Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

gtaforums.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 383 posts

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#341

Post by Draiken »

tick_tock_tick wrote: post #226
metadat wrote: post #2

This makes me sad, R* has made some of my most favorite games, especially Red Dead Redemption 2. They make so much money, why can't they play nice and treat their employees like human beings? I don't recall reports of Valve (Steam, also super profitable) stooping. Is Rockstar a genetic relative of GAFA, because this is more like what I've come to expect from Amazon.

> They make so much money, why can't they play nice and treat their employees like human beings? Because they want to make great games. It's sad but we've never figure out how to replicate the creative output that crunch and stress triggers. I don't understand it and frankly I couldn't stand it so I left the industry but I won't pretend that we have a solution too the problem.

I call BS.

There's a big difference between people putting extra effort due to real external factors (e.g. company running out of money) and artificial pressure while executives enjoy their yachts.

This is a myth and plenty of amazing games were made without treating people like trash.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#342

Post by Draiken »

castwide wrote: post #195
lotsofpulp wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Costco might not be your intended example. It has amazing revenue growth: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/COST/costco/revenu... While simultaneously growing profit margin: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/COST/costco/profit... Hence growing annual net income from $2.3B to $8B in the last 10 years.

I imagine the GP was referring to the fact that Costco experiences that kind of growth while giving their employees excellent pay and benefits. Even low-level store employees typically make $20-30 an hour.

If only we had more of this. Why is it so rare?

Do they have a benevolent dictator? Is this a temporary glitch that will be "corrected" when profits aren't looking as good? Are they a monopoly?

I'm genuinely curious.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#343

Post by phil21 »

dontlaugh wrote: post #339
annexrichmond wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you aware of any resources for how to combat colleagues aiming to start a union? I am personally opposed to being part of a union.

[flagged]

Or just someone in a different phase of their career than a union typically helps out.

Unions absolutely hold back young high performers from advancing rapidly and standing out from the crowd. I was part of a few in my younger years and quickly learned they were a detriment to my earnings due to them favoring seniority and status quo over everything else.

Once you hit a certain level and stop advancing quickly the equation tends to change, and you want to be the one protected from the young whipper snappers willing to outwork you.

It’s a selfish way of thinking perhaps, but jumping from union shops to non-union tripled my wages in the time I’d have made about 40% more the first few years of entering the workforce.

Not all unions need to be structured this way - but they tend to devolve into organizations whose primary focus is protecting the old guard over everything else.

At this point of my life a union would probably be a net win for me, but only because I’d be able to enter a job at a fairly high seniority/pay level. Then vote contracts that give my cohort more benefits than those starting out.

From a game theory standpoint a union would be for the greater good at the expense of the few. If you are part of the few at any given moment of time you’d be going against your interests joining a union shop.

I’ve always thought a “guild” structure would make far more sense in the tech world.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#344

Post by dontlaugh »

phil21 wrote: post #343
dontlaugh wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Or just someone in a different phase of their career than a union typically helps out. Unions absolutely hold back young high performers from advancing rapidly and standing out from the crowd. I was part of a few in my younger years and quickly learned they were a detriment to my earnings due to them favoring seniority and status quo over everything else. Once you hit a certain level and stop advancing quickly the eq…

Then don’t join. Actively trying to stop others from joining is not the same thing.

And fwiw, I’ve been in two unions that were nothing like you described. I got better conditions and in one case pay because of union organising.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#345

Post by Yoric »

xhrpost wrote: post #108
worldfoodgood wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve makes a significant amount of their money from the gambling they've attached to their games, and profits immensely from the culture of farming loot boxes to gamble on for skins and such. They also take an absurd cut of developer income and saddle devs with costs that they don't always want. (Selling on Steam? Valve takes 30% and forces you to moderate the forums on your listing page that you cannot opt out of.)…

If you were a dev selling a game years ago when physical distribution was the only method, you'd likely end up with a lot less than 70% after both the publisher and retailer take their cut. https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/company-town-blog/sto...

As someone who sold a few pieces of (non-gaming) software I (co-)wrote in a box in the 90s, I seem to recall that just the retailer kept ~70%. With the remaining 30%, you had to pay for the physical aspects (the box, the discs, the manual, etc.), the publisher and the developers.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#346

Post by Yoric »

throwuxiytayq wrote: post #261
kwanbix wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I shop on Epic Store and GOG and it is a breeze also. I never had issues with GOG or Epic (where I buy less to be honest), but that might be me. But Steam has the network effect. They launched first. Of were the first that successfully did it.

I’m going to assume that while shopping on Epic you alt-tab to Steam to read reviews and to find out what the game is actually like.

I certainly do.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#347

Post by pera »

Ekaros wrote: post #338
pera wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a fundraising for that organised by their union (IWGB Game Workers): https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/support-rockstar-worke...

Why does this look horribly wrong to me. Why does a union need a fundraiser? Shouldn't they have hold tight belt and have significant war chest for this? Or take extra fees from the new members?

It does feel wrong because in our society having access to more financial resources often translates to better representation in the courtroom. This is similar to how donating to organizations like the EFF can provide more justice to those who are not multibillion-dollar corporations.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#348

Post by mathgeek »

worldfoodgood wrote: post #185
mathgeek wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much. If it weren’t for free games and exclusives there would be no Epic Store to speak of.

I don't understand. You think Steam exists without Half Life and Counterstrike?

I don’t believe what you are asking, nor do I claim to. Claiming one thing does not automatically exclude all other causes.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#349

Post by TiredOfLife »

jeffwask wrote: post #50
bak3y wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they were able to get there because they made good games.

I would rephrase this as they got there because they treat their customers with respect, they take feedback to improve their platform, they don't pack their launcher / store front with ads and trickery, and you can trust that your games will be there and not go away. Yes, they are loot box whores but so is everyone else. Steam is a community, social media, and a store. The community is what they built and that commun…

> because they treat their customers with respect

They had to be sued to get them to offer refunds

They had to be sued to get them to remove forced arbitration clause

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#350

Post by kwanbix »

mrguyorama wrote: post #252
kwanbix wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that the company had to risk manufacturing cartridges, distributing them, etc. If the game didn't sell, you ended up with lots of money lost. Steam is much much easier for Valve. I am not saying it has a value, but 30% seems a lot. Of course, in the end that 30% we end up paying it ourselves.

No, when you asked Nintendo to manufacture you a run of cartridges, you paid for them whether they sold or not. You took that risk. Nintendo took zero risks per game , they took the risk in the physical hardware. Legacy game distribution also never took the risk. Retailers were able to return unsold inventory. There were court cases about this when companies tried to go around Nintendo's cartridge building services t…

> No, when you asked Nintendo to manufacture you a run of cartridges, you paid for them whether they sold or not. You took that risk.

That was exactly my point. Distributors like EA or Activision will charge you because they took that risk. It wasn't Nintendo or SEGA.

Valve is like Activision, not like Nintendo.

Nintendo charged you because they lost money on the consoles. Valve looses no money.

Post reply on HN