like otherdigital businesses, is dependent on a manufacturing work force located in maqui-ladoras and free-enterprise zones in Central and South America, Eastern Europe,Southeast Asia, and China
This isn't just game industry; it's almost all industries.
must not be forgotten that these immaterial labourers remain extraordinarily priv-ileged in terms of the planetary hierarchy of labour
Is this saying that as far as places to work go, the game industry is actually very well off? Because it is, that industry is considered a "dream job" of many for a reason.
For the game industry is historically steeped in the ludic entrepreneur-ialism of the “Californian ideology”
I'm not familiary with this term. I'm going to guess it has to do with a "pull self by bootstraps" way of thinking.
game studios cannot hide theirendemically excessive hours
How many of them are doing this?
overwork
There are so many horror stories on this. What is it about games that makes overwork necessary?
we note that game development studios are deeply gendered, a struc-ture of inequality in which, we suggest, the (excessive) work routines to which alargely male-dominated work force are subjected are sustained by a largelyfemale-conducted sphere of invisible, unpaid caring labour
The game insudtry is a male-dominated one. Why?
the initially enjoyable aspects of work in digital playmutate into a linchpin of exploitative and exclusionary practices.
What exactly is driving this change for people in the industry?
control, discontent,fight, and flight
These are simpler terms for enjoyment, exclusion, exploitation, and exodus.
“Enjoyment,” “Exclusion,” “Exploitation,” and“Exodus.”
Again, simple way to separate the issues and make it easier to understand.
game workplace is a site of conflict, rather than of acquies-cence
What else is going wrong in the industry?
contemporary scholarship in political economy and cultural studies on the con-ditions of media and cultural labour
Valid source.
a concept that has received consider-able attention (e.g., Terranova, 2004; Wright, 2006) in the wake of the widelycirculated writings on the topic by Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri in Empire andMultitude
Even more so to today.
Elec-tronic Arts (EA)
Famous for being one of the worst places to work.
significant other
Is this true? Is the post true?
EA Spouse
Famous? Infamous?
“100 Best Companies to Work For”
This isn't true anymore.a
2004
This source is old. Is it still reliable?
an open letter posted to a blog titled “EA: The HumanStory”
I'm using this source later. Is a primary source still considered reliable when it's coming from a single person purposely trying to get people to think a certain way?
“Exodus” looks at current attempts by workers to escape this predicament —attempts including legal action, educational efforts, entrepreneurial flight, andunion organizing.
How are people trying to solve the problems? Why are they suing, teaching, fighting back in business, thinking of making a union?
seven-day, 85-hour work weeks, uncompensated either by over-time pay or time off, became routine.
That's overwork, if I've ever seen it.
“put up or shut up andleave . . . human resources policy”
That's brutal. I don't think that human resource policy is legal.
cre-ativity decomposing in a “money farm” churning out commercially safe gamedesigns.
I believe this is a comment on repetitiveness in the industry. Basically, does this work? If so, milk it until dry. No room for creativity.
the love of my life is coming home late at nightcomplaining of a headache that will not go away and a chronically upset stomach,and my happy supportive smile is running out.
This is stress. I've had this before. It's a horrible feeling.r
“Exploitation” investigates the corporate processes that drive toward awork culture of extreme hours and the consequences game workers suffer.
What exactly is causing the issues everyone is crying out about? Is it from higher up?
ninety hours
That's a long time
When you make your profit calculations and your cost analysis,you know that a great measure of that cost is being paid in raw human dignity,right
Numbers versus feeling. Numbers in exchange for feeling?
“Enjoyment” examines the real pleasuresgame workers find at their jobs.
Do you like your job? Why? What's fun?
“Exclusion” discusses the gendering of gamework.
What's kept separate from each other?
far from being anisolated case
This is a recurring issue in the industry. Why?
conditions
what conditions? What specifically?
crisis of labour
I've heard all sorts of such horror stories.
game corporations and game workers
are these opinions vastly different
epidemic overwork
What kind of overwork? Epidemic means widespread; where else has this issue?