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(Kotaku)   Microsoft is letting their workers at ZeniMax unionize, basically just leaving open their Gates   (kotaku.com) divider line
17
    More: Cool, Activision, Video game industry, Trade union, Employment, union drives, Quality assurance, Bethesda Softworks, gaming industry's recent wave  
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635 clicks; posted to Fandom » and STEM » on 07 Dec 2022 at 12:05 PM (16 weeks ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



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Concrete Donkey
2022-12-07 12:13:05 PM  
6 votes:
Wait....do we qualify as QA testers?
 
SamFlagg [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2022-12-07 2:39:18 PM  
6 votes:

zbtop: Unions are great...in certain industries.

If the work doesnt change much, but requires doing lots of the same thing, and where experience is highly correlated to productivity or efficiency, and people are likely to spend a long time doing that job, unions make sense. Dock workers, auto factory assemblers, lathe operators, grocery associates, etc, all makes sense.

The videogame industry is as volatile as it gets, how is a union supposed to manage such a dynamic and short lived base of workers? Thats the bigger issue, can they sustain and make it work longer than a couple years, especially if a couple key workers get promoted or leave and the driving unionization impetus wanes.

Like, a union is great when you know you're gonna have a job in 20 years if you stick it out. If the average turnover rate in your industry is measured in months or just a couple years however, thats a different prospect.


Isn't part of the turnover rate based on the fact that software development is a terrible murder factory of bad working conditions?

/why yes I work in IT.
 
LucklessWonder [TotalFark]
2022-12-07 2:11:20 PM  
5 votes:

zbtop: Like, a union is great when you know you're gonna have a job in 20 years if you stick it out. If the average turnover rate in your industry is measured in months or just a couple years however, thats a different prospect.


Do you think there could be a correlation between unionization and more long term stability in jobs, perchance?
 
AlphaG33k
2022-12-07 1:07:46 PM  
4 votes:

LucklessWonder: AlphaG33k: Great!

That way, you can work your way up from Tester, 3rd class, single player, Non FPS, Console, 1080p , Non-Microtransaction. to

Tester, 1st class, multiplayer, FPS, PC, 4k, Microtransaction.

But only if you meet seniority, there are openings, your dues are paid, and you have an inside track with the union steward.

Bold of you to assume that anything from ZeniMax/Bethesda gets tested before release.


Microsoft "QA" Process: It compiles! Ship It!
 
trerro [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2022-12-07 2:51:33 PM  
4 votes:

zbtop: Unions are great...in certain industries.

If the work doesnt change much, but requires doing lots of the same thing, and where experience is highly correlated to productivity or efficiency, and people are likely to spend a long time doing that job, unions make sense. Dock workers, auto factory assemblers, lathe operators, grocery associates, etc, all makes sense.

The videogame industry is as volatile as it gets, how is a union supposed to manage such a dynamic and short lived base of workers? Thats the bigger issue, can they sustain and make it work longer than a couple years, especially if a couple key workers get promoted or leave and the driving unionization impetus wanes.

Like, a union is great when you know you're gonna have a job in 20 years if you stick it out. If the average turnover rate in your industry is measured in months or just a couple years however, thats a different prospect.


QA is actually a very repetitive job - it means testing everything a player can possibly try, methodically, to figure out what breaks so devs can fix most of the problems before an actual player find them.

Unions are also one of the things that help get turnover rates down. When they have bargaining power to get wages up and hours down to sane levels, there's less burnout, and less people looking to work anywhere but there.
 
JessieL
2022-12-07 1:22:05 PM  
2 votes:
Seems awfully magnanimous of Microsoft, if you're completely ignorant of labor law and fail to understand that they have no legal ability to stop workers from unionizing.
 
grumpfuff
2022-12-07 3:06:55 PM  
2 votes:

LucklessWonder: grumpfuff: /no to mention, some bugs become fan favorites

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodBadBugs


Damn you for getting me into a TV Tropes hole for a favorite thing of mine that I did not know they have a page on.
 
lilplatinum
2022-12-07 3:43:09 PM  
2 votes:

zbtop: Unions are great...in certain industries.

If the work doesnt change much, but requires doing lots of the same thing, and where experience is highly correlated to productivity or efficiency, and people are likely to spend a long time doing that job, unions make sense. Dock workers, auto factory assemblers, lathe operators, grocery associates, etc, all makes sense.

