Did you know that games companies are exploiting their workers by forcing them to work insane hours that last weeks on end with no overtime pay and laying most of them off once the game is released?
Bump, thank you for the giveaways and the thread. It's a very important topic and as the consumers we do need to be aware of these things. It's a pity that Minaj is not the best vehicle but I guess we take what we can get.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah, you're welcome! Guess not enough celebrity/talk show host cares about the topic to get their research team on it and dedicate an entire episode to it... or maybe they didn't know about this as well? Either way, I only found out about this because YouTube recommended his video so I guess I should thank YT's algorithm for this.
Comment has been collapsed.
I thought this was common knowledge. Hasan M. didn't say anything I haven't heard before and didn't mention many other things that are probably just as important. I think if people watched any youtubers like TB, Sidalpha, jim sterling or even youngyeah, the quartering, Bigfry people covering games on there, they'd already know all of this. There are dozens of people who covered these things.
Comment has been collapsed.
one thing I should mention by the way as you mentioned CD project in one of your questions, they are guilty of perpetual crunch and not treating employees as people too. There were stories about them in the past and those get phased out by Cyberpunk 2077 these days, so people forget. Also, many youtubers like Youngyeah just drool over them and give everyone the impression they are the gold standard; they're just not as bad as EA, that's all. There's mold growing on bread that is not as bad as EA, it's not an accomplishment.
Comment has been collapsed.
Yeah, I suspect they might be involved in the practice as well. I'm not excusing them from any wrongdoing but since the video didn't publicly list them out and I needed to create a question about that part of the video, I ended up putting the company name in as one of the choices. That's actually why I structured my question the way that I did.
Comment has been collapsed.
Sorry for the double reply - I suddenly recalled a headline I've skimmed a few months ago, googled it, and I've decided to change the answer in the quiz.
https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/21/nintendo-comments-on-crunch-and-game-delays-a-e3-2019
Comment has been collapsed.
I think I remember that from E3 or something, yeah
Comment has been collapsed.
Maybe that's why over 100 people in the poll said that they've heard of this issue before - through some YouTubers. By the way, if you'd like to share some of the videos these YouTubers have made about the topic, feel free to post the links here and I'll put them up in the OP.
Comment has been collapsed.
there are not many vids that cover everything at once, you'd have to link many tens of videos
Comment has been collapsed.
Really appreciate you continuing to bring attention to the issue.
Hopefully with eyes on the practice being those of gamers and not just the employees, something might actually change for good this time.
Thank you!
Comment has been collapsed.
It's really the least I could do to try to help. Gamers should really know how their games are being made and if enough people care about it, maybe... just maybe we could really get this ball rolling.
Comment has been collapsed.
Stuck in 7, I'm about to learn the video by memory lol
Comment has been collapsed.
I can give you some hints, but I'll need to know what answer/s you've tried. Mind adding me on Steam?
Edit: Sorry, you've reached out already. Didn't realized it since your username is different on Steam :P Please ignore this message
Comment has been collapsed.
I don't always do SG puzzles, but when I do they are unique. :)
Although I think the root cause of game labor issues is mostly its giant supply of potential game devs compared to a relatively limited number of game dev jobs and I don't think a union in the US will resolve that root cause...
I am all for Video Games Unite and their founder/organizer because they currently resemble grass roots collective bargaining group rather than a traditional US union that has stigmas such as significant overhead associated with them. I think it is a good start to rallying workers for their best interests instead of corporate interests.
Regarding Question 1:
When the video played a short gameplay clip of Red Dead Redemption 2, what is the band mentioned in the Top News section?
That video clip was primarily regarding Red Dead Redemption 2 opening weekend revenue, and only showed one second of gameplay before the video switched to a different news clip. So I had to re-watch the beginning to catch that.
Comment has been collapsed.
Oh I'm assuming people would read the questions to the quiz first and then watch the video. If you do it in that order, I think it might be a bit easier to catch that clip?
Thanks for the feedback though! I'll keep this in mind for future quizzes.
Although I think the root cause of game labor issues is mostly its giant supply of potential game devs compared to a relatively limited number of game dev jobs and I don't think a union in the US will resolve that root cause...
