EA Promises Better Working Conditions

by Maarten Goldstein, Dec 04, 2004 8:33am PST

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28 Threads | 92 Comments

#5

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By: filtersweep x Show Full Post

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Sounds like a bullshit solution. How about a sixty hour work week cap instead?

Dec 04, 2004 9:04am PST

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Sounds like a bullshit solution. How about a sixty hour work week cap instead? : filtersweep
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  have you ever worked 60 hour work weeks back to back? 50 hour work week cap is more realisitic and be... : El Tigre
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  How about a more humane 40, which is an EU law iirc. Way less burnt out people here. : MrLonghair
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    Socialism isn't the answer to EA's slavedriving. : Terpfen
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      That isn't even close to socialism. : gnoleb
      
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      The arbitrary regulation of how much hours you and I can legally work in a set period of time is indeed s... : Terpfen
      
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      You are right but I dont think anyone said that it should be government imposed. EA should impose a 60 ho... : scatti
      
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      My line of thinking is, there's no way EA or any other company is going to voluntarily make a 40 hour wor... : Terpfen
      
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      what wrong with europe's economy? the euro was worth more than the dollar last i checked. : XerXes
      
      ... The relative value of currency is not an indicator of a healthy economy. Example: Japan is the world'... : Terpfen

#60

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By: crypt420 x Show Full Post

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keep bitching and theyll just outsource it all to friggin india.

Dec 04, 2004 1:18pm PST

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keep bitching and theyll just outsource it all to friggin india. : crypt420
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  don't you think they would have done this already if they could? I remember reading a few years ago th... : itsjames
  - maybe it just didn't look profitable until now. people seem to forget that EA is a business. its not in... : crypt420
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  Outsourcing should be illegal.......... : persecutor
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    Make outsourcing illegal? Sounds like a great idea. So when two companies, one from England, one from t... : handofthrawn
    - good points ... I have thrown similar arguments at people from time to time. : Nation
  - Offshoring should be illegal, not outsourcing. Keep the $cheddar$ in the country the company originate... : axiomatic

#7

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By: Magus x Show Full Post

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Bullshit. They don't need to 'look for ways' they just need to cut hours. They can't place insane demands on employees. All they want is deliver top-quality games twice as fast as anyone else. Ain't gonna happen.

Dec 04, 2004 9:13am PST

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Bullshit. They don't need to 'look for ways' they just need to cut hours. They can't place insane demands... : Magus
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#4

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By: pigvomit x Show Full Post

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Fine, fine, an extra piece of coal Mr. Cratchit.

Dec 04, 2004 9:02am PST

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Fine, fine, an extra piece of coal Mr. Cratchit. : pigvomit
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- Jesus. This nearly had me falling out of my damn chair. Very nice. : starvey

#3

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By: stelth x Show Full Post

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This still doesn't make me love EA. If I was their employees, I'd pout feces in Tupperware and microwave it in the lunch room of execs.

Dec 04, 2004 9:00am PST

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This still doesn't make me love EA. If I was their employees, I'd pout feces in Tupperware and microwave ... : stelth
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- This post made me laugh : NukeDukem

#83

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By: XerXes x Show Full Post

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hahahahahahahahaha!!!!

oh man, this is to good... hahahahahaha!
any of you guys actually believe this? oh man stop it, im gonna roll. hahaha!

Dec 05, 2004 12:23am PST

hahahahahahahahaha!!!! oh man, this is to good... hahahahahaha! any of you guys actually believe this... : XerXes

#82

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By: floridagamer x Show Full Post

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EA sure has a lot of "internal" emails that get spread around...

Dec 04, 2004 9:15pm PST

EA sure has a lot of "internal" emails that get spread around... : floridagamer

#81

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By: Topaz x Show Full Post

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There's a sucker born every minute. Apparently EA hired about 5000 of them.

Dec 04, 2004 8:56pm PST

There's a sucker born every minute. Apparently EA hired about 5000 of them. : Topaz

#80

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By: johnny rotten x Show Full Post

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Keep crunch times to around 4 weeks for every year of a project and I think everything would be fun. ITs this 'crunch mode for 4 months+' back to back to back that is utter BS and an employee killer.

Dec 04, 2004 4:24pm PST

Keep crunch times to around 4 weeks for every year of a project and I think everything would be fun. ITs... : johnny rotten

#73

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By: Senor PoopyPants x Show Full Post

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If EA actually enforces something like 60 hours or less a week, independent game companies are going to be begging to be bought by EA just to get the easy hours.

EA is made to be the bad guy here, but everyone in the industry works those hours...that's why I stopped pursuing it. Too many of my friends dissapeared from the social circle as ssoon as they got their "dream jobs"

Dec 04, 2004 3:08pm PST

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If EA actually enforces something like 60 hours or less a week, independent game companies are going to b... : Senor PoopyPants
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- That isn't fair to independent game companies. There are many out there who do work acceptable hours exce... : d3tached
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  I was at a talk from the guys at Stardock who did political machine and a bunch of other very succesfull ... : scatti
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    There isn't much "wisdom" in this ay? No proven standards, huh? Everyone pretty much guesses at the metho... : SpaecKow
    - Yeah, theres no one size fits all. Every company has a different approach to the process. Some models wor... : scatti

#75

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By: suicidemachine x Show Full Post

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I wonder why this went on for so long before anyone said anything about it. It wouldnt go on for very long with me before I starting bitching.

