Developers regularly work more than 40 hours a week; attempts to unionize aren’t getting traction; and it’s still an effort to ensure a game studio isn’t simply “a pile of white dudes,” as one developer put it in a newly released survey by the Game Developers Conference, the interactive entertainment industry’s largest professional gathering.
Some things haven’t changed: The industry, of course, remains male-dominated and “driven by young workers who tend to depart within a decade.” And when it comes to future tech it’s augmented rather than virtual reality that the industry is betting on. Additionally, in the last few years there has been a wave of walkouts, petitions and other workplace actions at video game and tech companies. Here in Southern California,grew out of employee demands to end the practice of forcing workers into private arbitration instead of allowing them to sue over claims of sexual harassment and workplace discrimination.
“It’s such a complex issue, particularly with the game industry,” Stern said. “You’re working with so many freelancers and international folks. You could be a U.S.-based studio but half of your developers may be in the Middle East or Eastern Europe. You’re dealing with all different kinds of labor rules and governmental polices, so it’s not as straightforward as it would be with other industries.”
About a quarter of those polled said their “studio had invested at least a moderate amount of in diversity and inclusion efforts,” but some of the responses provided a more nuanced picture.“Due to the candidate pools available to us, if we’re not consistently diligent at pushing forward diversity candidates we go from being diverse to a pile of white dudes in three months,” said one participant.
I love how it’s ok to say “ white “ like its a bad word. Reverse hatred. Unbelievable!!!
So it's all white dudes who can't unionize and are forced to work 60 hour weeks but the real problem is these poorly compensated overworked human beings having the wrong skin color and private parts? Audaciously racist and sexist.