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Re:Your throat hurts, your brain hurts: the life of the audi... by boomlinde on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @06:59AM (#21572199)
> So "your throat hurts" after a few days' work? I'm finding it difficult to muster sympathy.

It's not their fault that developers aren't using unions to extract their share of the massive wealth that successful video games generate, and instead choose to work for free.

Re:Your throat hurts, your brain hurts: the life of the audi... by samirillian on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @08:42AM (#21572690)
Yeah, this is great. See the top comment on Google firing apparent labor organizers:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21520129

On the one hand, programmers are called impossibly naive for trying to organize.

Then when others do organize, rather than revising the claim that it's naive to even think about organizing, they simply resent those who do.

Re:Your throat hurts, your brain hurts: the life of the audi... by WrtCdEvrydy on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @10:08AM (#21573543)
Programmers will never organize.

Organizing means losing the right to individual bargaining when signing a new contract.

Edit: I'm not against this, but American Individualism makes people think they can get a better deal by negotiating alone.

Re:Your throat hurts, your brain hurts: the life of the audi... by boomlinde on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @10:24AM (#21573778)
Here in Sweden where collective bargaining is widespread I haven't found that it's somehow in conflict with individual bargaining. Collective bargaining results in minimums, like this is the worst deal we can give you based on collective agreement. You can still bargain individually to get a better deal than that.

It can perhaps be an issue if you feel that you can be more attractive on the market by undercutting the competition, but I'd guess that the majority of game developers are not in that position.

Re:Your throat hurts, your brain hurts: the life of the audi... by michaelper22 on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @12:01PM (#21575235)
In the US, in particular at least one NYC government agency, unionized "system analyst" jobs are common. They get a defined salary based on experience and level, an assigned eight hour shift with half-hour lunch break, and a clock that must be punched into on time. Another has kind and caring help desk people who nevertheless carefully watch the clock.
Re:Your throat hurts, your brain hurts: the life of the audi... by ameister14 on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @12:25PM (#21575547)
The government does defined salaries based on experience and level regardless of unionization.
Re:Your throat hurts, your brain hurts: the life of the audi... by ameister14 on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @12:24PM (#21575536)
>Organizing means losing the right to individual bargaining when signing a new contract.

That's not accurate - Actors, for example, conduct individual bargaining all the time. They just get a guild minimum that protects them from being taken advantage of. It's not a cap on earnings.

Re:Your throat hurts, your brain hurts: the life of the audi... by jfengel on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @11:36AM (#21574892)
And programmers in particular are taken with the notion that they are exceptional. They are, or aim to be, "10x programmers" who deserve multiples of their coworkers. They're already paid multiples of workers with comparable skills and comparable working hours -- though they do like to reinforce the myth of their superiority by working long hours.

They're not the usual temporarily embarrassed millionaires. They're temporarily comfortable billionaires.

Re:Your throat hurts, your brain hurts: the life of the audi... by boomlinde on Wednesday November 20, 2019 @06:35AM (#21582962)
> Edit: I'm not against this, but American Individualism makes people think they can get a better deal by negotiating alone.

One would think individualism should encourage a healthy level of skepticism towards corporate FUD, rather than unreflecting acceptance of trivial falsehoods as true.

Re:Your throat hurts, your brain hurts: the life of the audi... by imglorp on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @07:16AM (#21572280)
Which is interesting because a voice actor could be replaced in a day with minimal impact, but if all the tech workers in a game shop went on strike, the shop would be shut down. It's worse than that, because even if the shop could replace them all the next day, it would take months to regain momentum, if at all, using new labor.
Re:Your throat hurts, your brain hurts: the life of the audi... by s_dev on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @07:20AM (#21572298)
>Which is interesting because a voice actor could be replaced in a day with minimal impact

Not really -- depends on the game. If it's a big budget Batman game you're going to need Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, they don't come cheap.

Even using Troy Baker as a stand in -- fans absolutely notice -- even though Troy is good and big as a voice actor in his own right.

Re:Your throat hurts, your brain hurts: the life of the audi... by anotherman554 on Tuesday November 19, 2019 @08:45AM (#21572710)
Fans will presumably buy the thing whether Mark Hamill plays the joker or not.