[tslug]

Yes and no. Crytek is a very unusual company with its own distinct personality. If you're a graphics engine programmer or an artist, it would not hurt your resume to work at Crytek. They make beautiful, sexy shit. If you're just about anything else, there are a lot of good reasons not to work at Crytek. They've spent a lot of time and money without having seen commensurate returns.

Joking around in sometimes very non-politically-correct territory is not at all uncommon in the game industry, but it is also not that uncommon in lots of other industries. The things people say when they think they aren't being heard are generally very different from what they say when they know they're being watched/recorded. The typical butt of jokes in just about any industry is whoever isn't in the room.

To be honest, I wouldn't worry much about racism. I'm not saying it isn't an issue with some folks, but on the whole, if the game industry is anything, it's a meritocracy. If you've got a fucking cool demo, you can open just about any door with it. Many people of profoundly different colours, nationalities, sexes (including indeterminate), behaviours, and smells have paved the way for you.

It's very unlike film, for example, where there are strict hierarchies of who you are and aren't allowed to talk to, and contacting the right people is extremely difficult without the right introduction.

Actual talent and what you do with your time is so important to the game industry that it eclipses just about everything else, including professionalism. I'd definitely get used to that. They really don't want to interview you. They want to make games. They don't want you to do tests. They want to make games. They just want to know whether you're a fucking bad-ass coder, to see whether they want you to make games with them. If you can prove this in some other way (a great demo/game w/ source), you can also drop any pretense of professionalism and tell them you're not going to do their tests or interviews. Great coders with demonstrable proof of same are in such short supply that you will still be seriously considered at most places.

[codezero]

Don't worry about racism because the game industry is a meritocracy? I don't understand the logic here, can you elaborate?

[tslug]

People make racist, nationalist, sexist, and all other kinds of off-colour jokes in the game industry, particularly when they don't think they're in earshot of the butt of their jokes (obviously with some notable exceptions), but it doesn't have much effect on whether you'll get or keep a job as a coder. If you write sweet code, you write sweet code. End of story. People will want to hire you.

[codezero]

This only enhances my point. People should be worried about racism. Great coders can work anywhere. Why work amongst casual racists?

[giovannibajo1]

Because there is a general entitlement of superiority in the game industry; on average, they feel like they are a technically superior and way more fun form of programming compared to anything other job in the IT industry

[pandaman]

Some people believe that racial jokes make one a racist as much as cannibalism jokes make one a cannibal.

[tesseractive]

Yes. And those people are racists.

[pandaman]

Sure. Everywhere I worked there had been people from all countries and continents but Antarctica, working together without any problems but they are, apparently, racists.

You know, I'd rather be with friendly "racists" who have not fired anyone over their alleged "racism" than anywhere in Tech, where one seems to have to be conforming to the party line even outside the work in order to keep the job (e.g. Adria Richards incident).

[comrh]

> but it doesn't have much effect on whether you'll get or keep a job as a coder [citation needed]

Making racist jokes devalue a person. How can you respect them as an employee if you devalue them as a person?

[tslug]

git log

[ottbot]

You know that's still pretty shitty right?

[tslug]

Yep. So is eavesdropping on people without telling them and then posting what was said to the Internet. Can't say I'd recommend either, but they both happen with surprising frequency.

[Gracana]

The OP overheard this stuff because they were waiting for the conference call issues to get worked out. They couldn't exactly not listen.

All is not lost, though! Maybe OP can go back and apologize for telling people about the racist jokes the Crytek people made at their expense. Wait, no, that's entirely ridiculous.

[tslug]

When people unknowingly do things that upset you, the considerate thing to do is to tell them first, not the whole Internet. Give them a chance to explain, apologize, amend. If they don't to your satisfaction, then by all means go wide.

[UnnamedGamedev]

A meritocracy that cares more about work quality than race or sex or people skills sounds good, but that's not what Mr. Digital interviewed at. A telephone interview is a test of PEOPLE skills, not code skills. A meritocracy that cared about work quality should have managers who can stick to the deadlines they set - not arbitrarily move them up. A meritocracy that doesn't care what race or gender you are isn't going to tell the interviewers what race or gender you are. And I'd expect a meritocracy that cared about work quality to have someone in the typical set of four senior developers who can figure out the company's pet phone software.