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Microsoft’s ‘World of Warcraft’ Gaming Staff is Unionizing
RiccochetJ
Gold Member
I think this was a long time coming. I wonder if we'll see this spread.
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
Lina Khan is pissed about this. She just has to figure out why.
ChuckeRearmed
Member
Will start relying on contractors more then and will gradually shave off the existing workforce.
It is the same thing why Fortnite 2 is not going to happen - they transitioned to a engine but the game by itself is still Fortnite.
Lol nobody is going to develop World of Warcraft 2. The transitions are too risky to do and development takes too much. So it is easier (and better) to support the current entry. Engine upgrades and stuff, but a new version - not going to happen. Both Warzone 2 and OW2 failed to bring all the people from the previous making some people to abandon the game entirely. And then even have to bring Caldera (or something) bring back some people that did not want to move to W2. And those are much younger games than WoW.
It is the same thing why Fortnite 2 is not going to happen - they transitioned to a engine but the game by itself is still Fortnite.
Pagusas
Elden Member
But FFXIV did a great job gaining more audience than FFXI ever had, so its not unheard of.
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ChorizoPicozo
Member
chorizo was also right.
MS is going to deal with a lot of bullshit because of this, which is fine because MS is one of the shittiest gaming companies
MS is going to deal with a lot of bullshit because of this, which is fine because MS is one of the shittiest gaming companies
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
ChorizoPicozo
Member
me to the Xbox "pundits"/influencers and Shills.
ChuckeRearmed
Member
FF14 was able to pull that off because FF14 2010 failed and did not gain much traction. WOW was like 9 years already at the time of FF14 -> Realm Reborn transition. FF14 was a very peculiar case due to relative lack of success of FF14 OG. It was basically a soft relaunch With WOW another issue entirely is the fact that it has been on PC for so long that it is BC with the past (literally), it is not even a case of "we don't support old consoles" anymore case.
I think the transition post Destiny 2 will be interesting - will playerbase move to Marathon or not? Some of them will, but not all.
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splattered
Member
I'm confused... if the helps people keep their jobs why is this bad?
darrylgorn
Member
Almost like shitty employers create unions 
ChorizoPicozo
Member
after the closing of Tango i bet a lot devs panicked
ChuckeRearmed
Member
this passage means that the quality will drop for sure
ReyBrujo
Member
That's the bad thing about unions. When you don't have unions (or you have several) you need to agree raises and bonuses with far too many people so, say, a developer might be able to get a better raise than a QA, or a tester might get a better raise than a support. When they all unionize under the same union Microsoft can get a better deal, averaging the raises or setting a higher bar for bonuses. An union might understand that it can accept programmers getting a lower raise if those with lower salaries get a better one which, in the short term, damages development (as in, programmers) ability to get better remuneration.
diffusionx
Gold Member
that's really not how unions work
rm082e
Member
With a greater number of people exiting the workforce than coming in, the labor market is in a deficit right now. It will be for at least another ten years. So we're going to see more and more unions popping up all over the place in the years to come. Those who are at the highest risk of lay-offs will be the first to join unions. This has been expected for years as we saw Gen Z was significantly smaller than retiring Boomer generation.
If you're not super happy with your job, it's a good time to explore your options and send out some resumes. I know several people who have made job changes in the last few years where they were surprised by the opportunities out there. My brother (CPA) recently got a 40% increase in overall compensation by moving to a different company.
If you're not super happy with your job, it's a good time to explore your options and send out some resumes. I know several people who have made job changes in the last few years where they were surprised by the opportunities out there. My brother (CPA) recently got a 40% increase in overall compensation by moving to a different company.
Roman Empire
Member
This was long overdue. With the way the industry is right now, they better do it before uncle Phil kiss them goodbye.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Good. I hope it works out for them and that better working conditions leads to better worker retention so that their talented employees don't decide to move down the street to Riot who actually pays them well, leading to a better product.
It's not intrinsically bad. Like any organized group of people, unions can be done well or done poorly, but lots of Americans like to think that the problem is naturally more on the workers' side rather than the multibillion dollar corporation that can afford to pay more but refuses to do so because of a disproportionate power imbalance of leverage.
