Patriot Act w Hasan Minhaj - The Dark Side of the Video Game Industry

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- Hasan looks at how the video game industry has grown into a $139 billion a year business and a cultural force
- Talks about the bad working conditions and exploitative labor practices at game developers like Epic and Riot Games, and the ways in which workers are finally fighting back

Fortnite. The second biggest reason Drake is friends with

Comments

[spellgabbana]

i damn near screamed over that drake bit. IT'S SO CREEPY.

[icetypejim]

Kotaku has done some really good deep dives on labor issues at gaming companies in the past few years, some really terrible stories of people being overworked, underpaid, kept as contractors to justify poor treatment and blackballed for daring to ask for more.

Also I forget the fps game's name, but the recent news that players who go on a killstreak get to use a white phosphorous drop as a reward was just...look I know it's inconvenient to have this convo now, but when are we gonna talk about how certain video games are perfectly content to just be breeding grounds for white supremacy and imperialist sentiment? It's not a coincidence that so many of these communities turn into cesspools of racism and sexism.

[rahrahramen]

The game is newest CoD, a franchise which literally takes money from the Pentagon to promote the military and recruit young players. The series is apparently trying to go in a more ~gritty and realistic~ direction which is laughable, because their funding prohibits them from saying anything critical about American imperialism or war crimes.

Instead of the newest CoD, everyone should play the vastly superior Spec Ops: The Line, which shows white phosphorous for what it is

[jorwuvsyou]

My cousin has worked for Epic for 10 years now but I wonder how it really is. He's the type to not let the family know if he hates something. Just pretends everything is jolly.

[pseudonygma]

It's generally acknowledged that you should never speak negatively of your past employers, but all the talks about toxic workplaces make me wonder if situations like these, where employees are literally abused and taken advantage of, are an exception. It seems really messed to have to smile and pretend that your experience there was great when it was so damaging.

[pseudonygma]

I should've specified, I meant during job interviews when they ask what your last job was and why you're not working there anymore.

[ninjacandy]

I was told by a director at a large accounting firm I am employed at but now desperately attempting to leave (an insanely hostile work environment in which I have seen more punishable acts in a year of employment than I had in 26 years of life across three continents) that you should tell interviewers why you are leaving.

[spellmanian]

The conditions video game companies put their employees in are reprehensible. And then a ton of Gamers™ say they don't care as long as they get their product.