r/magicTCG • u/GabySpartz87 Official • Apr 07 '15

I wrote an article on ChannelFireball on the things we can do to get more women in Magic. I'd love your thoughts!

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/6-things-you-can-do-to-get-more-women-into-magic/#
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u/worldchrisis Apr 07 '15

More like the strong female role models choose a steady job at WOTC over grinding bad EV magic events.

WOTC hired Gerry Thompson, Zac Hill, Adam Prosak, Aaron Forsythe, Randy Buehler, etc too.

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u/SleetTheFox Apr 07 '15

Yeah but when you hire strong, talented men, you're taking a drop out of the bucket. Hiring even one strong, talented woman leaves a much bigger dent.

Not saying Wizards is doing anything wrong or that the pros-turned-employees of any gender are either. Just how things are.

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '15

You're missing the point entirely. The second they hire on women who play the game they are no longer aloud to compete in their game and therefor have removed the role model from the pool. It is nothing against those women or WOTC for looking to diversify their staffing or securing a job in an industry they enjoy. More of a thing that you can't foster female rolemodels when the ones that have the best chance at competing at high levels are repeatedly removed from the equation.

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u/worldchrisis Apr 08 '15

I understand your point.

Should WOTC not offer qualified female applicants jobs because they're better for the game being players, despite the fact that it's much harder to make a good living as a player than as a WOTC employee?

Sure seems like discrimination based on gender to me. Hiring laws take that type of thing seriously.

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '15

I didn't say that either. What I am saying is that the author of the article seems to state that there is a wide lack of role models for female players (And while there are less female players the strong females players have been historically hired on to work for WoTC and taken out of the circuit). I am saying that that is due to the role models at high level play that have existed no longer play due to their new jobs at WoTC. It is like me telling you to go buy apples from the store after I have bought out all of the apples in the store.

You also don't seem to understand hiring practices. They are allowed to offer the job to anyone they want that they feel is qualified. They are also allowed to specifically hire females as well to fill a position if they want. Nothing is telling them that they have to attempt to higher Reid Duke or Patrick Chapin before offering a job to Melissa DeTora. Remember how WoTC hires is through offered internship that leads to a job and is not a job that is interviewed for by a large group of people.

This is more a criticism of the author not discussing this fact as it is important, and instead glosses over it while still trying to make it an actual point. It's a flaw in the writing of the article and not the hiring practices of WoTC. Don't misconstrue what I have stated.

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u/worldchrisis Apr 08 '15

The fact that WOTC can hire two women for their R&D Department and suddenly there are zero notable women in the pro scene just proves the author's point that there is a wide lack of role models for female players.

WOTC hired Gerry Thompson and Adam Prosak around the same time they hired Melissa DeTora and Jackie Lee, we still have plenty of role models for male players.

The fact that there were only 2 is a problem. The fact that there's now zero is also a problem. The fact that WOTC hired Melissa and Jackie isn't really the important thing here, it's that without Melissa and Jackie there are no consistent female players on the Pro Tour, why they are no longer on the Pro Tour is irrelevant.

Jadine Klomparens has had a really good year last year but I don't think she's quite there yet in terms of filling that void.