no official CWA press release yet, but here’s the union’s:
Workers at Bethesda Game Studios have joined the Communication Workers of America, forming the first wall-to-wall union at a Microsoft video game studio. The workers, consisting of 241 developers including artists, engineers, programmers and designers have either signed a union authorization card or indicated that they wanted union representation via an online portal. Microsoft has recognized the union.
When I started working at EA 14 years ago (I got laid off last year) they literally told us we might have to sleep under our desks. I promptly told them if that was the case, I would quit. Instead they made us work 7 days a week 9-9 for months. Fun job.
I spent my first 12 years in the work force in a financial services firm that, during tax season (so four months out of the year) required 14 hour days, so I understand that grind a little bit.
Awful stuff.
It’s great seeing unions getting stronger. I just wish it didn’t have to happen out of necessity due to lackadaisical and careless governance.
Unionizing wouldn’t normally really give workers more control over the product, it’s about worker benefits, and management levels who direct product are usually excluded from participating in a union.
(Not that writing better code will help if ES6 is still running on Morrowind’s relabeled gamebryo engine like everything they’ve released since Morrowind, of course, but one can hope…)
What you don’t want to go to “X”? I can’t imagine why. lol /s same though. Also I refuse to call it x. It’s fucking Twitter. It’s like that line in mean girls, “Gretchen, quit trying to make fetch happen, it’s not going to happen!” Lol
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@alyaza Awesome. Now can their devs own the code they write off the clock? Someone who works at Bethesda told me they don’t.
Hell yeah!!!
Good.
Kick management in the dick.
When I started working at EA 14 years ago (I got laid off last year) they literally told us we might have to sleep under our desks. I promptly told them if that was the case, I would quit. Instead they made us work 7 days a week 9-9 for months. Fun job.
Christ, that’s awful.
I spent my first 12 years in the work force in a financial services firm that, during tax season (so four months out of the year) required 14 hour days, so I understand that grind a little bit.
Awful stuff.
It’s great seeing unions getting stronger. I just wish it didn’t have to happen out of necessity due to lackadaisical and careless governance.
!!! Yay for them! This is great to hear.
Wow such great news. I hope we will see more of that to change that industry a little.
I wonder if this will translate to higher quality games now that the people that actually make them have more control over their product?
For that, you actually will need realistic goals and more competent managers. Lol
Unionizing wouldn’t normally really give workers more control over the product, it’s about worker benefits, and management levels who direct product are usually excluded from participating in a union.
Happier coders probably write better code, though.
(Not that writing better code will help if ES6 is still running on Morrowind’s relabeled gamebryo engine like everything they’ve released since Morrowind, of course, but one can hope…)
Crunch is a common practice, even though data shows it to lower total productivity. (See, for example: https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/crunchmode/econ-crunch-mode.html )
So, it might lead to a rise in productivity, at least.
I think Bethesda doesn’t crunch anymore.
https://www.pcgamer.com/xbox-game-studios-boss-says-theres-no-more-crunching-at-bethesda/
The closing parenthesis got caught into the link (at least with my client), turning it into a 404. You should add a space
Ah, thanks, I missed that.
Yay!!!
I can’t get myself to click a twitter link, so in case others feel the same, here’s an alternate piece that basically says the same thing (I can’t yet find an article with detailed info): https://www.ign.com/articles/bethesda-game-studios-microsoft-game-studios
What you don’t want to go to “X”? I can’t imagine why. lol /s same though. Also I refuse to call it x. It’s fucking Twitter. It’s like that line in mean girls, “Gretchen, quit trying to make fetch happen, it’s not going to happen!” Lol
For twitter links try libredirect, it automatically sends you to a nitter instance
nitter no longer works, it ceased development and thus will no longer work, best to turn it off in libredirect.
nitter.poast.org works for now
Yes but I’d rather not touch a fascist site (poast to be clear).
Damn good news. The video game industry is so predatory, they need unions just to try to have normal office schedules and stuff.
The upper management needed the wake up call
@alyaza
FUCKING BASED
Bethesda has needed a lot more humanity for a long time.
Too bad it happened only after the competent staff was gone.
This is great news. More please.
Woohoo!! This awesome! As a game dev, I can speak to how awful the industry can be. That’s really great news that they unionized. 🙌
The rest of us computer engineers should show solidarity by also unionizing. We’re stronger together
Fantastic news for the devs!