31
After layoffs, cancellations, and controversy, ZA/UM UK staff unionise as the Workers' Alliance (www.gamesindustry.biz)
submitted 5 days ago by git@hexbear.net to c/games@hexbear.net
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 18 points 5 days ago

"I guess I can offer perspective because I'm the comms manager," Ingham says. "The thing is, when people are telling us to go kill ourselves, I'm the person reading that. Or when people are saying, 'Fuck management,' I'm the person reading that. Management aren't the ones reading that. We talk about the fans valuing workers, but the abuse they're sending comes to the workers."

OK, but "Fuck management" is pretty clear even if you're the one reading it, no?

[-] purpleworm@hexbear.net 8 points 5 days ago

It's also just a shut-up line in the absence of an alternative to attack management.

[-] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Yeah, there seems to be a background of class-collaborationism here. The employees do what they have to to get on with their lives, which is only fair, but the relationship with management seems suspiciously incestuous for a newly-unionized workplace.

Obviously it's extremely bad to tell workers to kill themselves, but following that with a defence of management makes me think that some of the "kill yourself" comments may have had some missing context, like... someone they were explicitly directed at. Again, people who hurl abuse at workers online should find a better hobby.

[-] purpleworm@hexbear.net 4 points 5 days ago

The thing is, I'm okay with this comms person saying that just generically posting "kys" is bad and maybe even actually abusive to employees as they say, but they aren't giving detractors a way of attacking management, just saying that the existing ways are all wrong, which is equivalent to them posing themselves as a human shield and saying "You can't attack management, you'll just be hitting me, and I'm just a worker. You wouldn't attack a worker would you? Not a good look, sweaty."

At that point, in the absence of being able to have a conversation with them to get a better answer out of them, I think the correct answer is to say fuck it and treat them as management, because they are treating themselves as management's protective shell anyway.

[-] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 6 points 5 days ago

which is equivalent to them posing themselves as a human shield and saying "You can't attack management, you'll just be hitting me, and I'm just a worker. You wouldn't attack a worker would you? Not a good look, sweaty."

Exactly. How can a union possibly be taken seriously when this is their first public action?

[-] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 5 points 5 days ago

skill issue honestly. go forward that shit to management so they read it

[-] omegathrowaway@lemmy.ml 14 points 5 days ago

huh. They weren't an union to begin with? It's horribly ironic that a studio that made disco Elysium would end up having to fight for unionisation

[-] purpleworm@hexbear.net 10 points 5 days ago

There was a shakeup before and like half of them left, including the old project leads, so I'm not sure how it reflects on the original state.

[-] abc@hexbear.net 12 points 5 days ago

cool i guess but there will never be a DE2 and there shouldn't be. go read sacred and terrible air nerds

this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
31 points (100.0% liked)

games

21095 readers
380 users here now

Tabletop, DnD, board games, and minecraft. Also Animal Crossing.

Rules

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
MiraculousMM@hexbear.net
jack@hexbear.net
gaystyleJoker@hexbear.net
Sulvy@hexbear.net
RiotDoll@hexbear.net
thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net