372
submitted 2 years ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/gaming@beehaw.org

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.

and here's their Twitter account

top 31 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 72 points 2 years ago

Damn good news. The video game industry is so predatory, they need unions just to try to have normal office schedules and stuff.

[-] k_rol@lemmy.ca 49 points 2 years ago

Wow such great news. I hope we will see more of that to change that industry a little.

[-] memfree@beehaw.org 44 points 2 years ago

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

[-] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 years ago

For twitter links try libredirect, it automatically sends you to a nitter instance

[-] SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

nitter no longer works, it ceased development and thus will no longer work, best to turn it off in libredirect.

[-] Cupcake1972@mander.xyz 2 points 2 years ago

nitter.poast.org works for now

[-] SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Yes but I'd rather not touch a fascist site (poast to be clear).

[-] azerial@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 years ago

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

[-] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 38 points 2 years ago

Good.

Kick management in the dick.

[-] azerial@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 years ago

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.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 5 points 2 years ago

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.

[-] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 27 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I wonder if this will translate to higher quality games now that the people that actually make them have more control over their product?

[-] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 17 points 2 years ago

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.

[-] leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 8 points 2 years ago

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...)

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

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.

[-] pcouy@lemmy.pierre-couy.fr 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

The closing parenthesis got caught into the link (at least with my client), turning it into a 404. You should add a space

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

Ah, thanks, I missed that.

[-] azerial@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 years ago

For that, you actually will need realistic goals and more competent managers. Lol

[-] GammaGames@beehaw.org 19 points 2 years ago

Hell yeah!!!

[-] Beaver@lemmy.ca 16 points 2 years ago

The upper management needed the wake up call

[-] azerial@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 years ago

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. ๐Ÿ™Œ

[-] Cube6392@beehaw.org 8 points 2 years ago

The rest of us computer engineers should show solidarity by also unionizing. We're stronger together

[-] PotentiallyApricots@beehaw.org 9 points 2 years ago

!!!! Yay for them! This is great to hear.

[-] abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 2 years ago

FUCKING BASED

[-] Junkernaught@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 years ago

This is great news. More please.

[-] Kwakigra@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago

Bethesda has needed a lot more humanity for a long time.

[-] Comment105@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago

Too bad it happened only after the competent staff was gone.

[-] ag_roberston_author@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago

Fantastic news for the devs!

[-] KelvinShadewing@mastodon.social 1 points 2 years ago

@alyaza Awesome. Now can their devs own the code they write off the clock? Someone who works at Bethesda told me they don't.

[-] ma10gan@mastodon.social 1 points 2 years ago
this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
372 points (100.0% liked)

Gaming

34164 readers
15 users here now

From video gaming to card games and stuff in between, if it's gaming you can probably discuss it here!

Please Note: Gaming memes are permitted to be posted on Meme Mondays, but will otherwise be removed in an effort to allow other discussions to take place.

See also Gaming's sister community Tabletop Gaming.


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS