Labor Practices in Video Game Design

Making video games, wouldn’t that be a dream job? Being able to develop video games and play them all day. It sounds fun, but is it really? In Nina Huntemann’s article she explains why it is the opposite of what it sounds like. Employees have long hours, small pay and are dependable for the outcome of the game. These are some of the grim working conditions of the video game industry. The video game industry takes most of an employee’s time up and leaves them with a small sense of reward. This is mostly common for the creatives during development of a video game as they become socially, psychologically and physically exhausted. As Nina Huntemann states, “the majority of developers still felt, they needed more time for themselves and their families.”

These working conditions affect the video game industry and the production of games. First, the game itself is hurt by not reaching its full potential in production. This is due to the tough working conditions and stressed out workers within the industry. Employees should not have to deal with “psychological and financial worries”.  This ultimately makes production decrease because you have employees worrying about the wrong things, such as “prolonged unpaid overtime, declining morale and depression and physical and emotional suffering” as Nina Huntemann mentions. Employees should be excited to work on a new game and see their hard work pay off.

A symbolic economy as stated by Havens and Lotz is “the explosion of jobs and industries that involve some form of symbolic manipulation as their central tasks, whether those symbols are audiovisual stories, music, numbers, or consumer research data…those commodities that primarily serve communicative, informational, or entertainment-related functions” (pg. 183). Both Havens and Lotz and Nina Huntemann correlate in that of the practice mentioned as “crunch time”. Crunch time stated in Havens and Lotz is “a period of intense work that lasts sometimes more than two weeks and longer, during which time people work as much as eighteen hour a day and some even sleep at work” (pg. 198). In the case of the video game industry this usually happens when a deadline is approaching and employees need to turn the gears on to get all their work completed. Similarly, “crunch time” in Nina Huntemann’s article means prolonged unpaid overtime. Through this period employees suffer from depression and other related complaints as I mentioned above.

Still want to work for the video game industry?

Video-Game Workers Sue for Overtime Pay

"EA Spouse" and the Crisis of Video Game Labour: Enjoyment, Exclusion, Exploitation, Exodus

digging depper 7

With all the technological advancements and our increasing interest in video games in today’s society, there is a lot more digitalization jobs available. Our economy is now a symbolic economy. In the book, Understanding Media Industries, by Havens and Lots, “symbolic economy refers to those kinds of commodities and industries that primarily serve communicative, informational, or entertainment-related functions, such as the media industries, the fashion industry, and the telecommunications and computer industry.” Symbolic economy” came from the Post Fordism time period when mass production was instituted in the late 20^th century. In the 1970s, the media industries became one of the most important parts of our economic growth.  Producers started targeting the consumer and figuring out what they are interested in instead of producing for the masses.

The video game industry is a relatively new business. In 1962, the first computer game Tic Tac Toe was invented and, in 1971, the first video game was used for arcades.  Nintendo came out in 1989 and the video game business really took off. It is one of the hottest selling items and, in 2011, 245.6 million games were sold. The industry is continuing to expand and the demand for new games is steadily increasing. Bright creative young people, usually men, are attracted to the industry and initially the money seems very fair. Unfortunately, developing a video game means being part of a huge team, each responsible for their own segment. Very little credit, if any, is given to the employees that design the games. The hours are normally twice as long as a regular 40 hour work week and even more time is asked for during “crunch” time.  Crunch time is the time the companies or the industry is about to produce their product and the employees often have to work around the clock to get the product done.  This is known as ”Just in Time” production. 

Apparently the competition is so high that employees that do not like working such extreme hours without compensation as easily expendable. Employees suffer mental and physical fatigue from not getting enough down time and this is reflected, not only on their lives, but the lives of their families. We do not often think about the ramifications to spouses and families when we hear about unfair work practices. As written in the article “Gender and Labor in the Video Game Workplace” by Nina Huntemann, the consequences to the families of video game employees who are being overworked and not compensate are far reaching.  Several complaints have been posted by the spouses of video game employees who are being overworked and misled by management. The posts by EA Spouse and Rockstar Spouses in San Diego claim that the spouses, usually men, are forced to work exceedingly long hours every week and they are not given any compensation for their overtime or cost of living increases. Male employees make up 88% of the workplace and women are usually found only in operations, HR, or marketing. There is very little diversity in the video business which should be addressed. The large companies have driven out most of the smaller video industries and intimidate their employees to work or quit. The big video companies are earning millions of dollars but not protecting or reimbursing their employees. The long hours affect not only the employees but also their spouses and families. Workers, at the very least, feel that their families are feeling abandoned by their fathers. They simply are not home enough or too tired to positively interact with their relatives. They also complain of headaches, depression and even suicidal thoughts because they do not receive enough rest. If this is happening at home, surely the quality of work has also gone downhill. It is interesting that the spouses once again rally behind their husbands. History has shown that women have fought for the rights of the workers with support and protests. It can be a powerful motivator with enough people involved. There are current lawsuits against some of the large video companies who have unlawfully allowed this to happen.  Changes need to be made now.

source 

GAMES, NINTENDO, HISTORY

YouTube, Fan Practices & Media Industries

YouTube, Fan Practices & Media Industries

DJ Steve Porter’s who is a media producer and a Dj created a video called Tim Tebow - "All He Does Is Win". In this video it brings the issue of Tim Tebow as a professional quarterback and how Tebow’s team is not trusting him to make big plays. Commentators, especially Skip Bayless is seen in this video as one who believes in Tim Tebow’s ability to be a great player. As he states “Let him play” and “unleash”. This video spread very quickly because it was funny, which was a great way to advertise espn, Tim Tebow and Dj Steve porter himself. This type of content if used correctly can help both parties reach a common goal which is that of exposure. Fans should share content as long as its not breaking any of the copyright laws issued by the original property. I think this includes mostly artist. Due to the creativity they want to share with others might break a few laws along the way. However if this creative art helps both the original piece without breaking any copyright laws and helps the new created piece out, I don’t see a problem.

