3 ms·

This sounds like like one of the few problems that can really be solved by unionizing workers and moving to long term work contracts... but good luck selling th

by nnq 12y ago

This sounds like like one of the few problems that can really be solved by unionizing workers and moving to long term work contracts... but good luck selling this "socialist" mentality to game developers :)

forrestthewoods 12y ago
lol. Game studios shut down left and right. Almost every game studio in existence lives project to project. Most live paycheck to paycheck. You can unionize all you want but when there's no money there's no money. This isn't a tale of fat cats getting rich at the expense of the little man. It's a brutal industry where most games don't ship and most games that do ship still lose money. All of us who work in the industry are mildly insane to do so.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - true_religion 12y ago
    > There are other businesses where projects are high risk and still jobs work more or less normally. I'm honestly curious. What businesses are these and what industry do they work in?
- nnq 12y ago
  so then the problem is more in a pathological game-dev-studio to publisher relationships? or are most studios too small to have a bunch of running projects at the same time? ...because the industry as a whole, on average, surely makes enough money to actually keep people employed even for the short periods when they aren't needed. What the OP describes is simply exploitation. The only alternative conclusion to draw would be that the game dev industry attracts more talented programmers than it can support, but this sounds like a dubious claim. I doubt talented programmers are so attracted to game dev to actually saturate the sector with cheap and high quality labor...
iwwr 12y ago
That's more likely to just drive away publishers to friendlier jurisdictions. There's also the issue of voluntary vs. mandatory unions.
- nnq 12y ago
  Do voluntary unions ever work? "Forcing people help themselves" sounds bad, but considering human nature, I don't think anything else works...

by nnq 12y ago

forrestthewoods 12y ago

lol. Game studios shut down left and right. Almost every game studio in existence lives project to project. Most live paycheck to paycheck. You can unionize all you want but when there's no money there's no money. This isn't a tale of fat cats getting rich at the expense of the little man. It's a brutal industry where most games don't ship and most games that do ship still lose money. All of us who work in the industry are mildly insane to do so.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- true_religion 12y ago
  > There are other businesses where projects are high risk and still jobs work more or less normally. I'm honestly curious. What businesses are these and what industry do they work in?
nnq 12y ago
so then the problem is more in a pathological game-dev-studio to publisher relationships? or are most studios too small to have a bunch of running projects at the same time? ...because the industry as a whole, on average, surely makes enough money to actually keep people employed even for the short periods when they aren't needed. What the OP describes is simply exploitation. The only alternative conclusion to draw would be that the game dev industry attracts more talented programmers than it can support, but this sounds like a dubious claim. I doubt talented programmers are so attracted to game dev to actually saturate the sector with cheap and high quality labor...

iwwr 12y ago

That's more likely to just drive away publishers to friendlier jurisdictions. There's also the issue of voluntary vs. mandatory unions.

nnq 12y ago
Do voluntary unions ever work? "Forcing people help themselves" sounds bad, but considering human nature, I don't think anything else works...