Delighted to see that McKenzie Wark was able to drop a sardonic little comment in my posting on his book the other day, which I am thoroughly enjoying - it's so scary-Marxist it hurts, like drinking a hooch malt on Islay. I'm sure he'll be equally delighted to see the soulitariat (or what McKenzie would call the 'hacker class') rising up in the games industry (from Technology Review)
Video game developers used to call it “crunch time” or “the death schedule.” Now they’ve found another term for their 80-hour work weeks: overtime.
A group of employees at Electronic Arts – the enormo-publisher of hits including Madden and the Sims--is filing a class action lawsuit seeking unpaid overtime. The dam broke early this week when an anonymous self-described “disgruntled spouse” of an EA worker posted a blog flaming EA’s exploitative practices.
“Never should it be an option to punish one’s workforce with ninety hour weeks; in any other industry the company in question would find itself sued out of business so fast its stock wouldn’t even have time to tank,” the blogger wrote. “In its first weekend, Madden 2005 grossed $65 million. EA’s annual revenue is approximately $2.5 billion. This company is not strapped for cash; their labor practices are inexcusable.”
Now the Net is flooded with stories of developers caught in the perpetual crunch. One person chimed in saying that “white collar slavery is alive and well in the games industry.” (Update: news story and op-ed from Games Industry
I quote Andrew Ross's study of the No-Collar workplace in the Play Ethic book, where he talks about the dangers of people being overworked in new media jobs that they happen to love (see this interview):
Q: If people were to take just one thing away from reading your book, what should that be?
A: Be careful what you wish for. When work becomes sufficiently humane, we are likely to do far too much of it, and it usurps an unacceptable portion of our lives. For decades, labor advocates have been asking for less alienation on the job, and for a humane work environment that offers personal gratification. Corporate America has been more willing to grant this, while taking away much of the job security and benefit blanket that came along with a corporate job in the Cold War period. We shouldn't have to choose between a humane and just workplace.
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