Fun* and Games: The conditions that have led video game testers at Activision to demand a union – By Aaron Mak (Slate) / February 7, 2022
Playing video games for a living is not the plum gig it might seem to be.
There are the hours (long). And the tedium (it’s not known as “quality assurance” in the industry for nothing). And the money. “Pay is the hardest thing to advocate for in quality assurance, because they want to make it seem like you’re testing video games, so you should be thankful,” says Jessica Gonzalez, a former senior QA analyst at Activision Blizzard who is now helping to organize a union drive of 34 game testers at the company’s subsidiary Raven Software. Until recently, those testers were making $15 an hour, less than the cost of living in Madison, Wisconsin, where the unit is based. It increased to $17 per hour in November, and then $18.50 shortly after a round of layoffs in December. Still, given that they’re crucial for ensuring that, say, a grenade actually leaves your hand when you throw it in Call of Duty—a franchise that has sold more than 400 million copies—they argue their work has been undervalued.
CONTINUE > https://slate.com/technology/2022/02/activision-raven-union-video-games-testers-qa.html
