"EA Spouse" and the Crisis of Video Game Labour: Enjoyment, Exclusion, Exploitation, and Exodus

Abstract: The blog postings of “EA Spouse,” partner of an exhausted video game programmer, have catalyzed discussion of epidemic overwork in the digital play industry. This paper analyzes the crisis of labour in this glamorous new medium. After a brief overview of the industry and its production process, we discuss its labour conditions under four headings. “Enjoyment” examines the real pleasures game workers find at their jobs. “Exclusion” discusses the gendering of game work. “Exploitation” investigates the corporate processes that drive toward a work culture of extreme hours and the consequences game workers suffer. “Exodus” looks at current attempts by workers to escape this predicament — attempts including legal action, educational efforts, entrepreneurial flight, and union organizing. Resume : Le blogue de « EA Spouse », conjointe d’un programmeur de jeux video epuise professionnellement, a inspire bon nombre de discussions sur le surmenage qui sevit dans l’industrie du jeu video. Cet article analyse la crise de la main-d’œuvre dans ce nouveau secteur glamour. Suivant un bref expose general de l’industrie et de son mode de production, nous discutons en quatre etapes les conditions de travail qui y regnent. « Plaisir » porte sur les vrais plaisirs qu’eprouvent les travailleurs dans ce secteur. « Exclusion » porte sur la proportion trop faible de femmes qui y œuvrent. « Exploitation » explore la culture organisationnelle qui contraint les programmeurs a travailler pendant de tres longues heures et les consequences du surmenage sur ceux-ci. « Exode » observe comment les travailleurs tentent actuellement d’echapper a cette situation. Ces tentatives comprennent l’action judiciaire, l’education des travailleurs, l’exode des entrepreneurs et l’organisation de syndicats.

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