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Game Industry Workers Get Voice
Shodan writes "eToychest writes that a new game union of sorts has been formed to both recruit new industry talent, as well as give them a unified voice when it comes to maintaining a work/life balance. PEER (Professional Electronic Entertainment Recruiters) was created to establish and maintain ethical work standards and optimum recruiting service for game industry developers, publishers, and related industry companies." From the article: "The part that catches my eye is 'ethical work standards', which I cannot help but think was established, at least in part, due to all of the fervor surrounding EA and the treatment of its employees. The group seems to be a sort of 'worker's union', as they say that in an era where quality of life and rapid growth are chief concerns, PEER gives its members 'a representative voice.'" It will be interesting to see where this leads.
that some companies will try and squash.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
The IGDA website is devoid of any mention of this new group. The International Game Developers Association already has a substantial presence in the industry.
Colonel Cranium this is Rectal Reconnaissance, we are on a collision course sir, Abort Abort!
While I wouldn't call myself downtrodden (I don't work for EA), my girlfriend, who works for a retail chain, has benefits comparable to mine, and when she was promoted to manager she's paid a wage (not salary) that isn't too far off from mine. She doesn't have to deal with overtime (because the company doesn't want to pay it), and she comes home every day after eight hours. Granted, those eight hours might be in the morning or the evening, but its always eight hours. Compare to me, who even when I am home I am usually on my computer with my dev kit, crunching away on some chunk of code. I'm not doing BAD, but I don't have nearly the free time, and I often question if my work is worth it. Contrast with my friends at EA who I never get to see, and you can tell that this industry as a whole needs some help, and I believe that a voice is the best help we could get. But then again, maybe its just those poor people at EA that need it.