Called into a meeting to get angrily screamed at? I thought this only happens in bad comedies...
If you keep endorsing and supporting their methods, the top ranks will have little reason to support the others because "it works" for them and their group, and the rest were always seen as disposable.
This is the same outside of the videogame industry as well.
It is important to note that the shell companies are not directly affiliated with the hiring company, they are independent companies that find workers and send them out to do contracting jobs all over. I know you know this as a contractor, just want to make sure there's no confusion or outrage about this one thing.
But those contractor companies basically scour places for your resume and submit you to the companies. They take a cut of your pay (of course you don't know that), and then to make sure they get their full finders fee, there's usually a fee that the hiring company has to pay them if they want to hire you full time. So in some cases it may be harder for a contractor to become full time via this route (though for a lot of jobs the only way in is through a contract position).
They do this not only so they don't have to pay benefits, but for legitimate reasons: maybe you don't need a full time employee and you really honestly just need temporary work. Maybe you have a contract to hire situation where you want a full time employee but want to see how they work in an environment first (as a former hiring manager, one of the hardest things to do is evaluate whether someone is going to work out on your team based on how they present themselves in an interview). But because of this, the government usually puts a cap on how long a contract worker can stay at a company without being converted, I think it's like 4 years.
Sounds like a shitty field to be a contractor in. Im curious what school is like for these kinds of things, and how well they prepare people for reality. Theres a lot of fields where you have to pay your dues. I would think with more experience they might be able to eventually get out of contract work and get a better job
Can say the same about yours, so not really relevant to say this...
Nope.Called into a meeting to get angrily screamed at? I thought this only happens in bad comedies...
Doesn't that still average out though? So basically they're work you like heck on the weekends or whatever the busy time was, but you'd effectively get the surrounding times off? Otherwise I don't see how they could schedule you for so many hours over however many pay periods and avoid overtime or classifying you as full time, and they still can't schedule you for more than 8 hours in a day without overtime.
Haha, I'm so glad I didn't support this piece of shit studio with my money. Horrible horrible working conditions. This is beyond shameful and disgusting.
That sucks to hear. I hope I don't have to add them to my boycott list as well 😕
Man, I have some CRAZY stories about Team Ninja from former employees....
But that's turning into "No True Scotsman" territory.
Why is it that these stories surface a bit AFTER the game is released?
I mean, this is beside the point and totally anecdotal, but I bumped into Boon at PAX years ago while he was watching a crowd demo MKX and he was kind of a low-key dick in the "Don't bother me" sense when I just complimented the game's look a bit.Removed MK11 from my Amazon basket, I got paid today and was about to buy it. I took the book of Jonhatan Cooper on Game Animation instead.
Sooo, Ed Boon is not the gentle always smilling good boy I believed him to be?
You're making the same mistakes NRS did.If you don't want leaks, don't hire minimum wage temporary contract workers for your game. Some kid making $12/hour with no financial interest in your company is a lot more likely to not give a shit about how much money you lose, or any other negative effect to your buisiness.
Unionize, for fuck's sake.
And if you're a contract worker? Do what you're contracted to do and nothing more. If you're not getting paid for it (hours beyond what's in the contract, fatality or other gameplay ideas beyond the scope of what's in the contract, etc), don't do it. You don't work for free.
Man, I have some CRAZY stories about Team Ninja from former employees....
Considering how much of this shit gets swept under the rug, I'd suggest making a thread about it (if you can source at least once of them, since I guess "rumour" threads will get closed by default).
Man, I have some CRAZY stories about Team Ninja from former employees....
But that's turning into "No True Scotsman" territory.
Unionize because they dont seem to give a shit as long as they can get away with it
Would unionizing work if you're just a contract worker? Like if you're a proper employee and you unionize they can't fire you for doing so (although WB could do something like shut the entire studio down and reopen it under a new name), but if you're not fully an employee does that count as organizing?
Yeah I'm done too. I won't knowingly support companies that do this.Ok that's it. I'm never buying a game made by NetherRealm again. Fuck that.
The joke was ultimately on him, though. About a year and a half later, he and the CEO were thrown out of the company by the board of directors when the board discovered embezzlement was a afoot. His career in tech was effectively sunk.
Really frustrating (but not surprising) that the response was to scream at employees in a meeting rather than realize that things need to change.
The ones that do tend to end up having their own skeletons. For most, it's better to be silent than to be seen as hypocrites.Yep.
It's probably easier to find studios that don't have issues than ones that do have issues. Have any studios come out and said "hey we don't do this shit" since this stuff started to boil up these past few years?
Nobody thinks this is unique. That doesn't mean it's okay and it shouldn't go under the radar. NRS should have their feet held up to the coals for this behavior.You think Netherrealm is the only company doing this? I guarantee you that a lot of big companies do this because whose is gonna stop them?
Hmmm good point. I didn't think about that. That makes a ton of sense.The ones that do tend to end up having their own skeletons. For most, it's better to be silent than to be seen as hypocrites.