Plan for Nicolas Quijano

Going Hollywood : to unionize or get trampled underfoot, is that the question ?? Or is it Government subsidies or not ?

Some of you read Game Dev Mag, I'm sure.
Got the latest issue in the mail yesterday (still waiting for my IGDA card 'though..), and there is an article on a trend that's apparently taking hold on the West Coast game dev industry, states side.
Now, they are a few incorrect facts : Canada is more heavily unionized than the States, or at least Quebec is :)
And we have labor laws that in theory should have a lot more teeth, 'cause the big studios are getting a pass on those (but so are a lot of corps regarding employment termination, but they pay overtime, like the law dictates)

A dear GG friend is heavily in favor of the unionization of the industry, and he brings interesting points to the discussion : Thomas Buscaglia, who, by the way, is running for the board of the directors of the IGDA. If you're a full member, and haven't exercized your democratic duty, do it already :)
Lol, inciting people to vote, where I can't be bothered to do so in real politics...
He basically says, and he's right, that the whole crunch thing with no overtime paid, has been factored into production schedules (not that well, since a lot of projects still run late), and that basically, the purse strings have their backs to the wall, and are really scared of labor getting organized, as that will make development costs rise, if not skyrocket in the short term, as a transition is made to a saner development model.
I agree wholeheartedly : some of my buddies at various studios here in town that shall remain nameless, have to tally overtime hours to get raises !!!
Yeah, you read that right : you don't do overtime as much as we like, we'll pass you on the raise this year...
Again, not paying overtime is illegal here, even if they try to pretend that those wages are yearly, you still fill timesheets...
Sometimes, the fact that our tax dollars are going to help those corps is hard to swallow, even for a guy like me who it's in his best interests that the industry keep chugging along in his hometown. : they get 50% of most employees pay as a tax credit, as well as other incentives.
Not only that, but our provincial government is bending over, and having some nasty double standards as far as private education goes : they're is talk of cutting all subsidizing to private elementary, secondary and pre university collegial schools, while on the other hand, they're basically paying for people to attend the Ubisoft School of Game Dev drones.
If my name was Guillemot, I'd be laughing my way to a shareholder's meeting, or rather, my meeting with EA... (this is speculation ;))

This has got to stop : the game industry is using the guise of hi-tech, hi paying jobs (yeah, right) to basically blackmail the various levels of governement here in bending over multiple ways to keep those corporations here...

Doesn't help that I'm very ambivalent about the politics of helping big corporations (SMBs are another ballgame altogether, and the original targets of all those incentive programs) with the tax dollars of the most overtaxed citizens of North America : in statistical term, the average Quebecer starts to make money for himself in early july of each year...

But are unions the way to go ? If we keep following Hollywood's lead, it's an unequivocal and resounding yes :)
Sure, game dev workers will have to get used to not having permanent positions, and have long lulls between projects, but the hourly wages will go up a lot, it will force good managerial policies, and save money in the long run.
And guess what ? I'm fairly sure a lot of indies, invididuals and studios already work along that model : no traditional security of employment, but steady contracts coming in.

If we don't, and it stays under the model of steady employment, I'm not so sure we want anything to do with unions, or at least the big centrals : might be a better idea of look at what the MS contractors in Washingon State did a few years back and do something along these lines, and make an alliance between those various local groups, staying away from the big centrals, who seem more keen at times to concentrate on their ongoing power struggle with corporations string pullers :)

In all cases, interesting times ahead.

If you've never been to the IGC, or for any other reason are not familiar with the Quality of Life issues in our industry, I strongly suggest you get a free account at the IGDA to download the Qualifty of Life white paper, and give it a read. Don't know if it's available elsewhere on the Net.

EA is not the bad guy, it's just the biggest of them all :)

With that said, a nice Easter weekend to all, especially those among us who are getting a 3 or 4 days weekend out of the deal (I'm not ;))
Cheers, and so more ranting soon...

Mirrored on my fine blog : Permacrunch