Dec 04, 2004 3:33pm PST

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I wonder why this went on for so long before anyone said anything about it. It wouldnt go on for very lon... : suicidemachine
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- People like their jobs, I guess, and EA seems to be the kind of company that would persecute for "speakin... : Rice-Rocketeer

#72

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By: smdever x Show Full Post

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Let me translate that:

We will be outsourcing our stuff even more to employees that will not whine. At least not in a language we speak.

Dec 04, 2004 2:15pm PST

Let me translate that: We will be outsourcing our stuff even more to employees that will not whine. At... : smdever

#61

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By: SpaecKow x Show Full Post

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Well, personally I don't think this changes anything because the people at EA, to do what they do, have to I think have a certain style, and certain views and values that have created this situation in the first place, and will not allow for it to be improved while they're around. Not in any significant way. It will be at best a tug of war.

As for us gamers. We have no interest in supporting EA. They're not interested in making new and exciting games, they're interested in exploiting demand for interactive entertainment, not revolutionising and furthering the artistic aspect of it through innovation and quality. So we should support more independent developers, look forward to Steam being a distribution option for small teams without funding, etc etc...

Dec 04, 2004 1:19pm PST

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Well, personally I don't think this changes anything because the people at EA, to do what they do, have t... : SpaecKow
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  That's not necessarily true. They're interested in making new games... I definately got that impression w... : mystikal
  - So how come most of their catalouge is franchise shit like Need For Speed and the sports games? I'm su... : SpaecKow

#10

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By: grimiv x Show Full Post

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they didnt buy criterion (and with it renderware) so that they could be better employers, they bought criterion to a) get their very talented staff, b) get their very efficient engine and ultimately c) cut their own r&d costs. this smells like blatant spin

Dec 04, 2004 9:16am PST

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they didnt buy criterion (and with it renderware) so that they could be better employers, they bought cri... : grimiv
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- he speaks the truth : mystikal

#36

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By: Arjun Thakur x Show Full Post

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Note to EA: Don't explain, just fix.

Dec 04, 2004 11:20am PST

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Note to EA: Don't explain, just fix. : Arjun Thakur
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  Yeah, I'm sure everyone wants to be kept in the dark about what the company plans to do in the future. : djustifier
  - That's my point, don't say what you will do, fix it now. : Arjun Thakur
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    Arjun makes a good point: talk is cheap. I didn't see any "effective immediately" notices in there, did y... : sam eagle
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      Also notice they don't look in the mirror, they put it off on the technology to improve conditions. the g... : humpx
      
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      I'm sorry, I must have missed the text "please distrubute this email freely". Care to point it out to me... : djustifier
      
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      You got me there but lets face it, the fact that they know full well it would've gotten "leaked" anyway n : humpx
      
      well its just a pathetic spin attempt, lets face it. : Arjun Thakur

#59

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By: jrock x Show Full Post

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So they're not actually changing anything right now, so why do they even bother with this hot air?

Dec 04, 2004 1:13pm PST

So they're not actually changing anything right now, so why do they even bother with this hot air? : jrock

#42

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By: rorshack x Show Full Post

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At least they're doing something. this, howeverm has catch my eye,

We are looking at reclassifying some jobs to overtime eligible in the new Fiscal Year. We have resisted this in the past, not because we donÃ¢Â€Â™t want to pay overtime, but because we believe that the wage and hour laws have not kept pace with the kind of work done at technology companies, the kind of employees those companies attract and the kind of compensation packages their employees prefer. We consider our artists to be Ã¢Â€ÂœcreativeÃ¢Â€Â people and our engineers to be Ã¢Â€ÂœskilledÃ¢Â€Â professionals who relish flexibility but others use the outdated wage and hour laws to argue in favor of a workforce that is paid hourly like more traditional industries and conforming to set schedules.

I read: "We don't pay overtime because you're 'creative' so it's hip to be working late hours".

Dec 04, 2004 11:51am PST

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At least they're doing something. this, howeverm has catch my eye, We are looking at reclassifying som : rorshack
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- I stopped at not because we donÃ¢Â€Â™t want to pay overtime : byorn
- I've just read that paragraph 3 times in the email, trying to figure out wtf it actually means (or whethe... : SpiderMonkey

#54

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By: Ojalo1982 x Show Full Post

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Want to improve things? How about HIRING MORE PEOPLE YOU FUCKING DOUCHEBAGS! Stop making each of your developers do the work of two people. This "streamlining with better technology" is total bs. I really doubt they can slash 40 hours our of their employees' workday with "better technology." This entire situation just makes me sick.

