My relationship with video games, at its most complicated, used to be me standing in a Game Stop looking at new releases and deciding whether or not I'm to buy new or used. I can't pinpoint when the vale lifted, but games have become more than the shelf space they occupy; they now bring with them a window into the studio -or independent developers- that made it. 

 

We live in a semi-awoken society, one that is generally conscious and confrontational towards..., well everything, but specifically towards predators and ne'er-do-wells. As gamers, we've seen this play out on multiple battlefronts, most notably in Gamer Gate and the Me Too Movement. Games studios aren't immune to this exposure. In 2017, David Ballard, a former environmental artist at Naughty Dog came forward about sexual harassment he experienced while employed with the Santa Monica studio in 2015. After reporting the issue to human resources, his employment was terminated. In August of 2018, an investigative report about Riot Games written by Cecilia D'Anastasio (formally of Kotaku now at Wired) reveals that female employees regularly experienced a toxic workplace thanks to well-insulated bro culture. More often than not, overt favoritism was shown to male employees when it came time for promotions. A class-action lawsuit was filed by former female employees, citing gender discrimination and sexual harassment, but Riot pushed for and ultimately convinced the courts that individual in-house arbitration would be the setting in which settlements would be reached, effectively muzzling the victims with Nondisclosure Agreements and shielding Riot from any meaningful legal exposure. 

 

Sexism and sexual harassment are problems in most industries but when we speak about video game development, additional issues begin to stack. Crunch is very much part and parcel of the video game-making process. As a ship date approaches, developers tend to work longer hours to make sure the game gets completed in time. In recent years crunch has been supported by day-one-patches, which squeeze in any necessary changes the studio would have otherwise not had time to finish. It's no surprise that crunch is a young person's game, often requiring 80-100 hour work weeks. Since most developer jobs at major studios are contracted positions, after a game ships, the contracted employee can only hope their work was impressive enough to ideally be hired on as a permanent employee -giving them access to full benefits- or, at the very least, be retained for the studio's next project. Protections for these contracted employees are almost non-existent. A contract gig will always favor the studio and their interests; most do not include overtime pay and often require that the employee stays with the studio until the game ships for their name to be included in the credits. A developer can work on a game for three years before moving on, and if it has a four-year development cycle (or eight years for the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2), they're out of luck and often can't include the work they did in a portfolio due to brutal NDA's. 

 

Sometimes a studio can shutter completely for no other reason than poor cash management by the executives. Take TaleTale Games; the studio closed on September 21, 2018, with no warning to their employees. This came after they laid off 25% of their staff in 2017. Several new employees uprooted their lives to join TaleTale having just moved across the country (some with families), only to be left with no paycheck. No severance. Nothing. And, because contracted employees are not employees, many were ineligible for unemployment benefits.  Unionization among game developers would, among other things, help dampen the blow of studio closures and provide a more sustainable environment for contracted employees instead of preying on a young developer's passion for the industry. 

 

Now when I walk into my local Game Stop and stroll past the Funko Pops and Gamer Fuel to find myself staring at a wall of possibility, I have this nagging thought tugging at my morality. As I pick up a game and flip it over, I think to myself:

 

What went into the making of this game I'm holding?

 

Does the studio have a history of sexual harassment in the workplace? 

 

If the game includes it, has the studio done their research in not glorifying but representing the idea of fascism and colonialism in their IP? 

 

Have they included and represented all races and sexual orientations with enthusiastic respect? 

 

And ultimately..., 

 

Are their employees treated with as much care and consideration as the bottom line?