Testers at Activision-owned Raven Software have voted to form the U.S. video game industry's first major union.
- Thread starter Deleted member11191
- Start date
- News Activision/Blizzard
The aquisition/merger of the two entities also makes it easier to "downsize" and "address" redundancies.
Tbh in a worker driven economy like this they just should keep it and expand it. They are pretty hands off anyway and don't want anyone crunching so a union rep layer will just keep that in check and provide an arbiter
It might keep people staying with Ms / activision over leaving in the future or even attract talent
It would be, but that hasn't stopped Activision from ignoring pesky things like laws and trying to bust up an union. They'll just offset whatever fines the federal government gives them with money made from COD.
I'm hoping Microsoft will clean up the anti-labor union behavior/stance from Activision Blizzard but I'm not counting on it.
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please no one yell at me, but would this make QA more of a possible career versus a starting point? if i misinformed please be nice and tell me, i just know lots of folks made their bona fides in qa
There has been a push for more full-time positions for QA instead of relying on temp/contract workers. ABK converted 1100 temporary and contingent QA to full-time with benefits. Whether that was because of this union push or trying to slow down the union push in the rest of the company we don't know, it probably played some part at the very least. As QA testers become seen for the value they actually bring to the table one would hope we see more companies would start making QA a full-time position instead of relying on temp/contract workers. I wouldn't be surprised if we start to hear rumbling of the rest of the QA departments in ABK starting a push towards unionization since they were supporting the Raven employees when this first started. I'd imagine that crunch will have have to be address to avoid burnout after a number of years.
im just curious if it would a be union where people don't stay long, but im ignorant
I'll never forget reading a story about an activision team having a celebration of some kind and the developers locking the QA team out of the room so they couldnt eat cake with them.
Fuck activision and so happy to see this team take a step towards a better work place.
Fuck activision and so happy to see this team take a step towards a better work place.
I know the GWA's hope is to expand the union over time involving different departments and companies but we're still early days and we don't know how ABK will respond. We know they'll drag their heels in with the negotiations but I'd expect the employees to continue to fight for it. They seem pretty intent on this to succeed.
I would be more happier if I thought this would last (hope I am wrong). If anything, I hope it inspires other companies to follow. The fact that theres no labour laws protecting the industry in the U.S is kind of ridiculous and there needs to be enough surge that it becomes impossible for anyone to ignore.
QA is always a career choice alongside an entry point to the gaming industry. I myself am a QA Tester at a AAA game. We have Senior QA, QA Leads, QA Managers. It's always possible to go up the hierarchy solely in QA.
As for myself, I'm using it more as an entry point so I can hopefully land some Game Designer roles. Working full-time as QA and doing really small indie games and gamejams on my free time, trying to do my best until an opportunity in Game Design arises.
From what I've heard from QA folks that are doing it longer than me, the sentiment overall is that lately the QA work in the gaming industry is getting (thankfully) more respected, I guess the ever growing exponentially big AAA games makes testing essential and devs (and slowly, the public) is realizing that the work we do is something that one has to be incredibly patient and focused, even if we don't have technical skills. Although there's still some old boomer devs that still likes to dismiss us, be rude and say shit behind our back, but from what I've gathered it's something uncommon now.
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How does it affect the entire studio though? The union is just for the QA staff not the whole company. Activision-Blizzard just trying to throw fud?
Trying to turn the rest of the studio on the QA staff, just basic anti union tactics, just posting because its their reply. Their position throughout this has been that the QA alone shouldn't be a union.
But this also ignores that executives make decisions for the studio and its a smaller group.
To answer your question, yes.
I guess the only thing you could possibly say is that union negotiated work hours and pay rates means the QA workers that unionized will now possibly be working different hours (probably 40 a week) with better pay including overtime compensation while the rest of the studio doesn't, which I guess directly impacts the rest of the studio's ability to function because reasons? I don't know. They're just mad as hell that it happened.
Because it might encourage the rest of the studio to unionize, which Activision obviously doesn't want.
I guess this is kinda the line.. Pretty amazing that Activision-Blizzard's official response to this just outright makes no sense when you think about it for 2 seconds. They hate it, but really can't come out and say why.
They'll position it as any extra going to this group will take away from pay / benefits budget for the rest I'd imagine/
It should be an ever smaller amount of ActiBlizz executives!