this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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The games industry sucks (www.youtube.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Same title as the video. Game dev writer Alanah Pierce offers her POV on the recent layoffs from Epic Games.

This is one of the few industries that consistently and continuously posts record profits while also firing everyone who put in the work to make the success possible.

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[–] [email protected] 97 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't think you need that much insight to see that the whole institution is fucked.

  • Rampant "frat bro" culture
  • Frequent cases of sexual harrassment, and assault
  • Cases of suicide
  • Cases of burnout
  • Layoffs like clockwork
  • Often deliver rubbish products
  • Frequently employs consumer-hostile and manipulative tactics

What is even the point, really? Maybe I'm an outlier but I don't feel like the AAA gaming industry provides enough good to warrant all the crap they put their workers through, and the way the ~~sentient wallets~~ customers are treated.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The point is to make as much money as possible while paying the workers as little as is possible. Same as it ever was.

They could always pay us more, but we’re just supposed to be happy they aren’t sending the Pinkertons to shoot our women and children anymore, I guess?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

By asking "what's the point" I meant less "what's their goals" and more "what benefit do they serve?"

I'd love for some big swoop to just upend the entire industry. Create better conditions for the workers. Stop the companies from stealing from artists. Have actual consequences for nepotism, corruption, and abuse of power. Like crunch and all that BS is just expected as though it is because of the job, but it's not, it's because of the system.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I guess the “benefit” they serve is to increase the payout % for the people at the top of the ladder and their goal is to do that until the breaking point that some higher up takes the blame and they fall with a golden parachute before landing at another company exactly the same as the last one.

Rinse and repeat until you’re Summering on a yacht? Seems pretty straightforward to me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, all that you described? That's what a union does. points at WGA They did it against some of the biggest multimedia companies. The only people who are going to fix the gaming industry are the workers and that takes a union.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah I live in a country where pretty much everyone is unionised. What I described is standard here. It could be over there too.