And it works both ways…

An extra example is one of an artist using the voice from a popular youtube video. Which is as Skrillex inserts “oh my god” from a popular youtube video “Fast Cup Stacking” into his song “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites”.  The song became a huge hit and it gave the video “Fast Cup Stacking” even more hits as people started to wonder where the “oh my god” came from. In the end both benefit and creatie art is created.

Links:

Tim Tebow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMK9FKMG3Nc

Stacking Cups: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pbFR3jXWi8

Scary Monster by Skrillex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSeNSzJ2-Jw

Roberto Varela

Daft inFrINGERgment

"Daft Hands" by user FrEckleStudios has obtained nearly 55 million views since it appeared in 2007. In this colossal Youtube hit, the lyrics of Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" are written on different parts of a person's hands. The performer reveals the lyrics in time with the song by opening and closing her hands, rotating her wrists, etc. This creative expression has gained much fame, placing the video on Youtube's 50 most viewed videos list at number 19.
                I must state that, without this video, I probably would not have been turned onto Daft Punk. Even though "Harder, Better" came out in 2001, "Daft Hands" helped the song resurface, claiming more fame along with its initial release. Recently after I saw "Daft Hands," I went to iTunes and purchased Daft Punk's song. For a while, Youtube played a very strict card regarding the use of copyrighted content in Youtube videos. I have heard of many cases in which individuals have gotten videos removed because they had copyrighted music in them. With this focus on "protecting" the intellectual property of the artist, the artist was actually being denied a massive outlet to fans. Youtube made the right choice in creating a feature that essentially turns an individual's borrowing of music into an advertisement for others. Below the view count of "Daft Hands" is a little message saying "buy 'Harder Better Faster Stronger" on: Google Play, iTunes, AmazonMP3" with hyperlinks to each company. This allows for ease of access for anyone who liked the song (such as myself) and immediately wanted to know how to obtain it. 

                Understandably, there are some drawbacks; the fact that the song in full is on Youtube may cause some users to avoid actually buying the song--rather relying on the video itself as an outlet to Daft Punk's hit. There are several songs that I know I could buy, but I have a high quality, free (and legal) alternative on another website that is easily accessible. The other element of this has to do with an issue of merchandise. So, Daft Punk now has more listeners because of a Youtube video that is not actually taking money away directly from them. However, as a result of their popularity, FrEcklestudios is now selling merchandise based on their hit video. At this point is when direct competition can begin. Daft Punk has its own merchandise attributed to their music. If an individual wants a shirt on the subject of Daft Punk, s/he has a choice to get one from Daft Punk, or to get one from FrEcklestudios. With the now widely popular "Daft Hands", I would say people are more likely to get a shirt from FrEcklestudios. This wouldn't be a problem if Daft Punk and FrEcklestudios had an agreement, allowing for Daft Punk to take a portion of the profits from FrEcklestudios' merchandise, but nowhere on FrEcklstudios' website is such an agreement alluded to.

Digging Deeper Lip Dub

When YouTube first appeared, it made it easy for fans to be able to create their own material and post it on the Internet. I think that one of the most entertaining ways fans come up with to spread their ideas is Lip Dub. Lip Dub is when fans create their own music video of a song by lip-singing and dancing to a song. These lip dubs can be filmed by a normal video camera. Lip Dubs are created most of the time by high schools and college students because that is where the new hit songs are heard. Fans make these videos to show their own creativity and own interpretation of a song.

 The concerns and problems that rise from these Lip Dubs videos are the issue of music piracy. These YouTube Lip Dub sensation videos do not have the copyrights to the songs that are being used to create these videos.  Also, these songs that are being used in the lib dub videos can easily be stripped and downloaded illegally.

A plus for record producers and artists is that their songs and music are getting spread to everybody that goes on to YouTube and becoming more and more popular.  For example, The Grand Rapids Lip Dub played the song “American Pie” by Don Mclean and had over 5,000,000 views.  Before the lip dub video Grand Rapids was considered a dying group but not anymore, and the profit that came with the video all went to a non profit foundation. Another example of lip dub video is the US national swim team singing over the song “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen at the London Olympics. This YouTube video made almost every person in the United States know this song and it became very popular.

I believe that music artists or record companies should not be able to sue these fans that are putting up these lip dub videos. Fans that put these lip dub videos up are not looking to get a profit out of the video.

Fan creating lip dub videos make it hard to decide if the songs used are under the copy right laws of these record companies. It is a complicated issue.  On one hand, it can really hurt the record companies with piracy issues.  But, it can also help music artists make their new releases popular. I believe that lip dub videos should stay because it  make our youth creative, as well make high schools and college students become more untied and have more school spirit.  It is a fun, artistic, and harmless activity that is entertaining. 

history, lawsuit, youtube, UBC, Grand Rapids, and US swim team