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On the Eve of GW2's 7th birthday, some thoughts from Hasan Minhaj


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ThePatriotActQMu3S3e.pngThe Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj: The Dark Side of the Video Game Industry

"But it turns out the games we play to relax are built on ruthless worker burnout." - Hasan Minhaj
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The Broad Context

Hasan Minhaj does a Netflix show called Patriot Act, in which he tackles different real-life stuff from India's political elections to the Supreme brand to student loans. This week, he tackled labor issues in the video game industry.

Although ANet's name is briefly displayed in a list of companies that have had layoffs, Hasan spends his time focusing on other companies and other games. But the things he discusses have relevance to GW2, and I think they're worth bringing up here.QMu3S3e.pngThe Application to GW2

Minhaj discusses "crunch" (the hectic, hellish ramp-up to launch where video game workers are forced into mandatory -- often unpaid -- overtime). He drills down to discuss how the constant content model (e.g., microtransactions -- or even Living Story, in the case of GW2) involves frequent crunch periods that can cause all kinds of physical and mental health issues for workers.

Interviewees on the show -- who work in the video game industry and can speak from experience -- talk about how video game workers are often exploited because of their passion for their work.

I'm not saying that ArenaNet (or NCSoft) is some sort of evil entity that treats their workers like crap. I'm saying that digging into the workings of several different companies who make several different types of games has revealed some fairly constant working conditions and expectations that seem to apply to the majority of video game companies.QMu3S3e.pngOur Role as Players/Consumers

I think that we, as video game players and consumers of content, can be a little demanding. We all want more LS and another expac and cool new armors in the gem store and all those other things that take a LOT of time and work from video game workers.

But at the end of the day, I would hope that we all want ANet employees to be treated with respect and to not face working conditions like the ones Minhaj describes. I would hope that we wouldn't want our leisure activity (GW2) and the things in it we enjoy (new content, new items, QoL, etc.) to come at the expense of real people whose enthusiasm and love for the game and the industry is being taken advantage of. And again, I'm not saying ANet is definitely screwing over their workers. I'm just saying that I hope we wouldn't want them to, just for us to get some new sparkly thing in the game.QMu3S3e.pngThoughts for ANet Employees

As for unions... there is a LOT that can be said about that, and I'm sure all kinds of complicated and nuanced discussions can be had about that. I'm personally a big fan of unions. My union protected me when I needed to pursue ADA accommodations at my work. And IF video game workers want to unionize, I support that. And, I mean, you don't need my permission or our permission, but I felt like... I just wanted to let you know. If ANet employees unionizing means less content for me, I'm okay with that. I support whatever you decide, even if it means you go on strike and the servers go down and I can't play this game that I've been playing since beta. Because you're more important.

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I believe people sleep on the potential that a Gw themed game app could have. Yeah Anet's version was crappy according to NCsoft's evaluation,

But there is lots of potential there for a cross platform, cross interaction gameplay. I haven't seen such a thing done in a out of the box innovative way yet. Closes was Dust /Eve cross game interaction and imo that was flawed for other reasons, mainly its limited innovative creativity.

But the room is there for this. I have some ideas for this myself.

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If the reviews of ex-employees of ArenaNet are to believed, ANet as a studio is relaxed, casual and anti crunch to a fault, with it actually being an issue with how little direction there is and with employees feeling like little gets done, too much get's scrapped and some feeling that personal growth is very limited due to everything just feeling like working on some personal project without much input.

At least that was the gist of it when I checked last time.

Still, it's a nice sentiment and there is definitely some highly questionable treatment of employees in this industry.

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Yea, I definitely hope that the stuff described isn't happening at ANet, but I think there's also a motive for gamers to encourage good environments for developer working conditions too: Developers who are happy with their job and are allowed to explore their passion without getting overworked, exploited, etc. will produce better content. I hate downtime between updates as much as the next player, but I'd rather have good quality content than uninspired cash grab stuff that's forced through by devs who have lost their drive to be creative.

@Knighthonor.4061 said:I believe people sleep on the potential that a Gw themed game app could have. Yeah Anet's version was crappy according to NCsoft's evaluation,

But there is lots of potential there for a cross platform, cross interaction gameplay. I haven't seen such a thing done in a out of the box innovative way yet. Closes was Dust /Eve cross game interaction and imo that was flawed for other reasons, mainly its limited innovative creativity.

But the room is there for this. I have some ideas for this myself.

Reply to the wrong thread?

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I mean, as a consumer not on a first name basis with any of the developers, why should I make up stories and assumptions about the inner workings of Anet, simply because some dude throws the games name around in a potentially unrelated rant about what happens in other companies?

TL;DR; I'm here for the game, which I enjoy. If I have to rethink that relationship, or be a little more considerate of anets situation, that position had better come with a paycheck.

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@Westenev.5289 said:I mean, as a consumer not on a first name basis with any of the developers, why should I make up stories and assumptions about the inner workings of Anet, simply because some dude throws the games name around in a potentially unrelated rant about what happens in other companies?

TL;DR; I'm here for the game, which I enjoy. If I have to rethink that relationship, or be a little more considerate of anets situation, that position had better come with a paycheck.

You might want to re-read the post. No one is accusing ANet of anything.

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