being taken seriously because, instead of playing League of Legends, she casually played World of Warcraft. A few months into her employment, she felt that her suspicions were confirmed at a 2016 global Riot conference talk by a senior producer.
“Here at Riot Games, we hire gamers,” he said in his talk to an audience of Riot employees, audio of which was obtained by Kotaku. “If you’re not a core gamer, you need to over-index in another area.” Whether it’s finance, development facilities, player support, he said, “I don’t give a shit. You’re better if you’re a gamer.” For six minutes, the producer recounted a story of his experience preparing to raid the original World of Warcraft’s Naxxramas dungeon, introduced in 2006. It was 300 hours of raiding into his game, and he detailed the effort, the passion, and the grit it took for him to attain the opportunity. And then, before the raid, his internet died, and he let down his team. The experience gave him an “acid turn” in his stomach, he said, and has become a story he’s kept in his pocket for a decade. “Think of your story,” he demands. “If you don’t have one, get one. I’m serious.”
I think it's great that obsessive stereotypical nerd behavior is now just as cool as, I dunno, obsessive sports fan behavior or obsessive amateur golfer behavior or whatever. No need for nerd interests to be "uncool" any more than dozens of other basically similar pointless (though maybe fun!) activities. Yay nerds, you won. Also that nerd in "Revenge of the Nerds" raped the cheerleader.
But trying to kill the imaginary dragon, or whatever the fuck, is just as stupid as hitting a little golf ball around or listening to 4 hours of sports talk radio daily or knowing who Paul Ryan is. Like most hobbies, obsession with them is not "cool" it's just some thing you like to do, and is probably totally and justifiably seen as dumb and weird to normies.
Also engaging in sexism and workplace discrimination over imaginary dragons is probably not the best way to level up in the game of love.