Let’s organise
Activision’s layoff of 800 workers hit me hard. For the nth time (remember the Telltale debacle, Rockstar’s working conditions, etc?) I realised how blessed I am to not have pursued a career in videogame development. Luckily, a couple of commentators have started writing about labour unions. As far as I know, unions are not that powerful in the gaming industry.
It strikes me as odd that gamers revere lead designers like gods, and revile EA Games like they’re ExxonMobil, but they are amazingly silent when it comes to those who actually get the dirty work done. Calls for boycotting Activision are due to things like releasing Diablo on mobile, not the fact that hundreds of people won’t be receiving paycheques while the company makes record profits. I’ve come across folks who argue that unions might actually cripple the industry, or lead to jobs being shipped offshore. Maybe I’m wrong, but I can’t help interpreting this as a lack of understanding.
I believe there’s something more inherent going on here. Videogame culture is a safe space from the struggles of real life. In turn, we tend to wilfully ignore the ugly parts where we might have to invest some emotional labour into. Call me a dreamer, but I enjoy imagining an alternative reality where game developers weren’t in constant fear of the crunch, where they could finish a 40-year career, where they didn’t find themselves scurrying for their next job over and over again. This can be our industry, by and for the players. But in order for it to be that way, we have to treat gaming culture as something more than just playtime. Robert August de Meijer
Unions may well spell disaster, but the game industry won’t know for sure until it tries, and stories like these are now frequent enough that it is probably time to try. Art is passion and passion is sacrifice, but exploitation is another matter, and this industry, like much of modern life, needs to feel more sustainable. If you’re reading this and doing something about it all, let us know how we can help.