Tim Schafer and Others Call For Unionization at GDC

Tim Schafer and Others Call For Unionization at GDC

The movement grows...

pocru by pocru on Mar 22, 2019 @ 01:48 AM (Staff Bios)
Comment(s)
GDC is still going on, and during the event developers from all over the industry have come together to celebrate their best games and talk about their futures. One such speaker, last night, was the iconic founder of Double Fine Productions, Tim Schafer, who made one thing very, very clear during the presentation: he wants to see the industry unionize.

Of course, he presented that information in a very Tim Schafer-y way, by making a little show of it. Starting by saying how unnecessary unions are… and then having the lights cut out, revealing that the lighting crew unionized. Then he had his mic cut out, because the audio guys unionized too, as well as the teleprompter. The message was finally spelled out when all those things turned back on: that this was a union show, a union town, and that all of those industries were better for it. Which meant it was time for the game industry to follow.

It was an inspired and motivational bit, and it goes a long way to showing just how serious people are about having this discussion now, following the enormous layoffs at Telltale, Activision-Blizzard, EA, ArenaNet, and more. And he was far from the only person to bring up the idea, with narrative designer Meg Jayanth and Night in the Woods developer Scott Benson wearing pro-union pins. Apparently, pro-union merchandise was shared all throughout the conference as well.

But of course, nothing has happened in terms of unionization yet. Heck, Tim Schafer himself runs a studio that definitely does not have a union, so it sort of strikes as ironic that he would push so hard for unionization himself. It would be fantastic – and not out-of-character – if he led the charge by having the very first unionized game studio, but until we see him do it, we can’t offer him much praise.

Yet.

Comments

Comment on this Article in our Forum

More GamerzUnite News

Are We Being Controlled in a PC Game by Aliens?

Are We Being Controlled in a PC Game by Aliens?

New UFO Film proposes we might!

February 19 @ 02:23 PM
Explore an Eerie Archipelago in Dredge

Explore an Eerie Archipelago in Dredge

A fishing adventure gone bad...

February 11 @ 03:07 PM
Automation Goes Too Far in The Last Worker

Automation Goes Too Far in The Last Worker

A bleak future for anyone looking for a job...

September 2 @ 01:11 AM
Alien Infestation takes over in From Space

Alien Infestation takes over in From Space

Liberate the Earth in this fun new action-shooter...

August 27 @ 09:50 PM
August 27 @ 09:14 PM
Join GamerzUnite and Unite with other Gamerz.
A Piece of Our Mind

Every Single Detail We Found in the Starfield Gameplay Reveal

Video Games Shouldn't Need Wiki Pages

PopSlinger Review: It Goes Down Rough, Really Rough

Halo: Infinite Highlights Everything Wrong with Gaming Today

Echo Generation Review: Not Exactly a Blockbuster