(Supposed to be on vacation this week, but did do some game industry news surfing and couldn’t help but get down some thoughts on unions…)
The bug “U” word has come up again, this time floated by design legend Ron Gilbert during a Gamasutra interview. He mentions that if the industry moves to a more “floating freelance” structure, union type glue will be needed. To elaborate on his reservation, here are my personal thoughts on why unions - as traditionally structured - will have a hard time taking hold in game development:
- Culture Mismatch: Generally speaking unions are a tool for leveling/equalizing labor, which is a direct mismatch with the game industry’s meritocracy oriented culture. Further, unions have traditionally just not done well in tech and knowledge based sectors.
- Lack of Standards: As noted by Gilbert, tech is still moving fast. Meaning, there are no standards the same way that the majority of movies are made with the same types of cameras, etc. And, it is not just a tech issue, but all kinds of standards: job titles, job roles, processes, pipelines, file formats, engines, platforms, etc, etc. Unions generally operate in an environment of very precise/predictable standards.
- Poor Process: Despite lots of progress on the project management front, overall, game production processes are still evolving heavily. At noted by Gilbert, a Hollywood per-project approach would require developers to be a whole lot better at scheduling, resource management, etc.
- Wrong Time Span: Ok, this one is more about the Hollywood process than unions per se… But, large scale games still take too long to develop, making it tough to assemble talent on the fly (”hey, I need you for a gig up in Wisconsin for the next 18 months, cool?”) As side note, this is also why some of the state-based government tax incentives modeled after a Hollywood production model have not attracted much action…
- Hotspot/Geographic Proximity: Traditional unions are mostly based on physical locations (think the big Ford manufacturing plant in Detroit) with the specific workers in that specific location/office being unionized. The Hollywood guild system works differently since it is a freelance workforce, but even that relies heavily on the physical proximity and clustering of projects and talent (ie, that’s why Hollywood is in Hollywood).
Anyway, those are some quick thoughts on the topic. Note that these bullets are “neutral” in that I’m not saying if unions are good or bad or useful for game development (that’s another post for another day). Rather, I’m just stating some factors as to why I personally believe unions/guilds will have a hard time taking hold in the game industry.
And, BTW, there’s totally something insightful to say in linking this to the recent news about Ken Levine renegotiating his contract with Take-Two. But hey, I’m on vacation, so I’ll let you figure it out!
I had the distinct/rare opportunity to speak to a room full of game industry HR folks. It was the mid-year gathering of the Entertainment Software Human Resources Association (ESHRA), and I was one of their invited speakers.
I had heard a few whisperings about ESHRA over the years, but really didn’t know much. And, a web search doesn’t turn up any info. Turns out that they are not so much trying to be a secret society, as they are just super busy folks without techy/webby skills… Putting a web page is on the top of their to-do list!
While my presentation was somewhat big-picture industry structure and economics oriented, the opening session by Brent Ross of the Great Place to Work Institute was very specific on, well, being a great place work. Brent discussed a framework that included components on credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie. He noted that the question that correlates most highly with a great place to work is: “Does management have a sincere interest in me as a person outside of work?” Hmm…
He also gave plenty of examples, discussed quality of life, and covered reasons to justify being a great place to work (eg, better financial performance, lower turnover, etc).
Sadly, when it came time for the roundtable discussions, I was asked to leave the room - being the only non-HR (and non-member) in the room. It was the right thing to do, but I was hoping to get some inside juice on HR issues…
Not surprisingly, the majority of attendees were women (probably 55 out of the 60 or so there). And, in talking with several HR directors, you really did get the sense that they view themselves as den mothers to their crazy pack of game developers (one even had “Wendy to the Lost Boys” on her business card). From that, also comes this deep sense of caring and concern, and the pride that they are an integral part of the process - even if they are often not viewed with the same respect/recognition as production by most folks.
Oh, and some of them drink a lot…
Anyway, was an eye-opening and valuable experience that I feel very fortunate to have had - and survived. I joked with them, saying that I feared they were going to shoot me now that I had seen all their faces ;)
The event was hosted at the main EA campus in Redwood City, CA
Brent Ross outlines the Trust Index framework
Inside EA
Beach volleyball, basketball courts and kiddie park all active during lunch
HR folks heading back to class, across the lovely EA grounds
Gotta say I was quite surprised by the recent Microsoft announcement to delist underperforming Live Arcade titles. First thing that came to mind was that they needed to create better user-rating and filtering tools (in line with long-tail thinking). Or, is the cost to storing those games on the server greater than just a few conversions?
I was going to whip up a more thorough brain dump, but looks like Tadhg Kelly beat me to the punch via his opinion piece at Gamasutra). I very much like Tadhg’s dissection of the issues - though he’s a tad more colorful than needed (and attracted the ire of several commenters). Like Tadhg, I’m not buying their “forces quality” argument.
Something Tadhg doesn’t really touch on is how MS usually boasts about their unusually high conversion rates (for many of the titles) as part of their pitch to win/attract content to XBLA. Perhaps culling the duds allows them to artificially keep boasting…
