Activision QA workers form the largest US video game union yet
www.theverge.com
Microsoft has voluntarily recognized the union.
  • SuperDuper@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    9 months ago

    Oh no! Pretty soon the union will be demanding all kinds of crazy things like “stop stealing breast milk from the female employees” and “don’t drive employees to suicide.” When will it end?!

  • ipkpjersi@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    9 months ago

    This is great news. This is probably one of the companies that most desperately needed a union. Sure, I was laid off due to (bragged about) nepotism at my last dev job, and maybe a union would have helped, but according to my lawyer they didn’t break any laws laying me off. I’m just glad I was able to bounce back and land on my feet in a higher paying job.

    Even considering all of that, I find it hard to think of a company more desperately needing of a union than Activision/Blizzard.

  • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    9 months ago

    Companies should not see this as a negative. They should think about this as a “radical invitation of social corporate interaction in the gaming industry to maximize long term engagement of the developers.”

  • Postreader2814@lemm.eeEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    Holy shit. Never thought I’d see the day. When I was working QA they would lay us off after the end of every project. It sucked. We’d be off work for months at a time. No benefits, no healthcare, no OT pay, long hours, bullshit 1099 contracts. And if you were on a shit title, sorry homie. Enjoy Barbie’s Island adventure.

    • Firestorm Druid@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      I applied for a job as a QA at Nintendo and barely was not taken. Hearing about all of the bad experiences people have had working as QAs, maybe it’s for the better lol

        • summerof69@lemm.eeEnglish
          3·
          9 months ago

          Maybe you should read how software is developed, what roles there are, how business functions in general, and so on - all that before blaming anyone for anything on the internet.

          • Harbinger01173430@lemmy.worldEnglish
            01·
            9 months ago

            I make crappy corporate software. I know how this garbage is made and it has no quality. It’s all release after release and hope the bugs get fixed after a while by the team.

  • Bobby Turkalino@lemmy.yachtsEnglish
    03·
    9 months ago

    This is hilarious because the latest Cod update prevents some Xbox players from booting into the game if they have a headset plugged in

    Just another group of people that are gonna give unions a bad rep, I’m afraid

    • BReel@lemmy.oneEnglish
      4·
      9 months ago

      As someone who worked for Activision, in QA, on major CoD titles, I guarantee you that wasn’t QAs fault.

      I can’t even count the amount of bugs my team found, documented, and raised a hell of a stink about, that still went live.

      Major bugs like that in live are not due to QA missing them. It’s due to the rediculous pace ATVI makes the team put out content. Doesn’t matter if QA reports something, if the devs are not given the time needed to fix it.

      GOTTA GET THAT NEW BATTLEPASS OUT!!!

    • Sciaphobia@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      Alternatively, maybe a better work culture that could be advocated for by the union would result in better working conditions, more realistic deadlines, happier developers, and by virtue of these things a reduction in the kind of error you are referencing.

      But also people make mistakes sometimes. Unions don’t cause that, and I’m skeptical of claims that they seriously aid or promote mistakes either.