Dec 04, 2004 12:50pm PST

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Want to improve things? How about HIRING MORE PEOPLE YOU FUCKING DOUCHEBAGS! Stop making each of your d... : Ojalo1982
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- streamlining tech = less$ they have to spend, not less hours : byorn
- True. I meant "better technology." That's the impression I got from the article. Implement bettter tec... : Ojalo1982

#34

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By: djustifier x Show Full Post

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Long rant in reply

Dec 04, 2004 11:20am PST

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Long rant in reply : djustifier
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  This just pisses me off. Some asshat decided that he would be "cool" and send out something that was sup... : djustifier
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    There is a big difference here. When outsiders get an inside look at the NBA they aren't usually shocked ... : sam eagle
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      I disagree, some aspects of professional sports would be very shocking to outside people. Personally, ev... : djustifier
      
      EA deserves criticism, period. I don't have to be the guy working 80 hour weeks to know that you shouldn'... : sam eagle
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    First, I'm pretty sure they leaked that themselves, intentionally. EA has really good lawyers and realyl ... : gnoleb
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      I still think it was leaked, but I'm with you on everything else. : sam eagle
      
      Leaked UNINTENTIONALLY, I meant. : sam eagle

#46

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By: BaBOon x Show Full Post

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Having a standardized technology approach will save us from having to re-invent the wheel over and over.

Bahahahahahahhahahah *long breath* bahahahahahah ha... ahaha.. hahha ohshi EA you one crazy bitch.

Dec 04, 2004 11:56am PST

Having a standardized technology approach will save us from having to re-invent the wheel over and over. ... : BaBOon

#6

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By: Holesinswiss x Show Full Post

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This is clearly a desperate attempt at some degree of damage control, although it's pretty weak. There is nothing even hinting at an apology and they still stubbornly cling to the idea that they've done nothing wrong. It's laughable that they try to spin it as the fault of the law for being outdated that their employees are not fairly compensated for their work.

I do have to saw though that part of the responsibility for the near-"slave market" within the games industry does lie with the workforce who are willing to put themselves in these situations just so they can work on games. It's a symptom of the free market working as it should as much as it is about a company exploiting it's employees. There are still quite a lot of other software jobs out there - they may not be games, but they're not slave labor either.

Dec 04, 2004 9:11am PST

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This is clearly a desperate attempt at some degree of damage control, although it's pretty weak. There is : Holesinswiss
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  If that is the free market working as it should- fuck the free market. : gnoleb
  - Well, OUR free market has courts and unions to give alternatives to quitting, so fret not. However, he ha... : sam eagle
  - The employees could always quit and go work somewhere else. That was the point I think. : Priest77

#20

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By: Crimsonbeak x Show Full Post

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Yeah and I'll stop blaming my farts on the dog. I promise within a year the amount of farts blamed on dog will be lessened. Honest I swear!

Dec 04, 2004 10:17am PST

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Yeah and I'll stop blaming my farts on the dog. I promise within a year the amount of farts blamed on d... : Crimsonbeak
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  you're blaming DOG for it. shame on you! ;) : lonestar3
  - What? Are you dyslexic? : dnurk

#16

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By: alcaron x Show Full Post

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So who thinks this will be just "well we use the same tech, so lets fire a bunch of people and work the remainder as hard as before but now we have to pay fewer of them"....

Dec 04, 2004 9:59am PST

So who thinks this will be just "well we use the same tech, so lets fire a bunch of people and work the r... : alcaron

#1

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By: deadhorse x Show Full Post

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Every worker gets 1 cracker per hour and an ounce of water to wash it down.

Dec 04, 2004 8:39am PST

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Every worker gets 1 cracker per hour and an ounce of water to wash it down. : deadhorse
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- Except during crunches, then you have to eat 3 crackers but get no extra water. : SeaLlama

#14

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By: abubu x Show Full Post

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What bs.

Dec 04, 2004 9:40am PST

What bs. : abubu

#11

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By: supaslasha x Show Full Post

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So all that means is they can cut back the staff for engine work and still work the art and modeling dept's to death. Renderware may be easy to use but the content still has to be created. :P

Dec 04, 2004 9:23am PST

So all that means is they can cut back the staff for engine work and still work the art and modeling dept... : supaslasha

#8

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By: Speedy8 x Show Full Post

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Sticking with 1 engine more? I seriously doubt that shortens works weeks. All that does is save EA money.

Dec 04, 2004 9:13am PST

Sticking with 1 engine more? I seriously doubt that shortens works weeks. All that does is save EA money. : Speedy8

#2

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By: sam eagle x Show Full Post

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It's something, but I have a feeling these guys have a long way to go. They are responding to outside pressures, not a self-initiated desire for change. In their hearts they'll still be wondering why they have to "pamper" their employees so much.

Dec 04, 2004 8:43am PST

It's something, but I have a feeling these guys have a long way to go. They are responding to outside pre... : sam eagle

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