It's not intrinsically bad. Like any organized group of people, unions can be done well or done poorly, but lots of Americans like to think that the problem is naturally more on the workers' side rather than the multibillion dollar corporation that can afford to pay more but refuses to do so because of a disproportionate power imbalance of leverage.
UltimaKilo
Gold Member
There really is no reason to, at least there doesn’t appear to be from the outside.
Gamer_By_Proxy
Member
Xbox is going to be hamstrung with big corp MS, unions, and western DEI shit while the East devs are gonna be like, sucks for you! Here’s Stellar Blades photo mode with a zoom in on crotch button.
Puscifer
Member
I would just add ARR is beyond a soft relaunch. Its a totally different game and I think a lot of it had to do with 2 years of free play taking feedback from players. It even had a completely new engine, which is amazing to think about that they rebuilt an entire MMO in that short timespan. No Mans Sky is the only other miracle story I can think of
IAmNotFromDelaware
Member
I would usually agree but considering this might help Sony, she'll probably be okay with this.
ResilientBanana
Member
You can still get laid off in a union, happens all the time with the car companies. Firing is more difficult. Sounds like they want they want less contractual work and more stability.
Pejo
Gold Member
You can, but at least you have some protections and guarantees typically in a CBA that the union uses as leverage.
username12
Member
I'm sure the remote work part isn't helping matters either.
Cert.in.Death
Member
How does one team within a studio unionize? Are they in fact a separate legal entity within Blizzard Entertainment?
Phil: “This deal is getting worse all the time.”
Phil: “This deal is getting worse all the time.”
RPSleon
Member
Pretty sure its not legal to make someone redundant and immediately refill that role.
Hari Seldon
Member
I expect that when people quit they will not be replaced. It is very easy to outsource portions or all of your game development. Especially for WoW which is played by addicts.
Mortisfacio
Member
Outsource the UI team to the add-on community. They've made better stuff than the WoW dev team almost the entirety of the games lifecycle.
Get rid of everyone who thought "The real power was the friends we made along the way..." was a good bit of story for Dragonflight.
Get rid of every quest designer that thought pulling weeds and cleaning up leaves was cool.
Get rid of the entire Druid class team.
Keep Metzen, even if he's responsible for point #2, but in that case keep him on just to speak to fans. The community loves him too much.
Get rid of everyone who thought "The real power was the friends we made along the way..." was a good bit of story for Dragonflight.
Get rid of every quest designer that thought pulling weeds and cleaning up leaves was cool.
Get rid of the entire Druid class team.
Keep Metzen, even if he's responsible for point #2, but in that case keep him on just to speak to fans. The community loves him too much.
Negotiator101
Member
Microsoft has openly encouraged this, for the ones thinking Microsoft are not happy with this, from 2022.
• We recognize that employees have a legal right to choose whether to form or join a union. We respect this right and do not believe that our employees or the company’s other stakeholders benefit by resisting lawful employee efforts to participate in protected activities, including forming or joining a union.
• We recognize that employees have a legal right to choose whether to form or join a union. We respect this right and do not believe that our employees or the company’s other stakeholders benefit by resisting lawful employee efforts to participate in protected activities, including forming or joining a union.
Fess
Member
They’re not encouraging it, they’re respecting employees rights to do it.
But as an outsider with 30 years of experience working within unions in a couple different fields. It’ll be fine. There are positives and negatives but reading here makes it seem like unions are completely new and unheard of, so many exaggerated takes.
ChuckeRearmed
Member
I think a lot of outsource can be even beneficial for Bethesda and stuff. I mean we literally had a team creating an android version of WoW or something. Plus all those other people who develop huge mods and so on. Can turn them into contractors and call it a day.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
killatopak
Member
Their cinematics team don't deserve to be there. Quality dropped.
What the hell am I supposed to infer except some dancing and armor wearing?
What the hell am I supposed to infer except some dancing and armor wearing?
Mortisfacio
Member
This last one I kind of liked, but it was below average. The reveal one with Anduin and Thrall though, that was top tier for me, so I'll let it slide.
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