The videogame industry is as volatile as it gets, how is a union supposed to manage such a dynamic and short lived base of workers? Thats the bigger issue, can they sustain and make it work longer than a couple years, especially if a couple key workers get promoted or leave and the driving unionization impetus wanes.

Like, a union is great when you know you're gonna have a job in 20 years if you stick it out. If the average turnover rate in your industry is measured in months or just a couple years however, thats a different prospect.


The reason it is an ephemeral job is because the standard was to just outsource it to farking temps who you can fire if they work enough to have to treat differently or if they start asking for ridiculous things like health care or days off.
 
AlphaG33k
2022-12-07 12:21:43 PM  
1 vote:
Great!

That way, you can work your way up from Tester, 3rd class, single player, Non FPS, Console, 1080p , Non-Microtransaction. to

Tester, 1st class, multiplayer, FPS, PC, 4k, Microtransaction.

But only if you meet seniority, there are openings, your dues are paid, and you have an inside track with the union steward.
 
LucklessWonder [TotalFark]
2022-12-07 12:40:27 PM  
1 vote:

AlphaG33k: Great!

That way, you can work your way up from Tester, 3rd class, single player, Non FPS, Console, 1080p , Non-Microtransaction. to

Tester, 1st class, multiplayer, FPS, PC, 4k, Microtransaction.

But only if you meet seniority, there are openings, your dues are paid, and you have an inside track with the union steward.


Bold of you to assume that anything from ZeniMax/Bethesda gets tested before release.
 
Flappyhead
2022-12-07 12:46:04 PM  
1 vote:

Concrete Donkey: Wait....do we qualify as QA testers?


According to Activision, Bethesda, Ubisoft, etc, we're freelance volunteers.
 
Lumbar Puncture
2022-12-07 1:31:07 PM  
1 vote:

JessieL: Seems awfully magnanimous of Microsoft, if you're completely ignorant of labor law and fail to understand that they have no legal ability to stop workers from unionizing.


They have no legal ability to interfere, however they also aren't technically owners of the company yet either, it's still awaiting approval for the merger. So for them to pledge to remain neutral, instruct Zenimax managers to remain neutral and to pledge to recognize the union is more than they needed to do. Of course it's not altruistic of the company at all.

I think it's great that the workers realized that they had this opportunity as well, any action by Microsoft could potentially derail their billion dollar acquisition. Best time to do this as MS is very financially motivated to look as good to regulators as humanly possible.
 
grumpfuff
2022-12-07 2:14:51 PM  
1 vote:
People who say Bliz or whoever does no QA before shipping are telling me they've never done any computer programming, or just like beating dead horses.

/ducks and runs
 
LucklessWonder [TotalFark]
2022-12-07 2:20:04 PM  
1 vote:

grumpfuff: People who say Bliz or whoever does no QA before shipping are telling me they've never done any computer programming, or just like beating dead horses.

/ducks and runs


I QA for a living and I'm aware that Blizzard do do QA, and so do Bethesda etc, but SO much of there stuff is memetically buggy on release, and fark does so love to beat a joke into the ground...
 
grumpfuff
2022-12-07 3:01:37 PM  
1 vote:

LucklessWonder: grumpfuff: People who say Bliz or whoever does no QA before shipping are telling me they've never done any computer programming, or just like beating dead horses.

/ducks and runs

I QA for a living and I'm aware that Blizzard do do QA, and so do Bethesda etc, but SO much of there stuff is memetically buggy on release, and fark does so love to beat a joke into the ground...


You should see how buggy Bethesda stuff is before they do QA.

/no to mention, some bugs become fan favorites
//Bethesda has fixed a couple bugs only to unfix them when fans complained
///that's why giants still launch you into space in Skyrim
 
The Bestest
2022-12-07 9:55:45 PM  
1 vote:

Lumbar Puncture: however they also aren't technically owners of the company yet either, it's still awaiting approval for the merger.


Are you thinking of Activision? MS has owned ZeniMax already for a couple of years now.
 
Lumbar Puncture
2022-12-08 9:06:19 AM  
1 vote:

The Bestest: Lumbar Puncture: however they also aren't technically owners of the company yet either, it's still awaiting approval for the merger.

Are you thinking of Activision? MS has owned ZeniMax already for a couple of years now.


You're right, I'm thinking Activision, I they've got employees doing the same at the moment too.
 
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