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Mean-spirited indeed. I don't really see what rebutting in such a venomous tone is meant to inspire in readers, besides more vitriol and less constructive discu

Mean-spirited indeed. I don't really see what rebutting in such a venomous tone is meant to inspire in readers, besides more vitriol and less constructive discussion. It's a shame that this sort of writing is broadcast with such a high profile. In defense of Ben though, I feel the original piece is pretty crass. That is, the author, Nathan, assumes so much self-importance that he feels justified in trying to incite an industry-wide strike of QA contractors. I suspect his experience, or at least his attitude towards working in QA, is pretty common among QA contractors. I seriously feel like if the average Ruby Tuesday's waiter had an outlet like Kotaku to vet his/her frustrations about unresponsive management and lack of respect, they'd say something similar. Not to completely disqualify the Nathan's feelings, there certainly may be systemic organizational and operational issues with QA and other parts of the games industry, but there's nothing outrageous about it.

stcredzero 13y ago
> That is, the author, Nathan, assumes so much self-importance that he feels justified in trying to incite an industry-wide strike of QA contractors. I see some parallels with the world of customer service call centers and the hospitality industry. The much of industry and management see the job as low skilled and the employees as disposable. If you look closer, there's actually a big difference between the crappy employees and the good ones, it's just that direct measures are difficult and there's a culture of looking down on those professions.
bashinator 13y ago
> if the average Ruby Tuesday's waiter had an outlet like Kotaku to vet his/her frustrations about unresponsive management and lack of respect, they'd say something similar. They do - it's at http://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer http://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer and honestly, I have a lot more sympathy for what most of the people telling their stories there go through.
gohrt 13y ago
Fast food servers in Seattle are on strike for higher wags right now, so, your analogy is... interesting.

stcredzero 13y ago

> That is, the author, Nathan, assumes so much self-importance that he feels justified in trying to incite an industry-wide strike of QA contractors. I see some parallels with the world of customer service call centers and the hospitality industry. The much of industry and management see the job as low skilled and the employees as disposable. If you look closer, there's actually a big difference between the crappy employees and the good ones, it's just that direct measures are difficult and there's a culture of looking down on those professions.

bashinator 13y ago

> if the average Ruby Tuesday's waiter had an outlet like Kotaku to vet his/her frustrations about unresponsive management and lack of respect, they'd say something similar. They do - it's at http://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer http://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYourServer and honestly, I have a lot more sympathy for what most of the people telling their stories there go through.

gohrt 13y ago

Fast food servers in Seattle are on strike for higher wags right now, so, your analogy is... interesting.