In Situ: Researching Corporate Diversity Initiatives with Game Developers

"In Situ" presents an eight-month feminist action research pilot conducted in 2018 within a major Canadian game studio, examining diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIB) task forces aimed at women game developers. Framing DIB as a wicked problem that no single company can solve alone, the work combines rapid ethnography, interviews, environmental scans of companies such as Riot Games, Microsoft Xbox, and Intel, and iterative conceptual modeling. Its central aim is methodological as much as substantive: to demonstrate how participatory design research can yield a systemic model and actionable reports that shape real corporate initiatives.

The core findings hold that leadership and employee task force members were broadly aligned on DIB goals, and that inclusive practices are the mechanism linking diversity to belonging, since diversity alone may produce assimilation or differentiation rather than genuine inclusion. Drawing on rapid interviews with five senior leaders and twelve DIB-invested employees, the authors conclude that DIB must be treated as a complex, ongoing, systemic process. They propose the Integrated DIB Model, a strategic tool for mapping, planning, and evaluating initiatives across personal, interpersonal, team, studio, company, industry, and societal levels.

The study's Toronto-based findings suggest the studio is well positioned, with strong leadership buy-in, a bottom-up culture, and an industry reputation that attracts talent. However, the authors observe that informal efforts have reached their limits, and that more formal mechanisms, clear accountability, and trust are needed. Six high-level themes emerged, including formalizing DIB work, innovating the talent pipeline, and reframing "work hard, play hard" norms. The researchers emphasize that cultural impact is difficult to capture through numbers alone, and that while the specific themes represent a snapshot in time, the ecological model and guiding principles are designed to remain useful for ongoing work. The reference base spans organizational diversity research and game-production ethnography.