Maybe if the union could force game companies to, for example, pay a lot of compensation for game workers they've hired and then "dumped" after a game comes out, maybe that would provide game workers with a bit more job security, and if not, at least the workers would be able to land on their feet so to speak, considering the higher compensation they would get. Note that companies often don't let their new hires know upfront that they are basically "temp" or "project-based" workers when they pull a "hire and fire" on the new workers.
Honestly, we can't do much about the "giant supply of potential game devs relative to the game dev jobs" part but we can try to at last make the companies more accountable when they are hiring game workers to work on a game.
Comment has been collapsed.
Maybe if the union could force game companies to, for example, pay a lot of compensation for game workers they've hired
That could offset the fact that whether game workers are contractors or not, they can be let go at anytime with no reason in the US because almost all states have "at will" employment.
I think a union's collective/barganing power would be greatest when strike conditions arise AND the company would be hugely impacted if they just hire & fire. If a union doesn't do this en masse, you can wind up with a Telltale situation where slowly people were leaving and short term issues arent visible, only long term ones. For example: The lead writers for TWD left after the first season or two, started Campo Santo of Firewatch fame, and then were aquired by Valve. This slow trickle of people leaving the company was believed to have led to Telltale's financial demise.
Comment has been collapsed.
Interesting video and shocking statistics, really. I hope they manage to unionize the industry and as a gamer, if that means we have to wait for games longer, or for "new features", hell, who can we email to say we don't care?
Thanks for raising awareness about the issues.
Comment has been collapsed.
You're welcome! And you're right - Nintendo is on the right path when it comes to that :) Hopefully other companies would follow suit: https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/21/nintendo-comments-on-crunch-and-game-delays-a-e3-2019
Comment has been collapsed.
Bumping because there are 2 more days on the clock!
Comment has been collapsed.
For some strange reason, I haven't heard of labor problem here in Japan where gaming industry is well-known and booming. I'm sure it uses disposal workers at the lower end of game development but it's not only happening in gaming industry but also in other major industries. As for female position, yes it has far less females than males in the industry, but I see some new companies hire more women than ever and release games especially aimed for female players. And I saw in the article plenty of female workers in graphics team for FFXV. The long overwork is problematic in most of the industries in Japan...
Thanks for heads up, Aethyna. I looked through some articles after watching your entire video. The conclusion might be worse, well, to think that the problem is not limited to gaming industry in my hometown.
Comment has been collapsed.
You're welcome! I'm not really sure how bad it actually is because I think most game workers are forced to sign NDAs which prohibit them from speaking out - Though, I should say that this seems to be changing a little and we're seeing some people like Emily Buck speaking out, but I do hope that we could at least try to do something to help curb this issue before it gets even worse.
I've also heard about the overwork culture in Japan. Unfortunately, I can't say that I know much about it except the sort of info you'll glean from skimming headlines.
Comment has been collapsed.
Note that this is not so much of a puzzle but a quiz... that's right folks! For those of you who aren't at school anymore, guess what? Here's a pop quiz and it makes up 100% of your final score for the semester!
Here's the ItsTooHard link: http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/tdopP1e0
For your efforts, I've included a variety of bundled and unbundled games into the train (level 1+). Good luck!
Edit: Forgot to mention, the train will be open for 2 weeks.
On a more serious note, I wanted to do something to help raise awareness about the issue while it's still fresh in my mind (I'm quite forgetful despite my age) and what better way to get people's attention on SG than with a giveaway train? Reaching level 7 is just a nice bonus :)
What can YOU do to help?
Help spread the word to every gamer (or even non-gamer) you know. If you know friends or family who currently works within the gaming industry, that's even better! Gamers are generally really passionate about the games they play, and hopefully, they would extend that care and passion to the people behind the scenes whose gaming passions are being exploited.
If you're a game worker, you might be interested to join an available union (select countries/regions only) or join the GWU chapter that's pushing to establish one in your region.
Note that you can't donate to the organization yet but I think they are working on securing a non-profit status so they could open up an organization bank account.
More resources:
Extra read: 'I'd Have These Extremely Graphic Dreams': What It's Like To Work On Ultra-Violent Games Like Mortal Kombat 11
To end this thread, I'll leave you with a quote:
Let's change this!
-Inspired by the quiz created by Lars to help promote Taylor Swift's latest album
Not sure if I even need this but Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with GWU or any of the resources I've linked in this thread/in the quiz.
Comment has been collapsed.