Kotaku: The Human Cost of Call of Duty

[Hero-of-Time]

Jason Schreier has reported on the working conditions and the things that went on during the production of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. It's a long report but I encourage everyone to spend some time and have a read though it all.

https://kotaku.com/the-human-cost-of-call-of-duty-black-ops-4-1835859016

Activision now joins the likes of Rockstar and EA in having their awful working conditions and practices being highlighted. I've said it before and i'll say it again, this whole crunch culture in the industry really needs to stop. These workers are being pushed and pulled in every direction and then being cast aside when they are no longer needed. It's no wonder many of these workers are suffering from mental breakdowns and complete exhaustion. The treatment of the staff in this story is flat out disgusting. 

 

[drahkon]

Disgusting. My intent to buy the next CoD dwindles. 

Happy to see that more and more stories like this are coming out. Problem is: the largest demographic (i.e. teenagers) don't care about this (this is not me blaming them...as a teenager back in the day I, too, had other things on my mind ) so games will sell no matter what.

Gaming journalism needs to get on that shit. 

[Hero-of-Time]

9 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Happy to see that more and more stories like this are coming out. Problem is: the largest demographic (i.e. teenagers) don't care about this (this is not me blaming them...as a teenager back in the day I, too, had other things on my mind ) so games will sell no matter what.

I think the biggest problem is that these types of stories never hit mainstream news. Unless you're a gaming enthusiast you will never know what is going on. However, like you said, even if most gamers did know about what was going I imagine a lot of them wouldn't really be bothered anyway.

11 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Gaming journalism needs to get on that shit. 

Sadly such reports are few and far between. Places like IGN, a place that has a larger outreach than most gaming websites, don't seem to care about such issues.

[drahkon]

4 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I think the biggest problem is that these types of stories never hit mainstream news.

Didn't even think about that. It's crazy to me that such a large industry isn't covered in mainstream news  

4 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Places like IGN, a place that has a larger outreach than most gaming websites, don't seem to care about such issues.

Maybe they get paid to "not care"? I know, tinfoil hats and all but...

Edited June 27, 2019 by drahkon

[Hero-of-Time]

2 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Maybe they get paid to "not care"? I know, tinfoil hats and all but...

To be fair, i've often thought similar things about that place. They get a lot of exclusive hands on and first showings of games and if they were to start doing actual investigative journalism then I imagine they would lose that exclusivity. They don't want to bite the hand that feeds them.

[drahkon]

4 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

They don't want to bite the hand that feeds them.

Can we blame them? Money makes the world go round. And apparently these journalists didn't make it their mission to uncover issues in the industry but simply want to write about gaming news. Which is fine in general, but sucks for people like us (who want to know more about the apparent issues) and most importantly: for people affected.

It's weird. I really don't want to tell people how to do their job/what to do with their profession but then again, I kinda do  

[Hero-of-Time]

3 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Can we blame them? Money makes the world go round. And apparently these journalists didn't make it their mission to uncover issues in the industry but simply want to write about gaming news. Which is fine in general, but sucks for people like us (who want to know more about the apparent issues) and most importantly: for people affected.

It's weird. I really don't want to tell people how to do their job/what to do with their profession but then again, I kinda do  

Not really but a few sites, such as Polygon, Kotaku and Waypoint, have shown that it's possible to have a successful gaming site and also not play by the rules of the publishers. It just depends on how much money you want to make. 

[Happenstance]

Just now, Hero-of-Time said:

Not really but a few sites, such as Polygon, Kotaku and Waypoint, have shown that it's possible to have a successful gaming site and also not play by the rules of the publishers. It just depends on how much money you want to make. 

To be fair, Waypoint is basically on the constant verge of being shutdown.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just now, Happenstance said:

To be fair, Waypoint is basically on the constant verge of being shutdown.

That's a shame to hear. They've produced some good content over the years.

I guess you do have to play by the publishers rules then.  

 

[sumo73]

On 6/27/2019 at 9:54 AM, Hero-of-Time said:

I think the biggest problem is that these types of stories never hit mainstream news. Unless you're a gaming enthusiast you will never know what is going on. However, like you said, even if most gamers did know about what was going I imagine a lot of them wouldn't really be bothered anyway.

Sadly such reports are few and far between. Places like IGN, a place that has a larger outreach than most gaming websites, don't seem to care about such issues.

These stories are starting to hit mainstream news. I managed to find quite a few from non tech mainstream news places but the issue here is they don't make front page news. In the past mainstream news wanted to talk about violent video games or video game addiction but very little else in between. I think we are starting to see a change here however crunch time is really just another issue along along with how our tech is made especially the working conditions of the people who make it. The only thing most consumers can really do is vote with their wallet and to share news stories with others to highlight these issues.